Waiting On Wednesday #88!!

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 dying-to-get-my-hands-on and doing the please-let-my-preorder-arrive-early dance for this week? The Wondrous and The Wicked by Page Morgan!!

Goodreads Summary:

"For fans of Lauren Kate's Fallen series comes the exciting conclusion to the trilogy that includes The Beautiful and the Cursed and The Lovely and the Lost. The Waverly sisters must save themselves before all is lost.

Since the Waverlys arrived in Paris, the streets have grown more fearsome by the day. As Ingrid learns to master her lectrux gift, she must watch Axia's power grow strong enough to extend beyond her Underneath hive. By all indications, the fallen angel's Harvest is near-and the timing couldn't be worse.

Targeted by vengeful gargoyles, Gabby has been exiled to London for her own protection. Meanwhile, the gargoyle castes are in disarray, divided between those who want Luc to lead them and those who resent him and his fondness for humans. The Alliance is crumbling from the inside as well, its members turning against one another, and possibly against the Waverlys, too.

Axia has promised that the world will burn. And now, unable to trust the Alliance, separated from Luc, Gabby, and her twin, Grayson, Ingrid is left to face the demon uprising alone."


Why am I eagerly awaiting The Wondrous and The Wicked? Well, this has to be if not my most awaited final book in a series of the year, at least in the top 3!! I just cannot wait what will happen now to Ingrid, Gabby, Luc and the rest of the gang!! I'm on pins and needles!!

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

Mark This Book Monday: Every Move by Ellie Marney!!!

And as the second Mark This Book Monday post of this week, I have one of those highly awaited books that I've been making grabby hands since I read the first book of the trilogy!

I highly recommend this series to anyone and everyone and it reinforces my love for Australian fiction and authors, and I plan to continue to support Ellie Marney and whatever books might came after this trilogy!

As book released on 2015 (even if only in Australia) I'm totally counting it towards my 2015 release category in the 105 Challenge!

Every Move by Ellie Marney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Since I first got my hands on book 1, Every Breath, I've been addicted to this series, that can be considered a contemporary retelling of Sherlock Holmes with murder mysteries and the most shippity ship of all times. And so my need to get my hands on this final book was rather dire, and after preordering somewhere and them not shipping it, I ended up ordering it directly from the Australian publisher. It arrived as I was leaving for work, so I spent the whole shift wishing the time to pass faster because I wanted to get back home to devour it! And that I did! I stayed up till 5 am till I finished inhaling the book!

If you still haven't started this series, you really ought to get going, but even if you've started it, you might expect some spoilers in this one for book 1 and 2, since I might discuss some of the events, so GO READ THEM NOW!!

As the previous two book the pacing and the plotting and the mysteries in this one were done so well! And the characters and emotional connections and the relationships as well! I love how important for the book are all the relationships, not only Rachel & James and their romantic relationship, but also Rachel and her brother, and Rachel and her parents, specially her mum.
No absent parents here, no even those that are dead, since Mycroft's parents are always present in the way they have shaped who he is and his interests and motivations. Rachel's parents don't trust her know, and her mother is both angry and scared with Rachel's taking off after Mycroft to London and returning injured.

Rachel is going through a very tough time after the events in London, and although she doesn't acknowledge it really, she's trying to push through it, but she cannot allow close contact with even her family and she gets nightmares every day, PTSD to the letter. And it's fantastic how the author deals with it. With Rachel trying to get away from everything and returning to her home away from the city for a day with her brother (that doesn't really work as she expected as they end up having company) and then having someone not involved with the events or her family helping her finding a way to regain control of her fear somehow by focusing on defending herself.

Mycroft and Rachel are a bit more distant at the beginning of the book, given how each of them is dealing with the aftermath of London. Mycroft has thrown himself even harder into investigating his parents' case, and Rachel cannot deal with any of that, so they barely spend time together. It is painful to read, how they need each other not only as a couple but as friends and how they cannot seem to be able to communicate with each other, both thinking that the other needs the time and space to sort themselves out. But when they confront not only each other but their feelings and the way they're dealing with the fear, the threat and the mystery... they're back to being one united team, the ship to end all other ships.

