I need a sequel so badly. Her job is not only to bury the dead but it's also to kill zombies. So you'd think "why don't you just not go in the water?" I do not remember it whatsoever. Next up, oh my god please don't click out of this video please. Hi everyone, it's Cari. Do you ever have days where your brain just works a little slower than other days? That's where I'm at. So I've tried to start this video quite a few times but this is the take everybody. This is the take. We're gonna go with it. What are we talking about today? Standalone fantasy. Yes. So I recently made a video about all of the YA and new adult fantasy series that I read in 2020 and a lot of you liked it, but a lot of people said that they just can't - they don't have enough time. So I wanted to talk about some of the standalones that I have absolutely loved. I'm not going to rank them because when it comes to standalone it's harder for me to rank becauseI I tend to feel really strongly about a book right when I finish it and then I have to digest those feelings etc. I'm not good at ranking things in general. So this is going to be in no particular order and this will also be spoiler-free. I need tea. Oh my god. Okay now we can continue. We actually had some of the worst air quality in the world, like record-breaking, on Monday and I can feel it in my lungs. I can really feel it. I'm too excited to talk about these books, we're gonna push through. Starting with the most recent book that I read. I actually finished it a couple days ago and it is called The Library of Fates. And this was one that is difficult to explain without spoiling it and second of all it is one that I wish was longer. So there are a couple on these lists where the standalones I think are perfect. They wrap everything up, it's a good pace. This one... Man. It was like getting a tiny little appetizer when I wanted the meal. It had so much that I wanted to sink my teeth into and we just didn't. But that being said I enjoyed it. It was just like I, you know, I wanted this to be longer. So what is it about? Our story takes place in a fictional world but I believe it is kind of based off of India because the king is the Maharajah and our main character is actually the princess. And so she has lived a really comfortable wonderful life, she is really loved, the people around her are fantastic. The only thing that's kind of lacking in her life is that she never knew her mother and her father never really talks about her and but other than that, she has a very whole, rich, fulfilling life. We start the story where she has been basically promised or like arranged in marriage with the neighboring king who is a tyrant. He's bad news. We know from the beginning. He's forcefully taking over every land around his kingdom, up until like their borders and this marriage is kind of obviously a political thing. The king isn't happy about it, her father. Obviously she isn't. This isn't a spoiler but the marriage agreement kind of falls to pieces and that's not the only thing that falls to pieces. Literally everything does, so everything that our girl loves and cherishes in her life is ripped from her and she is in charge of putting it back together basically. That's literally all I can say without spoiling it but as far as the fantasy element there are people who have abilities to see the future, there is also a mythological element where we have different gods and goddesses. The idea of different dimensions and stuff like that. The beginning and the ending I feel like are totally different books but I love them equally. There is very little romance. That kind of made me mad because I actually wanted a little more because there are a couple relationships that I'm like, I just want to know! There was a potential for so much yearning and pain and she she was easy on us. And I, you know, I didn't want that. Overall it was a very quick read and like I said, it was one of those things where I wanted so much more but that being said it was good and now I think about it and I'm kind of expanding the story in my brain. Very atypical ending. I thought it was good. The Library of Fates. My next most recent read is Descendant of the Crane and this one, man, this one was stressful. So this is another one where I wish it was longer. Not necessarily longer, I need a sequel so badly. When you get to the end you will know why. I need a sequel. I have many many questions. So what is it about? Again, we are in a kind of royal setting and our main protagonist is the princess. She is ready to take the throne and we meet her right after her father has died and everyone is saying it's natural causes but she has reason to believe that it was not. And so in her world the ruling party are basically descendants of these people called the 11s and they were 11 people who overthrew the previous kings who were, you know, rich, didn't care about their people, lived in excess, all that stuff. And during this kind of transfer of power there's a community within their kingdom that knows magic - that has magical abilities - and the rebel leaders decided that that was a liability, we should kill them all. So there are still a few that live kind of underground and the very first scene of the book we follow our main girl to meet with one of these magical people and they can kind of see the future. And she basically tells them that you are going to start the investigation into your father's death and you need this particular