Mark These Book(s) Monday: Splinter And Paper & Fire ARC reviews!!

Hello there guys!!

I'm somewhat tentatively back! I needed a break before and after my trip to Star Wars Celebration in London and I really needed a break because work and life make blogging a bit more complicated!

So here I am back now with two ARC mini reviews for this week's Mark These Books Monday, trying to start August right! These two totally work towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge too!

Splinter by Sarah Fine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read Reliquary and really enjoyed it, although our main character Mattie sometimes got on my nerves and I wanted to shake her more than once, but I decided to cut her some slack, because given how her life is thrown upside down... Gods know how I'll handle something of that magnitude!

I'm really happy to report that I loved how Mattie did grow as a character, not only on her powers and her knowledge of the world she is now part of, but also in what she really wants or who she really is. She starts the book in a bad place, both physically and emotionally, even if she had got what she had fought so hard to get back.

I had chosen a ship quite clearly during book 1, even if I wasn't entirely happy about the relationship seemed to be forming at the time, but once again, decided to give it space and see what might come of it, and I'm quite glad to see that although the progress seems to be very slow all through the book, it is what I'd call the right kind of progress!

Splinter is the second book in the trilogy, but it does NOT suffer from middle book syndrome or sequel slump at all! The stakes got really higher, more slightly unexpected betrayal (I was not expecting it entirely, I knew he was not exactly reliable but goodness!) and more enemies coming together to make life difficult (thankfully also more allies) and it also left me wondering about the original relics and how much more we'll learn about them in the bigger picture on Mosaic!

A very much deserved 4 to 4.5 stars to this one! A half star probably because of Asa and Gracie and how much I love when canines are okay! Thank you for that Sarah!!


Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed the first book in the series because it touched on something that had long fascinated me, the Alexandria Library, and created an alternative future where not only it had not burnt but one where it controlled the world. And it is a rather less wonderful world than I would have expected.

On Paper & Fire stakes get higher, betrayals happen unexpectedly and the action is absolutely non-stop! From the training and the fear of discovery in the beginning, to the plotting and sniffing around to mount a rescue, to trying to be ahead of the Library from then on to make sure the rescue doesn't turn into a massacre of all of those involved... we barely get any respite!

Jess has to deal with so much in this book! Not only in terms of being hunted and fighting for his life and figuring out how not to die while facing the Library's automata, but also on the more emotional side of things. He has to figure out his feelings and loyalties towards his family and his friends, and also how to navigate the mess that his feelings and relationship with Morgan are.

Rachel Caine managed to make me even more scared for my poor dear books, sometimes I'd just stop reading the book and go pet my poor darlings in my library room and tell them "You're okay, I would never let any evil Library take you away or any crazy people burn you!!". We get quite a few more unsettling revelations, go through very traumatic events and with quite a few unexpected twists here and there that culminate in one hell of an unexpected cliffhanger!!

Very well deserved 4 to 4.5 stars! I just cannot wait till I can get my hands on the third and final book!! *bites nails*


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Saturday Pages: ARC Review of Fated by Sarah Fine!!!

Happy Saturday guys!

I hope you're weekend is being quite fantastic, I'm only hoping that things won't be too terribly busy at work and that I can get some quiet reading time tonight!

For this week's Saturday Pages I have an ARC review that I was supposed to leave for later in the month but thanks to miss Alyssa from The Eater of Books I ended up devouring in one day!

It's my first full ARC read and reviewed for ARC August! and since there's quite a lot of Greek mythology involved in this one (with the three Fates and all) it'll also count towards my 2015 Mythology Reading Challenge!

Fated by Sarah Fine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Servants of Fate books were my first contact with Sarah Fine's books and I couldn't have chosen a better gateway because I've loved them all, and now I want to read all of Sarah's books!

That said, this one has to be my favourite book of the trilogy and an absolutely perfect and brilliant ending for it!

When I finished reading Claimed I suspected and hoped that the final book would be about Jason Moros and Aislin Ferry and when it was confirmed, I was both very happy and intrigued! None of them had seemed easy characters to like or understand in the previous books, even if Moros had a certain charm to him, if he seemed unreliable and dangerous.

But from the first moment we see things from their POVs things quickly change on our perception. Aislin is not the seemly cold and ambitions person we thought on Marked, but someone that is fully dedicated to protecting her family and to do what's necessary to keep humanity safe too. She knows how to handle power and how to hold it and use it, thankfully for the right cause! I loved that she allowed herself to lose control here and there and that her feelings towards her family are showcased so strongly too!

And Jason Moros... oh dear, I have massive crush on the personalization of Death ladies and gents! From his worry about his sisters (the three Fates) to his growing devotion to Aislin and how determined he was to fight Chaos no matter what! I loved how he proved that he was not just worried about keeping himself in business so-to-speak but he had the well being of his Keres very much in mind. And he's ready to fight for what's right even if no one expected him to!

One word of warning, this is a fantastic book, but not an easy one to read sometimes, because there are some tough bits, with Aislin suffering at the hands of Moros' other siblings (Lies, Strife and Vengenace) and with things getting really dire and with very little hope of a HEA, you might need a lil breather now and then while reading, just be sure to persevere!

