Onyx Storm

Onyx Storm

by Rebecca Yarros

 

Review: Meh. Too much stretching, not enough actual plot.

Rating: 2.5/5

 

A Fate of Wrath and Flame

A Fate of Wrath and Flame

by K.A. Tucker

Fourth Wing

Fourth Wing

by Rebecca Yarros

Bring Me Their Hearts

Bring Me Their Hearts

by Sara Wolf

Three years before, Zera was killed by bandits who also killed her parents. A witch who was near took Zera's heart from her and then reanimated her as a Heartless. After avenging her parents' deaths, Zera stays as the servant of the witch her "saved" her, unable to go far from her heart in the witch's lair.

For the past three years, Zera and two other Heartless have served the witch and been her thralls.

When all signs point to the king preparing for a new war against the witches, a plan is hatched to give Zera the ability to leave her small home, travel to the city, and try to capture the heart of the young prince, Lucien.

Literally.

If Zera can kill him, take his heart, and help to turn him into a Heartless, her heart and the hearts of the two other current thralls will be returned to her, allowing her to be human once more.

Getting to the city is easy. Convincing everyone that she's not a monster will be much harder. Capturing the heart of the prince, could be the most dangerous thing Zera has ever tried to do.

Final thoughts: This one had a nice concept but was a slow build. I almost gave up a few times at the start because I was struggling to get into it. However, once I was in I was all in. Zera is fascinating and many of the other characters are fleshed out well. Lucien was great and I felt for him by the end. There was an obvious twist early on but it actually was revealed to all of the characters early so it didn't bring down the book much. My biggest complaint was the cliffhanger so I'm off to read the next book.

Rating: 4/5

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief

by A.F. Steadman

 

Ever since Skandar was born, his parents dreamed of him becoming a unicorn rider. Now that he's finally thirteen and can take the qualifying tests, his dream seems to be about to come true. While there are some issues with taking the test, Skandar makes it to the Island and realizes his dream; he's now bonded to a unicorn!

Unfortunately, it seems that he and his unicorn are part of a banned group and he shouldn't even exist. With the help of a small group of other new riders, Skandar is able to hide his true elemental nature and continue to train to master his gifts and keep his unicorn near.

As they train, there is danger outside that threatens all of the unicorns and their riders, as well as those on the mainland. While that danger is outside, the new riders continue to train inside and are kept away from the dangers as much as possible. However, Skandar soon realizes that he may be the key to stopping the danger. 

Can he and his new allies stop the enemy before all of the unicorns are taken or killed?

Final thoughts: Some great ideas and a few really good moments but this seems to pull from a number of sources. Steadman seems to be trying to achieve the magical discovery of J.K. Rowling while having the bonds between humans and the unicorns be similar to those of the dragons in McCaffrey's world and/or the Companions of Lackey's Valdemar series; it just doesn't all blend that well. I also wonder about things like sending kids who are just thirteen out to become nomads and live on their own if they don't qualify or reach certain milestones as they train. It feels like Steadman forgets the young ages of his own characters at times.

Rating: 3/5

Hush

Hush

by Dylan Farrow

Shae lives in a time of banned books. They are banned, not because of the words but because of the ink on the page. The Ink is the cause of a terrible plague known as "The Blot" so books and writing have been banned everywhere in the country of Montane.

After Shae's little brother catches and dies from The Blot, Shae and her mother are virtually exiled and ignored by most of the town. They are pariahs in their own town.

When Shae starts seeing things around her and accidentally making things happen, she fears that she has contracted The Blot and seeks help from the Bards who control the magic of the land. 

Before she can get their help, her mother is murdered and the town covers it up by saying it was a landslide. This is the final straw for Shae and she runs away to find the Bards to save her from her curse and to find her mother's murderer.

What she finds outside of her tiny town is much more than she ever could have believed.

Final thoughts: Another good premise that is poorly done. The world and characters just aren't built well. The plot is pretty predicable and the hidden villain is really pretty obvious. I feel like this was only published because of the author and not because it's actually good. Not worth the read and not worth going to the next book in the series.

