Hello, internet land! Today I bring you an author interview with Becca Mionis! This post is a part of her book tour for her newest novel, The Last Celestials, coming out February 14th! The Last Celestials is a space romance filled with drama, tension, and lots of swoon-worthy moments!
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Title: Four Dead Queens
Series: standalone
Author: Astrid Scholte
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published: Feb. 26, 2019
Category: YA
Genre: dystopia, fantasy
Pages: 413
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
Goodreads page
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Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but in fact, she’s one of Quadara’s most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara’s most enlightened region, Eonia. Varin runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara’s queens dead.
With no other choices and on the run from Keralie’s former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavoring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation’s four dead queens.
An enthralling fast-paced murder mystery where competing agendas collide with deadly consequences, Four Dead Queens heralds the arrival of an exciting new YA talent.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“It has always seemed to me… that a coward is a person who cares more about what people say than about what is right. Bravery isn’t about what people call you, Spensa. It’s about who you know yourself to be.”
– Brandon Sanderson, Skyward
Title: Skyward
Series: Skyward, #1
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher:
Published:
Category: YA
Genre: sci-fi, fantasy
Pages:
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Goodreads page
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Spensa’s world has been under attack for hundreds of years. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Humanity’s only defense is to take to their ships and combat the enemy. Pilots are the heroes of what’s left of the human race.
Becoming a pilot has always been Spensa’s dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring above Earth and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father’s–a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving Spensa’s chances of attending flight school at slim to none.
No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, but she is determined to fly. And the Krell just made that a possibility. They’ve doubled their fleet, which will make Spensa’s world twice as deadly… but just might take her skyward.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“You are broken. But it is broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest. It is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated”
– Sabaa Tahir, A Sky Beyond the Storm
Title: A Sky Beyond the Storm
Series: An Ember in the Ashes, #4
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: Dec. 1, 2020
Category: young adult
Genre: fantasy
Pages: 516
My Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads page
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Title: Temple of Ice
Series: standalone
Author: Christian Cura
Anticipated release: May 17, 2021
Publisher: self-published
Category: YA/new adult
Genre: fantasy
Pages: 212
My Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Goodreads page
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Meet Tama, an adept winter mage of Khione, a beautiful, dangerous land. Bloodthirsty monsters roam the frozen wilderness, and the unforgiving elements are a constant. Tama and her friends—Kachina and Masou—are on the cusp of completing their education at the temple where they have trained for the past four years. They need only to do one more thing: earn the Goddess Tira’s final anointing. But to do that, they must fight through hordes of corrupted creatures and endure the perplexing obstacles within Mount Orodani.
The road before them is long and bloody, and Tira’s evil sister, Malsumi, won’t stop sending her minions until she is strong enough to break free of her prison. Tama fights valiantly to defend herself and her people from these twisted monsters. But she will soon discover the real threat is much closer than she initially thought…
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
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We know what a TBR is (to be read). A lot of bookworms have TBRs long enough to last a lifetime. But one thing I’ve never heard of in all my years as an online bookworm is an anti-TBR. When I saw this tag (originally created by Nicole @ Nicole & Her Books on YouTube), I was intrigued.
Basically, the questions revolve around books/authors that you wouldn’t put in your TBR (hence the name). I’ve seen other people’s answers to these questions, and some of them are s p i c y.
(Hopefully I won’t get cancelled by the end of this.)
Let’s get into it!
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“When life becomes difficult. the only source of strength we have is love. Love of others, love of self, love of life in its entirety.”
Renee Ahdieh, The Beautiful
Title: The Beautiful
Author: Renée Ahdieh
Series: The Beautiful, #1
Published: Oct. 8, 2019
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Reader
Category: young adult
Genre: fantasy, paranormal, romance
Pages: 448
My Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Goodreads page
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In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as Le Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sèbastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of Le Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sèbastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.
When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“Five Great Charters knit the land
Together linked, hand in hand
One in the people who wear the crown
Two in the folk who keep the Dead down
Three and Five became stone and mortar
Four sees all in frozen water.”
Garth Nix, Sabriel
Title: Sabriel
Series: The Old Kingdom
Author: Garth Nix
Published: May 1995
Publisher: Harper Collins
Category: YA
Genre: fantasy
Pages: 367
My Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5)
Goodreads page
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Sabriel is the daughter of the Mage Abhorsen. Ever since she was a tiny child, she has lived outside the Wall of the Old Kingdom–far away from the uncontrolled power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won’t stay dead.
But now, her father is missing and Sabriel is called upon to cross into the world to find him, Leaving the safety of the school she has known as home, Sabriel embarks upon a quest fraught with supernatural dangers, with companions she is unsure of–for nothing is as it seems within the boundary of the Old Kingdom. There, she confronts an evil that threatens much more than her life, and comes face to face with her hidden destiny.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading“All magic came with a price, some prices were just higher than others.”
A Dance with Fire by Aleera Anaya Ceres
Title: A Dance with Fire
Series: Fae Elementals, #1
Author: Aleera Anaya Ceres
Published: September 21, 2020
Publisher: self-published
Category: new adult
Genres: romance, fantasy, fae
Pages: 502
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Goodreads page
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Shula Azzarh is Fae…
…in a world where it’s illegal to be.
Working at Piriguini’s Circus keeps her hidden in plain sight, but when a vicious accident exposes the truth of what she is, her safe game of hiding comes to an end. Taken by the emperor’s soldiers, Shula is forced into the hands of a mysterious Brotherhood, a group of humans hell-bent on eradicating her race completely.
The Fae Resistance needs her. Their healer hates her. And the Emperor of Illyk will stop at nothing to possess her. The secrets of the empire run deeper than she knows, and Shula will have to rely on the magic she’s suppressed for years to save herself from the emperor’s malicious plans.
Because Shula is an Elemental.
And her fire might be the only thing that can make or break their world.
Fans of Sarah J. Maas and Holly Black will love the first installment in this new, action packed, adult fantasy series!
This is a High Fantasy Fae series intended for readers 18 and over as it contains adult M/F romance, sexually explicit scenes, cursing, and dark themes.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“Love is the most powerful magic. Above all else, remember that. It will always guide you where you need to go.”
Kerri Maniscalco, Kingdom of the Wicked
Title: Kingdom of the Wicked
Series: Kingdom of the Wicked, #1
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Published: Oct. 27, 2020
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson
Category: YA
Genre: fantasy, magic, witches
Pages: 372
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
Goodreads page
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Two sisters.
One brutal murder.
A quest for vengeance that will unleash Hell itself…
And an intoxicating romance.
Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe – witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin…desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.
Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems…
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
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