Uprooted in ARCs Anonymous

Jun 18, 2015 Jeann (Happy Indulgence) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, review-copy

Woah, I did not expect this one to get so freaking epic towards the end! I love the enchanting, fairy tale feel about the book but also just how charming the meticulous Dragon was (reminded me of Mr Darcy) and the clumsy, intuitive and loving Agneiszka. Her friendship with Kasia was completely enviable and gosh, all the twists and magic in this one was absolutely STUNNING! Did not see it coming.

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This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!

Uprooted was a truly magic Woah, I did not expect this one to get so freaking epic towards the end! I love the enchanting, fairy tale feel about the book but also just how charming the meticulous Dragon was (reminded me of Mr Darcy) and the clumsy, intuitive and loving Agneiszka. Her friendship with Kasia was completely enviable and gosh, all the twists and magic in this one was absolutely STUNNING! Did not see it coming.

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This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!

Uprooted was a truly magical and enchanting experience that combined magic, a wonderful fairy tale world and blurred lines between good and evil. It starts off as a Beauty and the Beast retelling, introducing us to Dragon (who’s actually a Wizard) who comes to a village every 10 years and takes a girl back to his tower. As the story builds upon the intrigue behind Dragon and his magic, and how Agnieszka copes with it all, it slowly builds and builds, into an epic fantasy tale that will EXPLODE into an action-packed crescendo at the end of the book.

The start of the book slowly introduces us to Agneiszka and Dragon as they get to know each other. Although Dragon is an ages old Wizard and Agneiszka is a 17 year old girl, it doesn’t come off as creepy, especially when you find out his motives.

I loved the intelligent, meticulous and restrained Dragon, who reminded me so much of Mr Darcy. He’s completely clueless when it comes to the lively Agneiszka, who is so different to the other girls that he’s taken under his wing. She may not be the most beautiful or polite maiden, but just her charm, smarts and loyalty just made her feel so real and vibrant. She’s clumsy and always makes a mess of herself but she’s just incredibly lively, loving and intuitive.

All of the characters here are flawed which made them real and authentic, from Dragon wasn’t particularly in touch with his emotions, to Kasia’s plain and clumsy self, the Prince who was just looking out for himself and the strong, confident and beautiful Kasia who everyone dismisses as simply being pretty. The supportive friendship between Kasia and Agnieszka was enviable, with mutual love and respect for each other, despite their differences. No matter what, they stood by each other which helped them both into the strong heroines they became.

Magic is the crux of the story in Uprooted, and it plays a big part in the world building and the development between Agnieszka and Dragon. This fairy tale world, filled with spoken magical words, the forces of good and evil, enchanted creatures and the foreboding woods was just so enveloping. It’s the little details that made the world really come to life, with the food, fashions, language and lore and the creatures all weaving into the book beautifully.

Part Beauty and the Beast, fairy tale and epic fantasy, Uprooted was something completely unique and refreshing, filled with magic, enchanting characters, twists and action in a beautiful fairy tale setting. The blurred lines between good and evil, the heroism, and the flawed royalty just completely blew me away. It’s a shame it’s a standalone though – I would have loved more of this wonderful world and of course, more Dragon!

I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Jan 07, 2019 Mel (Epic Reading) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own-print

Reposting thanks to Goodreads randomly deleting my review.
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4.5 stars
I know you're thinking how could I not give five amazing stars to this highly loved book. So here's the thing, this book IS gorgeous! Naomi Novik's writing is lyrical, descriptive and overall beautiful.

So what's the tiny problem?
The end dragged a bit for me. I felt like Uprooted had two endings and while the second ending is gorgeous the first 'ending' d was expecting if one or two key things had pla Reposting thanks to Goodreads randomly deleting my review.
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4.5 stars
I know you're thinking how could I not give five amazing stars to this highly loved book. So here's the thing, this book IS gorgeous! Naomi Novik's writing is lyrical, descriptive and overall beautiful.

So what's the tiny problem?
The end dragged a bit for me. I felt like Uprooted had two endings and while the second ending is gorgeous the first 'ending' d was expecting if one or two key things had played out differently. That said the last chapter is one of my favourite parts of the book and it maybe couldn't have worked so well if slotted into the 'ending' I was surprised wasn't the ending. That probably makes no sense... let me explain it this way. If you're seen the movie A.I. then you probably know that there was the beautiful 'blue fairy' ending which was serene and romantic; and if you turned off the movie at that moment it would be a really good movie. But instead Spielberg (and his alien obsession) had to add on a second ending. This is how I feel about the way Uprooted played out. Like an extra 40 pages (minus the last amazing chapter!!) could have been cut and it would have been so concise and not so drawn out.

This adult fairy tale (yes it is adult there is a sex scene and a fair bit of violence and some moments of true depression) takes elements from Rapunzel, Cinderella, and other well known fairy tales; and yet it's not like any of them. It is truly its own story.