Not only we are fighting for Aislin to keep the Ferries under control and supporting her for whe she'll have to face the Keepers but we also continue with some fantastic world building by visiting yet another realm that could not be more diffent from what we've seen so far!

I'm having a very hard time trying to review this and not spoil anything (anymore than I could possibly have done already!) but this was such a fantastic book and even if I got a few suspicions on what could happen in the end, I was still surprised that it happened the way it did!

I give up, just... READ THIS! IT WAS BRILLIANT! Very much deserved 4.5 stars to this one!!



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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Claimed by Sarah Fine!!

Hey again guys!

As my second Mark This Book Monday entry of the week I have the sequel to Marked and the reason I finally started reading the series, because once I got approved for this eARC on NetGalley I felt like I really HAD to start the series!

Since this one is a fantastic mix of genres and it's an ARC I can count it towards three of my challenges, the 2015 Mythology Challenge, the Dystopian Challenge 2015 and the 105 Challenge for the books for review category!

Claimed by Sarah Fine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Getting approved on Netgalley for Claimed is what made me start this trilogy and I'm thankful for both the approval and for the push to start this series because I'm simply in love!

The second book expands on the world building and twists the plot another notch and although Eli and Cacia are present and continue to be important in the book, the focus is not on them this time, very much like it paranormal romance series, we have a new couple to take the lead, with their own conflicts and their on path to finding their way together.

Since most of the world got established in the first book, we focus more on the plot in this one, because even threads that we though had got solved in the first book aren't exactly as well tied as we thought, and things get even more dire, with people dying without getting Marked, rogue Keres are popping up everywhere and we aren't really sure who to trust at all! The tension was even higher in this one than in the first book, because even the good guys could be influenced and turned against each other.

Galena and Declan are an interesting couple because both are very closed off for their own reasons, but given how Galena is an abuse and rape survivor, some warning for triggers need to be given. It is explored rather well, in my uninformed opinion, but despite their relationship starting as a very marriage of convenience, Declan always gave Galena the power of deciding and choosing what, when and how, and she was the one that made the choice to finally stop letting her past control her.

We discover that there are traitors in both the Keres and the Ferrys and that the Fates are not as in control as we'd think (or even hope) and we meet more Greek myths in this one. Maybe that's why I guessed who the bad guy was a bit early in advance and it made me a bit mad waiting for the rest to catch up, because of my knowledge of Greek myths.

The mix of paranormal romance, urban fantasy in a postapocalyptic setting and Greek mythology is flawlessly done and I was turning pages as fast as I could read them! A fantastic sequel that was as good or even better than the first book was! Very well deserved 4.5 stars for this one and cannot wait for the final book in the trilogy!!




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Mark This Book Monday: Marked by Sarah Fine!!

Hello there guys!

A new week starts with another Monday and it's a working Monday for me, but before that it is a Monday to juggle kitchen estimates for the last time! I'm finally choosing a design and estimate! And I'm hoping for some awesome book mail to arrive too!

To start this week's Mark This Book Monday I have a book that had been in my Kindle library a while, and that I was prompted to read once I got approved for the sequel on Netgalley! Since this one is a fantastic mix of urban fantasy, paranormal romance with a generous dash of both Greek mythology and postapocalyptic it counts both towards my 2015 Mythology Reading Challenge and the Dystopia Reading Challenge 2015!!

Marked by Sarah Fine

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have heard such great things about Sarah Fine's books and although I have her YA series already in my shelves and Kindle library, once I got approved for the eARC of the sequel, I decided to start her first adult series!

Marked is fantastic mix of different genres, since it's got mythology, dystopian, paranormal, urban fantasy and some quite awesomely done romance.

We meet Eli once he's just moved to a new city with his sister Galena, we don't know much of their past or the world they live in, but we keep getting tidbits here and there. Eli is a paramedic and find himself paired with Cacia Ferry, who aside from a great paramedic is also the daughter of the most powerful man in the city. And that man and his family have a few mysterious secrets.

I loved how everything was so well described, from the futuristic work as paramedics with techniques even if the technology is different, to the dystopian/postapocalyptic setting and world, with climate changes and water shortages. Even if we don't get the full background story about how it came to happen, we get enough information for us to get a clear picture of the world.

And the most intriguing part is the Greek mythology that's woven into the story. How a family has the charge to help the souls of the dead cross to the place they ought to go (they Ferry them along...), the head of the family is the Charon and those who will die are "marked" by Fate and then the Kers are the one that make sure they die. I wasn't expecting that twist added and really loved it!

I love how the plot and the world building progressed pretty much in parallel, finding out more about the world as we try and unravel the murder mystery that is the linchpin to all the events to come! And at the same time we're trying to figure out things and make sense of the world and discover who's behind everything that doesn't make sense, we also see the relationship between Eli and Cacia develop, from an early attraction that both refuse to act on, to becoming partners at work and a big support through tough times to finally getting together. And boy, do they have chemistry! Chemistry enough to jump off the pages!

Both Cacia and Eli are complex characters that have many secrets that belong to the past that shapes them, but they discover that together they can find a way to go ahead accepting that past and stopping it to define who they are and who they can be.

My first Sarah Fine book was a complete success because I stayed up till 4 am reading till I finished the book, completely engrossed with it, its world, the plot and the amazing romance between Eli and Cacia! Very well deserved 4 stars!



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