Review: Graevale

Graevale by Lynette Noni
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**Re-Read Feb 19**

GUYS I STILL CAN'T DEAL WITH ALL THESE EMOTIONS.

Summary:

✓ More Kaiden
✓ More Niyx
✓ More epic action scenes
✓ Plenty of fighting
✓ So much sass
✓ Teachers doing un-teacherly things
✓ Cute animals

Honestly I have to laugh at that one time ageeeeess ago when I first read Akarnae and was all cynical, thinking it was a little too close to HP for my liking. Now here I am letting this series rip out my heart and stomp all over it FOR A SECOND TIME. It's a beautiful, masochistic relationship.

Book hangovers are a real thing, man.

ANYOO GUESS WHO GOT Vardaesia YESTERDAY SO YAY LET'S GO EXPERIENCE A RAINBOW OF EMOTIONS ALL OVER AGAIN I AM READY.

(Proper review-like thoughts can [eventually] be found in my original review, below.)

**Original Review**


Me immediately after finishing:

GUYS I CAN'T DEAL WITH ALL THESE EMOTIONS.

Review will have to come later. Right now I need to collect myself so I can go to work and act like everything is completely normal when really I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest.

GUHHHHH I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGSSSSSSS

***

(Later that day ...)

So.

One of the great things about being an avid reader is that it gives you an extensive imagination. This imagination is what allows us to move from reading about characters to knowing them personally and experiencing all their emotions.

Guys.

THERE ARE SO MANY EMOTIONS TO BE FELT.

(view spoiler)[

I cried.

In my vast history of (visually) devoured books, there has been a measly TWO books that have ever melted my cold, frozen heart into icy rivers of tears. Now, there are three with that capability. (The first was The Dark Tower by Stephen King, the second was The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas, for those of you playing at home.)

This is not even a proper spoiler I know but quite obviously this book contains something so devastating I can't possibly get around to reviewing the rest of the book until I express all of the sorrow that's been bottled up inside me all day. I nearly cried at work, it was that traumatic. It was a physical pain to me. I even saw it coming a little, but I still refused to believe. The first stage of grief really is denial, I guess. Oh god. MY HEART. (hide spoiler)]

(PSA: The following contains unhidden spoilers for the previous novels.)

Okay.

Alex has just returned from her little trip to the past where we had all of our emotions turned upside down as we learned to love people we were supposed to hate. Now Aven's evil again and honestly I'm glad there was a decent time between releases after all because it gave me time to forget how much I liked him in Draekora. Most of our faves are back being their lovable selves (Oh heeeeeeeeey Kaiden <3) but there's a more serious tone now, as Alex ventures around Medora warning everyone of the imminent evil. There's also some new faces but they're easy to get used to. Normally I get really confused with this many supporting characters but these are just written so well that they've basically all become my extended family.

There's also so much sass and it enhances the story because it makes it all more real. Like, there's all this crazy dark, 'the world is in mortal danger' crap but Alex still finds time to grumble and blush and kick people for being annoying. The banter between her and Niyx and between her and Kaiden is EVERYTHING. I love those boys.

Jordan is not quite as sassy, but he's had a pretty rough time so it's actually merciful he bounces back relatively fast. That being said, it's not entirely glossed over, and you can tell there's plenty more going on with that kid that's probably gonna need to be dealt with - particularly if the truth comes out about the king. There's really more about teachers than her loyal sidekicks in this one which is a bit of a shame because Jordan and Bear are another two of my fictional bffs. They work well together, but Bear's carrying a lot of the weight in this one. Dix is cool, but also a bit mehhhhh.

Caspar Lennox, the vampire dude, is featured a lot and he's still pretty creepy but ... less? I miss Hunter a bit. There's also a new, mysterious instructor that teaches Alex ... ooooooohhhhhhhhh. (view spoiler)[(Actually, he's kind of a jerk.) (hide spoiler)]

The plot is just solid and easy to follow, and even though there's a lot of jumping around and SO. MANY. PEOPLE. it's actually pretty smooth and easy to get swept away in. The Meyarins take a bit of a back seat after their starring role in the last novel, which is a bit sad because I'm still hanging out for Zain to break some skulls. (view spoiler)[(Plus, Roka remains unconscious for this entire novel, so he's not exactly fun to be around. He's like that sleeping animal at the zoo that you wanna throw stuff at to wake up coz you know it's gonna be a badass show when he's finally awake.) (hide spoiler)]

OH! AND!!

(view spoiler)[ Alex gets a dog!! I mean, not actually a dog, really, but a tiny ball of black fluff that turns out to be a giant shadow wolf the size of a pony who is loyal and fierce and a thousand kinds of lovable-yet-deadly. It kind of makes up for the utter LACK of Xira, who was nowhere to be seen in this book. Sadface. (hide spoiler)]

There's some really cool adventure stuff which was fun but really my main highlights were everything Kaiden and everything Niyx. (view spoiler)[Well, not everything Niyx. There was that one thing that he did ... that broke my heart ... and ... something about ... a river ...? Of ... tears? GODDAMN YOU NIYX!!! (hide spoiler)] Those two boys ... Like, Kaiden and Alex are so freaking cute together. But she's also not all goofy over him which is very practical and I appreciate that though it frustrates me immensely. I was super happy he had more of a part in this book! And Niyx ... remember back when we thought he was evil? Ah, he's so adorable as a bad boy but he's got such a heart of gold in this book and he's always there for Alex which just made my heart swell. You know you've got a good series on your hands when you can't decide which fictional babe would be your top pick for fictional bf. I'm honestly torn between these two. They're both so stinkin' cute.

Sigh.

Look, I officially love this series.

It makes me laugh, cry, gasp, bite my lip, fidget uncomfortably, wince, wrinkle my nose and all manner of other physical responses. When I'm reading these books, I'm so fully immersed in the world that I actually feel a very real response to the things I'm reading. The characters are so much fun that I wish they were my friends, and that I was sharing the adventures alongside them. These are the things that hook me and cement me as a fan.

This is such a powerful development to the overall story and while it's not quite as frivolous as the previous novels, it still has a lot of variety to keep things interesting, as well as further character development and some heart-melting moments.

Oh! I forgot to mention!!

We have a MAP!

It looks so cool and now we can finally see where everything is and where Alex is actually flitting about to. Very impressive. I follow the artist on Instagram and she posts all kinds of wonderful Medoran Chronicles fan art so it was so great seeing that she illustrated this, too!

If this is the first you're hearing about this series, go out and get a copy of Akarnae ASAP and you won't regret it. It's blown me out of the water since I took a chance on it.

Honestly I'm gonna have to re-read the series now because there's this huge, Medoran-shaped hole in it. (view spoiler)[Not to mention GRIEF. Oh god, I'm still so heartbroken. WHYYYYYYYYYYYY (hide spoiler)]

Hurry up, Vardaesia!

***

(1 day later ...)

WORST. BOOK HANGOVER. EVER.

Review for Akarnae here
Review for Raelia here
Review for Draekora here

View all my reviews