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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Mark This Book Monday: Nevernight by Jay Kristoff!!!

Hiya there guys!

Today I have a scheduled post here for you all, while I am enjoying a pair of days off at my parents' cottage, reading up a storm and relaxing and playing with puppies!

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have a book that will be for sure on my Top 10 list for 2016 and one that I'm already in the process of re-reading and collecting a few editions of!

I've heard quite a bit of debate and controversy about Nevernight being YA or not being YA... and my own opinion would clearly be that it ISN'T YA. It's a really dark and bloody book and it simply feels like an adult book for me, not so much because there is sex in it, but mostly because it's dark and violent and pulls no punches.

And I'm stealing this lil bit from a friend's review (Jessica from Rabid Reads) where the author himself answers the question:


There seems to be some confusion on the YA/not YA nature of this book, so let the record show, in response to the question, "Are your books YA or not?" on his website FAQ, Kristoff replied:

THE NEVERNIGHT CHRONICLE is a different beast. The protagonist is a sixteen year old girl. Does that automatically make it YA? My editors say “Definitely not, and who the hell let you out of your cage? Get back to work”.

These books are about an assassin. They are, as you may expect, somewhat violent as a result. They also have sex scenes (and now I have to contemplate the fact that my mother is going to read them *shudders*). I’d rate them MA (or NA if you prefer) and describe them as “crossover books”. But they’ll be found in the adult Fantasy section of your bookstore.

 Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Started reading it last night and spent the majority of today glued to the pages! Bloody and unapologeticly gory and full betrayal and darkness!! And some damned amazingly brilliant writing. A brilliant book that is bound to give me a damned book hangover for sure!!

----

It indeed gave me a massive book hangover and all the reading I managed to do was listening to my re-read of the Throne of Glass books. I've already started re-reading Nevernight, because that's one sure cure for a massive book hangover, right? Right.

Nevernight is one amazing book with brilliant and lyrical writing, weaving words like a master, and those footnotes? The perfect way to add more to the story without bogging down the pacing of the plot or the narrative. I loved the footnotes in Sir Terry Patchett's Discworld and the footnotes in Nevernight really reminded me of those, full of humour, information and a wee bit of irony here and there!

Mia is our main character, and a girl that had everything taken from her and that decided to never again have anyone else make choices for her. We get quite enough back story to understand where she's coming from at first, and we keep on getting a little bit more here and there, giving us tidbits of the past to help us understand better what's going on in the present.

Her will to become an assassin and train in the Red Church is fueled by revenge and it's what makes her get through the very tough, very bloody and very messy training in there. The teachers are all assassins and they have no qualms about students dying or being at risk of it, training is brutal in so many ways. Then you have to deal with the rest of the fellow students that are rivals and quite fierce ones, even Mia might have considered some as allies and friends (at least to some extent).

Not all adult books have sex in them, but this one does, and I have to say that I really liked how empowering it was for Mia. She made the choices every time of when, with whom and why, and what the limits were for her, and I felt that it was a message we don't always get in books, so I applaud Mr Kristoff for that!

Plenty of twists, betrayals and most of them got me completly by surprise! This one is one hell of a captivating book that you will want to savour & devour at the same time! I simply adored it and I'm beyond looking forward to the next one! 5 stars and many more!!


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Friday Reads: The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta!!!

Hello there guys!!

Today I have another series review! I managed to work on reading some backlogged series that had been sitting in my Kindle since forever and that came highly recommended from fellow bloggy bookwyrm friends during my vacation, and I'm finally getting the time to review them!

For this week's Friday Reads I have The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta. If I had to recommend them short & sweet, all I'd have to say is that if you LOVE fantasy stories, you MUST read this trilogy!

And since this series had been sitting in my Kindle for over 2 years, I think it's safe to say it counts towards my Rock My TBR Challenge list!

I'll do a lil bit of a very tiny review for each one of the books and then I'll probably gush about the whole series as spoiler free as possible!

Finnikin of the Rock

When you start a series that comes so highly recommended as this one, you do so with a lil bit of trepidation, and hoping that it will live up to the expectations. And boy did book 1 live up to the expectations! We start with a prologue about what happened in Lumatere and then we catch up with Finnikin a few very hard years later.

Soon enough finds himself travelling with a new and unwanted companion Evanjalin, a novice that is more than she admits and that promises to lead him to the missing heir of Lumatere. Along the way they pick up a stray & rather hateful boy, Froi, and through hardship and many adventures, they gather allies towards the end goal of saving Lumatere.

This is an extremely emotional distressing book. I was anguished and worried and cried and dear gods I could barely breathe during parts of this book! The world building is amazing, the character development is brilliant, and you are in for quite a few surprises!!

Froi of the Exiles

Melina Marchetta is a master story teller and she crafts the most amazing and nuanced characters. She managed to make me go from despising Froi for most of Finnikin, to accepting him grudgingly to absolutely support him 100% and feel so much for him in his namesake book that it should be illegal!

Froi had it very hard and once he sort of feels like he has found a place to belong to, with his friends and his queen he's sworn to protect, everything is rather thrown off and he has to learn to live with what he finds out about himself, his family and his country.

And we are quite thrown again for a wild ride since we leave Lumatere and we see the world from another prism, we see events from another lense, and find out that there was not just one curse and not just one country was suffering. It's hard to reconcile Lumatere's suffering with Charyn's attack and Charyn's own suffering, but Melina Marchetta manages to make us see that many things are not as black and white as we might have thought at first. Another brilliant book that destroyed me emotionally and simply made me fall even more in love with this series!

Quintana of Charyn

In the final book of the trilogy there's so much more of everything, I still wonder how I made it through!

More emotional distress over probably all of the characters, all of the ships and worry that it'll come to war over missunderstandings and miscomunications and I just couldn't turn the pages over fast enough!

I wasn't really sure about Quintana when I first met her in Froi's book and it really took me a while to warm up to her. She's such a complex and hard to like character but learning more about her, about who she wants to be, how is a survivor of unmeasurable abuse and how she must fight assumptions about her left and right. She might never be my favourite character, but she's a fantastic one and her journey affected me so very much!

 It's been quite a while since I finished the book and I'm still trying to find the words for it, but it's so very hard without mentioning events or developments that can potentially spoil something, so I'll just say that this final book was as brilliant as the other two and a fantastic way to finish this trilogy!

One thing I think I have mentioned enough through the mini reviews but that really needs repeating is how emotionally invested and wrecked I was with each one of these three books. It truly is a testament to the skill of the author that I was so invested and embroiled in the character's journeys that I felt their fears and pain and doubts and suffering and victories and love as my own!

