Friday Reads: Mini reviews for The Star Touched Queen & The Forbidden Wish!!!

Hiya there guys!

While I'm sleeping the day away after working a double shift yesterday and working night shift again tonight, I'm gonna leave you with a pair of mini reviews for this week's Friday Reads!

Both books are 2016 releases, both highly awaited for me, and one of them even more because it was one of my top 3 MOST awaited debuts of the year! I'll be counting it towards my 2016 Debut Author Challenge!

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


With a most wondrous & gorgeous prose and a wonderful story full of Hindu mythology and with a few winks to both Hades & Persephone (and maybe it's just me, but also a lil bit of Eros & Pysche myth), this one is the perfect debut to leave us wanting more! The story does end like a standalone, even if it also makes you want a lil bit more.

I could go on and on about the amazing writing and how it reminded me of the traditional myths and how they resonate very much in this story, but without the dryness that sometimes the more traditional storytelling they might have. You simply cannot stop turning pages to see what else will be coming, what else we'll find out about the past and the previous history of the characters.

The world was both wondrous and utterly dangerous and the secondary characters really added so much to the story, particularly a certain non-vegetarian horse! I couldn't get enough of her thoughts stream and her sense of humour!

I was quite surprised about the progression of the book, because I wasn't sure where the story was going or what turns it'd take, given the various myths that I feel woven into the story! Which made it even more fun to read, meeting new characters, seeing Maya discover who she was and who she is and who she wants to be, and what she wants her future to be!

Now, I will read whatever Roshani will write next, grocery list and all! Very much deserved 5 stars to this most highly awaited debut that didn't disappoint!



 The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oh how I loved this retelling of the Aladdin story!! Aladdin has always been one of my fave Disney movies and I've always been a big fan of the tales from the 1001 Arabian Nights, so when I heard about a retelling with a gender swapped genie, I was all over it!

This was my first Jessica Khoury book and I'm very much in love with her writing and storytelling style! The story is told in first person POV and we are in Zahra's mind, which makes it easier to understand her doubts, her torn feelings and loyalties and made me really root for her!

Aladdin both the lovely rogue we know and also so much more! We are given some background about his family and the rebellion he is avoiding and we understand him so much better, even if we're never inside his head. I feel like multiple POV chapters between Zahra and Aladdin would have been a lot of fun to read too!

Between the personal relationships between characters, human politics and power plays and the threat and power plays between the Jinn too, the book was never boring! There's so much scheming and plotting and finding alliances! Zahra finds herself having to make some very tough choices! And to make everything even more interesting, we get Zahra's remembrances about the past and her human friend and sister like, her guilt about what happened and the fact that time has changed the history and the story of Zahra and her friend.

Wrapped so well but I feel like I still want more!! I'm not keen on saying goodbye to Zahra and Aladdin or Cas and her Watchmaidens...

Very much deserved 4 to 4.5 stars! I'm very much hoping Jessica Khoury will feel like writing a companion novel or two, because I so loved the world and the characters!

Mark These Books Monday: Mini reviews for Double Down, Ivory & Bone and My Lady Jane!!!

Hiya there guys!

New week, new Monday (YAY for Mondays off work!) and today I have a bunch of mini reviews for Mark These Book(s) Monday to try and clear out the backlog of books read and not reviewed, and to try and not procastinate, because sometimes writing proper long reviews can be daunting if you have many pending, but writing mini-reviews is always more manageable!

Ivory & Bone was one of my most highly awaited debuts of the year and so it counts towards my 2016 Debut Author Challenge that I had failed at updating as of late!

Double Down by Gwenda Bond

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really hope Gwenda will be writing more Lois Lane stories because I'd read, nay, devour them all! They're, fun, intriguing and with a touch of the fantastical that is so in line with the stories about superheroes, but with it being about a girl that doesn't mind getting in trouble for doing what's right.

It is true that the cases that Lois has to investigate remind me of the Smallville TV show, mostly because it deals with the extraordinary and have plenty of science (sometimes more probable, sometimes more improbable) but instead of having a young S guy solving it with his gang, we have our inquisitive Lois with her nose for news figuring out things.

