Friday Reads: My Hellion, My Heart by Amalie Howard and Angie Page: ARC Review!!!

Hello guys!

*once again dusts off blog*


I keep on trying to return to more regular blogging and I keep on failing... but I really don't want to give up on my blog!

I love books, I love sharing that love with the world and I love shouting about the books I love and helping authors get the word out there about their books, so how come I'm failing SO MUCH at blogging and reviewing??

Today I want to share my love for the latest installment on a historial romance series I've adored from two authors I love, Amalie Howard and Angie Page! Big shout out to my girl Alyssa of The Eater of Books for getting me into reading more romance and giving historical romance a try, btw! *waves at Alyssa*

I was so lucky to be approved for an early ARC on Netgalley for My Hellion, My Heart by the publisher, (THANK YOU!!!) but you guys can grab the book right now because it published this Monday, so GO GET IT!


My Hellion, My Heart by Amalie Howard

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm what I'd call a recent convert of the historical romance genre, so I'm by no means an expert but I've so thoroughly adored this entire series!

I really loved the previous books in the series, and I thought that the previous book, My Darling, My Disaster, all about North and Lana would be my favourite because I adored both characters since they were first introduced, BUT I was wrong! From the moment I started this one, Irina and Henry became my absolute favourites!

We met Irina as Lana's spirited little sister and when we meet her at the beginning of the book a few years have passed, but she's lost none of her spirit! As a princess she's a darling of society but also considered a bit of a hellion. She's been avoiding London and its season but finally returns after being nudged there by her friend, to both be closer to her sister and secretly to see again her first love.

I simply loved the interactions between Irina and Henry, there was so much chemistry from the very first moment! I had been a bit concerned about the age difference and how it would play in their relationship, but I soon realized it was handled great, without adding creepiness to the initial interactions between them in the previous book.

Henry has gone through so much since the previous book... When we met him, he was in the service of the Crown and on dangerous missions, but now he's trying and somewhat failing to return to normal life and Society. He's clearly suffering from PTSD after having survived very dangerous missions and having been captured and tortured as a spy & prisioner of war. He also feels rather guilty about his intense attraction to Irina, since she had been his ward as a young girl.

I love how Irina decided to own her fears and fight them and not let Society dictate her actions, because as a princess she has so many eyes on her but she also has a freedom that not many people enjoyed. She decided that she would not fight her love and attraction to Henry, even if she felt it made vulnerable, and once she saw it was not entirely one-sided, she decided to fight and get Henry to accept it and stop fighting the attraction.

Amalie and Angie did an amazing job to show the vulnerabilities and strenghts of both characters and how they could understand and help each other, and not just their amazing chemistry (have I mention that the attraction and sexual chemistry was so well done and off the charts? because oh boy, it so was!).

There's a thread of mystery and intrigue all along the book but it explodes towards the end, with betrayal and danger in a way that I wasn't expecting and that added that "dammit, not that everything seemed to finally be going well!" sort of feeling and I'm so very happy with how it was resolved!

All in all, an amazing book that I've loved! I really hope that Amalie and Angie will co-write many more historical romance books because I will be devouring them all!! 4.5 to 5 stars for sure!


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You'll Want To Read This Book Wednesday: Vicarious by Paula Stokes!!

You'll Want To Read This Book Wednesday was inspired by Save the Date from The Perpetual Page Turner and Pre-Squee from Bewitched Bookworms, when I decided to do my own feature/meme to showcase those books that I get to read pretty ahead of time (mainly from BEA) and it'd replace Waiting on Wednesday on my blog. It might be weekly, bi-weekly or once a month, depending on when I indulge on reading one of the far off ARCs!

This week I'm showcasing an ARC that I got sent quite a while back and that I read as a beta reader and simply ADOREEED!! It's coming out this August and if you guys haven't got it on your list of books to read... YOU NEED TO!!

Vicarious by Paula Stokes

Winter Kim and her sister, Rose, have always been inseparable. Together, the two of them survived growing up in a Korean orphanage and being trafficked into the United States.

Now they work as digital stunt girls for Rose’s ex-boyfriend, Gideon, engaging in dangerous and enticing activities while recording their neural impulses for his Vicarious Sensory Experiences, or ViSEs. Whether it’s bungee jumping, shark diving, or grinding up against celebrities at the city’s hottest dance clubs, Gideon can make it happen for you, for a price.

When Rose disappears and a ViSE recording of her murder is delivered to Gideon, Winter won’t rest until she finds her sister’s killer. But when the clues she uncovers conflict with the neural recordings her sister made, Winter isn’t sure what to believe. To find out what happened to Rose, she’ll have to untangle what’s real from what only seems real, risking her life in the process.

It's no secret that Paula is one of my fave authors, and one of the many things that I love about her is how capable she is to write very different books very well! She can write fluffy contemporaries with relevant themes (Girl Against The Universe) and she can write murder mysteries that keep you guessing (Liars INC), and now Vicarious, that is a genre defying book! It's a thriller, a mystery, science fiction and it's got quite a few tough themes that are important to be brought to attention.

Vicarious is one of those books that have you saying "just one more chapter" because you just cannot stop reading! It'll keep you guessing, will make you feel the tension and the uncertainty and also has a few lighter moments to keep the balance. There's a swoony possible love interest, an adorable cat, family relationships and a twist that you WON'T see coming!! As soon as I read it I had to text Paula all my "WTF?!? HOW DID YOU!?! THAT WAS BRILLIANT!?!" and yes, all caps are required!!