There is one new guy introduced in this book, one that has an interest in Rachel and that helps her when Mycroft couldn't, teaching her self defence and being a neutral party for her to talk to, but I cannot speak of love triangle since Rachel never thinks of anyone but James. And nevermind that Mycroft does actually punch the dude, which if not exactly something I should condone... I actually enjoyed it loads in the book! Bad Pili!

As far as the mystery goes, I had a bad vibe about one character in Every Word and to my surprise, I ended up being right on who was our Moriarty to my surprise and glee! The final climax was full of heartstopping action and tension and boy I couldn't turn the pages past enough!

This book and series was an amazing journey and despite some of my issues of lack of knowledge of the Australian flora that made me pause to search for some terms in my phone (Dictionary app for the win!) I adored everything from these books, from the characters, their relationships, the mysteries, the pacing, the plotting, the OTP!! Very well deserved 5 and all the stars!! VERY recommended!!



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Mark This Book Monday: The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson!!

Hey there guys!

Today is not a common Monday for me, because after working the weekend I have the day off, and I'm going to choose the right colour for my kitchen, have breakfast with my co-workers, get a pair of parcels in the mail and work on some bloggy things! And read too!

To start this Mark This Book Monday I have the Alyssa Recommends book for March up for review! This one was another success for Alyssa since I loved it! And since I made a category of Alyssa Recommends books for 105 Challenge, it is counted that way too!

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had been wondering about this book for quite a while since before it came out last year, but because my bloggy friends were quite torn about it, some hating it and others loving it, I couldn't decide whether to read it or not.

But then Alyssa added it to the Alyssa Recommends list and since I'm in such a fantasy-reading kick, I felt it would be the perfect book for March.

And it very much was! I love that it was medieval fantasy with a touch of postapocalytpic (and possibly dystopia, though I cannot be sure, maybe once I read the sequel). Our main character is Lia, her Royal Highness, Princess of Morrighan and First Daughter, that decides to run away from the shackles of tradition & court.

She's impulsive and stubborn and given her temperament and the way she was raised... I'm not surprised she just decided to give the middle finger to everything and run away from the palace just before her wedding. Yes, the marriage was very important to ensure the alliance of the kingdoms and probably their survival, but I can understand how she just wants out, how she's tired and sick of being told what to do like she's useless, and she decides that she needs to take control of her life in any way she can.

We follow Lia in her flight with Pauline, he attendant and friend, and we see them both establish their new home far away from Civica, the kingdom's capital. I loved how Lia threw herself into her new simpler life with gusto, not shying away from hard work and always being a good friend to Pauline, even when things got hard.

And then we get to two guys and the other two POVs in the book, Kaden and Rafe, the prince and the assassin, and we don't know who is who till well close to the end of the book. And it kept me guessing all the way till the end of the book and I decided to stick with my very first guess... and I was wrong. Which if you think about it makes very much sense, so yeah, there's that.

And this leads me to the part of the book that I liked less... the sort of love triangle! Both prince and assassin go on a search for Lia, for obviously very different reasons and both then decide to stick around and get to know her better because she's intriguing. Fair enough, I'll be very ready to believe that when it comes to the prince, because well... she was supposed to become his wife and she run away, and he wants to know why, and he can be intrigued about why she run away and started working in a tavern. But the assassin?? His job was to kill her, and instead of doing his job he decides to stick around, getting to know her which could lead into making it harder for him to kill her in the end! What pitiful, sort of crappy assassin is that one?? Hmph!!

And Lia clearly is more attracted to one of them than the other from the start, and when I say clearly, I mean clearly, she only flirts with the other guy to make guy #1 jealous because of his warm and cold (that could be understood for once) moods towards her. So I don't understand why we need the other side of the triangle to make things muddy, mostly because I don't understand why the assassin has to stick around to get involved!!!

Okay, enough with my big pet peeve that costed this book one star, because I absolutely adored Lia, with her temper, her very necessary growth as a character, how she sees her kingdom from the very foundation that it's the common people, how she struggles with finding herself and her worth and deciding that she needs to face her responsabilities. She's a fighter through and through, and I loved her for that, flaws and all.

