Sunday Street Team: A Shadow Bright & Burning by Jessica Cluess!!!

Sunday Street Team is organized by Nori @ ReadWriteLove28. SST is a cross between a blog tour and street team for a couple different titles each month. As the title suggests, the posts go up on Sundays!

Go here to learn more about SST.

2016 is full of amazing debuts and today I'm helping promote & shine a spotlight to one of my most awaited and the beginning of a new YA fantasy trilogy: A Shadow Bright & Burning by Jessica Cluess!

I'm gonna give you some information about the book and authors and will also be sharing my review!

A Shadow Bright & Burning by Jessica Cluess

I am Henrietta Howel.
The first female sorcerer in hundreds of years.
The prophesied one.
Or am I?

Henrietta Howel can burst into flames.
Forced to reveal her power to save a friend, she's shocked when instead of being executed, she's invited to train as one of Her Majesty's royal sorcerers.

Thrust into the glamour of Victorian London, Henrietta is declared the chosen one, the girl who will defeat the Ancients, bloodthirsty demons terrorizing humanity. She also meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, handsome young men eager to test her power and her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her.

But Henrietta Howel is not the chosen one.
As she plays a dangerous game of deception, she discovers that the sorcerers have their own secrets to protect. With battle looming, what does it mean to not be the one? And how much will she risk to save the city—and the one she loves?

Exhilarating and gripping, Jessica Cluess's spellbinding fantasy introduces a powerful, unforgettably heroine, and a world filled with magic, romance, and betrayal. Hand to fans of Libba Bray, Sarah J. Maas, and Cassandra Clare.

 About the author:



JESSICA CLUESS is a writer, a graduate of Northwestern University, and an unapologetic nerd. After college, she moved to Los Angeles, where she served coffee to the rich and famous while working on her first novel. When she's not writing books, she's an instructor at Writopia Lab, helping kids and teens tell their own stories.

REVIEW

 An excellent debut and very promising first book in a new fantasy series!

Herrietta is our main character and she's always been a survivor in a world where women are second class citizens at best, and were women & magic equals witch and witch equals death. As someone with magic she's been scared & hiding her powers all her life and when she's discovered, her life is shaken upside down, but not by the threat she expected at all!

This book might seem to be going through often throd paths when it comes to setting, as it's Victorian London, with the constrictions and customs of the time, and when magic is added to the mix, we keep on thinking it'll be the magic we know well and true, and very early on we start to see that none of the tropes and cliches to be expected will remain so.

Jessica Cluess does an amazing job at building a different system of magic from the ones we've usually seen, nothing that we haven't seen before, not really, but mixed and done fresh and differently! Same with the world and mythology of it, and we keep discovering how different things are from the expected route along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed having my expectations turned upside down and being wrong about what might come next!

We get a heroine that is NOT the chosen one but will not back down from doing what she can in the fight and in challenging the prejudices of society. We get some light romance because it's very much on the side and even if it's not a linear romance, it's also not clearly stablished as any sort of geometrical shape either. There's a very close relationship with a childhood friend & ally that could be something more but undefined and unexplored, and there's a certain entanglement of attraction with another fellow magic user but that's cut short very wisely. And there's something that might be nothing that's the one I'm rooting for because apparently I like things complicated!

We get quite a few revelations that shake not only our preconceptions but also the characters' knowledge of their world and history or at least what they thought they know, and although that leaves us really looking forward to what's to come in the next book(s), it manages to avoid the utter pain of a cliffhanger, which I was extremely thankful for!

Fantasy can have many well known characteristics and tropes and they can still be used to construe a fresh and original story, and this book is proof of that! 4 to 4.5 stars to this one!

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Friday Reads: The Forgetting & Stalking Jack The Ripper!!!

Hello there guys!

Friday is here and with it a pair of more mini reviews for Friday Reads of some of my highly awaited ARCs that I got from BEA, and that will totally count towards my ARC August Challenge pile!!

The Forgetting was a book that I was pretty excited about because it sounded fantastic, I had read Sharon Cameron's books and really enjoyed all of them, and that coverrr! And after I read Alyssa's review, I knew I had to grab it and read it ASAP, so it ended up being my Alyssa Recommends book for August!


The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Forgetting is one of those books that starts a bit slow, with very few details and knowledge at first but not in frustrating way, given how forgetting and not knowing anything beyond the most recent 12 years before another Forgetting is the way people live in this world Sharon Cameron has created.

The writing was amazing and by going with Nadia's POV we both know what goes outside and inside of her head, because she's quite a silent one but there's so much going on in her head all the time! I loved how her bright self started poking out from the shell all through the book and she has a really fantastic character development!

She was so ready to fight for her family and to give them the best chance of being together and save in the next Forgetting and that plan changes and evolves as she finds out more about what's really going on on her partnetship with Gray.

Gray was also a very interesting character, one that at first is coloured by Nadia's memories and that seems to have two faces, depending on what memories Nadia focuses on. He really grew on me and I was glad that Nadia continued to keep him as an ally even when some revelations came up.