You have been warned! You need this book like NOW, and you'll need someone to talk about spoilers once you read it!! So go preorder Vicarious so you can start reading it ASAP!!

Saturday Pages: ARC Review The Forbidden Orchid by Sharon Biggs Waller!!!

Hey there guys!!

How's your weekend going? Mine is going well, I've been trying to work on the blog a bit more after being in a rather crappy funk as of late and today I am gonna be able to celebrate her birthday with one my best and oldest friends, we've been friends since 5th grade!!

Today I have on the blog on my MOST awaited books of the year!! I'm a huge fan of Sharon Biggs Waller since I read (AND ADORED) her debut, A Mad Wicked Folly (the Spanish version of the book happens to be my friend's birthday present btw!) and I was dying to get to read her next book about a girl that defies convention to help her father find a rare orchid in China!

I was so very lucky to be sent a widget to read the book early via Netgalley, so this one will also count towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge!

The Forbidden Orchid by Sharon Biggs Waller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was pretty sure after A Mad Wicked Folly, but now having read The Forbidden Orchid, I know that Sharon Biggs Waller writes the kind of historical fiction that reminds me why I love the genre! Thoroughly researched, painted so vividly you can feel the earth under your nails and the sea breeze on you face! With amazing & complex characters and a journey that is never as straightforward as you'd expect.

Elodie is the oldest on a family of ten girls with a father that spends most of the time away, travelling the world and finding new plants for collectors and scientists. She is both responsible and level headed and also a little bit eccentric since she isn't one to conform exactly to the society's expectations. I absolutely loved reading through her journey of discovering who she is and growing into the woman she wants to be. She had the rebellion and the fear and the strength to try and do what she thought was right. And thankfully also had the common sense to try and learn from others when need be, even if she was a bit of the "I will go on by sheer force of will if need be" variety.

I loved that there was a lot of emphasis in the family dynamics, between Elodie and her sisters, the relationship between their parents, Elodie and her dad, and then the different relationships with a different culture once we start the journey in search of the orchid. I loved that Elodie was most of the time torn between defiance & compliance and that she learnt what battles to fight upfront and which ones to try and turn her way in more subtle ways.

I've already mentioned the fantastic world building and the attention to detail that Sharon so easily slips everywhere, but I just love how completely you feel like you are there in the China seas, or the jungle looking for an orchid, or the English countryside.

The book felt a lil slow in the beginning but I think that was more my impatience with getting onto the travelling in China and getting onto the orchid search than the book's fault. You cannot have a girl in 1861 go trampling in search of an orchid without some proper set up and serious circumstances! But once things started getting in motion, the pacing was as flawless as always!

There's romance in the book, and oh boy, was I rooting for them both since the very first moment! And if we do add the most adorable doggie ever to the book... there's plenty of cute moments! And some very necessary ones to lighten the mood here and there. There's a point when you might want to shake Elodie, but she really needs to learn to make her own choices, so do have patience with her!

A really wonderful historical fiction book that I absolutely adored and cannot wait to read as a finished copy next!! Very much deserved 5 stars!

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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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Friday Reads: ARC Review of The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins!!!

Do you know that feeling of reading a book quite well in advance of release date and then when you next think about it, release day is almost there now and you need to write a review??

Well, that's exactly what happened to me with the book I'm featuring on this week's Friday Reads! I was beyond lucky to get an ARC of this one back in October and read it right away, and now March 8th is nearly here and a review must be written! (And writing it is making me itch to re-read it, cannot wait for my finished copy!).



The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I adore Wendy Higgins since I first read Sweet Evil, quite a while ago, before it was even picked up to be the trilogy we all know and love, and when she announced that her new book would be a fantasy duology I was super excited and not even the fact that it was a fairy tale retelling (yep, I'm not overly fond of those) made me doubt that I'd love it! And as always Wendy didn't disappoint!

The Great Hunt is a retelling of The Singing Bone, one of the Grimm Brother's tale that I haven't read before (I'm quite curious to read it now) and so I cannot say how much it was changed or taken from it, but I absolutely loved how Wendy wove the story with a certain fairy tale feeling but gave it her own flair!

There is so much tension on this book! First of all with the monster murdering people and no one feeling safe, then with the hunt going on, the civil unrest and the romance development... I had to take a breather while reading now and then because it really got intense at times!

I really liked how Princess Aerity was loved and happy with her family and how she found herself in a less than ideal position and although she was unhappy and angry she also felt that she had to do her duty to her kingdom & help however she could, even if it meant sacrificing her own future happiness. I really loved her less formal side and her silk aerial abilities!

Paxton is a bit of a play on the broody and distant boy and not entirely your usual fairy tale hero, and I loved that he had his secrets but that risked everything to help rid his people of the monster's danger. I loved how ready he was to work with other hunters to try and kill the monster and was not all about the glory.

We do get more than a few surprises and twists along the book, and that combined with all the tension building up during the book makes for an absolute page turner that ends in quite an awful cliffhanger (of the emotional kind, just not a death) that leaves you pinning for the next book and for me the wait is even worse because lucky me I read this book in October 2015 and the next book doesn't bloody well come out till 2017!! *wails & whimpers in despair*

Very much deserved 5 stars to this one. Highly recommended if you love retellings and if you don't? Give this one a try, it'll surprise you for sure!







