Trilogy Tidy Up Mid-Month Check In

This month I’m challenging myself to finish up at least three trilogies that have been lurking on my TBR… Here’s my original list if you missed it – now let’s see how I’ve got on in the first half of March!

Princess Academy; Palace of Stone; The Forgotten Sisters by Shannon Hale

This series might sound incredibly twee, but actually the princess part of the Princess Academy series is very minimal; instead, this is a classic-feeling upper MG/younger YA about a 14 year old girl finding her place and her power in a world that sees her as less. There’s a very small amount of magic, but what Miri learns to do is to navigate situations using diplomacy, kindness, and strength, and it’s just a really uplifting thing to read. I’d read the first book a couple of times as a teen, but didn’t discover there were sequels until I was an adult, at which point I bought them both and then never managed to read them, so it was really delightful to fall back into Miri’s world in the last couple of weeks. The sequels are quite a bit darker than the first book, which was unexpected!

The Sin Eater’s Daughter; The Sleeping Prince; The Scarecrow Queen by Melinda Salisbury

I just realised I have these the wrong way around in my picture – oops! I did definitely read them in the right order though, and I had fun with them. This is very classic feeling YA, with quite a dark feel to it; at times it can be more on the edgy-feeling side rather than truly dark, but for the most part the atmosphere works and creates a great, gruesome take on your standard princesses-and-revolutions tale. I also read the bind-up of three short stories that goes along with the series, The Heart Collector, which was a cool addition, getting to see some of the fairy tales that are built into the world.

I’ve also made some progress into The Ikessar Falcon, the second book in the Chronicles of the Bitch-Queen series. I’m buddy reading the series with my friend Kshoni from A Page Full of Books and so far we’re just under 200 pages in, so I’m looking forward to reading the rest this week. I skipped the first book, as I’d only read it fairly recently and there was a great catch-up section at the beginning of this one – I love when authors do that!

So, my plan for the rest of March is to finish up the Bitch-Queen series, and then if I have any time left, start the Swords and Fire series, because I remember the first book being a quick read!