Crown of Talons Lockdown

I am so thrilled to welcome back Katherine and Elizabeth Corr, sisters and authors of two series that I chat about on this blog, The Witch's Kiss trilogy and the Throne of Swans duology. Their latest is the conclusion to the Throne of Swans duology, Crown of Talons, and the best way to describe this series (and this book in particular) is imagine Game of Thrones had a baby with Swan Lake and you have a vague idea.  

Now, seeing as Crown of Talons is a sequel, I don't want to do a write-up in case of spoilers, so how far can I go to talk about this world... After the events on Throne of Swans, Aderyn is on high alert. Enemies outside and within court are watching her and thinking she and Aron, her cousin, aren't enough to rule. But with nobles from neighbouring country fleeing for their lives - the flightless have risen up and overthrown their rules - and an attempted assassination is made on Aderyn's life, the world is changing and Aderyn must have the strength to overcome everything to save her kingdom. Or die trying... 

It's going to be a bloody, feathery fight to the death!

Now, before I hand you over to the Katherine and Elizabeth, I just want to thank and apologise to them for writing this. I popped a random email at them (I love having them on the blog as they are a delight!) over Easter, saying something along the lines of "Hey, am reading Crown of Talons. Fancy popping on the blog for a guest post, if you have time?" and them saying "Sure, what do you want us to write, though?" and us bouncing ideas till someone (Katherine, was it you or Elizabeth? It wasn't me, am not this clever) said "What about what TV shows they watched or books they read if they were in lockdown with us?" and I jumped up and down in my seat, going "YES! THIS! CAN YOU WRITE THIS?!"

Ok, quick house-keeping. If you want to know more about either the Corr's series (Throne of Swans and their debut trilogy, The Witch's Kiss), pop over to their website - corrsisters.com - or you can jump on their social media and say hi to them both. Elizabeth is on Twitter at @lizcorr_writes and Katherine can be found at @katharinecorr.

Now, what would the characters in Crown of Talons read/watch during lockdown. Shall we find out?

Mini NetGalleyish Reviews - May 2021

My first review-is post and it's mini-reviews. I have decided to write a mini-review post for the next few reads (unless one screams "I NEED YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION!!!") but these three titles I think just need a nice, short review. Very similar to what I wrote on my Goodreads (goodreads.com/pewterwolf), but not exactly. 

Now, quick note, the three mini-reviews below are titles I have been gifted very kindly by publishers either physically or via NetGalley. All were kindly gifted, of course, in exchange for an honest review/reaction (and when have you guys known me to be filter my opinions?). But then, all the titles I review and chat on here, I do try and be as honest as I can with you all as possible.

Book Review - A Throne of Swans

• Title And Author: A Throne of Swans by Elizabeth and Katherine Corr
• Publisher: Hot Key Books
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Physical
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by the publisher in exchange for an honest review/reaction
• Length: 352 Pages

SURPRISE! Ok, am meant to be back properly for book blogging duties next week (I just want a little time longer to read and get my back into my real life job before I got back into her), but when I was asked to be involved in the Throne of Swans tour, I jumped at it. Plus, I had (for once) read and wrote up my review several weeks before so, TECHNICALLY, this was one of my last reads of 2019, but this is going to be my write-ups of 2020! 

This took me a while to read. I feel like I should explain this right now before we go any further into the post. I started reading this early in December, the same day some bloggers went to Hot Key HQ to chat to both authors and launch the book at a bloggers’s event. Normally, I would write these events up but this event (as well as a Walker Books Blogger Event that happened several days later) but I didn’t write as I didn’t have time! Sorry, December was a mad month. I think we all can agree to that! 

And it took me a while to read and review. Why, I hear you ask. December is a mad, busy month. I just couldn’t seem to find the time to read and then write this! Plus, I kept putting it off (I liked the Witch's Kiss trilogy, so what if I hated this?). All of which explains why I wrote this post up now, literally days before Christmas (when I am on blogging holiday and as far away from my laptop as possible, FYI!) and posting it now.

