Showcase Sunday #26!!

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!

It's been a while since my last Showcase Sunday with my vacation time and all, but finally I'm back with the e-books and ARCs I've got this week and the physical books that I got this week and the two that were waiting for me when I arrived.

I also want to introduce you all to Dylan, my fluffly, slightly stoned and adorable stuffed sheep! He's gonna be the blog's pet and will be part of my Waiting On Wednesday banner/button! Say hello to Dylan everyone!

Here you can see my most recent precious books to hug and pet!:

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski and A Mad Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller that I got via Amazon.es.
The Star Thief by Jamie Grey (a signed copy that came with an awesome notebook!) that I got from the author's website.
The 57 Lives Of Alex Wayfare by MG Buehrlen that I got via The Book Depository.

Purchased (via Kindle app)

The Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine

Only The Good Die Young by KK Kending

Ruins by Dan Wells

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas

Inside Out by Maria V Snyder

Gilded by Christina Farley

Dying For A Living by Kory M Shrum

For Review (via NetGalley)

I got approved for two books, I was quite happy with both, but one of them totally threw my reading schedule out of shape, cause as soon as I was approved, I needed to read it!!

Witchfall by Victoria Lamb

The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

For Review (via Edelweiss)

Tabula Rasa by Kristen Lippert-Martin

I think I might have gone a bit overboard buying Kindle books this week, but oh well, such is life! I guess a self impossed ban on book buying (with the exception of my preorders) is in order now!

What all did you guys get this week?

Saturday Pages: Pretty When She Destroys by Rhiannon Frater!!

As my next Saturday Pages entry, I have a book that was one of my most awaited for last year, but that since it was the last book of a trilogy I highly enjoyed, I kept on pushing back reading it, dreading what might happen in the end! An extremely silly fear, cause the book was fantastic and I loved every page of it.

This one is also part of my 2014 Series Challenge!

Pretty When She Destroys by Rhiannon Frater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


If there's something that Rhiannon Frater does amazingly is writing vampires as monsters and still manage to make us root for them!

In this final installment of Amaliya's story, the stakes are at their highest since The Summoner has returned and wants to unleash Hell on Earth and take over the world. And not only that, he wants to bring Amaliya to his side, so he'll have both vampire necromancers he created at his side.

The way the plot is woven with the crescendo in tension through preparations, training and battles makes you want to turn the pages faster but also makes you scared of what might happen in the next page! The final chapters in the book had me reading in the edge of my chair and I was too tempted to peek at the ending to ensure all my beloved characters survived the day or not!

The way the characters are developed and how the relationships between them change and evolve is great. Rhiannon is a master on writing people that feel genuine no matter what their paranormal abilities may be. The relationship between Cian and Amaliya, Amaliya and Sam (Cian's ex), Sam and Jeff, Aimee and Cassandra... I just love all their interactions, and how perfect they are for each other. I loved seeing how the relationship between Amaliya and Sam changed, from animosity and possible hate, to friendship and alliance.

I adored all the characters in this series, even the bad guys, cause I loved to hate them!

With plenty of action and tension and a final showdown that was epic and amazing characters, I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to read this final installment of the Pretty When She... trilogy. Brilliant book and one I'd recommend to anyone that loves paranormal and vampire books! Well deserved 4.5 to 5 stars!



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Saturday Pages: Shadowlark by Meagan Spooner!

Hello everyone! I'm starting a new day for reviews here in the blog! I have a huge backlog of reviews since I went on a massive reading binge during my vacation time, and I want to share more reviews of those books I read with you all! So here it is, the first edition of Saturday Pages!

To kick off Saturday Pages I'm sharing a review of another book for my 2014 Series Challenge, it's one of the challenges that I had been slacking off a bit more as of late, but I remedied that quite a bit during my vacation time!

Shadowlark by Meagan Spooner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a series where I find the world building so intriguing and with some many questions still unanswered that always compells me to keep on reading, even if with every book I take a while to warm up to Lark, the main character.

