Tell Me Tuesdays # 36!!

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!

Stolen Songbird by Danielle L Jensen

For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the mountain. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she realises that the trolls are relying on her to break the curse.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind: escape. But the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time…

But the more time she spends with the trolls, the more she understands their plight. There is a rebellion brewing. And she just might be the one the trolls were looking for...

 Golden Son by Pierce Brown

With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation. Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within. A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.

 Thorn by Intisar Khanani

For Princess Alyrra, choice is a luxury she's never had ... until she's betrayed.

Princess Alyrra has never enjoyed the security or power of her rank. Between her family's cruelty and the court's contempt, she has spent her life in the shadows. Forced to marry a powerful foreign prince, Alyrra embarks on a journey to meet her betrothed with little hope for a better future.

But powerful men have powerful enemies--and now, so does Alyrra. Betrayed during a magical attack, her identity is switched with another woman's, giving Alyrra the first choice she's ever had: to start a new life for herself or fight for a prince she's never met. But Alyrra soon finds that Prince Kestrin is not at all what she expected. While walking away will cost Kestrin his life, returning to the court may cost Alyrra her own. As Alyrra is coming to realize, sometime the hardest choice means learning to trust herself.

Thorn has received a Badge of Approval from Awesome Indies.


Both Stolen Songbird and Golden Son are re-reads. I've joined the official readalong to prepare for Warrior Witch on Goodreads, so each week we read a few chapters and discuss them! And I'm really enjoying Stolen Songbird, almost even more than the first time around! And Golden Son I'm re-reading on my own in preparation for finally reading Morning Star that arrived in the mail last week!

And Thorn is a buddy read with my friend LaLa for the #RockMyTBR challenge. It's a retelling of The Goose Girl and I'm really enjoying it!
  
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!!

Friday Reads: Love Fortunes And Other Disasters & ARC Review of Menagerie!!

Hey there guys!

Friday is here! And since I work the weekend is a different kind of Friday for me. Hopefully work won't be too bad during the weekend, at least I have some awesome co-workers during the weekend!

For this week's Friday Reads I have two reviews, one being one of my backlogged ARCs for my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge. And the other one is another of my buddy reads for the RockMyTBR Challenge, this one with Valerie from He Said Books Or Me.

 Menagerie by Rachel Vincent

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One hell of a book for sure, tough one to read and one that needs a few warnings because it really confronts us with some of the ugliest parts of humankind. It might not be a book for everyone, but it's one that we might need to have our eyes open to many cruelties that go on in this day and age.

Reading it made me think of the cruelty towards circus animals and their existence between cages & whips, and also made me think about the modern slavery of the human trafficking, either to be sold for parts (organ trafficking is a powerful big black market) or for prostitution, and how that feels justified for those that take part in any way in it, how we might ignore pain and humiliation and we might not agree with what's going on, but don't know how to stop it or how to help.

Menagerie takes place in a world were mythical beings exist and one changed by an event that happened in 1986. Mermaids, sirens, mynotaurs... they are real and are persecuted and exploited in private collections, hunting grounds or menageries like travelling circuses. All animal or even part human, none of them are left with any dignity and treated worse than animals.

Told on different POVs, most of them third person, although the POV with the most page time and chapters is Delilah Marlow, a girl that discovers she isn't just human while visiting Metzger's Menagerie with her bf and friends. We quickly see how fear pushes us to extremes, and how easy it is to dehumanize others to justify even the most base and unfair treatment of others.

I couldn't help but admire Delilah's strenght and courage to not let go of her sense of self and of what her goal was but at the same time how she was so kind and looked out for others so much! Strenght, courage and compassion are the traits that define her, and she's really a heroine to root for!

For some reason I thought the book was a standalone and I think it works pretty well as one, except that I was ready to take a star off because of the lack of information we really get about the events of the Reaping and what might be known about it, we only get some snippets of media information as events were unfolding at the time. But now that I've learnt that it's a series, this is one fantastic first book, with a great introduction of the main players, a game changer thrown in and enough world building to get your bearings but wanting to know more!

