Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Deliverance by C.J. Redwine!!!

As the last entry for this week's Mark This Book Monday I have one of my most awaited books of the year! I was extremely happy and grateful when I was approved for it on Edelweiss by Harper Teen, since I rarely get approved by them!

This one counts for two of my challenges, the 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program and the 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge!

Deliverance by C.J. Redwine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a brilliant ending to a fantastic trilogy, but I don't think I'm ready to say goodbye to Rachel and Logan and Willow and Quinn... *clutches book*

I was beyond happy and honoured when I was finally approved for an eARC of this one Edelweiss by Harper Teen and I'm grateful, since they very rarely approve my requests!

As the final book of the series, there might be some spoilers for the previous books, so please be aware of that. I will be keeping my review as spoiler free as possible so it will be a bit vague.

After the nonstop action and heartbreak of Deception, I was kind of scared of reading Deliverance, even more after the very cruel cliffhanger ending! But I was quite reassured since C.J. had assured me on Twitter that Deliverance would compensate us from all that suffering!

Rachel and Logan are now separated and in extremely tough situations both of them and both have only themselves to rely on, Rachel because she's in enemy's hands and Logan cause despite it all, he's the leader and the man with the ideas & plans. Both are en route to Rowansmark, Rachel being dragged there as prisoner and Logan trying to rescue her.

Both Rachel and Logan are amazing characters, and they've both had such a wonderful character development throughout the whole trilogy and even if Logan's has been fantastic, I think Rachel's the most amazing of them both. She started as a headstrong and reckless girl that gets broken and is left as a mere shadow of what she was only filled with pain and revenge, but she continues to go on, to try her best and ends up facing her demons and finding the hope of healing.

I loved how Logan always respects Rachel and even though he wants to protect her, she never underestimates her and never tries to stop her from being the fighter she is at heart. And Rachel IS a fighter but she also learns that she can rely on her friends for whatever kind of support she might need, and learns to keep hope. She can rescue herself and she doesn't expect others to do so for her, but she keeps the hope of Logan coming for her and she plans to help once he does.

What I also appreciated very much was how well crafted the villains of the series are. Not only there are evil and repulsing ones but strangely enough we end up feeling for one them, unexpectedly understanding his hate and misguided actions, and in the end feel really bad for him and his fate!

The rest of the secondary characters feel very much alive, from Quinn and Willow to the many new characters that we meet in this book (and some of them are little easter eggs by name for anyone that follows C.J. on Twitter and knows of her fellow writer friends).

This was a brilliant final book for this very amazing part dystopian part fantasy series, one that I plan to re-read for sure, while I wait for the next book from C.J. Redwine, that has become one of my auto-buy authors! Very well deserved 5 stars for this one!



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Friday Reads: Sixth Grave on the Edge by Darynda Jones!!

Hello guys! Happy Friday! Even if I work this weekend and I work morning shift, today is a good day, cause it's my day off! ;)

In this week's Friday Reads I have a book that's part of my 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program challenge list and that's part of one of the very few adult series that I still follow (along with the Fever series and the Chicagoland Vampires).

Sixth Grave on the Edge by Darynda Jones

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Since I discovered the Charley Davidson series it has become one of my favourite urban fantasy/paranormal series, and one of the very few adult ones that I'm still following, preordering and reading almost religiously.

There is still so much of the world building in this series that is to come, cause we're still left with quite a few questions unanswered, even if we get a few twists and reveals in this book (a pair of them quite on the BIG side) but the biggest strenght of this series are the characters and the humour.

I love Charley and her very peculiar self, she's quite unique and hilarious and even though sometimes I wish she wasn't quite so heads-first into things, cause she's got enough bad run-ins with bad guys to try and get some caution and a bigger sense of self-preservation, but when she is on the path of helping someone, she tends to lose perspective easily. I love her relationship with Cookie and Amber and I love Cookie and Amber themselves! I also adore her relationship with Reyes and how she can be clueless and infuriating and also how she tries to put him in his place on occasion.

