Showcase Sunday #37!!

Showcase Sunday is a weekly feature hosted by Vicky of Books, Biscuits, and Tea where all book lovers can share with others what bookish goodness we got this week, be it purchased (physical or eBook), won, gifted or for review!

Sooooo, this week hasn't been exactly the best on terms of how I've been doing emotionally but it seems like Karma or the Universe decided to be kind to be and many many books have been dumped on me!! YAY FOR BOOKS! Two big orders from Book Outlet arrived this week (shipping is faster than I expected!!) and then I discovered this very morning that I have been approved for 5 books on Edelweiss by Harper Collins!! THEY NO LONGER HATE ME!! I really have to thank Alyssa from The Eater of Books for her advice on how to improve my profile and presence on EW to improve my chances of approval! I also got approved for a book I really wanted on NetGalley and got some awesome preorders and shopping spree on my Kindle app... books as retail therapy for the win!

Purchased (via Book Outlet)

As always, Dylan and Mini-maug are as excited as I am when I open a box full of books, and in this case, I got TWO!! A lil boo-boo was made when I ordered Thornhill before Hemlock, but that's been solved since Hemlock is also on its way to me now! And Asunder is also awaiting Incarnate on the mail. I loved Jodi's trilogy so much I need it in hardcover!

 Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

Asunder by Jodi Meadows

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Thornhill by Kathleen Peacock

Chantress by Amy Butler Greenfield

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff

Purchased (via Kindle app)

Fire by Kristin Cashore

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

(Don't You) Forget About Me by Kate Karyus Quinn

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Poison Dance by Livia Blackburne

For Review (via Edelweiss)

I got approved for 5 titles that I was dying for on Edelweiss by Harper Collins so a big thank you to them! My reading schedule be damned, tonight I'll read Deliverance!

Empire of Shadows by Miriam Forster

Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard

Deliverance by C.J. Redwine

Top Ten Clues You're Clueless by Liz Czukas

In A Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

For Review (via NetGalley)

I also got approved for a quite awaited book on NetGalley so thank you HMH!

Still Point by Katie Kacvinsky

Signed Swag!

I also got some absolutely amazing signed swag in the mail from M. G. Buehrlen! I adored her book The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare (so much I made some Ink & Batter cupcakes inspired on it) and I loved getting this super geeky swag, with a bookplate that is now making my copy a signed one and a super sweet note! Thank you so MUCH, Mandy!!

 And that's all for the amazing massive haul for this week! Whew!

What all did you guys get this week?

 

Friday Reads: ARC Review of Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb!

For the next Friday Reads, a surprise approval from Harper Collins on NetGalley that through my reading & reviewing schedule off and a welcome change of pace, back to one of my fave genres, historical fiction.


Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I got an ARC of Witchstruck on NetGalley via the publisher but that did not influence my opinion or review of this book at all.

Witchstruck is the first book in The Tudor Witch Trilogy, I was so drawn to this book because it combines historical fiction with the paranormal world of witches.

It is the story of Meg, a young woman with the gift of magick that has been thought how to control her gift and the secrets of white magick by her aunt. She has been brought by her father to the service of Lady Elizabeth, the banned Tudor princess sent into exile and reclusion by her half sister and queen, Mary. Meg didn't want to leave her aunt but was glad to get away from a suitor intent on marrying her, the county's official witchfinder, Marcus Dent.

Being a woman in the 16th century was not easy but being a witch even less, having to hide your gift for fear of being hanged or burnt just on the mere baseless accusation. And being a witch on the circle of the lady Elizabeth, who is always watched waiting for a mistake, could be the most dangerous position of them all. Even more since England is getting a wave of Catholicism washing over it with the marriage & alliance of queen Mary with Philip, the future king of Spain. And to make sure the lady Elizabeth is being catholic and properly pios, she get sent a priest and a future knight of the order of the Compostela Knights to watch over her.

I really liked the way both the paranormal aspect and the historical period mixed in this book, never once I felt it didn't work together. Elizabeth was known to have a certain fascination with horoscopes and seeing the future, proven by her long association with John Dee (alchemist, astrologer and all around mystic) so for me it was no stretch of the imagination to think that she'd want to have & use a young witch as her companion.

I really liked both Meg's and Elizabeth's characters, both are young and are facing not the best of odds, but they both try to do what's right and stay strong and true to themselves despite the pressures from outside. I loved how close Meg's relationship with her aunt was and how she was ready to face danger for her and others she cared for.

Our Spanish Compostelan knight, Alejandro, was a character not difficult to love, showing kindness and not being a horrible fanatic and clearly from the beginning you see something will happen between him and Meg, but I liked that it progressed slowly, with loads of stops and starts because you don't expect things between a witch and a Catholic night to be all passion from day one!

The plot was engaging but without too many surprises, no big twist and turns but still enough intrigue and strife to make you want to keep on turning pages to see if Elizabeth will come back to court, to see if Meg will not be discovered and hanged as a witch...

The only thing that didn't all the time sound right to me where the uses of Spanish words from the Spanish characters, cause some times they weren't actual Spanish words, as when Alejandro's servant kept on calling Meg "signorina", cause that's Italian.

All in all a very engaging read in a genre that I really like and haven't been reading much as of late (historical fiction) and one that leaves you wanting to read more of the story in the next book without a terrible cliffhanger in the end.

Very well deserved 3 and a half stars.



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