The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

I was so-so for the first half of the book and completely enamored with the second half. Hear me out!

Kestrel is the daughter of a powerful military general. She’s of an age where she has two choices: get hitched or join the military. In a casual outing to a slave auction with a friend, she pays a substantial amount of money a hottie slave boy, mostly because the auctioneer said he could sing.

The Valorian enslaved the Herrani after conquering them a decade prior. The Valorian are esteemed for their military prowess and pride, whereas the Herrani were a peaceful, docile people.

The world-building in The Winner’s Curse was fantastic. It was spread out evenly, rather than being dumped on the reader at once during the first chapter. I never felt overwhelmed with info, and enjoyed the small details sprinkled throughout the story.

The first half was slightly boring and mildly irritating, primarily because Kestrel was indecisive and a weak heroine. She seems spineless, preferring to play the piano rather than defend her country as her father wishes her to. Arin, the slave she purchased, was extremely prickly and mean—but Kestrel still wanted to hang out with him.

The second half was the redeeming factor—Kestrel grew a spine, Arin softened up, and sh*t hits the fan. There were several plot twists that I wasn’t expecting. I felt all of the feels and swoons for Kestrel and Arin, though I was angry at both of them and felt the same mix of emotions they felt.

Overall, I thought it was a great fantasy story with complex characters, plot construction, and world building. I rated it a 5/5 on Goodreads, despite the lacking first half—I’m incredibly excited for the second book, The Winner’s Crime, to come out in March!

Top Ten Tuesday: 12/16

Top Ten Books We Read In 2014

1. The Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister – this one is still fresh in my mind, as I just finished it. It doesn’t come out until January 2015, but I’ll still count it. It was an absolutely captivating read. Check out the review and giveaway (live until Friday!).

2. The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski – I haven’t posted my review yet, but I just finished this over the weekend…totally loved it and can’t wait until book two is released!

3. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – review here. These books have been around for a while but I finally decided to read them. I loved the first book, but couldn’t seem to get into the second.

4. His Fair Assassin series by Robin LaFevers – maybe it’s cheating to post an entire series, but I loved them all! Review for book one here and for books two and three here.

5. The Elemental Trilogy by Sherry Thomas – okay, cheating again. Review for book one here and book two here.

6. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin – I love the Heaven that Gabrielle writes about, and the whole cycle of life – you die, stay in Heaven as you age backwards from the age you were when you originally passed, and then you are sent back to Earth as a baby. Super intriguing. 5/5 on Goodreads.

7. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder – review here.

8. Pointe by Brandy Colbert – I wrote about Brandy Colbert a week or so ago, and she’s a pretty amazing author. This book is definitely not something I’ve ever read anything similar to in the past, and the that Brandy wrote it makes it so much better than I could have ever imagined. 5/5 on Goodreads.

9. All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner – review here.

10. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder – review here.

Only a couple of these were actually published in 2014, but I read them all for the first time this year and they stand out in my mind. I’ve linked back to my reviews of the ones I’ve blogged about, the others I read earlier in the year.

Talon by Julie Kagawa

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they’re positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser. – Goodreads

I’ve spotted Talon out and about on the blogosphere and Instagram—how could I miss it? It’s constantly being hashtagged under popular book tags. The hardcover is gorgeous, the cover art is eye-catching, and people raved about Kagawa’s writing and ability to tell a unique story.

So I decided to pick up a copy. And by pick up a copy, I mean magically beam to my Kindle via Amazon. Kindle = a bibliophilic instant gratification junkie’s dream come true.

Talon is a young adult fantasy novel about a teenage girl named Ember who happens to be a dragon. She just is able to blend in as a human, that’s all. Her twin, Dante, is a dragon, too. They’re sent to Southern California to continue their dragon training by Talon, a large dragon organization that focuses on keeping the dragon population up and hidden from humans.

Enter Garrett, who happens to be a soldier for St. George. Get it? St. George is that knight who slayed dragons to save damsels in distress, forever setting the white horse standard for men everywhere. Saint George slayed a dragon, you can text me back, dude.

Garrett is sent to SoCal to try and locate the “sleeper” dragon that Talon has placed. Let the predictable love story ensue.

Ember spends most of the book in teenage angst fueled discovery mode, where she uncovers secrets about Talon, herself, and the world around her.

The writing was fabulous—I couldn’t put it down because I was enjoying the way Kagawa told the story. The characters were likeable enough, if not a little shallow and flat. The structure of Talon and the dragon world was also fantastic, and it really painted a clear picture for me.

I rated Talon 3.5/5. It was an enjoyable read, but it wasn’t anything terribly extraordinary. I would recommend it to people who truly enjoy young adult literature (and teen angst, which I have no patience for) and fantasy.

