Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Review: Storm Glass (Glass #1) by Maria V. Snyder

Don't forget to enter my 100 follower giveaway here.

Title: Storm Glass (Glass #1)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publish Date: May 1st 2009

"As a glassmaker and a magician-in-training, Opal Cowen understands trial by fire. Now it's time to test her mettle. Someone has sabotaged the Stormdancer clan's glass orbs, killing their most powerful magicians. The Stormdancers—particularly the mysterious and mercurial Kade—require Opal's unique talents to prevent it happening again. 
But when the mission goes awry, Opal must tap in to a new kind of magic as stunningly potent as it is frightening. And the further she delves into the intrigue behind the glass and magic, the more distorted things appear. With lives hanging in the balance—including her own—Opal must control powers she hadn't known she possessed… - powers that might lead to disaster beyond anything she's ever known. "

Review: Fire Study (Study #3) by Maria V. Snyder

Don't forget to enter my 100 follower giveaway here.
Warning: May contain spoilers for Poison Study and Magic Study! I tried to keep it as spoiler free as possible, but if you haven't read Poison Study and Magic Study yet, proceed with caution.

Title: Fire Study (Study #3)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publish Date: March 1st, 2008

"The Apprenticeship is Over—Now the Real Test has Begun.

When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder—able to capture and release souls—spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set her apart. As the Council debates Yelena's fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before….

Honor sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills, and the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Her journey is fraught with allies, enemies, lovers and would-be assassins, each of questionable loyalty. Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself—and save the land she holds dear."

Monday, March 30, 2015

Review: Magic Study (Study #2) by Maria V. Snyder

Don't forget to enter my 100 follower giveaway here.
Warning: May contain spoilers for Poison Study! I tried to keep it as spoiler free as possible, but if you haven't read Poison Study yet, proceed with caution.

Title: Magic Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publish Date: January 1st, 2006

"So far, I've managed to survive. You would think after being kidnapped as a child, imprisoned in my teens and released to become a poison taster, I would have endured enough. But no. The discovery of my magical abilities--powers forbidden in Ixia--has resulted in an execution order. My only chance is to flee to Sitia, my long-lost birthplace.

But Sitia is unfamiliar. I'm treated like an enemy--even by my own brother. Plus I can't control my powers. I want to learn about my magic, but there isn't time. A rogue magician has emerged and I'm targeted as his next victim.

Will my magical abilities save me...or be my downfall?"

Monday, March 23, 2015

Review: Poison Study (Study #1) by Maria V. Snyder

Don't forget to enter my 100 follower giveaway here.
Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publish Date: October 1st 2005

"Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison... About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear"


Saturday, March 21, 2015

Review: The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

Don't forget to enter my 100 follower giveaway here.
Title: The Orphan Queen
Author: Jodi Meadows
Publish Date: March 10th 2015

"Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.
She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.
She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.
She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others
Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world."

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Review: The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

Don't forget to enter my 100 follower giveaway here.

Author: Francesca Haig
Publish Date: March 10th 2015

400 years in the After, after the Blast that almost wiped out all life on the planet, all births happen in pairs, always twins, always one boy and one girl, always one perfect spitting image of health and one suffering some kind of mutation. And always one undeniable truth, they enter the world together, they leave the world together. Doesn't matter how far apart or how long they've been separated, if one twin is severely hurt, knocked unconscious, or killed, the other twin is too. 

Seen as nothing more than the rejected poisoned genes left over from the Blast, this bond is the only thing stopping the Alphas from getting rid of the Omegas entirely. Instead, they are exiled from the Alphas towns shortly after birth, left to live their lives as outcasted.

But sometimes the Omegas mutation isn't a physical thing you can see, and instead takes place in the mind. The result is a seer, plagued by visions of the Blast, as well as impressions of the future. 

