Friday Reads: Phoenix Overture by Jodi Meadows!!

Welcome back to Friday Reads! The first entry for this week will be an e-novella, that is 150 pages long, so it's not a short tiny story at all!


Phoenix Overture by Jodi Meadows

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Phoenix Overture is a look at the past, the very early past of the world we met in Incarnate, and we get to meet our dear Dossam in his first live, when he first discovers his love for music, when he first gets his nickname Sam... all before he started reincarnating for the next five thousand years, give or take!

As Jodi Meadows herself said, despite being a prequel it's better if you read Phoenix Overture right after you're done with Asunder, cause it gives answers to a lot of questions that are answered in Asunder, and expands in them a little bit, so you won't spoil the surprises.

It does give us some answers, about Janan, about who lives in Heart and how did they came to do so, and it also gives you a lot of perspective on the character and motivations of some characters we already know from Incarnate and Asunder. Some you start loving already and some you find even better reason to dislike them even more.

Sam's story is tough and heartbreaking, with some silver linings but with very hard choices to be made along the way.

And about the story of Heart and Range... we do get some answers but I think I have even more questions on the past and the how and the who/what that I had before! Hopefully I'll get more answers and less questions in Infinite!

A short, intense and quick read, very well deserved 4 stars!



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September is for Sequels Challenge!

I've noticed that though I've been reading and reviewing quite a lot as of late, I absolutely suck at following my own planning and scheduling when doing so, and when I saw this post on Lisa Loves Literature for her September Is For Sequels Challenge, I knew it was the best excuse to keep me in track and give a good kick to my TBR list!

The challenge is to read AND review a minimum of 4 sequels from September 1st to September 30th. Check out Lisa's entry for the challenge for all the info, sign up is before September 15th!

Here is the list of sequels I plan to tackle this month!:

1. The Outside by Laura Bickle (The Hallowed Ones #2)
2. Sweet Legacy by Tera Lynn Childs (Medusa Girls #3)
3. The Liberator by Victoria Scott (Dante Walker #2)
4. All Is Fair by Emma Newman  (The Split Worlds #3)
5. Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan  (The Lynburn Legacy #2)
6. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #2)
7. Tainted by A.E. Rought (Broken #2)
8. Pretty When She Destroys by Rhiannon Frater (Pretty When She Dies #3)

Let's see how well I do by the end of the month! Any of you wanna join?

Thankful Thursday: Good news from people I love!

Hello everyone!

I hope your week is going great! I can't really complain, not only I've had 3 weeks off, in which though I haven't got much sleep due to some renovations from one of my neighbours, I've managed to get some rest, read some very much awaited books, get myself a new wi-fi router when they came around to check why my connection was spotty and got myself an awesome piece of bookish swag in the mail in the shape of a custom relic postcard by Gwenda Bond!

So yeah, even if I'm extremely thankful for all that, that's not just what this Thankful Thursday is gonna be about, it is gonna be about spending time with my friends, being silly with them and getting some great news from them! In 2014 I already have a confirmed date of a wedding from one of my besties, another quite probable that same year and another confirmed wedding for 2015! YAY!

And now I'm gonna leave you all with a few silly pictures of my meet up with my besties to give them their gift sarees for their b-days and how they loved wearing them, and how much fun I had putting them on!

Explaining the folding

Where's that safety piiiiin?!

 

And now over the arm and ready!

 

Tucking it in properly!

NAMASTE!

Waiting On Wednesday #6!!

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted at Breaking The Spine  that spotlights those can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-them books that we are eagerly awaiting!

This week my eargerly awaited can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-it release is Antigoddess by Kendare Blake!

Goodreads summary:

 "The acclaimed author of ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD returns with an incredible story about ancient gods, modern love and an epic fight for survival

He was Apollo, the sun, and he'd burn down anything that tried to hurt her... Cassandra and Aidan are just your average high-school couple. Or so Cassandra believes. Blissfully unaware that she was once a powerful prophetess, Cassandra doesn't even know that god exist... Until now.

Because the gods are dying - and Cassandra could hold the answer to their survival. But Aidan has a secret of his own. He is really Apollo, god of the sun, and he will do anything to protect the girl he loves from the danger that's coming for her. Even if it means war against his immortal family...
Sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; relentless action and suspense - ANTIGODDESS is the YA novel you've been waiting for."


