Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor and Flame In The Mist by Renee Ahdieh!!!

Hellooooo there guys!!

*waves*

Is there anyone still there? I wouldn't be surprised if this poor corner of the internet has been mostly forgotten because I've been updating so rarely as of late.

I'm not entirely sure why I've so completely lost my blogging motivation as of late, because I have not lost my will and love to read, or stopped raving about books I've loved... I guess I didn't have the mental energy to try and write and be somewhat coherent in putting my opinions to the page.

But here I am! With reviews for two books I've thoroughly loved recently, and hopefully I'll manage to keep a consistency with blogging once or twice a week from now on!


Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


5 stars are not enough for this gem of a book. I foresee a massive book hangover, mostly because I've already re-read it, once again via the audiobook, even if I'm also perusing the Kindle edition while the most awesome Steve West utters the magical words that the dreamsmith & word mage that is Laini Taylor. After two re-reads I'm itching for a third one and wishing I could wrap Laini's words around me like a comfy blanket and cocoon myself away from the world and lose myself in the stories of Weep.

I've heard people say that the book dragged or was slow in parts, I don't know if it's because of the kind of reader I am, or because I could listen to Steve West read a grocery list and be enthralled, but it was never the case for me. All the myths and legends and Lazlo's story and his exploits were utterly fascinating, his obsession with Weep becoming mine too! I adored Sarai and her family of scared but powerful children of gods.

I must confessed I was so completely wrapped in Lazlo's story that the firs time to turned to Sarai's part of the story it jarred me a little, because I wanted more Dreamer and more of his adventures and the mysteries that might be revealed, but soon enough I was lost into the pain and small joys and odd life that the children of the gods had carved for themselves, even if it seemed driven on by revenge and pain. It made the story bigger, more relevant and it burrowed itself into my heart even more.

The way the stories merged, with the Dreamer and the Muse of Nightmares meeting in dreams and weaving their own worlds and dreaming about a world were hatred from both sides wouldn't be the main driving feeling of the story was enchanting, heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

By the end of the book there are quite a few unexpected revelations that even then were not completely explained but that challenged both the characters notions and our owns and definitely ends with a cliffhanger, because even if the events are resolved, we're left with much dread and uncertainty and I have no idea where the next book will take us, expect that I fear & expect a lot of heartbreak to come, in many ways and I expect to continue to feel both a lot of empathy and frustration and anger at Minia.

I also adored whatever small winks to the DOSAB trilogy in the shape of myths that were probably history, and they also left me wanting to check with those other characters so much!

Do I recommend this book? With all my heart!! I want to wrap these words around me like a warm blanket, even those who were utterly heartbreaking.
Am I dying to get my hands on the sequel? You betcha!!



Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I knew I loved Renee Ahdieh's writing style from her previous duology, but I was once again ensorcelled by her words, descriptions, character and the worlds she creates!

Mariko is a character that might not be entirely easy to love at first, but I simply felt so much for her and her struggles, trying to survive, then trying to get revenge and some measure of freedom and then as she continues to learn things that challenge her world view, trying to find out what she really thinks it right and worth fighting for! She's resourceful, obstinate, passionate and not too prideful to end up admiting when she's wrong.

As I'm not Japanese or have more than a passing knowledge of its culture, I cannot speak of the accuracy of all the cultural details included, but I felt that there must have been so much research done and I felt really immersed into the culture and could almost see, feel, smell and touch the surroundings and every single detail included in the book!

I knew there would be some measure of romance and I really enjoyed it being of the hate to love variety. I expected something that seemed to be wrong but I ended up being proven right when I wasn't really expecting it to be so. Criptic I know, but in case you're as oblivious as me, I don't want to spoil any possible surprises!

There's so much political intrigue going on that is driving the story in ways we don't really put together until quite further on, and so much more both political and magical that is only hinted and partially revealed at the end and that obviously leaves us really wanting so much more!

The ending is rather cliffhangery but at the same time not? It's hard to explain because we definitely are left with everything hanging, with many revelations and parts of the past unexplained but at the same time we're not left in the dark about the fate of the main characters, they're just left at really crappy places, but ready to fight even if we're not sure how they will do it!

Very much deserving of 5 stars! I'm still not sure if I devoured it or if it devoured me, but I cannot wait till I get my hands on its sequel!


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Illumicrate May Box is HERE!!

Hiya there guys!

Today I'm oh so very happy to share Illumicrate May's box!!

It arrived last week but since I had just returned from BEA & vacation and even if I took some pics and flailed very much about it on Twitter and I was beyond happy about all the goodies... it's taken me a while to get my s... eerrrm, well, it's just taken me a while to find the motivation and the time to write this post!

I've said this before, but Illumicrate is a quarterly subscription box based in the UK, which means it was my obvious option when I decided to go for one. If want more info about it, you can go HERE!

Now, let me show you the goodies!! As you can see Dylan was as excited as I was to dive into the box!

And here's the full loot! Book, sampler, mug, pins, bookmark and more!

The main book is When We Collided by Emery Lord, with a signed bookplate and gorgeous artwork postcards! - I had heard so many good things for this one and now I can check it out!