When Cass and Zack are born, both seemingly perfect, tensions continue to increase as everyone waits for one of them to reveal themselves as the Omega. But Cass knows that she has to guard her secret, or be torn from her home and thrown into exile. Zack despises Cass for making him a social outcast by not splitting, and will stop at nothing to force her hand so he can claim his rightful place as an Alpha in society. Among other things, The Fire Sermon is about an oppressed society on the verge of rebellion, and a girl who believes in a world where both sides of the coin can live in harmony.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Review: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

Stay tuned for an exciting giveaway announcement coming soon!
Title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Author: April Genevieve Tucholke
Publish Date: August 15th 2013

"You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…
Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard.Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?

Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery... who makes you want to kiss back.
Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch. "

Friday, March 13, 2015

Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge ARC

Title: Crimson Bound
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Publish Date: May 5th 2015

Rachel is a Woodwife apprentice, responsible for creating charms to protect the people from the dangers of the forest. Not satisfied with just waiting around on the defense for the Devourer to wake up, swallow the sun and moon, and wreak havoc on the world, Rachel decides to fix the world herself. 
She confronts a Forestborn, sure she can out smart him and find out how to destroy the Devourer. But in this story it's not the Big Bad Wolf who kills. Rachel gets marked, and has three day to decide: kill someone and live forever as a Forestborn, or die. 
Three years later she serves the King while trying to accomplish what she originally set out to do 3 years ago. But the clock is ticking, and getting assigned to babysitting duty of the King's son isn't helping.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Review: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

Title: Magonia
Author: Maria Dahvana Headley
Publish Date: April 28th 2015

Aza Ray is drowning in thin air. Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name. Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Review: The Haunting of Sunshine Girl: Book One by Paige McKenzie

Title: The Haunting of Sunshine Girl: Book One Author: Paige McKenzie
Publish Date: March 24th, 2015

Shortly after her 16th birthday, Sunshine and her adopted mother Katherine move from sunny Texas to cold rainy Washington State. From the moment they pull up to their new house, Sunshine feels the creepy vibes coming off the house. And it becomes evident that very first night that the house is haunted. Doors closing by themselves, footsteps that only Sunshine can hear, children's laughter, and toys and board games being moved and set up for play are all the proof Sunshine needs to believe they are haunted by a 10 year old girl, but Katherine remains skeptical, believe only facts supported by science. 

Things go from creepy to downright horrifying when Sunshine realizes she not only doesn't believe, but her mom doesn't even remember the spooky events that happened. Undeniable, unforgettable event that leave Sunshine shaken to her core. With them help of Nolan, her only friend at her new school, can she figure out what's going on before it's too late? 

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Chasing Power by Sarah Beth Durst Review


Title: Chasing Power
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publish Date: October 14th, 2014

Kayla is looking forward to a lazy summer in Santa Barbara, filling her days hanging out with her best friend Selena, laying out to tan at the beach, and honing her telekinesis by stealing from every store and person on State Street. That is, until a mysterious stranger seeks her out and blackmails her. His demands are simple, help him find his kidnapped mother, or he will reveal her powers to the world. The only clue they have is a cryptic note from his mother: "Find the thief. Ask the queen. Remember I love you." The duo have their work cut out for them as they set out on a quest filled with Mayan temples, voodoo queens, and evil powerful rocks.


Monday, March 9, 2015

The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons Review

Title: The Glass Arrow
Author: Kristen Simmons
Publish Date: February 10th, 2015
In a world where women are a commodity, good only for producing male offspring, Aya is one of the few truly free women in their world, living wild in the forests outside city limits. Her whole life she has been hunted, her wild upbringing makes her more fertile than any woman in the city, and thus more valuable. Aya escaped capture for 15 years. But then she was caught. Brought to a farm for women to be held until auctioned off to the highest bidder, Aya manages to avoid her fate for 5 months. She knows she can't avoid it for ever, and it's a race against the clock to escape and return to freedom.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Red Queen (Red Queen Trilogy #1) by Victoria Aveyard Review


Title: Red Queen (Red Queen Trilogy #1)
Author: Victoria Aveyard
The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers. To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change. Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control. But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?