This time it's not just a bad guy to fight and innocents to save, but Lois has to deal with events that might affect her newly formed friendships, and although she knows how to deal with news and bad guys, she has many more doubts on how to deal with problems that might affect her friends and her relationship with them. I loved how important the friendships have become for her and how she's ready to fight for her friends and how she wants them to be true to themselves and how she puts herself on the line for her friends and their family.

Once again the Lane sisters relationship is showcased and Lois has to reflect on what she wants and doesn't want to happen. She makes a choice and works to make sure that she shows love and appreciation. More than one sibling relationship is important in this book, and both end up coming up stronger after communication and putting into it. Quite a bit of food for thought there too.

Add to that the wonderful relationship that she has with SmallvilleGuy and you have me impatiently waiting for the next one! I just cannot get enough of the virtual or chat interactions of those two and I'm dying of impatience till they get to meet face to face!

We also got a new character introduced (technically we heard about them/him in the previous book too) and I have my strong suspicions about who he'd be from the Superman stories, but I cannot wait to see if I'm right in the book(s) to come!

Very much deserved 4 to 4.5 stars to this one! MOAR Lois Lane stories, please & thank you!


My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


With all its amazing references and wonderful humour and well, I don't know how to put into words how much I absolutely adored reading My Lady Jane! I just need the Lady Janies to write MOAR books because these three ladies have done a brilliant and hilarious job together!!

I had read a few lines here and there, and a lil preview of the first three chapters and I was so excited because I was sure I was going to love it, and I'm glad to say that the full book didn't disappoint. My Lady Jane changes history and adds a big fantasy/supernatural element to the story we all know, but it does so in a very seamless why!

I loved how we get three different POVs, each of them very distinctive and with an unique feel (must confess I have no idea what author wrote each POV, but they all did an amazing job) but my fave had to be our dear bookish and NOT headless Jane Grey herself. I loved her love for books and how when she got nervous she kept spouting synonyms!

The humour and references (Pop culture and others) were superb and totally on point and then there's the hate to love and romantic tension between the Lady Jane Grey and her husband G. Marriage of convenience that doesn't start exactly right, but I loved their banter and their interactions.

I've seen some references in other reviews about the size and lenght of the book at 500 pages, but I must confess that since I read my Kindle copy, I barely noticed the lenght, and it didn't feel like I was reading a long book at all!

Very much deserved 5 stars to this one! I'm seriously hoping & wishing Jodi, Cynthia & Brodi will write more books together!!


Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ivory and Bone is what I'd call a Pili-bait book. Anything ancient history or pre-historical is very dear to my heart because although I've always wanted to be a nurse, my back up plan if I couldn't get into nursing school was doing a history/archeology degree!

So any books that are set in ancient history and/or prehistory have me making grabby hands. If we had that one of my most beloved series of all times is the Clan of the Cave Bear books by Jean Auel... well, let's just say that my first reaction when hearing about this book was "GIMME!!" and so it was one of my most highly awaited debuts!

I'm very happy to report that I loved it as much as I hoped I would! I was very surprised when I heard that it was told on second person POV, because it's used very sparingly, but it worked so very well with the narrative and the plot for this one! We see everything from behind Kol's eyes, and that's another rarity, since it's a male POV. The story is coloured by his perceptions, his prejudices, his fears and his loves. What we know about other characters is what Kol knows, consciously or subconsciously, and we find out more about other characters and the plot as Kol does.

Julie Eshbaugh did a great job of giving us plenty of details and information that shows off she has done her research properly without bogging down the narrative or the plot and without making the storytelling too descriptive. It shows us that life and death are very much the same side of a coin that can flip at any given time, food can kill you, your clan needs everyone to survive and adapting and changing can be the key to continue living.

I was surprised when I reached the ending because of the lack of cliffhanger and the resolution given to the story. It is the first book of a trilogy, and it does give us closure to the plot and the story, although there's also enough to continue telling the story of Kol and his clan, which I am very much looking foraward to! Very well deserved 5 stars to this one!


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Thursday Thoughts: ARC Review of Save Me, Kurt Cobain!

Hey there guys!

I've been a bit mind-gone as of late! I don't know exactly how to describe it but time gets away from me and when I have the time I don't have the motivation and... gah! I don't even know how February it's almost over!!