Rating: 2/5

Pixieland Diaries

Pixieland Diaries

by Christina Bauer

Calla is a faeling. This means that she has human parents who abandoned her because she was born with magic. She was born with magic because her parents lived just a little too close to the realm of Pixieland.

So, being "just" a faeling means that Calla has been fostered by the fae, raised by the fae, taught by the fae, but she doesn't have the evil intentions her parents hold dear and all she really wants to do is play pranks on others.

Well... that and stare at Darius "Dare" the Winter Court's heir apparent.

Unfortunately, being 16 and looking 9 mean that he doesn't ever stare back at Calla.

And it also means that people don't believe that she's anything more than a pest.

She'll show them...

Final thoughts: Nope. Not for me. Calla is an unlikable character who behaves like she's on a triple espresso dosed with speed and a ton of sugar. It seems like the writer may have been too since there are sooo many errors in this thing. Even for an ARC, this is riddled with things like the names changing between sentences, spelling mix-ups (i.e. not to drag instead of not to brag) and, in the middle of a sentence there was an apostrophe-s just sitting there. No reason at all. Just  's.  WHY???? The plot is random with things popping out of nowhere. The characters are bare. Why is she writing in her diary the entire time? Stuck in a void and unable to do anything at all? Write in her diary. HOW? About to go into battle! Stop everything so she can write in her diary!!!

And, the thing I hate most SPOILER ALERT!!!! When she finds out she's not a tiny pixie, but a full elf with the bod to match (the glamour she didn't even know she had being stripped away), suddenly Dare is more than a little interested. Tiny, flat pixie... ignore. Boobs and curves? Go for it!!!  Same person but changed appearance and suddenly he takes an interest. Ummm. No.

Rating: 2/5 (and that's pushing it)

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Of Silver and Shadow

Of Silver and Shadow

by Jennifer Gruenke

In a world of magic, the magicians have been all but wiped out. 

Generations before, the king purged all the silver wielders from the land except for his own family. Since then, the only magic in Erdis has been hoarded by the the royal family and used to keep the rest of the land and the surrounding countries in line.

But things are changing.

A new silver wielder has grown and she may be what the rebellion needs to finally take the country back and keep the king from destroying everything.

Final thoughts: I wanted to like this much more. The characters had a lot of depth and it was fun to read from four different character points of view. However, that multi-view did get a little confused from time to time and story had to backtrack more than once to cover the viewpoints. I also struggled with some of plot as ideas seemed to be thrown in after the fact to cover for plot holes. Why does she have this power when no one in her family did? Let's use this idea to over that hole. How are you going to convince the people to overthrow the king? Here's something to cover that hole (and we've been planning it for years so just go with it). And there were other issues here and there that bugged me like the repeating over and over at how skilled someone was at something. She's good with a bow and arrow. We get it!

I'm not sure if there's a sequel since the ending could be considered final by some. It is nice to see a fantasy novel that doesn't necessarily automatically have to be a trilogy.

Rating: 3/5 

Thanks to NetGalley and North Star Editions for the ARC.

Blood Rose Rebellion

Blood Rose Rebellion

by Rosalyn Eves

Access to magic equals access to power. 

Anna can't access magic so she can't access power. 

But even without access to magic, Anna seems to be able to mess up everyone else's magic. 

After ruining her older sister's coming out party and accidentally destroying all of the magic in the room, Anna leaves for Hungary to try and save her family's name and to get away from the danger her lack of magic presents for them.

But running away to Hungary does more to put Anna at the front of the magic rebellion than to hide her from it. She's being watched. She's being hunted. And she's being courted by people who want free access to all magic.

Her talent, or apparent lack of it, may be the one thing that opens up the binding that regulates magic and frees the people to be able to access it no matter what their family names may be.

Final thoughts: Messy. This one was just messy from start to finish. There were a couple of ideas that had promise, but the extended metaphor was forced and shoved down the throats of the readers. I feel no need to read the next two in the planned trilogy and I feel bad for those who read the back cover and think this will be any good.

