31 December 2018

NYE Celebrations

As 2018 draws to a close I'm sitting here thinking about all the amazing books I read this year. Some old, some new and some from hundreds of years ago, but they all shared the same thing - a sense of escapism and enjoyment.

Have a great new years eve whatever you do and look out for my EXTRA-SPECIAL-HUGE-I-MEAN-I-HAVE-NEVER-GIVEN-AWAY-MORE giveaway tomorrow!!

See you in 2019.

Z x
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30 December 2018

Am reading - Evermore

Ooh hello...

Evermore - Everless #2
by Sara Holland






What they say: Jules Ember was raised hearing legends of the ancient magic of the wicked Alchemist and the good Sorceress. But she has just learned the truth: not only are the stories true, but she herself is the Alchemist, and Caro—a woman who single-handedly murdered the Queen and Jules’s first love, Roan, in cold blood—is the Sorceress.

The whole kingdom believes that Jules is responsible for the murders, and a hefty bounty has been placed on her head. And Caro is intent on destroying Jules, who stole her heart twelve lifetimes ago. Jules must delve into the stories that she now recognizes are accounts of her own past. For it is only by piecing together the mysteries of her lives that Jules will be able to save the person who has captured her own heart in this one.



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29 December 2018

Am Reading - Navigating the Stars

I'm FINALLY reading...

Navigating the Stars #1
Maria V. Snyder





What they say: Navigating the Stars is the first book in a new science fiction series. 

Terra Cotta Warriors have been discovered on other planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. And Lyra Daniels' parents are the archaeological Experts (yes with a capital E) on the Warriors and have dragged her to the various planets to study them despite the time dilation causing havoc with her social life.

When one of the many Warrior planets goes silent, and looters attack her research base, Lyra becomes involved in discovering why the Warriors were placed on these planets. And, more importantly, by who.
 



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28 December 2018

Book Lover Gift - Paperwhite Edition

I've snuck out of my reading/essay writing cave to show you a pic of my new pretty aka a great book lover gift. 

My trusty Kindle finally died and my kind Mum got me a new kindle paperwhite as a replacement - it's waterproof apparently although I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try that out just yet...!





Zx
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27 December 2018

Post-Christmas Book Cave


If you want me I'll be in my reading cave (unfortunately this is for an essay)...

Z x
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26 December 2018

Whatcha Reading Wednesday - The Disasters

All the good things - great spacey YA Boxing Day read!

The Disasters
by M.K. England





What they say: Hotshot pilot Nax Hall has a history of making poor life choices. So it’s not exactly a surprise when he’s kicked out of the elite Ellis Station Academy in less than twenty-four hours.

But Nax’s one-way trip back to Earth is cut short when a terrorist group attacks the Academy. Nax and three other washouts escape—barely—but they’re also the sole witnesses to the biggest crime in the history of space colonization. And the perfect scapegoats.

On the run and framed for atrocities they didn’t commit, Nax and his fellow failures execute a dangerous heist to spread the truth about what happened at the Academy.

They may not be “Academy material,” and they may not get along, but they’re the only ones left to step up and fight.
 




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25 December 2018

Cute Christmas Read of Kids - Geronimo

Aww! This book is seriously flipping cute!!!

Geronimo - The Penguin Who Thought He Could Fly
by David Walliams




What they say: Dreams really can come true in this heartwarming and hilarious picture book from number one bestselling author, David Walliams, illustrated by artistic genius Tony Ross.



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24 December 2018

The Shadow Kingdom - Review

The Shadow Kingdom
by C.J. Inkson




What they say: Elliot West stands vigil as Watchman, on the lookout for signs the Shadow Curse may be spreading across the Barrier Strait to her small northern isle. But in all the centuries since the curse was cast, no one, including Eli, has seen a thing, and even she is beginning to wonder if it’s all some grand hoax. That is, until she's ambushed by the Lojkin, a warrior clan from the Shadow Kingdom who believe drinking the blood of someone with color will restore their own- stolen generations ago by the Curse. 

