Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig
04/05/2025
Ok, so, Two Twisted Crowns was better than One Dark Window. I finally began to feel a connection with the characters. About halfway through this book. I got interested in the plot and the characters and couldn’t put it down. I think there were a few things that helped me finally dig into this book.
One, the connection and relationship between Elm and Ione. I loved their relationship and how they came together. The added drama of how the providence cards were used, particularly with this couple, really gave the story line a more interesting twist. It made me want to keep reading, to learn more about the cards and how they can be used. I believe Hauth becoming the true villain that he is also provided a key piece that was missing from the plot. He became the character that you want to hate.
Two, the character development of Ravyn and the monster made me feel more connected to him. He went from a stone-faced man with puppy dog eyes for Elspeth to a man fighting for his family, country, and love. A lot of things were revealed about Ravyn so I won’t go into detail, but the relationship development between Ravyn and the Nightmare was one that truly kept the storyline interesting. It made me understand more why the Nightmare was after the cards in the first place and shifted the focus of villainy off the Nightmare.
Overall, I like Elm and Ione more as a couple than Ravyn and Elspeth, the character development was better, the multiple storylines and changing perspectives made the story more captivating, and overall, the Nightmare isn’t so bad.
I give Two Twisted Crowns 4.25 out of 5 yellow eyes. And the series, as a whole, I give 3.125 out of 5 Taxus. (I literally just averaged the score from each book.)
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
I have heard a lot of hype around this book. Every review has been 5 stars positive. And in my opinion, this is a 2.5 maybe 3 star read. I agree that this was well written, but it did not keep my attention. It was easy for me to put this book down to do other things. In my opinion the monster was the most interesting character of the book. The monster was mysterious MMC that with book was missing. There was never a straight answer about who this monster was or what his motivation was and that is what kept me interested. I want more of the monster, which I may get in the second book of this duology.
As for the romance of this book, I felt that Ravyn as the MMC was incredibly one dimensional. His whole personality revolved around the providence cards, then when he met Elspeth, his whole personality revolved around her. Even when she gave him every reason to leave her and focus on his original plan.
In theory this seems like an incredibly romantic gesture, but there needed to be more depth and thought involved. He seemed to blindly trust and follow Elspeth without much thought otherwise. Whereas Elspeth while claiming to love him turned to the monster at every turn. Anytime, there was even assumed danger she called on the monster to help her. I would have liked to see more internal struggle and character development from her. A little more resistance to the monster rather than the full trust and reliance in the monster that she had.
Overall, this was a decent book with a sweet but one-dimensional love story, a spineless FMC, and a one-dimensional MMC. Maybe Two Twisted Crowns will change my opinion of the duology, but as of now I give the fist book a 2.5 out of 5 clacking claws.
03/29/2025
Booktok
I will say I had big, lofty plans for this page. Unfortunately, life doesn’t allow for plans, and sometimes you make plans and God laughs. This is a laughing moment. I said, “Oh I will call this the Davis Weekly, and I will post once a week.” (I haven’t posted in about a week and a half or 2 weeks.) Life gets busy lol.
Now, regarding this, the Library, I had roughly 45 books on my “to be read” (tbr) list and I thought that I could read one and write my thoughts on it here. Well, as I said, God is laughing right now. So, I haven’t gotten quite as far on my TBR as I wanted. There is still plenty of time in the year to read more and give my thoughts here. Hopefully, life eases up a little soon and I can read more and post more consistently too. For now, I will gladly give my thought on the “reading boom” that we have found ourselves in the middle of.
If you have been on TikTok or Instagram recently you are probably aware of “booktok”. There has been what seems to be a noticeable spike in readers, particularly young women, reading for pleasure. However, does that spike in online book recommendations and discussions really reflect in national statistics? Or is it the vocal few that are making it appear that people are reading more frequently?
According to the NEA and its 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), about 48.5 percent of adults report reading at least one book in the last 12 months. Lower than the previous average of 52.7 percent five years prior and 54.6 percent 10 years prior. This information suggests a downward trend in reading across the board in the US, which would suggest that it is the vocal few that are causing a seeming increase in reading.
What do book sales have to say about the reading decline? According to wordsrated.com as of 2022 over 788 million printed books were sold in the US. Over 52.9 percent were fiction and 37.8 percent were nonfiction. If we break this down even more about 18.4 percent were children fiction books, 6.7 percent were children nonfiction, 3.1 percent were young adult fiction, 18.9 percent were adult fiction, and 28.9 percent were adult nonfiction. Now if we look back to 2020 to 2021 book sales we can see that nonfiction book sales dropped from 8.7 percent to 2.7 percent and fiction sales increased from 9.6 percent to 17.1 percent. Which indicates the rise in fiction book popularity over nonfiction. This is significant due to the type of books often reviewed online.
Now all that information is from 2022, what information do we have for 2024? According to the Washington post, 63 percent of Americans have read 1 book in the past year, 38 percent
have read zero books, 28 percent have read one to four books, 14 percent have read five to nine books, 10 percent have read 10 to 19 books, 7 percent have read 20 to 49 books, and 4 percent have read 50 or more. Compared to the initial reports from 2022 of 48.5 percent of Americans reading 1 book in a year, this is a marked increase in reading. Specifically, it is reported that mystery/ thriller, romance, and fantasy are the top genre of books read in 2024. Romance and mystery/ crime being the genres favored by women.
Looking at all the information above, we can conclude the booktok readers are in fact a part of a larger change, not just the vocal few. (Woohoo! We love to see a literacy upturn!)
03/22/2025
the Library
03/01/2025