Rating: 2/5

ARC provided by NetGalley

Madly

Madly

by Amy Alward

It's been decades since Samantha Kemi's family was basically kicked to the curb by the royal family after the last Wilde Hunt. While the Kemis are firm believers in the strength and potency of natural ingredients, the world has shifted to synthetics. Soon, the Kemi store will be the last of its kind, since all other natural potion makers have either already closed or will be closing soon.

But things may finally return the Kemis to favor after the only daughter and heir to the throne accidentally uses a powerful love potion on herself, causing magical chaos that results in the first Wilde Hunt to be called since the Kemis' downfall all those years before.

Now Sam must go on the race of a lifetime, literally around the world, to find the ingredients required to make the counter-potion and bring glory back to the Kemi name. Of course, no race would be complete without competition, and that includes the guy she really likes, but shouldn't, and the heir's aunt, who wants nothing more than the crown for herself.

Danger is an understatement.

Final thoughts: Cotton candy while you read it; fills you with questions when you're done. The biggest question for me is, if the aunt is the one who sent Evelyn the potion information in the first place, with the intent being to "cure" her and take over the kingdom, why wouldn't she have had the counter-potion already created and ready to go before the Hunt started, thereby winning by default? I know that means that there wouldn't have been a book, but there has GOT to be a better reason than "We had to fill 300+ pages somehow!" [ Additionally, the fact that this was set in current-day London, India, and Africa (though all renamed), used magic and potions, and yet they all had televisions and tablets, was very disorienting. Decent. Cute. Sometimes funny. Could have been better. (on a side note: the copy editor may need to look for another job... TONS of typos)

Rating: 2/5

Spelled

Spelled

by Betsy Schow

Dorothea is trapped in her Emerald Palace, never to be free to walk the realm, just because of a stupid curse put on her great-grandmother by a young witch who didn't even know to curse someone correctly. She literally can't even walk out of the doors of the palace, since they close automatically if she even gets near them.

When Prince Kato shows up and states that he has to marry Dorothea in order to save the realm, that's just too much for Dot to handle. She's really tired of people telling her what to do.

She wishes on a star and everything goes nuts.

Magical rules are breaking left and right. Dot's parents disappear, leaving only their crowns spinning on the floor. Beauty turns into a beast, complete with golden gown. And Kato turns into a baby chimera.

With only the help of a few words from the Green Witch, a kleptomaniac assistant, a pair of Han Christian Louboutin heels, and a very hungry, very quickly growing chimera prince, Dot must travel the realms to find out how to cure magic, while running from the very angry Grey Witch who is intent on killing her.

She had better come up with a plan soon or everything will be forever pixed.

Final thoughts: Cute idea, but it gets bogged down in its own cleverness. There are constant references to fairy tales, as well as a few non-fairy tales (Quasimodo, for instance). Most of the characters are references to L. Frank Baum's Oz creations. There are some inconsistencies like needing wisps to light the ball, as there is no electricity, but they do have magically powered vacuum cleaners (upgrades from brooms). There are also a few typos, as well as formatting issues when downloaded to the Kindle that included having the first letter of the first word of each chapter cut off the word and then placed somewhere in the middle of the second line. Most of that is easily fixed, though. Each chapter seems to be its own cliffhanger and there's an epilogue that sets up a sequel, but I'm not sure I want to read it since it really takes a lot of effort to deal with all the clever references and creature names that fill the pages. The plot definitely has good moments and I really grew to like Dot by the end, but I'm just not able to rave about this one. Decent read. Cotton candy.

Rating: 3/5

Frozen

Frozen

by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston

The world has fallen apart. It's all ice, snow, and cold.

Nat is one of the Marked. She is among those who the government has deemed dangerous. Because of this, her life in on the line. If she is discovered, she'll be locked away for the good of the people and forced to do jobs for the very government that despises her.

