Skip to main content

Fawkes by Nadine Brandes- 2.3 Stars [arc review]

Fawkes, Nadine Brandes
Hummm....
I am a little stuck for words here guys. I don't really know how to feel about this book. 
It wasn't bad... but it wasn't good either.
The idea behind the book is good, but the execution was not always on point. Sadly the first 2/3 of the book bored me... it was long and dull. The last third of the book though pick up pace and got a lot better.

Thomas Fawkes is the main character in the story and the focus is almost solely on him. There is very poor secondary character development. 
Thomas is turning to stone due to a plague, he flees to London to join his father on a plot against the king that will apparently end the plague. Needless to say, things don't go as planned.
If you haven't figured out yet, this is loosely based on Guy Fawkes, who here is Thomas father and the one who will be responsible for setting off  36 barrels of gunpowder under the Parliament against the Igniter King of England. 
I really didn't like Thoma's character. He is meant to be 17 but I only know that because I was told at some point through the story. He sounded more like a 13 year old selfish, self-centered, obnoxious little boy. Everything he did the whole book was for himself. The only character in the book worthy of some praise describes him perfectly (and yet falls for him- *face palm*): 

"He said I could trust you. But I'm not sure. I'm not sure he ever saw the Thomas I'm seeing now - afraid. Selfish. Evasive." She lifted her chin. "Stone cold."

The magic element drove me nuts from the very first page. It didn't always make sense. The concept is simple, there is color magic and a person might be able to control one or more colors. But it takes a while for it to make sense in this particular story. And when it does it sounds like something taken out of a juvenile book.
Eventually we learn there are Keepers, who only yield one color each, and Igniters, who yield more than one color at once. Thomas starts off fighting for and with the Keepers, but than falls in love with an Igniter girl.

The Igniter girl is Emma. She was interesting to read: fierce, truthful, loyal, independent. All the makings for a fabulous heroine. She would have made a better lead character than him. Her only fault really was to fall in love with Thomas... 

The book got a lot better towards the end. The focus shifts from self-entered Thomas to Emma and to the magical elements, and the pace of the book pics up with more action and a stronger plot. A little to late for a better rating though...

Release Date: July 10, 2018


Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 28, 2018 at 12:21 PM

    Thanks for the review. Hopefully next one will be better!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 1, 2018 at 12:02 PM

    That is disappointing

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crow and Reaper by A. Zavarelli (Boston Underworld #1 and #2)

Crow and Reaper by A. Zavarelli (Boston Underworld #1 and #2) @glimpses_of_my_books These books are (to me at least) two VERY different books and the reason you should never give up on an author after just one book. I did not like Crow  one tiny bit. But I absolutely loved Reaper . One is a 1 star, while the other is a 4...  Let's start with the good first, Reaper . Ronan is likely to break your heart. Throughout the book we get snippets of his past, accounts of everything he had to go through before Crow and his mother find him and save him from the horrible life he was leaving. In a way, although I wasn't a fun of Crow in the first book, his love and care for Ronan had made me like him a little better. Ronan is not quiet, moody, and broody by choice. It is a consequence of all the things he has been through, the things I mentioned above that will break your heart... He is caring and loving, but he has no idea how to put those things in action. He is, in a way, one of the mo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Promises and Pomegranates (Monsters & Muses #1) by Sav R. Miller

I was very excited about this read. The reviews are good, the people recommending it were people whose recommendations I have liked in the past. And in the end, at did like this one. But I will confess from the start that Promises and Pomegranates  did not blow me away. Blurb: Elena To most, Kal Anderson is a villain. Harbinger of death, keeper of souls, frequenter of nightmares. Doctor Death. Hades incarnate. They say he stole me. Usurped my fiancé and filled the cracks in my heart with empty promises. Imprinted his crimson fingerprints on my psyche and tried to set me free. They’re not wrong, per se. Except it was my choice to stay. Kal To most, Elena Ricci is an innocent. Goddess of springtime, lover of poetry, angel of my nightmares. Little one. Persephone personified. They say I ruined her. Shattered her virtue and devoured her soul like a succulent pomegranate. Embedded my evil as deep as I could possibly get and tried to set her free. They’re not wrong, per se. Except it was...
2 comments
Read more

The Book Hater's Book Club by Gretchen Anthony

The Book Hater's Book Club  at first appears to be about a struggling bookstore and its imminent sale. Elliot, the co-owner of Over the Rainbow Bookstore, started  The Book Hater's Book Club , a newsletter of reading recommendations for the self-proclaimed non-readers of the world, because he believed there was a book out there for everyone. Something I wholeheartedly agree with! For years he and Irma have kept the store going and always had a recommendation in hand. When you finish this book, you will have yet another list of books to read.  However, this book is about more than just books and a struggling bookstore. It is also about grief, the price of secrets, and a little more grief.  You see, Elliot is gone, and his grief-ridden business partner has agreed to sell the store to developers. Problem is, she didn't tell that to anyone until the deal was almost done. Which is making her daughters ask questions. Why is she selling? Is it grief alone? Is ther...
1 comment
Read more