Reyes is one of those alpha bad boys that aren't hard to find in paranormal books, but given that he's the son of Satan, some evilness of character seems to be granted. He's changed sides because of Charley and despite his very aggresive tendencies, and how infuriating it can be for him having Charley running head-first into situations, he's always there for her, no matter what.

Their chemistry is totally off the charts, and that's as present as ever in this booka and after having him send Charley a curve ball in the shape of a proposal, here we see them learning to work more as a team and Charley making a choice that might not be the best one for the universe (apparently) but it's the right one for her.

There are a lot of threads and stories going on at the same time now, since this is the sixth book, some are more fate-of-the-world related than others, and some show more connections between them than others, but all seem to get a little of time in this book. We see Charley playing match-maker with Cookie and Robert (Robert who? Uncle Bob!), we get some really strange vibes off Charley's dad and step-mother (there's something else in there that we don't know about) and by the end of the book we get TWO big things happen, one of them quite ENTIRELY unexpected, at least for me!

Now I'm even more excited for book 7 (Seventh Grave and No Body) and I'm wondering if is it the last one, or are we getting an 8th one?? Either way, cannot wair for more Charley and Reyes!! Well deserved 4 stars!



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Friday Reads: Strange And Ever After by Susan Dennard!!

Hello everyone! Happy Friday!

This week has been a bit off for me, since I missed on my Monday review because I didn't read at all during the weekend due to my co-worker's wedding, recovery after it and massive book hangover after reading Ruin & Rising.

Finally I decided to read one of my precious ARCs I got approved on Edelweiss by HarperTeen and I chose the final book in yet another trilogy that ends this year as my Friday Reads this week! It is also part of two of my challenges, the 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and the 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program!

 Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I got approved for Strange And Ever After by Harper on Edelweiss I was not only surprised but also it totally made my week! So when I was trying to shake my latest massive book hangover, I decided that reading this one a little earlier than planned was to be the little treat to shake my book hangover.

It might have not been such a good choice. And no, I'm not saying that cause the book wasn't good or captivating. No, I'm just afraid this one is also gonna give me yet another emotional book hangover!

As the final book in the trilogy, I might end up talking about something that might be a spoiler for the previous two books, but I will try my best to keep this review as completely spoiler free as possible.

Strange and Ever After stars right where A Darkness Strange and Lovely ended. With Eleanor and the Spirit Hunters having more reason than ever to go after Marcus and try to finally defeat him. They go from Paris to Marseille and there to Egypt, looking for a way to get a step before Marcus and get the edge they need to stop him.

Eleanor changed a lot during the course of the second book, and even though I found myself wanting to scold her quite often, it was her road to walk and her choices to make. Eleanor is a flawed character, she doesn't make the best choices ever and she lets her emotions rule her choices most of the time, but she's a fighter, she's insanely loyal to her friends and she is not a quitter. Even if there were occasions that I wondered how could she be so thick and not stop and think for a moment, Eleanor had a lot of character development, going from being controlled by her magic and choosing the easiest way to learning how to keep going after tough choices and how to fulfill her potential.

Daniel, Oliver, Joseph, Jie, Allison and Marcus were more than just secondary characters. All of them had their time to shine and their time to grow, to progress and to move the plot along. They were all important to Eleanor in one way or another, and they all helped her realize who she is and what she wants to do and what choices she wanted to make.

For a while there I feared a love triangle was brewing and I was quite irritated thinking that it'd happen, thankfully it was just an unfounded suspicion. The romance still has a place in this book, punctuating how important it is to have something else to fight for than just revenge and how having a future to look forward to will give you strength to go on against some really bad odds.

