Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Some Fine Day by Kat Ross!!

As the second and final entry for this week's Mark This Book Monday, I have an ARC review, one for a book that has been left without a publishing date, that should have been released on the 1st of this month, but that when Strange Chemistry closed, was left on no man's land.

As a review copy it counts towards my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and since it's a dystopian it counts for the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014 (that was feeling a bit abandoned this past pair of months!).

Some Fine Day by Kat Ross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I requested this one, I knew I'd probably liked it cause it was a Strange Chemistry book and those are usually gems. Now that the Strange Chemistry press is closed, this lil gem of a book is in need of publisher and I count myself lucky cause I got to read it.

Some Fine Day is a dystopian which is what made me request it, and not only that it also have a good dose of science fiction, and not any science fiction but the classical, Jules Verne kind of science fiction, and that to me, an absolute fangirl of everything Jules Verne... was a treat!

The world where Jansin lives is postapocalyptic since after massive climate changes society collapsed and the best and greatest of humanity moved underground to survive. Massive storms and hurricanes (called hypercanes) travel the surface of the earth destroying everything in their way. Civilization has continued in a different way underground, with city states, rigid society rules and big on the military. She gets a chance to go on vacation to the surface before graduating from the military academy and that's when everything changes.

I've read many dystopians, and I can get a feeling where things might go now and then, but this book managed to blindside me not just once, but twice. I was expecting the plot to move one way and it ended up going somewhere different! Which made me happy, cause it was a great direction both times and not only showed us different points of view, progressed the world building and allowed Jansin to grow and progress as a character, but I also like when things are not predictable!

There's a pair of twists, a Star Wars reference that made me laugh out loud and that has won this book a half star extra, a LOT of action, world building without info dumping for the most part and a little bit of romance that was a big motivator and that despite the fast pace of the book didn't feel like too rushed or insta-love-y.

The ending is a cliffhanger and now it feels even more horrible cause I need this book to be published and the sequel to be written and published, cause I want to know what happens next!

Well deserved 3.5 stars to this one and with the well earned SW extra .5 rounds up to 4 stars!



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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Feather Bound by Sara Raughley!

Hello everyone! For the first review of this week's Mark This Book Monday I have an ARC that I got via NetGalley (thank you once again Strange Chemistry for the auto-approval!).

This one is part of ARC April and my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge!

Feather Bound by Sarah Raughley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


First of all I want to thank Strange Chemistry for having me auto-approved on NetGalley, so I'm always just a click away from their very unique and fresh books!

Feather Bound had a very unique premise, and was instantly drawn to a story in present time based on the Swan Maidens folk tales. I found I had some issues with the pacing on occasion, but still was a very unique read.

Deanna lives in a world where you can discover all of a sudden that you are Swan, which leaves you vulnerable to human trafficking of a sort that's even more horrible than the already awful one that exists out there. Once someone possesses a Swan's feathers they essentially own them and have their loyalty. The Swan will always have to return home and won't be able to speak against them. That means people are sold into slavery, wives stay with abusive husbands and lovers have to stay with someone they wouldn't even touch otherwise... It can be used as a metaphor for what control and power other people have over it, but here you can't really break free from it on your own, since you are compelled and bound by your own nature.

Deanna and her family had rather dysfunctional dynamics, with a sister that married up and nearly forgot about her family, a father that could never get over losing his lucrative job and then losing his wife, and Ade & Dee who seem to be trying to go on with their life dealing with their mother's death and their poor situation the best in their own way.

The plot was a bit confusing in this one at times, I wasn't entirely sure if it was about Deanna's family, the Swans or Dee & Hyde's romance. In the end, once the book is finished, I'd say it was a bit of a mish mash of everything, and maybe that was what made the book not work better for me. Seemed like the author wanted to juggle all those lines and sometimes you weren't entirely sure how to make them fit together. They came together in the end, but it wasn't always smooth sailing.