Menagerie is clearly an adult book and even if I'm usually worried about intense books (gross out easily, being a nurse has its perks in life) there were a few moments when I was seriously shocked and going EWWW!! There's blood and gore but it fits the story and the characters and it doesn't feel like it's done just for the shock factor, but... it is a shock! Add that to the abuse and mistreatment going on the cryptids and experienced my Delilah and once again I must warn that this book is not for those faint of heart.

Very well deserved 4.5 stars to this tough but brilliant book, my first Rachel Vincent book, but it surely won't be the last, since I'm now highly anticipating the sequel!

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Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Another #RockMyTBR buddy read! This one was quite adorable and cute, even if I was confused at first and not that keen on the book or its world. Since it was a buddy read I decided to push through the "head shaking" moments, even if I wasn't entirely sure if this was a contemporary, paranormal or magical realism... I guess that's part of the charm of it, but it kept bugging me throughout the book.

I didn't instantly like Fallon because for how sensible she seemed, she was completely and overwhelmingly turned upside down by a love fortune, and now matter how accurate they are supposed to be, it just didn't feel as dire to me... but that could be my old age and grunchiness showing.

It was an easy read and once it progressed it got a hold on me and I wanted to know what was being Zita's fortunes and why all the other love charm makers were gone and I was somehow invested in the developing relationship between Fallon and Sebastian, which thank goodness was done through the common ground then friendly then like then love, even if was a bit accelerated at times, but after all Grimbaud is a magical place where love lives.

Some of the secondary characters felt a bit more underdeveloped and carntoon-y so to speak, but I felt that the main ones had quite enough charm and life in them, and I loved that Fallon decided to fight fate and help her friends do the same too. We not only see Fallon's fortune be fought but also her best friends' and I'm glad that there was a gay relationship included and treated no necessarily as a come out story, but just as another relationship threatened by a bad love fortune.

All in all, a very cute read, well deserving of 3 stars because it kept me turning pages to find out what happened next once I got over my innitial confusion.

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Saturday Pages: The Off-Campus series by Elle Kennedy!!!

Hey there guys! *waves*

As the last reviews for January I'm having a series that I binge read on Monday last week! It was my day off and I was supposed to buddy read The Deal with my friend Alyssa from The Eater of Books. And that we did, we both read it and loved it, but for some reason I ended up binging the rest of the series till 6 am! O_o
Thank goodness for working the 3 to 10 pm shift and being able to sleep in till noon!

So this week's Saturday Pages is all about mini reviews for all three of the books! Now I'm impatiently awaiting the next book to come, because for once a series of companion books ended in what could be considered if not a cliffhanger, at least quite the shocker!


The Deal by Elle Kennedy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Loved this one! I don't usually read a lot of NA, probably the last NA I read were Ann Aguirre's 2B series (that I loved) but I decided to buddy read this one with my friend Alyssa from The Eater of Books and boy did I love it!!

This book was full of humour, some real life issues that are dealt with but don't become the center of the book and don't make for unbearable drama and angst. The characters deal with the issues, work on them and live with them, but the book is not about getting over said issues/bad things. They appear because they're part of the character's life but they go on and live and thrive. Big kudos for the positive message there.

We get alternating POV chapters between Hannah and Garrett and boy how much did I love these two! I adored how Hannah was both confident and strong but had her insecurities and vulnerabilities that she worked at dealing with. And Garrett, oh dear... that guy! He's cocky and confident but also so focused on his sport and on what he wants to accomplish! He's more than just a stereotypical jock from the beginning, and the more we get to know him, the more I liked him!

I don't know a whole lot about hockey, but this book really made me want to start watching the game and managed to explain enough about the going-ons in the team and game without being boring.

The romance was simply fantastic, from dislike, to platonic friendship to a chemistry that's off the charts and all with low angst, even when the conflict arises near the end of the book. And even more when on the moment of possible drama and confrontation... you end up laughing your arse off because of the fantastic humour!