Against her will, Eli is taken across the sea to the cursed Shadow Kingdom, waiting to be slaughtered as a sacrifice to foreign gods. Just when it seems her death is imminent, a young man with shifting tattoos and a questionable motive, helps her escape, setting them on a dangerous path through strange lands in an attempt to get home.


What I say: The Shadow Kingdom was a bit of a mixed bag for me. On one hand the concept is interesting - imagine a world without colour where there are only shades of black and white?! On the other hand there are some elements such as the tribes that I wasn't sure of and made me feel a little uncomfortable.

Rumour is that the shadow curse is dangerous and has the potential to spread throughout the world. Eli is tasked with watching out for any potential spread of the curse into her land. The trouble is nobody is sure if the curse is even real. Until Eli finds herself dragged headfirst into the middle of a mysterious conspiracy with the Lojkin.

For the most part I liked Eli who goes through a lot in a short space of time. Some of her choices are pretty questionable 

I have to admit I did find the story a little difficult to follow at times with although combined mythology and complicated world building. I couldn't quite make up my mind about Tren either, but I did like the tatts though!

Oh the drama!

3 Stars in my Sky!

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23 December 2018

Reread Top Fav - Tithe

I love a reread!!!

Tithe - Modern Faerie Tales #1
by Holly Black





What they say: Welcome to the realm of very scary faeries!

Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death.



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22 December 2018

Am Reading - Kingdom of Ash

I'm FINALLY reading...

Kingdom of Ash - Throne of Glass #7
Sarah J. Maas




What they say: 33 hours, 11 minutes

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius’s journey from slave to king’s assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world. . .

Aelin has risked everything to save her people―but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day…

With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they’ve gathered to battle Erawan’s hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation―and a better world.

And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen―before she is lost to him forever.

As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.


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21 December 2018

Quirky Cover - Charming

Charming - Bastan Hollow Saga #1
by Jane Washington




What they say: Lilou Adler is a student at the Bastan College for Applied Physics: a magic school focussed on training adult witches and warlocks to become Enforcers. As an Enforcer-in-training, she is one of the many tasked with keeping each generation of fairy tale creatures on track with their fates. 


There are just a few problems:

1. Being tasked with the all-important "Cinderella" tale as her first assignment had to be a clerical error. 
2. Prince Charming is too busy chasing fairy "tail" to settle down.
3. Cinderella has sticky fingers and boundary issues.
4. A certain someone is hell-bent on taking her out of commission, but not even the High Warlock of Bastan can stop this witch when she gets started. 

Arlo Demarcus is the High Warlock of Bastan and it’s his job to investigate magical crimes and to enforce magical law. It’s also his job to protect the next target in a string of magical murders: Lilou Adler.


There are just a few problems:


1. Lilou being tasked with the all-important "Cinderella" tale as her first assignment had to be a joke. 
2. A certain someone is hell-bent on making his job a living hell, but there’s no way a twenty-something Enforcer-in-training is going to stop this warlock when he gets started.


This is a full, standalone novel. It is book #1 of the Bastan Hollow Saga, but each book CAN be read as a standalone. 




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20 December 2018

NYE Release - Evermore

This will definitely be my last book purchase of the year...

Evermore - Everless #2
by Sara Holland




What they say: The highly anticipated sequel to New York Times bestseller, Everless! 

Jules Ember was raised hearing legends of the ancient magic of the wicked Alchemist and the good Sorceress. But she has just learned the truth: not only are the stories true, but she herself is the Alchemist, and Caro—a woman who single-handedly murdered the Queen and Jules’s first love, Roan, in cold blood—is the Sorceress.

The whole kingdom believes that Jules is responsible for the murders, and a hefty bounty has been placed on her head. And Caro is intent on destroying Jules, who stole her heart twelve lifetimes ago. Jules must delve into the stories that she now recognizes are accounts of her own past. For it is only by piecing together the mysteries of her lives that Jules will be able to save the person who has captured her own heart in this one. 


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19 December 2018

Whatcha Reading Wednesday - Five Feet Apart

Movie coming?

Five Feet Apart
by Rachael Lippincott





What they say: Can you love someone you can never touch?

Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.

The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.

Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.

What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?





