March 19, 2015

Feature & Follow: Inspiring Book Characters

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Feature and Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

The point of Feature and Follow is to meet new people & gain followers in the book blog community!

How it works: Each week, Rachel and Alison post a question for bloggers to answer, provide a bloghop link, and choose two lucky participants to feature in their blogs!


March 15, 2015

Review: Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

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Publish Date: August 28th, 2012
Publisher: Skyscape
Rating: 5 /5
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble



I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.


Blurb:
It's been six weeks since the angels of the apocalypse destroyed the world as we know it. Only pockets of humanity remain.

Savage street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night.

When angels fly away with a helpless girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back...

March 14, 2015

ARC Review: Hidden Deep (Hidden #1) by Amy Patrick

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Release Date: March 23rd, 2015
Publisher: Oxford South Press
Rating: 2 / 5
Goodreads | Amazon


I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Blurb:
He isn't supposed to even talk to a human, much less fall in love with one...

Sixteen-year-old Ryann Carroll has just run into the guy who saved her life ten years ago. You might think she'd be happy to see him again. Not exactly. She's a bit underdressed (as in skinny-dipping) and he's not supposed to exist.

After her father's affair, all Ryann wants is to escape the family implosion fallout and find a little peace. She also wouldn't mind a first date that didn't suck, but she's determined not to end up like her mom: vulnerable, betrayed, destroyed. Ryann's just moved into her grandma's house in rural Mississippi, the same place where ten years earlier she became lost in the woods overnight and nearly died.

She's still irresistibly drawn to those woods. There she encounters the boy who kept her from freezing to death that long ago winter night and was nowhere to be seen when rescuers arrived. He's still mysterious, but now all grown-up and gorgeous, too. And the more she's with him, the greater the threat he poses to Ryann's strict policy-- never want someone more than he wants you.

Seventeen-year-old Lad knows the law of his people all too well: Don't get careless and Don't get caught. It's allowed his race to live undetected in this world for thousands of years, mentioned only in flawed and fading folklore. Lad's never been able to forget about Ryann since that night ten years ago. When he sees her again, his fascination re-ignites and becomes a growing desire that tempts him to break all the rules. He's not even supposed to talk to a human, much less fall in love with one.

And the timing is atrocious. The Assemblage is coming, the rift between the Light and Dark is widening. Lad may have to trade his own chance at happiness to keep the humans, especially Ryann, blissfully ignorant and safe.

March 13, 2015

ARC Review: The Girl at Midnight (The Girl at Midnight #1) by Melissa Grey

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Release Date: April 28th, 2015
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Rating: 3 / 5
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Blurb:
For readers of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones and Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone, The Girl at Midnight is the story of a modern girl caught in an ancient war.

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

March 12, 2015

Feature & Follow: Special Memes?

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Feature and Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

The point of Feature and Follow is to meet new people & gain followers in the book blog community!

How it works: Each week, Rachel and Alison post a question for bloggers to answer, provide a bloghop link, and choose two lucky participants to feature in their blogs!


March 10, 2015

Review: First Year (The Black Mage #1) by Rachel E Carter

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Publish Date: August 11th, 2014
Publisher: Astraea Press
Rating: 4 / 5 
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Blurb:
Before the age of seventeen the young men and women of Jerar are given a choice –follow tradition, or pursue a trial year in one of the realm’s three war schools to study as a soldier, knight or mage...

For 15-year-old Ryiah the choice has always been easy. Become a warrior and leave the boring confines of her lowborn life behind. Set to enroll in the School of Knighthood on the eve of her next birthday, plans suddenly shift when her twin brother discovers powers. Hoping that hers will soon follow, she enrolls with Alex at the Academy instead –the realm’s most notorious war school for those with magic.

Yet when she arrives Ry finds herself competing against friend and foe for one of the exalted apprenticeships. Every “first-year” is given a trial year to prove their worth –and no amount of hard work and drive will guarantee them a spot. It seems like everyone is rooting for her to fail –and first and foremost among them Prince Darren, the school prodigy who has done nothing but make life miserable since she arrived.

When an accidental encounter leads Ryiah and Darren to an unlikely friendship she is convinced nothing good will come of it. But the lines become blurred when she begins to improve –and soon she is a key competitor for the faction of Combat... Still, nothing is ever as it seems –and when the world comes crashing down around her, Ry is forced to place faith in the one thing she can believe in –herself. Will it be enough?

Cover Reveal: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

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Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas
(Throne of Glass #4)
Release Date: September 1st, 2015

Book Blurb:
Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past...

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

March 7, 2015

Giveaway Thanks, Long Overdue Award Nominations, & Work Stress

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Thank goodness the weekend is here! It's been a tough one, for sure.

I work as part of the branch management team for a certain bank, and unfortunately, the two colleagues that complete management with me have decided to pursue other opportunities at other banks. This probably means working 6 days a week with a lot of overtime for me and it couldn't have come at a worst time. I'm getting married next month and I only have the rest of this month to finalize my wedding plans. I need days off, not extra work!

On top of it all, I haven't had time to read anything lately and I hate it!

Anyway, the real purpose of this post is to thank two of my fellow bloggers for hosting the two giveaways I won this week! (At least something went right!) I also wanted to post my long overdue responses to a couple of blogger awards I was nominated for!

March 5, 2015

Feature & Follow: Furry Friends

No comments:
Feature and Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.

The point of Feature and Follow is to meet new people & gain followers in the book blog community!

How it works: Each week, Rachel and Alison post a question for bloggers to answer, provide a bloghop link, and choose two lucky participants to feature in their blogs!

March 1, 2015

Review: Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

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Publish Date: February 10th, 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Blurb:
The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?