Deanna took a while to warm up to... at first I liked her a lot, but then she took a turn for the insecure and fragile in a way that was a lil irritating. I liked her much better once she decided to take action and find a way to turn things around, even if the plans weren't fool proof or worked exactly as she would have wanted.

The ending was quite satifying, most loose ends tied up, with plenty of reinforcement on the fact that communication is important! 3 to 3.5 to this one.



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon!!

For this next's Friday Reads entry I have another ARC that I got from NetGalley. I have said it before, but I won't tire of it, being auto-approved by Strange Chemistry is really fantastic, I keep on getting gems after gems! Thank you so much!

And as another ARC, this one is also part of my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge! I'm really hoping to get my NetGalley ratio up to the desired 80% soon-ish, currently at 60%!

Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Once again, being auto-approved by Strange Chemistry on NetGalley is a joy! I got this one, the sequel for Zenn Scarlett and am I glad that I did!

I liked the first book but this one I seriously enjoyed! It was so full of action and humour and plenty of food for thought too! A very good science fiction read with all the good elements there!

Under Nameless Stars starts right were book 1 left us, with Zenn and Liam getting themselves into the Helen of Troy spaceship as stowaways, to try and find Zenn's dad and find out why she was kidnapped. From there everything gets bigger and better, so to speak.

Zenn & Liam get separated and Zenn finds an unexpected friend and ally in Jules, a dolphin in a walking suit. Jules is an absolute delight of a character! He's loyal, he's funny and he's extremely supportive of Zenn. Zenn has to do quite some quick thinking and be quite decisive because despite an inital small lull, the action is quite non-stopping! She finds herself with an assorted gang of unexpected allies, aliens and humans/humanoids while trying to figure out what's going on behind the Indra's spaceships dissapearances and how are they related to her attempted kidnapping!

There's plenty of tension, plenty of funny moments (most due to Jules!) and Zenn doesn't stop being an exovet and her kind self. If she sees something that's not right, she will raise her voice and do her best to fix it. That's quite probably what you might call her secret weapon.

There's a wee bit of romance, but very very understated, quite what it should be when you're trying to save the galaxy. Zenn might be a bit socially awkward but she also has her priorities right when it comes to do what has to be done.

The themes are quite universal, and seeing them presented in a futuristic way might made them a bit more palatable for us, but they're still very much relevant for our current society.

Very well deserved 4 stars! A fun page turner!



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Mark This Book Monday: Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon!

As the final entry for this week's Mark This Book Monday I have a review for the first book of a science fiction series published by Strange Chemistry about a girl from Mars who is an exoveterinarian. I got the next book on NetGalley for review, so I had to read this one first!


Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I requested the sequel for Zenn Scarlett via NetGalley without realizing it was a sequel, so once I did I got myself this one to read first, as one should (and thankfully I did, cause book 2 starts right where book 1 finished!).

Zenn Scarlett is the name of our main character, a young girl that wants to become an exoveterinarian and it's training for it with her uncle. In Mars. In a Ciscan cloister.

The moment I saw Mars and Ciscan cloister I was quite impressed! We're mixing one of the oldest religious orders with care for alien animals in Mars as a human colony! Now that was a mix I wasn't expecting at all!

Zenn is helping her uncle and at the same time studying to pass her level exams and continue her education as an exovet, which has always been her dream and life goal. Despite some traumatic events in her past, she's decided to work taking care of the animals.

The plot seems to be quite simple at first, we follow Zenn around the cloister, caring for the animals and having a few strange happenings here and there. We learn that living has been getting harder and harder for the colonists in Mars as of late and that the cloister isn't making people happy with the alien animals and the area that could be used for growing crops. It progresses with the mystery of who might be trying to conspire against the cloister as well we keep on getting some clues here and there about something much bigger going on out there.

The pacing might have been a bit slow on occasion, but I didn't mind as much cause I loved all the animal care and exoveterinary bits that were there. Despite the book being quite entertaning in itself, it sort of felt more like an introduction and a set up than a full book in itself, if that makes enough sense.

