Posted in Mystery

Sadie

This is a heavy tale to unpack, and there will be triggers related to child abuse, so please keep that in mind before you delve into this post, or consider reading this book.

Goodreads Synopsis: A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she’s left behind. And an ending you won’t be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.

Sadie is the older sister of Mattie. Sadie drops out of school when her mother refuses to care for them, and ensures that she provides the best care for Mattie that she possibly can. She’s 16, Mattie is 11.

Fast forward to present day, 19 year old Sadie, and Mattie is dead.

On top of being a mother to her baby sister, Sadie has a severe stutter that was never corrected. Rather than talk incessantly, she observes. She is keen on detail and has an excellent memory. She doesn’t waste time on words that don’t matter. She thinks, she plans, and she acts. Her stutter made her quiet, but inside she was full of love and rage.

Sadie’s tale is told by West McCray, a member of a podcast that was later called the Girls in memory of all the lost girls out there. West has a young daughter, so this tale is not easy for him to follow, but he’s determined to get justice for Mattie and Sadie, especially Sadie.

Sadie becomes a kind of detective and goes on a manhunt to track down the man who killed her sister. This man is Keith, Christopher, Jack, Darren, etc. He’s every man inside of one man. One sick individual who has a perversion of liking little girls. Sadie let him hurt her to protect her sister, but ultimately, her hurt Mattie despite Sadie’s best efforts.

It’s hard to decide who was hurt more. Mattie? At least her pain ended in her death. Sadie? Alive, but living through the memories and her sisters death. Both are awful. Both are disgusting, and both should have never happened.

Throughout this read, I found myself admiring Sadie. She has a single minded determination and will stop at nothing to avenger her sister, even at the cost of her own life. Summers wrote a brutal, gut wrenching tale, and I couldn’t put it down until the end.

“And Sadie, if you’re out there, please let me know. Because I can’t take another dead girl.” -West McCray

Other notable quotes:

…he wanted [small town] residents to tell us what those places lost, not because we thought we could restore them to their former glory, but simply so you knew they existed. We wanted to give them a voice before they disappeared. -West McCray

May Beth always told me that I can’t do that; I can’t hate people for having more than me, but she’s wrong. I can. I do. It’s the perfect wall between myself and the kind of longing that poisons your gut and turns our insides right out. -Sadie

…places like that, places that look so nice they don’t seem real? The worst shit you can imagine happens in them. -Cat Mather

Posted in Contemporary, Humor

Tweet Cute

Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ― mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account.

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.

All’s fair in love and cheese ― that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life ― on an anonymous chat app Jack built.

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate ― people on the internet are shipping them?? ― their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

Thank you NetGalley for this amazing ARC. Emma Lord created a ridiculously cute story based on a grilled cheese twitter war between 2 over achieving highschooler’s.

I will be the first to say that contemporary book s are not my go to, but Lord blew me away with her witty quips and genius ship names for this adorable couple.

Publication date if January 21, 2020. Keep an eye out for this Tweet Cute on the shelves!

Posted in Fantasy, Horror

Dark Flowers

Hello bloggers! It’s been a while since I’ve finished a book that I felt the need to review. My reading has also vastly slowed since beginning graduate school, so please bear with me!

SPOILERS BELOW!

Goodreads Synopsis: Life at St. Agatha’s School for Girls is anything but a fairytale. With ratty blankets and a torturous device called the box, it’s not hard to understand Eliza’s desperation to escape. When the timing is right, Eliza manages to run away with her best friend Millie, heading through the Louisiana swamps to the town on the other side. But the swamps may be even more dangerous than the orphanage. Silver and black fairies invite the girls to experience a world where they can have it all, but Eliza doesn’t trust the sparkling beauty. When Millie suddenly becomes violent and attacks another girl, Eliza knows something awful is about to happen. She will do anything to protect Millie but once Eliza remembers her own terrible secret, it is impossible to forget. The fairies’ songs call to Eliza and its getting harder and harder to pretend it’s all in her head.

