Heavenly Bodies (The Heavenly Bodies Series)

Product Information

But Paul Koudounaris has provided something here far better than glitzy photos of gaudy corpses. He has provided here a fascinating history of these artifacts and, more importantly, their effect on the people who hosted them. The primary focus here is on how the bejewelled saints came to be politico-religious tools in the German-speaking Counter-Reformation, their symbolism and status (people named their children after these dead saints, which gives an idea of the high regard they were held in), and how they fell out of favor and into disuse as the world of religion moved into the modern age and what this did to the feeling of community within a village that had hosted these relics, sometimes for centuries. This is social history with a shiny "pop" veneer, and it works very well. Reading this along with Norman Cohn's Pursuit of the Millenium could provide an interesting window on the subject of religious devotion in the Germanic countries during the Renaissance and Early Modern eras. I have yet to find a fantasy romance that I love as much as ACOMAF until this one! For real, I thought I would never find another Rhysand. But man oh man is this book SOMETHING.

and “I defy the stars. and “In a world where no entities exist but the Stars, cruel and merciless gods that watch over the world, Elara has been cursed by fate. A prophecy that promises she will fall for a Star, and it will kill them both.But when one descends to wreak havoc on Elara’s Kingdom, she is forced to flee into the arms of her enemy in the neighbouring country.As she learns more about her own magic, and the depth of the Stars’ deceit, she also finds herself learning more about the country she is forced to take refuge in, and the enemy prince forced to train her into a weapon.Something dark brews within her, a power made of night and shadows that begs to be broken free. Heavenly Bodies (Heavenly Bodies #1) by Imani Erriu – eBook Details Wyszpolski, Bondo (February 13, 2012). "Skeleton Crew: Death Comes to Redondo Beach on Valentine's Day". Easy Reader . Retrieved 23 March 2012.

I was taken in by the skeleton porn. Yep. I just said it. I have a fascination with skeletons. It's an addiction. Jewelled Bodies, or Dead Blingers, is the story of the Catholic Church’s PR efforts to counteract the effect that the Reformation had on some of its basic beliefs. This was the worship and praying to religious relics. The emerging Protestant church saw it as idolatry as it believed that worshippers weren’t praying to God when they when they prayed to a relic but a mere shinbone or finger or twist of hair. Relics were, and are, a memento mori and become a way of summoning the dead. You know who the most dangerous kind of villain is?" she whispered. "A woman with nothing left to lose." He staggered. That voice... It had sounded like his mother. He barely remembered her face, but he remembered the sound of her voice as she would sing him to sleep.” Along with Adrian, Eli was another saving grace for me in this book. He is a far more interesting character than I first thought. He's complex and mysterious, I was expecting to learn more about him—and scared to death he would end up murdered. I would have DNFed if he did.

Now for the bad. There is SO much filler in here it's insane. The dialogue is childish rot. I said it. It's infantile. It's very interesting because the first book I felt wasn't given enough space to bloom, and I felt with this there was too MUCH space. It felt like a Christmas special- there to fill time and airwaves while the actual story is progressing. I skimmed a lot of it-not a great look. Nuwer, Rachel (November 23, 2020). "A History of Felines, as Illustrated and Narrated by a Cat". Smithsonian . Retrieved 25 March 2022. never have i been so bamboozled (hi zodiac academy, you have competition) by a book. I was screaming, I threw my kindle, jaw was on the floor. what I would GIVEEE to read this again for the first time.

UPDATE: just finished rereading this book and oh. my. god. the pure GENIUS that is this book. Imani has countless tiny hints and times of immense foreshadowing that made this reread one of the best i’ve ever experienced.

Fitzharris, Lindsey (February 12, 2015). "Memento Mori, a photographic journey into the world of the dead". The Chirurgeons Apprentice . Retrieved 24 February 2015. Okay, this review will contain spoilers (and mild spoilers for Crescent City too) because I'm angry and I need to vent. There was/is so much potential here for the world to expand into a series of interconnected novels but this book was not it. Also, the overuse of the word “drawl” will forever haunt me.

Table of Content

The hero has a "touch her and die" complex but he does not come across as overly possessive or an alphahole. There is a part in the novel where the FMC actually gets upset with him for this type of behavior and it is a plot point. It was really quite interesting. The pacing was just so.. off. Everything felt rushed, though it took forever to get through it. I don’t know if it needed to be edited down (likely - it’s LONG) or beefed up to be two books, but it didn’t read as compulsively as the first.

As I previously mentioned, she meets 5 people: the king, the prince (playboy), the bff of the prince (captain of the guard), the seer, the ladies-maid (idk what she is called, I don't read a lot of court fantasies) and guess what? most of them are the good guys. The king is the bad guy. Sound familiar?

The Met Store

As expected, the pacing in this book is MUCH better than the first. It sounds like maybe the first book was just suffering from some typical problems debuts usually suffer from. I had way less trouble keeping up with what was going on in this book. They were usually in one of the three poses, recumbent in a alcove like a 1930’s Hollywood screen goddess, standing up or seated. The latter was the most difficult to create. Then came the Enlightenment in the 18th century and tastes changed. The skeletons were deemed macabre and shouldn’t be on display. After all, no-one even knew what sex these people were, let alone whether they were Christians or pagans. And so the skeletons vanished; either walled up, hidden behind hangings or simply removed never to be seen again. Y'all- i can't believe bookstagram is sleeping on this series! @authorimanierriu weaves together a captivating world full of mischievous gods, warring kingdoms, and a love story unlike any that i've read (wait til you get to the end…) The world is intriguing but is not built. What I know about her world is what I've learnt from the premise and some odd mentions here and there. I’m sure the series isn’t copy paste of the actual stories and has been fabricated ofc but it feels authentic.