I laughed, out loud and a lot reading this book, I giggled, I cackled, I swooned and I fanned myself. I seriously loved it to bits and want to re-read it soon. Also, I want a Garrett of my own... too bad we have no hockey over here that I know of! 5 well deserved stars for the kind of NA I'd love to read more!



The Mistake by Elle Kennedy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As soon as I finished reading The Deal I needed to read this one, and seeing how it was on sale, I JUST HAD TO GRAB IT AND READ IT!

I really liked Logan as Garrett's best friend and although I was a bit unhappy and wary about certain developments and Logan's feelings by the end of The Deal, I trusted the author wouldn't go on the high on drama and angst route and she didn't disappoint.

Logan is not in the best place emotionally at the beginning of the book and his family situation isn't helping with how unhappy he feels about things. He's quite the player, inside and out of the ice rink, and now he's feeling unhappy and restless about it. And he ends up making the "mistake" the title refers to. Mostly being an arsehole and not seeing what's in front of him!

Just like The Deal was, this one is told in dual POV, Logan's and Grace's and I loved them both. I understood and felt for Logan, but wanted to seriously slap him silly on the first few chapters (that's actually what on second thought costed this one a half star and for me to drop the rating) but then when he was determined to win Grace back no matter what? Oh boy, he was beyond adorable!!

Grace is a fantastic character! At first she's a bit unsure of her place on campus and who she is, but after facing Logan's issues and her best friend's... well, she finds herself putting herself first and finding that she can be assertive and strong. Her parents are fantastic and I loved how crazy but awesome her mum was. I loved how she started doing things for herself but still gave Logan a chance at working hard to prove himself.

Another fantastic example of humour and low angst NA, with fantastic chemistry, many laughing moments, some serious ones and quite a few "oh dear" *fans self* moments too! Hockey players do really have a certain something! 4.5 to 4 stars to this one!



The Score by Elle Kennedy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Given that I was not a big fan of Dean in the previous book and that at the start of this one I really disliked him and he irritated me to know end with his attitude, I'm surprised but how much I ended up liking him by the end of it! How did that happen??

This book is like the previous ones told in dual POV, Dean's and Allie's. We already know them both from previous books (or at least we thought so!). Allie is Hannah's best friend and I really liked these two as best friends, always being there for each other when they needed it. And because of that support and helping between them, Allie gets herself into quite an unexpected situation, right after breaking up with her long term boyfriend.

Dean... well, Dean is quite different from what I expected him to be. He's a massive player and what we see of him in the beginning reaaaally ticked me off. And the way he continued to go after Allie was both irritating and somewhat alluring. Confusing? Contradictory? Hell yeah! I could understand Allie's mixed feelings because I was having them myself to a point!

The chemistry between these two is OFF THE CHARTS and I really loved seeing a different side of Dean and seeing Allie asserting what she wants to do with her life. I must say that the ending was a bit more angsty and Dean disappointed me a lil bit, because he failed Allie in ways I wouldn't have expected him so, although things get sorted and fixed with work and in an adult manner, not too fairy tale like.

The biggest surprise was the bomb thrown at the very end of the book, that left me making all the grabby hands at the next book and Trucker's story!! Very much deserved 4 stars for this one, proving that I can like NA and quite a LOT at that!

Tell Me Tuesdays #34!!

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!

Vicious by V.E. Schwab


Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. 

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Vicious is the first one of my buddy reads with LaLa for this month, both as part of the #RockMyTBR challenge for the both of us! I'm quite loving the book so far, even if I'm not even halfway with it!! Hopefully I'll have more reading time tonight to read it!!

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!!

Tell Me Tuesdays #20!!

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

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

The Shape of My Heart by Ann Aguirre


Some people wait decades to meet their soul mate. Courtney Kaufman suspects she met hers in high school only to lose him at seventeen. Since then, Courtney's social life has been a series of meaningless encounters, though she's made a few close friends along the way. Especially her roommate, Max Cooper, who oozes damaged bad-boy vibes from every pore. 