The book was full of action and even if the pacing faltered a little bit on a few occasions, with some down time and preparations in the middle of the fighting and chasing that sometimes felt a bit uneven, it never stopped having me intrigued and captivated by what was going on. With humour and banter and the introduction of a slightly different variant of Egyptian mythology from the one we know, even the slower passages weren't boring.

The ending has left me quite emotionally wrenched and I won't say much for fear of spoiling something. Just have tissues ready cause I was ugly crying for a while there.

A very good final book for a trilogy that has a great mix of paranormal and magic with historical fiction (with a few dashes of steampunk) and well deserving of 4 to 4.5 stars.



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Saturday Pages: Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo!!!

Hello everyone! I'm hoping the weekend is starting right for you all! I'm gonna be trying to sleep some before getting ready to attend the wedding of one of my co-workers, but I'm leaving you all with the review of a wonderful and heartbreaking book as this week's Saturday Pages entry!

As many others this year, it is also the final book in a trilogy and thankfully is one of those that has not disappointed at all! This book very much makes the series once again for me! And it also counts for my 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program challenge!

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ruin and Rising was one of those highly awaiting books of the year for me, and really there seems to have been a few already. But when so many amazing series end this year, how can you not be dying to read them all!?

I was a bit concerned about spoilers for this one since many bookstores seemed to be putting it up on their shelves early and my Kindle copy was the one releasing on Thursday instead of Tuesday, but luckily everyone in my Twitter feed was awesome and I didn't get the book spoiled! I have also to give a big thanks to Kristen from My Friends Are Fiction for being there for me while I was reading and DMing her like mad on Twitter!!

I will try my very best to keep this review spoiler free for the book, but you can expect some spoilers here and there for the previous books. Still, if you want to enjoy Ruin & Rising properly? Just go into the book as blind as possible! It's a brilliant book, with plenty of unexpected twists and revelations and the less you know about it all, the better! You've been warned!

Ruin & Rising starts where Siege & Storm left us, and the pacing at first seemed as unhurried as the one in Siege & Storm. I thought that Siege & Storm had a bit of a middle book syndrome since it was more of a slow book, but after finishing the series... all the build up done in Siege & Storm was necessary and I'm sure that when I do the re-read of the whole series I see in my future, I'll think differently about that book. Even with the slow pace of the first third of the book we were treated to plenty of surprises, character development and plot progression. Then everything changes as we near the middle of the book and I can only say... brace yourselves for Chapter 11! I just couldn't read fast enough! And then the final part of the book... prepare yourself for having your heart broken and fixed and broken and... well, it's a rollercoaster of emotions! I loved the ending even if my heart was left aching for a few characters.

Alina really shines in this book. She has to recover from the battle and the events at the end of Siege & Storm, and she has to find a way to wield her power and not lose herself to it. Her journey is quite a tough one, but luckily she learns that she doesn't have to undertake it alone.

Each three of the guys in this book, each three of plausible love interests can also be seen as each of the three different faces of Alina. Mal is her human side, the orphan that was unsure of herself but still didn't bow down easily and loved fiercely and loyally. Nikolai is power and responsability, the need to do what's right and lead the people of Ravka, he might be rakish and fun and a bit of rogue, but he would be bound by duty and honour. And the Darkling, well he's the siren song of her power and the lure of giving into it, letting it rule you instead of letting your human side win. If you want to know who wins... read the book, my lips are sealed! I'll just let you know I felt the Darkling at his most alluring and he's a fantastic villain, Nikolai was as sarcasting and amazing as ever, and Mal... I had disliked Mal in Siege & Storm, but he does redeem himself in this one, in spades!

All the other secondary characters are also present and important, and quite a few of them are also part of bigger or smaller revelations that shape the plot. I continue to be blown away by the way Leigh Bardugo makes us fall in love with not just the main characters but the secondary one. I simple adored Genya and David and the twins!

I'm gonna stop babbling now, I still have a massive book hangover with this one, and I feel like re-reading the entire series once my hardcovers arrive, cause I ordered them all once I finished this one! 5 shiny and well deserved stars!!