Every single character in this book had more to them that would seem at first, the main characters were all complex and nuanced and had a long way of growth ahead of them, but so did secondary characters, where we kept learning more about them and changing our perspective and opinions on them as we peeled their many layers.

And the plot? There's so much about the plot and the themes about these books that makes them not only absolutely amazing High Fantasy but also a way to make us look at real life present events through a more remote prism that can make it safer to examine our own thoughts and prejudices.

Just... I'm going to shut up about this books, push them onto anyone that hasn't read them yet and tell you that, in case you don't already know, Melina Marchetta is a master and The Lumatere Chronicles a MUST READ series for any lover of fantasy books. Also AUSSIES KNOW THEIR WRITING BUSINESS!

Thursday Thoughts: Girl Against The Universe by Paula Stokes!!!

Hey there guys!!

I'm finally here with a review that is not part of a blog tour, so maybe now I can get back on track with reading AND reviewing! Because yes, I haven't stopped reading at all, but I've been really bad at writing reviews for all the books I've been reading (and loving!).

And the first review had to be for Girl Against The Universe, a book that is massively special in many ways, and it's become my most re-read book of 2016 already! From the first time I read it as a beta reader I fell in love with it so completely I kept on sending all sort of "feels filled" messages to Paula while I was reading and cursing her for making me tear up... Everytime I've started reading the book I've been unable to not read it cover to cover because it's the kinda book that grabs you and doesn't let you go!

This book is extra special because I am a character in the book, Nurse Pili here everyone, and I'm also mentioned in the acknowledgements and both those things still have me reeling and being overwhelemed and giddy, but those are not the reasons I give this one 5 stars, those would be responsible for some extra stars, but the book itself made me fall in love with it, hard!


Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Girl Against The Universe is the kind of contemporary that I can re-read time and again and love it as much or even than I did the first time!

Contemporary YA is not my go to genre, but since I'd read anything that Paula Stokes would wrote and her first contemporary was absolutely therapeutic for me (The Art of Lainey), GATU was a must read and it delivered in every which way.

It's what I call a "feel good" book, there's conflict, there's serious issues but there's no overabundance of drama and there's no unnecessarily added conflict. There's wonderful relationships, from family to friends to a developing new romantic relationship but none of them are really the focus or maybe all of them are. All the relationships are important in this books, and all of them help Maguire to finally get fighting to try and get better.

Mental health is an important issue to discuss and although not all cases are equally dire or grave, they all deserve attention and treatment. This book does a fantastic job on showing up different levels of mental health issues and different stages of acceptance of help and progress of treatment, as well as a positive depiction of therapy, along with the false starts, the progress, the doubts and the reality of humans "not being toasters that can be fixed".

Maguire had a lot of bad things happen to her and she came to think that she was cursed and was a danger to others, so she kept herself from interacting with the rest of the world as much as she could. The book starts with her first therapy sessions where she starts by being silent and thinking it's a waste of time, to start listening to what her therapist has to say and once she finally decides she want to try and face her fears, we see how she makes progress, how there are setbacks and doubts and we're there with her every step of the way.

The romance in this book is the kind that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and it adds to the "feel good" feeling of the book. And no, the romance doesn't mean the mental health issues are fixed by finding love or anything of the like. The characters do provide support and motivation for each other, first as friends and then as more, but they both have their own issues to face on their own, and they do. The relationship is not a crutch to make everything better.

This book managed to make me laugh, sigh, swoon, want to hug the characters, tear up more than once and upon finishing I procedeed to hug the book and have a contented smile on my face. I've re-read it quite a few times already, and it will be one of my go-to books when I'm on a slump and I need a favourite to make me want to read again!

Very much deserved 5 stars if not a few more!!



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Girl Against The Universe Blog Tour: Deleted Scene & Giveaway!!!!

Hello there guys!!

I know it's been a while but first was my slump and then vacation... but today I'm back with a brilliant post!

I'm super honoured to be part of the Blog Tour for Girl Against The Universe by Paula Stokes, organized by the lovely Hannah from Irish Banana Tours!!

There will be a giveaway at the end of this post, so stay tuned for that! I'm gonna be sharing one of the books deleted scenes that I really wish could have stayed!! I will be sharing my 5 stars review for GATU either later this week or early next week too!

Girl Against The Universe by Paula Stokes


Maguire is bad luck.

No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time the rollercoaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch.

It’s safest for Maguire to hide out in her room, where she can cause less damage and avoid meeting new people who she could hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star. Jordy is confident, talented, and lucky, and he’s convinced he can help Maguire break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for Jordy is to stay away. But it turns out staying away is harder than she thought.

From author Paula Stokes comes a funny and poignant novel about accepting the past, embracing the future, and learning to make your own luck.

 Indiebound | Amazon | Barnes&Noble | The Book Depository

About the author:

Paula Stokes writes stories about flawed characters with good hearts who sometimes make bad decisions. She’s the author of several YA novels, most recently Girl Against the Universe and Liars, Inc. Her writing has been translated into eleven foreign languages.

Paula loves kayaking, hiking, reading, and seeking out new adventures in faraway lands She also loves interacting with readers. Find her online at authorpaulastokes.com or on twitter as @pstokesbooks.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads

DELETED SCENE

Paula: So this is a scene that got cut in a huge four-chapter delete because of multiple major changes to the storyline. There was no psychologist in the first draft, so Jordy was helping Maguire test her curse and she was helping him with math homework in return. One day she’s tutoring him and checking out his tennis trophies in the living room and he offers to show her the stuff in his room… That turns into them kissing, and then Jordy’s mom comes home unexpectedly and Maguire is trapped in Jordy’s bedroom. Jordy isn’t allowed to date because of his tennis schedule, so he and Maguire have to enlist the help of Jordy’s younger sister to explain Maguire’s presence upstairs. The plan is for Maguire to pretend to be friends with his sister. I have purposely obscured the identity of Jordy’s sister in this deleted scene because it’s a mini-spoiler for the book. 



