Blog Tour- A Casino for Gods

 Page Count: 395

Genre: YA fantasy, Historial

Publisher: Clink Street

                                                                                    Goodreads Summary:

 It was a glorious time for the two teens, Glenda and

Traveler! At home in their magical sanctuary, hidden

in downtown Chicago, they immersed themselves in

 the city's festive winter holiday season. Sadly, their

 holiday celebrations are cut short. Theo, the sanctuary's

 protective god, tells them of an approaching great

 threat. The demigod jinn host is preparing to enter

 our world. They seek to defeat Theo.

The malevolent fire creatures will arrive in the

isolated Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania.

They chose the fifth century, a chaotic, brutal

time. Rampaging Hun armies battle Germanic

 tribes for control of the vast region. The host

uses this turbulence to mask its presence as it

plots the ambush of Theo. The teens arrive feeling

 like unarmed gladiators entering the high-walled

arena of the Transylvanian Mountains.

                                                      Death surrounds them. Armed only with their invisibility

                                                      skill and their trust in each other, they proceed into

                                                      the Carpathian abyss, echo across Europe. 

                   Magic, wits, and youthful courage must combine to face the                                                       fire creature. Survival, much less winning,is up for grabs.

Today is my stop on the blog tour for A Casino for God’s, the third book in the Allies of Theo series. As I’ve really enjoyed this series so far I was happy to be able to participate in the blog tour and share my thoughts on the book!

 So firstly I have to admit that I didn’t remember many details about the first two books. As I read then im 2019 and have read countless of books since then the most I could remember was that it focused on two teenagers who were given missions by a cat god and went back in time. I didn’t have time to reread the first two books so I was a little anxious that I’d be completely confused, but luckily some of the previous adventures were cleverly included in the narrative to jog my memory and I was soon caught up again!

 Something that I loved about this book was how it expanded on Theo. As Theo is a god who helped create the universe I’ve been naturally curious about him throughout this series, so I loved how we saw some of his past and how the threat of the jinn all started. I loved the idea of the randomness generator and how everything in the universe was created by chance. I did hope that the book would focus on this a little more, but unfortunately, my hopes for having Theo and M included more in this book went unfulfilled, as after the first 100 pages we only see them again briefly at the end of the book. I was a little disappointed in this as being ancient, both Theo and M have huge potential, but I honestly don’t think they’ll be explored in this series which is a shame. 

 The book started off a little slow and lagged in places throughout the book, but once the action picked up it was impossible to put down! I particularly loved the battle scene towards the end of the book between the Huns and the Gepids . As this battle was based on real history I loved the idea of it being put into this world full of magic and demons. I did however think there was a bit of a plot hole with Traveller having no idea of the outcome of the battle. Traveller seems to have a vast knowledge of historical events and battles, so it seemed a little strange to me that he didn’t know about this one. As he seemed to have knowledge of different time periods, I would have thought he would have come across this battle at some point. Apart from this I really enjoyed the battle and this time period, as it’s not really one I’ve learned about before. It took me a while to get through this book just because I keep researching everything.

 I felt that this book had a little more going on than the first two which I loved. Traveller and Glenda had to deal with everything from Wolves to Huns, along with having to find food and shelter. I loved their journey in this familiar but different world and how they cleverly got themselves out of danger. The friendship between the two teens is one of my favourite things about this series as I love how they’re constantly making fun of each other. Although I do feel like a romance will form between them I think I would be content with them remaining best friends. 

 Although we don’t see many characters returning from the previous book, I was happy that the giant Olaf was still around! I was a little disappointed that he came into it so close to the end of the book, as I think he would have been a good ally for Traveller and Glenda earlier on. I’m hoping that if Traveller and Glenda go back to the same time period in the next book, he will be around more, as I do find it a little boring at times with the story following only Traveller and Glenda. To me the book suffers from a lack of characters at times, as a lot of it is the two of them travelling together. Having characters such as Olaf, Theo and M in the story would probably make it a little more interesting! 

 I felt like this book was an improvement on the first two, and although I did have a few issues with it I enjoyed it. As the threat of the jinn is still far from over, I’m looking forward to the next book and seeing if the threat to Theo’s existence can be stopped once and for all.

A Casino for Gods is now available to purchase! 

  | Amazon | Book Depository 

Review on Morgana Mage in the Robotic Age

 

Morgana’s magic doesn’t seem to work like everyone elses. In fact, Morgana’s magic doesn’t seem to work at all! Unsatisfied with her life in the woods, she decides she wants to explore the city, where technology is extremely advanced and robots roam the streets. However the city people hate witches and magic, and when Morgana starts school in the city, she is immediately shunned. Things go from bad to worse when Morgana discovers a secret that could threaten not only the city, but her family too. Morgana will need to use both magic and technology if she is defeat this most deadly of foes.

I entered this year in a bit of a reading slump so I’m really happy the first book I read this year was so good! I want to rant about everything I loved about this book, but I’m going to start with the plot which I thought was really unique! Usually, we come across books where technology doesn’t work around magic, so I found it really interesting that magic and technology were combined. When we think about having magic powers, we assume that everything can be achieved through magic, making technology obsolete, but what if the two could actually complement each other instead? I loved this approach and as someone who loves both fantasy and Sci-Fi, I loved how the two genres were cleverly combined.

 The book follows eleven year old Morgana Mage, a witch who hasn’t found her niche yet. The witches reminded me of the benders in Avatar, as their spell casting revolved around the elements, and every witch and warlock was expected to master one before moving onto the others. I don’t want to compare it to Avatar too much, but Morgana really reminded me of the Earth bender Toph, as like Toph she seemed to be the only person with the ability to manipulate metal. I loved that Morgana’s ability was unique, and although she couldn’t do what everyone else could, she was able to do something they couldn’t. I loved how it showed we don’t have to be good at everything, and it’s ok to manifest our talents in different ways to others.

 I wasn’t really attached to the characters, but I did love Morgana’s best friend Jonathan. Even though everyone shunned Morgana for being different, Jonathan was quick to befriend her and help her get started at her new school. I found it sad that none of the teachers were willing to help her, as it really shouldn’t have been up to Jonathan to provide Morgana with school supplies. For the majority of the book there isn’t really an adult Morgana feels she can turn to and rely on, and although I did love Jonathan’s role, I don’t think that every adult being against Morgana was a great message to give to readers. I think it’s important for children to have an adult they can trust, so I didn’t really like that Morgana didn’t seem to have that.

 I loved the idea of Morgana’s magic being able to change the robots. “What if robots were sentient beings” is a plot in a lot of Sci-Fi, but I loved how this question was approached a little differently in this book. We have a typical robot uprising which wasn’t all that unique, but what I loved about this was Proto, the robot Morgana and Jonathan built together. Proto somehow managed to go against his programming to help Morgana and her friends despite knowing what it will cost him. I loved how Morgana’s magic made the robots seem more human, and how they had their own thoughts and feelings. 

 I loved this book overall and thought it was really interesting and unique! The combination of magic and technology was brilliant and I loved the positive messages, especially the message that it’s ok to be different. Kids could worry that they’re not as good at certain things as their friends are, so I loved how it showed we don’t all have to be good at the same things, and often we’ll find something we enjoy that others find strange. Even book blogging seems strange to my family but it’s comforting knowing there’s a bunch of other people who enjoy doing the same thing! I would definitely recommend this book to fans of fantasy and Sci-Fi a there really is a bit of everything.

Morgana Mage in the Robotic Age is now available to purchase! 

  | Amazon | Book Depository