Mark This Book Monday: Eon by Alison Goodman!!!

Hello guys! Welcome once again to a new Mark This Book Monday to start the week in the best way possible... with books!

The book I'm gonna be starting the week with was published quite a while back and had been in my TBR list for quite a while, but like all books that had been there a while, I didn't have it very present. Then after Debby from SnugglyOranges talked about reading it for her book club I thought that since I was in a total fantasy kick and this one had dragons... I just had to read it NOW!

This one finally counts towards my 2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge, that is actually the one that I've been doing rather worse at!

Eon by Alison Goodman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Eon was one of those books that had been in my TBR list for quite a while but for one reason or another I kept postponing it. But recently some bloggers had been highly recommending it again and I was very much in the mood to read fantasy, so I grabbed me a copy!

And am I happy that I did! This is an absolutely epic book with amazing world building, political plotting and amazing main and secondary characters. And did I mention that there are dragons?? Dragons!!

This is a fairly long book (it passes the 500 pages) but it never for a moment feels long! Once I started reading I didn't want to limit myself to a pair of chapters and wanted to continue reading. The world the author has created is captivating, full of its own mythology and rich in details that strangely enough never felt overwhelming. There were no descriptions or pieces of information or world building that felt like info dumping to me. I couldn't get enough of this world, its mythology or its details. It's based on China & Japan in ancient times, but I think they author spin it on her own way to create a world unique enough.

Eon is a fantastic character, drowning in fear and lies but always trying to find a way to survive. From having to hide who she is to embracing it, the journey is one full of tears, blood and strange chemicals. Deception has become her way of life since her master discovered her potential, and once it realizes (to an extent) she finds herself with more enemies that she could ever imagine. And the mysteries surrounding her are even more twisted that she could ever imagine.

There are a lot of secondary characters, and all of them quite well developed, even the villains aren't exactly black & white, Lord Ido being a rather complex character with quite a twist by the end of the book. My favourites have to be Lady Dela, Chart and Ryko. Each of this characters are not appreciated by their society, within varied degrees. Chart has severe physical deformities that make people think he's also equally deficient in his mental faculties, but nothing farther from the truth. Lady Dela is a Contraire with a body that doesn't match the soul and that chooses to live as a woman and despite being respected in the Palace by the Emperor's authority, behind closed doors the opinions of the court can differ. And Ryko is an elite soldier and an eunuch, and despite his military progress, his origins also count against him.

With this ragtag band of allies and very powerful enemies, Eon has to wade the political waters of an Empire with a sick Emperor and his brother that cannot wait to take the power for himself and the magical & also political waters of the Dragoneyes and their council. Magic is extremely important in this world, to keep the Empire running smoothly, the people safe and the Emperor unchallenged. But once alliances start mixing magic with politics, everything goes to hell in a handbasket!

Just... wow, I tumble myself into words with how fantastic this book is and I'm really not making it any justice! It's a brilliant book, go read it now! VERY MUCH DESERVED 5 STARS!





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Just Couldn't Put It Down July Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Just Couldn't Put It Down July Giveaway Hop hosted & organized by the amazing Val of Stuck in Books!

This blog hop is all about those books that we loved so much we just couldn't stop reading from beginning to end, forgetting about mundane things like eating or sleeping! One of those books for me was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell! I stayed up reading till I finished it, around 4 to 5 am in the morning! Lack of sleep ensued the next day, but I regret nothing! ;) And because somehow I failed to mention it, the contest is open INTERNATIONAL (from Spain with love!).

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Check out the rest of the participants on the blog hop so you can win more books!! And in case the linky doesn't work... Go check out Val's post on her blog HERE!



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Showcase Sunday #40!!

Showcase Sunday is a weekly feature hosted by Vicky of Books, Biscuits, and Tea where all book lovers can share with others what bookish goodness we got this week, be it purchased (physical or eBook), won, gifted or for review!

This week has been one of the more quiet kind of weeks when it comes to books for me. I still am waiting on a ton of books from The Book Depository, that if I'm honest I have no idea where I'll put... I'm running out of space!! All I got this week were eBooks and some awesome signed swag!