“Oh my God,” I say. “Every day is the most embarrassing day of my life.”
Jordy’s sister starts rifling through her closet. “What are you embarrassed about?” she asks, her voice muffled by a mix of T-shirts and designer tennis clothing. “I think it’s cool he finally found a girl he likes enough to risk getting in trouble for.”
“But I don’t want him to get in trouble,” I protest. “I tend to do that—somehow get other people into bad situations that don’t hurt me at all.”
“Really?” Ducking out of the closet, she eyes me curiously.
“It’s a long story, but yeah.” I glance at myself in the mirror again. My skin is slowly returning to normal color. “Thank you,” I say. “Jordy’s right. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Maybe,” she says. “Or maybe I should have let you two get busted. I hate that my parents make him feel like he has to sneak around. You weren’t doing anything wrong, even if you were having sex.”
“But we weren’t,” I say quickly.
She blinks innocently. “Not yet.” Then she rolls her eyes. “Oh boy. Just when you were starting to go back to your normal color.”
I turn back toward the mirror and will myself to return to my usual shade of pale. School, I think. Mr. Ginger. Terminal Velocity. Trigonometry. I force-feed my brain the least sexy things I can imagine and it seems to work. Slowly the redness fades from my cheeks.
“Okay. Put this on.” Jordy’s sister hands me a tennis dress that is at least two sizes too small for me. “My mother will never believe you came over here to practice with me wearing jean shorts.”
I suddenly wish I hadn’t left my duffel bag in Jordy’s car. I wriggle into the tiny dress and tug it down over my hips and thighs. It’s so tight I can barely move.
She gives me an appraising look. “Hmm, that’s a little snug, isn’t it?” She tries to pull up the neckline and pull down the hemline simultaneously, but the dress still looks borderline obscene. “Maybe I have some warm-up pants that will fit you.”
There’s a knock at the door. “It’s me,” Jordy says from the hallway. Jordy’s sister opens the door a crack and he holds up my duffel bag. “Thought you might need this.” His gaze falls on me in the too-tight dress and his jaw drops a little. “Whoa,” he says.
“Get out,” his sister hisses as she grabs the bag. I flash him a grateful look just before she shuts the door in his face. As I quickly change out of her dress and back into my own tennis clothes she says, “Sorry. I think not being able to date is making him extra-pervy or something.”
“It’s okay. It’s kind of flattering.” I check my reflection in the mirror. Much better now that I’m back in my own clothes.
She clicks her tongue at me and shakes her head back and forth. “No it’s not. Don’t be one of those girls who finds being objectified flattering. Be flattered that he likes you for reasons that actually mean something.”
Because you’re smart, and funny, and talented, and kind. He does like me for reasons that actually mean something. But can I say the same? Maybe I only like him because a boy who could have almost anyone picked me. Maybe I only like him because I know that sooner or later I’ll push him away for his own good. He’s safe, because I won’t let things get carried away…will I?

GIVEAWAY

1 - $25 B&N gift card, or in the event of an INT winner, choice of one book from The Book Depository or Wordery. 

2 - Swag pack winners

                                                 Enter the giveaway HERE

Tour Schedule:

Week 1:

5/16: Reading Teen - Review

5/17: In Love With Handmade - Deleted Scene

5/18: The Irish Banana Review - Review

5/19: Snuggly Oranges - Deleted Scene

5/20: Fiction Fare - Review

Week 2: 

5/23: Bookiemoji - Playlist

5/24: Mary Had A Little Book Blog - Review

5/25: Adventures of a Book Junkie - Q&A

5/26: Lili's Reflections - Review

5/27: Please Feed the Bookworm - Dream Cast

Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows!!!

Hello there guys!

A new week is here and since my weekend is Monday and Tuesday, I'm gonna enjoy a day off over here while I also do some hourse chores.

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have an ARC review for an upcoming April book that I absolutely adored!

But before I proceed with the review, let me give you a warning in GIF form:

The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Jodi Meadows has done it again! ALL THE FEELS!
---

I was so very lucky to read The Mirror King so very early on last year and not too long after reading The Orphan Queen, which was an absolute treat (and a real lifesaving!!) after THAT (bloody awful & heart crushing) cliffhanger!!

Let's start with a fair warning here, if you think that Orphan Queen was a killer for your feels, well... Mirror King might just be even crueler and more heart breaking! It'll ALL be worth it but... you might just really need the help and support of the OQ Support Group!

Mirror King starts JUST were Orphan Queen left (and thank goodness for that!) so binge reading these two back to back is the wisest choice (if it's been a while since you read OQ, do a re-read, it'll be for the best) so you can read the story with the right flow.

Things are extremely dire and stakes are very high from page one, and the action, the feels and the twists don't really slow during the whole book! And if you are wondering what more surprises might be coming in this one... well, let me tell you, hold on to your knickers, because they ARE coming!

Wil spends most of the book between a rock and hard place, with the Ospreys seemingly no longer on her side, trying to reclaim her kingdom at odds with her heart and her alliances. And let's not forget her magic and the Wraith and the unexpected consequences of it & how she can possibly make sure that the Inundation doesn't repeat and take everything away from everyone.

The romance is a killer for the feels, the friendships are also a point of conflict and feels and then the politics, the battles for the kingdoms and the battle for survival really!! Gods, this book barely gives you time to breathe!

It's a fantastic final book for the duology, full of action, full of emotion, full of twists and suprises and did I mention emotional distress?? It's brilliant but make sure you'll have plenty of tissues and comfort food and a member of the OQ Support Group a DM away to talk feels!!

5 very emotional stars to this brilliant conclusion that gave me a massive book hangover! I cannot wait till I can re-read Orphan Queen & Mirror King back to back!



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Friday Reads: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab!!!!

Hey there guys!

It's Friday!! And this time I do have the week off too, like most people! Wheee!

Today I have one of the top 10 books of 2016 for this week's Friday Reads and you might think it is a bit early to be so sure, but I have no doubt about it!! I'm now a massive Victoria Schwab fangirl and the Shades of Magic series it's one I'm recommending & pushing onto everyone!

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Massive book hangover in place, I keep thinking of the characters and what happened ALL THE TIME!

Shades of Magic is a trilogy so AGOS is the second book and one that not only didn't suffer from the middle book syndrome, but that simply made you forget that such a thing even exists!

I was dying to get my hands on this one since the moment I finished A Darker Shade of Magic and re-reading it to prepare was also a great idea, because I soaked all the details in a way I hadn't done the first time!

A Gathering of Shadows was brilliant and I didn't want to stop reading, wanted to read slower because I didn't want the book to end and I wanted to devour the book because I needed to know what was coming next!

The pace of the book, plot wise, might have been a bit more leisurely, at least if we think of the end game where things were leading up to, BUT give the amazing character development that was going on and how central it is to the plot and will continue to be (I'm sure of that) I was simply enjoying (and/or suffering) every minute of it!!

