Books that Resonated with Me (Part 2)

Because I have read hundreds if not thousands of books in my life (not an exaggeration just some extreme introversion starting from a very young age) I could not fit every book that I want to talk about into just one post so I suppose I’ll start a series. This is the second part, (and probably not the last) and in this one I will focus on sci-fi/fantasy books written by Laura Thalassa, one of my favourite authors of dark fiction and fantasy.

• The Queen of All that Dies by Laura Thalassa

This book is one of the rare dystopian books that I not only didn’t hate, but actually really enjoyed. The beginning seems a bit like your typical dystopian walking-dead-esque YA novels but very quickly proves itself to be completely different. The plot is convoluted in the best way possible. The characters are similarly complex, with no real heroes or clear-cut bad guys. Friends become foes, and foes become lovers, and the true meaning of ‘family’ is constantly being re-evaluated. Morals lines are bent, blurred, and occasionally thrown out all together, yet in such a way that you are still left feeling righteous and as if the ends justified the means. After all, if the person who destroyed the world, and the person who rebuilt it to a much better place are one and the same — exactly who is to blame? The King of Everything or the ones who pushed him to it? This book is the first book of The Fallen World trilogy.

• Rhapsodic & A Strange Hymn by Laura Thalassa

Rhapsodic and A Strange Hymn compose the two first two books of The Bargainer trilogy. They are followed by The Emperor of the Evening Stars (Book 2.5, a novella) and Dark Harmony. These first two books are particularly memorable for me, not because the rest of the series falls flat, far from it, but because those two books did such an amazing job of introducing the characters, world, and plot that the third book was really able to do its job as a conclusion to the series in a way that felt natural and meaningful. These first two books, however, (like all Laura Thalassa books) are dark and as wildly emotional as the title Rhapsodic suggests. The first book is written primarily as a series of flashbacks interspersed with scenes from the present day, and serve to tell the story of how the two main characters met, became extremely close, and epically fell apart. Before inevitably crashing back into each others lives after seven years of separation. The second book is when the plot fully moves on from the reconciliation story-arc and into the fantasy-action-romance that the series really is. Both books are amazing and emotional, but in two very different (yet still complementary ways).

Synopses:

“Callypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. For the last seven years she’s been collecting a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she’s received. Only death or repayment will fulfill the obligations. Only then will the beads disappear.

Everyone knows that if you need a favor, you go to the Bargainer to make it happen. He’s a man who can get you anything you want… at a price. And everyone knows that sooner or later he always collects.

But for one of his clients, he’s never asked for repayment. Not until now. When Callie finds the fae king of the night in her room, a grin on his lips and a twinkle in his eye, she knows things are about to change. At first it’s just a chaste kiss—a single bead’s worth—and a promise for more.

For the Bargainer, it’s more than just a matter of rekindling an old romance. Something is happening in the Otherworld. Fae warriors are going missing one by one. Only the women are returned, each in a glass casket, a child clutched to their breast. And then there are the whispers among the slaves, whispers of an evil that’s been awoken.” – Rhapsodic

“In the future, the world is at war.

For the last decade, King Lazuli of the Eastern Empire has systematically taken over the world. No one knows much about him other than a series of impossible facts: he cannot die, he has not aged since the conflict began, and he wants to rule the world.

All Serenity Freeman has known is bloodshed. War has taken away her mother, her home, her safety. As the future emissary of the Western United Nations, the last autonomous region of the globe, she is responsible for forging alliances where she can.

Surrender is on the horizon. The king can taste it; Serenity feels it deep within her bones. There is no other option. Now the two must come face to face. For Serenity, that means confronting the man who’s taken everything from her. For the king, it means meeting the one woman he can’t conquer. But when they meet, something happens. Cruelty finds redemption.

Only in war, everything comes with a price. Especially love.” –Queen of All that Dies