Review: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu

The Midnight Star by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved the ending to this trilogy. It picks up about a year after Adelina forms the Rose Society and takes over as queen. She is still fighting with the Daggers and spiraling down into the depths of her own darkness. She is cruel and brutal, making those who wronged malfettos and elites in the past pay for their crimes with torture and death. She rules with fear, only allowing Magiano and Sergio to provide her with council, and she rarely takes their advice. As Adelina ruthlessly takes over more land, she continues to succumb to the madness of the whispers and illusions in her head. Magiano keeps her grounded. They continue to flirt, and you are never quite sure where her heart lies with Magiano or with Enzo. I like that the romance is not overwhelming in the book and it isn't necessary to move the plot along.

As Adelina is conquering the world, Raffaele is trying to figure out why the Elite's are getting sick from using their powers. Eventually Raffaele figures out how to solve the riddle, and asks that the Elites form a truce for the good of all mankind, or everyone Elite and non-Elite will eventually perish. The crew embarks on a quest to heal the tear between the mortal world and the world of the gods. Their journey is not easy. Some characters finally find peace and purpose, while others find much struggle and heartbreak.

I absolutely loved the ending! I'm very impressed that Marie Lu took the story where she did and made the decisions she did. I loved the mythology she added to the book and the journey the characters took through the underworld to save humanity. The interaction with the gods and goddesses, alteast for me, was extremely interesting. I love mythology, and I need to do some research on what she based her's on or if she created it all on her own. Either way I loved what she did throughout the series with it.

I do wish we would have gotten closure on some of the plot lines and a little more interaction with some of the characters. Maeve and Lucent for instance. They are both awesome characters, but were practically absent in book 3. The same goes for Raffaele and Enzo, I would have liked to see their stories wrapped up a little more cleanly. Overall though, I really feel this book was beautiful, I loved the writing throughout the trilogy, and the narrators were excellent on the audio version.

Review: Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings

Zenith by Lindsay Cummings
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.

I read the first part of Zenith a while back when it was going to be published as a set of serials. I was really into it, but it was short and left me wanting for more. I much prefer the longer version were get to see where the story goes instead of being left wanting after just a few chapters. I'm looking forward to where Sasha and Lindsey take the 2nd book. 

The story is told from the perspective of several different characters, I would have preferred just 2 characters, but I wasn't distracting or confusing.  There were times where it didn't make sense to read from one character's perspective, but knowing how the book ended it sets up book 2 to hear more from that character. Speaking of characters, I loved the banter between the crew on the Marauder and Dex. It was genuinely funny. I can't decide if I like Andi or not yet. She is a strong warrior one minute, then she is crying over something the next. Her sad story was repeated a few too many times for my liking, I would have liked a hint then a big reveal with all the info.  There is alot going on in Zenith, but I didn't think it was too much to keep up with.

Zenith follows the all female crew of the Maruader, captained by Androma or Andi, also known as the Bloody Baroness for her ruthlessness in a fight. Andi and her crew are almost always on the run for the unsavory jobs they take, but Andi is wanted for other crimes she has committed in her past. Dextros, Andi's former flame who also has become a bounty hunter must team up with the ladies of the Maurader on a near impossible mission to save the kidnapped son of a General. The General will wipe everyone's slates clean if they pull of the mission and save his son Valen. Everyone hates Dex for what he's done to Andi in their past, and the girls let him know it, especially Andi. Forced to be a team the agree to work together so they can clear their names and gain a chance at a decent life for themselves and their crew. Both Andi and Dex learn that neither of them know the whole truth about their past actions towards each other and make a pact to move on. Meanwhile, Valen is being brutally tortured to the brink of death in prison on Xen Ptera. The Queen of Xen Ptera, Nor, wants to eradicate everyone who has ever wronged her or her people and has been working on a secret weapon aptly named Zenith to make her revenge dreams come true. The queen will stop at nothing until her planet and her people have been avenged.

I'm anxious to see where the series goes from here.  I've read several negative review's that compared Zenith to other YA series and for it's lack of originality.  I've read some of them and I haven't read others, I see some of the similar themes but, you know what people read YA or any genre because they like that recipe.  The setting of Zenith is different, and there is some interesting and creative thought put into the development of the places and people presented in the various places the main characters encounter.

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NEW RELEASE: Kissing Tolstoy by Penny Reid Now Available

If you haven't figured it out by now I'm a big Penny Reid fan.  Her Knitting in the City series is awesome, and I love the Winston Brothers.  I read the first installment of Kissing Tolstoy forever ago when it was just a short, and then it became a staple in Penny's newsletter as a gift to her loyal readers and fans.  I'm so happy to have it all in it's entirety.

