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

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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?"

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

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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"

Review: The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

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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."

Review: The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

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Title: The Fire Sermon

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.

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

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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. "

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.

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?