Illumicrate's February box is HERE!!

Hello there guys!!

If you are wondering why am I talking about a February subscription box when it's already March, the answer is because I am floundering a bit and time seems to just get away from me!

Anyways! Here I am to coo and squee about how very awesome Illumicrate's February box was!!

For starters, this time the Spanish post decided to NOT post an extra address label on the top of the box where the super cute logo can be see!!

If you are wondering what's Illumicrate, check either their website HERE or my first post about the first Illumicrate box HERE.

Do you see that gorgeous box?? Dylan was super excited to see what was inside this one!

 

 And that's the whole lot!! A lot of awesomeness in this box for sure!!

The book (UK ed of Truthwitch!!, ADSOM inspired candle, bookish pencils, super cute tote, lemonade recipe, handmade exclusive bookish pouch, badges and even magnetic bookmarks!!).

I'm absolutely in love with my Red London candle from Simple Candle Co! I keep sniffing it at random times of the day, and I'd got nuts for a guy that smelled like that! Also very happy that luck got me this one instead of either Grey, White or Black, since you got one randomly!

I adore Truthwitch and I've re-read it like 4 times already and I really wanted to get me the UK edition of the book, but money is tight so I couldn't justify it, so getting it with this book along with the bookmark, the signed bookplate and the special message from Susan was the ultimate treat!

And lastly this supremely adorable magnetic bookmarks from Beedoo. Seriously, that ship that says "I ship it" it's so beyond perfect!!

With every new box I'm more and more excited about the next Illumicrate box and happier than I subscribed! I cannot wait for May's box!! Subscriptions are open now too, in case you guys want to try it out! Highly recommended, even more if you are in the UK or Europe!!

Mark These Books Monday: Truthwitch & The Impostor Queen!!!

Hello there guys!!

Happy New Year 2016!! 

I had plans to have blogged a bit more last week and all, but given how busy with apartment things my days off work were... blogging had to take the back seat! And on the 1st, when I finally had some time off... I just spent the day reading, and I really needed that!

So, now back to business!! I'm starting this year's first Mark This (These) Book(s) Monday with two reviews for two ARCs of books that publish tomorrow and that you REALLY NEED AND WANT to read!!

One of them was my first read of the year and also counts towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge, so I'm starting strong on my challenges this year! ;)

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I just... have no words!! What an amazing book!! How do I deal with a book hangover as epic as this one will be? HOW?!?

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Many months and two re-reads later I don't feel much better prepared to review Truthwitch, but given how the release day is almost here, I feel like I need to finally should try! Give that I've already told you I've re-read the book twice already and I'm planning another re-read once I get my preordered final copy... that should be proof that this book is worth reading. In short, the hype for Truthwitch? Very well deserved!

It is high fantasy at its core, with a magical system and political wars between Empires and different nations and a legend that has been mostly forgotten but seems to be relevant once again. The world building is fantastic, woven quite seamlessly into the story, narrative and plot. We get glimpses here and there at the Witchlands, but there's so much more to explore and discover in depth! We got enough to immerse ourselves in the story, but we can also look forward to new world to explore and discover in the sequel(s).

First books in epic fantasy series can sometimes be slow or lack action because of the need for world building, but this is not the case. Truthwitch was nonstop action pretty much from the beginning to the end! We are given very few respites from it, and very much needed ones because you cannot stop turning the pages to know what's to come next! And on those less frantic moments, there's information to absorb and ponder on before you're back to biting your nails & the nonstop action!

I loved the characters to bits too, Safi and Iseult are best friends, Threadsisters, their friendship is pivotal to everything that happens in the book. They're always there for each other, no matter what messes they might get into, no matter whose fault the mess is, they're always there for each other, fighting together no matter what. Safi and Iseult are very different from each other, both complex and flawed characters, full of doubts and questions, but always growing and ready to support each other. I really loved them and their strong relationship!

I don't want to give many details about the rest of the characters to allow the pleasure of discovering them yourselves, but let's just say that all of them are well crafted and have much more hidden than you'd expect at first for sure. Bad guys aren't black & white for the most part, there are plenty of grey characters, not entirely good, not entirely bad. And most of them have hidden depths that we're just starting to discover!

