Rebecca's Thoughts

Paradise Kiss (Volumes 1-5) – Ai Yazawa 

Genre: Romance, Josai, Fashion, Coming of Age

AniList Synopsis: Yukari wants nothing more than to make her parents happy by studying hard and getting into a good college. One afternoon, however, she is kidnapped by a group of self-styled fashionistas calling themselves “Paradise Kiss.”

Yukari suddenly finds herself flung into the roller-coaster life of the fashion world, guided by George, an art snob extraordinaire. In a glamorous makeover of body, mind and soul, she is turned from a hapless bookworm into her friend’s 22-own exclusive clothing model.

Instead if just on book here’s 5!! Paradise Kiss is a Japanese Manga series that is up there when it comes to my favourites list! This series is a reread for me, and the anime that is adapted from this manga series is one of my all-time favourites. Really everything that Ai Yazawa writes is gold and although not her most known work I think that this one is the most complete and dare I say the best. Her most famous series is probably Nana and is also a series I’d recommend. Unlike Nana, this series is finished and has a proper ending so it wins bonus points in my book!

This series feels like a fever dream. The story whirls fast yet the story flows in an almost casual manner. I think the characters are what drive the story forward and are the soul of the series. This story is as much about fashion as it is about growing up and learning who you are. Paradise Kiss is a story that I keep coming back to and is reassuring in what it has to say. You don’t have to know what your future will look like, rather you just have to know what you want and do what will make you happy. I find great comfort in that message and think that this story is satisfying in how it deals with ideas like this.

The story is melancholic yet hopeful. I think that the contradictions contained within this series make it seem real and immersive. It’s about coming of age but also being at the point of seemingly not returning. It’s a series about making decisions yet not knowing what you want or what is the best choice. I think that this is a series that I relate to a lot and is something that I hold extremely close to and will talk about every opportunity I have. 

An Unkindness of Magicians (The Unseen World #1) – Kat Howard

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Magic, Contemporary

Goodreads Synopsis: There is a dark secret that is hiding at the heart of New York City and diminishing the city’s magicians’ power in this fantasy thriller by acclaimed author Kat Howard.

In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening, except for Sydney—a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who can stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn’t want to help the system, she wants to destroy it.

Sydney comes from the House of Shadows, which controls the magic with the help of sacrifices from magicians.

This is also a re-read and it was just as good as the first time I read it. The book is the first in a series but stands on its own as a complete story. I have some issues with the second book, but I think that it is a solid story and an interesting addition to the first book. An Unkindness of Magicians is one of my favourite books especially when it comes to fantasy! I think that the urban fantasy setting of New York mixed with the tournament action plot seems like it was a book made for me to love. 

The world is bleak and almost depressing, but the characters can add warmth to it through their relationships and their ambitions on how they want to make the world a better place. I think the story has a lot of interesting commentary on society and how it treats people, crime, and poor people. It’s not blatant in its messaging and at no point is anyone ever being beaten over the head, but I think it adds to the world of the story and makes it seem more real and lived in. 

I think that the characters are amazing and the reasons behind their actions are interesting and something that I would have liked to have been explored more in the second book. The number of characters is something that is often held against the book, but I’m not particularly bothered by not knowing everything about all of the characters. That being said, I do think that many of the characters and their relationships are almost milked for content in the second book so if that is not something you are interested in, I’d recommend just reading the first book! I think the second book was a bit of a letdown, but this first book (which was originally a standalone from my understanding) more than makes up for it.

King of Country – C.W. Farnsworth

Genre: Romance, Music, Contemporary

Goodreads Synopsis: Kyle Spencer is the king of country music. She’s the city girl, sent to talk him into returning to the stage…

Piper Egan landed her dream job straight out of college—working at Empire Records. But instead of discovering new talent and changing lives, like she’d hoped, her time is spent taking meeting notes and catering to spoiled celebrities. When the chance to change that finally appears, she should be thrilled.

Unfortunately, Piper’s promotion involves the charming cowboy she’s spent years attempting to avoid. And flying to middle of nowhere, Texas, in a desperate attempt to talk the king of country music into returning to the stage.

It’s a work trip with no boundaries. Piper is determined to head back to New York with a signed contract in hand, no matter what it takes. But that plan becomes complicated when she’s greeted by a scowl instead of Kyle’s trademark grin. Becomes challenging when she glimpses the genuine guy beneath the superstar. Becomes impossible when she learns the reason he walked away from the spotlight.

This was by far the best romance novel I read in both November and December! It fits all the tropes and things I look for in romance novels. It was fun, and I think that C.W. Farnsworth really knows how to write characters with real feelings and motives. Unlike other books in this genre, the level of fame and how it plays into the story is almost subverted and used as more of a failure of the characters and what they want out of life. This book was really good and dealt with grief with passion and tackled it with taste and reason. 10/10 would recommend!!

Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) – Pierce Brown

Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Dystopia

Goodreads Synopsis: Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making

the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

I must have been living under a rock for the past decade because I managed to go into this book mostly blind and it truly lived up to its hype and praise surrounding it! This book was interesting and intriguing and everything I want in science fiction/fantasy books. I much like the previous book in this list, it checked all of my boxes when it comes to tropes, I like books like this. I’m a sucker for underdog stories, books with magical schools, and *tournaments* with said magic. It was ultimately a great book and I am excited to follow the rest of the series!