Friday Reads: ARC Review of Polaris by Mindee Arnett!!!

Hello guys!

Friday is here again, and although for me it means work and a working weekend, I have a review for a book that I love for this week's Friday Reads!

I was extrememly lucky to win a print ARC of Polaris, signed by Mindee Arnett in a giveaway that the author herself organized, and I was rightly chuffed because any print ARC are so rare and precious for me to get my hands on! And of course, I had to read it right away! But now, it releases next Tuesday so I can share a bit about the book even if I've had to work very hard at keeping the review spoiler free!


Polaris by Mindee Arnett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Avalon was one of those books that I loved last year and like all science fiction for me feels like comfort food! So when I was lucky enough to win an ARC of Polaris and got to read it early, I was elated!!

Polaris stars pretty much where Avalon left us, with a lot of heartache, shock and with plenty of anger and loss to go around. And this is not exactly a sunshine and puppies kind of book, it's a darker book, with a lot of strife to get through.

Poor Jeth goes through so much and has to grow so much! He's always been the leader of the Shades, but he's never had wanted more and less to be in charge of everything that he has to in this book. He gets thrown curve ball after curve ball and keeps doing his best to take them in stride but has to learn some really tough lessons about himself, about control and about trust.

I don't really want to talk much (or at all) about the plot because I don't to accidentally spoil something for either this book or Avalon. I'll tell you that the Shades undertake their biggest mission to date in this one, that they don't do it alone and that it is biggest clusterfuck of a mission they ever had to deal with! We travel to two very different but very important places and we learn a lot about life, the universe and everything! (except for a thing or two!).

Polaris has everything that I love in science fiction, bigger questions about ourselves and what we're doing, what defines being human, responsability and consequences, spaceships, banter, adventure!! And some references to other geeky science fiction bits here and here that made me giggle happily even in between tough scenes.

This book is everything that Avalon was and more, everything is kicked up a notch (or two) and by the end of the book I couldn't turn the pages fast enough (while wondering what else could go wrong, and what else could happen to poor Jeth!)!

All I can say is that if you've read Avalon, of course you MUST read Polaris, and if you haven't started the duology, what are you waiting for?? GO NOW! Oh, and a word of advice, also read Proxy, the novella, you'll be better prepared!

Very well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars to this one. I cannot wait to read more science fiction written by Mindee Arnett!



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First Chapter First Paragraph #11: Winterspell by Claire Legrand & Polaris by Mindee Arnett!!!

First Chapter, First Paragraph is one of the two memes that I will be alternating on Thursdays in place of my Ink & Batter posts during the summer, when I won't be baking due to the heat!

I discovered this meme via the ladies of My Shelf Confessions, and it is hosted on Tuesdays by Bibliophile by the Sea. But since I already have my blog tours posts and Tell Me Tuesdays, I thought that it'd work best on Thursdays for me!

The idea of this meme/feature is quite self-explanatory from its name, we share the first paragraph of the first chapter of our current read! Quite a good teaser for others to read and see if they'd be intrigued!

 Sooooo, I really haven't been reading much these past few days, so I'm still reading the same books I talked about on Tuesday and that means you guys are gonna get a peek at two ARCs and one of those is a 2015 one!! Excited?? I hope so!! Bear in mind, these paragraphs are taken from ARCs, so they might or might not remain like that on the finished books!

In case you are wondering why I haven't been reading the past days it's not cause I'm on a reading slump at all or cause I'm not enjoying the books (that I'm loving!) it's all a highlander's fault! I'm binge watching Outlander and falling madly in love with Jamie! *swoons*

 Winterspell by Claire Legrand

"One more hour and Clara Stole could turn criminal.

Could, that is, if she managed to stand her ground until then, for every eye in the crowd was watching her, waiting for her to say something impressive, something to commemorate the day. And she was so tired of fumbling through grand words that were never quite grand enough for such hungry, thirsty people."

Polaris by Mindee Arnett

"The spaceport's casino was the perfect spot for the deal to go down"

What? You want more? Ooookay!

"Jeth Seagrave knew it the moment he stepped inside. The place seemed to envelop him, the light so bright they made it almost impossible to see and the noise a constant vibration, everything from the hum of the slot machines to the shouts of dealers calling for bets. Some kind of mild, hypnotic music played in the background, blending the sounds together in a reassuring soundtrack -- time does not exist here, it seemed to intone. Here you are safe. Here you belong."





What do you think? Would you want to know more?
What are you reading right now?

Tell Me Tuesdays #12!!

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!

 Polaris by Mindee Arnett

"Following the events of Avalon, Jeth Seagrave and his crew are on the run. Jeth is desperate to find the resources and funding he needs to rescue his mother from an ITA’s research lab and leave this whole galaxy behind for a new life somewhere else. But the ITA is just as desperate, and soon Jeth finds himself pursued by a mysterious figure hell-bent on capturing Jeth and his crew—dead or alive. In a last-ditch effort to save everyone he holds dear, Jeth enters into a bargain with the last person he ever thought he'd see again: Dax Shepherd, the galaxy’s newest and most fearsome crime lord. And he’s not the only one: upon arriving back at Peltraz spaceport for the first time since he witnessed the death of his old employer, Jeth discovers Dax has a new partner: Jeth’s mother, Marian.

This shocking turn of events is only the first in another breathless, action-packed sci-fi adventure rife with danger, love, and betrayal, as Jeth has to once again ask himself how much he’s willing to invest in a morally bankrupt galaxy in the hopes of saving those he cares for."

 Winterspell by Claire Legrand

"Darkly romantic and entirely enchanting, this reimagining of The Nutcracker from Claire Legrand brims with magic, love, and intrigue. New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer (Cinder) says “this is not your grandmother’s Nutcracker tale.”

After her mother is brutally murdered, seventeen-year-old Clara Stole is determined to find out what happened to her. Her father, a powerful man with little integrity, is a notorious New York City gang lord in the syndicate-turned-empire called Concordia. And he isn’t much help.

But there is something even darker than Concordia’s corruption brewing under the surface of the city, something full of vengeance and magic, like the stories Clara’s godfather used to tell her when she was a little girl. Then her father is abducted and her little sister’s life is threatened, and Clara accidentally frees Nicholas from a statue that has been his prison for years. Nicholas is the rightful prince of Cane, a wintry kingdom that exists beyond the city Clara has known her whole life.

When Nicholas and Clara journey together to Cane to retrieve her father, Clara encounters Anise, the queen of the faeries, who has ousted the royal family in favor of her own totalitarian, anti-human regime. Clara finds that this new world is not as foreign as she feared, but time is running out for her family, and there is only so much magic can do..."


These two are ARCs, and both of them I'm reading more as me reads than actually because I must. Winterspell is a September release, so this one is also working on the review pile, but Polaris... well, Polaris is a total "I want to read it now and I don't care if it's a 2015 release" case. I won the ARC on a giveaway that the author did on her blog and I'm just so happy to have it in my hands! Thank you Mindee!

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!!