Book Reviews

Uptown Oracle Reads… Ninth House

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (Affiliate Links) Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact,…
Uptown Oracle Reads… Sorcery of Thorns

Then the most important part of a whether you liked a standalone book, Sorcery of Thorns does just leave you wanting more. There’s a desire to read more about Elisabeth, Nathaniel and Silas and how there should be so many more adventures and happy endings.
Uptown Oracle Reads… Gideon the Ninth

Gideon the Ninth was a book I went into with very little information but I had been told it was good. I was luckily not disappointed at all. Gideon the Ninth is a wonderful book full of great characters, intriguing world building and also a heavy emphasis on it’s necormancy magic system (in space!).
Uptown Oracle Reads… The Merciful Crow | Not If But When You Need a Unique Magic System

Our titular The Merciful Crow is Fie, a chief-in-training who definitely isn’t ready to become chief herself. She’s our introduction to all things Crow, and their feelings towards to royals, gentry and society as a whole. Despite resentment, she has a strong leaning on her oaths, honor and duty as a crow and the covenant…
Uptown Oracle Reads… Bear Head

Bear Head is a book I went in with not much info and about a quarter of the way in I wanted to know everything about this sci-fi Earth and Mars. Our main characters are mostly on Mars and within a completed bio-engineered human body which can half-live on an area of Mars due to…
Uptown Oracle Reads… Legendborn

Legendborn is a King Arthur retelling/sequel in that King Arthur and his knights have used magic to tie themselves to their descendants, meaning they can sort of reincarnate when a great need is of them. There’s also Merlin stand-ins called Merlins and one called a Kingsmage who serves King Arthurs descendant.
Uptown Oracle Reads… Heiress Apparently | A Sweet and Fast-Paced Contemporary based in Beijing

Heiress Apparently at its core is a story about family. From Gemma’s small 3-person family, to the wider family she chooses throughout the book, there’s always relationships being built upon throughout the book. The family dynamics felt real and were recognisable for how parents and adult children would act towards one another.
Uptown Oracle Reads… Fable | A Sea-Faring Adventure With a Girl Made of Stone and Glass

Fable is a young girl who was left to fend for herself by her own father, Saint. Growing up on Jevali as a dredger who finds and sells precious gems where possible, she’s suffered more than most as she tries to survive the ruthless island. As she earns just enough to get away, and just…
Uptown Oracle Reads… The Sky Weaver | A Dazzling Tale of Dragons, Pirates and Gods

The Sky Weaver brings back Safire as a link to the previous books, and includes what happens to the other leads of both The Last Namsara and The Caged Queen. I thought this was a good tie-in to the overall series, but similar to when reading The Caged Queen I felt like I’d forgotten a…