Lila, Kell & Rhy are simply put amazing, nuanced and deeply flawed and multidimensional characters (no pun intended about the multiple Londons) and I loved having all three as POV characters in this one!

I really loved Rhy's voice and seeing his struggle with the new situation with his own voice was something I was very glad we got to read! I adore Kell and so feel for him and his struggles between his restlessness, his need of freedom and his unfaltering loyalty to his brother, because Kell & Rhy? BEST BROMANCE EVER! But Lila... LILA IS EVERYTHING! I adore her and she's the best thief because she stole my heart in ADSOM and I'm sure it won't be returned to me, ever!! She's brave, reckless and ONE OF A DAMNED KIND! *sigh* Lila is my patronus!

The tension in this book, both plot wise and character wise increases exponentially as the ending gets closer and you cannot turn pages fast enough but will also need a breather for some tea now and then because you might experience a feelings overload or two (or maybe more, just be warned!).

And the final warning, we get a cliffhanger, and dear Lila almighty it's a MASSIVE BIG DUAL CLIFFHANGER and I don't know how I'll survive till the final book in the trilogy comes out... *is dead of feels*

All the bloody stars to this one!! As Travars! (damn, doesn't seem to work for time travel...)

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Friday Reads: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff!!!!

Hello guys!!

This is a scheduled post because right now I'm in Copenhagen on a rather improptu trip with Paula Stokes! I've no clue what I'll be doing but probably wandering around, seeing the sights and frowning at the signs written in Danish!

But I really wanted to set up this week's Friday Reads so I could have my review before publishing date, because I read this one so early on (I have no bloody self control at all...) and I didn't want to end up getting tangled up with something else and post my review after release date!

I have read many great books this year, MANY five stars but this one for sure will be in my TOP TEN list of the year!!



Illuminae by Amie Kaufman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Yup, loved this one to pieces!! I was supremely excited for this one and was one of my BEA priorities (it was the second ARC I grabbed, right after Truthwitch) but at the same time I had no idea this format of storytelling was gonna work as brilliantly as it did for me!

As you might have already heard before, Illuminae is not your usual kind of book. There's not regular narrative here, because it's all comprised my memos, e-mails, internal communications, IMs, transcriptions of camera footage and some lists and many many amazing graphics all over the place!

It's quite an unique way of telling a story, but one that works beyond brilliantly, and I think that a science fiction story lends itself to it perfectly!

I feared I wouldn't connect with the main characters with this format of storytelling but that fear was quickly dispel as I simply came to adore Kady and Ezra within the first few pages! I was rooting for them to get back together (not a spoiler), to see what will happen with the ships, how will they survive a confrontation with the pursuing ships (that had a certain BSG feel to it, the only survivors fleeing and trying to stay alive).

Illuminae simply felt like classic brilliant science fiction to me: with humour, tension, a bigger world that we can see at first but that it's there and seeps through the pages, strong human relationships and characters, small and big questions being presented for our consideration, full of food for thought and plenty of action and tension!

It IS a big book, but I devoured it in one sitting with barely any stops for food & bathroom breaks, and those only when I couldn't ignore my bladder or my stomach any longer! A big word of warning: this book WILL BE LIKE THE BIGGEST ROLLERCOASTER IN EXISTENCE FOR YOUR EMOTIONS. You have been warned!!

Now I need the finished copy, the next book and I'm gonna suffer the crushing book hangover this one is sure to give me! Well played Mrs Kaufman & Mr Kristoff, well played!! All the supernovas for this book!! Yeah, stars are not enough for Illumiane, it needs to be rated in supernovas!!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill!!!

Hello there guys!!

Happy Friday!! It is a Friday after night shift from me, so although it's a pretty awesome day since I have it off, it is also a bit inconvenient since I really need my nap in the morning after work. Do forgive any typos that might happen right now!

For this week's first Friday Reads entry I have an ARC that I was approved on NG by Quercus books and that is an amazing book but also extremely tough to read! As an ARC it shall count towards my 105 Challenge in the books for review category and also as part of the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2015!!

Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Brilliant, relevant and enraging all at once. Is this an amazing book? YES! Will it be easy to read and give you fuzzy feels? HELL NO! But I think it's something every woman of every age NEEDS to read!

This was a particularly hard book for me to read, and I'm pretty sure it'll be for any woman out there, because it holds a mirror to the ugliest parts of ourselves: our envies, our self-hate and self-doubt, how we've all sometimes agreed to some injustice to stay on someone's good side, how we lose control of ourselves and our bodies... and all that hate and those messages about the perfect body, the Vomitorium, the kcal blockers... it reminded me of some less than stellar moments of my teenage self and made me want to go eat some chocolate because I could.

A dystopian story set in a future where women are designed and created, not born, raised together in Schools where they're prepared for their future as companions, concubines or chastities, the only roles allowed to women now. And as the best dystopians, it is so scary because it could be true. Women, specially young girls, have no real rights, no right to think for themselves or to ask questions, they only exist to give birth to sons, please men or care for the other eves. What are the eves? They're the women, and they are as unimportant as to have their names without a capital letter.

So many of the things that happen in the book are already happened, albeit in a smaller scale. Women are still treated as property in many countries, and even in the first world ones, the pressure to look perfect, to be perfect, to be thin, to look perfectly composed, to not be overly emotional and the fact that women still turn against each other for petty reasons instead of focusing on fighting for what's important really, like true equality.

We follow the story from freida's POV, one of the eves in her final year at the School, hoping to be chosen as a companion. I had the biggest swings with freida that I've ever had with a character, I kept on going from hating her to pitying her to understanding and empathy to loathing and wanting to shake her, time and again! She wants attention and she puts up with so MUCH to get it, risking everything for approval.

As I said, this is a MUST READ BOOK and if you know or find any girls out there that think feminism is not their issue or relatable, give them this book and make them think about that it says!

Despite how I needed a break now and read from reading the book, this is a brilliant book and deserved to ger more out there!



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Mark This Book Monday: Every Move by Ellie Marney!!!

And as the second Mark This Book Monday post of this week, I have one of those highly awaited books that I've been making grabby hands since I read the first book of the trilogy!

I highly recommend this series to anyone and everyone and it reinforces my love for Australian fiction and authors, and I plan to continue to support Ellie Marney and whatever books might came after this trilogy!

As book released on 2015 (even if only in Australia) I'm totally counting it towards my 2015 release category in the 105 Challenge!