Today I have another edition of Thursday Thoughts to get more reviews in this week, given that the pending reviews are piling up and I have a few days off now so I hope to squeeze some blog productivity in between some chores, errands and social life!

Lucky enough to be approved for this one, it counts towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge as well as my 2016 Debut Author Challenge! I'm doing pretty well so far on these two challenges, and I hope to keep it up like this for the rest of the year!

Save Me, Kurt Cobain by Jenny Manzer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I requested this book on a whim on Netgalley because I was a huge fan of Nirvana as a young teen (dating myself right here) and I wanted to check out a debut that was not in my preferred genre, since this one is a contemporary.

I'm quite torn about the book since I really enjoyed all the Nirvana references, all the music talk (confession time, my favourite music is still from the 80's & the 90's... I'm an oldie, what can I say?) and I really liked the writing, but I absolutely failed to connect with the main character. I don't know if it's an age thing, or maybe is the completely different emotional place where we both come from... or maybe it's because except for this one I've been in a fantasy books kick and the change of pacing was jarring... but I just couldn't connect with Nico.

Given that the pacing and writing of the book is great and that the voice is raw and feels very real, if you have better luck connecting with the main character that I did, I'm sure that you'd love this one, because it's bound to be a very emotional journey of discovery and finally getting some answers as well as growth for Nico. I wanted her to get some answers and at some point I was wondering if she'd be right and this one would veer a bit onto the magical realism side, but I couldn't put myself in her shoes, so sometimes I felt my age shaking my head at some of her fancies, even if I could understand her obsession with Mr Cobain and Nirvana's music.

This one is a very intriguing debut, one that didn't exactly work for me but that might be exactly the book that many teens need to read. Worth giving it a try for sure. Very positive 3 stars.

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Mark This Book Monday: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton!!!

Hey guys!

It's Monday and you know what this means? Yes, a new week is here and this one is full of amazing books that release tomorrow, so just one more day till AGOS!!!!!! And The Forbidden Wish, and The Power, and Titans!

I'm trying to start this week right after my blogging failure of last week when I only posted two reviews, but were two great books that deserved the 5 stars they got!

I'm starting the week with yet another 5 stars and it being a debut no less!! My second debut of the month and so keeping me in track for my 2016 Debut Author Challenge.

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A fantastic debut that had me up till late with the old "just one more chapter" lie!!

Rebel of the Sands is one of those books that catch your eye with a stunning cover, a very intriguing premise (mixing middle eastern lore & the wild wild west?) and that grabs you from the very first pages!

Amani is a girl that wants to run away from a place where her future is not hers to a less certain but more hopeful one and she's not afraid to bend and break any rules that will get here there, even doing things she wouldn't be proud of. But she's resilient and brave and kind and damn I fell in love with her so very quickly!

The world is brilliant mix of the world out of the arabian Thousand & One Nights stories and feel, but also with the outlaw and shoot first and ask later feel of the wild west. Like the perfect mix of east & west, the world feels gritty and hard and magical all at once! There are trains, shoot outs, caravans in the desert, djinns and magical horses, a Sultan allied with foreigners, and rebel prince...

The plot might seem pretty straight forward at first, but be assured there'll be a few surprises to keep things interesting along the way and few twists that will make go "well played, Ms Hamilton, well played!". This one is a proper page-turner that will you continue to read till 4 in the morning because you want to know what comes next!!

There is romance, but is more of the slow burn variety and it's mostly in the back because things are rather dire and there are a few issues about trust that need to be resolved here and there, but I so ship those two!!

Thankfully there is NOT a cliffhanger in this one, I repeat, there is no cliffhanger. The story is self contained to a point and although the bigger picture is unresolved and there's more to come and I cannot wait to get my hands on book 2, this one can be read like a standalone with an open ending! Very much deserving 5 stars to one hell of a debut!!

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Saturday Pages: Sword & Verse and The Dirt on Ninth Grave!!

Hey there guys!

How's the weekend going so far? Mine is going well, will be re-reading Red Rising and reading Rebel of the Sands today and tomorrow! YAY for reading plans ;)

For this week's Saturday Pages I have another installment of one of my all time fave urban fantasy series that I am NOT losing interest in and my Alyssa Recommends book for February that will also count towards the 2016 Debut Author Challenge!


