Echoes and Empires review

After being caught in a robbery gone wrong Josslyn Drake, a confident 17 year old, finds herself stuck with Jericho Nox, the sarcastic failed robber, to rid herself of magic, something which is considered dangerous and evil in her world. Their journey takes them to dangerous places, leads them to uncover secrets, and forces them to work with each other. Echoes and Empires is fast paced, well written, and gives YA readers everything they love. 

My review: 

There is so much I could say about this book! Just the first line "I wore red on the night I slammed head first into my destiny" had me hooked. I could not put this book down. I am a huge fan of Rhodes Falling Kingdoms series and I have been eagerly waiting to get my hands on Echoes and Empires, and it was without a doubt worth the wait. This book has so many interesting characters, really good plot twists, and a really interesting take on magic. The story is really fast paced and the cliffhanger will have readers desperate for more. I rated Echoes and Empires five stars, and I would recommend this book to fans of Throne of Glass, Cinder, and Vampire Academy. 

**MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW** 

Tabs: 

I used 5 colours as follows: 

Yellow: Plot/ memorable parts

Purple: Quotes

Green: Parts I really liked 

Red: Characters (anything memorable or important information about them)

Blue: Parts that made me laugh 

I used a tone of yellow tabs for Echoes and Empires. The plot was just incredible, so much happened in just 384 pages. The twists, turns, and secrets made this a captivating story. The parts that I marked with green tabs were mostly interactions between Joss and Jericho, and blue tabs were usually when Jericho made me laugh. 

Some of my favourite quotes from this book are:

Safe. What a small word for such a very big lie. 

Nothing truly good can be destroyed, and nothing truly evil can live forever. 

Denial is a wonderful thing. 

What was my favourite part of the plot? 

I don't think I can pick a specific part of this plot to make my favourite! I did find the twist of Elian's fate to be incredibly interesting though. I had a feeling he was still alive but I did not expect that he was brought back from the dead to become a monster. 

I really enjoyed Joss and Jericho's journey together and I can't wait to see more of them in the sequel, especially after learning of Jericho's role in the death of the Prime Minister. 

I really hope to find out more of Jericho's past in the next book. I also hope we get to see a lot more of him and his brother and learn more of their history. 

I'm really excited for Joss to meet her real father! I wonder if he knows or will figure out that his daughter is still alive before she tracks him down? 

I can't wait to see how Joss, Jericho, and Elian work together to solve their problems. It will definitely be interesting to see them on the run together. I would also love to see more of Celina in the next book. 

2022 TBR

I made some good progress with my tbr throughout 2021. I read a lot of new releases but still kept up with goal of getting to books that had been on my tbr for a long time. Today, I took a look at the way my tbr currently stands and decided I wasn't feeling some of the books currently there. I decided to shelve these and swap them for some others that I'm excited to read. The image on the left is how my tbr stood at the end of 2021, and the picture on the right is how my tbr looks for 2022. 

What books did I shelve and why?  

I shelved the books in the picture mostly for the same reasons. With Kingsbane and Furyborn I do not currently own the third book in this trilogy and I want to wait until I have it before i start reading. Not owning the sequels is also why I have shelved The Obsidian Tower, Scavenge the Stars, There Will Come a Darkness, and the Shadow Rises. 

As for the other books I shelved, this was just because I do not feel like reading them at the moment. I am still excited to read them, and I may regret shelving them now, but there are other books I am more eager to get to. 

Another reason I was able to stick to my tbr in 2021 was that I stopped myself from rereading all of my favourite books. I still had a few rereads, and also read  A Court of Silver Flames, and The Petrified Flesh, twice, but I limited my rereads. I am not sure if I will be doing the same this year. There are some favourites that I am really excited to reread (as seen in the picture) so my tbr may not get much smaller. There are also a great deal of new releases this year that I am dying to get my hands on, so I know they will go straight to the top of my tbr. 

What am I reading now? 

At the moment I am resisting the urge to reread some of these books. My final book of 2021 was a reread of A Court of Silver Flames, so I've picked a book I have owned for a very long time; Shatter Me. I was gifted the last three books in the series for Christmas, so now that I have them all I am excited to make my way through them. I won't be writing reviews for this series, but I am aiming to take a break after the first three books to read and review Lore, which I am disappointed that I did not get around to in 2021 so this is one of my priority reads.