The world building was simply fantastic, starting with so little and making it grow and grow with little hints here and there and then finally more explanations and revelations, but they really did not shape the book so much as the choices the mains characters and the secondary ones had to make.

The biggest strenght of this book is not the amazing world building, the fantastic writing or the brilliant character development but the way all of it came together and shined when the hard questions were asked and how the book simply gives us so much to think on the choices made and what might have changed and which one would really be the right choice and if there's such a thing for everyone.

Science fiction with dystopian feelings, this brilliant standalone book will keep you guessing all through the pages and will leave you with plenty of food for thought for days after you've read it! 4.5 to 5 stars!!


Stalking Jack The Ripper is a story that I discovered through my dear friend Cassi from My Thoughts Literary and I was beyond pumped to get me a signed ARC copy at BEA and to meet the absolutely lovely and wonderful Kerri Maniscalco!


 Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Brilliantly done!! The pacing, the atmosphere, the setting, the characters and the mystery, so well done!! I fell for the main red herring just has my dear Audrey Rose did, but I managed to guess the identity of Jack the Ripper before her, so I'm feeling quite happy with myself!! What an absolutely wonderful debut!!

I absolutely adored that Audrey Rose was struggling with keeping with what she loved and wanted to do, societal conventions be damned, but at the same time was trying not to worry her brother was trying to keep appearances to a point, but it all changes once things get really dire and when she starts suspecting her own blood of being involved in the cases she's dealing with.

I've always been fascinated by Jack The Ripper and all the theories about his identity and the mystery of who he could have been and what his motivations were? And in this book Kerri Maniscalco does a great job of presenting us a theory that works so great with the characters she's created and although it tweaks the actual events a lil, it could really have worked well in the time and place!

I loved how Audrey Rose was both intellectual and proving that she was not a fainting delicate rose but at the same time didn't need to lose her love for dresses or fashion, even if she was not keen on sticking with the strict society rules when it came to women.

Kerri's writing was very atmospheric and rich in details that really immersed you in the narrative and did not bog down the plot progress or the character development. She really made me hungry with all the talk about desi food and now thinking about it I'm once again having serious cravings!

The relationship between Audrey and Thomas was both intriguing, maddening and a lot of fun! They challenge each other in many ways and Thomas is both an intellectual in a rather Sherlockian way but at the same time, he's a bit of a rake and a flirt, so quite fun to read about!

With a rather emotional ending that I managed to guess a lil before it was revealed and still getting enough resolution to not leave us twitching, I'm so very looking forward to more installments into this companion series in which we'll follow Audrey and Thomas in more murder-solving adventures!

ARC August is HERE again!!

My beloved friends Octavia & Shelly from Read Sleep Repeat are once again organizing ARC August!! The month to stop and catch up with all your various ARCs before they get too out of control!

The good thing about ARC August is that both physical and digitals ARCs count, so I can finally allow myself to tackle my ARCs from BEA as well as focus on some backlogged Netgalley ARCs that will also count towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge!

My goal for ARC August is to tackle all the September ARCs I got from BEA (that'd be a total of 7, if I don't read any from that pile during July) and then 3 or 4 backlogged eARC from NetGalley.

My tentative list:

BEA ARCs

- Stalking Jack the Ripper
- Three Dark Crowns
- Metaltown
- The Female of the Species
- A Shadow Bright & Burning
- Vassa in the Night
- The Forgetting

And eARCs:

- Warrior Witch
- Wild Swans
- Tell The Wind & Fire
- Unicorn Tracks

Wish me luck guys! I hope I will do better than my major fail this past ARC April!!

Get HOOKED on BOOKS! 2016 Virtual Adult Summer Reading Program!! #VASRP

Hey guys!

Today I'm having a sign up post for yet another reading challenge! But this one is a very fun one hosted by my friends Octavia from Read Sleep Repeat & Valerie from He Said Books Or Me!!

It's based on those library summer programs we had as kids and will work as a challenge with rewards and mini challenges and Twitter Chats!! Read more about it and sign up HERE or HERE!

I'm planning to work on this challenge and continue to make progress on my other challenges, and to add a bit more to it, I've decided to plan it as a double challenge! On one side I plan to finish a lot of series (mostly trilogies and duologies) that I've been meaning to finish for at least a year if not way more, and everytime I finish one, I plan to reward myself by reading one of my BEA ARCs! I'll be choosing only from the September books pile, but it'll be making progress on my ARC pile and rewarding myself for finally tackling those series!

So here is the intended pile for my 2016 Virtual Adult Summer Reading Program! #VASRP

Series that need to be finished on one side, non-series books that I really want to read, or I've been meaning to read for a long time in the other, and in the middle, my reward ARCs!

Looking at that pile, I think I'm clearly aiming for the Spin Bait Read level (17-24 books). Wish me luck guys!

You'll Want To Read This Book Wednesday: Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

You'll Want To Read This Book Wednesday was inspired by Save the Date from The Perpetual Page Turner and Pre-Squee from Bewitched Bookworms, when I decided to do my own feature/meme to showcase those books that I get to read pretty ahead of time (mainly from BEA) and it'd replace Waiting on Wednesday on my blog. It might be weekly, bi-weekly or once a month, depending on when I indulge on reading one of the far off ARCs!