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Saturday Pages: The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings!!

Hello guys! Today I'm gonna be taking some time to bake and prepare some new Ink & Batter entries but I'm gonna leave you with a new Saturday Pages entry!

I'm trying to find a balance between reading review books, books that are newly released and books I've had in the TBR pile for a while and this one is a new relase that has been in Kindle only since this Tuesday! It is part of two of my challenges: the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014 and the 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program!

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Murder Complex was one debut that I was quite highly in my list for this year, since I'm a huge lover of everything dystopia. And although it wasn't absolutely mindblowing, it wasn't a disappointment by any means.

There are quite a few unexpected twists and revelations to this one, and I'm gonna do my best to keep this review spoiler free, even if I'll have to be a bit vague here and there.

The Murder Complex is told in dual POV and we follow Meadow and Zephyr on their different paths until they cross and then we experience the events from both their sides. Their voices were quite distinct when we were following them separatedly but once they got together they started sounding a bit too similar on occasion, except towards the end when the voices became more distinctive again.

My favourite part of the book has to be the world building. I loved how real and gritty and chilling the world inside the perimeter felt. At first we don't really know much about how such a society came to be but as we get more answers it becomes more bleak and more scary. This is a world were humanity is not very humane and survival by any means necessary is not the norm but encouraged.

Meadow has been taught to fight and to be strong and kill whenever necessary by her father, to be able to find a job and help feed her family in the very harsh society that they live on. Zephyr is one of the Wards, orphans that do the hard tasks of corpse dispossing and cleaning afterwards, but there's more to him, a darker side that he sort of knows about but can't control.

Then comes everything that I really cannot talk about cause all the spoilers start appearing. But we find out that some characters are more central to the plot and the world building that we thought. And the society and crimes we saw depiced so routinely were more cruel and orgnized than we thought at first.

There's a bit of romance in the book, but given all the mind control and conditioning going on in the society we encounter, it's quite hard to describe as insta-love. We're not really sure about what's real and what's been implanted in the end, and if you add all the stress and all the high stakes and the fights and the adrenaline, is not to hard to see how emotions are running high and how confusing things are for Meadow and Zephyr.

The ending is quite a cliffhanger and I'm quite excited to see where the author will solve it and where she'll take the story next, cause we've give a few glimpses that are very enticing! All in all, a very interesting debut with a greatly constructed world. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for the world building.



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Friday Reads: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare!!!

Happy Friday everyone! Today's book for the Friday Reads entry is one of those highly awaited books and the final book of a series (I'm reading quite a few series enders this year I feel...) and I'm very happy to report it was NOT a disappointment and actually could be said the book that makes the series worth it!

It is part of my 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program books and I thought I was doing quite well with the challenge, but I've realized I'm like 4 books behind now! Need to catch up soon!

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


City of Heavenly Fire is one of those books that simply make a whole series. I had quite liked the first three books, but then City of Fallen Angels and to some degree City of Lost Souls left me feeling a bit so-so. Jace was getting a bit too closed off and whiney and the relationship with Clary was getting a bit odd...

I will try to keep my review completely spoiler free for the book, but I don't think I'll be able to keep it spoiler free for the rest of the series.

But, when I started City of Heavenly Fire I knew that I was not going to be let down with this one at all, even if when I started reading first we got to read about Emma Carstairs but soon enough we see how important hers and Julian's POV will be for the book, and what a great introduction to the next series!

One of my favourite things of this book was how finally all the interactions were based more in communication and being truthful to each other than on missunderstandings. There are secrets and people that you cannot trust and alliances that you wouldn't expect, but not all that much of the "I'll be brooding here and even if it'd be cause for later trouble, I won't tell you about it" that irritated me a bit on previous books.