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Friday Reads: Love Fortunes And Other Disasters & ARC Review of Menagerie!!

Hey there guys!

Friday is here! And since I work the weekend is a different kind of Friday for me. Hopefully work won't be too bad during the weekend, at least I have some awesome co-workers during the weekend!

For this week's Friday Reads I have two reviews, one being one of my backlogged ARCs for my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge. And the other one is another of my buddy reads for the RockMyTBR Challenge, this one with Valerie from He Said Books Or Me.

 Menagerie by Rachel Vincent

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One hell of a book for sure, tough one to read and one that needs a few warnings because it really confronts us with some of the ugliest parts of humankind. It might not be a book for everyone, but it's one that we might need to have our eyes open to many cruelties that go on in this day and age.

Reading it made me think of the cruelty towards circus animals and their existence between cages & whips, and also made me think about the modern slavery of the human trafficking, either to be sold for parts (organ trafficking is a powerful big black market) or for prostitution, and how that feels justified for those that take part in any way in it, how we might ignore pain and humiliation and we might not agree with what's going on, but don't know how to stop it or how to help.

Menagerie takes place in a world were mythical beings exist and one changed by an event that happened in 1986. Mermaids, sirens, mynotaurs... they are real and are persecuted and exploited in private collections, hunting grounds or menageries like travelling circuses. All animal or even part human, none of them are left with any dignity and treated worse than animals.

Told on different POVs, most of them third person, although the POV with the most page time and chapters is Delilah Marlow, a girl that discovers she isn't just human while visiting Metzger's Menagerie with her bf and friends. We quickly see how fear pushes us to extremes, and how easy it is to dehumanize others to justify even the most base and unfair treatment of others.

I couldn't help but admire Delilah's strenght and courage to not let go of her sense of self and of what her goal was but at the same time how she was so kind and looked out for others so much! Strenght, courage and compassion are the traits that define her, and she's really a heroine to root for!

For some reason I thought the book was a standalone and I think it works pretty well as one, except that I was ready to take a star off because of the lack of information we really get about the events of the Reaping and what might be known about it, we only get some snippets of media information as events were unfolding at the time. But now that I've learnt that it's a series, this is one fantastic first book, with a great introduction of the main players, a game changer thrown in and enough world building to get your bearings but wanting to know more!

Menagerie is clearly an adult book and even if I'm usually worried about intense books (gross out easily, being a nurse has its perks in life) there were a few moments when I was seriously shocked and going EWWW!! There's blood and gore but it fits the story and the characters and it doesn't feel like it's done just for the shock factor, but... it is a shock! Add that to the abuse and mistreatment going on the cryptids and experienced my Delilah and once again I must warn that this book is not for those faint of heart.

Very well deserved 4.5 stars to this tough but brilliant book, my first Rachel Vincent book, but it surely won't be the last, since I'm now highly anticipating the sequel!

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Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Another #RockMyTBR buddy read! This one was quite adorable and cute, even if I was confused at first and not that keen on the book or its world. Since it was a buddy read I decided to push through the "head shaking" moments, even if I wasn't entirely sure if this was a contemporary, paranormal or magical realism... I guess that's part of the charm of it, but it kept bugging me throughout the book.

I didn't instantly like Fallon because for how sensible she seemed, she was completely and overwhelmingly turned upside down by a love fortune, and now matter how accurate they are supposed to be, it just didn't feel as dire to me... but that could be my old age and grunchiness showing.

It was an easy read and once it progressed it got a hold on me and I wanted to know what was being Zita's fortunes and why all the other love charm makers were gone and I was somehow invested in the developing relationship between Fallon and Sebastian, which thank goodness was done through the common ground then friendly then like then love, even if was a bit accelerated at times, but after all Grimbaud is a magical place where love lives.

Some of the secondary characters felt a bit more underdeveloped and carntoon-y so to speak, but I felt that the main ones had quite enough charm and life in them, and I loved that Fallon decided to fight fate and help her friends do the same too. We not only see Fallon's fortune be fought but also her best friends' and I'm glad that there was a gay relationship included and treated no necessarily as a come out story, but just as another relationship threatened by a bad love fortune.

All in all, a very cute read, well deserving of 3 stars because it kept me turning pages to find out what happened next once I got over my innitial confusion.

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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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Map of Fates by Maggie Hall Exclusive Giveaway: ARC & Swag!!!

If you've already read The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall, you probably don't need to be told that its gorgeous, thrilling, sexy-as-hell sequel, Map of Fates, releases in three months. What you do need is an Advance Readers Copy of it, and some signed swag, and this is where you can get it!

(Photo: Sofia Embid)

To get your hands on a beautiful ARC, signed postcard, signed bookmark, and tattoos, you have to make the same tough choice as every Conspiracy fan:

Team Jack?

Or

Team Stellan?

Pick one of the below pictures (with thanks to creator Diana Sousa!) and share it – on Instagram and Twitter – with the hashtag #MapOfMates, and tell us where you’d want to be swept away on an all-expenses-paid trip!

On January 2, five ARC winners will be selected, and yes, the giveaway is international!