It wasn't as hard for me to get rooting for Lark in this book as it was in the first, cause she's a bit more determined and more of a fighter, even if now with her gift/curse she keeps on doubting herself. Granted that her ability is dangerous and she isn't sure she'll be able to control it, but it annoys me so much that it takes it so long for her to start training to try and control it.

Shadowlark is mostly the journey of Lark to find herself and finally accept who she is with her abilities and to accept the darkness in herself and not let it control her, as much as it is the physical journey to find her brother Basil. That journey takes her to Lether, a city where magic is also harvested from the Renewables to keep their population safe, and their leader Prometheus rules the city with an iron fist. There are a few revelations that I guessed quite ahead of time and Lark does have to make a few hard choices.

The relationship with Oren progresses very slowly, from which I'm thankful, and they have to find a way to accept themselves and each other with the darkness and the flaws, and to find a way to make their relationship work, because they simply seem to need each other to go on.

This is a good sequel not suffering much for middle book syndrome, even if by the end of the book we haven't got that much new information. Lark has grown and she has decided she will go on her own journey looking for answers she needs, and not just following orders, running from someone, or looking for someone to solve her problems.

A solid 3 stars and I'm quite looking forward for the final book in the trilogy to see if we finally get answers about the world and to see if Lark can find the answers she is looking for.



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Friday Reads: ARC Review of White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L Armentrout!

For this final Friday Reads of this week I have a review of an ARC of a book that I got at the same time than the finished book. So it's as such part of my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge and it'll be also another book off my NetGalley list! I'm really hoping I can reach my 80% ratio on NetGalley soon!

White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I had White Hot Kiss preordered since it was announce and available for preorder, but when I saw it on NetGalley, I thought I'd request it and see if I could get lucky to read it before release day, but as fate would have it... I got approved for it on release day! So I had both copies to read, the ARC and the final book! Thank you Harlequin Teen for the approval!

I'm a bit of in two minds about this book, and that's because even though I liked it well enough as a whole, I kept on being meh about some things and enthusiastic about others. Hence the 3 star rating, that could be a 3.5, but I think will remain a 3 star.

As far as the plot and the originality of the paranormal creatures, the unexpected revelations and the twists in the story, this book would get a 4 to 4.5 stars no questions asked, but the characters seemed too formulaic to me, a bit too Armentrout typical if you may, so I'd give them a 2 to 2.5 stars.

Roth was a bit too much of the typical Armentrout bad boy, with a forward sexual presence and cheeky self bad boy. But it also felt a bit tame for a demon? I'm not sure. Layla was lacking a bit of the usual spunk female Armentrout characters usually have, and though I could see where her issues would come from and she wasn't entirely a whiner, she got on my nerves a bit. And then we got Zayne, good boy, fighter and friend-with-hints-at-more and apparently unrequited crush of Layla's aaaaand we get a maybe love triangle... And I'm so NOT a fan of love triangles!

The redeeming qualities of the plot and the mythology that the author presents us here was more than enough for me to want to continue reading and manage to enjoy the book and also look forward to the next book (I have actually already preordered it) and I have high hopes that the characters will continue to grow in the next book and won't be as cookie cutter as they seemed in this one.

I'd say if you really like Jennifer L Armentrout books and characters or if you are looking for a new twist on paranormal creatures (because gargoyles & demons, not seen very often out there!) with an interesting and engaging plot that leaves you wondering and hoping for more revelations, do give this one a chance. Even if it's only a 3 star for me, it was still a good enough read!



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Friday Reads: No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale!

For the first Friday Reads back from India and back to the more regular blogging schedule I'm gonna be having a book that was read during my vacation time and that was one of those "me" reads, that was not part of any challenges or was a review copy.


No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen  Hale

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I had read so many reviews for this book, all so very polarized towards the very good or the very bad, that I knew I needed to read it for myself and see what the fuss was all about.

I'm glad that I did, because despite it being a bit too weird and awkward for me at times, I really enjoyed this book. I was not blown away by it, I didn't think it was brilliant, but I did enjoy it a lot. I had to take a break from the awkwardness of it now and then while reading, because it got too weird from my taste on occasion, but I was never tempted to DNF.