Why am I eagerly awaiting Antigoddess? Well, since the moment I heard Kendare Blake had a new book coming out I knew I had to check it out (I loved her Anna books!) and when I read the summary with the different twist to the Greek mythology and Athena as one of the main characters... I just needed the book!

What are you all (im)patiently waiting to read?

Mark This Book Monday: Angelfall by Susan Ee!!!

And for the final entry of this week's Mark This Book Monday a review that was a long time coming, and that was an absolute surprise for me!


Angelfall by Susan Ee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Angelfall wouldn't have been a typical read for me since I'm not too big a fan of angel themed books, but with the more than enthusiastic recommendation of two of my fellow bloggers Kristen from My Friends Are Fiction and Sam from Realm of Fiction I decided to give it a shot and oh boy, am I glad that I did!

Angelfall is quite a different take on angels, with a very unique perspective. The world we find is a postapocalyptic one and the ones responsible for  the apocalypsis are the angels themselves. They let loose on humanity and have destroyed civilization as we know it and the survivors try to survive the gangs and the angels by hiding as best they can.

Penryn is a teenager that is doing her best to survive with her unstable mother and her disabled little sister, hiding from gangs and angels alike. They've survived for six weeks but an attack from angels separate them, Penryn's mum runs away, her sister is taken by one of the angels and Penryn is left with an injured angel as her only clue on how to get her sister back.

Penryn is such a strong but realistic character, she's dealing with the end of the world as we know it, but her life was never really easy before, so she's more prepared than most to survive in the aftermath of the Angel Apocalypse.

Raffe is an angel, a being of strength and air that finds himself captive of a regular human, a rather pathetic looking girl at that!

Both characters change so much from uneasy alliance to a more cooperative truce to working together towards a common goal, since Raffe agrees to take Penryn to where angels are since that's where her sister will be if she's still alive, and during the journey to San Francisco we discover so much about the new world that they have to face, and how much things have changed.

This story has such a fantastic study on human nature and how extreme situations can bring the best and worst on us and how even unhuman beings as angels can change for better or worse by being in contact with humanity.

The plot has so many unexpected revelations and twists, it's one hell of a rollercoaster, full of action and full of emotions! The sequel will be released this November and I just can't wait!

A fantastic book very much deserving of 4 and a half stars!



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Mark This Book Monday: Redemption by Brynn Myers!

Yet another edition of Mark This Book Monday and this time with a read that I enjoyed but had a hard time getting into. Which proves that your mood affects what you enjoy.


Redemption by Brynn Myers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Redemption is the first book of the Prophecies of the Nine series, after Entasy, the prequel.

I really enjoyed Entasy, with its Irish mythology references and the action and set up for the series so I was quite excited to read Redemption.

Each one of the books of the series will be about each one of the members of the Nine, the group of heroes fighting to defend not only their lives but also the human world from domination, and also progress the storyline of their fight to defeat Liam, their sworn enemy.

Redemption is Kylah and Aerric's story. Kylah just recovered her memory of who she really is and was, and also the memories of what made her with the help of her grandmothers decide to fake her death and erase her mind.

Once this is revealed she has to deal with her feelings, her memories and her guilt and also with the betrayal that Aerric feels since he was left broken thinking that his mate had died. Their relationship is in shambles and if we had Obsidian to the mix, that has feelings for Kylah and that while she was living her other life she also had feeling for him... it all becomes a bit of a big mess of a sort of love triangle.

Somehow I really couldn't connect too well with this book, I kept on putting it down and picking it up again a few days later, but I'm remiss to put the blame really on the book, given the emotional state I was while reading it... it really was not the right book for my emotional mess.

Once I managed to get into the book I felt the preparations for war and the showdown with Liam were mixed in a very odd way, not really giving enough focus to either... and once the action really started it all seemed to be over very soon.

I still plan to continue reading the series and I'm looking forward to reading about Viv and Tynan's story on Devotion.

A 3 stars read.



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Mark This Book Monday: Origin by Jennifer L Armentrout!!

