Saturday Pages: ARC Review of Winterspell by Claire Legrand!!

Hello everyone! Happy Saturday!

How's your weekend going? Mine is going pretty well, losing sleep while devouring an extremely captivating book and finding myself actually swooning with a character like very few times (Jamie Frasier the Highlander is quite something!!) and today I'm actually off to have a girl's pampering day with one of my besties, as an her early birthday gift for me!

But I have a review for an ARC as this week's Saturday Pages and it's quite a great one! I was very lucky indeed to be approved this one by Simon & Schuster via Edelweiss for this one on my second try! As an ARC I'm also counting this one for my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge!

Winterspell by Claire Legrand

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Winterspell was one of those highly awaited books that I was beyond happy (and surprised!) that I got the chance to read and review ahead of time. I requested it via Edelweiss and was declined the first time, so imagine my surprise when I tried again and was approved for it!

Since I knew there was a prequel novella coming out, I decided to wait to read it after I had read the novella, and I think it was quite the right choice! Reading Winterspell will spoil the story of Summerfall for you, and it was fantastic to discover Cane before the war and gave a much different and welcome insight to what's going on in Winterspell too.

Winterspell starts with a hint at Cane but with the focus on Clara Stole and her struggle to feel safe in her life in New York. Her mother recently dead, murdered, and her father folded in grief and a puppet of the mob, she struggles to keep herself and her sister safe from some very dark characters that are her father's "allies".

Clara is quite a complex character, she has an inner strenght and resiliance that seems to fly out of the window when confronted with some dark (and frankly scary) characters, but I couldn't blame her for feeling terrified of a certain Dr, he's a character that would make you shiver in anger and fear all at the same time. She's had a bit of an unusual upbringing with her Godfather, a very curious man that was a friend of her mother's and that has been telling her stories and training her on self defence since she was little.

I had began to wonder what the connections with Cane would be and where on the storyline after Summerfall we'll land with this one, and even if I didn't get my curiosity satisfied all too soon, I was treated to great storytelling and retelling, with some really interesting twists to the Nutcracker story thrown here and there!

Once Clara finds herself in Cane with Nicholas, she is thrown straight into a most dangerous game, war and dance of deceit, doubts, misplaced trust and self discovery that culminates on meeting Anise, the current queen of Cane and a half breed (that we met if briefly in Summerfall). Anise was a fascinating character, mad as a hatter and full of hate it seemed on the surface, but with a much unexpectly softer and fragile core that we barely get to glipse here and there. I found Clara's relationship with Nicholas and Anise both extremely interesting and well done, both serving to further the story and to help grow Clara's character to the savior that Cane needed.

The writing was gorgeous and captivating and I'm very much willing to read anything that Clare Legrand would write, and even if this one stands very well as a standalone, with an hopeful & open ending but satisfactory enough, I would also see enough openings for maybe companion novels or at least novellas, there's a lot of Cane that can be explored I'm sure!

A wonderful retelling that doesn't requite any knowlegde of the original story to be enjoyed, but those who know about the Nutcracker will find themselves delighted in the way that Clare has twisted the story in her own way. Very well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars to this one!



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First Chapter First Paragraph #11: Winterspell by Claire Legrand & Polaris by Mindee Arnett!!!

First Chapter, First Paragraph is one of the two memes that I will be alternating on Thursdays in place of my Ink & Batter posts during the summer, when I won't be baking due to the heat!

I discovered this meme via the ladies of My Shelf Confessions, and it is hosted on Tuesdays by Bibliophile by the Sea. But since I already have my blog tours posts and Tell Me Tuesdays, I thought that it'd work best on Thursdays for me!

The idea of this meme/feature is quite self-explanatory from its name, we share the first paragraph of the first chapter of our current read! Quite a good teaser for others to read and see if they'd be intrigued!

 Sooooo, I really haven't been reading much these past few days, so I'm still reading the same books I talked about on Tuesday and that means you guys are gonna get a peek at two ARCs and one of those is a 2015 one!! Excited?? I hope so!! Bear in mind, these paragraphs are taken from ARCs, so they might or might not remain like that on the finished books!

In case you are wondering why I haven't been reading the past days it's not cause I'm on a reading slump at all or cause I'm not enjoying the books (that I'm loving!) it's all a highlander's fault! I'm binge watching Outlander and falling madly in love with Jamie! *swoons*

 Winterspell by Claire Legrand

"One more hour and Clara Stole could turn criminal.

Could, that is, if she managed to stand her ground until then, for every eye in the crowd was watching her, waiting for her to say something impressive, something to commemorate the day. And she was so tired of fumbling through grand words that were never quite grand enough for such hungry, thirsty people."

Polaris by Mindee Arnett

"The spaceport's casino was the perfect spot for the deal to go down"

What? You want more? Ooookay!