I selected this book from NetGalley because I knew I needed to read at least 1 creepy book for the Halloween season. This book definitely satisfied that need. Per NetGalley, I cannot quote or spoil this book, so I will give a list of features in this book that remind me of other series, and allow you, the reader, to the determine if this book will be worthy or purchase!

  1. Evil Pixies: much like the mischievous pixies from Harry Potter, but combined with the evil tendencies of acromantulas and the creepy voice of the Basilisk.
  2. Orphanages: This orphanage is Annie with quadruple the issues and an evil orphan matron that trumps Ms. Hannigan anyday. The Matron is AWFUL.
  3. Nuns: The orphanage is run by nuns. While the nuns, well one nun in particular, is actually nice, nuns in general get a bad rep from horror movies.
  4. Swamps: Every good creepy movie or book has a person that disappears into the swamp, right?
  5. Asylum: Belle Rose is a wonderful Asylum where the main characters get placed in hopes of curing their maladies, but of course, treatment never goes as planned, does it?

I am going to stop here, or I may actually spoil this amazing book. PLEASE read it and discuss your thoughts with me!

SIKE! As an oversight on my part, I did not realize that this book was published some time back and I AM, in fact, allowed to spoil!

OKAY SO. Eliza’s evil mother dumped her on the side of the road-CRUEL- and she is subsequently adopted by evil fairies that demand a human sacrifice every 2 years. Here’s the catch. They wipe her memory every time she gives them a sacrifice so she feels no guilt and cannot tell anyone her evil deeds.

Eliza lives in an orphanage and she has 1 friend, Millie. Eliza and Millie decide to run away from the orphanage together and Millie finds the fairies in the woods. Too bad Eliza doesn’t remember them and Millie falls in love with them. Millie escapes to the fairies and eventually harms another child at the orphanage because the fairies told her too.

Crazy, right?

THEN Millie and Eliza both end up in a mental institution and Millie is diagnosed with Schizphrenia as a result of her belief in the fairies.

Ultimately, they both escape the psych ward, and Millie ends up as a sacrifice, but what I find so interesting is Eliza’s inability to leave the fairies behind and live a normal life.

She chooses to go back to them time and time again and kills her friends. Why can’t she break free or find some form of “cure”, or just kill the fairies? It certainly wouldn’t make such an interesting story line, but it’s certainly a thought!

Posted in Fantasy

The Library of the Unwritten

Goodreads Synopsis: Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing—a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.

But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil’s Bible. The text of the Devil’s Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell … and Earth.

HOLY MOLY folks. This book was incredible! I will not be giving away any spoilers as the book has not been released yet, and as always, a huge thanks to NetGalley for allowing me access to this amazing ARC!

Reasons why you should read it:

  1. Librarians rule Hell (a bit of an over exaggeration, but you’ll understand if you read it.)
  2. Demons aren’t necessarily evil; nor are angels pure.
  3. Books. Are. Alive.
  4. Valhalla.
  5. If you like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, or Fablehaven, OR the Every Heart is a Doorway series, this book IS for YOU.
  6. LIBRARIANS RULE HELL. THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH REASON.

Link to Raven clip art below:

Posted in LitRPG

Wildcard

Goodreads synopsis: Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo’s new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she’s always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.

Determined to put a stop to Hideo’s grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone’s put a bounty on Emika’s head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn’t all that he seems–and his protection comes at a price.

Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?

Ya’ll. Read it. Lu has out done herself. I have found a new favorite series.

She continues with all the plot twists.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

LOOK AWAY NOW.

LAST CHANCE!!

OK. So. Taylor, the master mind working with Zero and the assassin, Jax, turns out to be the leader of this entire crazy group. She is so terrified of eventually dying that she took terminally ill children for a “clinical trial” of sorts, and pumped them full of drugs and tests in order to try and find a cure for death.