This week I'm showcasing another of my BEA ARCs that I just finished reading last week and that I absolutely loved!

Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the investigative services of her fellow residents to solve a decade-old murder—her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, Detective R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. But when a new, gruesome murder closely mirrors the events of ten years prior, Abigail and Jackaby realize that Jenny’s case isn’t so cold after all, and her killer may be far more dangerous than they suspected.

Fantasy and folklore mix with mad science as Abigail’s race to unravel the mystery leads her across the cold cobblestones of nineteenth-century New England, down to the mythical underworld, and deep into her colleagues’ grim histories to battle the most deadly foe she has ever faced.

I really enjoyed Jackaby, the first book in the series, loved Beastly Bones and now Ghostly Echoes, I think I loved even more! Jenny has a bigger role in this book and she comes more into her own, so I cannot help and be more in love with the series since I really loved Jenny and wanted to know more about her since book 1! 

Everything gets bigger and bigger in this one, so to speak. The plot thickens are so much more is revealed, more events get connected and the bad guys aren't exactly who you'd expect. More reveals happen about Jenny and her past and even about Jackaby and his Sight too! The world building continues to expand and there are so many ways in which mythologies are mixed together and explained together.

If you haven't started this series I encourage you to do so, it's a mix of detective stories with the wondrous and the unknown and with plenty of mythology thrown in, it's just a fantastic molten pot mix that really works!

I cannot wait to see what the author has in store for us in the next book, so start reading Jackaby and Beastly Bones now and get preordering Ghostly Echoes NOW!

Tell Me Tuesdays #37!!

Tell Me Tuesdays is a meme/feature created by the awesome La La In The Library, where we can share how we choose the book we are currently reading from our TBR pile!

I'm always curious about that, cause as much as I tend to make myself a rough schedule for books to read and the like, I'm quite a mood reader and sometimes I just HAVE to ignore my schedule and read something else!

 And I Darken by Kiersten White

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.

Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.

Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.

The first of an epic new trilogy starring the ultimate anti-princess who does not have a gentle heart. Lada knows how to wield a sword, and she'll stop at nothing to keep herself and her brother alive.

 Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the investigative services of her fellow residents to solve a decade-old murder—her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, Detective R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. But when a new, gruesome murder closely mirrors the events of ten years prior, Abigail and Jackaby realize that Jenny’s case isn’t so cold after all, and her killer may be far more dangerous than they suspected.

Fantasy and folklore mix with mad science as Abigail’s race to unravel the mystery leads her across the cold cobblestones of nineteenth-century New England, down to the mythical underworld, and deep into her colleagues’ grim histories to battle the most deadly foe she has ever faced.



And I Darken is an eARC that totally made my day when I was approved for, and that I'm loving, even if it's taking me a while to finish, mostly I just want a day off to finish it without interruptions, and despite my many days off recently, I didn't get to do just that! But I love how brutal Lada is, and the historical fiction side of it is totally my thing!

Ghostly Echoes is one of my precious from BEA16 and since it's an August release book, it's one of my first indulgences! Read the sampler from NG and loved it, and I'm loving the book so far too!!

 So what are you all guys reading and how and why did you decide to pick up that book? Shiny new ARC? Comfort read? Scheduled for review? Must have new release? Tell me!!

Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Passenger by Alexandra Bracken!!

Hello guys!

A new week is here and I'm highly awaiting my Illumicrate in the mail and hoping The Book Depository will ship my preorder of The Vanishing Throne soon, but it still won't arrive by release date... oh well!!

For this week's Mark This Book Monday entry I have an ARC review from one of my BEA ARCs! So far I only have 3 pending to read, and only two are behind schedule, so not doing too bad!



Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


WOAH! Holy revelations at the end Batman!! And I seriously dislike Sophia with a passion, even karma seems to be doing its work!

My BEA ARC is nowhere near the finished book and I really really loved it, so I cannot wait till I can read the finished book!

Reading Passanger as an ARC was a new experience for me, because it underwent revisions and a new beginning was added, with changes that had to span the rest of the book, more minor as they might be. So while I had the new beginning because the author had sent them on her newsletter, I had already read the old beginning too (stopped reading when I heard about the changes) and when I started reading again, I had both beginnings in my head, so to speak.

That made for a different reading experience, because not only I was reading the book but I was also wondering about how some things might be affected by the changes to come in the final book, and how some other things would have been changed. If you're wondering if that somehow affected my reading negatively, nope! It made reading the book even more fascinating!

And I must confess to be absolutely in love with the essence of the story and the characters! No matter what changes have happened to the story, I love Nicholas, I love Etta and I love their world of time travelling families and passages!

The world building was fantastic, with little details here and there that might have not seem all that relevant until they became crucial! I loved how Alexandra Bracken took us to many different places and times in the world and how very real each of them felt! There were so many lil tiny details added here and there that you might not notice too easily but that do create a great atmosphere!

