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 ★★★★☆

Syntax Reviews is on Bloglovin!

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm now on Bloglovin. I'm a hundred years behind the times, I know, but Bloglovin is one of those things I never really got around to signing up to. But I have now, so if you've got a Bloglovin, leave a link in the comments and I'll be sure to follow you :)

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~Saruuh

Vicious (Review)

Vicious | V. E. Schwab

Published by: Titan Books, January 10th 2014

Genre: Adult, Science Fiction, Thriller, Superheroes

Pages: 340

Format: Paperback

Source: Purchased

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world. 

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end? 

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.'

This book is dark. Hella dark. Vicious pulls no punches, is willing to go into the darkest reaches of the human mind, and is brutal in its honesty. I read a 100 page sample of it eons ago, and loved it then, but having the full book is so much better.

Vicious is tense and gritty and an unpredictable take on superheroes. Reading it is kind of like being repetitively run over by a car. It's shock after shock after shock, wrapped up in emotional turmoil and trauma. 

My favourite thing of this book is Victor. I can't even pinpoint what I love about him; it's something about his morals and his loyalty, his secrets and honesty, his unforgiving nature and his compassion. I've never read a character like Victor. I'd like to say something about the other characters, Sydney and Dol and Mitch, but I can't figure out how to say what I want. This book has confused my words to such a strange extent.

To sum: Sinister and honest, Vicious is a superhero story like no other, but so much more than that.

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world building ★★★☆☆

Writing ★★★★☆

Reading round up (61)

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.

12th January

Currently Reading: Avalon by Mindee Arnett

Current page/percent: page 102

Read today: 68 pages

Thoughts: Too tired to read much. Hoping to read much more tomorrow!!

13th January

Currently Reading: Avalon by Mindee Arnett

Current page/percent: page 154

Read today: 185 pages

Thoughts: this is taking so long to read. See, this is why hardbacks and me don't usually mix. I read it so quick on the ebook!!

14th January

Taking a break from Avalon because I am in an awful mood and don't want to ruin the book by being shitty. I'm finally reading Vicious by V. E. Schwab, a book I got a 100 page preview of and loved.

15th January

Read 84 pages of Vicious and 56 pages of Avalon. I'm so excited to see where Vicious goes now that I'm past the pages I've already read. Loving both of these.

16th January

Read 98 pages of Vicious, taking me to 247. Was hoping to finish this today but the text is small, so there's more book in 100 pages than I'm used to.

17th January

I started, read, and finished Nimona by Noelle Stevenson in a day. Oh God it's so perfect. Stupid graphic novel. I need more.

I also read 19 pages of Vicious. Oop. It took a serious dive in my priorities when I started Nimona.

18th January

Having a crappy day, and crappy days affect my reading badly. I only read 45 pages of Vicious.

Books finished this week: 1
(oh boy this was a bad week for reading)

These are the books I got for Christmas - they finally arrived!! Forgive the grainy photo. 

Illusions of Fate (my baby), Suspicion, These Broken Stars (about time I read this!), Stitching Snow, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, Deception, After The End (my fave), Riot, Vicious, Skylark, The Goddess Test, Scarlet, Atlantia, Princess of Thorns, Rebel Spring, and Gathering Darkness. 

Nimona | Noelle Stevenson

I started reading this a year to two years ago, but I find it really hard to concentrate with online comics so I never really got far. I am thrilled that it's going to be published in physical form!!!! Although I started to read it and there are definite pages missing... :( 

The Retribution of Mara Dyer

Nimona (scheduled for 9th May)