Uprooted
I did not expect this book to be this damn good.
Yay!
It was really detailed and completely engrossing. I loved it. The heroine was incredibly grounded, normal type of person, blundering trough life in a way most of us blunder trough ours, to be honest. I loved her because of that. All of her choices were lucky guesses and chances like we take every single day. There wasn't the surety of absolute badassery, and there wasn't avoidance of emotions either.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE AUTHORS WHO ARE NOT AFRAID OF EMOTIONS
I don't know about you, but I am more than fed up of 'ice queen' bitches whose only 'attractive' characteristic is that they are rude and insult everything around them; and that somehow that is supposed to be more than enough for the hero to fall madly in love with her.
I am tired of cheating assholes who like to showcase their emotional inability to cope with the fact that someone stole their teddy when they were five, and now they use the repressed feelings of inadequacy to deal with the situation 'like a man', by inseminating everything that will stay still for seven point two seconds.
Whenever I pick up a book like that I see nothing but fake people who use the most basic of tactics to deflect from the fact that they are insecure as hell, and force everyone else to deal with their problems. That's why I don't like contemporary romance so much.
So when you get something like this, an insight in a young mind that is wholesome, that understands the concept of family, friends, love and devotion, and sees that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being normal, it flows like a fresh breeze. Honestly, normal somehow became abnormal with the current popular culture, and it seems that people aren't really doing much else, except competing to see who has more mental and emotional damage. So kudos to the author, she deserves praise at every chapter.
But I digress...
The novel itself is fast paced and absolutely filled with action, and there is plenty of it to be had. The world building was clever, not too much like some fantasy novels out there, not too little to seem unconnected, but just enough to keep you turning the pages.
I loved the Dragon. I loved the dynamic between him and Agnieszka. Yes sure, he treated her in a cold way, but not in a sexually charged cold way. He genuinely thought she was an idiot....and truth be told, she did very little to dissuade him.
Everything that developed between them, happened trough a long period of time, it grew slowly, but naturally and it was awesome to watch.
As the magical villains go, I think the Wood is in top ten faves of all times. There is something truly sinister I think, when you can't put a face on something that is hell bent on killing you. A true evil, that lies within every person, waiting to be let out, rather than a simple guy in spandex wearing a distractingly elaborate hairpiece.
This has been so far a good year for me, book wise. I haven't had many duds. It makes me happy to no end, to see that fantasy is picking up speed. I am aware that there are a handful of authors out there who made it big and inspired more and more people in the genre, and I am glad, as it turns out – there are many very talented authors out there, and in a world filled with magic, not even the sky is the limit.