Zenn was an interesting character, very focused on caring for the animals and her future career, with some typical teenage reactions here and here, but nothing that seemed out of character for her. She had quite a bit of growing up to do in this book, and I'm hoping quite a bit more in the next!

Given the hints peppered over the book and the way it ended, I have high hopes for a more epic second book (not sure if this one is a duology or a trilogy yet) since this one felt more like an introduction. 3 to 3.5 stars.



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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Stolen Songbird by Danielle L Jensen!!

Happy St Patrick's Day! I hope you will be safely celebrating, even if you are not Irish (as I'm not!). I will be celebrating with my friends later this evening, since we're planning to go out and have a pint or two.

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I'm once again having an ARC review of a book that will count for my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge. I'm also still doing the happy dance for being auto approved for Strange Chemistry on NetGalley and I wanna say a big thank you once again!

Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Being auto approved by Strange Chemistry on NetGalley is simply a joy. It seems that whatever I decide to download it's always gonna be a fresh and new take on whatever genre that it is. This is exactly what happened with Stolen Songbird.

I wanted to read it cause the cover caught my attention, and as soon as I read that it was a fantasy novel about trolls, I was sold! I don't know about you, but I don't think I've seen any fantasy story about trolls out there, plenty of faeries and other creatures, but trolls?

And once again, the book didn't disappoint! The only adjustment I had to make was the first image my brain conjures up when the word "troll" is mentioned... Trolls are ugly in most accounts but the image that always pops up for me is the ones from the David the Gnome trolls, and those are rather ugly beasts! And the trolls in this story quite different!

The story starts with Cécile when she's returning home from the town when she had given a small performance of her singing. She's gonna be leaving for the city the next morning to start her singing career with her mother, but halfway to her family's farm, she's kidnapped and taken to the stolen city of Trollus, and sold for her weight in gold to the King to be the bride of the prince of Trollus.

Cécile is a spunky character, she keeps on trying to find a way to escape, she still tries to stand her ground although as a human she is considered an inferior, even if she's married to the prince. She has to find allies and even unlikely friends and ends up forming a truce with the prince, even if at first she isn't really sure what's going on with him. And Cécile discovers that she's so much more than she even knew and she has a power that can help and change things.

Tristan is the very mysterious and confusing prince and heir of Trollus. He was supposed to marry a human to break a curse and free his city, but seems like his plans are quite different. He keeps a very studied façade and is dealing with much more in politics and power struggles than what Cécile knows at first. His attitude towards Cécile is quite awful at first, but little by little they form an alliance that ends up turning into something other.

The plot is quite interesting, full of politics, rebellion, social inequality, magic, trolls, witches and even some hints at the unknown mysterious origin of the trolls and their true nature. Maybe the humans gave them that name, but what are they really?

The development of the romance was full of false starts and deception, and many doubts and misunderstanding between Cécile and Tristan but it ended up progressing nicely from a precarious truce to an unspoken attraction with many doubts to a starcrossed lovers situation.

The ending is sort of a cliffhanger, and it's also quite evil cause they way it leaves the reader waiting to see how things can get fixed and how can Cécile keep her promise... it's gonna be a long wait till the next book for sure! Very well deserved 4 stars!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen!!

For this week's Friday Reads I'm sharing a review of yet another great gem discovered courtesy of Twitter and read courtesy of Strange Chemistry on NetGalley!

It is part of my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge, which I think it's the one I'm doing better at so far!

The Fifty-Seven Lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Being auto approved for Strange Chemistry titles is something I'm extremely happy about! So far all the books I've read published by them have been fantastic, and this one was no exception. The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare sounded extremely interesting and unique, and it did deliver on that promise!

I read this book in one sitting, while working a rather quiet night shift at the hospital, and this book is quite a page turner mixing the regular issues of a teenager that keeps herself on the sidelines with the much more higher stakes of the main plotline. I will be trying my best to keep this review as spoiler free as possible!