There's romance in this book and for me being a romancephobe, I was extremely surprised how much I shipped these ships! Yes, plural! I was shipping a ship that's barely a hint in this one, but it's already OTP for me! Susan does a fantastic job on building tension and chemistry without hindering the story or having it take over the plot!

So yes, Truthwitch gets very much deserved 5 stars from me, and I've been dying for the sequel (to come in 2017!!!) since June 2015, so... yeah.



The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Sarah Fine is seriously carving herself a spot in my auto-buy list of authors. The Impostor Queen is my first YA by here and I just cannot wait till I can continue devouring all the rest of her books!

When I got approved on Edelweiss for this one, I was beyond happy! And after finishing the book, I am even more grateful that I was given the chance to read it early!

The Impostor Queen is a fantastic epic fantasy book, full of magic and brilliant characters and a plot that manages to surprise you at every turn, no matter how much you think you might know what's to come.

Elli is our main character and she's been raised as the future queen (or Valtia) of the Kupari, bu things don't really go as expected when it's her time to inherit the magic and take the throne, so she ends up on the run, taken in by outlaws. Elli discovers that many things she had been taught had been either incomplete truths or outright lies, and she discovers that despite her lack of magic, she is not useless. I loved Elli's journey from coddled but controlled heir to proud and hard-working girl. I also loved that she is bisexual and it's shown as something that's accepted by those around her and not something that makes her a freak (although she had some worries at first).

The plot build up was fantastic, because we keep on hoping Elli will be okay, she'll get her magic or some answers at least, and following her very hard path is very rewarding! The plot and the world building go hand in hand, the twists keeping us on our toes whenever we feel like we're getting comfortable and the new information changing our perspective more than once!

The rest of the characters are also quite intriguing and usually more than what we see at first. Elli finds herself struggling about who to trust and how to earn people's trust, and some characters do manage to surprise us more than once with their motivations and/or actions, but Sarah does a great job to make us care for a lot of them quite deeply!

The ending of the book is a resolution of the first conflict but with more definitely to come, so thankfully without a cliffhanger, but it also leaves us wanting more, with quite a few questions that I'm sure will be answered in the final book in this duology!

Fascinating, immersive and with fantastic world building, with well crafted characters that feel real & with a plot that unfolds unhurried but relentlessly, The Impostor Queen is a must read for any fantasy lover! Well deserved 4.5 stars for this one!


View all my reviews

BEA 2015 Recap: Tuesday & Wednesday!!

Hello everyone!!

I know I'm being really sparse as of late, and I miss blogging and interacting with you guys more, but this whole apartment thing and now that I'm back to work... I am having a very hard time to find the time and motivation to blog, so until I'm finally settled for good in the apartment, I will continue to blog sporadically only.

Today I'm FINALLY going to start by BEA recap! The first post is gonna be about pre-BEA and the first half-day of BEA AKA Tuesday & Wednesday!

First things first, none of these pictures are mine. I took my camera with me, but didn't take it with me anywhere, I needed the extra space and was a bit overwhelmed for it. I got them all from my lovely roommates and fellow wonderful bloggy friends! So THANK YOU Britt, Sarah, Cassie, Melissa and everyone else that sent me pics!!

TUESDAY

I arrived at JFK airport on Tuesday and my preparation for BEA started before even leaving the airport, because we were in line for immigration processing for at least one hour!! I started getting nervous because I had landed at 2'30 pm, I kept hearing calls over the P.E. that our luggage was being take off the belt because too many suitcases, and I wanted to arrive to the hotel, get freshened up and then got to the Jenny Han book launch, and it was nearly 4 pm already!!

Then of course was the traffic from JFK to the city, but luckily I was the second person to be dropped by the shuttle, so it wasn't too bad!

First highlight of the trip? Meeting my roomies!! Becca from Pivot Book Reviews & Reading Teen, Britt from Please Feed The Bookworm & Winterhaven Books and Sarah from Words With Sarah!!

After all the squealing and jumping and OMG-ing, Britt gave me her ARC of Mechanica because she's a sweetheart and she knew I really wanted to read it and also a book from Alyssa from The Eater of Books! Alyssa sent me a lot of ARCs and some awesome swag and before stepping out of the hotel room I had my first haul of books!! Overwhelmed already here!! THANK YOU!!!