"Jeth Seagrave knew it the moment he stepped inside. The place seemed to envelop him, the light so bright they made it almost impossible to see and the noise a constant vibration, everything from the hum of the slot machines to the shouts of dealers calling for bets. Some kind of mild, hypnotic music played in the background, blending the sounds together in a reassuring soundtrack -- time does not exist here, it seemed to intone. Here you are safe. Here you belong."





What do you think? Would you want to know more?
What are you reading right now?

Tell Me Tuesdays #12!!

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!

 Polaris by Mindee Arnett

"Following the events of Avalon, Jeth Seagrave and his crew are on the run. Jeth is desperate to find the resources and funding he needs to rescue his mother from an ITA’s research lab and leave this whole galaxy behind for a new life somewhere else. But the ITA is just as desperate, and soon Jeth finds himself pursued by a mysterious figure hell-bent on capturing Jeth and his crew—dead or alive. In a last-ditch effort to save everyone he holds dear, Jeth enters into a bargain with the last person he ever thought he'd see again: Dax Shepherd, the galaxy’s newest and most fearsome crime lord. And he’s not the only one: upon arriving back at Peltraz spaceport for the first time since he witnessed the death of his old employer, Jeth discovers Dax has a new partner: Jeth’s mother, Marian.

This shocking turn of events is only the first in another breathless, action-packed sci-fi adventure rife with danger, love, and betrayal, as Jeth has to once again ask himself how much he’s willing to invest in a morally bankrupt galaxy in the hopes of saving those he cares for."

 Winterspell by Claire Legrand

"Darkly romantic and entirely enchanting, this reimagining of The Nutcracker from Claire Legrand brims with magic, love, and intrigue. New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer (Cinder) says “this is not your grandmother’s Nutcracker tale.”

After her mother is brutally murdered, seventeen-year-old Clara Stole is determined to find out what happened to her. Her father, a powerful man with little integrity, is a notorious New York City gang lord in the syndicate-turned-empire called Concordia. And he isn’t much help.

But there is something even darker than Concordia’s corruption brewing under the surface of the city, something full of vengeance and magic, like the stories Clara’s godfather used to tell her when she was a little girl. Then her father is abducted and her little sister’s life is threatened, and Clara accidentally frees Nicholas from a statue that has been his prison for years. Nicholas is the rightful prince of Cane, a wintry kingdom that exists beyond the city Clara has known her whole life.

When Nicholas and Clara journey together to Cane to retrieve her father, Clara encounters Anise, the queen of the faeries, who has ousted the royal family in favor of her own totalitarian, anti-human regime. Clara finds that this new world is not as foreign as she feared, but time is running out for her family, and there is only so much magic can do..."


These two are ARCs, and both of them I'm reading more as me reads than actually because I must. Winterspell is a September release, so this one is also working on the review pile, but Polaris... well, Polaris is a total "I want to read it now and I don't care if it's a 2015 release" case. I won the ARC on a giveaway that the author did on her blog and I'm just so happy to have it in my hands! Thank you Mindee!

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!!

 

Friday Reads: Mini Review of Summerfall by Claire Legrand!!

Hello guys! Happy Friday and welcome to another edition of Friday Reads!

This week I'm failing a bit at reading, but since I've only had one day and a half off and I had to get ready an order of cupcakes, I feel like I can be dispensed... I am trying to catch up now, and hopefully during the weekend!

I'm starting with a mini review for a prequel novella that I adored and really made me look forward to the full lenght book!



Summerfall: A Winterspell Novella by Claire Legrand

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I first heard of this prequel novella for Winterspell, I preordered it as soon as it was up for it on Amazon. Then I got approved via Edelweiss for Winterspell and I kept wondering if I should read it or wait for the novella, and in the decided to wait. And it turns out it was the right choice!

Summerfall is a prequel and as such we are introduced to the world of Cane and to characters that won't probably be in Winterspell, but we are given and insight into the events that shaped what will be going on in the book and we are introduced both to the world of Cane and to Claire Legrand's quite beautiful writing!

Summerfall is the story of Rinka, a naive and sheltered faery that has a fascination for humans in a world were the relationships between both races are not at the best of times. She believes in understanding and getting to know each other to destroy prejudice and restore peace. She finds her chance to meet with the humans and try to work towards peace and soon realizes things are not that easy and soon her life and probably the entire realm's change.

Rinka is a wonderful character that starts as really naive but soon learns that she's way in over her head, but I loved that she never backed down, she took challenges on ahead and wanted to work for peace, even when the road was tough. That she might just loose her head for love and risked everything might seem silly, but it could be seen as another way to show that peace between the two races was possible, if love could be found.

The treachery of power and politics taking advantage of the differences between people and the fear that can generate is nothing now, and seeing it at play in Cane is a dire reminder we'd all do well in taking to heart. Facing the consequences of our choices and not shruging away from responsabilities are also themes explored in this novella.

Quite some strong themes, a good foundation to the world of Cane, well developed characters and a really swoony romance all mixed up make this novella a must read! Now I cannot wait to read Winterspell! Well deserved 4 stars!



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