REVIEW: SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Grisha #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Source: Physical copy
Pages: 358

Add to GoodReads // Buy on BookDepository

SYNOPSIS:  Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

Why I don't think Red Queen is that special anymore?

The recently released and very highly loved Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard has been not just yours but one of my favorites too. More precise, it was till yesterday. You may ask why? It is very simple. I have heard people saying that the Red Queen is not as original as everybody thinks but all these comparisons to Hunger Games and Divergent...I did not buy it. For me almost every ya book for last few years is similar to Hunger Games and Divergent. It is just the thing about books, if you read many you will definitely see similarities in them. It is just how it is and you cannot escape it.

However... 

BOOK TOUR: Dark and Damaged

Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance Boxed Set is now available worldwide for a special introductory price of only $0.99!

This ebook boxed set features all-new, never-before-published hot paranormal romances by eight New York Times and USA Today best-selling romance authors. Tortured alpha-male bad boys will ignite your darkest, most secret desires in these stories about vampires, shifters, dragons, fallen angels, werewolves, demons, psychic warriors and ghosts.

Here?s more about this fantastic eight book boxed set, including an excerpt from one of the stories.

Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance is available from Amazon Kindle, Kobo Books, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks stores and other retailers. Find the links to your preferred retailer at: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/dark-and-damaged/

GoodReads

REVIEW: FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Series: -
Genres: YA, Contemporary, Fiction
Publisher: MACMILLAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Source: Physical copy
Pages: 470

Add to GoodReads // Buy on BookDepository

SYNOPSIS:  A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

REVIEW: THE FORBIDDEN GAME by L.J.Smith

Title: The Forbidden Game: The Hunter, The Chase and The Kill
Author: L. J. Smith
Series: The Forbidden Game Trilogy
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Source: Physical copy
Pages: 750

Add to GoodReads // Buy on BookDepository

SYNOPSIS: When Jenny buys a game for her boyfriend, Tom, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to the guy behind the counter. There is something mysteriously alluring about Julian's pale eyes and bleached-blond hair. And when he places the Game into her hands, she knows their connection is something deeper.

But as Jenny and her six friends begin to play the Game at Tom's birthday celebration, a night of friends and fun quickly turns into a night of terror and obsessive love. Because the Game isn't just a game - it's the seven friends' new reality, where Julian reigns as the Prince of the Shadows.

One by one the friends must confront their phobias to win the Game. To lose the Game is to lose their lives. And that is only the beginning...

Summer Time!

“Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will” - John Green

REVIEW: BLOOD PACT by Tanya Huff

Title: Blood Pact
Author: Tanya Huff
Series: Vicki Nelson
Genres: Fantasy, Crime, Fiction
Publisher: DAW BOOKS
Source: eBook
Pages: 384

Add to GoodReads // Buy on BookDepository

SYNOPSIS: It began with the call no daughter ever wants to get, the call that told private investigator Vicki Nelson her mother had died. Mrs. Nelson's coworker at the Queen's University Life Science Department told Vicki that the cause of death was a heart attack, and that they'd be waiting for her to arrive in Kingston to make the funeral arrangements. But what started as an all too normal personal tragedy soon became the most terrifying case of Vicki's career. For when Marjory Nelson's body mysteriously disappeared from the funeral home, Vicki, her sometime lover and fellow investigator, vampire Henry Fitzroy, and her former homicide squad partner, Detective-Sergeant Mike Celluci, realized that there was something unnatural about her mother's demise. Vicki swore she'd find the culprit, and see that her mother was properly laid to rest. But what she hadn't counted on was that someone at Queen's University seemed determined to keep Mrs. Nelson on the job -- alive or dead!

Bye Bye: The Mortal Instruments

I started reading first book in 2011 and it took me 4 years to finish the series!

REVIEW: CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Heavenly Fire
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments #6
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
Source: Physical copy
Pages: 720

Add to GoodReads // Buy on BookDepository

SYNOPSIS: In this dazzling and long-awaited conclusion to the acclaimed Mortal Instruments series, Clary and her friends fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary's own brother.

Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.

The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris - but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons?

When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee - even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned...

Love will be sacrificed and lives lost in the terrible battle for the fate of the word in the thrilling final installment of the classic urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments!

Stacking The Shelves by HannahCassie #2

This weekly meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.
Stacking The Shelves is all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week, sharing with you our excitement for our newest titles and maybe have you discover a new book in the process!

REVIEW: THE HEIR by Kiera Cass

SPOILERS OF THE PREVIOUS SELECTION BOOKS
Title: The Heir
Author: Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection #4
Genres: YA, Science Fiction, Romance
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Kindle Edition
Pages: 342

Add to GoodReads // Buy on BookDepository

SYNOPSIS: Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she'd put off marriage for as long as possible.
But a princess's life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can't escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.

Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn's heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought.

REVIEW: INFINITE SEA by Rick Yancey

Title: Infinite Sea
Author: Rick Yancey
Series: The Fifth Wave #2
Genres: YA, Science Fiction, Alien
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Source: Physical copy
Pages: 320

Add to GoodReads // Buy on BookDepository

SYNOPSIS: How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

TBR: JUNE of HannahCassie

The month of June is gonna be not a month when I read much. You ask me why? Well first just like Laura I also have my Thesis to write and I am also finishing my placement. And well second...yessss I am moving back to Germany! But do not worry, the summer reading of July and August is going to be epic so I will catch up then. I post a list of book here I would like to read in June but please do not hold me to it as I might not get around all of them!

TBR: JUNE of Laura

JUNE TBR

Deadline for thesis is approaching fast so I won't be reading much. I chose all the last books from series that I haven't finished yet so that I will feel less guilty about spending my time reading them instead of writing my thesis. If you'd like to suggest a book to Hannah and/or me to read for June please use the Contact US tab above.