A Wind From The Rift by Bonnie Wynne Review

Title: A Wind From The Rift
Author: Bonnie Wynne
Publisher Info / Release: Talem Press | November 19, 2020
Source: ARC
Rating:  4/5 *’s – did not finish BUT explained in review

The sorceress has broken free of her shackles.

Months of imprisonment have forged Gwyn into something new; something dangerous. Eight dead sorceresses whisper in her ear, hungry for blood and vengeance – and after unleashing the red magic to make her escape, she fears she won’t be able to stop.

All Gwyn really wants is to go home. But as she soon discovers, escaping the Clockwork City may prove an impossible task. The wizards of the Syndicate wage a silent, bloody war over her fate, and to survive, she must play their deadly game.

As strange storms ravage the city and wizards start turning up dead, Gwyn finds herself in more danger than ever. With enemies on every side, the immortal Scions massing their armies, and the dark power inside her growing stronger, she must make a choice… To save everything she loves, is she willing to become the monster the Syndicate fears?

A Wind from the Rift is the electrifying second volume in Bonnie Wynne’s spellbinding fantasy series, The Price of Magic.

Thank you to Talem Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Review | Light Years

Title: Light Years
Author: Kass Morgan
Publisher Info / Release: Little, Brown for Young Readers | October 9, 2018
Source: ARC from NOVL
Rating: 3.5 / 5 *’s
Synopsis:

Ender’s Game meets The 100 as hidden secrets and forbidden love collide at an interstellar military boarding school in a new sci-fi series from New York Timesbestselling author Kass Morgan.

Reeling from the latest attack by a mysterious enemy, the Quatra Fleet Academy is finally admitting students from every planet in the solar system after centuries of exclusivity.

Hotshot pilot Vesper, an ambitious Tridian citizen, dreams of becoming a captain–but when she loses her spot to a brilliant, wisecracking boy from the wrong side of the asteroid belt, it makes her question everything she thought she knew. Growing up on the toxic planet Deva, Cormak will take any chance he can get to escape his dead-end life and join the Academy–even if he has to steal someone’s identity to do it. Arran was always considered an outsider on icy Chetire, always dreaming of something more than a life working in the mines. Now an incoming cadet, Arran is looking for a place to belong–he just never thought that place would be in the arms of a Tridian boy. And Orelia is hiding a dark secret–she’s infiltrated the Academy to complete a mission, one that threatens the security of everyone there. But if anyone finds out who she really is, it’ll be her life on the line.

These cadets will have to put their differences aside and become a team if they want to defend their world from a cunning enemy–and they might even fall in love in the process. 

Light Years is the first book in a thrilling and romantic new sci-fi series from the bestselling author of The 100.

Thank you to the NOVL for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Review | Girls Made Of Snow & Glass

Title: Girls Made Of Snow and Glass
Author: Melissa Bashardoust
Publisher Info / Release: Flatiron Books
Source: ARC
Rating: 4.5 / 5 *’s
Synopsis:

At sixteen, Mina’s mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

Thank you to Flatiron books for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

An Enchantment of Ravens Review

Title: An Enchantment of Ravens
Author: Margaret Rogerson
Publisher Info / Release: Margaret McElderry, Simon & Schuster / September 26, 2017
Source: ARC from KT Literary
Rating: 4.75 / 5 *’s
Synopsis: 

Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized among them. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes – a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love, violating the fair folks’ ruthless Good Law. There’s only one way to save both their lives, Isobel must drink from the Green Well, whose water will transform her into a fair one—at the cost of her Craft, for immortality is as stagnant as it is timeless.

Isobel has a choice: she can sacrifice her art for a future, or arm herself with paint and canvas against the ancient power of the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

I received this book from KT Literary for free in exchange for an honest review! Thank you so much for the opportunity to review such a highly anticipated novel!

Heart of Mist ARC Review

Title: Heart of Mist
Author: Helen Scheuerer
Publisher Info / Release: Talem Press / August 31, 2017
Source: E-ARC from the Author
Rating: 4 / 5 *’s
Synopsis: 
In a realm where toxic mist sweeps the lands and magic is forbidden, all Bleak wants is a cure for her power.

Still grieving the death of her guardian and dangerously self-medicating with alcohol, Bleak is snatched from her home by the Commander of the King’s Army, and summoned to the capital.

But the king isn’t the only one interested in Bleak’s powers.

The leader of an infamous society of warriors, the Valia Kindred, lays claim to her as well, and Bleak finds herself in the middle of a much bigger battle than she anticipated.

Heart of Mist is the gripping first book in The Oremere Chronicles, a fantasy series of epic proportions.

I received this book from the author for free in exchange for an honest review!

The Traitor’s Kiss Review

Title: The Traitor’s Kiss
Author: Erin Beaty
Publisher Info / Release: Imprint / May 9, 2017
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 3.75 / 5 *’s
Synopsis: 
An obstinate girl who will not be married.
A soldier desperate to prove himself.
A kingdom on the brink of war.