Alex is regular seventeen year old, except that she isn't. She's been having this "hallucinations" since she was a child and that has made her lead a rather reclusive kind of life. She doesn't really have friends, she's considered a freak by most of her classmates and her family seem to tiptoe around her issues too. But there's more to all those "hallucinations" than even her newest shrink is ready to accept.

She has a wonderfully loving family, not without issues, since both her parents work ceaselessly to try and find a cure for one of Alex's sisters, Audrey. They live with their grandparents who help take care of the girls while the parents work. I feel the family was done great, you could see the relationships and the deep care between all members and you could understand that it could be a pressure point for Alex.

Then, after an specially vivid and long "hallucination" that leaves Alex injured and shaken, she finds herself an ally that tells her the truth about herself, and that the "hallucinations" are anything but! Porter tries to explain to Alex how her gift works and why it is even more special on her. Alex doesn't take it too well, no surprises here, even if the explanation matches what she suspected but didn't want to voice out loud.

I never felt like there was a dull moment in this book, from all the glimpses at the past that read like we were there, to all the world building, character development and even throwing us some curve balls in the shape of unexpected revelations! There's quite a bit of misinformation, lack of trust and the not-unusual "witholding information to protect you" and there's a time when Alex doesn't even know who she can trust anymore.

There's time travel (of a sort) with interesting villains, a rather flawed but amazing heroine that does a lot of messing up and a lot of growing up, a great cast of secondary characters and an ending that leaves many questions unanswered but doesn't leave us having with a heartbreaking cliffhanger!

The romance was there, sometimes present in a more straightforward way and others in a quite more confusing one, but it never overtook the plot, even if sometimes Alex did mop around a wee bit much. But given what her situation was, I think some pinning and heartbreak was more than understandable!

Cannot wait for the next book in this series, a very solid 4 to 4.5 stars!





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Showcase Sunday #25!!

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!

This is gonna be my last Showcase Sunday for a lil while, since I'm leaving for India on Tuesday to spend some time with the bf and I won't be blogging as much while over there, though I am scheduling plenty of posts for those weeks, reviews and WoWs!

This was an extremely good book mail week! I got quite a few awesome books, some preorders, others purchased, was also approved for a sequel I was eaerly awaiting on NetGalley and I also got some super awesome swag!

Purchased (via Kindle app)

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Stolen by Erin Bowman

The Guard by Kiera Cass

Mistwalker by Saundra Mitchell

Purchased (via The Book Depository)

Alienated by Melissa Landers

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

For Review (via NetGalley)

Thanks a lot for the approvals Flux books and Strange Chemistry/Angry Robot books!

Where Silence Gathers by Kelsey Sutton

Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon

Downloaded for review (via Edelweiss)

Dark Days by Kate Ormand

I also got some amazing swag won in giveaways! Michelle Krys sent me the signed bookplate and bookmarks that I won on Fiction The New Reality's New Year New Books giveaway. And I also won some amazing Splintered signed swag on Lili Lost in a Book's swag giveaway! Thanks a lot Michelle (and Jayne for organizing the giveaway!) and Lili!!

What all did you guys get this week? I bet a few of you also got Ignite Me & Cress, didn't you? ;)

Showcase Sunday #21!

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!

This week I got a fair bunch of books, and quite a mix of purchased and for review, with some very cool approvals on NetGalley this week!

Purchased (via The Book Depository)

I wanted to get all the Cahill Witches books in paperback so I'd have the matching covers, and the first one arrived this week!

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Purchased (via Kindle app)

Spring Fevers (An Anthology) edited by Matt Sinclair

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

The War Inside by M Kircher

Howling For You by Chloe Neill

For Review (via Xpresso Book Tours)

A rather bad photo, but I got the ARC for the second book in the Hidden series and since the cover has not been revealed I didn't want to risk the final cover being similar to the one that the ARC has!

Broken Bargain by Clare Davidson

For Review (via NetGalley)

I want to say a big big THANK YOU to Strange Chemistry for its auto-approval on NetGalley, again! And a big THANK YOU too to Entangled Publishing!

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen

Such Sweet Sorrow by Jenny Trout

What all did you guys get this week?

