This is a french serie so I’ll spare you the synopsis since this hasn’t been translated to english (as far as I know. Correct me if I’m wrong)

Edwin is both a father figure and a dad and I decided to talk about both instead of just one because... I LOVE HIM DEEPLY AND WANT TO TALK ABOUT HIM FOREVER!!He's not actively going around to adopt children; he just happen to be the designated army officer when a certain girl decide to go on a 'saving the world' mission (honestly he doesn't really mind ^^). 

Anyway, over the books he has been a father figure to Ewilan and Salim, then he has a son and I'm gonna tell you all about that instead of just rambling about the man himself! (I would like that though. I would like it a lot) Let's start with Ewilan and Salim!

 He first meet them when they magically teleport in his world. He quickly realises that 1) Ewilan can still do magic while every wizards in the land have been powerless for years 2) she is the (lost) daughter of one of his (also lost) best friends. He saves their lives and then they are off on a quest to save the magical land. Easy right?

What's great about Edwin's relationship with Ewilan is that he's one of the only adult who treats her like a child. 

Ewillan is pretty special (not in a bad way) and very mature for her age so she goes pretty fast from student to colleague with the magicians around her. She forms a sisterly bond with Ellana (which is great and gives me emotions). And Bjorn is a bit too immature to be considered a responsible adult (sorry dude ^^).

But Edwin is not a magician. He is however a respected warrior. He's also the second most powerful man in the empire (right after the emperor himself). So he is a responsible adult and though he is impressed by some of the magic Ewilan does he doesn't let it get to his head and he never forgets that she is a 14 years old girl. He teaches her the more mundane things about this new world. He protects her. He doesn't let her take the lead on things that aren't specifically magic (read : 'no young lady we are not crossing half of this empire with only two guards as an escort. We're gonna take 20 of my highly train soldiers and nothing less'). She is a child, he is an adult and he’ll make sure she won’t get more endangered in this quest than she absolutely need. And if they develop a mutual respect and unbreakable family bond along the way... Well, it’s just the author emotionally manipulating me AND I APPRECIATE THAT!!

 And when she grows up in the second trilogy they are a bit more equal since she knows much more about the world and herself by now. But it never changes the fact that when she needs advices she goes to him. And if she needs help he is there for her. I love how this relationship evolved from 'you're my mission and also the daughter of an old friend' and 'you're a mean for me to complete my quest' to 'we're family and if you ever need me you know I'll be there'. It's truly amazing.

His relationship with Salim is a bit different because Salim isn't a magic user either. So they have more in common. But at the same time Edwin kinda sees Salim as just 'Ewilan's friend that we have to take along because she says so' at first. And after that Salim becomes Ellana’s apprentice which could have made it easy for Edwin and Salim to never bond much.

But I would argue Edwin had a very important part in Salim's life. Edwin obviously taught him a lot of practical skills. He also taught him to know his strengths and weaknesses; accept them and use them. He showed him that the most obvious way is not always the right way for you. Salim will always look up to Edwin, in a way, and they will always be part of the same found family that went on a journey to save the world. And that just my kind of thing so now I'll cry in a corner for a bit okay?

Now let's talk ship and how my ship HAD A BABY AND BASICALLY UNITED THE WORLD TO SAVE HIM FROM STUFFS!!!

Quick recap : Edwin meet Ellana, they have an epic perfect slow burn that I love to pieces because they are some of my favorite characters ever. Eventually they get together and are happy and decide to have a kid. I think they name their kid Dorian if my memories are corrects.

Long story short Dorian is abducted by a terrible sect and edwin is led to believe that Ellana is dead.

She is actually just baddly injured and gets herself back in shape to go save her baby. Meanwhile, Edwin is going through the empire to gather an army to attack the place where his son is held (he kinda unites factions who've been holding grudges for years as he does so. But that's details ^^). We don't get to see Edwin interact with his kid as a grown up (saddly the auhor died before that) BUT HE WAS READY TO DESTROY THE WORLD FOR HIS BOY SO I SAY HE WINS!!!