There was also a sampler of the UK edition of Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor - Now that I have both the US & UK samplers, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna preorder the UK edition because I adore that cover!

Then we have an extremely cool mug from Shanelle of Mother of Books Designs! I now want a physical book club to take the mug to the meetings!

A super cute notepad perfect for every reader from Goodnight Boutique!

An adorable bookworm bookmark from My Bookish Mark.

More cuteness in the shape of a "Readers Gonna Read" pin from Literaryemporium!

And again more cuteness in stamp shape "Ex Libris" from LittleStamp Store!

To top it all, a few more extra promo goodies, like postcards and pins!

And that's all folks! I'm completely in love with this box and I'm already getting excited to see what will be in August's box!!

Friday Reads: Dreams of Gods And Monsters by Laini Taylor!!!

Hello everyone & happy Friday! This week we're gonna welcome the weekend with the review of a most wonderful book as my Friday Reads!

This book is yet another final book in a series, and this series is one that I started earlier this year. I'm glad that only had to wait a few months till this book was released, cause otherwise it would have killed me! Those cliffhangers were of the very evil quality! As it is, this one is part of my 2014 Series Challenge and it counts as another finished series, woohooo!

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Dreams of Gods and Monster is the last book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy and it is a worthy ending for it. It might have affected me emotionally more than other people due to personal circumstances, but it is a book full of wonderful epic writing, tension and our very beloved characters and a few new ones.

As with any final book review I will do my very best to keep it as spoiler free as possible but there might be some spoilers for the other two books in the trilogy.

After the quite cliffhangery ending of Days of Blood & Starlight we are facing quite dangerous odds, from enemies within and without and if the stakes weren't high enough, we're introduced to some new characters which was a bit surprising. Who are these people and why are we getting to know about them only now? How are they gonna be relevant to the story?

The story is told through various different POVs and although some weren't as central to the bigger picture, they all gave us some insight or other, and they all started or took part of the action and moved the plot along.

Through Morgan and Eliza we see how people on Earth and the bulk of humanity react to the arrival of the angels, and we also get much more than I would have expected at first, even if I suspected something big was afoot. Nope, THAT I was not expecting! And that's all I will say about them, anything else would risk spoilers cause once I start talking about what a weasel Morgan was but how in the end it was the starting point of something for the best... I might end up spoiling something!

Akiva and Karou are still finding their footings as new allies, and it's painfully amazing seeing them work through the differences of their races and search for that hope of a better world for everyone and a chance at love and a future for themselves. My heart was hurting with every interaction, full of hope, joy, sadness, mourning... A bit of everything really!

Zuzana and Mik have to be my favourite characters in this series. Being human they might lack the magic and the powers to make big contributions, but trust me, they are not useless at all! Not only they provide a bit of comic relief, but they also provide a different perspective and a different support for Karou. These books wouldn't be as wonderful as they are without the rabid faery and the violin boy!

Liraz and Ziri are two secondary characters that really come into their own in this book, and that take charge of themselves and their lives. Not only that, they are instrumental in the changes and battles to be fought and in the outcome of not only the battles but also the whole course of the war!

The world building has always been extraordinary in these books, but now it takes on a bigger dimension. Magic and science mix in an epic way and show us that knowledge lost can be utterly dangerous and that Earth and Eretz are not the only places out there, and that the portals are more dangerous than we knew.

The ending is more open than I had expected but it is a perfect ending. Full of hope and beginnings and middles and with a lot of not exactly dull moments to image. It left me bawling like there was no tomorrow, but it was just perfect. Very much deserved 5 stars for this final book, and all the stars to the whole trilogy. Thank you, Laini Taylor, for these wondrous books!



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Mark This Book Monday: Days of Blood And Starlight!!!

For this Mark This Book Monday I'm finally reviewing another book for my 2014 Series Challenge and this one is a sequel that doesn't suffer from middle book syndrome at all! It manages to surprise, stun and break your heart a bit more with each page!

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After finishing Daughter of Smoke and Bone and having to deal with that ending, I just had to start reading this one immediately! I had to stop after the first few chapters though, because it was so hard to read! Such heartbreak both on Karou's and Akiva's sides!

I will try my best to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, but you really shouldn't read it if you still haven't read the first book!

Karou finally knows who she was and it's learning to be both her blue haired self and who she was before, now that all her memories are back. It has destroyed her as much as it has made her whole and she has vowed to commit herself to do Brimstone's work to rebuild the army of the Chimaera to be able to fight back the Seraphim after being almost wiped out.

Akiva has decided to fight towards making sure the war will stop, to make sure a better future without hate and war can be possible, even if he doesn't seem to have any possibility of hope for himself. He starts slowly but keeps on finding ways to stop the slaughter, even if it's in small ways at first.

This was a very dark and very heartwrenching book, so much that despite not wanting to put it down, I had to take a break because I was getting so heartbroken page after page!

Karou is such an amazing character and she undergoes such a journey again in here, from heartbroken and full of pain and resentment and anger and fear to a much more assertive, strong and decided to make any sacrifices necessary to save those she love and to stop the war and murdering.