Friday Reads: ARC Review of The Almost Girl by Amalie Howard!!

And for the second and last part of this first Friday Reads of the year, another ARC review. I'm very glad I got an auto approval for Strange Chemistry on NetGalley cause they surely don't disappoint!
This is also another book for my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge, I'm starting this one strong it seems!

The Almost Girl by Amalie Howard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Almost Girl is a fantastic science fiction story, and one that I really needed to read. Clearly the people at Strange Chemistry have a knack for getting fantastic original books to publish!

Parallel universes, kick arse soldier girl on a mission. That's the basics of what this book is about, but there is so much more in there!

Riven is not a very usual character. She's tough, she's trained, a total soldier and is so focused and driven that it might take a while to warm to her even while you are rooting for her to kick someone's arse!

I find it very hard to try and summarize the plot in a few lines without entangling myself and maybe even give away some spoilers. I would even recommend not reading the full Goodreads summary. The less you know going into the book, the better you will enjoy turning pages trying to figure out who you can trust and what is really going on.

The Almost Girl is full of science, but not too full of complex terms even when the discussing some specifics on genetic therapy or quantum physics to explain moving between universes. I don't think it'd put anyone off this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm a huge fan of science fiction.

The characters are so well done, and so complex. There's much more to Riven than even she allows herself to see, and throughout the whole book we keep on peeling layer after layer. Caden finds himself in the middle of a struggle he could never even imagine and proves that he can be an asset and not only Riven's mission.

There are quite a few twists, some really unexpected, some that will have you confused for a while and others that you will kick yourself for not seeing coming. Others won't be exactly unexpected but will be fitting to the story.

There's romance in this book, but from the slow burning category, otherwise it wouldn't have been fitting for the characters at all. It was well done and it's very interesting to finally see Riven somewhere were she feels out of her element, she really is not comfortable at first dealing with emotions at all!

There's science, there's intrigue, there are battles, betrayals and unexpected allies. It seems that this book as a bit of everything mixed in a way that it works brilliantly.

The ending has a cliffhanger but one that has the characters making the choices that leave us with the start of another journey, and not the kind where things happen to them out of their control, so I'm quite excited to read the final book of this duology!

Very well deserved 4 stars for this one!



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of Cracked by Eliza Crewe!!

For the next entry of this week's Friday Reads there's another ARC review, even though I have failed my intended target of my NetGalley November challenge, I will try to improve my ratio through December to start 2014 better!

Cracked by Eliza Crewe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Cracked was one of the first books I got after being auto-approved by Strange Chemistry on NetGalley and I'm so thankful they did. Seems that Strange Chemistry is an inprint that like taking risks with the stories they publish.

Cracked is the story of Meda Melange, a girl that isn't sure what she is except that she is one of the things that go bump in the night. Our first encounter with her is at an assylum and she ends up eating up a man's soul. The guy was a bad guy but still, it is quite a shocking beginning to present your main character like that. And it just simply work perfectly for Meda's character.

The story is very original from the way demons are presented, to how they use Templar knights as the good guys and how they present them updated as bikers! But the best thing about this book is the characters, and not only Meda!

Presenting a character that considers herself evil and that acts selfishly and does quite a lot of reprehensible things and making you simply love her and get to care about her path so much is quite a wonder, and it's something that Eliza Crewe does flawlessly! I started rooting for Meda since page 1 and I love how she kept on growing and changing throughout the book. Her inner dialogue and voice was so much fun to read!

If you had some very interesting secondary characters with distinctive voices and a few twists here and there, you get a very fun read and quite different from everything that's out there in YA. I was also very glad that the romance there was didn't really take the front stage and also wasn't the focus for Meda at all, and even happier that there was no love triangle!

The book ends with enough openings to want to read a sequel but not in such a way to have you weeping with another heartbreaking cliffhanger, for which I am very grateful, I think I've had enough cliffhangers for the year!

A book I'd really recommend for anyone looking for a fun, different read and very much deserving of 4 stars!



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