Title // Author: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (web | twitter)
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2
Genre: Fantasy YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Little, Brown BFYR
Release date: November 6, 2012
Challenge: 2013 TBR Challenge
Source: Own itSummary: Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.
Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
Book Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
Book Review: Requiem by Lauren Oliver
Title: Requiem
Author: Lauren Oliver (web | twitter)
Series: Delirium #3
Genre: Dystopian YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s
Release date: March 5, 2013
Source: BorrowedSummary: They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past. But we are still here.And there are more of us every day.
Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.
After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.
Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings. Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it. But we have chosen a different road. And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose. We are even free to choose the wrong thing.
Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.
Audiobook Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
Title: Clockwork Angel
Author: Cassandra Clare (web | twitter)
Narrator: Jennifer Ehle
Series: Infernal Devices #1
Amazon | Goodreads | Audible
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (print), Simon & Schuster Audio (audio)
Release date: August 31, 2010
Challenge: Audiobook Challenge, TBR Challenge
Source: Bought it
Summary: Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.
When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.
Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.
Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.
The Lumatere Chronicles Readalong: Week 5
My Thoughts
I’m really getting into this readalong, friends. I’m so glad that we’ve made it to FROI OF THE EXILES!! Because while I enjoyed FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK a lot, I am already liking this book better. I am loving Froi, I’m loving the glimpses we got this week of Lumatere three years after Isaboe and Finnikin broke the curse, and I’m convinced that I’m going to love Lucian and Phaedra. Questions after the jump if you’ve read this week’s portion! (Or if you just like spoilers.)
The Lumatere Chronicles Readalong: Week 4
My Thoughts
I can’t believe we’ve read a whole book already!! It feels like such an accomplishment to finally read a book that’s been on my TBR for ages. The end of FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK was pretty satisfying, in a Melina Marchetta way. I haven’t read any of Melina Marchetta’s books before this one, but I feel like I already have a sense of her storytelling ways: She doesn’t spell things out for her readers, which I appreciate. And she doesn’t always tie things up in a super neat bow for everyone, either. The thing that I most appreciate–and the thing that also frustrates me the most–is that her characters ALWAYS seem to have qualities that I don’t like. Kind of prominent ones, too. But she always gives us hope for them to be people of great character anyway. You know, kind of like real human people. The end of this book had some of that, but lots of other things to talk about besides! I can’t wait to start FROI OF THE EXILES next week!!
The Lumatere Chronicles Readalong: Week 3
My Thoughts
SOOOOO much happened in this week’s reading!! One of the bigger reveals wasn’t really a surprise to me, though, as I had been thinking that very thing since week 1. Another bigger reveal was sad to me, but as always, the action keeps ramping up. More after the jump!
Book Review: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce
Title: Mastiff
Author: Tamora Pierce
Series: Beka Cooper, #3
Genre: Fantasy YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Publisher: Random House BFYR
Release date: October 25, 2011
Challenge: 2013 TBR Challenge
Source: Own it
Summary: The Legend of Beka Cooper gives Tamora Pierce’s fans exactly what they want—a smart and savvy heroine making a name for herself on the mean streets of Tortall’s Lower City—while offering plenty of appeal for new readers as well.
Beka and her friends will face their greatest and most important challenge ever when the young heir to the kingdom vanishes. They will be sent out of Corus on a trail that appears and disappears, following a twisting road throughout Tortall. It will be her greatest Hunt—if she can survive the very powerful people who do not want her to succeed in her goal.
The Lumatere Chronicles Readalong: Week 2
My Thoughts
This week’s reading was filled with lots of action and perfectly paced developments, I thought. Characters are growing and becoming more complex, but things are also steadily moving towards some kind of resolution. Chats after the jump!
Audiobook Review | Cinder | Marissa Meyer + Rebecca Soler
Cinder by Marissa Meyer Narrator: Rebecca Soler
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1
Published by Macmillan Audio on January 3, 2012
Genres: Dystopian YA, Science Fiction
Length: 10 hours, 6 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Also in this series: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest
Also by this author: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest
Source: Audible
Amazon • Audible • Goodreads
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl…
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
Book Review | Scarlet | Marissa Meyer
I received this book for free from a fellow blogger (thanks for sharing!) in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2
Published by Feiwel & Friends on February 5, 2013
Genres: Dystopian YA, Science Fiction
Pages: 452
Format: ARC
Also in this series: Cinder, Cinder, Cress, Fairest
Also by this author: Cinder, Cinder, Cress, Fairest
Source: a fellow blogger (thanks for sharing!)
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
Cinder returns in the second thrilling installment of the New York Times-bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother and the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own.
As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.