Etta was a great character even if it took me a lil while to relate to her. I could see her love for playing the violin and her drive and ambition but once she was thrown into completely uncharted waters it's when I began to really like her. She was trying her best to adapt and understand but she couldn't stop being herself and that got her in trouble a few times. It's true that she sometimes run without thinking, but being treated as if she ought to know everything and be grateful for her choices being taken from her can make anyone make a few rash (and slightly unwise) choices.

Nicholas is a fantastic character, with a troubled and difficult past, hard choices made for him and others he had to make himself, and despite his justified hate of the family, he's not one to judge others too easily or too fast, even when he is judged and dismissed too easily too often. I don't want to talk too much about him because you simply need to meet him yourselves!

If you're wondering if there's romance, yes there is, and the romancephobe that I am doesn't really complain about it! There was a bit of instantaneous fascination at first, and they're thrown together by fate and family interests but their connection and chemistry felt quite intense and real, so I do ship this ship, very much!!

As far as the plot goes, you are not really sure about where things are going at first, so we're very much like Etta, but as she figures things out, everything seems to be taking shape. But don't get too comfortable because there are some serious plot twists thrown here and there, and the bomb at the end of the book is quite something too! Cliffhanger warning here for all of those like me who need to be prepared for them!

I cannot wait to re-read my finished copy of Passenger once I can finally get my greedy hands on it. This ARC got 4 stars but I get the feeling the finished book might get 5 stars once I read it!



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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Soundless by Richelle Mead!!

Hello there guys!!

Monday is here and for me is my 6th day on a row of work (even if it's a night) but yeah, technicalities aside... I really need a day off!

I've been in a bit of a reading and review writing slump this past week and I hope I'll be getting over it this week! And I'm trying my best by starting the week right, with a new review for Mark This Book Monday!


Soundless by Richelle Mead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Soundless is not my first Richelle Mead book, because I'm in love with her Age of X series, but those are adult dystopia/fantasy, and since I almost am scared to admit, I haven't read her Vampire Academy series, this was my first Richelle Mead YA.

I was quite excited about Soundless since it was a standalone fantasy book, but once I got my hands on an ARC at BEA, it was quite a tiny ARC so I began to worry about the world building and the full ARC of a fantasy story in a book with less than 300 pages!

BUT I should have not worried! Somehow the author managed to wove a complete story with a fantastic world building and some lovely Chinese mythology included, that made for a very welcome change!

Our main character, Fei, lives in a village on top of mountain and their livelihood depends on their mining of precious metals since they send them mountain down in exchange of all the food they cannot grow. Everyone in their village has been deaf for generations so they depend on the artists to paint everyday their news and happenings. But now the villagers are also going blind, starting by those that work in the mines, they're sending less metals down and getting more foods up.

Things are getting dire, and when Fei's sister starts losing her sight, Fei feels like she needs to do something more. And then she recovers her hearing and that changes everything.

The world building is done in such a lovely progression. We get to know the village, and their way of life and surroundings quite well through the work of Fei and her interactions with others. Then when Fei starts her way down the mountain with Li Wei, we see more and more of what's in this world other than their little village cut from everything and everyone.

As they discover that they really knew nothing of what's going on down the mountain and so many secrets are revealed, we meet a few new characters here and there. Some of them felt more vague, like more archetypes than characters, and others were more fully fleshed.

The relationship between Fei and sister is the main motivator of Fei's quest and I was quite glad to see that for a change, instead of the romantic feelings. Even if there are romantic feelings, but for Fei, her sister is first and foremost.

I don't know a lot of Chinese mythology and I always mean to read more of it, but getting a smaller story based on it like this one, it's always a good reminder and a good motivator to do so!

The feel of this book is not of epic fantasy, but more of folk tale or fairy tale (and I agree with Jessica from Rabid Reads on that) but that for me was not a bad thing at all!

The descriptions felt very visual and rich and I feel the author did a great job at trying to describe and explain hearing when everyone around you has been deaf for generations, and you have to try and find books written by people that could hear, and figure out what sounds are what words! Made me really think about how many things us lucky enough to be in possession of all our senses take them for granted!

The ending was what I had expected more or less with a few clues that we were getting and it was both open but with enough resolution to imagine what might continue to happen in the village. Once again, it felt very fairy tale-like!

Very well deserved 4 stars for this one!!



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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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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin!!

Hello guys!

I'm back after a lil break since last week I took a trip to London with my younger nephew and I didn't have the time or energy to leave some scheduled posts!

I promise to share photos from my trip as soon as my laptop and my phone stop acting up and decided they want to talk to each other, because right now, I cannot get the photos from the phone to the lappy! *frustrated groan*

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have one of my ARC from BEA for review and one that goes very well with my goals for October to read more diverse books because this one has a Jewish protagonist in a Third Reich victorious world, and if that doesn't make us reflect on diversity and the importance to not ignore the voices of all, I don't know what will!

Wolf By Wolf by Ryan Graudin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My first Ryan Graudin book and I couldn't have chosen a better one! WWII was always a subject that was engrossing, fascinating and revolting at the same time for me.