criminal to be your lawyer in this trial. And she's like 'you know I don't really i don't really know how I feel about that' but she goes into the prison and lo and behold she finds this dude with a rod - that's his thing, he has like a wooden stick that's his like main characteristic. Anyway. So she opens this trial to look into her father's death she also in this time becomes queen and [ __ ] hits the fan to say it lightly. The amount of plot twists in this book. This is a 240 page book. My mind was spinning. It's very, it's kind of like a lot of political moves so if you're into kind of like a political thriller sort of thing I thought it was really good. My only complaint is that I desperately want - desperately want - a sequel. But yeah that was Descendant of the Crane, 240 pages, I recommend. Now we're going into some books that I have read quite a long time ago but they still hold a dear place in my heart starting with To Kill a Kingdom. This is always brought up when it comes to enemies to lovers trope. This, they do it so well. It is - I think, I think - loosely based off of The Little Mermaid but rather than our female protagonist being a mermaid, she's actually a siren which if you are unfamiliar, sirens are similar to mermaids but they have this song that they sing and it hypnotizes anyone who hears it and they can kind of beckon those people to do whatever they want. It's normally sailors and they will like to drown themselves because they want to be so close to these sirens and then the sirens will like take their hearts and whatever. They're like not, they're not like cutesy mermaid people which I appreciated because the way she describes them, our girl's not cute. Our girl's kind of scary looking. So our main girl is actually kind of royalty, she's sort of the princess. Her mom is like queen of the sea and her mom isn't super nice - I pictured her as Ursula the whole time. Her mom kind of never wants her daughter to take over and so she finds a way to punish our main girl and essentially turns her human and that's a big problem because in order to become queen you need to collect hearts and because she's royal, she only collects royal hearts so every year on her birthday she kills like a prince or a princess or a king. Steals their heart and like I don't know - that's like part of their culture, I'm not, it's vague. Anyway! So her mother, as punishment, not only turns her into a human but in order to kind of like get back into her mother's good graces, she needs to get a royal heart for her birthday as usual. But the heart that she needs is a prince who is a known *siren hunter* He just goes out and he tries to basically kill the queen and so in her human form she has to kill this guy and of course they cross paths and blah blah. All I can say without spoiling it is that I thought it was really good. It was a charming fantasy. The imagery was great. I thought that the turning from enemies to lovers was believable. Again I loved that the girl - in her human form I think she was cute, I think all girls are cute - but when she was a siren and like all her siren friends they are described as terrifying which I think is refreshing in fantasy where we usually see like incredible beauties. Overall if you are into kind of like pirate, maritime, mermaid imagery - beautiful wonderful enemies to lovers trope. To Kill a Kingdom. Next up is one that I would kind of save for closer to Halloween. It is called the Bone Houses and I knew nothing going into this and I actually really enjoyed it. Our main girl lives in a quiet village that is surrounded by a forest. Most people are just superstitious, most people aren't aware that it is actually cursed but our main girl knows because she lives on the edge of town right next to the forest and her family they are the village gravediggers - they take care of the cemetery etc. And her dad is kind of sent on a mission by one of the royals or one of the rulers. He is sent into the woods and he never comes back. Soon after that her mother also passes away so in order to care for her whole family, all of her little siblings, she has to take up the job of being a gravedigger which that's fine. It's the family business. The only problem is the dead in this town... don't stay dead. They just wake up and they become what are called "bone houses" - essentially zombies. Especially if they are, if they are buried in the woods, they wake up and they come out and they are ruthless. They are vicious. Her job is not only to bury the dead but it's also to kill zombies all the time and nobody in the village believes her that there are zombies. Until a mysterious boy man comes to the village and he is a map maker and he wants to map the woods and so the only person who goes into the woods is our main girl and she's like 'yes let's go, like I'll take you wherever you want, don't really like you but you've got coin so let's do this.' I can't say much more but in the woods they're hoping to find the source of what keeps these bone houses alive. I thought it was excellent. So autumn halloween moody. I enjoyed it, I thought that the two main characters were really great and it kind of tackles hard subjects about death and like how do you grieve and how do you let loved ones go. Overall I just thought it was a very quick read but really great wonderful autumn book as we begin spring...my Australia people, my southern hemisphere people, read it for us please. Next on our list, we