Every Move by Ellie Marney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Since I first got my hands on book 1, Every Breath, I've been addicted to this series, that can be considered a contemporary retelling of Sherlock Holmes with murder mysteries and the most shippity ship of all times. And so my need to get my hands on this final book was rather dire, and after preordering somewhere and them not shipping it, I ended up ordering it directly from the Australian publisher. It arrived as I was leaving for work, so I spent the whole shift wishing the time to pass faster because I wanted to get back home to devour it! And that I did! I stayed up till 5 am till I finished inhaling the book!

If you still haven't started this series, you really ought to get going, but even if you've started it, you might expect some spoilers in this one for book 1 and 2, since I might discuss some of the events, so GO READ THEM NOW!!

As the previous two book the pacing and the plotting and the mysteries in this one were done so well! And the characters and emotional connections and the relationships as well! I love how important for the book are all the relationships, not only Rachel & James and their romantic relationship, but also Rachel and her brother, and Rachel and her parents, specially her mum.
No absent parents here, no even those that are dead, since Mycroft's parents are always present in the way they have shaped who he is and his interests and motivations. Rachel's parents don't trust her know, and her mother is both angry and scared with Rachel's taking off after Mycroft to London and returning injured.

Rachel is going through a very tough time after the events in London, and although she doesn't acknowledge it really, she's trying to push through it, but she cannot allow close contact with even her family and she gets nightmares every day, PTSD to the letter. And it's fantastic how the author deals with it. With Rachel trying to get away from everything and returning to her home away from the city for a day with her brother (that doesn't really work as she expected as they end up having company) and then having someone not involved with the events or her family helping her finding a way to regain control of her fear somehow by focusing on defending herself.

Mycroft and Rachel are a bit more distant at the beginning of the book, given how each of them is dealing with the aftermath of London. Mycroft has thrown himself even harder into investigating his parents' case, and Rachel cannot deal with any of that, so they barely spend time together. It is painful to read, how they need each other not only as a couple but as friends and how they cannot seem to be able to communicate with each other, both thinking that the other needs the time and space to sort themselves out. But when they confront not only each other but their feelings and the way they're dealing with the fear, the threat and the mystery... they're back to being one united team, the ship to end all other ships.

There is one new guy introduced in this book, one that has an interest in Rachel and that helps her when Mycroft couldn't, teaching her self defence and being a neutral party for her to talk to, but I cannot speak of love triangle since Rachel never thinks of anyone but James. And nevermind that Mycroft does actually punch the dude, which if not exactly something I should condone... I actually enjoyed it loads in the book! Bad Pili!

As far as the mystery goes, I had a bad vibe about one character in Every Word and to my surprise, I ended up being right on who was our Moriarty to my surprise and glee! The final climax was full of heartstopping action and tension and boy I couldn't turn the pages past enough!

This book and series was an amazing journey and despite some of my issues of lack of knowledge of the Australian flora that made me pause to search for some terms in my phone (Dictionary app for the win!) I adored everything from these books, from the characters, their relationships, the mysteries, the pacing, the plotting, the OTP!! Very well deserved 5 and all the stars!! VERY recommended!!



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Mark This Book Monday: Every Word by Ellie Marney!!!

Hey again guys!

Back again with another entry for this week's Mark This Book Monday and this time with one of those rare books that made me emotional in strange ways, made me relate with both the characters and their parents, made me turn the pages like there was no tomorrow and made me decide to plan a trip to London to celebrate my birthday come September!



Every Word by Ellie Marney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


HOLY CRACKERS!!
Yes, that was my first reaction upon finishing the book and I still find it hard to write a coherent review for this!

A warning to those in the US, this book will be releasing later this year over there, so although this is a finished AUS copy, do not read if you want to avoid any and all sort of spoilers, because I'm not sure if I'll manage a completely spoiler free review!

And another warning, there might be some spoilers for Every Breath, if you haven't read it or the summary for this one, so please, go read book 1 now!

I simply devoured and loved Every Breath and I was dying to get my hands of Every Word and this one was yet another case of book I stayed up all night reading till I finished it! Thank goodness for working the late afternoon shift!

Rachel's parents have reacted like normal parents would and they have some trust issues with their girl and are putting limits on the time she spends with Mycroft and how she spends it, and although I'm angry because they are interfering with my ship, I so bloody well agree with them trying to act like parents would! The family is very present here in this series, and both a source of strenght and conflict for both Rachel and Mycroft. I adore Rachel's relationship with her brother, and how he was both protective and supportive and found himself conflicted trying to mediate between Rachel and their parents.

Most of the book moves the action from Australia to London and Oxford, and although that was a massive move and change for Rachel, that meant going to familiar waters for me. Mycroft left for London without telling Rachel, a rather jerk move, and Rachel decided to go to London after him in a move that probably was the least smart but that also made a lot of sense, given their relationship and what motivated Mycroft to go to London in the first place.

This book was even more gritty and harsh than the first one, because not only we deal with someone that was murdered but also with kidnapping and torture, there's crime investigating, an autopsy is done and there's also a visit to 221 Baker's Street. I think I've already said this before, but this book was a serious page turner, not only because there's plenty of action and tension, but also because the chemistry and the relationship between Mycroft and Rachel is both amazing and painful!

Mycroft took off without further thought or consideration and he simply was one way mind only about his quest to find answers about his parents' case. Rachel followed him and knew it would hurt her but she was not just a great girlfriend but mostly a very good friend. And once Mycroft got out of the fog in his mind, he literally threw himself in harms way for Rachel. These two have an epic chemistry and I just want them together for good but holy shit do they seem to drag each other into danger! But they also help each other out of it rather epically!

Long story short, this is a bloody epic and wild ride of a book, both emotionally and when it comes to the plot. We discover many things about the past and the biggest shocker comes by the end of the book, so I'm now here on pins and needles waiting for my copy of the third and final book in the trilogy so I can put myself and my emotions through hell and back again!

If you haven't started this series yet, please do! It's contemporary, it's gritty, it's also a reimagining of Sherlock Holmes with a stronger and brighter (and female) Wat(ts)on and a ship to rule all ships. Very much deserving of 5 stars!!



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Saturday Pages: Written in Red by Anne Bishop!!!

Hello there guys!

I hope your weekend is going great and most of my fellow bloggers are taking part of the 2015 edition of Book Blogger Love-A-Thon! I will be taking part as much as my work schedule will allow me to, which won't be as much as I'd like!