Then we changed, don our bows and left to attend the Jenny Han book launch in Brooklyn! We were sad because Becca was going to attend the Teen Author Carnival at the Jefferson Market Library and not coming with us...

The Jenny Han launch was very stylish, with a candy bar with macarons, cupcakes, cookies and even champagne! We meet even more awesome bloggers there because Octavia, Nikki and Christina also arrived there! I was so happy to finally get to meet & tackle hug Octavia and Nikki! Also met Sajda, Melissa, Cristina and Jamie! It was so exciting! Jenny read from the book, took questions and then started signing!

There was a nail artist and a make up artist and also a nice photocall made to look like Lara Jean's bedroom, and even the cover mode was there to pose with people! We totally too advantage of that, and I got to keep the original polaroid, because these ladies are too kind!

Then with our signed books we took the tube back to our respective hotels to try and get some rest to be ready to day 1 at BEA!

WEDNESDAY

The start of Wednesday can be summed up as: "YAY jet lag!". I woke up at 3 am, then tried to go back to sleep and then dozed off a bit here and there and finally gave up around 5 am and got up and got ready and made myself a cuppa tea while I waiting for my roomies to get up. I must confess the jet lag was a bit advantage for me, because I am NOT a morning person, so making me wake up at 4'30 am would mean risking a limb being bitten off...

After the whole morning process happened, we got to the Javits, my roomies with their rolling suitcase and me with just my Pivot Book Tote and my R2D2 messenger bag!

We went to Blogger Con to get our badges and then decided to roam around to get the layout of the place and then decide what panels to attend.

The most awesome stairs ever!! The Illuminae stairs!!

But then we saw that the line for BEA was already forming and we panicked about the Truthwitch tickets, so we decided to forego BloggerCon and stay in line!

Being in line, soon we were joined by Octavia, Nikki and Christina once again! Also joined us Melissa and Cassie!

 From before 9 am till 1 pm we stayed in line, sat around, chatted, had some Starbucks overpriced lunch boxes, saw Susan Dennard pass (I waved at her and she waved baaack!). Sarah and Christina were my dance-in-line buddies because while waiting it's more fun to dance than just stand up! We plotted and planned our route to the Macmillan booth, saw what drops were announced on the BEA PW magazine and checked out schedules. We also met Katie from Katie's Book Blog, Nori from ReadWriteLove28, Jon from Bookish Antics and the lovely Dana from Danasquare! I probably met more people that I can't place right now, but probably will once I sort all the cards I got!

The way the BEA staff organize the lines isn't exactly the best but oh well... once 1 pm arrived we had our plan ready and we planned to follow Octavia, the yellow bullet! We ran and there was a veritable avalanche that shocked people on the booths! But YAY I managed to get my golden ticket!!

 Right after grabbing my golden ticket, I went to the Penguin Random House (I agree with Nikki, it should be Random Penguin!) to grab my copy of Illuminae (another one of my must-haves!), and then started going here and there for ARC drops! Octavia managed to start the line for the drop of Tonight the Streets Are Ours and a pair of them more! I grabbed quite a few books that I didn't have in my list of "must-haves" but I also got a few ARCs in drops that freed my Friday schedule a bit! I grabbed a pair of books I didn't want for my roomies, because that's how it goes, the buddy system is the way to go! While waiting and "not-forming-a-line" for an ARC drop to happen I met Rashika from The Social Potato and Giselle from Xpresso Reads so YAY for meeting bloggy friends!

During our roaming around and line starting we met Daniel from The Couch Potatoes Digest and he joined our ducklings team! ;)

Then it was time for the Truthwitch signing and meeting Susan was simply amazing! She's just the sweetest and most adorable person ever! She was so excited and seeing her so happy and overwhelmed by the response was a reward for us too!

After the signing with Susan we just grabbed a few more books and then were ready to leave and go back to our hotel! We were supposed to go to Shake Shack with Octavia, Nikki and Christina, but were all wiped and my jet lag kicked again so I was the first in bed again!

More tomorrow for BEA day 2!!