Blitz: Courtlight and Crown Service series (plus: WIN a Kindle Fire HD 6!)

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The Courtlight Series | Terah Edun

Out now!

The Courtlight Series

When peasant girl Ciardis is chosen for a position at court, she travels across the empire to begin a new life. To survive, she’ll need to master intrigue, befriend a crown prince, and learn to control magical abilities she never knew existed.

I personally love this series! Such a unique tale of magic and friendship. Recommended for all fans of fantasy. Read my reviews of book one and two.

The Crown Service Series | Terah Edun

Out now!

  

The Crown Service Series

As an unstoppable war breaks out between the mages of the Algardis Empire, young Sara Fairchild enlists in the empress’s army to find out exactly what everyone’s trying to hide. But there are secrets on both sides of the battle that will make her question everything…

I'm starting this series really soon, so keep an eye on my blog in February for my reviews!

Purchase both series: 

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Cover reveal: Rachel Vincent's Lion's Share (w/ giveaway!)

Lion’s Share by Rachel Vincent 
(Wildcats #1) 

Expected  February 23rd 2015 

Genres: New Adult, Paranormal

Abby Wade has a dangerous secret.

Two months ago, she disobeyed an order, but instead of kicking her out of the Pride, Jace offered her a job. Since then, she’s been battling a completely inappropriate crush on the young, hot Alpha. But when accepting his job offer seems like the only way to keep her skeletons safely in their closet, Abby doesn’t hesitate.

Jace Hammond has a big problem.

A rogue is slaughtering humans in his territory, and he must eliminate the threat before the entire shifter species is exposed. There could not be a worse time for Abby to accept a job he only offered as a boost to her confidence. Abby is smart, beautiful, and resilient—more than enough to distract any man from the mission. Unfortunately, she may just be the worst enforcer ever to hold the title.

As they hunt the killer, Abby’s secret becomes a threat to Jace’s authority and to her own life. But the real danger is the grip she has on his twice-shy heart.

About the Author:

Rachel Vincent is the author of the Shifters series and the Unbound series for adults, as well as the Soul Screamers series for teens. 

Rachel's next young adult book is THE STARS NEVER RISE, coming from Delacorte in June of 2015, and her new series for adults will debut with MENAGERIE, coming from Mira books in the fall of 2015

Rachel Vincent is a former English teacher and an eager champion of the Oxford comma. She shares her home in Oklahoma with two cats, two teenagers, and her husband, who's been her # 1 fan from the start. Rachel is older than she looks and younger than she feels, and she remains convinced that writing about the things that scare her is the cheapest form of therapy--but social media is a close second.

http://rachelvincent.com/

https://www.facebook.com/rachelkvincent

https://twitter.com/rachelkvincent

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/415967.Rachel_Vincent

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Cover reveal: Gods of Chaos by Jen McConnel (w/ INTL giveaway!)

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

Gods of Chaos | Jen McConnel

(Daughter of Chaos #2)

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

The gods of chaos cannot be trusted.

When Darlena Agara declared to follow Red Magic last fall, she had no idea what she was getting into. Since then, however, she's had a crash course in danger, deceit, and destruction. In an effort to gain an ally, Darlena heads to Scotland in search of another Red Witch, but she didn't count on the new obstacles (and crazy gods) that await her.

Title: Gods of Chaos (Daughter of Chaos #2)
Publication date: March 31, 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Jen McConnel

Jen McConnel now lives and writes in the beautiful state of North Carolina. When she isn't crafting worlds of fiction, she teaches writing composition at a community college. Once upon a time, she was a middle school teacher, a librarian, and a bookseller, but those are stories for another time.

Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Most anticipated of 2015: The Wrath and The Dawn

I wanted to talk about the books I'm dying to have, but since I don't do the WoW weekly feature (because I don't want to commit to a permanent feature - one of those is quite enough for me to remember to do), I don't really have somewhere to talk about those books. So these posts were born. It'll be a series of 6-10 posts, since I haven't decided how many I want to talk about, and they should be up every Thursday as a temporary feature.

Today I'm going to talk about

The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

expected May 12th

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

I got a preview of this book in the Buzz Books YA sampler and I'm half glad and half cursing that I did. I read the prologue and first chapter and it was so alluring and intriguing that I want more. I want the whole book but it's so far away, and I don't think it's being published in the UK so I'll have to import a US hardcover.

Here are some of the quotes I just love

One hundred lives for the one you took. One life to one dawn. Should you fail but a single morn, I shall take from you your dreams. I shall take from you your city.

And I shall take from you these lives, a thousandfold.

I will live to see tomorrow's sunset. Make no mistake. I swear I will live to see as many sunsets as it takes.

And I will kill you.

With my own hands.

I can't express how badly I want this book. I have a gut feeling it's going to blow me away, and I got a serious Cruel Beauty vibe from it and that's one of my favourite books ever. PLUS that cover is to die for and there's a Marie Lu blurb. Is it May yet?

Reading round up (62)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week.