For the next Mark This Book Monday one of the most awaited books in a series for this year, the one that as soon as it downloaded into my Kindle app, I just had to start reading!


Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Origin is the second to last book in the Lux series and it was so eagerly awaited after the awful cliffhanger from Opal, the previous book!

As always, since this book is part of a series it will be very difficult to avoid spoilers for the previous books, but I will try my best to avoid spoilers and key surprises from this one.

Katy was captured, Daemon is hell bent on getting her back. Daedalus want them both and whatever they have planned is not gonna be something Katy nor Daemon would want to endure.

One of the biggest changes is that we get a dual narrative, from both Katy's and Daemon's point of view. And Daemon's point of view is quite a treat to read: he's cocky, he's emotional, he's funny and he's quite swoony!

Katy continues to grow as a character and continues to show her strenght while dealing to all that Daedalus keep on throwing at her and refusing to bow down and do what they want.

We find out more information about the Luxen, about Daedalus and what they are trying to do and what lengths they'd go to achieve it. And we also get some really shocking and creepy revelations, and yes it involves an explanation of the book title. Power really gets to people's head, and there's nothing like some groups thinking they have the right to whatever they see fit in the name of what they think it's a worthy cause.

This book is full of action, running, plotting and unexpected twists and treasons. There's also plenty of steam, swoony-ness, snarky and witty comments and also what I'd call the Easter Egg mention of the Sweet Evil series by Wendy Higgins that made really laugh out loud while reading!

The ending was also quite a shocker, even if it is not the heartwrenching mess that the ending of Opal was, this is also a "you've got to be kidding me! Woah!" sort of an ending!

Very well deserved 4 stars!!



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Mark This Book Monday: The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson!!!

A new week, a new Monday and with it a few new reviews on this edition(s) of Mark This Book Monday!

I'm gonna start with the final book on a trilogy that wrapped up a fantastic fantasy series and that I'm sad to see ended even if it was quite a satisfying one.


The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


When it comes to the final book in a trilogy you've loved you always approach with a mix of excitement, caution and a little sadness. You really don't want the story with this characters to end, but you really need to know what happens after that ending in book 2 and you're hoping the final book will be as good as the previous books.

Well, The Bitter Kingdom did all that and more, so it's quite an ending for a great fantasy series. Since it's the final book in the trilogy I'm gonna make sure I don't give any spoilers for it here, but there will be spoilers for book 1 and 2 for sure.

The Bitter Kingdom picks up right where Crown of Embers left us, with Hector kidnapped by the enemy to try and force Elisa's hand, and with Elisa decided to not cower and do the rescuing herself with her more trusted friends' help and an enemy that is a friend to help them find their way into Inviernos territory. The book is told in dual perspective, alternating between Elisa's and Hector's and it really compliments very well not just on the emotional narrative, but also on showing us a bigger picture of the story.

The Bitter Kingdom is a journey in which Elisa continues to discover who she is on her own, not just as a queen, not just as a Joyan and most definitely, not just as a Godstone bearer. The growth of Elisa's character from self-deprecating pampered and underappreciated princess to kick-arse queen is quite an impressive journey and I've never stopped rooting for her and enjoying seeing her become more than anyone expected her to be (well, everyone except maybe Hector). We see her holding her own with magic, fighting against the elements and making the kind of hard choices someone in charge needs to make, all of that without losing her kindness and loyalty to her friends.

Hector's character has also grown from what was the side character of Captain of the Royal Guard and friend and ally to Elisa to be the front stage love interest. He's not just there to add conflict, he compliments Elisa's way of thinking with his dependable common sense and tactical knowledge and he believes in her in a way even she has a hard time believing on occasions. Their relationship grows during the perils of the journey and it is cemented during all the rescuing of each other that the end up doing!

The plot has some very interesting revelations, a lot of political maneuvering and quite a few unexpected twists and revelations. We discover so much more about Inverno and Joya D'Arena and their pasts even if, at least in my case, one is left with the feeling that there is more to be found out about the past.

We meet new friends and enemies, we say goodbye to some dear old and new and we are left with a lot of hope for the future.

An extremely worthy ending for my favourite YA fantasy trilogy and very well deserved 4 and a half stars!!



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