As this week's Saturday Pages review I have a book that was highly recommended (read: relentlessly pushed on me) by Octavia from Read Sleep Repeat and I must say that boy, was she right to insist that I read it already! Thank you so much for making sure I read it, Octavia, now I shall be the one pushing this one on everyone!!



Written in Red by Anne Bishop

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Written in Red has been one of those books that I had in my radar for a while, even more since my bloggy friend Octavia flailed about it like a mad woman (let me tell you something right away, she HAD VERY GOOD REASON TO DO SO!) so much that she sent me the ebook as a Xmas gift!

Still I didn't start reading this book until I got approved for the third book eARC on NG, so that was the push to finally read now instead of later! I seem to need a ticking clock of time telling me I need to read something before this date to get me started... *shakes head at procastinating self*

So listen to me, if you've been wondering about starting this book, do it now!! I loved it SO MUCH!! And I'm kicking myself for not having read it earlier!! This is adult urban fantasy and it deals with very adult themes, oh and if humans as something other than top of the food chain bothers you... you might not like this book.

The world of this series feels both familiar but at the same time extremely alien from ours. Humans are not the only sentient species and they sure aren't the ones calling the shots, and the furry and fanged aren't exactly the ones you might have met in other UF books. The Others or terra indigene might take human appearance but they are something entirely "Other" and non-human, that consequently doesn't act or think as humans and that have rather minimum to none regard about human wants or wishes.

All human cities have a Courtyard where a number of The Others live, to trade with and to make sure the humans don't forget their place in the natural order, otherwise they'd just go overboard and take more resources and dump more waste and basically do what we do in our world... Meg Corbyn arrives at the Courtyard of Lakeside while running away from the man that held her prisoner all her life and finds herself surrounded by the Others, that have to decide between allowing her, a human, sanctuary or simply eat her as an unwelcome intruder.

Meg is not your regular human either, she hides a secret from the Others, because she's being hunted and she'd rather die than be taken back. Soon she finds herself carving a lil place for herself as Human Liaison for the Courtyard and although her secret is found out pretty soon because she isn't used to fending for herself and doesn't know much about the world. Still, she conquers the Other's hearts, from Simon Wolfgard, who rules the Courtyard, to Erebus, the elder of the Sanguinati, not to mention Tess, the terra indigene that no one in the Courtyard knows what she is, AND to Winter and the other Elementals.

This book has some amazing world building, with a world so similar yet so different from ours that sometimes you end up forgetting about the differences until you get a reminder, in the same way the humans get a reminder that the Others still consider them meat. And despite all that, I found myself siding with the Others most often than not! I liked very few of the humans in this book and there came a point when I was rooting for some of the terra indigene to either eat or kill humans. Seems like my species loyalty is rather limited!

Then the characters, Simon the Wolf is both alien, scary and somewhat endearing in his dealings with both Meg and his nephew Sam. You could consider him an alpha, but given that he isn't human, I don't think he should be judged by human or regular human shape-shifters standards. Meg is not just your regular human either, and she starts the story running away and then hiding and she's somewhat child-like at first, but she's a combination of knowing too much and too little, and I was rooting for her from page one! The relationship between Simon and Meg is slow, tense and full of moments that will make you wonder, cringe, laugh and swoon and you'll end up shipping them like there's no tomorrow, or at least, I very much did! I was very happy to see how slowly it is developing, because anything else wouldn't have felt right for the characters or the story!

I feel like I could spend hours talking about the different kind of terra indigene, like Vlad and Erebus the two main Sanguinare (their name for vampires) and Tess (our unknown, kick arse terra indigene that runs a cafe) and other Wolves like Nathan and Sam. Sam is a character that got to me so very much. He's a puppy that's traumatized by his mother's murder in front of him so he's refused to get out of a cage for years and has not taken the human shape since then. Then Meg comes along and finds a way to get him our of both cages, the literal and the figurative one. Let's not forget some of the few humans that I actually liked and cared about, like Heather and Merri Lee, employees at some of the Courtyard stores, Montgomery and Kowalski police officers in charge to dealing with Courtyard matters and Burke, their captain, along with Ruth, Kowalski's wife.

The villains were either big unknowns orchestrating from afar, or petty and stupid humans with no real sense of what they were doing. For Asia Crane all was part of her ambitious game of being a famous actress one day and she didn't seem to care about who was injured or the consequences for the bigger picture. This can seem two-dimensional, but unfortunately there are plenty of real humans like this, so I was hoping she'd get eaten since her first interaction with Meg.

I simply ADORED this book!! I loved it and started recommending it before I had even finished it! Brilliant book, brilliant start of a series and if you haven't read it yet... GO READ IT NOW!! Extremely well deserved 5 stars (and a few more!) to Written in Red!!




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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski!!!

Hello there!

Today we're starting the week with a new edition of Mark This Book Monday! And today I have one of the eARCs that I've been more excited to get approved for ever, mostly because I was really dying to get my hands on this book!! So thank you so much to Bloomsbury UK & NetGalley for approving my request!

I'm pretty sure I will be re-reading this one once I get my preorder of the hardcover in the mail because I feel that I like having my feelings tortured! And I cannot wait to hold this stunningly gorgeous cover in person!



The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Winner's Curse was one of my favourite books of 2014 and getting approved for the eARC of The Winner's Crime on NG by Bloomsbury UK was the highlight of the end of 2014 for sure!

Everything that I had loved in The Winner's Curse, the historical fantasy, the politics, the plotting, the mysteries, the forbidden love... everything is in here but magnified! The court intrigues and plotting kept my heart pounding and every turn of the page was a source of anxiety for me!

I think the whole time I spent reading this book, my anxiety was flaring, my heart was pounding and breaking for Arin and Krestel! Their relationship is so full of difficulties from withing and from without... Not only theirs is a forbidden love because they're in opposite sides of a conflict and belong to different cultures, but they also are at a point where they can't talk to each other, so they keep second guessing and interpreting each others' actions or lack thereof.

Krestel is very talented at strategizing but she's rather out of her league when it comes to dealing with the Emperor because he's the master manipulator supreme! Whenever he appeared in the book my heart rate increased, because he is one seedy and scary character! Krestel does her best to stay ahead of the game but it's like trying to stay afloat in a tempest with no hope of rescue, you know that sooner or later you're gonna tire and go down. 

Arin is bitter and fighting and having the hardest time at dealing with his position, with having to deal with Krestel in the opposite sides that they're now and so ends up going on a journey to find a position of strenght for Herran.