The Magician’s Lie by Greer Macallister (& giveaway!)

This book was captivating. I couldn’t stop thinking about it whenever I had to put it down. In fact, I would have to say it’s my new favorite historical novel.

The story opens with a magic show and a murder. Officer Holt is the one-man police force of a small town, and is on the scene of the horrific scene, where a bloodied man has been stuffed inside one of the magic show props. Illusionist Arden is suspected of murdering her husband, and is shuttled to the police department by Holt when he spots her on his ride home.

The story switches point-of-view between Officer Holt and Arden. While Holt is questioning Arden, she tells him her life story, warts and all—her sociopathic cousin, running away, broken hearts, and getting her start in illusions. Between flashbacks, the story focuses on the interrogation.

There was a romance element weaved into the story, but not so much that it was nauseating. In fact, it felt very real, and was never storybook perfect. For the bulk of the storyline, Arden is focused on her career, in an attempt to live her dream and escape the ghosts of her past.

The Magician’s Lie is well-written and engaging. It’s full of twists and turns, and the variation on the narrative points-of-view kept me intrigued and invested in the story.

I rated it a 5/5 on Goodreads. The Magician’s Lie will be published on January 13th. I highly recommend!

I received a free copy of this book through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Sourcebooks, the publisher of The Magician’s Lie, has graciously given us a physical copy to give away to one lucky reader! To enter, go to our Rafflecopter entry form. There are several different ways to earn extra entries.

The contest ends at midnight on Thursday, December 18th. The winner will be contacted the following day.

His Fair Assassin: Dark Triumph and Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

I’ve already posted a review of Grave Mercy, but I felt the need to follow up with a review of His Fair Assassin sequels.

The second book, Dark Triumph, was released last year. Mortal Heart, the third, was released last month. Naturally, as soon as I finished Grave Mercy, I seized these (well, downloaded them from Amazon) and read them within a plane ride and a half (and then some).

The second and third books do not focus on Ismae, but on two of her convent sisters.

The second book follows Sybella, who is the daughter d’Albret, a major player in the first book. I won’t spoil his role and background for you, because I really recommend reading Grave Mercy. D’Albret is basically a giant, evil jerk—which gives him a lot of credit. Sybella is an extremely deep, damaged character. She had so many layers and mysteries, I definitely felt like I was on the rollercoaster of emotions with her. While dealing with lustful, incestuous siblings,

murderous family members, and a whole slew of other issues, Sybella’s assassin/spy assignment from the convent is to watch over her treacherous family’s holding.

The third book is from Annith’s point of view. Annith was raised in the convent, but is the last of the girls to be sent on assignment. In fact, the abbess of the convent has decided to make her a seeress—aka the least exciting job at the convent when you’ve been raised to kill people your whole life. Instead of moping around and accepting orders, Annith leaves the convent to create her own destiny.

I absolutely loved these books, as they built off of the first in the series and gave an all-around view of what was happening during the storyline of the first book. The only thing that threw me off was the timing—the second and third books both start several weeks or months behind the first book, so it takes a few minutes to orient yourself as to where you are in the timeline.

I highly recommend this series. It’s a definite 5/5 in my book!

The Catalain Book of Secrets by Jess Lourey

I’m not sure how to come up with words to do this book justice—magical? Intriguing? Eccentric?

It was a fantastic read, full of rich detail and beautiful metaphor. In fact, the only reason I bumped a star off of this book was because it had too many metaphors and too much flowery writing for my taste. Though absolutely appropriate and well done in many parts, it became overdone after a bit and actually began to turn me off from the writing.

The Catalain women are several generations of witches with magical powers—Ursula makes potions, Helena creates magical candies that can inspire patience, love, and much more, Jasmine can infuse her amazing cooking with feelings and spells.

When Ursula is a young girl, her mother tricks her into helping her murder her father. In revenge, he casts a curse over Ursula and her future children.

The book jumps through time to present day and switches points-of-view between all of the Catalain women to paint a vivid picture of their emotions, powers, and scars. Lourey does a seamless job of switching between women and painting a image of who they are at the core. All of the characters felt full, and nobody fell flat. I felt equally for each woman and didn’t choose favorites—in fact, it made me respect each one more because you knew what their past was and how it impacted their present day.

I would definitely recommend this book. Once you get past the flamboyant writing style, you’ll find a beautiful, well-written story about a group of gifted women who are trying to heal. I rated it 4/5 on Goodreads. The Catalain Book of Secrets is due to be released on January 1, 2015.

I received a free copy of this book through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Uncle Janice by Matt Burgess

I had a love-dislike relationship with this novel. I picked it up because I work in law enforcement and was excited to see a novel from a female detective’s point of view—and an NYPD uncle, nonetheless.

