Tag: reylo

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

WINTERSONG by S. Jae-Jones

Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.

All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.

But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.

Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Wintersong (Wintersong, #1) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24763621-wintersong

I really like this book. It reads a little bit like Labyrinth fan fiction. Of course it features original characters. But the author is actually pretty upfront about it.

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fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by Katherine Arden

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25493853-the-bear-and-the-nightingale

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fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

CHAMPION OF THE ROSE by Andrea K. Höst

Soren Armitage is an anachronism. Proclaimed Rathen Champion by the Rathen Rose, intended to support the rule of a Rathen King or Queen. But there are no Rathens. Resigned to symbolising only Darest’s faded glories, Soren is not prepared for the sudden appearance of a Rathen. Now she must find and support the heir despite the machinations of the kingdom’s regent, sylvan curses, and the strange behaviour of once-dormant protective enchantments. While the odds seem stacked against her, Soren is determined to do her best to live up to the name of Rathen Champion. But what is she to do when it seems that there is something very wrong with her Rathen? Can she trust the person she is meant to protect?

Check out this book on Goodreads: Champion of the Rose (Darest, #1) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9832204-champion-of-the-rose

The two main characters basically have a force bond. 😏 Also her (sur-) name is Armitage.😂

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Source: fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains

bluefootedb:

“Sunshine”

Erin Kelso

For the Month of Love challenge: ‘’Lost in Translation”

I picked the two main characters from Robin McKinley’s book about icky, gross, non-sparkly vampires. Sunshine is a baker whose magic comes from sunlight, and Con is an undead corpse. The two of them have to figure out a way to make their bizarre friendship work.

SUNSHINE by Robin McKinley

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it’s unwise to walk. But there hadn’t been any trouble out at the lake for years, and Sunshine just needed a spot where she could be alone with her thoughts. Vampires never entered her mind.

Until they found her…

Check out this book on Goodreads: Sunshine https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8088.Sunshine

This book is very hard to describe. At the beginning everything seems mundane, even boring. We meet Sunshine who is mostly occupied with cinnamon rolls and follow her everyday life for a while. That is until Robin McKinley pulls the rug from under one’s feet and the world the book is set in is revealed to be alien, dangerous and magical. She does this by casually mentioning things that happened prior to the plot. It’s as if the bubble the reader was in bursts and all of a sudden a larger, more intruiging but also more frightening reality can be perceived. This is done so well that I experienced a moment of disorientation and had to check if I was still reading the same book or if I had overlooked some hints. McKinley does this a couple of times in this wonderful and strange story.
The plot starts moving more straightforward once the reader gets acquainted with the characters and the world they inhabit. The mysterious bond formed between the heroine and the truly inhuman vampire is fascinating til the end.

Here is a review by Sherwood Smith:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35623171

Do you have a REYLO VIBE recommendation? Submit or contact me!💙💙💙

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE by Diana Wynne Jones

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6294.Howl_s_Moving_Castle

Occasional self reblog.

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

UPROOTED by Naomi Novik

Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Uprooted https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22544764-uprooted

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fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

THE DARKANGEL (DARKANGEL TRILOGY #1) by Meredith Ann Pierce

Aeriel is kidnapped by the darkangel, a black-winged vampyre of astounding beauty and youth. In his castle keep, she serves his 13 wives, wraiths whose souls he stole. She must kill him before his next marriage and comes into full power, but is captivated by his magnificent beauty and inner spark of goodness. Will she choose to save humanity or his soul?

Check out this book on Goodreads: The Darkangel (Darkangel Trilogy, #1) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92717.The_Darkangel

You think this is your average YA novel? Think again! First published in 1982 it came long before the supernatural love interest was trending. I read this book as an adult and I never once had the feeling that I couldn’t relate to the young heroine. This trilogy features incredibly imaginative worldbuilding, a wealth of interesting secondary characters and universal themes including love, friendship and betrayal. I was crying by the end and I mean crying, like actual salt water leaking from my eyes.

Do you have a REYLO VIBE recommendation? Submit or contact me!💙💙💙

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