You guessed it. Sasuke was one of these children. So was Jax. Both children terminally ill. So sick that this test trial was their last chance to live. Jax was an orphan adopted by Taylor, but eventually, Sasuke’s parents took him out of the trial which forced Taylor to go to drastic measure to keep her prized test subject- KIDNAPPING.

She’s deplorable.

She semi-succeeds with Sasuke since he showed the most potential, but eventually, even his body gives out, but not before she has accomplished a major goal: copying the human life and mind into a stream of data and keeping the essence of that individual alive within a virtual world.

Sasuke isn’t real.

He is not alive.

He is a program. Solely controlled by Taylor.

BUT. As I said..his essence is still alive.

Do with that information what you will, but I shall leave the rest of the book a mystery. Go read it. It’s WORTH IT.

Posted in LitRPG, sci-fi

LitRPG Paradise

https://warcross.fandom.com/wiki/Emika_Chen Link for Title Photo

Goodreads Synopsis:

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS: I MUST GUSH ABOUT THIS BOOK

YA’LL. This book is ultimate boss level good.

My personal Synopsis to fill in any holes that I will discuss:

Emika Chen is a poor orphan girl from New York trying to survive.

Hideo Tanaka is a rich brat from Tokyo that has a British accent and woes from his childhood that surround his missing brother, and is the creator of the Neurolink device and Warcross.

Hideo hires Emika as a hacker to bring down his enemy, ZERO, that is trying to destroy the Neurolink through the Warcross championships after she glitches herself into the game.

Sasuke Tanaka. The missing brother of Hideo. The plot twist.

I have to say, I wasn’t sold on it until the last few chapters, but Lu threw in a plot twist like no other and blew my brains away. I feel as if my brain has actually been affected by the Neurolink devices that are in this game. I am in LOVE with this book.

Okay, there are several main points I want to discuss and gush over, so here we go.

  1. Let’s talk VR. I have never used VR, but I want to. That being said, I believe that the Neurolink is the direction that the world is going with gaming technology. Games such as Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite already allow for access to a virtual world that overlays our own. Neurolink makes these games child’s play in comparison, but from my limited experiences, this is the closest thing we have to Neurolink since I have not yet used VR technology .
  • The events that happen this book are valid fears. Hideo plans to use the Neurolink to control the actions of each individual in the world all because of his inability to deal with his brother’s supposed kidnapping ( we have no clue what actually happened that day). Dude. See a therapist. Don’t try to be a dictator in the name of keeping the world safe. People have free will. Let them exercise it. I commend you for wanting the world to be safer, but mind control is NOT the solution.

2. The typical -troubled teen trying to make their way in life and is rescued by the rich and powerful for one convoluted thing or the other and then they inevitably fall in love- plot line.

Ok. Hideo and Emika. While I would have been fine with seeing this happen, I am SO glad that it didn’t. I personally think that if this plot had unfolded, it would have been the downfall of the book. The love story wasn’t told very well and seemed a bit forced, but dang if Lu didn’t ruin this story and give me exactly what I wanted. A BREAK-UP. WOO! Emika could do so much better. I personally would like to see her and Roshan together, but that’s just me.

3. Zero. Zero is trying to prevent Hideo from taking over the world’s population and is striving to hack into the Warcross championships to destroy the Neurolink by planting a virus within the game. He would have succeeded had Emika not unknowingly been fighting for the wrong team. He is by far the most interesting character in the book and the game. Fight me.

BIGGEST SPOILER-LOOK AWAY IF YOU AREN’T READY

LAST CHANCE.

https://blog.supercoder.com/my-skill-sharpener/dont-let-these-coding-mistakes-cost-your-practice/

ZERO IS SASUKE.

ZERO IS THE MISSING SASUKE TANAKA. AND HIDEO DOESN’T KNOW. AND HIS BROTHER IS TRYING TO TAKE HIM DOWN. AND NOW EMIKA IS POSSIBLY WORKING WITH ZERO?!