The world building was fantastic, the descriptions are so visual and they never felt overwhelming or boring with details, instead they were woven into the narration flawlessly, changing and moving with the plot. And I loved how some details and mentions here and there hinted at this world maaaaybe being something more than just a medieval/epic fantasy. I loved the mentions of the Ancients, the lore of the Remnant and how their religion is slightly different from one kingdom to another.

A fantastic first installment in a new series that I'm completely hooked on already. It would have had 5 stars if not for the love triangle and uncomprehensibly incompetent assassin! Well deserved 4 stars though!



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Saturday Pages: ARC Review of Shadow Study by Maria V Snyder!!

Aaand as my next and last Saturday Pages entry a review of a book that I got approved for via NetGalley, thank you so much Harlequin Mira for the chance to read this one!

As a book I got for review it will count towards that category for my 105 Challenge!

Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I had been wanting to read the Study trilogy for quite a while, even before I read the Healer trilogy about Avery, the healer from Kazan. But seems that they kept being pushed back for other books till I got approved for this one, which I'm not sure if I should call a continuation of the trilogy or a spin-off but with the same characters?

Anyhow, I finally read and loved the three Study novels, loved Yelena and Valek and their relationship and came to be really intrigued about the world, the two rival countries Ixia and Sitia and adored so many of the secondary characters (Arin and Janco, I'm looking at you!).

I loved revisiting the world and the characters, even if I was lucky and didn't have to wait for this book as long as most fans did. Time has passed for Yelena and Valek and they continue their relationship as they can when their respective duties allow them, and make the most out of it.

I was quite surprised but very glad when I saw that we were getting more than Yelena's POV in this one! I loved that we had Valek's POV in this one and also Janco's. Valek's was my favourite because we finally find something more about Ghost man through flashbacks to his past. It might have taken us a bit off from the current action, but I loved those glimpses so much, that I really didn't mind at all!

Now that Yelena has grown into her powers and she is sure of them, what twist could be thrown in to add a proper sense of threat? Clearly the only way to do that effectively was having Yelena lose her powers! And oh boy, now that was an absolute game changer! Yelena was so worried and so completely lost without her magic! But I simply loved (and it broke my heart) that the thing she missed the most was her connection with Kiki, her utterly wonderful and adorable horse!

We have Yelena and Valek separated and working on different leads during most of the book and we get introduced to some new characters too. Little Miss Assassin (nicknamed lovingly so by Janco) wants Valek's position with the Commander and he's quite tempted to let her have it, once he gathers if she really can be trusted. And other characters that I would have known if I had read Opal's spin-off before reading this one! Oh well, I'll get to the eventually!

Yelena trying to discover who wants her magic-less and dead and Valek trying to see why security acount the Palace is so lax and trying to crack a smuggler's operation end up leading to an old enemy that they thought was dead but wasn't, and that makes them wonder a lot about loyalties and who can they really trust.

The book ending with quite a bomb being thrown but not with a painful cliffhanger which is something to be thankful for! Still, I really cannot wait to get my hands on the next book of the series! Very much deserving of 4 stars!



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Saturday Pages: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett!!!

Hi there everyone!

The weekend is here and I have to work, but I had a lovely lazy and full of reading day off yesterday, so I will not complain!

Today as my first Saturday Pages review I have The Midnight Garden's Classic YA & MG challenge book for March! As per usual (except for last month) it was a book I had not read before and as per usual, I thoroughly loved and enjoyed it! As usual I will be taking part in their discussion post and writing my usual looong babbling novel of a comment, and I have my own review up here!

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another gem of a book discovered via the #tmgreadalong. I really am extremely happy that I decided to join the ladies at The Midnight Garden in their classic middle grade & young adult challenge last year, and I do plan to continue to be part of as it as long as they have it!

I was intrigued by the beginning and despite our lil Mary being quite contrary I felt immensely bad for her. She was ignored and spoiled and unloved and she didn't even know what she was missing, which is the worst part of the whole thing.

Then she is taken to England and gets stuck in another grand house where she might not lack anything except love again, but thankfully for her she doesn't have the same kind of servants attending her, but a young pure Yorkshire girl that takes no nonsense from her. I simply loved the change in Mary as she was first a lil forced and then allowed to play on her own and explore and be a child outside!