A book with an alternate history were Normandy, operation Overlord and Day D did not happen... it's again both fascinating and beyond scary and the author handled it perfectly.

Yael, our main character is as complex as they come. She was a Jewish girl taken into one of the Nazi camps and used as a the first subject in a cruel experiment by Doctor Death himself. But Yael uses her new abilities to escape the camp and finds herself with the resistance. But after all Yael is not sure who she really is anymore, who is the real she if she can be anyone? I loved how she used her pain and her memories to by her center and to feel who she really is.

If you are wondering what the Wolf by Wolf title does have to do with the book, well, you very soon understand that it is extremely important and that wolves have a relevance to Yael and to the story, in more than one way! Very cleverly done by author!

The book is told in alternating both the now and the then, as we follow the unfolding of the plot to assassinate Hitler by getting close enough to him by winning a race (impersonating a previous winner) and as we learn the past of Yael and her wolves.

Jumping from one time to the other was never jarring in the story, at least for me, it managed to give an extra layer to everything that was happening in the now as well as providing context and character growth to Yael without having to insert it forecefully somehow in the main present line of narrative.

The tension of the race was always there, not only in the shape of the dangers of the race itself, the tension of having to win, the rivalry and the probable dirty tactics used by rivals, but also in the risk of discovery by two people that were close to the rider that Yael is impersonating: her brother Felix, and a fellow rider that had relationship with her that was never know in a paper trail, Luka.

Yael has to bluff her way through tangles of a past that she knows nothing of and avoid discovery at all costs to protect her mission, and at the same time, she finds herself tangled in Adele's life and needs more than ever to remember who she really is and what her mission means, to her, her wolves and the world.

The world building was quite fascinating, not just because we visit quite many places along the race from Germania (former Berlin) to Tokyo, but also because the author has to imagine what sort of society would have emerged from a Third Reich victory. And she does that brilliantly, painting a society that keeps on making me thankful to live in the society we do, despite the many flaws that it might have nowadays!

A fantastic book that leaves us with an ending that opens for even more questions and that packs quite a punch of surprises! Cannot wait for the sequel!! Very well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars!



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It's a Manic Monday: It's MY Birthday Giveaway!!!

Hellooooo there guys!!

I might be a lil too happy for it being a Monday BUT it's MY birthday!! And even if I'm getting rather old already! (I can't believe I'm turning 35!!, I wish I could have got stuck at 28, I loved being 28) it's a day to celebrate and to do whatever the heck I want!

And because of that, I'm gonna be hosting a giveaway that will last the whole week here in my blog and another one in my Twitter!

As an unrepentant bookwyrm there's no better way to celebrate my birthday than with books (and of course cupcakes!!). I wish I had a bit more time to have organized a lil bit more of a celebration of my birthday, but with my regular work and all the work that is still to be done in my apartment... I just didn't have the energy!

 This year was a recovery year for me, and I think I'm fully recovered yet but I'm getting much much better and I have so many amazing things that happened to me, so I gotta count it as a win!

- I attended BEA and got the most awesome roomies ever (I love you Britt, Becs and Sarah!!), and also got to meet and hang out with other amazing bloggers that I loooove and that I cannot wait to meet again next year!! ( Cassi, Octavia, Nikki, Christina, Cristina, Melissa!!).

And of course meeting so many amazing authors and getting books signed and getting some brilliant early ARCs and well, it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!

And BEA is relevant to this giveaway because what I'm giving away is a preorder or copy of one of my top 5 books from BEA that I've read so far!

And which one are those books you might ask? Here they are:

- Fall Out by Gwenda Bond

- Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

- Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

- Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

The 5 books are all 5 stars for me and I can highly recommend them all, so they lucky winner will choose one of these! The giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY since the book will be ordered via The Book Depository!  (Obviously if the book is not released, I'll be preordering the book at TBD for you!).

I will be checking the entries, so no cheating dears, I'm in a celebratory mood but I don't like cheaters, so don't get cheeky!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Best of luck everyone! I'll have a busy day having lunch with the parentals, spending time with a friend in the afternoon and having my nephews over for dinner! Oh boy, I think I need a cupcake now!

Have a great Monday and Happy birthday to me! ;)

Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo!!!

Hello there!

Today I had to get up earlier than planned because the carpenters were coming home to fix up the last thing that was pending in my house, and now that is done so hooray! Now it's just getting the rest of the furniture, sorting more stuff and unpacking things... A few months still of work, I think, but very much worth it!

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have one of my BEA ARCs for review, one that I simply adored and I'm itching to re-read and that was full of diverse characters, so it'll be counting towards my 105 Challenge in the diverse category!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I had been silly enough to start reading the first 3 chapters as FierceReads started sharing them and I was left wanting so much more (will I ever learn not go for excerpt? I don't think so!) so very soon after I returned from BEA with this amazing ARC (signed!) I caved in and read it.

I had loved The Grisha trilogy very much, but I must confess that I love this one even more! I was captivated since page 1, wondering about what was going on and how will these characters that you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley were going to be involved in a heist.

The beginning of the book reminded me a bit of the start of Ocean's Eleven, since we meet and gather our team of dangerous outcasts, recruiting and rescuing when there's need for it.