Lu, you have out done yourself. I need more. I immediately went across the street from my workplace to the public library and checked out Wildcard as soon as I finished Warcross and will be starting it today, so please stay tuned for the continuation of this review!

Also, if you like Anime, I highly recommend Sword Art Online..another amazing RPG theme!

Posted in Fantasy

A Darker Shade of Magic

Goodreads Synopsis: Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

To the die hard fans of V.E. Schwab, and this novel, I am so sorry, but I don’t understand the level of hype. Yes, the book is very well written, informative, has a handsome male protagonist, a lovable, feisty female protagonist, and an amazing primary antagonist, BUT.. I was not thrilled.

I found myself needing breaks from the book because I would get bored and my mind began to wonder. Though, there are several brilliant and strange topics/theories needed to be discussed.

Slight Spolier Warning:

Ok. Delilah Bard. She HAS to be an antari of some kind. I feel like her magic was taken away when her eye was removed. (Also, if this is true, then I say that Kell just takes his eye out and be done with all the BS. Don’t come for me).) Also super convenient that she doesn’t remember the circumstances behind losing her eye either, suspicious? I think so.

While Lila is such a badass, fearless female character, I found myself frequently annoyed with her childlike tendencies to steal things and touch things that she shouldn’t, such as magically warded items in a London she has no knowledge about. Common sense should have kicked in, but obviously it didn’t.

Kell…poor, lonely Kell. Do I feel bad for Kell for essentially being the property of the rich, sweetly enslaved for his powers? Yes. But he has MAGIC for pete’s sake. RUN AWAY. There are so many other options than staying enslaved in by a King and Queen who supposedly love you, but only use you for your abilities.

Though, I would definitely bargain with him for his coat. That thing is awesome and is a garment I would gladly add to my personal wardrobe.

Now my favorite character: Holland.

Holland is the rival Antari enslaved to the sibling rulers of White London.

Holland is the only character in this story that I truly pity and love. While he may be ruthless killer, an evil among evils, he is a true slave to his rulers. In White London, magic is scant, and any magic a person has is bound to them by seals to make sure they keep their magic rather than having it stripped from them by those more powerful.

Siblings Athos and Astrid torture Holland by forcing him to do their bidding by having his covered in seals infused with their magic so they might assume complete control. Holland was never a pleasant person, but he was made worse by the twins control.

I won;t give any more away about the story, so let me end with this.

I will be reading the second book because I can’t stand leaving a tale unfinished, and the tale is interesting enough for me to want to know what happens. All I can say is that A gathering of Shadows MUST be up to par with what Arya Stark will eventually do on her journey outside of Westeros. (Delilah and Arya are the same for wanting to adventure, therefore that comment was necessary-Thanks to Sara for that idea that I can now obsess over).

All in all:

Posted in Fantasy

Sorcery of Thorns

Goodreads Synopsis:

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined

This is the perfect book for those looking for a followup to Harry Potter.

Elisabeth is an orphan raised in a library full of enchanted grimoires that each have their own needs and personalities. (Think Harry’s Monsters Book of Monsters).

Growing up around the grimoires has imbued her with magic and allow her to heal quickly and form bonds with the books as though they are people, but of course, this talent is also her downfall.

Elisabeth is the perfect example of headstrong female presence. She refuses to back down from a situation just because of lack of experience or fear.

I find myself personally connecting with her in 1 special way. We both HATE to brush our hair. The tangles are just too torturous.

Now to her love interest, Nathaniel Thorn. Hence the title, Sorcery of Thorns. the Thorn family is famous for necromancy, and Nathaniel is particularly famous in his own right for being the last of the Thorn family lineage. Each famous sorcerer family is tied to a powerful upper level demon, in Nathaniel’s case, this is Silas, a demon prince with alabaster skin that can take the form of a common house cat. But be careful with demons, they are always looking for methods in which to bargain more power from their masters.