There are quite a few different POVs in the book and all of them are very much important to offer a complete view of the story. It's not just about Clary and Jace, but also about the rest of the Shadowhunters and the werewolves and the vampires... There's plenty of action, heartfelt moments, plot progression, laughs, quirky moments and moments that made me cry. I also loved how some of the storyline is relevant to The Infernal Devices trilogy, so ties to the prequel as well as the sequel series!

It's hard to talk much about this book without giving anything away unwittingly so I'll be keeping this review short. The ending was great, with some historical references that very wisely will make us think of what's to come, but for now we got a quite satisfactory ending, with plenty of sadness, happiness and a certain bittersweet feel to it! The comic at the end of the book? Amazing and made me cry so VERY MUCH!! *sigh*

Very well deserved 5 stars for this one, and Cassandra Clare has managed to snare me again and I'll be looking forward to read Emma's & Julian's story in Lady Midnight next!



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Saturday Pages: The Lovely And The Lost by Page Morgan!!

Happy Saturday everyone! This week I'm starting Saturday Pages with an amazing sequel to a pretty great book that my favourite book pusher made sure I read (THANK YOU ALYSSA!). Not only is an awesome sequel that brings the story to a higher level & broaden the world building but also is one of my reads for the 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program!

The Lovely and the Lost by Page Morgan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


If you are looking for a fantastic series with a great first book and an even more amazing sequel that doesn't suffer from middle book syndrome, you NEED to get your hands in The Dispossesed series! (Thank you again, Alyssa, for making sure I read them!).

The Lovely And The Lost start right after the events that take place in the first book, so you can expect some spoilers for book 1 in this review. Otherwise, I will try to keep my review as spoiler free as possible.

After their battle with Axia, the Waverly siblings are back to their abbey, but their return hasn't brought things back to normal. Gabby has returned with visible marks and a desire to learn to fight and join the Alliance. Ingrid is trying to learn to control her powers after discovering more about them and is trying to deal with her own emotional mess after Luc's declaration at the end of the book. And Grayson is even more confused and unhappy that before, having a very hard time reconciling his two natures.

If things were not complicated enough, two paternal figures are introduced and none of them are nice at all. Both were ignorant, headstrong and in short... awful! We also find out a lot more about the Alliance and more about the others with demon blood. We also find out about new players in the game, ones that even being human don't have anything to envy to Axia's on evil plans to gain power.

The love triangle that was hinted at in book one is more present here, even if Ingrid was always quite sure who her heart belonged to, no matter what was happening. Might be that why this love triangle didn't bother me as much, and I'm NOT a fan of love triangles at all!

The stakes are higher, the conflict gets even more broader and not only you're fighting demons but you no longer know who your allies are, if you even have any allies left. There's a war brewing and even those on your side might be taken away from you.

The atmosphere of the book was fantastically historical and gothic at the same time, and the way the plot moves along had me turning the pages barely fast enough! I love the relationships between the Waverly siblings, even if I wish someone would help Grayson somehow fight better to accept himself and gather some control, instead of just giving himself into self loathing.

This was a fantastic second book and one of the best sequels I've recently read! Very much deserving of 4.5 stars and damn, where does the third book come out then?!?



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Friday Reads: The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes!!!

As the final entry for this week's Friday Reads I have a book that I featured earlier this week, and one that I was quite excited about reading that not only didn't disappoint but that also worked as therapy for my currently quite messed up emotional state!

It is also part of my list for my 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program, and I'm quite glad to say that so far I'm doing pretty well on this one, even if I'm a bit behind on reading the books as they're releasing!

The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I had been quite excited about this one after reading some fantastic reviews for it, so much that I preordered it and I started reading it that very same night while at work! (I promise I didn't ignore my patients or my work, you just have some time to kill from 4 to 6 am if everything goes well!).

This is the kind of contemporary book that even not huge fans of contemporaries like myself can enjoy and that leaves you with a wonderful feeling upon finishing the book (and also hoping for more!).