Max knows about feeling lost he's been on his own since he was sixteen. Now it's time to find out if he can ever go home again, and Courtney's the only one he trusts to go with him. But the trip to Providence could change everything…. 

It started out so simple. One misfit helping another. Now Max will do anything to show Courtney that for every heart that's ever been broken, there's another that can make it complete.

 The Here And Now by Ann Brashares

TIME TRAVEL AND FORBIDDEN ROMANCE FROM THE BEST SELLING AUTHOR OF THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS

Thrilling, exhilarating, haunting and heartbreaking, The Here and Now is a twenty-first-century take of an impossible romance.
There are rules.

Never reveal where you’re from.Never be intimate with anyone outside the community.And never interfere with history. 

Seventeen-year-old Prenna James emigrated to New York when she was twelve. But Prenna didn't come from a different country, she came from a different time - a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules. Prenna does as she's told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth and take the lives of her younger brothers. But everything changes when she falls for Ethan.
She might be able to save the world ... if she lets go of the one thing she's found to hold on to.


I have just started these two today after finishing last night with Red Rising by Pierce Brown and loving it! The Shape of My Heart I've started as a buddy read with my friend Emma from Never Judge a Book by Its Cover. I'm a huge fan of Ann Aguirre and I'm only 5 chapters in and she's almost made me bawl twice! I got TSOMH as an ARC and I'm hoping to get my review up for it next week! The Here And Now is another ARC that I got from NG and so far it's a rather fast read, hopefully I'll have the review for it later this week!

 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!!

 

Tell Me Tuesdays #8!!

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

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

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley



 In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town’s most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept “separate but equal.”

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

 Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre

Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn't imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She's not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he's impossible to forget.

In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly... bad things are happening. It's a heady rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil's bargains, she isn't sure who—or what--she can trust. Not even her own mind...


I got approved on NetGalley for Lies We Tell Ourselves and I'm doing a buddy read of it with my bloggy friend and awesomely talented Becca of Pivot Point Reviews and Pivot Book Totes! And I'm also finally reading Mortal Danger, after I got the sampler with the 5 first chapters and read some really great reviews from some of my bloggy friends!


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!!

Saturday Pages: Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas!!!

Hey guys! I'm starting the weekend with a first entry for this week's Saturday Pages and this one was another fantastic read!

I read this one with Sam from Realm of Fiction and we both enjoyed it to bits. This was another book that is very much worth reading with a buddy, cause you will want to discuss theories and turns and you'll want to gasp about the ending with someone!



Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I had read some really great reviews for this book and fell in love with this amazing cover, so when the chance to buddy read this one with Sam from Realm of Fiction, I jumped at it! We both loved it and ended up devouring it in a shorter time that we originally planned!

I am a bit torn about how to review this book, because I feel like discussing how awesomely we are led and surprised but I also want you guys to be able to read and enjoy it with as little information as possible, as I did!

So if you want to read the book with as little information as possible, let me just tell you that it managed to keep me turning pages like mad, not minding at all the jumping timeline chapters, going from different points in the story forward and backwards. It kept me eager for more and more information and kept me guessing all the time. I was so completely into the story that despite my original thoughts when I started reading, the ending completely took me by surprise and left me open mouthed and seriously creeped out!


Now if you want a little bit of more information, you can continue reading, but be warned that my review will probably be a bit on the rambling side. The story deals with Anna and Elise, their friendship, the trip they took with their friends, and Elise's death and Anna's accusation of murder. We are given bits and pieces of the bigger picture and the more information we get, the more doubts you might get as much as who really Elise and Anna were and the more you wonder about who really did it!

I was quite suspicious as soon as I started reading it, and was in two minds about how the book would play out, but even if I was right about one of those theories, when I reached the end, I was so caught up on the narrative that it totally caught me by surprise! Quite an amazing unreliable narrator for sure, worthy of comparing to Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd!