The Dirt on Ninth Grave by Darynda Jones

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After the massive cliffhanger and wrench that Darynda threw on the previous book and all the info we were given and all the shocks and battles, I wasn't sure how this one was going to work out... aaaand I really should have not doubted Ms Jones because it was perfect!! And if you aren't up to date with the series yet, this is the moment when you stop reading because I'm not sure I'll be able to review this one without spoilers cropping up!!

Janey is trying to figure out who she is after waking up with amnesia in a small village in New York and if amnesia wasn't bad enough, she can see dead people and many other things that would land her in a psych ward if she ever were to tell anyone. It was so endearing to see her figuring out the why's and how's and doing what she's always done without knowing that she is. And she finds herself surrounded by the people that love her and she doesn't even know who they are!

Being in her shoes has to be hard, not knowing who you are or if you have anyone that cares for you and wondering where they are? But I think for the rest of the gang and specially Reyes, it had to be even MORE painful! Given all that, this one was a terribly emotional book, and I'd take a guy like Reyes Alexander Farrow any day of the week, son of Satan or not!

By the end of the book her amnesia is more dangerous than ever and we find ourselves hoping that Janey can put things together before the shit seriously hits the fan, and we get more than a few surprises along the way, with one or two tidbits of information that were as unexpected for her as they were for us!! Now I'm wondering what Darynda Jones will have in store for the next book and I SIMPLY CANNOT WAIT!!

Very much deserved 4.5 stars to this one!!

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 Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is one of those times when you have things that you really really loved about a book and then things that really annoyed you so you end up giving it 3 stars because it feels fair, and decide to add a .5 extra because you really liked how everything was wrapped up in the end!

The big positives for this book for me? The gorgeous writing and the stunning world building!! I loved the story of the Gods snippets that we got at the beginning of every chapter, I loved everything that surrounded the writing and the God's language and the one of the Learned Ones and the Arnath and the way the society and everything was described, so visually and not stopping the flow of the book.

The negatives are mostly two: I wasn't sure where the book was going plot wise, was the rebellion attacking? Was there gonna be a coup? Both? Neither? It felt like it took forever to things to come clear. And then I didn't connect with Raisa nor with Mati and I wasn't 100% sold on them or their relationship. I don't know why they kept irking me so often and made me want to shake them so badly sometimes! I'm usually much better at empathising with characters, but Raisa and Mati continued to make unwise choices and then wonder why shit happened... GAH! I feel like I'm somehow being unfair to the characters, but there were so many occasions they irritated me... *sigh*

The climax and the ending was done really well and I loved how Mati and Raisa had stopped making choices that irritated me to no end and of course the unexpected twist was quite something! The ending is open enough but also conclusive enough to work for both a standalone and first in series, and if there is a sequel, I'll be checking it out! After all, Kathy MacMillan's writing is great and so is the world she has created! 3.5 stars for this debut!

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Friday Reads: ARC Reviews of Into The Dim & The Girl From Everywhere!!

Hiya there guys!

Friday is here! And with it sleeping in the morning because I work night shift tonight. I'm hoping for a bit of a quiet shift so I can get some reading done while the patients are sleeping!

For this week's Friday Reads I have two eARCs that count towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge and that are two time travel YA books and 2016 debuts, so they do count towards my 2016 Debut Author Challenge goal! Time travelling for the win today it seems! ;)

Into the Dim by Janet B.  Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm a big fan of historical fiction and after reading & watching Outlander now I'm also a big fan of time travel that focuses more on the historical bits of where you land than the science mechanics of the traveling itself.

Into The Dim combines a bit of both, there's a bit of mixed science explanation of how you time travel and there's a lot of finding yourself in a different time and having to adapt to it and making the best of what the circumstances throw at you.

Hope, our main character, is grieving the loss of her mother, and battling her phobias and even her photographic memory from overwhelming her. And once she thinks things cannot get more difficult and it's trying to adapt to the new situation, she gets a real game changer thrown at her. And her reaction and responses made a lot of sense. After a lifetime of being told one thing, even certain proof can be hard to swallow & digest, even more when it means that your loved ones have lied to you all along.

Her interactions with a certain boy that she meets are more than a lil suspect to me, but given her upbringing, being homeschooled and quite closeted, it didn't seem as far fetched that she wouldn't suspect it as much as I did. And frankly I can understand the allure of the guy, even if the "stalker" vibes at first should have been a bit of a no-no!