With a sharp tongue and an unruly temper, Sage Fowler is not what they’d call a lady―which is perfectly fine with her. Deemed unfit for marriage, Sage is apprenticed to a matchmaker and tasked with wrangling other young ladies to be married off for political alliances. She spies on the girls―and on the soldiers escorting them.

As the girls’ military escort senses a political uprising, Sage is recruited by a handsome soldier to infiltrate the enemy ranks. The more she discovers as a spy, the less certain she becomes about whom to trust―and Sage becomes caught in a dangerous balancing act that will determine the fate of her kingdom.

I received this book from NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review. May contain some slight spoilers.  To me, this was a Poison Study meets Kiss of Deception. So if you liked either of those books, you’d most likely enjoy this one as well!

Roar Full Review

Title: Roar
Author: Cora Cormack
Publisher Info / Release: TorTeen / June 13, 2017
Source: ARC that was passed on to me.
Rating: 5 / 5 *’s
Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Cora Carmack’s young adult debut: Roar.

In a land ruled and shaped by violent magical storms, power lies with those who control them.

Aurora Pavan comes from one of the oldest Stormling families in existence. Long ago, the ungifted pledged fealty and service to her family in exchange for safe haven, and a kingdom was carved out from the wildlands and sustained by magic capable of repelling the world’s deadliest foes. As the sole heir of Pavan, Aurora’s been groomed to be the perfect queen. She’s intelligent and brave and honorable. But she’s yet to show any trace of the magic she’ll need to protect her people.

To keep her secret and save her crown, Aurora’s mother arranges for her to marry a dark and brooding Stormling prince from another kingdom. At first, the prince seems like the perfect solution to all her problems. He’ll guarantee her spot as the next queen and be the champion her people need to remain safe. But the more secrets Aurora uncovers about him, the more a future with him frightens her. When she dons a disguise and sneaks out of the palace one night to spy on him, she stumbles upon a black market dealing in the very thing she lacks—storm magic. And the people selling it? They’re not Stormlings. They’re storm hunters.

Legend says that her ancestors first gained their magic by facing a storm and stealing part of its essence. And when a handsome young storm hunter reveals he was born without magic, but possesses it now, Aurora realizes there’s a third option for her future besides ruin or marriage.
She might not have magic now, but she can steal it if she’s brave enough.

Challenge a tempest. Survive it. And you become its master.

**Post may contain some slight spoilers referring to characters, so read at your own discretion 🙂 **

Hunting Prince Dracula Review

Title: Hunting Prince Dracula
Author: Kerri Maniscalsco
Publisher Info / Release: Jimmy Patterson Books, Little Brown / September 19, 2017
Source: ARC that was passed on to me.
Rating: 5 / 5 *’s
Synopsis: In this hotly anticipated sequel to the haunting #1 bestseller Stalking Jack the Ripper, bizarre murders are discovered in the castle of Prince Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula. Could it be a copycat killer…or has the depraved prince been brought back to life? 
Following the grief and horror of her discovery of Jack the Ripper’s true identity, Audrey Rose Wadsworth has no choice but to flee London and its memories. Together with the arrogant yet charming Thomas Cresswell, she journeys to the dark heart of Romania, home to one of Europe’s best schools of forensic medicine…and to another notorious killer, Vlad the Impaler, whose thirst for blood became legend.
But her life’s dream is soon tainted by blood-soaked discoveries in the halls of the school’s forbidding castle, and Audrey Rose is compelled to investigate the strangely familiar murders. What she finds brings all her terrifying fears to life once again.

**Post may contain some slight spoilers from SJTR, so read at your own discretion 🙂 **

Alice: The Wanderland Chronicles Review

Title: Alice: The Wanderland Chronicles
Author: J.M Sullivan
Publisher Info / Release: Pen Name Publishing / May 16, 2017
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 3.5 / 5 *’s
Synopsis: Ever since the outbreak of the Plague, life hasn’t been easy, and for seventeen-year-old Alice Carroll, it just got worse. Her sister, Dinah, has contracted the ‘un-deadly’ Momerath Virus and without a cure, will soon be worse than dead. She’ll be momerath.

Alice must leave the safety of the Sector and venture into Momerath Territory to find the antidote – if it exists. Chasing a rumor about a mysterious doctor with the cure, Alice falls down the rabbit hole into Wanderland, where ravenous momerath aren’t the only danger lurking.

**Post contains some spoilers, so read at your own discretion **

Wrap – Up Wednesday: April

Hi everyone! I wrapped up a couple books that were on my slump list (they seriously took me a while to get through. Some were because I didn’t want the book to be over, a couple because I was just in a reading slump. Anyways, here are my ratings and below will be some mini reviews on each that I featured on my Goodreads page.

• Dawn Study by Maria V. Snyder- 5 / 5 *’s
• The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon – 3.5 / 5 *’s
• Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy  by Cassandra Clare- 3.75 / 5 *’s

***If you haven’t read these books, there might be some spoilers. ***