Kissing Tolstoy, an all new standalone from USA Today bestselling author Penny Reid is available now!

Proceeds for the month of November go to hurricane relief efforts!

What do you do when you discover that your super-hot blind date from months ago is now your super-hot Russian Lit professor?

You overthink everything and pray for a swift end to your misery, of course!

‘Kissing Tolstoy’ is the first book in the Dear Professor series, is 46k words, and can be read as a standalone. A shorter version of this story (28k words) was entitled ‘Nobody Looks Good in Leather Pants’ and was available via Penny Reid’s newsletter for free over the course of 2017. 

 

Read Today!

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2hU59cN

Amazon Universal: myBook.to/KissingTolstoy

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Kobo: http://bit.ly/2zG8jeF

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2zsrp7j

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2yGvIwh  

 

Meet Penny Reid:

USA Today bestselling author Penny Reid lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, three kids, and an inordinate amount of yarn. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she just writes books.

 

Connect with Penny:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PennyReidWriter/

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2lakzsD

Twitter: @ReidRomance

Newsletter: http://pennyreid.ninja/newsletter/

www.pennyreid.ninja

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Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid is FREE for a limited time only!

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From the USA Today Bestselling author of 'Truth or Beard', this is a full-length, 110k word novel is the first book in the Knitting in the City series.

There are three things you need to know about Janie Morris: 1) She is incapable of engaging in a conversation without volunteering TMTI (Too Much Trivial Information), especially when she is unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her more than Quinn Sullivan, and 3) She doesn't know how to knit.

After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can't help wondering what new torment fate has in store. To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan- aka Sir McHotpants- witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can't afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn- the focus of her slightly, albeit harmless, stalkerish tendencies- to make her an offer she can't refuse.

Review: The New Dark by Lorraine Thomson

The New Dark by Lorraine Thomson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be released on November 1, 2017

I requested a copy of this because it sounded really interesting and I will say it has alot of good plot elements and ton of potential. I felt a bit mislead by the summary.  It unfortunately just didn't deliver for me, I felt there were many things that were under developed and I just didn't engage with the writing style. The writing was a bit disjointed for my taste and I often felt like I missed something. I found myself going back to see if I skipped a page or missed a paragraph where something happened only to find that the information was simply not there and you had to infer what happened. Fortunately there normally enough context clues to figure out what was going on, sometimes I was just left confused.

I like dystopian settings, and this has an interesting twist where people are living in city environments and in the wilderness fending for themselves but there are mutants. I would have loved if the mutant aspect was explained, the author mentions viable and unviable children but never really explains what that means and how mutants came to be. Typically in dystopian or post-apocalyptic books, there is some long forgotten event that caused society to be in whatever situation they are in, but the main character Sorrel often speaks of her grandmother who lived in the Before time and taught her about things Before. It would have been nice to get an explanation about what occurred the transition from the Before to the After only recently happened and there are people living in the present time that actually know what happened.

Onto the story, the story begins in the town of Amat, a wilderness community where the people live off the land and get on pretty well. Our main character Sorrel is a presented as a brooding teen, when her village is attacked by mutants. The town is destroyed, most everyone is killed, and Sorrel just barely escapes. Sorrel's little brother is taken by one of the mutants and she is determined to go after them and avenge those she's lost. She also hopes to find some of her townsfolk alive, especially David, the boy she likes.  David and Sorrel's relationship is a plot point that was misleading in the summary.  They are described as boyfriend and girlfriend.  I have to disagree.  While they do clearly like each other, they aren't actually in a relationship.  They say a few words to each other in the beginning of the book, but then they spend the rest of the book trying to get back to each other.  Everyone is trying to keep them apart, but they were never actually together.  But I digress...

Sorrel ends up in this creepy cult town with the people called the Free. They are led by Martin, who made my skin crawl, I think he was supposed to have that effect. The Free believe that everything Martin says is law and that he can do no wrong.  It is pretty creepy.   I give Thomson credit for the icky feeling I got when I read this part of the story since it definitely delivered on the creep factor.    David along with everyone else the mutants left alive are sold into slavery by the mutants, while Sorrel's brother Eli is being well cared for by his new mutant protector. Sorrel eventually escapes Martin and the Free with the help of, Einstein, a mutant the Free were keeping captive and torturing. Sorrel and Einstein end up in the town of Dinawl in an attempt to find David and Eli. As you can imagine, she finds nothing but trouble and she also finds a resistance movement. Still fueled to find those she loves, she puts her trust in the resistance movement and begins to fight for the future.  Sorrel has a birthmark and it resembles something from the Before so she decides to something akin to Katniss and the Mockingjay from the Hunger Games.  The face of the revolution and the change that needs to happen to overthrow the corruption in society.  That part was fine but nothing we haven't seen before.  I found Sorrel to be irritating and immature, and I just don't see her being a revolutionary that saves the world as she is.  She has alot of growing up to do yet.