(There totally an epic battle then the family is reunited at the end and everything is great. Just in case you’re wondering)

It will surprise absolutely no one that I am very much looking forward to continuing my reread of this serie ^^

PLEASE REBLOG AND CHECH #BOOKDRAGON’S TOP 5 AND #BDT5 FOR MORE!!

Some links :

My goodreads

Roby’s goodreads

I have no excuses for this.

I can only admit my weakness and hope in your understanding.

I am in love with everything this series is but Atlanta is what stole my heart first. As Thelma said in the announcement (link at the bottom of the post) we can’t focus on the magic systems here but know that in this case the setting and the magic are deeply linked.

(link to where I found the image)

I’ll try to be concise but precise in explaining:

WHY I PICKED KATE DANIELS?

This setting is technically talking pretty small compared to other big series, it’s urban fantasy and so the action takes place in one CITY: Atlanta.

But it’s not your average ‘magic under the surface of a normal city’ fantasy, this is a world where magic burst out and overwhelmed everything like a storm, wave of it changing the world from how we knew it forever and even decades later the wave keep coming, less destructive but still dangerous and unstoppable.

This is the city that lives after surviving a MAGICAL APOCALYPSE.

 As in the best Urban Fantasy, the city Atlanta is a character as much as the stage of events. It manages to appear incredible and huge because the authors give you both its faces it, taking you around it and explaining you how that massive magical forest came to be where once stood a simple park due to magic and amazingness.

I adored how this city never seems too small, you almost can’t believe everything is contains and even if some part of you occasionally wonders about what miracles could be happening in the rest of the world, Atlanta becomes another protagonist of the story and you want to stay there, to see her story and be immerse in it because this is a world in a world.

This incredible setting joined by the amazing MAGIC system (that will be the topic of another post I’m sure, so don’t sweat) makes the perfect combination.

I simply could NOT avoid including this in my top.

WHY IS THE WORST IDEA TO VISIT THIS?

Because I would quite probably be dead by the end of the day, in a world where the balance between technology and magic is unpredictable, some curse in my blood could be awakened and kill me or make other kill me or both, generally everything is dangerous and lethal…

Would it be worth it, though? Yes.

 Just do yourself a favor and start the series so when the next inevitable post about it appears you’ll be able to fangirl over it with me!

 :)

IMPORTANT LINKS

My Goodreads

Thelma’s Goodreads

Announcement

Rules

Moon Called summary : “ Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson is a talented Volkswagen mechanic living in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. She also happens to be a walker, a magical being with the power to shift into a coyote at will. Mercy's next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a bus for a vampire. This is the world of Mercy Thompson, one that looks a lot like ours but is populated by those things that go bump in the night. And Mercy's connection to those things is about to get her into some serious hot water...”

Maybe nostaligia played a lot in how high Adam is on this list. Mercy Thompson is the first urban fantasy I ever read so it will always have soft spot in my heart (totally deserved because this is a good serie despite some flaws).

Obviously this post isn’t about Mercy, it’s about Adam who’s her neighbor and also a werewolf. Which means he is basically immortal, very strong, fast, has enhanced senses... you know the drill! But here we’re talking about Adam being a dad. 

He has a human daughter, Jesse, who’s a teenager (an awesome one btw). In this world female werewolves can’t have children and when a human woman gets impregnated by a werewolf the pregnancy generally doesn’t go well. So the fact that Jesse exist is pretty special already. 

And there’s even more to it : Adam is the alpha of the local werewolf pack so Jesse has like dozens of werewolves ready to protect her. Adam is also older than he seems, he fought in the Vietnam war (which is where he got turn into a werewolf) which means he was raised in a different time. And last but not least : Adam and Jesse’s mother are divorced; meaning Jesse mostly lives away with her mom (in the beginning).