No One Else Can Have You read like a satire murder mystery to me, full of humour and tongue in cheek references and loads of veiled and not so veiled criticism. All characters felt like they started real and then were taken to the extreme a bit, which might seem a bit unreal and an extreme caricaturisation but somehow managed to work. I have found that time and again, reality tends to surpass fiction no matter how weird we think that'd be.
I have seen this book being compared to the movie Fargo, and I think it is a great analogy of how awkward and weird it can be.

Kippy as a character was awkward, weird, quirky and sometimes a bit sad, I didn't feel like I could relate to her much (if at all) but I could understand enough of her character and motivations to understand her choices and doubts along the book. Her relationship with her dad is defined by him being a counsellor and by Kippy's mother's death. I felt like their interactions were hilarious and on occasion maddening. Her dad is so kumbaya and psychologically minded that he is blinded to too many things. Her dad managed to irritate me quite a lot, even if I understood how his character would behave like that.

All characters read as over the top caricatures, but somehow they felt completely right for the story of this book. The murder mystery sometimes gets lost in the characters' interactions and development, and I feel that sometimes it was just mostly an excuse to show us the innards of this little town and its inhabitants than a proper plot for itself. Characters and the satire and humour at their expense to a point takes precedence to the murder mystery, but even so, it is done quite well. I might have been too distracted by the weird people of Friendship to figure out the culprit, but I guess that might have been the point of it.

All in all, a very interesting book, very weird too, and that makes it a bit difficult to rate but I'd say it is a 3 to 3.5 stars for me.





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Waiting On Wednesday #33!!

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!


What book am I hoping it was already downloaded to my Kindle app this week? The Fearless by Emma Pass!!

Goodreads Summary:


"The Fearless. An army, powered by an incredible new serum that makes each soldier stronger, sharper, faster than their enemies. Intended as a force for good, the serum has a terrible side-effect - anyone who takes it is stripped of all humanity, empathy, love. And as the Fearless sweep through the country, forcing the serum on anyone in their path, society becomes a living nightmare.

Cass remembers the night they passed through her village. Her father was Altered. Her mother died soon after. All Cass has left is her little brother - and when Jori is snatched by the Fearless and taken to their hellish lair, Cass must risk everything to get him back."
 


Why am I eagerly awaiting The Fearless? I'm a big fan of dystopian stories, and I read Emma Pass' debut ACID and loved it, so when I heard she had another dystopian standalone coming, with another kick arse female main character, I knew I wanted to read it! And yes, this one has also been preordered and I cannot wait till it downloads in my Kindle app!


What are you all (im)patiently awaiting this week?

Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain!!

Today last Mark This Book Monday is yet again another ARC, but this one was one of my very first Edelweiss ones! And since for me is so rare to get approved for an ARC there, it's quite a milestone!
I'm cutting it a bit close with this review since release day is tomorrow, March 11th, but since I got it a long time back, I kept on thinking I had plenty of time for it!

This book is also part of my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge! I feel like I'm gonna be more on top of my list of review copies this year!

The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I got The Shadow Prince eARC on Edelweiss and it was one of my very first ARCs I got there and since I got with quite advance I kinda kept on pushing it back on the reading list till it was the week before release day!

I was a bit concerned when reading the summary that this would be just another of those teenage stories of girl falls for bad boy in a new high school, but nope! I was very much happily surprised when I saw that the book was surprising me with the twist on Greek mythology, with the main characters and with the line the story was taking! A very pleasant surprise of a book that I devoured!

Daphne Raines lives with her mother in a small town but dreams of leaving and sharing her music with the world though she knows her mother wouldn't approve. Everything changes when her stranged rockstar of a father comes back and offers her to live with him and get her into Olympus Hill High and its prestigious music program. I really loved Daphne, she wasn't your ugly duckling typical character. She loved her mother and music and wanted to pursue her dream. She didn't trust her dad but was willing to give him a chance with plenty of reservations. She has insecurities and flaws, but she's not one of those "woe is me" kinda character.