To get away, she hires Wes, a runner, to get her as far from the ice as possible, to the mythical land known as The Blue. She has a map, some money, and voice in her head guiding her.

But she's not the only one heading to The Blue and the way there is less than safe.

Final thoughts: Messy. So very messy. This could have been amazing! But it's just a letdown. The premise is on the scale of Game of Thrones, but it's all handled badly. It's more like a really poorly edited epic story, shortened and abridged to take out all the details. It's a shorthand version of something that had the potential for greatness. Moments that could have been meaningful end up being chopped up and nearly impossible to understand. Ideas are made up and jammed in to explain the unexplainable and then are never mentioned again. So, while the basic plot is decent, the overall follow-through is horrendous.

Rating: 2/5

The Faerie Guardian

The Faerie Guardian 

by Rachel Morgan

Violet Fairdale is poised to graduate at the top of the Guardian class and may even be the best Guardian to come from the Fae Realm in years. Everything is going perfectly for her until her latest rescue not only sees her, despite her glamour, but also hitches a ride from the human world into her world.

Now that she's accidentally broken rule number one, she decides to go ahead and break a few more rules on purpose. She repeatedly goes to see her new human boyfriend and even brings him back to the Realm a few times.

Unfortunately, other faeries and fae have found out about Violet's friend and a few other secrets that lead to even more secrets and more intrigue.

It seems halflings and fae are being sought for their special gifts and Violet's high on the list of targets.

Time is running out, not only for Violet, but for everyone she knows.

Final thoughts: Meh. Not fabulous and not awful. I found myself putting the book down repeatedly and then delaying picking it up again. Overall, it was decent, but I really didn't care about any of the characters that much. I definitely can't believe that Violet was so amazing since the only reason the reader knows that she may be is because everyone in the story keeps saying that she is, with little to no evidence that it's true. There's more to the story, but I don't think I'll follow through with reading those books.

Rating: 3/5

Fairy Tale Reform School : Flunked

Fairy Tale Reform School : Flunked

by Jen Calonita

She's lived in a shoe her entire life. In the beginning, life was good and Gilly's family thrived. Unfortunately, when a fairy godmother figured out how to replicate the glass shoe that was designed by her father, business went bust and now they live hand to mouth.

To make ends meet and keep her siblings fed, Gilly becomes a pretty good petty thief. She has gotten caught occasionally, but she's also helped keep her family from starving, so she figures that feeding them is worth the danger.

However, when she steals a hair clip from a royal and gifts it to her sister instead of pawning it, the evidence is literally right in front of the guard who comes to confront her and now she's on her way to Fairy Tale Reform School or FTRS.  She's got a three-month sentence under the care of the Wicked Stepmother from Cinderella's story (now Princess Ella).  She'll be taught by the wolf from Red Riding Hood, the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid, and Snow White's Evil Stepmother.

But Gilly soon finds that FTRS isn't what everyone thinks it is and there is definitely something villainous going on in a place meant to reform villains.

Final thoughts: Fun little read with a few cute things going on. It's the start of a series and it seems like one that will get a decent following. I liked Gilly and Jax quite a bit. The teachers were pretty interesting, as well. My only real issue was Gilly's sister and her sudden change of behavior and attitude at the end. It felt strange and forced, like it's designed to be an issue in the future and this was a set up for that.

Rating: 4/5

ARC from NetGalley

The One

The One

by Kiera Cass

It's down to the final four. America knows that Maxon loves her and that he wants her to be his queen... or does he?  Every time she thinks they are truly meant to be together, something happens to tear them apart.

The rebels are getting more rebellious. The king is pushing to get her out of the competition as soon as possible. And the other girls are spending more and more time with Maxon.

With everything going on, can America turn the tide of the polling that shows her in last place, prove to the king that she'd be good for the country, and finally get the proof she needs that she and Maxon are meant to be?