Six of Crows was a multiple POV book done right. All the different POV voices were distinctive, relevant and captivating. My favourite character has to be Inej, but my favourite chapters have to be Kaz's, because his story was such a mystery and he's such a fascinating character! You would never consider him a good guy, but he is a multifaceted characters with so many layers and grey areas that I was so drawn to him!

The basic plot is essentially assemble team of dangerous outcasts with special abilities to do the impossible and get something from an impregnable somewhere at the time where it'd be harder to do. But this plot done right is one that has you turning pages like there's no tomorrow! And Leigh Bardugo really did it right!

The alternating POVs worked great for it because you never have all the information, the only one that does is Kaz and he isn't exactly forthcoming or inclined to share it all with either his teammates or us readers, because he is a character with so many secrets! And that reluctace on sharing does gain us (and the others) more than one near heart attack with changes of plan, betrayals that might or might not be real and unexpected tanks (yes, you read right, tanks... you'll know what I mean when you read it).

Even though if romance is not a priority or even a side plot (well, maybe there's one exception) for this book, I ended up shipping quite a lot of ships SO VERY MUCH!! I will not say more because discovering those ships was also part of the experience but one in particular gave me all the feels and I just cannot!!

A wonderfully diverse cast of characters that are all in shades of grey, not really evil, but not what you'd easily qualify as the good guys, with a plot full of surprises, pacing done perfectly, with slow moments and heart stopping moments, full of ships to ship that won't take off from the character development or the plot development and a cliffhanger ending that has me begging for the sequel... this is my favourite Leigh Bardugo book to date!

Very much deserved 5 stars to this one and I'm just dying to re-read my finished copy as soon as it arrives in the mail!



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Mark This Book Monday: Tonight The Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales

Hiya guys! Happy Monday!

In my case it's Buying Groceries Monday because I still need to stock up in a lot of things since I just moved to my apartment last week. And to add some motivation to the grocery shopping after night shift I'm also buying ingredients to make ice cream! Mmmmm, ice cream!!

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have the last book that I read as part of ARC August and one of the ARCs that I got at BEA'15! Since it is a YA contemporary I'm counting it towards that category for the 105 Challenge!

Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Another unconventional coming of age story about a girl learning who she is and finding her worth not definying herself in relation to others.

Unfortunately I couldn't relate as much to Arden as I would have liked, and when you can't relate with the main character the emotional connection with the book diminishes, and since I'm a gut-feeling kind of girl when it comes to rating, I cannot give this one more than a 3 stars.

Characters are very well written and realistic, complex and with good and bad things. The relationships between friends and family are also complex and feel real. Friends are there for each other, but also resent each other on occasion and feel like they matter less or underappreciated. The way that Arden deals with her mother leaving is also excellently done.

The writing was fantastic too, but that is something to be expected of Leila Sales, so even if I wasn't too keen on Arden or her story I just couldn't stop reading. Seeing Arden's growth towards the end of the book was satisfying and I also liked how the people around her shook her ideas about them and herself by the end too and how she learnt to look at herself and others in a different way.

But for most of the book I just couldn't stand Arden and the way she was handling herself or her life... I just couldn't relate to her at all, and then when we meet Peter? Nope, couldn't stand him at all either...

One of the things I loved the most about this book, as I did with TSWSYL, is that the romance is not magically fixing anything, and that it's not the most important part of the book. Growth for the characters is, figuring out who they are and who they want to be and understanding themselves and others better is.

And I think that after loving This Song Will Save Your Life so MUCH and relating so much and feeling so much for Elise, it was dissapointing to feel so contrary and so little empathy for Arden...

So yeah, clearly this was a case of "it's not me, it's you" with a book. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 because of its superbly written characters.





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Saturday Pages: ARC Review of Walk On Earth A Stranger by Rae Carson!!

Hey there guys!

It's the weekend! Well, I say so while I crash after working night shift and going grocery shopping afterwards to avoid the weekend crowds! *collapses in bed* I shall be taking a nice middle of the day nap!

But I'll leave you with a Saturday Pages review for one of the books that I read for ARC August! And it is another YA Western! I think I have a new appreciation for westerns since I really enjoyed the two that I've read, and they were quite different from each other!

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I adored Rae's Fire & Thorns trilogy so I was dying to grab her next book and when I heard it would be a western I was even more intrigued!

If any of you are wondering about similitudes with Vengeance Road, they really don't exist aside from that both are YA westerns with a female main character that disguises herself as a boy for a part of the book. The main characters couldn't be more different and so couldn't be their journey, voice or plot.

Leah can feel gold, keeping her ability secret for fear of robbery, murder or exploitation. She lives modestly with her parents, until her life is turned upside down and she must flee from a man that would use her ability for his own means.

She decides to run away and join the Golden Rush to California, hoping that her ability will help her find a new life there amidst the gold madness.

Leah's journey is one of running away a future that she doesn't want, towards the hope of a better one. But in the end the destination isn't as important as the journey itself.

Leah as Lee finds herself with a freedom that would have been unheard of and meets quite a few characters that both change her and are changed by her.