1 #TeamJack from Instagram

1 #TeamStellan from Instagram

1 #TeamJack from Twitter

1 #TeamStellan from Twitter

1 from either team who has one of the pics as their Twitter avatar

Haven’t read The Conspiracy of Us yet? Buy it now, and/or enter to win it (until 12/17) here! (Prefer paperback? That releases on February 2nd!)

(Whether you enter or not, please spread the word; Maggie’s an amazing, generous, and talented member of the YA community, and due to emergency circumstances, she's unable to promote her own books right now, so please give all the support you can!) (But, like, you should enter, because these books are pretty damn good.)

Winners will be notified on January 2, 2016. See you on #MapOfMates!

Mark These Books Monday: Mini Reviews for Toads & Diamonds and Soul Warrior!!

Hiya there!

Happy Cyber Monday guys! Are you doing some online shopping?? I totally plan to do so as soon as my paycheck comes in! I've been eyeing stuff for quite a while, and now that there are so interesting sales, I'm gonna indulge a lil bit! Not in books though, giving my self imposed book buying ban.

Today I'm starting the week with a mini reviews edition of Mark This Book Monday. Today I have two books that are based on mythology or folk tales, and as such both will count towards the 2015 Mythology Reading Challenge, which means I continue to improve on that already conquered challenge!

Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A gorgeous book both inside and out! With a beautiful mix of mythology and fairy tale/folk tale feel, with goddesses and gifts that could be blessings and curses.

The story is one that I think I've heard before, two girls meet a woman that is a Goddess in disguise (could be a fairy or something other, cannot remember the first time I heard it) and each of them get a different gift/curse. For one diamonds and flowers drop from her lips everytime she speaks and for her sister it's toads and snakes.

I've just loved the way the author twisted the tale here though, although the girls get the same gifts, in both cases it's bestowed both as a gift and a lesson, not gifting one girl and cursing the other. And the relationship between both girls although they're stepsisters is wonderful, they love each other as sisters and support each other as such.

I love how each of them faces their gift/curse differently, and how their mother handles each curse with the same aplomb and want for secrecy and how it just goes awry.

Diribani is taken to court with the prince and princess, and there among privilege she wonders what good is the miracle she's been gifted and how can she help others. Tana is feared by the conqueror rulers but not the people, and starts a journey to understand the Goddess' purpose.

I simply loved the writing and the descriptions in this book, so lush and vivid! It was clearly based on the Mughal empire conquest & of the many hindu kingdoms of India, even if the religions are changed and don't really correspond, they do have that feel of cultural clashes and how the conquerors handle letting the conquered having their traditions and their faith.

It has a very clear folk tale feel in the telling of it all, because while there's plenty of world building to show us the kingdoms, the plot doesn't drive to a certain event per se, but more as a way to change things and to get the girls to find their way and learn their lessons and teach them to others.

A wonderful take on a known folk tale, where the girls get to make their choices and fight their battles as well as they can, with a wonderfully diverse background! Very much deserved 4.5 to 5 stars!



Soul Warrior by Falguni Kothari

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I discovered this book via Twitter when Sonali Dev recommended it to me. I requested it on NetGalley and was approved and a lil late because it's already been released, I finally got to read it!

Epic fantasy based on hindu mythology. If that sounds intriguing and interesting to you, go grab this one immediately! A certain knowledge of Hindu mythology would be good, to sort of know who is who, but the author also adds her own spin and twist, so it's not absolutely necessary (or you can read the book and find references & then learn some about Hindu mythology too!).

Lord Karna is the Soul Warrior, the one that fights to keep the balance and the demons out of the Human Realm. And he gets assigned a task he never wanted, train 6 new warriors to help him defeat the demons.

To add to the unwanted task, the warriors are the offspring of his brothers that he hate, and the woman he loved but that spurned him in his human life. And then as it happens, the warriors are girls!

One word of warning, different incarnations, God's avatars as they are born into the human world, reincarnations, human life and then immortal life... yes, it is confusing! But that's Hindu mythology for you... take it or leave it, really. It's explained as easily as it could be here, but it's a complex and confusing mess, probably even for the Gods themselves. It does let itself to epic fantasy and loads of family & romantic drama very well though, and it's handled great by the author.

The plot progresses with quite a bit of family and relationship drama, as expected with Gods & Goddesses, learning lessons from the past and Karna learning lessons from his charges. What seemed like a strange request turns to be a much bigger quest, one where he'll have to choose between honour and the task he always fought for over thousands of years, and family and love and finding a way to protect the Human Realm and those he love.

Full of quite a few twists, fun characters as the 6 girls have their unique voices that manage to drive Karna nuts for the most part, a plot that thickens as pages go by and quite the cliffhanger at the end, this is a book that I highly recommend if you like epic fantasy with a heavy mix of mythology!

A bit torn between 3.5 to 4 stars! Cannot wait for the sequel!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of The Paladin Caper by Patrick Weekes!!

Hey guys!

Happy Friday! I hope you guys are having some cool plans for this weekend! I am having a bunch of days off and today I'm going to the opera! My first time and I'll be watching Madama Butterfly, so very excited!

For this week's Friday Reads I have the final book (for now, hopefully, because I want to read more books about these characters!) in the Rogues of the Republic series up for review!