This situation could’ve gone really wrong really fast. the werewolves could’ve pushed the protective crap too far. Adam could’ve raised a spoiled brat. Or he could’ve been overprotective and have super backward views on how a woman should be. But this was handled really well! At least to me.

We meet Jesse fairly quick because she is at Adam’s when the story begins (her mom took a random trip or something). She’s a good kid, polite, smart but also a bit weird. She dyes her hair weird colors (like neon orange) so Adam can be a dad and disapprove of one thing she does ^^

I love their relationship because Jesse is very mature for her age so she is aware of how much Adam would be ready to do for her if she asked. But she doesn’t. She doesn’t use the fact that she is very important to him to manipulate him (Okay maybe sometimes, she drives a hard bargain, but nothing worse than any teenager would do really ^^)

On the other hand he always put her first while doing his best to not smother her. He doesn’t always understand her but he tries to do his best to raise her normally even though she is a human surrounded by supernatural creatures. He doesn’t underestimate what she can handle either and doesn’t isolate her. He tries to include her in his world as much as he can. And he supports her decisions and as she grows up he starts treating her more as an adult. 

He also totally raised her to be a smart independant woman who can handle herself in this pretty dangerous world while always letting her know that she can always count on him and Mercy and the pack to always have her back.

So in the end I love this father daughter relationship because it has all the elements I like. And a nice bonus is that I got to see it evolve over the course of 9 books so by now I’m super biased because those characters are like members of my family really

PLEASE REBLOG AND CHECH #BOOKDRAGON’S TOP 5 AND #BDT5 FOR MORE!!

Links :

My goodreads

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(Go watch Logan, I don’t care who you are or what you think of X-Men, go because...reasons.)

Okay so once again Thelma and I are just too busy to take the time to discuss our picks on a post here pn tumblr, we had to do this behind the scenes and here I come to you with the end result already set!

As Usual:

Here is the Announcement for the theme

Here are the Rules (we break them but we TRY NOT TO)

My Goodreads

Thelma’s Goodreads

Okay, now the actual TOP!

1) Jon Glass from the Lynburn Legacy trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan (My post, Thelma’s post)

2) Prince Brigan from Fire by Kristin Cashore (my post)

3) Evan from How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein (my post)

4) Dalinar Kholin from The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Thelma’s post)

5) Adam from the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs (Thelma’s post)

(This picture does not include the last book in the series because...I couldn’t find a pic that did? Google failed me.)

This is it for this month!

Summary : “ Roshar is a world of stone swept by tempests that shape ecology and civilization. Animals and plants retract; cities are built in shelter. In centuries since ten orders of Knights fell, their Shardblade swords and Shardplate armor still transform men into near-invincible warriors. Wars are fought for them, and won by them. In one such war on the ruined Shattered Plains, slave Kaladin struggles to save his men and fathom leaders who deem them expendable, in senseless wars where ten armies fight separately against one foe. Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Fascinated by the ancient text namedThe Way of Kings and troubled by visions of ancient times, he doubts his sanity. Across the ocean, Shallan trains under eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece Jasnah. Though Shallan genuinely loves learning, she plans a daring theft. Her research hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war. “

(Last time I read this synopsis I thought it was super confusing but now it actually seems super clear. It’s amazing actually amazing that they managed to make a summary for a book this complex. But I digress ^^)

My goodreads review

Dalinar Kholin is a brightlord, uncle of the king and commander of an army. He has this reputation of being a great warrior and very rightful (I hope that’s the right word?) man. He was a bit more wild in his youth but now of all the brightlord he is the only one who follows the Code (I hope it’s called that... There was a lot of information in this book. It’s a bit mixed up in my head, I read it in like five days ^^). Basically he is the only one who doesn’t allow his soldiers to drink on the job and they better button their shirt right! You know the type, he is Stannis Baratheon except we like him more (at least I do) and he doesn’t need someone to have vision for him, he just does it himself. (We’ll come back to that...) Or maybe he is Eddard Stark? Or maybe I hould stop comparing him to these people because it makes me feel like he is going to die *nervous laugh*

(He’s totally gonna die huh? I really should have stopped following that line of thought... I’m gonna need so much time to prepare myself for that... Anyhow : back to the topic :)

Dalinar has two sons (who’s names I totally remembered instantly because my brain works like that ^^) Adolin and Renarin.

