#Review - The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco #YALit #Fantasy

Series: The Bone Witch # 3
Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Release Date: March 5, 2019
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Wizards & Witches

The dramatic finale to The Bone Witch series! Tea's dark magic eats away at her, but she must save the one she loves most, even while her life—and the kingdoms—are on the brink of destruction.

 
Tea is a bone witch with the dark magic needed to raise the dead. She has used this magic to breathe life into those she has loved and lost…and those who would join her army against the deceitful royals. But Tea's quest to conjure a shadowglass—to achieve immortality for the one person she loves most in the world—threatens to consume her heart.

Tea's black heartsglass only grows darker with each new betrayal. And when she is left with new blood on her hands, Tea must answer to a power greater than the elder asha or even her conscience...

 

The Shadowglass is the third and final installment in author Rin Chupeco's The Bone Witch trilogy. This captivating fantasy series features Persian and Asian influences, while focusing on witches, curses, and resurrection. In the Eight Kingdoms, none have greater strength or influence than the asha, who hold elemental magic. But only a bone witch has the power to raise the dead.  Tea of the Embers has used this dark magic to breathe life into those she has loved and lost...and those who would join her army against the deceitful royals. But Tea's quest to conjure a shadowglass, to achieve immortality for the one person she loves most in the world, threatens to consume her. 

Tea's heartsglass only grows darker with each new betrayal. Her work with the monstrous azi, her thirst for retribution, her desire to unmask the Faceless—they all feed the darkrot that is gradually consuming her heartsglass. She is haunted by blackouts and strange visions, and when she wakes with blood on her hands, Tea must answer to a power greater than the elder asha or even her conscience. Tea's life—and the fate of the kingdoms—hangs in the balance. Tea is on the brink of doing something either extraordinary brave, or remarkably stupid. She will either survive to have her revenge on her betrayers and the Faceless, or go down in flames in the most public way possible since everyone is now paying close attention to her.

This third book once again alternatives between the mysterious Bard (the person who is recording the events of the Bone Witch’s life in current time) and of Tea’s perspective of her past life and the events that have led up to where we are now. It's funny in a way how the author uses this format to tell her story. The first being that you really have no clue who the Bard is but you do get some sort of hints along the way that he is someone of importance who left his old life behind to follow Tea from one end of the world to the other.

Plus, with the Bard's side, you get to see the other characters like Fox, Inessa, Likh, Khalad etc who are trying to stop Tea from doing whatever she has planned. Readers have followed Tea from the point where she found out who she really is, to becoming an asha, to understanding how powerful she really can be, to facing so much pain and suffering for someone so young. Her present self's villainy is so filled with sorrow and sadness, that you can't help but empathize with her.

Much like the bard, we find ourselves cheering for her, even when the present tells us we shouldn't. While everyone else in her life, including her brother Fox, Princess Inessa, and her friends among the asha, were trying to stop her, there was only one man who stood with her. That person is Lord Kalin. I adored the romance between Tea and Kalin. From the moment they met they despised each other, but grew to be an unstoppable team. Even with all the trials and tribulations and the betrayals and the heart breaks, Tea has never wavered in her love for Kalin going as far as doing the impossible.  

This series catches the imagination with a very creative world, and secondary characters who are key to events that play out. There are similarities between this book and Memoirs of a Geisha. After all, each asha is trained in various studies from fighting, to dancing & singing, to dining with famous and influential men. Got to be honest. I am still not sure how where my rating should be after reading the final page and seeing others being happy and getting while they wanted, while Tea will always be the villain who tried to save the world.

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ARC #Review - The Heart Forger by Rin Chupeco #YALIT #Fantasy

Series: The Bone Witch # 2
Format: ARC, 528 pages
Release Date: March 20, 2018
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Source: Edelweiss
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

In this dark, engrossing sequel to The Bone Witch, Tea has mastered resurrection—now it’s time for revenge 

Tea, a bone witch who can resurrect the dead, is done with her self-imposed exile. She now possesses all seven bezoars she needs to revive the powerful daeva. With the help of these terrible monsters, she can finally enact her revenge against the royals who wronged her and took the life of her one true love.

Alliances and allegiances are shifting, and danger lurks in and out of the kingdom. But Tea's heart is set on vengeance, even if it turns her against her now-estranged brother, who supports her enemies. War is brewing, and when dark magic is at play, no one is safe.

The Heart Forger is the second installment in author Rin Chupeco's The Bone Witch series. Rin Chupeco returns to the atmospheric and enchanting fantasy world she created that follows in the footsteps of the series starter, The Bone Witch. This captivating fantasy series features Persian and Asian influences, while focusing on witches, curses, and resurrection. The author once again explores protagonist Tea Pahlavi's past and present by alternating each chapter. While this can be confusing, there is the fact that Tea's future is told by a Bard, and not Tea herself.

Tea is different from the other witches in her family and other Asha as well. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch who is feared and ostracized in the kingdom because she may be the strongest Bone Witch to come along. Bone Witches are powerful. They have access to elemental magic that can reach beyond the boundaries of the living—and of the human realm. Tea's past slowly proceeds forward from where we left her in the first installment. 

We are nearly to the point where readers will finally discover why Tea was exiled from her friends, and her family, and has declared war on those responsible. We are also at the point where War is looming on the horizon, and there is a good chance it will spread out of control unless Tea can find the last of her enemies and pay them back for what they did to her. In the meantime, our fearless Bard has traveled a long way to discover Tea of the Embers and tell her remarkable story.

