I received this book for free from NAL in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine 
In an exhilarating new series, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine rewrites history, creating a dangerous world where the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time…
Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.
Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service.
When his friend inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn…
I am a bookworm (hopefully there are no doubts about that) so a book that featured an evil library definitely got my attention. Ink and Bone also had a lot of hype surrounding it and some of my most-trusted peeps loved it. When I finally dove in, I was expecting my mind to be blown and it wasn’t necessarily blown but there is just something about this book. It’s really really slow but it is also really fucking amazing.
If you love fascinating villains, this book is for you. The Library is the villain here. The library essentially controls the world so there is definite dystopic quality to this book but don’t be turned off by that if dystopias aren’t your thing. The library isn’t some mindlessly evil villain. The library is proof of what happens when fantastic ideas go down the gutter because of corruption. It isn’t the library that is bad but the corrupt officials who don’t want change. Who enjoy the power and love the control. They are what has changed the library from the great idea it was to something more evil. the point of all my rambling is that this book isn’t black and white about it’s bad guys. Everything is complex and intricately developed. Also, I totally got 1984 vibes from the library because they are so aware of everything you do. Nothing is a secret. Not even your innermost thoughts. It’s creepy.
The characters are also pretty great. Jess was such an adorable and relatable MC and his love for books called out to me. I loved Khalifa for being such a smarty-pants and Wolfe was my one true love. ALSO lots of shippy-feels in this one. Not going to disclose my fav ship because they don’t come up until later but they made me want to curl up in a ball because they were so cute.
There is *some* diversity in this book but I am actually really sad about the lack of people of color in this one. Khalifa is a POC and Dario is Spanish but this book is set in Alexandria so I wanted there to be more POC. And maybe the setting to be explored a little bit more? I LOVE how the library is set up and this book is about introducing us to the system, but it would have been so cool if we got to step outside and experience Alexandria and Egypt (I really want to go to Egypt someday so I would have loved to live vicariously through the characters.)
My other qualm was the general slowness of the book. I am a fairly quick reader and this book isn’t very long but it is SLOW. Not slow in the sense that nothing is happening either, the book just drags for some reason I am not sure about. I wanted to devour this book in one go but ended up taking 3 days to read it! THAT IS INSANE for me. If it hadn’t taken me so long to read the book, I might have loved it even more than I do right now.
This is an amazing book, but one I would recommend with caution because it isn’t just a book you can pick up and breeze through. You have to be in the mood to read this book and willing to put in the effort to read it. It is amazing and worth it in the end, though, so you should definitely check it out if evil libraries that have secret depths are your thing.
4 Hot Espressos
Are you a fan of Jane Austen? Do you love re-tellings of her works? I DO. I am always on the lookout for them since her books feature some of my favorite romance tropes so I decided to put together a post featuring some re-tellings I’ve read and some that I hope to get around to reading!
Have you read any of these? Do you have any recommendations of your own? Let us converse about the amazingness of Mr. Darcy books.
Reasons to read I Am Princess X
1. All about the friendship. Seriously, who doesn’t love a book that focuses on friendships of all relationships. Friends are important!
2. If you like books involving scavenger hunts, this book is for you. In the book, May has to put together a bunch of clues to find out what happened to her friend and how she might be able to find her. YAAAS.
3. The mystery. It comes with the scavenger hunt aspect of the novel but the book kept me on my toes. At one point while I was reading, my phone buzzed and I almost jumped out of my skin because I was so absorbed by the novel and the mystery.
4. The images. The comic strips with Princess X are…
If you know me, you know that I LIVE for my Happily Ever Afters but I realize that many people don’t like them (which is 100% okay because to each and their own.) Today I just wanted to sit down and talk about why they are important to me.
So ideal endings. We all want them and chances are, we hardly ever get them. For me the perfect ending is happy but is also open in ways that allows me to continue interacting with the text. So in the case of a romance: they get together… but preferably not the whole we are married now and have 100 babies epilogue because that’s cheesy (at least in my opinion.) I don’t just think of HEAs in terms of romance though, in…
If you like your Sherlock re-tellings full of lots of wit, humor and fun; Trouble is a Friend of Mine is for you. This book was SO MUCH fun to read. I was giggling most of the time, I liked the characters, I liked the plot, I liked the relationships. This was a great brain candy book but my problem with the book was how ignorant and privileged the characters were.
We are constantly reminded that the characters live in a very white neighborhood with no diversity and I would assume that that would at least mean that the MCs weren’t completely ignorant and flippant about certain issues but that’s sadly not true. Even though Zoe moved from NYC, a very diverse city, to a white suburban neighborhood. It isn’t…
I while ago, I finished a book and my immediate reaction was that the book would be PERFECT for people who watch X tv show. Having seen various posts like this on the internet, I decided I wanted to do one too but wanted to highlight titles that aren’t as popular so that they get some love. There is a good chance I wasn’t able to cover your fav TV show because there are only so many I can do in one post, but if you’d like to see another post like this with some specific TV shows let me know in the comments!
Quick note: I am not so great with designing fancy things so bear with me.
I think it’s appropriate that for my first official post here, I talk about me as a ~reader~.
I have been a life-long reader. I’ve been reading for such a long time that I don’t even know what it would be like to not read. When people say they don’t like to read, I just look at them and go WHAAAAT?? How is that even possible?
I started reading when I was around 6 years old. I didn’t speak English fluently, so I had all sorts of books pushed at me to help improve my language skills. Of course, I seemed to have caught on very quickly and my second grade teacher even wrote that I had a true love for reading in my report card! I still have that…
In a kingdom far far away there lived a person named Rashika. She sometimes talked to people and other times she hid. Now, you are going to have to deal with her all because she will be taking over Xpresso Reads with her telepathic powers.
But on a more serious note… SURPRISE.
I am going to be joining the amazing crew at Xpresso Reads and blogging here from time to time. Here is a little itty-bit about me to those who do not know of my existence (how dare you, btw?)
-My name is Rashika -I am in college, majoring in English Literature. -I am a huge booknerd (I mean how much more obvious can that be?) -I also blog over at The Social Potato with Faye (who blogs…
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