have another kind of maritime oceany themed one and it is called a House of Salt and Sorrows. So this one is not one of my favorites but I'm still gonna recommend it because I think if you, you know the right person meets the right book, I'm not gonna keep this from you. So House of Salt and Sorrows is dark, first of all. Basically there is a family that has had 12 daughters and they just keep dying to the point where when we start our story there's only six left. It's not confirmed that it's a curse but most people in the village assume that it is and our main girl is very certain that it is in fact a curse or something weird - like this can't just be happening naturally, she knows her sisters. It's so hard not to spoil anything. She basically just kind of embarks on this quest to figure out the curse there is a mysterious moody man that was the saving grace of the novel. I think he's the only character that I liked. I wouldn't say that it ties into like fairy - it felt - okay, okay it did feel very much like a fairy tale. It didn't necessarily have fairies in it I don't think but it did feel kind of like some old story that you might have known when you were a kid, like very grim's fairy tale kind of feeling. But like I said, very dark because it does, like, they're constantly assuming that one of their sisters is gonna die at any moment so overall though I think it had a lot of elements that I did like, it just didn't tie in perfectly for me. But give it a try if it's available at your library. House of Salt and Sorrows. Next up oh my god please don't click out of this video, please. I promise there are time stamps in the description box. I'm going to talk about Sorcery of Thorns again. If you are new to this channel, welcome, let's talk about Sorcery of Thorns. If you aren't, I am so sorry, you can repeat the plot with me because this is probably my like fifth time mentioning this book. I adore this book. Say it with me. Dark academia Howl's Moving Castle. Yes. So let's be quick. What is this about? It is about our lovely wonderful Elisabeth. She's the only person whose name I remember in this entire video. Orphaned, raised in a magical haunted library, where they house spell books and these spell books have a mind of their own so they really need to be protected or else they can easily turn into like demon monster things. That's her job and that's what she wants to be for the rest of her life, she just wants to live in a library. We love Elisabeth. Something bad happens in the library and she for some reason is accused of this crime so she has to go be put on trial by the wizards of her kingdom on the journey to the trial she is being kind of escorted by this guy named Nathaniel, another wizard. She's also been raised to fear wizards so they are not friends by the way, they are not friends. As they are traveling things kind of start to come to light and there is something much much bigger than this tiny crime that happened. Elisabeth and Nathaniel are the ones who are going to have to save the kingdom, save the library, it's a fantastic book. Literally Margaret Rogerson can do no wrong and we're going to slide right into the Enchantment of Ravens. So go check the library, put it on hold, Sorcery of Thorns, do that. While you're there in the R section, look on the shelf next to it, Enchantment of Ravens. Let's talk about it. Margaret Rogerson, my queen. This is actually her first book. A lot of people say that they like Enchantment of Ravens more than Sorcery of Thorns... I disagree but that's okay. I really think I just need to reread it and I would fall in love with it so much more. Enchantment of Ravens is such a fairy tale. Like, Margaret Rogerson knows her fairy folklore. Basically the story follows Isobel - whose name I know only because I looked this up moments ago - Isobel is a human mortal and she is a very talented painter. Fairies cannot make things, they can consume but they can't make, so that means that they can't cook things, they can't make art, they can't make music, etc. In this society the fairies really cherish the humans only because they can make things so they're like patrons of the art. They'll pay Isobel to you know, paint their portrait etc. One day one of her kind of regular customers comes in and he's like 'you know, I have a friend, he wants a portrait, I'm gonna send him to your house, is that okay?' And she's kind of like 'all right fine I'll do it' You know, not super excited. That's a spoiler so I'm gonna erase that - erase that editing Cari. Start again, so he comes over and she paints and everything is fine. She is shaken by the experience but she returns to normal life until a few days later he comes back and he is pissed. He's really angry about her painting and he's basically like 'you made a fool of me, you have to come explain yourself to my court' Something is up with the picture basically and he's like 'you need to fix this' They end up going on this sort of adventure back to his court and it kind of expands from there and the reason I didn't love it as much is just because it went by so fast but if you love real fairy tales like what kind of in olden times what fairies are actually described as she really goes into it so I would definitely recommend it to anyone who really loves like fairy tales. I like Sorcery of Thorns more but Enchantment of Ravens was great and she has a new book coming out soon that involves nuns and something else - I don't even know - but I'm so excited. So Margaret Rogerson, queen of my heart. Pick up both of her books, that's all I can say. Another absolute queen of the standalone fantasy is Shea Ernshaw and so I'm going to talk about both of her books right now. First one being Winterwood. This is the first one I read of hers and it takes place in kind of this wintery mountaintop town where our main character has been living with her family for ever you know forever. And there are rumors around the town that her entire family are witches. So she's like a little bit of an outsider, kind of keeps to herself, etc. And our story starts where there is a massive snowstorm. And this is pretty common on the mountain but the problem is that when the snow falls you can't get in or out um until the snow clears which, like I said, that, you know, sucks, but it's normal.The only problem is that there is a boys kind of like a tough-love camp, like a like a camp for boys that need to be disciplined and this camp alerts the community that one of their students or one of their campers is missing in the storm. And everyone is obviously looking for him to no avail and our main girl is kind of the only one in the community that is well versed in the woods. Her and her family have a very close tie to the woods and it's hinted at that it's got some kind of magic to it but we really don't understand it that well. One day she's doing her thing, walking in the woods, and she finds the boy and something is not right. I can't literally can't go further without spoiling anything but yeah it has a lot of plot twists, the imagery, like it just, she can pick a season and just throw you into it so it really just felt cozy and wintry but eerie and I don't know, I just I really loved it. I loved Winterwood and I would highly recommend it if you are looking for something that isn't strongly tied to magic, it's not like fairies or goblins or anything but more like a very subtle natural witchcraft, that is Winterwood and yes I recommend. Moving on to the next Shea Ernshaw is The Wicked Deep which also concerns witches. The story takes place in a town in Oregon I believe so picture a place kind of like Twilight. And this town, a couple hundred years ago accused three sisters of being witches and they killed them, like the witch trials, they drowned them in the kind of like port of the town. And ever since then, the community has had to deal with something called Swan Season, because the sisters are the Swan Sisters. So Swan Season means that every single summer one boy from the community will inexplicably drown. So you'd think "why don't you just not go in the water?" It's deeper than that. Obviously there is magic involved. So our story starts at the beginning of this year's Swan Season and our main girl is obviously kind of freaked out about it but she is also just trying to live her life when she randomly runs into this guy. She sees him and she's like "why would a guy come to a town where boys his age die, like right when the season starts? like is this guy insane?" The story goes from there. Obviously we're trying to keep everybody alive in the book. If you are interested kind of in like witch trials, it did again feel a bit like I think I said this before, Practical Magic means Twilight meets Hocus Pocus. There are no vampires there are no werewolves, I'm literally just talking about the town of Forks. I thought it was excellent, I thought it was much more of a autumn read but technically it takes place in the summer so you could start reading it anytime you want to. But I absolutely loved it I highly recommend it, the Wicked Deep. Okay we're nearing the end of this list I promise. I am definitely going to throw in Addie Larue. Even though it wasn't my favorite book, I know that so many people would like it and I wouldn't want to leave it out of this list. Just wasn't my style. Addie Larue is about a girl named Addie who is living in France in, what, the 1600s? 1700s? Just does not want to live that what old provincial life so on the eve of her wedding day or perhaps even her wedding day itself, she basically makes a deal with the devil or like the god of night or something like that to live however she freaking wants. Aand she's not very specific about her words and she is basically cursed to live forever but no one can remember her. So the second she's out of sight, out of sight out of mind. She's completely forgotten. And so we kind of follow her through a bit of her life, she's like 300 years old by the time that our story starts. And of course the reason that the story begins where it does is someone finally remembers her. And she flips out. The reason that I didn't really like it is I felt that it was a little slow and I would have loved to hear more about other characters. It really depends on what you're looking for with this book. For me, I went into it thinking it was going to be something really different so I think that's why I didn't love it as much but it is by VE Schwab so it is beautiful and it has a lot of interesting ideas to it. I would love to give it another read later in life but definitely if you're into kind of, she doesn't time travel but like if you're interested in a lot of different time periods and stuff like that give it a go. Addie Larue. Next on our list is The Ghost Bride and I love this book. I started it once and I couldn't get into it and I don't know why because the second time I read it I like ate it up. This book follows