The Paladin Caper by Patrick Weekes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Once again another fantastic book that had me glued to the pages and that managed to surprise me more than a few times! I'm so very grateful that I got all three ARCs from Netgalley because reading them in quick succesion has been so much fun!

Plot twists are the bread and butter of fantasy heists, because you're not supposed how the plans would unfold, and you're not even supposed to know when something is part of the plan, is a planned for contingency or all hell is going to break loose, and sometimes it'll be a lil bit of all three!!

Patrick Weekes manages to take everything the previous two books had and twist it a lil further and make it a lil bigger to make this book a lil darker and still keep the irreverent tone from the previous two books. The humour was still there too, but things were getting so dire that I didn't have as many laugh out loud moments. Now that I've finished the book, I feel like I miss that humour but while I was reading the book I was too engrossed and worried about everyone's fate and what would come next to think of the comparable lack of humour in this one.

Loch continues to be one hell of a main character and the rest of the gang do get quite a bit of limelight and progression and character development as we see a bit more of what makes them who they are, and what their choices what change in themselves as well as in the fate of the Republic, because... did I mention things are a lot more dire in this book? Because they really are!

The previous book ended with shock and betrayal and this one deal with the consequences of it, with fighting an enemy that you didn't know was an enemy at first and with privilege and freedom and mind control and information vs propaganda. We still have dragons and unicorns and talking weapons and warrior monks and death priestesses and elves... And we're never too sure about who is on who's team at times!

I don't want to continue rambling on about the book because I fear I'll end up spoiling something but if you like fantasy books and heist books and want to read something captivating, fun and diverse, you need to add the entire series to your TBR pile! The book has a rather definitive ending, no cliffhangers or anything, but I would love to go on reading more adventures of the gang for more books to come, so I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Very much deserved 4 stars for this one!





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Release Day Review: Gabriel by Nikki Kelly!!

Hello guys!

Things continue to be a bit hectic here now and then with still more things to sort around the new apartment, trying to have some sort of social life, work and added to that a course I'm taking at work... But no matter how busy I am, I always find time to read, because reading is my refuge... what I don't always find time for is blogging and writing reviews, but I have decided to do the best I can and not let blogging stress me (much!).

Today is Tuesday and as such is release day for a lot of awesome books because this October has been terrible on my TBR pile and my wallet both! But I want to celebrate specially the release of Gabriel by Nikki Kelly and share my ARC Review for it!



Gabriel by Nikki Kelly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Gabriel was a perfect game changer of a sequel and it does all things that a good sequel ought to do: add a new layer to both our character, see how their relationships change and are challenged and peel away new layers in the world building and the plot, leaving us with a bit of whiplash after some reveals that do turn our world upside down!

I will try by best to keep things as spoiler free for book one as possible but to be safe just run along and read Lailah right now! Done? Well, Gabriel picks up right where Lailah left us and that was a doozy! So much has changed for Lailah and Gabriel and Jonah! All three of them have quite a bit of character development to go through because things have changed so very drastically!

I really like Lailah's growth and how she found the strenght in herself to finally acccept who she is, but the road there was NOT easy at all, and at times I was feeling a bit likely to shake her for being so stubborn and taking so many riks!

Gabriel and Jonah both pissed me equally on the first half of the book or so! So protective, to treating Lailah like a fragile being and keeping secrets for "her own good"... I really felt like slapping them both! And even if I didn't agree with Lailah taking the riks she did, I understand that she was not happy to be told that she was superpowerful but it'd be better is she stayed home like a good girl!

I did warn you about plot twist and unexpected revelations and I should also warn you about a massively evil cliffhanger (I had been warned, and it helped, but not that much!!) and also... *whispers*thelovetrianglegetsresolved*whispers* but I won't say ANY more since you really need to read it to see how it all makes sense!

Now I'm dying to get my hands on book three!! DAMNED AWFUL CLIFFHANGER!! *shakes fist at Nikki*



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Friday Reads: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman!!!

Hello there guys!!

Happy Friday!! This is the first review that I'm writing at my new apartment, since I've finally moved!
I still have a lot of work to do, sorting things and moving all the book boxes, and getting more furniture... but I'm now living in my apartment!

For this week's Friday Reads I have up for review one of the ARCs that I got from BEA and one that made me really want to read more westerns!!



Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I liked Erin's dystopian trilogy and was extremely intrigued by this YA Western, even if I'm not a big westerns reader, and it was in my priorities list for BEA, thank you so much HMH Books!

Vengeance Road is written in dialect from Kate's POV first person and I was a lil worried at first wondering if it'd might keep me from getting fully into the book, but I worried in vain, after chapter 4 I was used to the dialect and Kate's voice and it actually made the book feel more authentic, more real.

Kate is a very complex character, dealing in the grey area of the ethical spectrum. She is driven by vengeance first and foremost and she seems to be remorseless in her pursue of the killers of her father, even some innocents might suffer in the process. But as the story unfolds, there is so much more to Kate and how she decides to face the world, she grows so much! And she really is a cactus type of character, prickly but with a treasure inside!

Vengeance Road could be called a roadtrip book, if going after a band of bandits on horseback disguised/dressed as a boy can count as a roadtrip! The plot seems quite straight forward at first, Kate goes after her father's assassins, but soon things get more complicated when she is joined (quite against her wishes) by a pair of brothers that want to protect & help the "son" of a friend of their father. And then with the killing and the hiding and running and being hunter and hunted... With a few quite unexpected twists, well, is very hard to put this one down, you just want to keep turning pages to see who will survive!

