ARC Reviews: A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi & The Broken Ones by Danielle L Jensen!!!

Hey there guys!

Yes, surprisingly enough, I'm back here to continue with a  bit of a catch up on reviewing some of the books I've read so far in 2017! I will not be trying to catch up on all them, because they're many, and I don't want to kill the little motivation I have with trying to do too much!

Today I'm reviewing two highly awaited ARCs that I got approved for this year, to my surprise and delight!


A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After adoring The Star Touched Queen I was sure I was going to equally love A Crown of Wishes, and when my "wish for it" was granted on Netgalley I was squealing and more than ready to dive into it straight away!

I knew I was going to love it, but I didn't expect it to love it even more than I did TSTQ! Right after finishing ACOW, I was ready to re-read it right away, and that's always the mark of an amazing book for me, because I don't want it to end and I don't want to leave its world!

A Crown of Wishes is a companion/sort of sequel to TSTQ and it shares the same amazing brilliant and lyrical writing, the same immersing descriptions and narrative and the same magical and threatening vibe throughout! It's a wondrous world you'd want to visit but once there you might not be entirely sure if it was such a good idea after all!

Roshani Chokshi always manages to ensorcell me with her words, makes me crave desi food like there's no tomorrow and makes me want to read more Indian/Hindu mythology books! I feel like rushing through the book to find out what comes next but slowing down at the same time to savour every word and description!

I was very happy when I heard that ACOW would be about Gauri because I adored her as Maya's spirited little sister in TSTQ and I simply loved who she had become in this book, strong and full of thorns and I loved her path to realize who she could be and how to became the person she really wanted to be. And I simply adored her interactions with Vikram, the Fox Prince, charming, cunning and entirely too irresistible if irritating at times!

They are to be allies to win the Tournament of Wishes and they don't entirely trust each other too much, although most of the resistance comes from Gauri. They do make quite a fantastic team and their banter is simply perfect! I love how they goad each other, how Vikram challenges Gauri and tries to get to know the fascinating and utterly dangerous girl better without getting himself killed in the process. Just thinking about these two I'm itching for a re-read already!

I just loved the beauty and danger of the tournament and their unexpected allies and enemies and how the different tasks of the Tournament challenge them to work together and to discover things about themselves and about each other.

Brilliantly written, full of magic, wonder and dread! Highly recommended!



The Broken Ones by Danielle L Jensen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was so happy when Danielle announced that she was writing a prequel and it would be the story of Marc and Penelope!

I knew the story was heartbreaking but it also gives us so much insight about the characters we meet in the Malediction Trilogy and really helps us understand them better too!

Reading from both Marc and Penelope's POV was the perfect way to see their friendship and love emerge, even if they both thought it was one-sided in the beginning. I had wanted to know more about Penelope and not only reading about her story but having her POV was the best way to see how strong she was and how messed up her family really was. The power plays and the political intrigues more common than any sort of affection. Marc I had always liked as a character but in this book I got to love him even more. Torn between duty and his heart and trying to juggle what's right with what he wanted and see him struggle with the choices he had to make and see others make was so heartbreaking!

We meet and get to know Anäis as a different person that the girl she has become in Stolen Songbird, and her love for her sister and how she behaves and puts the cause and others before her own ambition made me see her in a very different way. Tristan we get to see from Penelope's eyes and from Mark's eyes and it's so clear how he presents himself to the world and how she has to hide his cause and what he wants to do. Tristan does have quite a bit of growing up to do in this book, and it really broke my heart how he treated Marc sometimes.

For some reason I expected the story to be centered about Marc and Penelope and had completely forgotten how very shrouded in power struggles and political manouvering everything was in Trollus, and how their story could not have been otherwise. The Duke of Angouleme and his power games with the King and how he tries to manipulate everything, how Tristan tries to hide his real self and real purpose, how Marc and Penelope struggle to find their own happiness within that maelstrom, it was all both fascinating and so very heartbreaking!

If you've read The Malediction trilogy, you really NEED to read this one and if you haven't read the trilogy yet, what are you waiting for??


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Friday Reads: Mini reviews for The Star Touched Queen & The Forbidden Wish!!!

Hiya there guys!

While I'm sleeping the day away after working a double shift yesterday and working night shift again tonight, I'm gonna leave you with a pair of mini reviews for this week's Friday Reads!

Both books are 2016 releases, both highly awaited for me, and one of them even more because it was one of my top 3 MOST awaited debuts of the year! I'll be counting it towards my 2016 Debut Author Challenge!

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


With a most wondrous & gorgeous prose and a wonderful story full of Hindu mythology and with a few winks to both Hades & Persephone (and maybe it's just me, but also a lil bit of Eros & Pysche myth), this one is the perfect debut to leave us wanting more! The story does end like a standalone, even if it also makes you want a lil bit more.

I could go on and on about the amazing writing and how it reminded me of the traditional myths and how they resonate very much in this story, but without the dryness that sometimes the more traditional storytelling they might have. You simply cannot stop turning pages to see what else will be coming, what else we'll find out about the past and the previous history of the characters.

The world was both wondrous and utterly dangerous and the secondary characters really added so much to the story, particularly a certain non-vegetarian horse! I couldn't get enough of her thoughts stream and her sense of humour!

I was quite surprised about the progression of the book, because I wasn't sure where the story was going or what turns it'd take, given the various myths that I feel woven into the story! Which made it even more fun to read, meeting new characters, seeing Maya discover who she was and who she is and who she wants to be, and what she wants her future to be!

Now, I will read whatever Roshani will write next, grocery list and all! Very much deserved 5 stars to this most highly awaited debut that didn't disappoint!



 The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oh how I loved this retelling of the Aladdin story!! Aladdin has always been one of my fave Disney movies and I've always been a big fan of the tales from the 1001 Arabian Nights, so when I heard about a retelling with a gender swapped genie, I was all over it!

This was my first Jessica Khoury book and I'm very much in love with her writing and storytelling style! The story is told in first person POV and we are in Zahra's mind, which makes it easier to understand her doubts, her torn feelings and loyalties and made me really root for her!

Aladdin both the lovely rogue we know and also so much more! We are given some background about his family and the rebellion he is avoiding and we understand him so much better, even if we're never inside his head. I feel like multiple POV chapters between Zahra and Aladdin would have been a lot of fun to read too!

Between the personal relationships between characters, human politics and power plays and the threat and power plays between the Jinn too, the book was never boring! There's so much scheming and plotting and finding alliances! Zahra finds herself having to make some very tough choices! And to make everything even more interesting, we get Zahra's remembrances about the past and her human friend and sister like, her guilt about what happened and the fact that time has changed the history and the story of Zahra and her friend.

Wrapped so well but I feel like I still want more!! I'm not keen on saying goodbye to Zahra and Aladdin or Cas and her Watchmaidens...

Very much deserved 4 to 4.5 stars! I'm very much hoping Jessica Khoury will feel like writing a companion novel or two, because I so loved the world and the characters!