And I absolutely loved her determination to find the Secret Garden and to make sure it was kept alive! I adored how she was so different with Dickon and Martha and how she loved everything about them and their family and how she stopped thinking herself as above them and never acted like she would have before. She might have been acting out of selfish reasons, but she was kinder that you could have expected her to be!

I was quite surprised when we got introduced to Colin, the small Rajah, and the biggest tyrant you could imagine. I could barely conjure any sorry feelings for him at first, and I was beyond happy when in one of his "fits" Mary came to him and confronted him with her own "spoiled girl" manners! Who would have thought that Mary could be such a great influence, along with Dickon, the red breasted robin, Dickon's menagerie and loads of fresh air!

I just loved how important family was in this book, and how it showed the influence of good examples and encouragement can be. It's also quite a tongue in cheek dig at the way children in afluent families were raised, primed & pampered but without real affection, and it's a wonder how those kids grew to be even half functioning adults!

And I love how doing something with your hands, making things grow and watching and interacting with others that are different from you can be both eye opening and sobering. It's not like planting a flower or two and interacting with someone with a different upbringing will solved every problem for spoiled kids... but it will make them confront themselves with different realities and with some luck make them think about what they have and what other's have and not.

I adored the descriptions of the moor, the gardens, the secret garden and all the food that they were getting! It made long for some warm oatmeal and buns and scones and tea time... *sigh*. It was a wonderfully visual book! I could clearly picture myself in every room and every part of the gardens, and even at the cottage in the moor!

If I had to pick a favourite character it would be Susan Sowerby, even if we don't get to have her in the flesh in the pages till the last part of the book, she's very much present at every turn of the page, with her advice, her observations and her considerable common sense wisdom! She is the archetype of a mother figure and I loved when we finally got her to interact directly with Mary and Colin!

A wonderful book that made me long to visit the moor, skip around the secret garden, have some buns and scones with my tea and made me long for the Magic. Well deserved 4.5 stars!



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Friday Reads: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger!!

Finally! My second Friday Reads post is up!

This one is all about The Reader's Lounge Book Club's book for March! I love how I'm discovering some wonderful books through our monthly picks! Not that I wouldn't have read them otherwise but they've been moved to the front of the TBR pile and read, so that's great!

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The DUFF was chosen as March's book for my book club: The Reader's Lounge and since I already had a copy gifted by my friend Becca from Pivot Point Reviews, I was all set and ready!

I didn't start the book till this week and surprisingly enough (or maybe not...) I was completely hooked and ended up reading it in one night! I do suck at reading a book in installments it seems!

Bianca is your cynical, too jaded for her age but somewhat sensible teen, and boy did I identify with her... I was pretty much like that when I was 17 or 18 and I was the voice of reason for one of my excessively romantic friends. She's got two best friends that are quite different from her, a crush on the perfect boy and a rather complicated family dynamic.

It all start with Bianca being with her friends at a club, with them dancing and she fighting a headache (I liked dancing loads, so that was not something we have in common) and being approached by the biggest manwhore of the whole school that calls her a DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) which causes her to throw a drink on his face (I cheered!).

Bianca always felt like a very real and complicated teen (we are all bloody complicated as teens) and even though I obviously I didn't agree with all her actions, I could understand most of her motivations, even if I saw quite clearly what she didn't seem to manage to see, which means hindsight and some perspective works wonders.

I loved her friendship with Cassey and Jessica, and how they were all different and leveled each other up. I hated how Bianca kept herself so closed up with her friends and pretended she was alright all the time, but I surely can relate to that to an extent too. And despite their disagreements and whatever problems they had, they ended up talking things through and not resorting to simple name calling and catfight drama, which is a very positive example to show.

Every interaction between Bianca and Wesley had the potential to be hilarious, irritating and swoony all at the same time, and I really felt like like smacking Wesley for his continued use of the "Duffy" nickname even if it was quite clear that he wasn't trying to belittle Bianca at all by the use of it after a while. He seemed quite genuine and proved to be a good friend to her more than once, and I actually cheered when he defended Bianca from the "whore" accusations with a good punch.