Inspired by Swan Lake, Throne of Swans follows Aderyn who inherits the role of Protector to Atratys after her father dies. Atratys is a dominion in a kingdom where nobles can transform into birds that represent their family bloodline. Aderyn’s is a swan. But she hasn’t transformed for years after witnessing the brutal murder of her mother, ripped apart by hawks who are supposedly extinct sing the great War of the Raptors. 

Aderyn wants revenge, she must venture into the heart of the royal court, ruled by her cruel uncle, the King, to seek the truth. But how far is she willing to go…?

Book Review - The Witch's Blood

• Title And Author: The Witch’s Blood by Elizabeth and Katharine Corr
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Physical 
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by publisher & authors in exchange for an honest reaction/review
• Length: 416 Pages

I’ve been holding off reading this for a while. After finding myself blitzing the second book in the series, Witch’s Tears, I’ve been a little hesitant to go back and finish this series off. I knew I would, but I never felt ready, if that makes sense. Plus, if you guys have follow the blog or any of my social medias, you know I have a tendency to start a series but NEVER EVER FINISH THEM! 

So, imagine my surprise when I was chatting to the authors on social media one day at work and went “Oh hell, I’m ready!”. And because of Murder Month round the corner, I had to slip it in somewhere. And when I did, I found time and hammered it out over a week (or, if we are being super picky, four sittings). 

After the devastating events of Witch’s Tears, Merry will stop at nothing to save her brother Leo. Even if that means ignoring her coven’s orders to do so. But doing so has unforeseen consequences for the teenage witch. As she and Leo are forced to confront evil from past and present and her powers growing, how far are they will to go to save the people close to them? 

So… where do we begin?

Book Review - The Witch's Tears

My plan was to read The Witch's Tears and the third/final book in the trilogy, The Witch's Blood, before March hit. But, sadly, I failed. Mainly because I overwhelmed myself with reading/audiobooks this past month and I have kinda hit a wall with reading fantasy. It's hard to read Witch's Tears when you are listening to Shadow of Night (review here) and Book of Life by Deborah Harkness while trying to find a work/home balance and other things have gone all in the air and unsettled me (I am like a cat. I like things a certain way and if anything messes that up...!). Because of all this, I have kinda hit a wall with reading fantasy so I need a mini-break from magic for a book or two (though I have shot myself in the foot a little due to timing - you'll find out on the 1st March)...

Getting back on track, The Witch's Tears. This is the second book in the Witch's Kiss trilogy and takes place several months after the events of Witch's Kiss. Merry is struggling. Struggling with being a teenage witch, struggling with all the textbooks and rules the coven are setting for her, struggling with her grief over Jack's death, and struggling over what to do with her older brother Leo. Leo is falling apart and every time Merry tries, it pushes him further and further away. She doesn't know what to do anymore...

Then two strangers arrive in town, both getting involved in Merry and Leo's lives. Then Leo and Merry's grandmother vanishes and the rules of the coven no longer seem important. Rules are made to be broken... right?

Like I said earlier, I have hit a wall with fantasy because I overloaded myself, but I must say I do like this series. I like that while this does feel dark, it reads quite light and fluffy. This is a series I would happily read on the beach. I like the characters (even when I wanted to shake them and shout "FOR THE LOVE OF -! USE YOUR WORDS AND OPEN YOUR EYES!") and whenever I read this for ten/fifteen minutes, it felt easy and fun, even when the book was dark.

Now, if you have read my review of Witch's Kiss last year (review here), you know I said that it had faults. While some of the faults were addressed, some are still there. It did still feel a bit skeletal at times and I saw things coming miles away (I do this all the time). Plus, there were one or two moments while reading, I kinda wish it was pushed a little further, give us a bit of grit and darkness. This book does touch on some dark magic and dark issues that could have been good place to go darker, but I get why the authors's decided not to do that.

Plus, the pacing might annoy you guys. It's a little slower than Witch's Kiss, if my memory serves me right. It's more pin-pricks of "Something wicked this way comes", but the last 100 or so pages, the book picks the pace and I fly through the book.