This is a brilliant story that very cleverly makes you think in circles and leads you around, presenting wrongs and rights, toxic friendships, obsessive relationships, revenge and slander. You might wonder if the end justify the means when the press turns a horrible crime into a witch hunt, and an investigator butchers an murder case with his doggedly resolution to pin the blame on Anna, no matter what methods to use.

I will be recommending this book to everyone and anyone because it is an unfairly overlooked gem of a story! So there you go, grab your own copy NOW! Very much deserved 5 stars for this one!!



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Friday Reads: Hexed by Michelle Krys!!

Hello guys! Welcome to this week's edition of Friday Reads!

Today's book is a debut mix of contemporary setting with paranormal witchcraft related issues, and I was super lucky to win a preorder for it on Nova's blog Out of Time during one of her giveaways (thank you, Nova & Michelle!). It's also been by first buddy read with the awesome Becca of Pivot Book Reviews, but I'm sure it won't be the last! Do check out Becca's review of Hexed on her blog too!



Hexed by Michelle Krys

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The first moment I heard about Hexed, I was quite intrigued, even if I'm not usually big on stories about witches, so when I a preorder for it in a giveaway, I was rightly chuffed!

Hexed is a good mix of contemporary setting with paranormal aspects of witchcraft, even if we don't get that many answers about the witchcraft world, it is quite different from the usual view of witchcraft. There are no potions or wants, but more using your inner power and using spells only to channel that better.

Indigo, or Indie, our main character is one of those characters that can be a lil polarizing. You might like her with a few reservations and enjoy her growth (even if you feel like shaking her on occasion), or you end up disliking her. I felt that Indie was a character with flaws but ultimately likeable, and I was glad to see her grow into herself and out of her "popular" persona. Sometimes her treatment of Paige, her neighbour and childhood friend or her interactions with Bianca and Devon made me want to shake her, but she always felt like a very real character to me.

Paige was a very sweet girl, one of those genuine good people that don't care much about appearances or what the "in crowd" think and go their own way and I was glad that she was there for Indie, even when she wouldn't deserve it.

Devon and Bianca... they seem to be typically cut "popular" kids, and it might be playing into stereotypes, but I think that with some hints to a barely scratched depth in their characters, they can be realistic enough and fulfill their role. They are who they are, and make no apologies for it, so you don't feel that bad disliking them. And despite how easy it would have been for Indie to be sucked back in into their "popularity" and expectations, I'm glad that she took a stance and kept herself strong.

Bishop... well, Bishop is an interesting character, he's full of snark and mystery but half the time can be an arse, and the other half he seems to be rather stingy when it comes to providing information. He ended up growing on me, but he was someone I felt like smacking in the back of the head on occasion in the first half of the book!

There are two factions in the magical world of Hexed, The Family that are supposed to be the good guys (but sound like the mafia with a name like that) and then The Priory (which sounds like monks, but nope nothing contemplative about them). The Priory are clearly the bad guys, if nothing else cause they seem to kill without remorse and enjoy torture, but The Family seem to be too high and mighty to really qualify as good guys. They fail to intervene properly to protect their own and they seem to have a big disregard for regular, non-magical, humans. I have a feeling there's more to these two groups that what we've learnt so far, and I hope we'll get more answers in the sequel.

The book has a rather good pace, intermixing regular life with witchcraft related elements, with twists, emotional wrecking moments and even a dragon! That might have added half a star to the book right there, dragons are always awesome! If there's a way to add a dragon to a book, always do it! I liked that although Indie was a bit whiney on occasion, she always ended up facing things, fighting to the best of her abilities and not backing down easily at all! Some of the twists I didn't see coming at all, and that ending and epilogue?? Horrible cliffhanger alert! Charmed cannot come out soon enough!

All in all, a great debut well deserving of 3.5 (4 if you count the dragon!).



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