The world gets bigger and we find out more about Herran, about Valoria and about a new place that we get to discover. Everything reminds me of empires of the Classical age, Romans, Greeks and now a new place that reminded me some of Egypt and some of Persia. I simply adore the world building in this book as I did with the one in book 1. It feels familiar enough to cultures familiar to us but at the same time they feel different enough to be part of a new world.

And of course, the writing... oh my goodness, the writing. Marie Rutkoski has the most gorgeous prose ever! With stunning prose, wonderful world building and plenty of heartache and pain, this book is the most excruciating and glorious painful experience ever! Very well deserved 5 stars! I can only hope that the next one will have more happiness or I might not survive reading it!



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Friday Reads: Every Breath by Ellie Marney!!!

Hello guys!

Happy Holidays, belated Merry Xmas and all that jazz! I hope you had a lovely time with the family and got loads of gifts!

To celebrate Boxing Day this Friday Reads I have an amazing book that you all need to buy and add to your reading pile STAT! It's rare that I highly recommend a contemporary and this is one of those occasions!! It was even in my list of Top 10 Debuts on Wednesday, so yep, go get it!!



Every Breath by Ellie Marney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One of my bookish resolutions of next year will be checking out more Australian fiction, because the two series I've started written by Australian authors, I've fallen in love with them completely!

When two of my bookish canaries, Kristen and Kim, highly recommended this one and then my fellow street team founder Ri concurred, I knew I had to give this one a chance, and since it was a loose retelling/reimagining of Sherlock Holmes, I just HAD to get it into my reading list before the end of the year!

And it was so the right choice! I'm not usually a big fan of contemporary, but this... this I absolutely loved! Both Watts and Mycroft (and dear me, I kept on thinking of either naked Stephen Fry's for movie's Mycroft or Mark Gatiss for BBC's Mycroft at first whenever I read the name!) feel like extremely genuine and realistic teenagers, with more or less extreme situations, with their own kind of family and personal drama that added to the whole setting of the book but never felt done for the sake of adding drama. The Watts are a family in a rather difficult situation and for once parents are there, caring but at the same time a cause of conflict. And Mycroft's aunt is a more absent figure, one that doesn't know how to deal or care for him.

The secondary characters are pretty well developed themselves and never felt like a filler, and I simply adore Mai with all her legal knowledge! She and Gus together were also quite cute and showed that friends were there for both Watts and Mycroft when needed! And boy does our Mycroft need friends and one with legal knowledge to boot!

I loved how the author adapted Sherlock's beggars and underground contacts to Mycroft and his knowing everyone in the streets, from the tram drivers to cafes owners and homeless guys. Like that many other characteristics can find their own parallels, even having a Watts instead of a Watson, except that Mycroft ain't as condescending with Rachel as Sherlock was with his good doctor.

The murder mystery they have to solve is one that hits Watts & Mycroft since it's someone they knew and it's them who discover the body, thinking that the police won't have enough interest they start their own investigation, colliding or collaborating with the police following their leads. I did figure out who was the killer a lil before Mycroft and Watts but not as much as to make it frustrating waiting for them to catch up.

The way the author mixes developing relationships, characters' growth and the investigation of a murder mystery and how sometimes the three mix in the most unexpected of ways was fantastic. I loved reading the progression of the relationship between Watts and Mycroft, from best friends to waaay something more and they both seem to either be oblivious to their chemistry or simply restisting it for fear of what the change might bring, but dear me I was shipping these two with the force a thousand burning suns!! *does a lil happy dance*

The book in itself was a clear 4 to 4.5 stars for me, BUT then we add the Englishness of Mycroft and the mix of British and Australians expressions and saying and I just had to add an extra half star just for that!! SO VERY MUCH LOOKING FORWARD TO BOOK TWO NOW!! Or re-reading this one maybe!



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Saturday Pages: Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers!!!

Hello there!

The weekend has arrived and I'm actually highly awaiting Tuesday next week cause it'll be my first day off since last Tuesday!

But since I work on the 3 to 10 pm shift, I'm still managing to read and keep up on the blog, more or less! To start this week's Saturday Pages I have one of my most awaited final books in a series (a trilogy in this case) and thankfully it was yet another that didn't disappoint it at!!

Also, this one has been in my list for my 2014 Series Challenge, so I'm gonna do a bit better than I expected, since I have done rather poorly with that particular challenge as of late!

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I fell in love with the first book in this trilogy within its few first pages, and that love has only kept on growing with each book and this one was not the exception.

Mortal Heart is the story of Annith, the girl that has been at St Mortain's convent longer than anyone else, the one that helped Ismae and Sybella when they first arrived, and the one that keeps being the one left behind while her sisters are set out on missions to serve Mortain.

Annith always seemed like the perfect student, quiet, hardworking, and ready to help whenever and whatever is asked of her, but when she discovers that she is losing the freedom she always dreamed of and always trained for, she decides there's a rebel in her and leaves the convent.

I was quite surprised about the direction the book took and in a very good way! I loved seeing how the author protrayed the leyend of the Wild Hunt/Santa Compaña/Dance of the Dead and how Annith was such a fighter and so resilient, and even when she was a bit reckless, I couldn't help but continue to cheer her on!

I wasn't sure what I was expecting for Annith in terms of the romance, but for sure it wasn't Balthazaar. But boy, was I shipping this two like mad since the moment he walked into the page! It was slow on developing and exactly how it should be!

As with the previous books, there's the internal struggle and the discovery of who you are, what you want to do really, and there's the political and historical fight going on. The history lover in me continued to jump up and down in happiness with the progression of the story and some of the new things we encountered, how the world of the gods/saints was expanded...

We also get quite a few unexpected twists in this book, one of the I didn't see coming at all and literally jaw dropped when I read it "WAIT, WHAAAAT!?!" and others I wouldn't have imagined before reading the book, but started suspecting as I was reading. Still, very well mastered!

I don't think I can continue to be coherent any more... I simply adored this book and I love this series to bits. It simply seems to have everything I love so very well mixed! 5 and all the stars to Mortal Heart and to the series as a whole! READ IT NOW!!



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Friday Reads: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater!!!

As my second Friday Reads entry I have a book that I was dying to get my hands on but that arrived home while I was on vacation, and that I started as soon as I could but that didn't devour as quickly as I might have other books because I just didn't want it to end!

Maggie Stiefvater is simply a genius and I very much need to catch up with the rest of her books while I wait for the final book in this series releasing next year!



Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A review for Blue Lily Lily Blue is going to be very difficult to write, even more trying to keep it as spoiler free as possible!