My favourite part of the book had to be once our dear Hope and rest of the gang find themselves in the time of Eleanor of Aquitania and have to execute a rescue plan where nothing goes as it should, full of unexpected hurdles but also unexpected allies. You can see that the author did her work on researching the era and we get so many winks at historical events to come! I already liked Eleanor of Aquitania, but now? Now I'd like to claim her as my patronus! So much love for such a strong woman and how she did what she could given the time she lived in!

Family feuds, friendships destroyed by jealousy, unexpected revelations that throw what we thought we know for a spin and that could have quite intriguing repercusions on books to come, some really swoony moments and a character with changing loyalties except for one and that makes some maybe questionable choices but nonetheless understandable... Combine all that with a great sense of pacing and gripping writing and you've got yourself a book that cannot stop reading until the very end!

Thank goodness for the lack of real cliffhanger though! I mean, the ending is sad and heartbreaking but it's reasonable and very much the closing of a chapter, but not a real cliffhanger. Still, it definitely leaves you wanting more and making grabby hands at the sequel! Very much deserved 4.5 stars to this fantastic debut!

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The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What a magnificent debut!

The Girl From Everywhere is one of those 2016 debuts I was so very excited for and it has not disappointed!

Nix's story is more complex than what you'd think at first, but at the same way it's also simpler. It is at its core the story of a girl and her father growing apart and finding a way to reach common ground again. Their circumstances being quite complex and unusual, but the problems being lack of communication and grief clouding judgement, those are not so extraordinary.

The world building for this book was simply outstanding... the mythology and the time travel is done in such a fantastic and simple and at the same time complex way! Things are happening because something happened in the past but that is caused my something happening right now? Quite an interesting take on causality and even if there are few rules to this time travelling via map, the ones that exist are absolute. Every bit and detail woven into the narrative is done in such a way that you are reminded of this being a fantasy story but making you wish so very hard that it could happen!

The writing also compliments the world building, because it's extremely visual and gripping! Never a moment to be bored, no matter if you're sailing to the border, taking a small tour of the island and being awed by sacred waterfalls or trying to avoid the Hawaian version of Dance of the Death. You want to be on board the Temperance and you want to see all the sights and visit all the places!

I must warn of the presence of a love triangle, surprisingly it didn't bother me as much as I was expecting, although I feel bad some one of the parts of the triangle, and the resolution is not as definitive as it could have been... I wasn't all that bothered, and I sort of understood Nix's motivations, feelings and doubts. I might have prefered if it wouldn't have been there, BUT... well, it didn't take from my enjoyment of the book or how captivated I was so...

Even if I felt like taking a half star off because of the love triangle, there's a dragon and a puppy and that means it gets extra half star too, so it all evens out. I'm not sure if it's a 4.5 or a full 5 stars, but this is one book I see myself re-reading, I'm hoping for more stories about the Temperance crew and their adventures and more mythology to absolutely love and enjoy!

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Mark These Books Monday: ARC Reviews Blackhearts & Beyond The Red!!

Hello there guys!

Last week I totally failed on the blogging front! I only had my Monday reviews up and then I was distracted reading, working, feeling rather crappy and completely stuck on review writing... so I'm gonna be upping it up this week and I hope to get as many reviews up as possible! Also, finally got to the ever ellusive 80% ratio on Netgalley, so YAY!! Now, the hardest part... to keep it!!

Starting the week right with another edition of Mark These Books Monday, I have two 2016 debuts, but only one of them will count towards my 2016 Debut Author Challenge as well as my NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge, because one of them I read in Dec'15 and I had failed to review it till now!



Beyond the Red by Ava Jae

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A fantastic debut indeed! I really got a "classic science fiction" feel from this one, and although it was more focused on the plot and the action than the world building, the author did a really great job with establishing the setting.

The books is told in dual POV from halfbreed Eros, that lives with the human refugees, and queen Kora, the first female ruler of her territory in many generations. The book starts with them in very different places and situations but soon they cross paths and change each other's lives.