Thankfully we have Zuzanna and Mik to add some sense of wonder and magic in the darkness and some sense of strenght and to remind Karou of what and why she's fighting for!

The ending is quite tough and quite full of unexpect surprises and twists but it does leave us with a little bit of hope. I'm just too stunned and looking forward to the next book. It doesn't end with an awful gruelling cliffhanger, but it does leave us with a big looming menace, but Karou is left in a position where at least it seems that she'll be ready to fight!

5 stars or more to this one!



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Friday Reads: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor!!

This week's second Friday Reads is a book that's in two of my challenges for this year, the 2014 series challenge on Read Sleep Repeat and the 2014 TBR pile challenge on Bookish, and for that one it's also the Read-Along book for January!

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An absolutely amazing book! I have let this book settle in my mind for a while in the hope that time would allow me to write a more coherent review for this book, but I'm quite afraid that won't be as easy...

I loved this book, I really really loved this book, and read in January it's and will be one of my absolute favourite books of the whole year. I had been postponing reading it and now I feel like kicking myself for it, except that when I think the final book of this trilogy comes out this year, I think the wait was worth to save me long waits between books!

The first thing about this book that grabbed me from the first page was the writing. It is absolutely beautiful and can be lyrical and creepy and so vivid that you feel like you're walking the pages with the characters.

When I went into the book I wasn't very sure what the book was about, I had read a gorgeous novella "Night of Cake and Puppets" on the same world, but I didn't have a clue about what the plot was about, only that Karou could use a sort of magic & wishes. And wow... that is just but a grain of sand compared to what the book really packs! At some point I feared all would end up into a very trite Angels vs Demons rehash, but I should not have doubted Laini Taylor in the least because what she did was simply fantastic.

You really don't know what to expect page after page, and even though you get hints here and there, I must confess though I suspected quite a bit, I wasn't entirely sure I was right and some of the revelations did really manage to surprise me.

The book has two very distinct halves, one where we are introduced to the world, to Karou and her life and we get little glimpses of another world beyond ours, with the wishes, and Karou's blue hair and how she tries to be an art student in Prague and do the errands in search for teeth all over the world. Then winged Akiva appears and the game changes. We start getting some more flashbacks and the final part of the story is Karou trying to find what was really going on and finding out who or what she really is.

The character development was fantastic, I already was madly in love with Zuzana, the rabid fairy and Mik, the violing boy, but properly meeting Karou and going on this journey with her was fantastic and heartbreaking. Akiva was perfect kind of intriguing, dangerous, brooding and conflicted kind of character that Karou needed to push her along.

I just cannot say anymore without risking some spoilers and I don't wanna do that at all, this book is one that is going to be brilliant either way, but I feel that discovering every little nuance of it as it comes up will make it even better!

Now I must go and read the next book, even if it means I'll have the long 3 month wait till the final book comes out!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a fantastic book, one that I can't recommend enough and that deserves 5 stars (and a few more added to it!).



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Friday Reads: Mini Reviews of Night of Cake And Puppets and Brooke!

Hello everyone!
For this week's edition of Friday Reads I'm happy to say that I have successfully completed my challenge of November is for Novellas that Lisa Loves Literature set up!

I have read all the novellas I had planned to and one extra!

Brooke by Veronica Rossi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sometimes novellas are more fun than anything else, and sometimes they add to the story and manage to make you appreciate a character that you weren't so keen on before.

Brooke, the novella, manages the later for me, and I was trying to find time at work this last night to finish it! We get to know her a little bit better, with a few flashbacks and also quite a bit of introspection and we get to understand her motivations better. Her POV is not as harsh or confrontational as she comes along when it's from Aria's, and we also get to see how kick arse she is. I'm all for kick arse main ladies, and the more the merrier! Brooke can hold her own with any of the guys from the Six.

She seems to be trying to sort out herself and her feelings for Perry and also, there's a threat to the Tides' new compound in the cave. Loads of action with some romance and a bit of flirting here and there rounds up this novella pretty well. A very nice addition to the TTEN world, and having the first three chapters of Into The Still Blue doesn't hurt either!

Well deserved 3.5 to 4 stars!




Night of Cake & Puppets by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Night of Cake & Puppets was my introduction to the world of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bones series, and it showed me that I have really been missing out! I was so tempted to just start the first book right after reading this one, but I've decided that I'll wait till the final book is out so I can binge read the whole series!

This is the story of Zuzana, the "rabid fairy", and Mik her "violin boy" and how their first night and first date played out. I went into this story knowing nothing about the world or the characters and I was enthralled, enchanted and in love by the first few pages! The writing is just fabulous, so evocative and so strong! Full of magic & quite creepy, fantastic really. And the characters have such fantastic and unique voices, I fell in love with them instantly.

If you, like me, hadn't read anything by Laini Taylor before do start with this one! Even if it's gonna be probably a bigger treat for those fans of the books, it was a perfect stand alone introduction to the world and an absolute treat to read!

Very well deserved 5 stars!



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