What he has found so far, is a powerful young woman on the brink of doing something either extraordinary brave, or remarkably stupid. She will either survive to have her revenge on her betrayers and the Faceless, or go down in flames in the most public way possible. Bard is in the forefront of everything that happens in the present to Asha, and her few allies who have struck around. He witnesses great betrayal, strange beasts, Asha who are attempting to stop Tea in her tracks, and a love affair between Tea and a Death seeker who was brought back from the dead. TMI?

One of the more curious aspects of this series is the use of Heartglass which can be forged by Heartforgers using the memories from a select variety of people, including Tea. In this case, Prince Khalid, the older son of the King, has the heartforging capability which is definitely needed in this story. In fact, I dare say that he is as important to this story as Tea, or Fox, or anyone else for that matter. Once again, the ending of the book damn near killed me. We get through a bunch of trials and tribulations while learning about Tea's banishment and then we are hit upside the head with a two ton heavy brick because now we have to wait an entire year to find out what the author has up her sleeve for Tea, Khalad, Fox, and Kalen.

Would I recommend this story & series? Yes, I would. First of all, I adore the Bard. He isn't the bravest person in this world, but his presence and his ability to tell Tea without learning too far in calling her a villain, or a hero, is remarkable. I adore the romance between Tea and another character I won't spoil. The odd mixture of past and present actually works for me and that in itself added another plus to my rating. I am still rooting for Tea to get her happy ending even with all that has happened. Has to be said, this story blew the first installment away. 

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#Friday Review - The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco #YALit #Fantasy @RinChupeco @SourcebooksFire

Series: The Bone Witch # 1
Format: E-Galley, 432 pages
Release Date: March 7, 2017
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Source: Publisher/NetGalley
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Wizards & Witches

The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite. But the girl was fiercer.

Tea is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in the kingdom. For theirs is a powerful, elemental magic that can reach beyond the boundaries of the living—and of the human.

Great power comes at a price, forcing Tea to leave her homeland to train under the guidance of an older, wiser bone witch. There, Tea puts all of her energy into becoming an asha, learning to control her elemental magic and those beasts who will submit by no other force. And Tea must be strong—stronger than she even believes possible. Because war is brewing in the eight kingdoms, war that will threaten the sovereignty of her homeland…and threaten the very survival of those she loves.

The Bone Witch is the first installment in author Ren Chupeco's The Bone Witch series. To really get into the story, you must first understand Tea's beginnings. For that, author Chupeco flips the script back in time to when 12-year old Tea (Tey-uh) Pahlavi shockingly raises her own brother Fox from the dead and binds him to her with his consent. This shocking turn of events throws her entire village and family into turmoil. After all, Tea is from a family of fairly mundane and respected witches, one a Forest witch, the other a Water witch.

But, no one could have guessed that Tea would be a necromancer (asha/bone witch). In raising Fox, Tea faces a difficult challenge in being accepted for being what she is. Her journey starts in earnest after the arrival to her village of Mykaela. Mykaela becomes her mentor, and her sister. During the journey from the Kingdom of Odalis to the Kingdom of Kion where she is forced to start at the bottom of the ladder, Tea learns about monsters called Daeva and the Faceless and the Fake Prince who apparently controls them. 

"I followed her, my heartsglass heavy with questions. Of everything I had heard, I had not expected her to be so young. Seventeen did not explain why she stood on that strange graying beach, alone, with monsters' corpses for company."

In the present, we meet the mysterious bard who will tell Tea's story from start to finish. He has traveled far from home in order to find to the girl named Tea of the Embers. The girl who has been exiled to the ends of the world. Banished for reasons we do not yet understand, but hopefully we will in the next installment. Tea recounts her beginnings and her rise in a society of spellbinders called asha. As a bone witch, her powers of necromancy make her feared and shunned by the populace, but tolerated for her abilities to slay daeva – fearsome beasts that plague the kingdoms. But there is more to the girl than she first appears. Soon the bard begins to suspect that there is more to her tale than what she claims, and that he has a far greater role to play in her story than even he realizes.

One of the more curious aspects of this story is the use of 
Heartglasses which can be forged by heartforgers using memories. Younger Tea volunteers to give away some of her memories in order to help make heartglasses for those who either don't have them, or need them replaced. Tea, like Mykaela, can read other people's heartglasses which also comes in handy. Tea's friend Likh is also an important cog in her life. He has a silver heartglass but, in this world, he can't become an asha. Only women can become Asha's. He, like other men are forced to serve the army as Deathseekers. 

I dare say that the ending of this book damn near killed me. We get through a bunch of trials and tribulations, and then we are hit upside the head with a two ton heavy brick. Is Tea really a good person, or has she really become that what she has been charged with? Where did the innocent and positive Tea disappear to? The one at the end of the book is ready for a bloody war and has created her own army of dangerous creatures. Who is this Tea who once had lots of potential and may be even stronger than her own mentor? 

This book definitely catches the imagination with a very creative world, and secondary characters who key to events that play out. There are similarities between this book and Memoirs of a Geisha. After all, each asha is trained in various studies from fighting, to dancing & singing, to dining with famous and influential men. I do look forward to the sequel. I am steadfast in learning what pushed Tea into becoming the person at the end of this story.

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