It seemed rather funny that the guy that was the first to label her ended up being the other that also gave her the best kind of advice about labels of all sorts and the one that made Bianca realize that she is so much more than a DUFF, and that we are all labelled at some point and we all end up labelling others and almost always is because we want to feel better about ourselves by putting others down.

The family dynamics are very important in this one because Bianca's family life is not easy with her parents' issues and how they affect her. I loved that parents aren't perfect here in this book but aren't bad people just because it suits the story. They are not made the enemy, and are also made flawed people with redeeming qualities that are trying to do what they can and will not win a "parents of the year" award while they sort their issues but that do try to do the best they can once they're out of their own cave.

All in all, this was a deeper read that I was expecting at first, and although there were a few disturbing things for me, the main one having a 14 year old in a relationship that included sex with an 18 year old which I felt wasn't addressed as wrong well enough, it was full of positive messages for both teens and adults, because we all need the reminders about facing our problems, not lying to ourselves and accepting help from others, not labelling people and standing against those labels.

Very much well deserved 4 stars for this one!



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Friday Reads: Fire Study by Maria V Snyder!!

Hello there! Happy Friday!

Friday is my day off this week since I work the weekend and yesterday was my day after night shift and I was fuzzy-brained all day!

Today's Friday Reads will be a bit uphazardly done, but I do plan to have two reviews up, and the first one is the final book in the Study series!



Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have thouroughly enjoyed reading this series! Since this is the final book in what originally was a trilogy you can expect some spoilers for events that happened in book 1 and 2, so keep that in mind!

It's a wonderful fantasy series that also has a good look at political differences between two countries and how things are seen differently from inside each one of the sides!

Yelena is still trying to accept her magic and to what point it might determine who she is. It already determines how the people around her react to her, judging her based on the acts of another. And despite how big the mistrust from others is, the worst rejection comes from Yelena herself, since she is scared of her powers and her magic.

Being the Soulfinder is a scary and largely unknown power and Yelena is not sure how to get herself train and get her abilities under control. The First Magician is the biggest advocate for Yelena to be eliminated for being too dangerous and once that possibility is ruled out, she decides she'll be the one to train Yelena, and that doesn't sit well with Yelena at all, as is to be expected. And driven by her fear of her own abilities, her mistrust of her own control and her unwillingness to face it all, Yelena ends up running head first into trouble without much planning or thinking.

The plot was continuining from what started in the two previous books and expands in worrisome ways. I didn't really guess who the bad guy behind it all, because it was such a verbal and in your face character, you wouldn't have expected such deception too, even if it was also the most obvious at the same time.

We get a lot of our beloved characters all working together and it's good that they come become because Yelena is gonna need all the help she can get trying to figure out her abilities, finding the Warpers, fighting the Fire Warper and trying to prevent an all out war between Ixia and Sitia.

Valek and Yelena undergo their first and biggest bump in their relationship because of Yelena's fears and denial and her trying to make sure no one gets hurt because of her makes her push the ones she love away, and takes their right to choose what to do, if they want to help or even how to help. But I still really enjoy how they make a fantastic team and Valek always seems to know when to get to her aid no matter what.

The ending wrapped up things rather well, leaving enough threads here and there for possible new stories with the either the main or the secondary characters and I'm glad that they are a reality, because I am in love with the world of Ixia and Sitia and I want to spend more time here! Very well deserved 4 stars for this end of a trilogy (that is not as final now any more!).



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Waiting On Wednesday #87!!

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 biting-my-nails-while-I-wait-for-it-to-download-to-my-Kindle-on-release-day? Forged by Erin Bowman!!

Goodreads Summary:

"Gray Weathersby and his group of rebels must make their final stand in the epic conclusion to the Taken trilogy, which New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu called "an action-packed thrill ride from beginning to end."

The Order is building an unstoppable army, with every generation of Forgeries harder to detect and deadlier than the one before. It’s time for Gray and his fellow rebels to end the Order's world of lies. But when the most familiar faces—and even the girl he loves—can’t be trusted, Gray will have to tread carefully if he wants to succeed. Or survive.


Why am I eagerly awaiting Forged? This is the final book in the series and I cannot wait to see what's gonna happen now, because in the final book we were ready for an all out war!! Also, I want the love triangle to be properly resolved!!"



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