Short AF Book Review | The Priory Of The Orange Tree

Hi friends!  So today I'm going to be doing a review on "The Priory Of The Orange Tree" by Samantha Shannon. This review is going to be short and sweet (like the title suggests) and spoiler free (however there will be the Goodreads synopsis in this and sometimes it can contain spoilers so please keep that in mind!)

"A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.

The House Of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction - but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady - in - waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tane has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep."

So the reason I wanted to read this is because as y'all know I love a good queer fantasy, and this, by far is one of almost every person I've spoke to's favourites. I am not going to lie to you friends, I soft DNFd this book 3 times before I actually finished it. I even ended up having to listen to the audiobook whilst reading it on my Kindle to get my brain to take in what was happening. This book is so hard to get into, with jumping around between each and every character, sometimes even in between chapters. To all the (sometimes not needed) world building and knowledge it tries to give to you all in the beginning. If this book was not so loved, I would of 100% fully DNFd it. Now, am I glad that I didn't? Yes. Do I feel like I needed to read all of those 350 pages before getting to "the good stuff"? No. The important part however, is I fell in love with the 2 characters that possibly mattered the most. I cannot tell you, how much the second half of this book made me laugh, made me cry. I was gripped with everything that was happening and truly was rooting for Ead. The end of the journey was beautiful, suspenseful, and devistatingly bittersweet and I absolutely ended up loving this book. Could I recommend this book to everyone? Unfortunately not, not everyone would have the patience to carry on. However if you do love a good fantasy, and find yourself the time and the patience to do so. Please read this.

I gave this book a 4/5 star rating on Goodreads.

What did you think of this book? Who were your favourite or least favourite characters? Do you have any books you'd recommend for me to read and do a review on? Please let me know down in the comments below!

Have a wonderful day!

Love, Doe!

Short AF Book Review | Wuthering Heights

Hi friends!  So today I'm going to be doing a review on "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte. This review is going to be short and sweet (like the title suggests) and spoiler free (however there will be the Goodreads synopsis in this and sometimes it can contain spoilers so please keep that in mind!)

"Considered lurid and shocking by mid - 19th - century standards, Wuthering Heights was initially thought to be such a publishing risk that it's author, Emily Bronte, was asked to pay some of the publication costs.

Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humilated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocate descriptions of th lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature."

So the reason I wanted to read this is obviously because with the movie coming out this book has been talked about a lot on booktok especiallty regarding the differences between the movie and the book, so I thought I'd give it a read because how everyone described it sounded interesting. Friends, I could not of been more wrong. This book was so incredibly dull and how anyone sees this for a beautiful romance is beyond me. The only reason I ended up giving this book a 2 star rating instead of a 1 is because I do think the discussions of class, culture and race within this book were extremely important at the time it was written, and a lot of it still holds up now. As for everything else though, let's just say I finished this book out of spite and nothing else. I honestly hate how romantasized this story has been portrayed, and I don't know if it's because I don't like men in general, or if it's because Heathcliffe was absolutely abhorrent, but I cannot see the appeal. Do I think this book deserves it's flowers due to it being written by a woman in a time where it was not acceptable for her to do so, and writing about topics that would not be typically expected from her. Absolutely. Will I be absorbing any more media in regards to this book other than the book itself, absolutely not.

I gave this book a 2/5 star rating on Goodreads!

What did you think of this book? Who were your favourite or least favourite characters? Do you have any books you'd recommend for me to read and do a review on? Please let me know down in the comments below!

Have a wonderful day!

Love, Doe!