Adolin is like a younger version of Dalinar. He is Dalinar when he was still getting super drunk after a battle, when he flirted with ladies and thought everything could be solved by a fight. 

What differenciate them is that Adolin has Dalinar for a father. Which means he follows his dad’s lead when it comes to following the Code and how to handle their army. That works well because Adolin is very loyal and Dalinar is a good dad. Dalinar let his son live his life, he let him flirt with a different girls each week and do some reckless stuffs because he knows his son has to make his own mistakes. He trusts in the fact that his son is a good man and will understand his point of view eventually.

Dalinar also does this thing I find hilariously cute where he asks Adolin ‘how are things going with *lady name*’ and Adolin looks so shocked before he explains that he is not courting that one anymore. Then Renarin summarizes his brother latest flirts and Dalinar looks super confused and Renarin laughs. I swear it is super cute!

Let’s go back to the ‘Dalinar has visions’ thing, shall we? 

In Roshar there’s enormous storms pretty regularly. And recently Dalinar started having visions during those storms which lead to rumours that he is going crazy. That and other things are starting to weaken the reputation of his house. Dalinar is aware of all of that but he follows the Code which basically says ‘rumours aren’t worth your time’ (or whatever). But Adolin is really shaken by all of this and when he brings it up with his father Dalinar doesn’t dismiss his concern. They have some serious conversations where he really thinks about his son’s opinion and they come to an agreement on how they will handle this. An agreement that suit them both because Dalinar cares about his son’s opinion and know it’s important to communicate AND BASICALLY I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS!!!

It’s just so cool to see a single dad in fantasy who could be the worst. Dalinar could just let Adolin do whatever he wants or let someone else handle him. But he doesn’t. He keeps him around but doesn’t try to control every aspect of his life. He trusts that his son will call him out on his decisions as much as he himself will point out Adolin’s shortcomings.

It’s great. Love it. 

Now let’s talk Renarin and Dalinar. We see Renarin less; he his the younger of the two (he’s like 16?) and the nerd. Like, there is no nerds in this world, but he is one anyway ^^

Contrary to his brother he is not a warrior (not for lack of wanting, but he has a blood disease that would weaken him too much on the battle field). So contrary to Adolin he doesn’t have this ‘we’re both warriors’ thing to create common ground with his dad. But Dalinar loves and respect him and his opinions as much as Adolin’s (he is maybe a bit more protective of Renarin but I think it’s because he is the youngest). Renarin has a much better grasp on what’s going on in court in my opinion

(Renarin hasn’t reached Tyrion’s level yet but I hope he’ll get there; although maybe less bitterness could be nice)

I loved how his relationship with his second son was different from the one he has with Adolin while being so similar. I feel like Renarin understands his father’s decisions more but at the same time they still have disagreements on other points. And they talk it out like he does with Adolin. And  sometimes the three of them talk all together because did I mention that there is also a cool brotherly bond here? Just throwing this out there ^^ Dalinar totally raised his two kids to appreciate and support each other. This family is super loyal to one another and I love it!

In the end I’d say that what puts Dalinar on this list as a good dad is the fact that he could’ve so easely been the worst. I see a lot of ‘meh’ dads in fantasy because ‘they’re badasses so it’s okay if they don’t know how to deal with their kids’. But it’s not what happened here. He may not be sure about what he is doing but he tries his best and honestly for me that what good parents do : they try their best because there is no set plan to raise every children ever.

(Sorry for all the GoT gifs ^^ I couldn’t resist!)

PLEASE REBLOG AND CHECH #BOOKDRAGON’S TOP 5 AND #BDT5 FOR MORE!!