Final thoughts: The first was good. The second was decent. This third book just got to be annoying. The only thing stopping America from being happy is her own stubbornness regarding admitting her love to Maxon.  They are both idiots in this book by both insisting the other one declare love first. While the conclusion is foregone, it's also a bit too easy.  The last couple of chapters fly by and are filled with all the right deaths to make America's ascension quick and pretty painless.

Rating: 3/5

Sweet Oblivion

Sweet Oblivion

by Bailey Ardisone

No book talk... just venting.

I have waited two days to review this because I felt like I needed some space, but this was just awful and time isn't helping.  I just don't understand the ratings on this one.  There are so very many corny cliches, as well as obvious discrepancies that this book is just really predictable and fairly bad. Nariella was fostered by a wonderful woman and an abusive man.  When the woman dies, Nari is left with the abusive guy and forced into a Cinderella-like life of keeping the house spotless, even when he destroys it, or she can't go to the bal... umm... the willow tree to meet her BFF. Just before she turns 18, she meets a mysterious guy with mysterious powers who has mysterious people following him looking for a mysterious place. 

ooookaaaayyy... 

There are so many plot holes and issues here including having no friends all her life, but suddenly having a pair of fraternal twins move to town who both think she's super cool. And the boy she's rejected, who moved away, has also moved back, so now she's got a whole clique going.

About 3/4 of the way through, someone seems to have told Ardisone that the plot holes were a little too massive, so she drops in some things to explain stuff like why Nari would still be at the home of a foster parent after the wife died. With or without the abuse, someone would have come to check up on her from time to time since she was a foster and not formally adopted. But let's just drop in a page or two to say that she was a foundling who was never reported and therefore never really a foster child. Oh! And Nari's BFF is discovered to be an amazing archer at pretty much the exact same time, so you know that that will be important later.

Nari is also fascinated by twins, not just her new friends, but she makes a comment early on about how she wished she had one, and, of course, there's a parallel story with Namine, who you just KNOW is Nari's long-lost twin (though that's not revealed here, it surely will be in the second book).

There's a simple saying that what you don't know can hurt you and yet, Nari is kept in the dark by her mysterious stranger over and over again even when she's in the most dangerous situations.  People tell her nothing and she seems to be OK with that. She also can't keep her own mouth shut and tells people all kinds of things that probably shouldn't be said, which means that will probably come back to haunt her in the future.

This is bad with tons of talking and sudden emoting with no real explanation or development. It's just not well-written and I have no need to read anymore.

The Elite

The Elite

by Kiera Cass

America has made it past the initial eliminations of the 35 who started and is now one of the final six: one of the Elite.

As the competition gets down to its last weeks, America must make a decision about her future.  

She must choose between the boy she always thought she would marry and the man who has captured her heart.

She must figure out if she could make a good queen or if she would do more harm to the kingdom than good.

And she must decide which life she really wants before it's too late to decide anything.

Final thoughts: I'm wishing I re-read the first one because I felt like I was missing a few things; however, I still really liked this one once I got into it.  There are some very interesting ideas about politics and our country's possible future, which really sparks some thoughts.  I liked the development of the relationship between Maxon and America, though I really wanted to shake them at times.  Maxon's justifications for some of his decisions are poor and America's acceptance of one of them is frustrating.  Overall though, the story is well done and I look forward to reading the final book of this trilogy.

Rating: 4/5

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

by Ransom Riggs

When Jacob was little, his grandfather would tell him fantastical tales of children who were invisible, or could light fires with their bare hands, or float, or lift large boulders with no effort, or do so many other peculiar things.  As he grew, Jake realized that his grandfather was just making things up and that the monsters he sometimes talked about were just stories designed to scare a child.

But when Jake's grandfather is murdered in his backyard, and Jake sees what he thinks is a terrible, tentacled creature, the grandson starts to believe that maybe his grandfather was telling the truth.

After months of psychotherapy and medication to convince him that was a just seeing things, Jake finally gets the chance to find out the truth.  He gets to go the island his grandfather had told him about and look to see if he can find the mysterious Miss Peregrine and her home for peculiar children.