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18 December 2018

Favourite Festive Treats - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

One of my fav stories to read at Christmas is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - it will always represent Christmas for me and as a Brit it'll always be Philosopher rather than Sorcerer!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
by J.K. Rowling




What they say: Exclusive Gryffindor house edition to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the first publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – a highly collectable must-have for all Harry Potter fans!

Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw … Twenty years ago these magical words and many more flowed from a young writer’s pen, an orphan called Harry Potter was freed from the cupboard under the stairs – and a global phenomenon started. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has been read and loved by every new generation since. To mark the 20th anniversary of first publication, Bloomsbury is publishing four House Editions of J.K. Rowling’s modern classic. These stunning editions will each feature the individual house crest on the jacket and sprayed edges in the house colours. Exciting new extra content will include fact files, profiles of favourite characters and line illustrations exclusive to that house. Available for a limited period only, these highly collectable editions will be a must-have for all Harry Potter fans in 2017.


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17 December 2018

Gimme Gimme Gimme - The Cursed Sea

All the YES!!!

The Cursed Sea - The Glass Spare #2
by Lauren DeStefano





What they say: Wilhemina Heidle, the exiled princess of Northern Arrod, the girl thought dead by her family and friends, must return home. The only way to save Loom, the cursed prince of the Southern Isles, is to revisit the castle and discover the origins of her own curse.

But home is very different from how she left it—Wil’s unstable elder brother is now king, leading a war against the Southern Isles. And the rest of her family must reckon with the truth of what happened to lead to Wil’s exile. With time running out, Wil must navigate the dangerous secrets within her family if she’s going to find the truth and save the boy she loves.

When she’s finally able to reach Pahn, nothing goes as planned, and suddenly Wil and her allies are fighting for their lives, again and again, as the Southern King is out to punish his children for all they’ve done. Traveling across cursed seas and treacherous kingdoms, Wil, Loom—and his ruthless sister Espel—have to work to make peace with their own struggles if they hope to secure the future of their kingdoms.

But when their plans lead them right back to evil marveler Pahn, and to Baren—who is more dangerous than ever—can Wil and her friends outsmart their enemies, this time, for good?


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16 December 2018

Coming Soon - The Wicked King

The Wicked King - The Folk of the Air #2
by Holly Black




What they say: You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.

The first lesson is to make yourself strong.

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.



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15 December 2018

Coming Soon - Kiss Collector

This YA delight releases this week and is too cute to ignore

Kiss Collector
by Wendy Higgins




What they say: When seventeen-year-old Zae Monroe gets cheated on by the only guy she’s ever loved, then watches her parents' marriage crumble, she decides to forget about relationships and turn the tables on the boys of the world. It’s time to take what she wants, and what she wants are kisses. Athletes, musicians, poets, and bad boys—their lips are all on her agenda, and it's time to collect. 


Zae proposes a contest with her friends to see who can kiss the most boys during spring break. But what starts as a harmless competition leads to a downward spiral she can’t seem to break free of. As family, academic, friend, and guy drama come to a head, Zae is forced to face the reasons behind her boy angst, and starts to wonder if she was wrong about the male race...or at least some of them.



Releases 18th Dec 2018 by Harper Teen (US)

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14 December 2018

Spotlight - Devoted

Devoted
by Jennifer Mathieu




What they say: Rachel Walker is devoted to God. She prays every day, attends Calvary Christian Church with her family, helps care for her five younger siblings, dresses modestly, and prepares herself to be a wife and mother who serves the Lord with joy. But Rachel is curious about the world her family has turned away from, and increasingly finds that neither the church nor her homeschool education has the answers she craves. Rachel has always found solace in her beliefs, but now she can’t shake the feeling that her devotion might destroy her soul. 


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13 December 2018

Coming Soon - King of Scars

King of Scars - Nikolai Duology #1
by Leigh Bardugo




What they say: Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal. 


Coming Jan 2019

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12 December 2018

Whatcha Reading Wednesday - The Girlfriend

Thriller!

The Girlfriend
by Michelle Frances




What they say: A mother. A son. His girlfriend. And the lie they'll wish had never been told.