There are so many themes in this book including: the most unusual but perfect romance, a sisterhood friendship, loyalty to family, and so much more. Uprooted is a book I can imagine being a best friend that I to go to when I hit a reading slump or the world is sucking the life out of me. And maybe when I inevitably re-read it I'll be prepared for the ending and appreciate it more.

Overall my suggestion is if you love fairy tales read Uprooted. Let me clarify, I don't mean Disney fairy tales; I mean the true fairy tales where the end is happy but not perfect. It's like real life. You look back and think, well that didn't go exactly as I'd hoped, but it could have been worse so I'll take it and appreciate all the more the happiness I have been given.

I'm confident most everyone will appreciate the gorgeous stringing of words that Novik has put into Uprooted, alongside believable characters with flaws that fit into an original and well developed fantasy world. Truly a book that every fantasy reader must have. ...more

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May 16, 2015 Dana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult-paranormal, favourites, buy, 2017

Love, love, loved this! Just as good as everyone said it would be. I want to live in this world and I can't wait for a sequel. ...more

28 likes · Like · see review

Dec 26, 2015 Sad Sunday (Books? Me?!? NEVER!!!) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Uh, and oh, this book was a one I was looking for. For a long time. For probably half a year I was struggling to find something that was really worth reading and captivating. Just plainly interesting (I can't express that feeling when you just find the right book and it overwhelms you, but I guess you know what I am trying to say...) I was even losing hope that great books just don't exist anymore. And then - BAM! I read it and I was just like:

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It's captivating, interesting. I immediately fell ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Jun 14, 2015 Lorryn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-stars

It's a great magical fairytale. I loved this book so much. The characters are fantastic and the world is beautiful (well in my mind it's beautiful). ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Aug 04, 2015 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, rec-ig-blogs-friends-other, _own-ebook, read-in-2015

Let me say upfront that I'm not really a fantasy fan - it's one of the genres that rarely calls to me. I actually only picked this book up after hearing Liberty (and I think Rebecca also raved) at Book Riot rave about it. She made it sound amazing and I couldn't resist giving it a try. AND I AM SO GLAD THAT I DID!

Yes, this is fantasy but it's so much more! Although there is magic and it's essentially a fairy tale, it's so well-written and engaging that I have a hard time thinking of it as fanta ...more

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Jan 02, 2016 JJ || This Dark Material rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, 2016

Ah, how wonderful, a truly stand-alone novel! And yet, unfortunately, the tale Naomi Novik wants to tell in Uprooted would have been much better suited to a duology or trilogy. There's simply too. much. story. here. So much that while the book's first half develops a good pace, the final 200+ pages feel like a madcap race to the finish line. The world Novik has created holds a lot of potential and is certainly large enough to justify enough extra development into a second, possibly third book. I ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 18, 2016 Shannon Miz added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

I.... eh?

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 21, 2015 Lark of The Bookwyrm's Hoard rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, arc, kindle, fantasy, young-adult

Several times I thought I knew where the book was going, but I was usually wrong. Novik has written a fairy tale, but one with depth and power. 4.5 stars. Full review to come.

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Aug 14, 2017 Amy Lou rated it it was amazing

WOW, that was really... magical! It felt like such an authentic fairy tale and I LOVED both the writing style and Agnieszka! I'm just speechless right now. SO GORGEOUS. ...more

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Jan 11, 2016 H. P. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: modern-sf

Uprooted may be the most perfect fantasy novel I have read since A Game of Thrones. Or maybe The Lord of the Rings.

Agnieszka is a girl from a village “which wasn’t the biggest village in the valley or the smallest, or the one nearest the Wood. . . . At seventeen [she] was still a too-skinny colt of a girl with big feet and tangled dirt-brown hair.” Most girls don’t have to worry about being picked because the Dragon “takes only a girl of seventeen, born between one October and the next” and he o Uprooted may be the most perfect fantasy novel I have read since A Game of Thrones. Or maybe The Lord of the Rings.

Agnieszka is a girl from a village “which wasn’t the biggest village in the valley or the smallest, or the one nearest the Wood. . . . At seventeen [she] was still a too-skinny colt of a girl with big feet and tangled dirt-brown hair.” Most girls don’t have to worry about being picked because the Dragon “takes only a girl of seventeen, born between one October and the next” and he only takes a girl every ten years.

It’s not such a bad deal. The Dragon is their lord, but unlike a normal lord he doesn’t take a day of their labor, their sons for his army, or their harvest for taxes. He protects them, and he leaves them alone, which is all we ought to ask of any government, and far better than we can expect. Just a girl a decade and tribute and he defends them against the wonderfully malevolent, Tolkien-esque Wood. But he’s not beloved, because although “he wasn’t evil, . . . he was distant and terrible.”