This trilogy does have faults and it's more preteen/clean teen compared to most YA I need, but I do enjoy reading this trilogy, and once I get out of my fantasy funk, I will be diving straight into Witch's Blood.

Book Review - The Witch's Kiss

After reading Felix - The Railway Cat (blogpost for that is here!), you guys voted on what I should read next (this is the plan for the next month or so - though I might have to break it now due to getting a book in post and am PUMPED for it!) and you guys voted for The Witch's Kiss by Katherine and Elizabeth Corr.

Now, I've had this book (and its sequel) for a while but never been in the right frame of mind. Hence why these polls are such a good idea. Pushing me to read books I wouldn't normally rush towards unless I was in that mood.

Anyway, Witch's Kiss. Merry just wants to be a normal teenager. Shame that's not going to happen. She's a witch - a witch that doesn't want to be a witch, and her powers either exploding out of her fingertips when she's not in control or not there when she really needs them.

But it looks like she needs to embrace her witchy side and fast. Something dark is slowly waking and when Merry and her brother, Leo, meet Jack and discover he's under a centuries-old curse. A curse Merry must now break.

But Merry and those she love must be careful. Being a witch is dangerous, but so is falling in love and a heart is such an easy thing to break. So easy, in fact, that's true love's kiss might not be enough to save it...

Now, this is an odd book. Because there was faults - oh, so many faults, which I will go into in a bit - but it was a fun, addictive read. I read most of this book in one go (a good chuck of the book I read over the Easter Weekend - most of it on Easter Sunday).

The writing was fast paced and you had to run with the story to keep up. I liked some of the characters - mainly the brother, Leo. I really liked him and wish we saw more of his life outside of magic (he's an outsider, like us. Plus, if we saw his life, it would have been more powerful as the story grew) and I liked the hints towards fairy tales (mainly Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent with hints of the Lady in the Lake) and other things (Grey's Anatomy and Once Upon A Time - I really need to stop watching so much telly!). This is very much a book for fans of fast-paced magic.

But, like I said, this book had faults. A lot of faults. Most of which can be summed up in one way, I think. The story had a good idea and plot, but it felt skeletal. There was no real meat to the story. If there was, it would have given us something extra. See how Merry's magic affected her life in school and with friends, see the mysterious attacks (include the most personal), show us Leo's life with his friends and his romantic feelings towards a character we heard of but never met. But because the book is so focused on Merry's magic and the curse, there was no room for anything else.

While I say this book does have a lot of faults, I enjoyed the reading blitz I went on with this book and looking forward to finding time to read the sequel, The Witch's Tears... 

The Witch Tears - Second Book Syndrome

Today is the first stop on the The Witch's Tears blog tour (check out the side to see the rest of the stops!). And so, because of this, The Pewter Wolf is thrilled to welcome sister writing duo, Katharine and Elizabeth Corr.

The Witch's Tears is the sequel to The Witch's Kiss that came out last year and follows almost immediately after. Merry is juggling textbooks, being a witch and rules of the coven and trying to heal herself from the events of Witch's Kiss. Her brother, Leo, is falling apart and Merry doesn't know what to do. And all this make her ache for revenge. So when strangers offer both her and Leo not only friendship but another way to the lives their leading, they wouldn't be foolish not to take it, right...? Be careful what you wish for, for you never know where they will take you...

As a nice way to kick off the tour, Katharine and Elizabeth wrote a piece about the dreaded second book (aka SECOND BOOK SYNDROME!). Insert tense dramatic music here! So, before I hand you over to Katharine and Elizabeth, I would like to thank them both for finding time to write this (know how busy they must be!) and a big thank you to Jess at HarperCollins for asking if I wanted to take part in the tour!

If you wanna check Katharine and Elizabeth out, follow the tour for the rest of the week or check out their website - https://corrsisters.com - or check them out on Twitter (@lizcorr_writes & @katharinecorr).  With that all said and done, over to you guys!!!