19th January

Finished Vicious by V. E. Schwab (read 98 pages) and I loved it!! Such a unique superhero tale. I also started My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent (162 pages) because I need a quick read after my disastrous last week.

20th January

Currently Reading: My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent

Current page/percent: page 375

Read today: 213 pages

Thoughts: Enough female rivalry in YA. Enough teaching impressionable teenage girls that it's right and expected of them to fight with their fellow girls over boys. We have to fight so damn hard for everything we do and have and say in life; we have to fight so hard to prove that we're as worthy and capable as any male; we don't need to be fighting each other too. We need to be supporting each other. (plus: have you seen teenage boys? they're gross. don't be fighting over those trashcans.)

21st January

Picking up Avalon again and hoping to finish it sometime this year. Read 25 pages in like 2 hours. It is taking me SO LONG to read this. I don't know why?? I love this book; it shouldn't feel like a chore!

I read a spoiler for Soul Screamers that KAYLEE GETS WITH TOD????? So I immediately bought If I Die from Kindle (it was hella expensive but hella worth it) and read 21%.

22nd January

Read 47% of If I Die and I AM SCREAMING BECAUSE TOD!!! MY BABYYYYYYY. I loved Kaylee with Nash but Kaylee/Tod is NEXT LEVEL.

23rd January

Finished If I Die (read 32%), and MY BABIES. I was so fricking scared in the end, there. 

24th January

I didn't feel like reading much today but I finally got my hands on Reaper by Rachel Vincent (64 pages). It took me three months to find a copy of this novella, and I read it in an hour. Kinda wishing I'd savoured it. Ah well. Tod is a huge sweetheart and I loved this glimpse into his life. It was really interesting to see him before he'd died and compare how he was with how he is. Loved it!

25th January

Failed at reading today because I got watching beauty bloggers on youtube and that ate up my reading hours. Ah well.

Books finished this week: 3

If I Die | Rachel Vincent

See above for the IMMEDIATE reasons I needed this book.

Vicious

My Soul to Steal

If I Die

Reaper

Reader problems tag!

I was tagged by the lovely Henna over at Howling For Books to do this tag post. It's been a fair while since I've done one of these so I'm pretty happy to have been tagged!!

1. You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?

Well I'm a mood reader, so I'd probably pick up whatever stood out to me or what I felt like reading. Which, to be honest, is what I do anyway - that's the reason I have so many TBR review copies.

2. You're halfway through a book and you're just not loving it. Do you quit or are you committed?

Quit. I made a promise that I'd never force myself to do anything that made me unhappy. If I'm not enjoying a book I won't waste my time finishing it. I'm sure I've missed out on some pretty decent books because of this, but I'd rather do that than force myself to finish a book I dislike.

3. The end of the year is coming and you're so close, but so far away on your Goodreads reading challenge. Do you try to catch up and how?

Eh, whatever happens happens. I can usually judge around October whether I'll complete or not so I might invest more time in reading from then on, or pick only books I'm certain I'll finish, so as not to waste time on DNF books.

4. The covers of a series you love do not match. How do you cope?

By throwing my toys out of the pram. I HATE covers that don't match so I usually get kinda pissy and rant about it a lot. I have to have a series that matched, even if it means having two or three copies of one book. This is actually the case with Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan.

5. Everyone and their mothers love a book you really don't like. Who do you bond with over their shared feelings?

I don't know. I'd probably just avoid reading reviews or buzz posts. There's never really anyone with the exact reading tastes as me so my friends could love a book I don't or hate a book I love.

6. You're reading a book and you are about to start crying in public. How do you deal?

Easy. I never read in public. 

7. A sequel of a book you love just came out, but you've forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you re-read the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find a synopsis on Goodreads? Cry in frustration?!?

Reread for sure. I just reread the first two Mara Dyer books for Retribution, and I'm doing the same with Falling Kingdoms, although it was mostly an excuse to reread some of my faves.

8. You do not want anyone. ANYONE. borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people no when they ask?

No problem. I have no friends in my area, so nobody comes round!! 

9. Reading ADD. You've picked up and put down 5 books in the last month. How do you get over your reading slump?

Mostly I cry and keep trying and trying again until I get one that sticks.

10. There are so many new books coming out that you're dying to read! How many do you actually buy?

I could probably afford like one a month, maybe, if they're paperbacks. If they're hardback, there's little chance I'll get it. Mostly I request them on Netgalley and hope I get approved, otherwise I'll be waiting a year/year and a half for the paperback.

11. After you've bought the new books you can't wait to get to, how long do they sit on your shelf before you get to them?

Depends. It's usually between a week to a month if I'm dying to read it, although sometimes it takes me a full year to read a book I own.

