Friday Reads: ARC Review of The Veil by Chloe Neill!!

Hey there guys!

Happy Friday! I'm trying to clear up my review pile a lil before jumping head first into ARC August!
The book for this week's Friday Reads is an ARC that I was approved for by Penguin on NetGalley! I cannot say thank you enough to the Penguin guys for being so kind to approve me so often over there!

It counts towards my 105 challenge since it is a 2015 release (an August 4th to be more precise!).

The Veil by Chloe Neill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm a huge fan of Chloe Neill's other UF series, the Chicagoland Vampires series, and I was quite intrigued about this one.

I'm happy to report this is another UF series I will be faithfully following now. It has the trademarks of Chloe's writing without feeling like a rehash of Chicagoland.

The setting is New Orleans after a war with the paranormals in which the Veil that separates their world from ours was torn. Claire lives in a recovering from war NOLA, where magic is outlawed and paranormals are kept in a special prison. Times are tough and she runs an antiques + survival shop she inherited from her dad.

Claire is a wonderful character. She had plenty to be afraid of and she had a secret she kept from everyone in her life, but even fear of discovery and punishment wouldn't stop her from trying to help and do what's right. And even when her life threatens to change too much too fast she doesn't shrink back from what she can do to help. Not even what she would prefer to do is hide her head in the sand and pretend nothing happened. She's resilient, strong and a bit of firecracker, but not overly impulsive.

Liam is a bounty hunter with alpha tendencies but that doesn't really go to the "so alpha he ends up being an arsehole" side, which is always a relief. He's got his own issues and secrets but he's willing to help Claire be safe and also make her understand that there's more to the paranormals and the war that is public knowledge. I love that he wants to help her but doesn't treat her like a breakable thing but acknowlegdes who she is and what she can do.

The pacing was a bit slow through the first half or maybe a lil more of the book because there was some real basic world building to do and characters to stablish, but once the action started to pick up and the game started to be revealed... I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!

There's romance here but it's more on the attraction and the "should we should we not act on it", and "with the state of things and what can happen to you, maybe it's better if we keep our distance for reasons", but I cannot wait to see how these two deal with their attraction as the series progresses! They can make a great team.

Thankfully there's no real cliffhanger on this one, the first chapter of the larger story ends neatly although we know there's more coming and we are left really looking forward to see what's next for the gang!

3.5 well deserved stars on the higher side of the 3.5!



View all my reviews

Tell Me Tuesdays #28!!

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!

After quite a while since my latest Tell Me Tuesdays post, I'm back again on the saddle, trying (and failing) to get back into a more regular blogging schedule!

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home.

But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.

Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn't want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

 The Veil by Chloe Neill

Seven years ago, the Veil that separates humanity from what lies beyond was torn apart, and New Orleans was engulfed in a supernatural war. Now, those with paranormal powers have been confined in a walled community that humans call the District. Those who live there call it Devil's Isle.

Claire Connolly is a good girl with a dangerous secret: she’s a Sensitive, a human endowed with magic that seeped through the Veil. Claire knows that revealing her skills would mean being confined to Devil’s Isle. Unfortunately, hiding her power has left her untrained and unfocused.

Liam Quinn knows from experience that magic makes monsters of the weak, and he has no time for a Sensitive with no control of her own strength. But when he sees Claire using her powers to save a human under attack—in full view of the French Quarter—Liam decides to bring her to Devil’s Isle and the teacher she needs, even though getting her out of his way isn’t the same as keeping her out of his head.

But when the Veil threatens to shatter completely, Claire and Liam must work together to stop it, or else New Orleans will burn…

 Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

 In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. 

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.





Back after a while and with 2 ARCs, one physical gifted by my friend Britt from Please Feed the Bookworm, another an eARC from NG and re-reading my gorgeous hardcover of Throne of Glass for the #ReadThroneofGlass re-read in preparation for the release of Queen of Shadows on Sept 1st!! I hoping to finish the two ARCs this week, so I can have their reviews up on the before their release date of August 4th!

 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!!