Laura has it all. A successful career, a long marriage to a rich husband, and a twenty-three-year-old son, Daniel, who is kind, handsome, and talented. Then Daniel meets Cherry. Cherry is young, beautiful and smart but hasn't led Laura's golden life. And she wants it.

When tragedy strikes, a decision is made and a lie is told. A lie so terrible it changes their lives forever...

The Girlfriend is a taut and wickedly twisted debut psychological thriller--a novel of subtle sabotage, retaliation, jealousy and fear, which pivots on an unforgivable lie, and examines the mother-son-daughter-in-law relationship in a chilling new light.




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11 December 2018

Coming Soon - We Told Six Lies

We Told Six Lies
by Victoria Scott




What they say: Remember how many lies we told, Molly? It’s enough to make my head spin. You were wild when I met you, and I was mad for you. But then something happened. And now you’re gone. 

But don’t worry. I’ll find you. I just need to sift through the story of us to get to where you might be. I’ve got places to look, and a list of names. 

The police have a list of names, too. See now? There’s another lie. There is only one person they’re really looking at, Molly. 

And that’s yours truly.



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10 December 2018

Valiant - Out Now

Valiant
by Merrie Destefano




What they say: The Valiant was supposed to save us. Instead, it triggered the end of the world.

Earth is in shambles. Everyone, even the poorest among us, invested in the Valiant’s space mining mission in the hopes we’d be saved from ourselves. But the second the ship leaves Earth’s atmosphere, our fate is sealed. The alien invasion begins. They pour into cities around the world through time portals, possessing humans, forcing us to kill one another.

And for whatever reason, my brother is their number one target.

Now the fate of the world lies in the hands of me, a seventeen-year-old girl, but with the help of my best friend, Justin―who’s suddenly starting to feel like more―maybe if we save my brother, we can save us all… 


Released 4th Dec
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9 December 2018

Paper Girl - Book Blitz

Paper Girl



Genre: YA Contemporary Fiction
Release date: December 4th 2018
Entangled Teen


I haven’t left my house in over a year. My doctor says it’s social anxiety, but I know the only things that are safe are made of paper. My room is paper. My world is paper. Everything outside is fire. All it would take is one spark for me to burst into flames. So I stay inside. Where nothing can touch me.

Then my mom hires a tutor. Jackson. This boy I had a crush on before the world became too terrifying to live in. Jackson’s life is the complete opposite of mine, and I can tell he’s got secrets of his own. But he makes me feel things. Makes me want to try again. Makes me want to be brave. I can almost taste the outside world. But so many things could go wrong, and all it takes is one spark for everything I love to disappear...


Purchase links can be found HERE!



Excerpt:


BlackKNIGHT:
That wasn’t your best move.

Rogue2015:
You won’t be saying that when it’s checkmate.

BlackKNIGHT:
So…Rogue? Is that an X-men reference?

Rogue2015:
You’re stalling. It’s your move.

BlackKNIGHT:
You like comics, don’t you?

Rogue2015:
Your turn.

BlackKNIGHT:
Don’t you?

Rogue2015:
Yes.

BlackKNIGHT:
Comic lover and chess player. Cool. What other awesome things were you born to
be?

Rogue2015:
I was born to be a lot of things.

BlackKNIGHT:
Like what?

Rogue2015:
Maybe I didn’t phrase that right. I meant I was born to be a person who does a
lot of things.

BlackKNIGHT:
Sounds like you already do.

Rogue2015:
I wish that were real life. In real life…I’m scared of almost everything. The computer
is safe. Chess is safe. The real world? Not so much.

BlackKNIGHT:
I get that. You can be yourself when you’re anonymous, but in real life you
have to answer to who you really are. And sometimes, that’s the scariest thing
of all.

Rogue2015:
Exactly. Now, it’s your turn.


Author Spotlight:


Cindy lives at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and loves using Colorado towns and cities as inspiration for settings in her stories. She's the mother of three girls, who provide plenty of fodder for her YA novels. Cindy writes speculative fiction and YA fiction, filled with a healthy dose of romance. You'll often find her hiking or listening to any number of playlists while she comes up with her next story idea.

   




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