I'm guessing I might have connected with this book more given my own state of heartbreak, even if Lainey's and my situation are completely different and I'm way older than she is. Still, a broken heart is a broken heart, and all the lessons she's learning and how's trying to patch herself up just made me feel so much hope and smile through the tears while reading.

Lainey thought she had her summer and senior year of high school all figured out, until her "perfect" boyfriend dumps her in front of everyone, without very good reason, at her family's coffee shop. Lainey refuses to believe all her perfect plans are over, and wants to get Jason back more than anything else. Her best friend decides to support her through and through although she might not agree with her choice, and they decide to use The Art of War for advice on how to win the boy back.

This might sound bizarre, and it kind of is, but it works so well! Not only made me want to read The Art of War (that I can't believe I haven't read yet) but works great to show the interactions and the relationship between Lainey and Bianca, and it also helps reveal some sides of Lainey's character to us and to herself.

Lainey wasn't exactly the most sympathetic of characters in the beginning, she's a teenager and as such, she's a bit oblivious of anything outside her own perfect bubble until it is burst and by trying to put it back together she goes out of her comfort zone and realizes she wasn't even sure who she was, so she starts learning about herself. She seemed to have been going on an inertia of getting the perfect life and perfect imagine, but as soon as Jason left her she wasn't even sure who she was anymore. There's a lot of growth to Lainey, and although I felt like shaking her at some point, mostly when she dealt with Kendall, I felt extremely proud of her by the end of the book!

Bianca and Kendall are both Lainey's best friends. As I see it, only Bianca really deserves that title. She's amazing and supportive, even when she thinks Lainey is wrong! She helps her trying to win Jason back even she doesn't think it's the right choice. She's always loved Lainey as she was, and was there for her through thick and thin, the same that Lainey was for her when she needed her. Kendall I really couldn't feel much empathy towards her, no matter how hard her life was, she just acted like a bitch all the time, and I kept on hoping Lainey would be more assertive and put her in her place.

Jason was very oblivious and a very typical bratty popular guy. Inmature and going with the flow, and I was clearly never rooting for Lainey to get back to him, not after the way he was treating her. Then we went Micah, a bit more prickly, with plenty of layers and contradictions, a rocker chef! And I knew I was gonna be rooting for him like mad! I loved him and Trinity, his younger sister! I loved how he kept on challenging Lainey and showing her that out of her comfort zone was a good place to be!

I guess I could just go on and on about this book, rambling about how much I love it, but I'll just say this: GO READ IT, NOW!! Very well deserved 5 stars for this one!



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2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program!!

Hello everyone!

I'm adding another challenge to my list! This time is one that reminds me of the times when you were given recommended reads at school for the summer, even if at my school get never really got a proper "summer reading program" with points and rewards for what you read.

Katie from Katie's Book Blog decided that she missed those times and created a Book Blogger Summer Reading Program! The point of this challenge is to make a dent on our TBR list during summer and we are the ones that will choose how many books we want to challenge ourselves to read. And like those summer reading programs that my school never had, there will be prizes in the shape of many giveaways!

To join, you only need to make your own list for the reads you intend to complete, be it a GR shelf or a blog post or both, add it to the linky in the sign up post HERE and start reading! The program starts on the beginning of May and will continue to the beginning of September!

For my list, I've decided to go for new releases from now till September that I don't have as part as any other of my challenges!

Here's my list!

- Scala by Christina Bauer
- The Lovely And The Lost by Page Morgan
- The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes
- Sixth Grave on the Edge by Darynda Jones
- City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
- (Don't You) Forget About Me by Kate Karyus Quinn
- The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
- Hexed by Michelle Krys
- Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo
- Strange & Ever After by Susan Dennard
- Earth Flight by Janet Edwards
- Sisters Fate by Jessica Spotswood
- Deliverance by C.J. Redwine

All of these are either highly awaited debuts or biting-my-nails-for sequels and final books, so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be making time to read them all!