I must confess that at first I was expecting the voice of the book to be in dialect too, and at first it sounded very modern, but once I got hooked on the action and the characters' relationships and dynamics I stopped noticing if the language sounded modern or not.

The biggest strenght of this book for me is in its characters and the way their relationships change and evolve as the journey goes on. All the secondary characters had more complexity than expected at first and they keep surprising us now and then. How some accept the conventions and rules of the time, and how some of them subtly bend them to their convenience. It really irked me how some attitudes changed from being Lee to being Leah, but I was glad that she had enough allies and friends that would not change the way they treated or appreciated her no matter what she was called or if she wore skirts of pants!

The plot of the book is pretty straight forward, it's a road trip in oxen carts, looking for a chance at a better life, so it's all about the very hard journey that it is. Injuries, power plays, encounters with "Indians" that will make your blood boil for the treatment of the Native Americans, but so true for the time, and that might make us think of what has really changed from then to now.

The end of the book brings us full circle to a situation that could have been very much the same that Leah was running away from but that is completely different because of the journey she and her fellow travelers went through. I know this is the first book of a trilogy, but it could have equally been a standalone with enough resolution if a lil bit of an open ending to imagine more details of the future on our own.

Very well deserved 4 stars to this one!



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Friday Reads: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman!!!

Hello there guys!!

Happy Friday!! This is the first review that I'm writing at my new apartment, since I've finally moved!
I still have a lot of work to do, sorting things and moving all the book boxes, and getting more furniture... but I'm now living in my apartment!

For this week's Friday Reads I have up for review one of the ARCs that I got from BEA and one that made me really want to read more westerns!!



Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I liked Erin's dystopian trilogy and was extremely intrigued by this YA Western, even if I'm not a big westerns reader, and it was in my priorities list for BEA, thank you so much HMH Books!

Vengeance Road is written in dialect from Kate's POV first person and I was a lil worried at first wondering if it'd might keep me from getting fully into the book, but I worried in vain, after chapter 4 I was used to the dialect and Kate's voice and it actually made the book feel more authentic, more real.

Kate is a very complex character, dealing in the grey area of the ethical spectrum. She is driven by vengeance first and foremost and she seems to be remorseless in her pursue of the killers of her father, even some innocents might suffer in the process. But as the story unfolds, there is so much more to Kate and how she decides to face the world, she grows so much! And she really is a cactus type of character, prickly but with a treasure inside!

Vengeance Road could be called a roadtrip book, if going after a band of bandits on horseback disguised/dressed as a boy can count as a roadtrip! The plot seems quite straight forward at first, Kate goes after her father's assassins, but soon things get more complicated when she is joined (quite against her wishes) by a pair of brothers that want to protect & help the "son" of a friend of their father. And then with the killing and the hiding and running and being hunter and hunted... With a few quite unexpected twists, well, is very hard to put this one down, you just want to keep turning pages to see who will survive!

But where I feel like I must give the biggest props to Erin Bowman, at least for me, is in the descriptions and ambiance she manages to write for this book. You simply feel like you are there, with the sun hitting your back, sweating and almost feeling the gritty sand in your mouth! The atmosphere is fantastic and full of tension and you can tell that the author has done her research, because you really feel like you are THERE!

The secondary characters were also very well fleshed out and even the bad guys were not just cartoony bad guys. And with Liluye we have a completely different culture, outlook and experience that Kate learns to respect and even try and understand.

I loved how the romance played, for the most part it was rather slow burn and muted, because it was never part of Kate's plan and it was at first a very unwanted distraction, but I was very happy to see how it all played out, how in the end Kate made sure her life was not defined by anyone or anything else but herself and at the same time didn't close herself to love and hope!

This is my absolute favourite Erin Bowman book to date and I highly would recommend it to anyone that wants something different, wants to give westerns a try and anyone that appreciates great characters! Very well deserved 4.5 to 5 stars to this one!



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Mark This Book Monday: A Curious Tale of the In-Between and The Copper Gauntlet!!

Hello there guys!

Welcome to what I've decided to call the Middle Grade edition of this week's Mark This Book Monday!

Today I have two of my BEA ARCs that I read for ARC August up for review and for are MG books, so both count towards my MG reads category on the 105 Challenge!

 

A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm not the biggest middle grade reader ever, but I do enjoy some MG books now and then. After reading my BEA ARC of A Curious Tale of the In-Between I know I'll read any and all MG that Lauren DeStefano will write!

Pram is a lil girl that lives with her aunts at the home for the elderly that they run. She's always been special as she can see ghosts, but her aunts think that she's just peculiar and has imaginary friends, which is easier than to think she sees ghosts.

Once I started reading the book I wasn't sure what to expect because I had not re-read the summary since I added the book to my TBR GR list and my BEA list.

But I really enjoyed reading about Pram and how despite being peculiar and not wanting to be someone that she isn't she makes a friend when she goes to school, but she also tries to keep her friendship with ghostly Felix. Clarence and Pram help each other with their own issues that they feel adults can't or won't help.