Many of the characters were richly painted, but many fell flat. Janice, for one, felt detached to me. I think a first person narrative would have helped bridge the gap, because I never knew what she was feeling or thinking. She felt very emotionless.

The writing was very funny in parts, which kept me reading. It was definitely a unique experience. The narrative moved slowly, and I never felt that Janice was in real fear of losing her job—in fact, she felt very passionless about her undercover position. Though she said she didn’t want to go back to patrol, I never felt it.

Uncle Janice will be released on January 1, 2015.

I rated this a 3/5 on Goodreads and NetGalley.

I received a free copy of this novel through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Top Ten Tuesday: 12/9

Top Ten New-To-Us Authors We Read In 2014

1. Brandy Colbert – I read Pointe back in May and fell completely in love with Brandy’s writing style. Pointe itself is a really good, albeit creepy, story and she just made it that much more amazing and creepy. I really hope she writes more, I will read it all.

2. Maria V. Snyder – I’m currently on the last book of the Study Series and now I can’t imagine not loving everything Maria writes. It’s all SO good.

3. I had heard of Rainbow Rowell before, but I didn’t read any of her books until this year. I started with Fangirl and it was really cute!

4. For years, I’ve been hearing about Stephanie Perkins and her all-around amazingness but I finally read one of her books, Anna and the French Kiss, this year and I wondered why I had waited so long! It was lighthearted and funny, slightly predictable though. I can’t wait to read her other books!

5. I am a big Pretty Little Liars fan, and when I found out that they were based on books, I had to read them. I tried to start with the first, but I just couldn’t get through it and set it aside for a long while. This year though, Sara Shepard (the author of the Pretty Little Liars series) came out with a new book! The Heiresses was SO much better than the PLL book I never finished and I’m so glad I gave her another shot. Technically, she wasn’t new to me since I tried her previous series, but it still counts because I never actually finished a book of hers until this year.

6. Shawntelle Madison – I had never heard of Madison until I stumbled across Under My Skin on Net Galley. I absolutely loved it! She has another series that I’m excited to try.

7. Sherry Thomas – I spotted The Burning Sky at Barnes and Noble and fell in love with the cover—I know you shouldn’t choose your books based on their covers, but the jacket description sounded good, too 🙂 So happy! I might even consider reading her historical romance novels, if the mood strikes.

8. Liane Moriarty – I really enjoyed Little Big Lies, and can’t wait to try out some of her other books.

9. Sarah J. Maas – I picked up the first Throne of Glass book in February and read the rest in the same week! Very, very excited for her 2015 releases.

10. Elizabeth Vaughan – I can’t remember which book made Warprize pop up as a recommendation on Goodreads, but I’m glad it did. I loved the Warprize series, but wasn’t as thrilled when I branched out to Vaughan’s other series.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke & the Bookish. Check out more Top Ten features on their site.

Kiesha’s Book Riot Quarterly Box Review

A couple of months ago, I was craving something new and surprising so I signed up for a couple of new subscription boxes (one of them being Uppercase, you can see my review of that here) and another being the Book Riot Quarterly Box.

The Book Riot Quarterly Box is not a normal subscription box – it doesn’t come once a month like most do.
Like the name says, it comes quarterly – every 3 months. Each box is $50.00 and comes curated with hand-picked items relating to stories and culture, along with a personal letter explaining the theme of the package and each object included. It’s definitely geared toward adults, so no YA books have been included in any of their shipments that I’ve seen. I signed up for it back in late September and have been waiting anxiously ever since. I came home Saturday evening to a surprise waiting on my doorstep!

In my box this month, I received a total of 5 items – 2 that I consider to be books, and 3 bookish items. The first, a graphic novel/comic book, is Ms. Marvel #1; Meta Morphosis by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Adrian Alphona. I’m not usually a graphic novel type of person, but I was very happy to see this! I’ve heard things here and there about Ms. Marvel and now I can see for myself what she’s all about.

The next book I received is Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi. This is the Goodreads summary: What makes a marriage? Is it the end of fairytale romance? It might be if your husband is the writer Mr Fox, who does devilish things to the heroines of his stories. His wife is unable to change his ways, but when his imaginary muse, Mary Foxe conjures herself one sunny afternoon and confronts him, things take an unexpected turn. It sounds pretty interesting to me and I’m excited to read it!

Other than those, I also received a really nice, knit gray beanie with BOOKS woven in yellow around the brim, a box of Shakespeare candy, and some literary temporary tattoos. I think overall the box was pretty good, worth the $50.00 for sure in just the quality of the beanie and the 2 books. I think I’ll continue my subscription at least through Spring. Be on the look out for future reviews!