Purchased (via Kindle app)

Written In Red by Anne Bishop

Outcast by C.J. Redwine

Sisters of Wind and Flame by Jennifer Ellision

For Review (via Xpresso Book Tours)

Gypsy by Trisha Leigh

Signed Swag

Massive thank you's to the very awesome & sweet Lori M Lee for sending these internationally!!

That's all for this week! Getting signed swag is fantastic and now I have my bookplate for when my preordered hardback edition of Gates arrives!


What all did you guys get this week?

Saturday Pages: ARC Review of Rain by Amanda Sun!

Hey guys! Welcome to Saturday Pages!

This week I've been catching up on my review pile, so today I have another ARC for review! As such, it also counts for my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge! I didn't have this one ready for release week cause I was dealing with the Ruin & Rising hangover, but I want to give big thanks to Harlequin Teen for approving so many of my requests on Netgalley!

Rain by Amanda Sun

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


First of all, thank you so much Harlequin Teen for approving so many of my requests on NetGalley!

I had this one on my review pile to have it up on release week, but then Ruin & Rising and its massive hangover happened, so I ended up ignoring my review pile for a while and did some comfort reading... But now this week I've decided to go back to crack on my ARCs!

I liked Ink quite a bit overall, although I ended up giving it 3 stars cause some things really managed to annoy me enough, and with Rain it seems like we're exactly at the same point. There are some parts of the book that I absolutely adore, and others that annoy me to no end and make me want to skip pages to avoid them.

Let's start with what I loved in Ink and continued to adore in Rain, first of, the Japanese contemporary part. I've never been to Japan, but I feel like we really get a very authentic and real look at Japan, with it's everyday traditions and customs and all the little Japanese words here and there (I might end up learning a lil Japanese with this books, as a side perk!), and also how genuine the way Katie feels like an outsider. I've spent months in India, and no matter how comfortable or how welcome I was everyone, there were always little things that made me stand out or reminded me I was foreign, so I could relate with Katie. Even more imagine studying in a country where you have to learn a language with a complete different alphabet and way to write... challenging to say the least!

I also loved the whole mythology about the Kami, and all the revelations we got on this book and how it opened for what I feel will be an epic battle in the conclusion in the next and final book.

What I wasn't keen at all was the romance and the teenage angst. Katie and Tomo with their starcrossed lovers bit and then all the added satellites around and all the drama that was created and added on top of the Kami?? Wow, it was just too much for me. Not a fan of drama, and some of them were petty teenage woes and ended up making me want to skip paragraphs. Katie and Tomo took the whole bloody book to finally realize that secrets are no good and communication is key, so I'm hoping most of the drama has been left behind now!

I feel like the teenage drama mixed with the Kami threat is a bit too much for me, so I'm hoping the next book with focus more on the Kami and less on the drama!

I am quite curious enough about more information on Katie and her dad (hopefully) and more answers on that front, as well as the big confrontation I expect will happen, and even more information about the Kami and their myths. So, I'll be awaiting the third (and I think final) book.

I'm giving this one 3 stars, cause after all the likes and dislikes it comes to a bit of a happy middle of sorts!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of Unwept by Tracy & Laura Hickman!

Hello everyone! Welcome to this Friday that has started a bit too early for my taste for me, since I'm working morning shift today. It's all for a good cause since I'm gonna be going to see one of my besties performing in the evening.

For this week's Friday Reads I'm gonna be catching on my ARCs for review since I've been slacking on them a bit as of late, but I needed a little of pushing the review pile order after book hangovers and the like. As an ARC for review this one counts towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge.

Unwept: Book One of The Nightbirds by Tracy Hickman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


When I first saw this book on NetGalley I was very much intrigued and decided to request it, and I was quite pleased when I got approved (thank you, Tor Books!).

Upon starting I was quite right hooked by the very eery and creepy beginning and then quite even more with the mystery and unknowns that are all over the story. This book has such a gothic mystery and romance feel to it, with a very compelling atmosphere and full of creepy and disquieting moments.