At first, all Jake finds is a bombed out house with no living creatures nearby.  However, after a second visit to the decayed and devastated building, Jake encounters the children his grandfather had told him about, along with a portal back in time to a loop that repeated the same day in September 1940, over and over again.

Unfortunately, Jake didn't come to the island alone and now he has to make a decision: go home to a life and a world of people who think he's insane, or stay with his new family of peculiars and defend them from the monsters that only he can see.

Final thoughts: Okay.  I'm struggling here because this was so very popular and it even became a best seller.  My problem comes from the fact that this book is almost entirely exposition.  It's like Twilight in the sense that the only real plot comes near the end and only after a very long set-up.  I was often bored and put the book down for long periods of time.  The pictures are fascinating, but they're just not enough to hold my attention and, now that the plot has finally started at the end of the book, I just don't care to continue reading.  There were many things going for this, but not enough to keep me interested.

Rating: 2/5

Princess of Thorns

Princess of Thorns

by Stacey Jay

As a child, Aurora's kingdom is overrun by ogres who are set on consuming the souls of humans and taking over the world.  In order to protect her children, Aurora's mother bequeaths her fairy gifts upon her daughter as she dies.  Now an orphan, Aurora and her brother run to the fairies to grow and train.

Now ten years later, Aurora's brother has been captured by the ogres and she is running out of time to save him.  Unfortunately, she's can't do it on her own and she sometimes rushes into bad decisions, so she walks right into a trap.

Luckily for her, she's rescued by a prince on a quest for a princess.  Unluckily for her, he's actually looking for her because he needs to get married, and quickly.

In order to rescue her brother and stop the prophecy from coming true, Aurora must disguise herself as her own brother and keep her rescuer from suspecting anything.  That means lying to him, even when he earns the truth, and keeping her own feelings to herself in order to protect him.

Her only hope now is that she's not too late.

Final thoughts:  Interesting story that combines a few fairy tales into one.  This is not strictly a retelling of a fairy tale since it's Sleeping Beauty's daughter who is the main character, but it does have some nice moments.  We also see the eleventh prince from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans" and we get a few moments with Little Red Riding Hood.  The romance is a little odd mostly because of the way the two characters often seem to just anger each other and lie all the time, but it does make a bit of sense.  In the end, it's a cotton candy book that's mostly fluff, with no real depth, but still some fun nonetheless.

Rating: 3/5

The Song of the Quarkbeast

The Song of the Quarkbeast

by Jasper Fforde

Jennifer Strange is a foundling who is running Kazam Mystical Arts Management, one of two groups who manage the magic in the Ununited Kingdom. The Great Zambini, the mage in charge, has gone missing and will only pop back for a few minutes at a time, though never in the same place.  The competing magic company is led by one of the most dangerous mages of all time.  A bridge needs extreme repairs, which requires more mages than Kazam currently has.  And the king doesn't really like Jennifer at all.

Now Jennifer has to keep Kazam running, get the magic sorted and organized, find the Great Zambini, stop iMagic and the mage in charge, Blix, from taking control of all magic, repair a bridge, and avoid angering the king.

If only mages weren't turning to stone left and right.  If only the most powerful magic wielder around hadn't given up magic forever.  If only the Great Zambini would stop disappearing.  If only the bridge repair hadn't become a contest that would determine the fate of Kazam and all magic in the Ununited Kingdom.

Jennifer is the only person who can stop it from getting out of control... more than it already has.

Final thoughts: Cute read meant for young adult readers, but it may be a bit too clever for many.  Fforde's Thursday Next series was amazing and fun to read, but that one was rich with in-jokes and puns that only bibliophiles would truly understand.  This current book is much the same with all the cleverness and in-jokes that many might not catch or understand.  The story itself is a little roundabout with small items placed early on in the book that are not referred to again until near the end of the book and those items turn out to be key pieces of the puzzle; that kind of foreshadowing may go over the heads of some.  Overall, this is a cute read and a lot of fun if you get the jokes.

Rating: 4/5