But where I feel like I must give the biggest props to Erin Bowman, at least for me, is in the descriptions and ambiance she manages to write for this book. You simply feel like you are there, with the sun hitting your back, sweating and almost feeling the gritty sand in your mouth! The atmosphere is fantastic and full of tension and you can tell that the author has done her research, because you really feel like you are THERE!

The secondary characters were also very well fleshed out and even the bad guys were not just cartoony bad guys. And with Liluye we have a completely different culture, outlook and experience that Kate learns to respect and even try and understand.

I loved how the romance played, for the most part it was rather slow burn and muted, because it was never part of Kate's plan and it was at first a very unwanted distraction, but I was very happy to see how it all played out, how in the end Kate made sure her life was not defined by anyone or anything else but herself and at the same time didn't close herself to love and hope!

This is my absolute favourite Erin Bowman book to date and I highly would recommend it to anyone that wants something different, wants to give westerns a try and anyone that appreciates great characters! Very well deserved 4.5 to 5 stars to this one!



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Saturday Pages: ARC Review of A Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev!!!

Hey there guys!

Happy Saturday! I came back from spending a pair of days (mostly) unplugged at my parents' cottage, getting loads of puppy love, getting pampered by my mum and watching shooting stars at night with my mum and bro. And reading, loads of reading! Less ARCs than I should have, but I despite my best intentions, I'm always a mood reader at heart!

Still I managed to read a pair of ARCs and start another, and one of them is the one I'm reviewing today for this week's Saturday Pages, counting it towards my ARC August challenge and also since it is a diverse read, towards my 105 Challenge!

The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read and loved Sonali's debut last year so when I heard about her next book coming out this year I knew I had to read it! Of course I did a lil jig when I got approved for it on NetGalley by the publisher and after reading it I already have it preordered for myself and for my ex didi.

Ria's story is not an easy one, given what a traumatic past she had to deal with and what she fears will be the sure consequences to her future. She's carved herself a career on Bollywood and she keeps everyone away from her. But when her cousin calls her and begs her to attend her wedding, she feels like she needs to go and be there for the family that loves her, and after a potential scandal, leaving Mumbai for Chicago seems like the best option.

While I don't know all that much about the insides of the world of Bollywood, I have been treated as part of an Indian family both in India and in the US, and reading this book felt like being back there. The descriptions are effortless and vivid and the relationships between the characters always so well developed!

Ria is a very complex character with many different sides to her, and we can very well see them at play when she is just Ria with her family, to when we see her as Ria Parkar, the film star. She's both strong and enormously fragile, always battling with herself and trying to get through everything on her own. I wanted her to finally allow others to help her and seeing how hard her path was through it all really made my heart ache!

The romance here was particularly heartbreaking because of the history between Vikram and Ria and how meeting again after ten years there's a lot of pain and anger and suffering but still an undeniable chemistry and a knowing about each other that was painful to read about. I don't know if it'll be as painful for other people as it was for me, but the emotions jump out of the pages!

Mental health and the stigma still associated to mental health illnesses is also a big component of the book. Ria's life has been defined by that stigma and it's what continue to define how she sees herself and how she shapes her future.

A fantastic book with a wonderfully complex romance and a lot of depth. Bravo Sonali Dev! Very well deserved 5 stars!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of Beastly Bones by William Ritter!!

Hey there!

Friday is here once again and I'm back from the cottage to get ready to go back to work this weekend, but at least I have some awesome co-workers this weekend, which is always a relief, and even more during the summer months!

For this week's Friday Reads I have another ARC review for ARC August and one that I hope it'll help reach the ever-ellusive 80% ratio on Netgalley!

Beastly Bones: A Jackaby Novel by William   Ritter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After reading and loving Jackaby last year, I was thrilled to be approved by Algonquin books via NetGalley!

This book is also from Abigail's POV and it starts like any other day in the life of our paranormal investigators, with an intriguing and strange case of dangerous but apparently fluffy kittens.

And with such an intriguing but mostly harmless case we start and things get more intriguing and more dire once there's a murder and then they're hired by the police to help on the investigation because there's been another similar murder at the village where a certain handsome and somewhat canine policeman was destined after the events of the previous book.

We meet a peculiar friend of Jackaby's that has a special love for "unique" creatures and a whole new cast of characters quite distinctive all of them! Some a bit more exagerated than others but not to the point of being ridiculous, even if it was rather humorous at times!

Abigail gets to be more than just Jackaby's assistant because she gets her time to shine when it comes to her passion: paleontology! The murder happened close to a dig with an amazing dinosaur discovery and things start getting more and more mysterious and it seems like they might be related somehow.

I love how Abigail worries about her feelings for Charlie and if acting on them would end up cutting down the freedom she fought so hard for, to the point of crossing the Atlantic on her own. And I loved how Jackaby's reactions and advice were odd but somewhat on point (rather reminded me of the Tenth Doctor in those moments, with a lil of 11th too!).

So threads seemed to be unconnected: Jenny's acting unusually ghoulish, the strange kittens, and odd man that Abigail sees twice, the whole murders case...