Some links :

My goodreads

Roby’s goodreads

When Thelma reads this she will probably have to sit down and take deep breath because…

This is a contemporary novel!

To be precise this is an adult contemporary novel dealing with a young man suffering from epilepsy that suddenly he is father or a teen-ager and since the kid’s mum just tragically died he has to suddenly grow up –a thing he really is not ready to do- and take responsibility for this child’s life.

He is a musician, his life is anything but structured or typical…this does not look easy.

I grabbed this book in my local library one summer, completely on a whim and devoured it. I was so incredibly surprised about how much I enjoyed it, and to this day it’s one of the few contemporary I can call a favorite that is not a thriller-mystery or adventure novel. It was a little summer miracle.

If you asked me today what caught my eye about it I would have no idea...perhaps the cover.

(This is the italian cover of the edition I read)

Yet what it’s amazing is that once I read the synopsis I did not put it down and never looked back. I took it, read it and never regretted it.

It’s been a while since I read it but so sadly I don’t have a perfectly clear picture of  it yet I’ll try to describe what I loved so much.

Usually I’m a fan of those father that are very reliable, strong and kind they offer support and acceptance to their kids. Evan is so not that! He is a mess, as I said, a sort of Peter Pan. His epilepsy –which he fights with medical use of marijuana too- influences every aspect of his life (and by the way, personally I think the depiction of the illness was great, showed how big it was but never Evan was reduced to his condition) and his career is really not the most stable. YET! He shows his son, Dean, little by little, that even as weird and imperfect and unconventional as they are they can be a family, Evan will do his best and hopefully Dean will help him along the way and show him how to better be a family with him.

This is really it, just the fact that this is the story of how a guy in his thirties gets a teen ager son and is along figuring out how to be a Dad. A Dad to a teen age boy. Wow, am I right?

I honestly completely and totally loved it.

Not much else to add considering this is a contemporary…anything else would be a spoiler, literally!

I just…hope anyone that picks it up can enjoy it too!

Here is the Goodreads’ synopsis.

IMPORTANT LINKS

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Thelma’s Goodreads

Rules

Announcement

Summary : “ Sixteen-year-old Maguire knows the universe is against her. No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when she's around. Like that time the roller coaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or the time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash--and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch. Despite what her therapist tells her, Maguire thinks it's best to hide out in her room, far away from anyone she might accidentally hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star who wants to help her break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for him is to stay away, but it turns out staying away might be harder than she thought. “

My goodread review

If you remember , I said that the idea for this top came from me reading about a good father figure. Well, Tom is that guy. And since he sparked the idea I thought he would be the perfect pick to start this top.

In my review I said this : “I loved that she (Maguire) had a good mom and step dad to help her too. I love a healthy family dynamic and that was great. I particularly liked how her relationship with her step dad evolves. It's really sweet and his few scenes may be some of my favorites ^^”

And I stand by that. This book is great and not at all about her relationship with her step dad (which is why this isn’t higher, he really had only a few scenes) but Paula Stokes took the time to do something really good with him.

Let me explain. When we start this book Maguire is starting therapy because she had a breakdown after the house next door burned. She thinks it’s her fault, that she is bad luck. And she thinks the same things about other traumatic things like the car accident that killed her father, uncle and brother. Pretty heavy stuffs to deal with. Thankfully she has a lot of people willing to try their best to help her deal with this and move forward. One of those people is Tom.

Maguire’s mother remarried to a man named Tom and they had two kids. Tom and Maguire don’t have much of a relationship when the book start. It’s not that she doesn’t like him, she actually is totally fine with her mother remarrying and she’s glad Tom is such a nice man. But there is this awkwardness between Tom and Maguire because he knows he won’t remplace her dad and she doesn’t want him to replace her dad but that leave them not really knowing how to deal with each other. Or at least that is how it felt to me.