The narrative was a very mysterious one, no matter how many tiny clues we kept on getting here and there, nothing seemed to make sense cause we seemed to be lacking some foundation of information so none of the pieces would click. The writing was quite beautiful too, so while I kept devouring page after page trying to come upon some more answers, I was also quite enchanted with the words themselves.

As a first book in a series or trilogy, I feel that it sets up the world in a rather interesting way, but I felt like by end of the book I was left with too many questions unanswered and a rather narrow view of the world of the Nightbirds. Also, some of the explanations were a bit on the vague side and that's mostly where the paranormal (so to speak) part of the book came into view. My confusion and lack of more world building is probably what has knocked the rating down for me. Also, even if the explanation seems like a nice twist on well known religious beliefs, it seemed a bit timid? grey?... I dunno, I guess I was expecting a bit more after all the mystery!

The main character Ellis was quite a challenge, not that she was unlikeable but at first as an amnesiac and infirm recovering she seemed to have very little of a will at first, and although she doesn't know who she is or what is going on, she develps a very healthy self preservation sense and even if she sometimes fail to show common sense, by the end of the book she shows that she can stand for herself and ready to fight, and that gave me quite a lot of hope for the coming books.

The other characters are rather mysterious, keeping in tune with the feel of the book, but they just felt a bit cartoonish on occasion, like augmented characterstics but not real feel behind them... might have been intentional given our later discoveries but left me a bit unsatisfied.

I will probably be checking out the next book and despite some of my grips with the book I still give it 3 stars, Ellis seems like a character with progression and the atmosphere and writing were quite fantastic.



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First Chapter, First Paragraph #1: Eona by Alison Goodman!

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!

Eona by Alison Goodman

"The dragons were crying.

Perhaps the ten spirit beasts had rallied from their grief and returned to the Circle of Twelve. I took a deep breath and eased into the unnerving sensation of mind-sight. The sea before me blurred into surging silver as my focus moved beyond the earthly plane, into the pulsing colours of the parallel energy world. Above me, only two of the twelve dragons were in their celestial domains: Lord Ido's blue Rat Dragon in the north-northwest, the beast's massive body arched in pain, and my own red dragon in the east. The Mirror Dragon. The Queen. The other ten dragons had still not returned from wherever spirit beasts fled to grieve."





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

Waiting On Wednesday #49!!

 
Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted at Breaking The Spine  that spotlights those can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-them books that we are eagerly awaiting!

What book am I hoping-it-get-here-already-cause-I-can't-wait this week? Gates of Thread And Stone by Lori M Lee!!

Goodreads Summary:

"In the Labyrinth, we had a saying: keep silent, keep still, keep safe.

In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret—she can manipulate the threads of time. When Kai was eight, she was found by Reev on the riverbank, and her “brother” has taken care of her ever since. Kai doesn’t know where her ability comes from—or where she came from. All that matters is that she and Reev stay together, and maybe one day move out of the freight container they call home, away from the metal walls of the Labyrinth. Kai’s only friend is Avan, the shopkeeper’s son with the scandalous reputation that both frightens and intrigues her.

Then Reev disappears. When keeping silent and safe means losing him forever, Kai vows to do whatever it takes to find him. She will leave the only home she’s ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power."


Why am I eagerly awaiting Gates of Thread And Stone? Well, I had been following Lori on Twitter for a while once she announced that she was going to publish her book and when I read the summary I was hooked! A girl that can manipulate the threads of time? A city that is a Labyrinth? A girl that doesn't know about her past?? I cannot wait to read all about it! And I've been so much in the mood for fantasy as of late!

What are you all (im)patiently awaiting this week?

Tell Me Tuesdays #2!!

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!

Hexed by Michelle Krys!


If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.


I got Hexed in the mail a pair of weeks back and when one Becca from Pivot Book Reviews saw it suggested that we'd do a buddy read for it, so that's why Hexed is the book I'm reading right now as I just started it last night, after finishing Unwept last night!.

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!!