Maggie Stiefvater's writing is flawless and I kept being surprised and scared and sometimes I needed to take a break from the book and read something else because I was genuinely scared of what might come in the next pages. Because if you want twists and new info and new worries at almost every turn of the page, this is your book!

Amazing writing, intricate plot, answers and even more questions, unexpected new characters coming up and turning into new villains, new unexpected grey maybe allies, existing relationships getting deeper, ships getting even more shipable... ah, the pain! I continue to love the ladies at 500 Fox street, the Raven Boys & Blue, and the Gray Man!

The more I read, the more complicated everything kept on getting and more scared you get because you know there's no way things can be resolved by the end of the book in a good way, or in any way. And once the book ends you are scared for what's to come on the next book, because you're sure that all the shit will hit the fan in the final book, and it is STILL ONE YEAR AWAY!!

Blue continues to be probably my favourite character in the book, she's so brave and she continues to reflect and grow and accept herself, no matter what new surprises she keeps on getting thrown at her face and dealing with her mother being missing. And of course with her non-existing-but-sort-of-meant-to-be relationship with Gansey... those two make my heart hurt and I love love love reading their sweet scenes, their unsaid conversations, the ones they actually have, and what they know that can't be but cannot help to wish for.

I would talk forever about this book but I don't think I can manage without some spoiler popping here or there, and I have to say that the book is much better enjoyed with as little previous information as possible. This is a 5 stars and some more kind of a book and I cannot recommend the whole series enough! If you haven't started reading this series yet, GO NOW AND START READING!




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Friday Reads: Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch!!!

Hi there everyone!!

Happy Friday! I'm on one of my looong weeks of work at work, one where I don't have any days off, but I'm finding that I'm doing a rather good job and juggling blogging and work and keeping up with watching my shows and even getting some sleep... what I'm not doing? Baking or anything photography... I'll have to work on that next week!

For this week's Friday Reads I have one of the first books that I read when I came back from my vacation cause my SIGNED copy had arrived while I was off! A phenomenal debut and one that I'd highly recommend to anyone that loves fantasy!



Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Snow Like Ashes was one of those highly awaited debuts of the year for me and I had a few issues with my preorder for it, change of shipping dates for Amazon, etc... BUT then I saw that Books of Wonder would have signed copies, so I decided to spend a bit more on shipping and get myself a signed copy! Brilliant choice except cause it meant a longer wait to read it...

But once I got reading it, the wait didn't matter any more! It was one of those books that you can't really put down easily at all because you want to know more! We start the book right getting to know Meira and watching her struggles with what she want to be and what she wants to do and what is asked of her, so we don't know much of the world at first. But soon enough we get more information, and the world continues growing from the small and personal, to the big and world changing.

I felt like the mix between the character growth and making us care for their struggles and worries, the world building progression and the advancement of the plot was mixed and done very well. The world might not be as epic as in other fantasy worlds but it does give you enough to keep you looking forward to what might be there to come next.

On the romance front, it's there and there's even a dreaded love triangle, one where our girl Meira finds herself thrown head first and without consulting her. She has always felt something more than friendship from Mather, but since she's just a regular girl and he's the heir and king on exile, it's something impossible. And then comes Theron, and Meira finds herself in an unexpected situation with an unexpected ally. I was not annoyed by this triangle and even if I found myself siding with Theron, I still felt for Mather! Well played Sara Raasch, well played!

All this put together would sum up to a 4 star book for me, but I still haven't talked about out main character, our main girl, our Meira! Meira is what made me give this book 5 well deserved stars, because she is a flawed character, but she's also strong, sassy, sensible but stubborn and she won't let others make her choices for her without putting up a fight and making her own choices on how to react and how to shape her future. Simply put I.LOVE.MEIRA!!

And let's not forget to add a villanous villain, many political intrigues and ramifications, quite a few surprises and twists (even if I suspected some, that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book) and an ending that without a horrible cliffhanger makes you want to get your hands on the next book NOW!!



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Mark This Book Monday: Mortal Gods by Kendare Blake!!!

Hello everyone!

Another week is starting and so we have another edition of Mark This Book Monday! We're starting the week with a book that I absolutely adored and that I was lucky enough to get signed since I attended the release day event for it at Books of Wonder!

Hearing Kendare talking about the book and the series gave me an even bigger appreciation for it, and now here am I waiting for book 3 to come out next year, and overcome with my love for a series that makes me love Greek Myths anew!



Mortal Gods by Kendare Blake

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I've always been a big lover of Greek Myths since I discovered them in History class and decided to read more about them. They always were very "human" Gods with plenty of human emotions and flaws, and their stories could count as the first drama series, full of illegitimate children, God-human affairs and political struggles.

So retellings and reimaginings of Greek Gods are always one of my soft spots, so I usually am drawn to any books with them, but too many YA books end up being too formulaic or overdone in the way they deal with the myths. Then comes Kendare Blake with her Goddess War series and now I'm fangirling like there's no tomorrow about a series that makes me fall in love again with a different version of Greek Gods and myths!

Antigoddess was amazing and creepy and intriguing and Mortal Gods simply made everything bigger and creepier and more dire! There might be spoilers for Antigoddess in this review so be aware of that, and frankly, if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? Go read it now, chop chop!

Mortal Gods stars where Antigoddes left us, heartbroken, shocked and with Cassandra angry and even less willing to help the gods, and with Athena and the rest trying to deal with their own loss as well as with Cassandra's. They've won a battle but the war is still ranging and it's gonna be one without mercy!

Athena, Hermes and Ody start looking for allies for their side since they learn that Aphrodite has recruited Ares to her side. They have Cassandra, a rather unhappy and not entirely willing weapon, but they need to find or destroy Achilles and they need to find more allies for their cause. What they don't expect is for the other side to have a certain knowledge and advantage that will set up a trap for them.

As far as the characters goes, it's amazing how Kendare manages to make them unlikeable but at the same time you cannot help but root for them! Athena has to be my favourite character, even when as a goddess she isn't exactly a cuddly character and many times shows her lack of empathy for humans. Cassandra is also a very hard character to like, as much as you understand her anger and sadness, you want her to fight and stop being so angry at everyone all the time. Hermes made my heart hurt because he's more likeable and seeing Athena fight for him, made me hurt even more!

After some revelations come you find yourself trying to figure out what will happen next, because by the end of the book our emotions are so shaken that you cannot figure out what will happen next. I am so very emotionally involved in this series now and I just cannot accept that the next book is the last one! Very much deserved 5 stars!



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