our main character who is living her life as she would, she is suddenly proposed to - how great - by a nice wealthy family and, you know, that would really help out her family, her father. The problem is her husband-to-be is already dead. If someone died a bachelor you can still marry them, that's basically what the family is asking of her. And she's kind of like .........no thank you. Until she basically starts getting followed by her fiance's ghost to the point where he invades all of her dreams and she's really struggling so she decides to take matters into her own hands She's hoping that she can go into kind of this limbo where she's hoping that she can kind of talk to her fiance and be like 'leave me alone, I'm going to go back to the life place, let's work this out' and so most of the book is actually her adventure through this kind of limbo afterlife place and we meet a couple characters on the way. I don't want to say anymore but I thought it was really great. I also found out that I think they made it into a drama and I might watch it because I could see it playing out quite well as a drama. I really enjoyed it. Again, it took me two times but once I got into it, I was into it. That is The Ghost Bride. Next on our list we have Girl Serpent Thorn, which I didn't super love and I think that it was also one of my first standalones that I had read. Here is the plot. We follow a princess who has been cursed with basically anything she touches dies I'm pretty sure. She's like a poisonous person. So she lives completely in seclusion like solitary confinement basically and her brother and her mother go off and rule the kingdom, do their thing, and she just lives - she has a little garden she just stays in her home. And one day her brother and her mother come back from wherever they were and on the trip they got attacked and this man saved her brother who was going to be king so as a reward they bring him to the castle to become a royal guard. The thing that attacked her brother was a djinn so this does have quite a bit of mythology to it. They keep her this djinn alive and lock her up and somehow our main girl comes into contact with the djinn and she basically finds out that this person, this djinn, knows about her curse. Knows some secret. And so now where the, you know, the girl was kind of resigned to living her life as it was, now she has this chance to find out about her curse, possibly reverse it, and that just spirals into a big ol mess. There's a lot of moving parts, a lot going on, it was a bit complicated. I think if I read it again I'd like it more so if you are, if that does sound interesting to you, I would give it a try but it definitely wasn't in my top five of this list. There it is, Girl Serpent Thorn. And last but not least is The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which, the plot.... I do not remember it whatsoever. But what I do remember is underlining a lot of lines and I read it on an airplane and - this is such a tangent- I was going to Scotland we were flying over Mongolia and we passed over - what is it- Ulaanbaatar? Is that the city? Somewhere that like isn't talked about a lot. Sure enough, literally as we're flying over it, I'm reading my book and she is there and I was reading it and I just like happened to look up at the map on my seat and I was like 0_0 So, magical things happen with this book. I would just like to say. I love coincidences like that. So anyway this story is about a girl who has kind of lived her whole life growing up with her caretaker. You know she's living like a relatively normal childhood I guess until she finds a book filled with some very interesting things and once she starts asking questions about it, her - the people in her life who she cares about and she loves, start to act a little weird and cagey and so she is not about that and she kind of goes off on this adventure to find answers to what is in this book and there are doors that you can walk through and kind of enter other worlds and and other places and stuff like that so I genuinely don't remember much of the plot but I just remember it being a very nice read for an airplane and it was just something I think a younger me would have really loved, this idea of going through doors and going on these adventures. I think it might be a little bit geared a little bit younger but I do remember it being just a quick joyful little read so that's kind of how I want to end it. I'll end it on Ten Thousand Doors of January. I hope that any one of these that sounded interesting to you. I definitely stand by Margaret Rogerson and Shea Ernshaw. VE Schwab also has another couple standalones that I didn't mention if you love her definitely check out - I think the one that I left out was The Near Witch but this video is already super long. And let me know if you have any other standalones. I'm trying to read those as well because I can't keep doing all these series and then just feel empty afterward so please help a girl out. But now my throat is dying so I'm gonna leave you here but I will see you guys next week and thank you as always for watching. Let me know what you're reading etc. I just got Run (Rule) of Wolves, the second in Nikolai's King of Scars series, just got that in from the library so I'm gonna go dive into that and I will see you guys later, bye!
13+ BOOKS | Popular and Underrated YA Fantasy STANDALONES
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April 11, 2021