Honestly the author could have left it at that. But she didn’t. And I am very grateful for that. They actually end up talking about it (in a scene I totally didn’t reread to write this post ^^ I didn’t tear up either).

Light spoilers ahead! (well, it’s a contemp so it’s not really like spoiling a twist but I’m just warning you if you llike going in totally blind ^^)

So this is what happens : after a bad day Maguire has a nightmare and wakes up at 2am. Tom hears her crying when he goes to feed her baby brother. And so at 2am they end up having a heart to heart were he comforts her and they talk a bit. It helps Maguire realise that she is not the only one feeling awkward about this and they both agree to try to do ‘better’ in the future. (also : they hug and my heart basically exploded)

That leads to another scene where Tom tells her that if she needs any help with her therapy ‘challenges’ he is totally ready to help her. (Maguire and her therapist agree on challenges that help her deall with her problem and the endgoal is for her to be able to fly to Ireland for a wake for her dad, uncle and brother). He also tell her that he totally believe that she will achieve her goal to go to Ireland but he even if she doesn’t she should be proud of how much progresses she made. 

Btw : he totally helps her with one of her challenge.

He’s just so supporting and caring! I loved how he was developped with so little space and I want more dads like that. I just love awkward dads who aren’t sure they are doing the right thing but they try their best and communicate with their children. Give me more of that!

Bonus : in the first scene I describe he is wearing a Dr. Who shirt. I wil always support more nerds in my books!

PLEASE REBLOG AND CHECH #BOOKDRAGON’S TOP 5 AND #BDT5 FOR MORE!!

Useful links :

My Goodreads

Roby’s Goodreads

One of the most celebrated and popular historical romances ever written. The Three Musketeers tell the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman d'Artagnan and his three friends from the regiment of the King's Musketeers: Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honour of the regiment against the guards of the Cardinal Richelieu and the honor of the queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of 17th-century France are vividly played out in the background. But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal's spy: Milady, one of literature's most memorable female villains.

What is this? Another classic?! OH MY GOD!!!!

Yes kids, this grandma will actually stubbornely push all the classics on you #youcannotstopme

This is the story that sparked in me the passion for historical literature, for sword fights and honor, for the heroes that against odds, time and logic save the day because it’s the right thing to do.

Also, just to fix a common misunderstanding: this is not a standalone this is a trilogy okay? The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years Later and The Viscount of Bragelonne. Plus there’s 2 more books Luise de la Valliere and The Man in The Iron Mask that Leo di Caprio mae famous but it’s not exactly like in the movie. Now you know more about literature, you’re welcome.

This is also a strongly underrated story because everyone always focuses on the surface which is: young and browly brought justice to the king.

NO.

This is the story of Athos who’s a man who soffers from giult and a great deal of depression and at the beginning of the story is functioning on a carefully balance of alcoholism and pride.

Porthos who is basically living on his ability of seducing wealthy ladies looking for a hot lover in their boring married life (the ladies are not mistreated mind you, Porthos is an attentive lover but still!).

Aramis is a man that loves sex, wine and adventure too much to love God enough.

D’Aratagnan is an arrogant brat that only cares about his emotions and desires.

These guys start the book as anti-heroes. They drink too much wine and use their swords way more than their brain.

BUT!

They have the deepest most genuine love and respect for each other, they are fiercly loyal to these feelings even when honor and principles put them on rival sides they never stop respecting and caring for each other. They accept each other’s faults and protects their secrets even when they do not even know what those secrets are!

Actually the 3 criteria I decided to face for all my friendships picks were inspired by this one: Support, Loyalty, Acceptance. 

At the end of every book, despite what they lost or gained or gained back what it’s alwasy true is that they are still the four crazy guys you met in the first book and that, if you asked them the greatest adventure they had in their life, would answer: Being Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan, one for all and all for one.

(I’m not crying YOU are crying)

I’m not gonna go through them with these guys, just know this is what a epic friendship is. THIS!

IMPORTANT LINKS

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Thelma’s Goodreads

Rules