Review: The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano

The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this latest installment from Lauren DeStefano. If you've read the Chemical Garden series or The Internment Chronicles, you will already be familiar with her writing style and this is no different. I actually think this is my favorite of all of her works that I've read. Much like in all of her works, she does an amazing job of blending science and technology while keeping that dystopian feel to the word she is building. This world has alchemy and airships, but they still don't use telephones or cars widely.

I felt like the characters were fairly well developed. It is a YA fantasy, so it has all of the requisite elements that you would expect. That being said I really liked the unique take on the main character Wil's "power". Wil is a spare, or an extra heir to the throne. She is another one of her father's children that will never inherit the throne like her 2 older brothers Baren and Gerdie. Their father only cares about their oldest brother Owen, the actual heir. Owen is actually a pretty good older brother, and each of Wil's siblings has their talents, good or bad. Wil gather's ingredients for Gerdie's alchemy experiments and acts as a spy for her father. One evening her adventure to gather ingredients goes wrong, and she discovers she can turn a man into a gemstone. As you can imagine, Wil doesn't want to hurt anyone else and is anxious to find out how to fix herself. Some things happen and Wil finds herself banished from the kingdom and travelling with Loom a banished prince from an enemy nation. Wil and Loom are as you can imagine instantly drawn to one another (I told you it was YA fantasy). There is a little bit of a love triangle, but not really.

I'm anxious to see if we get any more of the political stance from each of the kingdoms in the next book, especially with Wil returning home to investigate her abilities. There was never really much explanation as to why the North and the South were fighting other than they had both done some horrible stuff to each other. I'd like to learn more about Owen's travels, but I'm not sure we'll get that information. Clearly I want to see where Wil's adventures take her as she finds out more about her ability and how she came to have it.

Overall, this was a solid read for me and I can't wait to see what happens next.

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BOOK SALE: One Day Only Truth or Beard and Beard in Mind by Penny Ried

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Truth or Beard and Beard in Mind by Penny Reid are just $1.99 EACH for ONE DAY ONLY!

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(Amazon only sale)

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Beard in Mind: http://amzn.to/2yTJL1k


Truth or Beard:

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Beards, brothers, and bikers! Oh my!

Identical twins Beau and Duane Winston might share the same devastatingly handsome face, but where Beau is outgoing and sociable, Duane is broody and reserved. This is why perpetually level-headed Jessica James has been in naïve and unhealthy infatuation with Beau Winston for most of her life. Whereas Duane and Jessica have always been adversaries. She can't stand him, and she's pretty sure he can't stand the sight of her...

But after a case of mistaken identity, Jessica finds herself in a massive confusion kerfuffle. Jessica James has spent her whole life paralyzed by the fantasy of Beau and her assumptions of Duane's disdain; therefore she's unprepared for the reality that is Duane's insatiable interest, as well as his hot hands and hot mouth and hotter looks. 

When Jessica finds herself drawn to the man who was always her adversary, how much of her level-head heart is she willing to risk?

Truth or Beard is book #1 in the Winston Brother's series. Each book is a standalone, full length (110k words), contemporary romantic comedy novel, and follows the romantic exploits and adventures of one of the six Winston Brothers.

Beard in Mind:

All is fair in love and auto maintenance.

Beau Winston is the nicest, most accommodating guy in the world. Usually.

Handsome as the devil and twice as charismatic, Beau lives a charmed life as everyone’s favorite Winston Brother. But since his twin decided to leave town, and his other brother hired a stunning human-porcupine hybrid as a replacement mechanic for their auto shop, Beau Winston’s charmed life has gone to hell in a handbasket.

Shelly Sullivan is not nice and is never accommodating. Ever.

She mumbles to herself, but won’t respond when asked a question. She glares at everyone, especially babies. She won’t shake hands with or touch another person, but has no problems cuddling with a dog. And her damn parrot speaks only in curse words. Beau wants her gone. He wants her out of his auto shop, out of Tennessee, and out of his life.

The only problem is, learning why this porcupine wears her coat of spikes opens a Pandora’s box of complexity—exquisite, tempting, heartbreaking complexity—and Beau Winston soon discovers being nice and accommodating might mean losing what matters most.