The Witch's Kiss - Music To Evoke Tone

I am excited to kick of The Witch's Kiss blog tour! How exciting! Never been the first in a blog tour before, to my knowledge! Anyway, today, I want to welcome the authors (and sisters) Elizabeth and Katharine Corr! 

Now, for those of us who don't know what The Witch's Kiss is about, here is me trying to explain it...

Meredith (Merry) is fed up. Fed up feeling invisible at school. Fed up with her feuding family. Fed up with magic shooting out of her fingers every time she's stressed. So when she meets Jack, she falls for him and falls hard. Only sweet, sensitive Jack is possessed. Well, periodically possessed with a centuries old curse. Will true love's kiss save the day? Or is Meredith not only losing her heart, but about to lose her life as well? 

Does that wet your appetite? Well, if you (like me) are on the hunt for new music, both Elizabeth and Katharine kindly created a playlist of songs that evoke the tone and mood of this story. Now, I would embed the songs into the post, but I won't as Katharine did all the links (so you better click and listen to them, you lovely people) and I wanted to show you the cover of the book (as it looks pretty cool and thorny...)

So, before I go further, I would like to thank Katharine and Elizabeth for taking time out for writing this post and to Vicki for asking if I wanted to be involved in this tour. So, with them out of the way, I  will hand it over to Katharine and Elizabeth - take it away!

*

Here’s the thing: neither of us can actually write with any noise going on at all. It’s like we have to channel our (stereotypical) inner librarians: there must be ABSOLUTE SILENCE in the work place. Which is too bad, because we both love music of all types. Our protagonist in The Witch’s Kiss, Merry, also sings (badly) and listens to music – actually, singing turns out to be pretty important in her world…

So, we’ve tried to pull together a brief list of some of the songs that really evoke, for us, the mood of the story and the goings-on within. 

"The Weight of Living, Part II" – Bastille

This song explores both the headlong rush of feeling that you’re suddenly getting to be a grown up, and the fear that somehow you’re not quite doing it right… The lyrics of the first verse sum up what’s going through Merry’s head in the first bit of the novel: Now that you are here, suddenly you fear you’ve lost control…Do you like the person you’ve become?

"Jar of Hearts" – Christina Perri

The background (and the centre, in a way) to our story is the version of Sleeping Beauty we created, called The King of Hearts in the novel. Key lyrics here are those of the chorus, which rather echo the King of Hearts’ activities: …running round leaving scars, collecting your jar of hearts, and tearing love apart…

"Faded" – Alan Walker ft. Iselin Solheim

The vocals here are wonderfully eerie, tying into the fairy-tale atmosphere we’re trying to evoke. Also, we think the lyrics capture how Jack, our Sleeping Beauty, might be feeling: the monsters running wild inside of me, I’m faded…so lost, I’m faded. After all – he has been asleep for a seriously long time…

"Poison" – Rita Ora

Merry knows she shouldn’t get close to Jack, but still. That’s why this song works:  Nothing could kill me like you do. You're going straight to my head…I pick my poison and it's you. And poison is pretty common in fairy tales: poisoned apples, sleeping potions, black thorns exuding deadly venom… 

"Fix You" – Coldplay

The relationship between Merry and her brother Leo is such an important part of The Witch’s Kiss, at least as important as the romantic relationship. Fix You expresses Leo’s desire to help his sister, even when he knows there may not be much he can actually do: Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you. 

"We Might As Well Be Strangers" – Keane

Another older song, but we love how it describes the pain and isolation of love going wrong, as it so often does: I don’t know your thoughts these days; we’re strangers in an empty space. I don’t understand your heart; it’s easier to be apart.

"Radioactive" – Imagine Dragons

We always wanted to write Merry as a forceful & determined hero: some kind of Buffy/Maleficent genetic mash-up. And this, with its awesome bass line, is the song for that moment where the hero finally gets her stuff together: All systems go, the sun hasn’t died, deep in my bones, straight from inside, I’m waking up, I feel it in my bones, enough to make my system blow…

"I Lived" – One Republic

This would be perfect for the closing credits if The Witch’s Kiss ever gets made into a film: with every broken bone, I swear I lived. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!