We can easily picture ourselves in the red desert camp, among the humans that are making their life there as best as they can, and we can easily picture ourselves into the city that Kora rules, feeling quite intrigued about the kind of society that she lives in, and the kind of political war she finds herself involved in. I kept on wishing for a bit more of in-depth explanations about the past history, because we get some lil bits here and there, with legends and stories and snippets, but I wanted more!

Humans & aliens, although technically the humans should be the aliens since they're the ones not indigenous to the planet (and no, it is not Mars, even if the Red bit of the title made me think it'd be) with an us vs them relationship based on discrimination, hate and political power plays. The resentment was clear but the fact that Eros as a halfbreed existed also made me wonder about how different both species could be and if there might not be closer ties than the ones we know about?

The relationship between Kora and Eros moves from the only way out of a really bad situation for Eros to a reluctant alliance to a more solid one, and there's attraction quite clear there. Eros sees that a position of power isn't exactly free of pain, hurdles or doubts, and sees that despite his anger & pain, helping Kora might very well be the lesser of two evils. Kora finds an ally with no political designs that she feels she can trust and one that shows her a different light on her situation as a ruler and what she thought she knew about humans too. Part forbidden relationship, part unbalance of power, their interactions & the way the relationship changes and progresses is great.

I already said the action is quite non-stop and we also get quite a few revelations, although some of them were easier to suspect than others. Once the main one happened, there others were easier to see coming, although after that ending, I'm not really sure what will come next and I really hope there will be a next! It could be a rather open ending and be left at that, but I'm really hoping that we'll get a sequel and with it more answers to questions about the past!

Well deserved 4 stars to this science fiction debut!

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Blackhearts was initially not one of my most awaited debuts of the year, I cannot pinpoint why because I like stories about pirates but for some reason I was a bit undecided. But then I saw a few super positive reviews for it and Sarah (The YA Book Traveller) made her book trailer and I was absolutely pumped for the book!

Being approved after being not approved for it my Simon Pulse on EW seemed like a sign that I had to read the book ASAP, and so I did! And guess what? Another fantastic debut that I'm beyond glad I didn't miss!

Just keep one thing in mind, Blackhearts is not a story about pirate adventures, pillage and battles. Blackhearts is all about the unknown and untold backstory of Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

Blackhearts is a character driven novel, told in dual POV from both Teach and Anne Barrett. Anne is mixed race and is employed as a maid at Teach's father's house, but she's got too much spirit for a maid and her looks set her apart and make people suspicious or underestimate her. At first that makes her clash with Teach but soon enough that changes.

Teach has just returned from spending a year at sea and he doesn't want to go back to fold into his father's expectations and society's norms. He wants to return to be the man he was on the ship, where he was valued for himself and the choices he made, not the choices others make for him, or climbing the social ladder.

Teach and Anne first meetings are rather clashing and quite fun to read about too. And the way their relationship progressed from Anne hitting him (not on him) to them finding they understand each other much better than they could ever expect given their different backgrounds.

I loved the setting and how very much immersed into the story and the time I was. And I was so very easily drawn to both Teach and Anne and their budding relationship. I really appreciated Anne's fierceness and determination and Teach's open mindness and the way he looked at people's worth as themselves and not their social status or connections.

The ending was quite open and rather cruel too, and I'm really hoping there will be a sequel so we'll get a bit more on the story of Teach and Anne, and a bit more of pirate adventures too! Still, very much deserved 4 stars for this debut! Don't miss it!!


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Mark These Books Monday: ARC Review of Night Study & The Abyss Surrounds Us!!

Hello there guys!

Monday for me this week also means back to work since I had the weekend off (as most people tend to, but a once a month occasion for a nurse like me). I spent it reading & catching up on shows and sorting the library room!

For this week's Mark These Books Monday I have two books that I read in 2016 and that also count towards my challenges of the year (YAY me!). One of them even counts for three challenges: 2016 Debut Author, Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge (since both are eARCs, both count for this one) and the Diverse Books 2016 Reading Challenge!

Night Study by Maria V. Snyder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Action filled, with many twists and surprises, very many unexpected surprises that are changing the game as we knew it and that are keeping the series fresh and me turning pages like there's no tomorrow!

Shadow Study left us with quite a bomb and thankfully Night Study picks up right there where we were left, with Yelena and Valek as a team, trying to figure out things together. I so love that as the series progresses these two continue to make a fantastic team, facing threats together and without pointless drama.