But Agnieszka was born within that range—Dragon-born—and there are only eleven such girls in the whole valley, including Agnieszka. She is sure that it will be her best friend, not her, that gets picked, but, well, you can guess where it goes from there.

Uprooted is exactly the sort of book I love. It’s a fairy story, a fairy tale writ large (but not a deconstruction). Novik leaned heavily on Polish myth and folk tales in writing Uprooted, and it embues the story with a certain magic, even if the allusions pass over my head due to an ignorance of the source (ever better for it, really). That certain magic is why I think the Hobbit may be a better story than The Lord of the Rings, and why The Scar by Sergey and Marina Dyanchenko is one of my favorite books to come out in the last several years.

And it’s really, really beautifully written. I don’t remember any prose like this in the first three Temeraire books (I also remember the first three Temeraire books getting better as they went so I should probably return to the series now that it is complete). It has a poetry to it, a rhythmic quality. The writing in the rest of the book never matches the magical first chapter, but that chapter sets and mood in the reader that will carry them through the story.

The magic of Uprooted is more Tolkien or Martin than Jordan or Sanderson. Which is a ballsy choice when your first-person narrator is a magic-user. That it not only works but works exceedingly well would be the highest praise for Novik’s work, if Uprooted didn’t also succeed on equally high levels in almost every other facet.

There is much, much more I could say—about Agnieska (Nieshka), about the Dragon (Sarkan), about Kasia, about Marek, about the dark, disturbing Wood, about the capital—but to do so would spoil some of the magic. Read it, and read it now.
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Jun 07, 2018 Dorka rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: want-to-buy

It's more like a 3.75 stars read

Spoiler free review on my blog: https://berriesandbooksblog.wordpress... ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2017 Karen Mace rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: a-z-bookbuster-challenge

You know when you have a book on your shelves for what seems forever, and you're convinced you're going to love it, and then you read it and you don't?! Yeah, well that is what has happened here!! And I'm really disappointed that this didn't give me all the feels I was hoping for. Have seen a variety of mixed reviews and can find myself siding with the low star reviews more than the high ones!

It started really well and I was ready for a magical experience but then after the first few chapters it ...more

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Apr 14, 2016 just.one.more.paige rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy-scifi

Well I loved this book. It had all the perfect elements of a good fairy tale - the evil Wood, the Queen behind it, the history of magic, undertones of folklore (always a "real life" twist I love to see in fantasy novels), the mysterious wizard, the new young witch with a different sort of magic, the best friend heroine, the handsome prince with his eyes on the throne, and the power of connection (to the people around you and the land you call home) and it's all pulled together wonderfully in a t ...more

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Jan 01, 2017 Immzie rated it it was amazing

This review can also be found on my Wordpress Blog

But yes. At the current time of writing this, it is the first of January 2017, at about 5 in the evening. There is a glass of wine by my side (we couldn’t find any champagne) a fire roaring at the other side of the room, and a book by my computer that I have just finished.

Honestly, I almost regret reading this book at this point; I hadn’t planned to stay up for new years, since I was exhausted from work. However, I thought I would read a bit befo This review can also be found on my Wordpress Blog

But yes. At the current time of writing this, it is the first of January 2017, at about 5 in the evening. There is a glass of wine by my side (we couldn’t find any champagne) a fire roaring at the other side of the room, and a book by my computer that I have just finished.

Honestly, I almost regret reading this book at this point; I hadn’t planned to stay up for new years, since I was exhausted from work. However, I thought I would read a bit before sleeping. Three hours later, at 2 in the morning, I put the book down. When I got up this morning, I walked the dog, then sat down and read the last 100 pages or so, complaining whenever anyone distracted me. I don’t regret the reading (because I think the tone of this review already says I at least liked it) I regret that I loved it, and its set the bar far too high for every other book I read this year.

I didn’t actually go into this book expecting much. I don’t tend to these days, when books are hyped up online. I’ve been disappointed more than once, struck dumb on the reason why everyone seems to like that book.

But this one- it had everything I love in a book. Fairytales, magic, a grumpy immortal type… and a rather nice cover.

So I thought to try it, and I devoured it.

It was beautifully written. The words floating off the page and hovering before me so I felt like I was there in that dark wood with the characters, watching actions unfold. I wanted to know more about everything in their world. How the magic worked, how their magic all differed, the worlds history and what would happen next. I didn’t want to stop reading.

The characters were great as well- it’s pretty clear the Dragon was my favourite- he was so grumpy it made me laugh, but I did feel for him. I mean, Mainy was irritating at points, and he had spent so long on his own in his tower, not talking to anyone. He was lonely. Bless him.

The only problem I had was that I wanted more. I got to the last page and was like… ‘is this it?’ Everything seemed to be tided up really quickly, the last chapter a bit of a rush, as if it had run out of pages to be written on. But maybe that was because I didn’t want to let the characters go.

...more

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