I'm not gonna tag anyone for this one, but if you wanna do it, feel free!
~Saruuh

If I Die (Review)

Soul Screamers: If I Die | Rachel Vincent

Published by: Mira Ink, February 3rd 2012

Genre: YA, Mythology, Paranormal

Pages: 342

Format: Ebook

Source: Purchased

Scheduled to die within days, Kaylee knows her magic can't change her fate. Worse, on top of worrying about her own demise, she needs to save mortal best friend Emma from the clutches of a deadly Netherworld creature

Fair warning for spoilers. Tonnes of spoilers. All of which I will be raving about.

I completely forgive Rachel for the agony of the last book - If I Die more than satisfied my heart and left my emotions screaming in a good way. Tod and Kaylee are perfect for each other, in ways I never could have predicted from the previous books. Their relationship is such a lovely shock - it creeps up on you, but then you look back and realise you should have seen it coming from the start. I love them so goddamn much. And it explains why Tod was so cruel in that one scene in the last book - the one that left my heart with a physical ache. I can literally take any crap from any of these characters but not Tod. I never realised how important he was to me until I was hurt by him.

The rest of the characters were pretty frustrating. I started to warm to Sabine a little, got even more colder with Nash (I cannot stand him in this book; I know he's affected by Frost but he's starting to seem irredeemable), and got kinda bored of Emma (sorry, Emma.) But none of that mattered when we had Tod, perfect, unforgettable Tod. Sidenote: I fricking love Levi, he ships Tod/Kaylee so hard, don't tell me he doesn't.

My anticipation for the next book has gone through the roof. I am so goddamned excited to see where Kaylee's afterlife goes. This book, plot-wise, took Soul Screamers to a whole new level. I am so impressed and happy and kind of still in shock over Tod/Kaylee being a thing (IT'S CANON, BITCHES!)

The best book of this series by a long shot.

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world building ★★★☆☆

Writing ★★★★★

Cover reveal: Nobody's Goddess by Amy McNulty

Nobody's Goddess (The Never Veil #1) 

by Amy McNulty

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

In a village of masked men, each loves only one woman and must follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. And a man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.

Where the rest of her village celebrates this mystery that binds men and women together, seventeen year old Noll is just done with it. She’s lost all her childhood friends as they’ve paired off, but the worst blow was when her closest companion, Jurij, finds his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever loved her: she is in fact the goddess of the mysterious lord of the village, a Byronic man who refuses to let Noll have her right as a woman to spurn him and who has the power to fight the curse. Thus begins a dangerous game between the two: the choice of woman versus the magic of man. And the stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither Noll nor the veiled man is willing to lose.

Title: Nobody's Goddess (The Never Veil #1)
Publication date: April 21, 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Amy McNulty

Amy McNulty is a freelance writer and editor from Wisconsin with an honors degree in English. She was first published in a national scholarly journal (The Concord Review) while in high school and currently spends her days alternatively writing on business and marketing topics and primarily crafting stories with dastardly villains and antiheroes set in fantastical medieval settings.

Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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My Soul To Steal (Review)

Soul Screamers: My Soul To Steal | Rachel Vincent

Published by: Mira Ink, July 17th 2011

Genre: YA, Mythology, Paranormal

Pages: 375

Format: Paperback

Source: Purchased

Trying to work things out with Nash—her maybe boyfriend—is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can’t just pretend nothing happened. But “complicated” doesn’t even begin to describe their relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to take Nash back.

See, Sabine isn’t just an ordinary girl. She’s a mara, the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people’s fears—and craft them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she survives.

And Sabine isn’t above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to death to get whatever—and whoever—she wants.

Alternatives to reading this book:

1. Stab yourself in the heart
2. Stab yourself in the heart again
3. Just keep stabbing yourself; it can't hurt you anymore than this book can

I liked My Soul To Steal a lot more than the last book. I found it a lot easier to get into the story, and the drawn out agony of Kaylee and Nash kept me turning every page. This book really, exceptionally, cuts you to the bone with the feelings. But it had the most unsatisfying ending of all time. I thought Nash and Kaylee would talk about their problems, maybe acknowledge their faults? I thought Tod might elaborate on why he was so brutally harsh to Kaylee. I thought there might be more. But instead we go from the crux of action to a fluffy, pointless ending with everything resolved and no working through issues. I really hated that.

Another thing I hated, and spoke about in my reading round up, is the God forsaken rivalry between Kaylee and Sabine. I'm just gonna paste what I said there, because I have nothing else to add:

Enough female rivalry in YA. Enough teaching impressionable teenage girls that it's right and expected of them to fight with their fellow girls over boys. We have to fight so damn hard for everything we do and have and say in life; we have to fight so hard to prove that we're as worthy and capable as any male; we don't need to be fighting each other too. We need to be supporting each other. (plus: have you seen teenage boys? they're gross. don't be fighting over those trashcans.)

Unfortunately this fighting takes up 75% of the plot, but there is a reason for it in the end. They're not entirely in control of the situation. So I forgave the book a little for that.

To sum: another great Soul Screamers book, packed with terrible drawn out heartache and yet another unique threat. In a word: devastating.

Characters ★★★★☆

Setting/world building ★★★☆☆

Writing ★★★★☆