Things are more dire than ever, Yelena without her magic and no idea how to get it back, Valek with his torn loyalties and his fierce need to protect Yelena but trying not to be a traitor to the Commander... and twisting and complex net where their enemies are getting the upper hand and refuse to stay dead.

The pacing in this one was neck-breaking and I could barely turn the pages fast enough to see how they'd get themselves out of the very dire situations and dangers they kept finding themselves. Working together or apart Yelena and Valek and their allies/friends/family are always a great team, even if this team all their efforts are barely enough to keep their heads above the water!

There were even more surprises and shocks and twists in this one, that I wasn't expecting, that made a lot of sense but that were real game changers once again! The death toll is also starting to raise and I'm beginning to get worried for my fave secondary characters, because the prospects are are dire and things are looking more and more grim by the moment!

Another fantastic installment in the newly extended series, and frankly with the way the author is keeping things spinning, I'm looking forward to many more books, although I don't know if this was planned as an extra trilogy?? Either way, I'll be bitting my nails here waiting for the next book! Very much deserved 4 stars for this one!

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Tough as nails lady pirates, monsters from the deep, and a slow burn romance with a cruel twist at the end, this was a wild ride that had me glued to my Kindle! Proper review to come, but I need a sequel like NOW!!

We meet Cassandra on her regular life, and we learn as the pages pass about the world we are in, with a few conversations here and there to add to the knowledge of the set up and the way it's changed from ours. Not a full info dump, and we don't know all the details of how or why, but enough to figure out the differences and get a clear idea of where we stand.

But soon enough the real action starts and Cassandra has her world turned upside down. Her first solo mission as a Reckoner trainer ends in failure and death and she finds herself among the same pirates she's always fought against, and what's more, finds herself with torn loyalties and scrambling around for a way to survive and keep doing what she thinks is right.

Once the pirates enter the book, we have this cast of grey and extremely interesting characters that shake Cas' world in ways that she really didn't expect. Cas always grows as a character tremendously, doing her best to survive and trying to hold onto the sense of right and wrong that was her moral compass before, but also discovering that not everything is so black and white and that people aren't always so black & white either.

I loved how gender stereotypes are subverted in many small ways and how in the narrative and the world, they are what they are, not challeged and not taken as exceptions. Santa Elena is a ruthless, tough as nails pirate that can chop off fingers and care for her son and conquer a boat with him strapped to her back or celebrate a victory wearing a ball gown. A father can be the one to stay home to care for the kids while the mothers come and go to the sea and might never come back. No one doubts what a girl can or cannot do because of their gender.

The relationship between Cas & Bao, her new Reckoner charge is quite complex, because she doesn't want to train him as Santa Elena wants him trained, she resents him for his own nature and how it traps her because of her knowlegde, but still, it's always a close bond between trainer & Reckoner.

And there's a fantastic romance, with a great slow burn and a girl that recognizes her feelings but also see how messed up the situation is and doesn't exactly throw herself into the mess anyways. It's still used against her, it's still full of chemistry and heartache and fantastic, and it's a lesbian romance (YAY diversity!). I was rooting for them both all through the book and was quite shocked and shaken at the end because holy spoilers Batman!

I'm so very glad we do have a sequel coming next year (it's written and all!!) because although this ends in a open but bearable way plot wise... emotionally... nope, unresolved as hell! Very much deserved 4 stars for this fantastic debut!

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2016 Challenges: Debut Author Challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!!

Hello there guys!

I'm back with another of the challenges that I've chosen to take part to in 2016!!

My objective with choosing challenges is usually to hold myself accountable and to choose those that allign more closely with something that I already wanted to do.

Since I'm extremely excited for many 2016 debut books and authors, I knew I needed to join a challenge and so I'll be taking part of the 2016 Debut Author Challenge hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl!!

If you want to join this challenge, and I highly recommend that you do, because there are some amazing books debuting next year, HERE is the introduction & sign up post with all the rules!

Once again, I've made a Goodreads list/shelf for this challenge, and so far I have 10 books only in it, but I know it'll be growing along the year and I hope to read at least 20 debuts this year!


Here's my list so far! Any other debuts you'd recommend I had to my list? Let me know in the comments!!