It was a super fast read and I was never bored but I did get a bit frustrated because I felt that they took too long to put two and two together and I had guessed something rather big quite early on, although I had not guessed exactly who or how was responsible for it.

I was extremely excited about the end because it opens rather epic possibilities for the next book! A mastermind behind paranormal cases! Jenny's case! Cannot wait!

Well deserved 3.5 stars for this one! Quite recommended to those who want something that mix urban fantasy with historical fiction!



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Tell Me Tuesdays #30!!

Tell Me Tuesdays is a meme/feature created by the awesome ladies of Please Feed The Bookworm and La La In The Library, where we can share how we choose the book we are currently reading from our TBR pile!

I'm always curious about that, cause as much as I tend to make myself a rough schedule for books to read and the like, I'm quite a mood reader and sometimes I just HAVE to ignore my schedule and read something else!

Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman

Imagine a time when the gods turn a blind eye to the agony of men, when the last of the hellions roam the plains and evil stirs beyond the edges of the map. A time when cities burn, and in their ashes, empires rise.

Alexander, Macedonia’s sixteen-year-old heir, is on the brink of discovering his fated role in conquering the known world but finds himself drawn to newcomer Katerina, who must navigate the dark secrets of court life while hiding her own mission: kill the Queen. But Kat’s first love, Jacob, will go to unthinkable lengths to win her, even if it means competing for her heart with Hephaestion, a murderer sheltered by the prince. And far across the sea, Zofia, a Persian princess and Alexander’s unmet fiancée, wants to alter her destiny by seeking the famed and deadly Spirit Eaters.

Weaving fantasy with the salacious and fascinating details of real history, New York Times bestselling author Eleanor Herman reimagines the greatest emperor the world has ever known: Alexander the Great, in the first book of the Blood of Gods and Royals series.

 Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

 First Class Murder by Robin Stevens

Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are taking a holiday through Europe on the world-famous Orient Express. From the moment the girls step aboard, it's clear that each of their fellow first-class passengers has something to hide. Even more intriguing: rumour has it that there is a spy in their midst.

Then, during dinner, there is a bloodcurdling scream from inside one of the cabins. When the door is broken down, a passenger is found murdered, her stunning ruby necklace gone. But the killer is nowhere to be seen - almost as if they had vanished into thin air.
 
Daisy and Hazel are faced with their first ever locked-room mystery - and with competition from several other sleuths, who are just as determined to crack the case as they are.



First Class Murder is my reward read right now to motivate myself between ARCs reading and writing reviews. It's a MG murder mystery and I'm loving it so much!

Legacy of Kings... I am quite disappointed with it right now, I'm at 43% and I stopped reading it for a few days because it was feeling too slow and with the 7 POVs, the plot didn't seem to be going anywhere and GAH! I might end up DNFing this one...

Cinder is a re-read! I joined the #TLCReadAlong organized by Brittany from Books Addicts Guide because I want to have the books fresh for reading Winter! Cinder is August book and I've just started it last Sunday. I'm already loving re-reading it!


So what are you all guys reading and how and why did you decide to pick up that book? Shiny new ARC? Comfort read? Scheduled for review? Must have new release? Tell me!! 

Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of A Riot of Storm And Smoke by Jennifer Ellision!!!

Hello there people!

Today is a new week and one of those Mondays after working the weekend, so nothing much is different for me!

I'm hoping to get some quiet time to read at the cottage during this week since I work the weekend once again... On the bright side that'll mean a lil extra on my next pay check, which will be highly welcome!

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have an ARC of a book that I have been eagerly awaiting and when the author asked if I wanted to get I'm surprised she didn't go deaf from my squealing... I guess she's like she lives in Florida!

As an ARC it is part of ARC August and as a fantasy book it'll also count towards my 105 Challenge!

Riot of Storm and Smoke by Jennifer Ellision

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What a fantastic middle book! It's got everything that a second book in a trilogy should have: plot development, action, character development, new conflicts and new characters!

Riot of Storm and Smoke starts right were Threats of Sky and Sea left us, but Jennifer does a very good of jogging our memory to bring us up to speed with lil nudges here and there, but nothing too repetitive that could bother someone binge reading the books.

The book is told in (mostly) alternating dual POVs, Bree and Caden's, and it manages to be distinct enough and to move along the plot, showing us what is going on both sides.

Bree is on the run with her friends and she's keeping quite a few secrets from them, which usually isn't the wisest course of action, but give the situation, I cannot really blame her for trying to figure out things on her own and trying to clutch to the last vestiges of her old life, even if she knows nothing is as she once believed. She's struggling with all the revelations and it shows in her grasp of her power.

Scaping the king will prove difficult enough even with the Underground's help and at every step of their way there's a new difficulty and we get quite a few surprises! We even meet some unexpected allies and an enemy comes back in a very different way winning a measure of reception even!

Kaden's side is no less painful and worrisome to read and although he grows a lot as a character, he is also dealing with some deep worries that sometimes hinder his ultimate goals of freeing his country and doing what's best for his people. His search for allies is not without even more danger than Bree's flight but he also finds himself with a loyal ally and friend that also has enough sass to keep him in check! I adored Lilia's names for him!

There's a lot of tension in the book, with a few more calm moments now and then that simply lull you into a feeling okay before some new worrisome twist is sprang on you! And the ending? Well, talk about an explosive climax in more ways than one! And yes, it does end in a cliffhanger!! BUT it's the exciting kind of cliffhanger, one that leaves you excited and making grabby hands for the next book, but not one that leaves you screaming in frustration!