Haden Lord or Lord Haden is the son of the current king of the Underworld, descendant of the line of Hades, but he fell in disgrace when he was a kid and since then has been trying to regain his father's favour and his honour. He gets the chance to do so when the Oracle determines he's the one that should go on the mission to bring back the girl that will return immortality to his race. Haden is a bit of an odd character, he's been raised in the Underworld with a set of values and a code of honour that reminded me very much of the Spartan code and his whole life since he fell in disgrace has been about regaining his honour. Now he is in the human world and needs to learn to stand up less and needs to learn how to woo a human girl to convince her to cross the gates to the Underworld.

I loved how this was NOT an insta love thing! Haden and Daphne first meeting is disastrous and Daphne runs away thinking that Haden is a bit of a psycho! Their interactions are awkward and funny and it does take quite a while for Daphne to warm up to Haden, I think it was on about 66% of my ARC when she seems to be thinking that he's not all that bad and defends him. What I loved was that the way to connect for them is through music, since Haden discovers music through Daphne as it was forbidden in the Underworld.

I fell in love with the book because of the twists on Greek mythology that it has. It's not just the story of Hades and Persephone, but also Orpheus and Eurydice and a new war between gods and their descendants, Oracles and factions and prophecies and destiny and fate... The plot has some fast moving places and slow moving ones but it was never boring and always managed to entertain me and keep me intrigued enough. There are a few revelations, some more unexpected than others, and the book ends with an ending that's open enough but not with an awful cliffhanger, which is always welcome!

A refreshing take on some classic cliches and something new and different done with Greek mythology. Well deserving of 4 stars and I will be eagerly awaiting to see what will happen in the sequel!



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Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule!!

Hello everyone! I'm back from my latest trip to India, and I've enjoyed a lot having time to read loads! So much that I'm now quite ahead on my Goodreads challenge, even if I've gone on some unexpected reading binges!

For this Mark This Book Monday I'm going to start with a book from my NetGalley pending pile and even if I'm cutting it a bit close, since release today is tomorrow, March 11th, at least it's up with some advance! This one also counts as part of my 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge! I have to give a big thank you to St Martin's Press for approving my request for this book on NetGalley, it was a very pleasant change of pace and a thoroughly enjoyable book!

Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a really beautiful book and with such a different story from everything that I've read before!

This is the story of Sing da Navelli, a young talented soprano singer, daughter of the most famous and talented parents (soprano and orchestra conductor) and that starts in a new prestigious (and mysterious) school for young talents.

The book follows two intertwined plots, at first you won't be sure how the two will be mixed or the relevance of each story in the other, but they are mixed in quite a beautiful way! First, we have the Felix, a big cat made of stars and a fierce hunter since it fell down from the sky that can also make wishes come true. Second, we have Sing's story, a story of a girl finding out who she want to be, what she's ready to sacrifice for it and how far will she go to conquer her dreams. If has a big paranormal component, but I wouldn't say it's the main focus of the story. I feel the story focus is more on the choices we make, how we choose to act and behave and what we are ready to sacrifice to follow our dreams.

Sing is a very complex character. She's always loved music but being the daughter of two musical celebrities has her in the spotlight. She's expected to succeed and she's expected to follow the path of her mother, the diva Barbara di Navelli. But as much as she loves music and as much as her dreams are singing and performing as a soprano, she isn't really sure who she wants to be and how she wants to accomplish her dreams. Sometimes you feel like smacking her and sometimes you feel like giving her a hug. She makes friends, she makes enemies and despite her many mistakes, she manages to find her own voice, both physically and metaphorically.

The storyline with Nathan and George acts like the bridge between Sing's and the Felix's, and it's one that I'm still thinking about. Their relationship is quite hard to define but it is a big example of how the best of intentions can be twisted and how selfishness can twist us beyond recognition.

Music, opera, a mysterious creature, love, wishes and ambition... Finding your own way to follow your dreams and what would you sacrifice for them. Bottom line, Strange Sweet Song is a lyrical coming of age story with amazing gothic touches! Very well deserved 4 stars!





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