I personally like Nathaniel even though his trope is a bit obvious. He meets wild girl, he falls in love despite his best efforts. He’s flawed and afraid to love her. But in the end, none of this matters and they fall in love and live almost happily ever after.

Though, if you want to discover what the “almost” is about, you’ll have to go read it;).

Posted in Humor

Again, but Better

Goodreads Synopsis:

Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal—but Shane’s made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that? Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time’s a ticking, and she needs a change—there’s nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She’s going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure! Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart. Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic—the possibilities are endless.

Christine Riccio wrote a fabulous debut novel, and I would kind of like to know how she captured my personality so well because the character of Shane was more than relatable.

I remember what it was like to enter college with no friends and feeling stuck in that rut of study, work, and endlessly binge watching Netflix. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

When I finally made friends in the journalism program my junior year, there was the need for acceptance and fear of rejection very similar to what drove Shane to study abroad. The desperation for new friends and feeling like it was okay to be myself again felt liberating.

When I finally decided to study abroad, I had trials and tribulations on my trip just like her. I reached the point of total homesickness, and I remember those moments when self-doubt would creep in. I pushed through on my journey, and I came out a stronger person because of it. We don’t all get the luxury of a rewrite like Shane, but we do get the choice of how to remember or handle our experiences.

With a love for a good sitcom and Harry Potter, Shane is my soul sister. Her journals (horcruxes, as she calls them) housed her greatest story ideas and her innermost thoughts.

Christine Riccio spoke to me with her vivid imagery of awkwardness (seriously, there were some all too relatable cringe-worthy moments). Yes, the overall story was a little corny, but that’s what made it relatable. Everyone wishes they could rewrite chapters in their past like Jenna Rink in “13 Going on 30,” but the corny parts were few and far between because the were overshadowed by humor and excellent character development.

I demand a sequel.

Posted in Fantasy

Crown of Coral and Pearl

Goodreads Synopsis:

For generations, the princes of Ilara have married the most beautiful maidens from the ocean village of Varenia. But though every girl longs to be chosen as the next princess, the cost of becoming royalty is higher than any of them could ever imagine…

Nor once dreamed of seeing the wondrous wealth and beauty of Ilara, the kingdom that’s ruled her village for as long as anyone can remember. But when a childhood accident left her with a permanent scar, it became clear that her identical twin sister, Zadie, would likely be chosen to marry the Crown Prince—while Nor remained behind, unable to ever set foot on land.

Then Zadie is gravely injured, and Nor is sent to Ilara in her place. To Nor’s dismay, her future husband, Prince Ceren, is as forbidding and cold as his home—a castle carved into a mountain and devoid of sunlight. And as she grows closer to Ceren’s brother, the charming Prince Talin, Nor uncovers startling truths about a failing royal bloodline, a murdered queen… and a plot to destroy the home she was once so eager to leave.

In order to save her people, Nor must learn to negotiate the treacherous protocols of a court where lies reign and obsession rules. But discovering her own formidable strength may be the one move that costs her everything: the crown, Varenia and Zadie.

Nor and Zadie are identical twins with only one “flaw” separating them, a scar. Nor saved Zadie from drowning as a child, and almost died from poison of the blood coral that left her cheek permanently scarred.

In Varenia, beauty matters more than any other thing. Girls compete to be chosen to be sent as the next princess of a rival kingdom, which only few in the village realize is total BS.

Varenia is starving, and without enough pearls to harvest, they become poorer by the day, and the support of the kingdom is desparately needed to sustain their existence, but when Zadie is chosen as the next princess, then injured, Nor must go in her place, which is both deadly and a dream come true to see the world outside of Varenia.

This tale of a love between two sisters and a hatred between two brothers unravels a captivating story to save Varenia and preserve the love between sisters and princes,