I was quite intrigued when I saw where the book went with the ghosts storyline and how it was great in terms of world building but also character development, not just for Pram. Villains are not just black and white, even if their actions are despicable enough.

I really don't want to say much about that part, because it is heartbreaking and kept me quite on my toes and turning the pages fast, it's my fave part of the book and I think I enjoyed it as much as I did because I had no idea what to expect from it!

The ending of the book had enough closure to make it a story unto itself but it also left enough open for more of Pram and Clarence and Felix adventures and I cannot wait to read the sequel, which I hope it'll be equally as creepy, disquieting, heartwarming and endearing as this one! Well deserved 4 stars for this one!




The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoyed reading the first Magisterium book last year, so when I had the chance to grab an ARC of The Copper Gauntlet at BEA this year I didn't hesitate!

As in The Iron Trial we find ourselves with characters and situations that might remind us of other stories at first sight, three friends, a magic school, a connection between the bad guy and one of our heroes... does it ring a bell? Well, this book did it again, and took things in the most unexpected and unfamiliar direction you could expect.

Callum finds himself in an even worse situation than he did in the first book, because he has a big secret to keep about himself, one that makes hum doubt his every choice, and not only that but he suspects his dad is no longer on his corner.

Aaron and Tamara continue to be his friends and partners in crime (and escaping from home and the Magisterium and fighting unexpected Elementals... you know, the usual!) but they find themselves facing a few issues about trust and priorities that end up with Cal and Tamara butting heads.

I was quite surprised about the final showdown and how it was resolved, but also glad for how the auhors once again went for the less expected course of action. I might have not connected with this book as much as I would have liked, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless and will be looking forward to the sequel. 3 to 3.5 stars.



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ARC August: Final week recap!!

Hey there guys!

I've just returned from a weekend at the cottage so it's time to get on with my final ARC August recap!

How did I do this week? Well, not too impressively, I must confess... I only read one ARC and as it was, I just needed to finish it because I had started it last weekend.

But by finishing the ARC of Tonight The Streets Are Ours I did manage to achieve one of my main ARC August goals, that was reading all the Sept releases ARCs that I got at BEA! Hooray!

As far as to get to 80% ratio on Netgalley, I did achieve it! YAY! But it bloody well only lasted for a day or two because since I have ZERO self control, I requested a bunch of book, were approved for a few and not I'm back at 77%! Bad Pili, BAD!

All in all, I'd say this edition of ARC August was a success and I want to thank Octavia and Shelly for once again organizing and hosting it! You ladies rock!!

ARC August: Third Week Recap!

Hey guys!

This post should have been done yesterday, since it's the recap for last week and all that, but since I was unplugged at the cottage, it'll have to be done a day later!

Clearly I do much better with my reading when I don't get distracter with Twitter and logging my reading progress on GR, so whenever I need to kick the TBR pile real good, I need to pack my books and head off for the cottage!

I finished Into The Fire before going to the cottage and I hope to review it soon! While at the cottage I read A Curious Tale of the In Between, Firewalker, Walk on Earth a Stranger and started Tonight The Streets Are Ours! (I also finished one book and read another two, but they are finished copies and therefore don't count towards this challenge).

Now... now I need to get my arse in gear and WRITE ALL THE REVIEWS!!

How did you guys do??

ARC August is back and I'm totally signing up for it again!!

Hey there guys!!

Once again the amazing ladies at Read Sleep Repeat are doing ARC August (for the third year!!) and I do plan to once again, sign up for it!!

You might be asking, what is ARC August? Well, I'm gonna let the mighty Octavia explain it to you, words taken right out of her blog:

"For those of you new to RSR let me explain ARC August. And to answer your first question, no it is not a month where ARCs of you most anticipated books rain from the heavens and fall directly into your laps.

I started ARC August my first (was it really my first?!) year of blogging, as an attempt to get caught up on my ARCs and get my Netgalley ratio up since it was completely in the shitter (think 32% people) and it wasn’t changing any time soon. And, like they say, misery loves company so I invited my fellow book nerds to tackle their ratios and piles with me and it was GLORIOUS! Not only did we have fun, I really made a dent in my pile! So I’m bringing ARC August back and am inviting all of YOU to look over those ARCs and show them who’s boss."

I was so close to getting to 80% ratio on NetGalley before I had to put the blog on hiatus, so I'm hoping to get back to eARC reading and reviewing with a vengeance, so I can end the month of August with the ever ellusive 80% NG ratio! And also, I need to tackle my BEA pile of ARCs in the proper order!

That's why I'm planning to read and review all the September ARCs from the BEA pile

And I'm also planning to read another 5 eARCs that are currently in my Kindle, probably Legacy of Kings, The Veil, Beastly Bones, Lair of Dreams and at least a pair of titles that I'm late to read and review...

My goal is reading at least 10 ARCs, between physical and eARCs, and I hope to succeed! After all, once I'm done with ARC August, I'll have Queen of Shadows to read, and what better way to read it that with all the Sept ARCs read and reviewed!! No guilt!!

Are any of you guys thinking of joining ARC August? Wish me luck!!