A fantastic second book very much deserving of 4.5 stars!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of The Eternity Key by Bree Despain!!

Hey there guys! Happy Friday!

I hope you guys are getting ready for the weekend! I am, but for a weekend at work! ;) My off days were Wednesday and Thursday this week!

Today for Friday Reads I have one of the ARCs that I had intended originally for ARC August, but that I ended up reading earlier.

Since it's a retelling of sort of the myth of Persephone and Hades, it totally counts towards my 2015 Mythology Reading Challenge, that had been very much abandoned for these past months!

The Eternity Key by Bree Despain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When last year I read The Shadow Prince I was quite pleasantly surprised about the twist on Greek mythology that the author had worked on. Qith some obvious references and a few surprises about who was who, I was left really looking forward to read the sequel!

Then I got approved for the sequel by the publisher on Netgalley (thank you!) and then came the Egdmont debacle and we had doubts about book 3 happening... and I ended up pushing back reading this one. Finally decided to go back to this series and very happy that I did, although I'm glad I didn't read it too much in advance of release date (rather quite a while after!) because there's quite the cliffhanger in the end!

I felt that the book was a bit slow at first... after all the revelations at the end of the first book, to find the crew stuck trying to find the Key and having no clue of what they're doing and trying to figure it out... I guess I was expecting them to be a bit more organized or to have more of a plan, but in the end they're such a bunch of teenagers, Greek myths or not, and they don't have a lot of knowlegde easily gathered, laying around.

What left me scratching my head was how wishy washy the team feel was, I was expecting that after all that they went through, they'd rely more on each other but it seemed like although they had THE common interest, they had gone back to their own lives, pretending like the clock is not ticking and the Skylords are not likely to make an appearance at any point.

Maybe it was because it's been a while since I read the first book but I felt like the relationship between Haden and Daphne had taken a few steps back in the beginning of this one, and we spend a good part of the book with these two not just trying to continue with school work, trying to find the Key, but also figuring out (again?) what they feel about each other (in Daphne's case) and how to express said feelings (in Haden's case).

We meet some new characters in this book and some are clearly the enemy while others are a bit more in the grey area, if not undercover allies, but with such high stakes at play, I feel that Haden was being wary enough but also keeping secrets from each other was a problem the group shouldn't have at this stage of the fight, but secrets they kept.

The relationships in general were well developed and we didn't just limit our focus to Daphne and Haden, but also Daphne and the very hard relationship of trusting him again after all that she found out, and how her father makes every possible effort. We also see Tobin struggling with his wanting to find his sister and how knowing his mother's secrets has killed their relationship.

The last part of the book was the best part, since we had the musical opening night with the Key search in a very heist like plan, and the action doesn't stop because there's plenty of surprises, revelations about characters that we thought that weren't important, and quite a dire betrayal! I suspected the traitor a pair of times while reading, but I was NOT expecting THAT kind of betrayal!

A very cliffhangery ending that leaves us wondering how anything can be fixed and worked around and very excitedly (if a lil vexed) awaiting the next book! Well deserved 3.5 stars for this one.




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Tell Me Tuesdays #29!!

Tell Me Tuesdays is a meme/feature created by the awesome ladies of Please Feed The Bookworm and La La In The Library, where we can share how we choose the book we are currently reading from our TBR pile!

I'm always curious about that, cause as much as I tend to make myself a rough schedule for books to read and the like, I'm quite a mood reader and sometimes I just HAVE to ignore my schedule and read something else!


I almost forgot to post my Tell Me Tuesday post this week! I was so tired yesterday and then this morning I was so busy with the kitchen thing, I nearly forgot!!

Public Enemies by Ann Aguirre


In Book 2 of the Immortal Game trilogy, Edie must learn the rules of the game . . . and then play better than anyone else.

Through a Faustian bargain, Edie Kramer has been pulled into the dangerous world of the Immortal Game, where belief makes your nightmares real. Hungry for sport, fears-made-flesh are always raising the stakes. To them, human lives are less than nothing, just pieces on a board.

Because of her boyfriend Kian's sacrifice, she's operating under the mysterious Harbinger's aegis, but his patronage could prove as fatal as the opposition. Raw from deepest loss, she's terrified over the deal Kian made for her. Though her very public enemies keep sending foot soldiers--mercenary monsters committed to her destruction--she's not the one playing under a doom clock. Kian has six months...unless Edie can save him. And this is a game she can't bear to lose.

 Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton

 Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars in this soapy, drama-packed novel featuring diverse characters who will do anything to be the prima at their elite ballet school.

Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance—but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.





Today I have a physical ARC that I got from the author's assistant and that might even count as my first ARC request ever, this one I'm only reading during the day because I fear how creepy the first book was and I think that Public Enemies will be even worse!

Then I've also started this month's book for the Reader's Lounge Book Club, and it's making me very happy I never got too serious about ballet! Oi!

And I'm also reading a 2016 ARC that I'm loving to pieces and that once I'm done I'll probably be pushing on every single one of you, but for now my lips are sealed!
  
So what are you all guys reading and how and why did you decide to pick up that book? Shiny new ARC? Comfort read? Scheduled for review? Must have new release? Tell me!!