Cover Reveal: Circle of Ashes by Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a good week so far. It is mid week, so not too long to go before the weekend is here; and I have something that will help that along the way! I come bearing gifts – The cover reveal and synopsis of Circle of Ashes by Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh (Book 2 of the Wish Quartet). There will also be a rafflecopter giveaway link at the end of this post for a signed copy of Society of Wishes, so check that out too! Without further ado:

Circle of Ashes by Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh

Expected Publication: April 9th 2018 by Silver Wing Press

EVERY WISH HAS A COST BUT WILL THE SOCIETY BE WILLING TO PAY IT?

Once a hacker-for-hire living in the shadows, Josephina “Jo” Espinosa is the newest member of a magical Society. Their mandate? To grant the wishes of mortals. A simple enough task until Jo is faced with an impossible wish – and her inability to grant it might spell disaster for her entire team, if not the Society itself.

Jo is used to high-pressure situations, but after a string of disasters, the last thing she needs is stakes of this magnitude. Especially given that neither she nor the Society know quite what the consequences of failing to grant a wish might be.

The only person with answers is the Society’s aloof and cryptic leader, Snow. Yet while Jo is enigmatically drawn to the man, all their clandestine encounters leave her with only more questions about the true nature of the Society, her magic, and her own history.

Time is running out for the Society, and an executioner will rise from among them to exact the price of failure.

Doesn’t this sound amazing? I absolutely LOVED book 1 (find my review here), and I am extremely excited for this! Circle of Ashes will be available for KU users (as is Society of Wishers) , so if you subscribe – get on that! If you do’t subscribe, can find pre order links for Circle of Ashes here: AMAZON

You can also grab a copy of Society of Wishes here: AMAZON

Elise and Lynn will also be hosting a Society of Wishes read along via facebook! This will have giveaways (Worth mentioning here that the only way to get swag for these books is through giveaways!), exclusive content, discussions with the authors etc. You can join in the fun by clicking on the photo below (it will redirect you to the FB event).

About the authors:

Elise Kova:

Elise Kova is the USA Today bestselling author of the Air Awakens series, Loom Saga, and Wish Quartet.

In her past lives, she has graduated from an MBA program, lived in Japan for a bit, and worked for a Fortune 500 technology company. However, she finds herself much happier in her current reincarnation as full-time author. When not writing, she can usually be found playing video games, drawing, watching anime, or talking with readers on social media. She’s happy to call Saint Petersburg, Florida, her home, but is always looking forward to her next trip.

Lynn Larsh:

Lynn Larsh considers herself to be a serial hobby-dabbler. She got a bachelors degree in music (which she used for all of four months), studied aerial acrobatics and classical piano for many years, worked briefly as a stunt woman in a Wild West stunt show (it’s a long story), and eventually settled down into the bar tending business in St. Petersberg, FL. When she’s not acting as a purveyor of fine libations, you can find her diving head first into her newest venture as a New Adult author, or simply writing Voltron fan fiction on Archive of Our Own.

As mentioned right at the beginning of this post, there is a rafflecopter giveaway being held for a signed copy of Society of Wishes! Find that here!

Find Me Here:

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Society of Wishes by Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh

Society of Wishes by Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh

Published: January 29th 2018 by Silver Wing Press

First book in the Wish Quartet, a new-adult, urban fantasy series set in a near-future alternate reality

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.

Josephina Espinosa makes her living as a hacker-for-hire in the Lone Star Republic, a remnant of the fractured U.S.A. That is, until the day she and her best friend are gunned down in a government raid.

With her dying breath, Jo uses magical lore passed down from her grandmother to summon a wish-granter. Her wish? To save her friend’s life. Except wishes have costs, and for Jo, the price is the erasure of her entire mortal existence.

Now, as the most recent addition to the mysterious Society of Wishes, Jo must form a new “life” alongside the seven other members, one of which being her savior himself. Living as an occupant of the Society’s lavish mansion should be quite the perk, but while it is furnished with everything its inhabitants could possibly need, it lacks one thing—freedom.

Her otherworldly identity crisis takes a backseat, however, when Jo learns that the friend she sacrificed everything for is headed down the same path to ruin. Jumping in head-first, Jo uses her newfound magical abilities to protect him, only to realize that the ripples of her actions have far-reaching consequences. When the Society’s aloof leader Snow decides to give her a taste of his own ancient magic, Jo discovers that there are threads woven into the tapestry of her new reality that reach far beyond the wishes she is now required to grant. Ones that, if tugged on, could mean the unraveling of the world itself.

NOTE: I received an ARC copy of this book from the authors in return for an honest review. This in no wan influences my opinion.

I ended up reading this a little later than I originally intended because of the huge slump I have been in, I really wanted to give this book a fair shot, so decided to read it when I was out of it, and I am so glad I did! I absolutely loved this book and I cannot wait for the next instalment to this series!

I’m going to start with the opening line to this story, and not even the entire line – “It was hotter than Satan’s tit outside…” – I was not expecting an opening like this and I just burst out laughing. I always think its a great sign when the opening line is one that is interesting/funny because it definitely hooked me into the story and it showed promise for the rest of the book. The opening scenes in general were extremely interesting and had enough information as to what was going on to keep the reader in the know, but still held enough mystery to make me want to know what was going to happen next and to know why they were doing what they were doing. The beginning hooked me into the story and I stayed hooked throughout.

I loved the characters in this book! Each and every character is unique and had their own voices. and they all brought something to the story that added to it in a unique way. I really felt like I could relate to Jo (the MC) and I was invested in her story and what was going to happen next, and how she was going to handle with the different situations that she was put into. She was an extremely likeable character, despite some of her character flaws, which made me want to go back to the book when I was doing something else.

What I also enjoyed about these characters was the fact that they each retained something from their own time period (because they all come from different periods in time – it is clear in the book why when you read it), which helped to keep the characters’ voices unique. While we only got snippets of each an every characters’ pasts (aside from Wayne’s), it was nice to see the authors keeping things in keeping with the character’s times, despite the fact that a lot of them are really really old. The world has completely changed since their timelines and it was a unique twist to have them keeping up with the new, as well as keeping the old.

As mentioned above, we did get to see more of Wayne’s history because of the connection he had with Jo. Whilst I don’t want to give too much away, I thought it was a clever use and twist of actual historical events that made up Wayne’s past and the reasoning behind why history went down the way in which it did. I’d be interested to know if they use this technique with other characters’ pasts, and if yes, how they will twist and turn history.

Whilst I enjoyed the connection that Jo and Wayne shared and everything that went down between them (more on that if you read the book), I definitely gravitated toward Snow as the main love interested (which is currently not a ship… yet). I gravitated toward his character anyway because he is so mysterious and his past is not at all clear, but I felt more of a pull toward him when it became clear that he and Jo are somehow connected. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how they are connected in future books and what exactly his deal is. I definitely feel more of a pull toward his character and I really really want to get to know him more.

The world building was done extremely well in this book as well. It was easy to visualise what the authors wanted us to see, especially as the rules of magic became clearer. I liked the fact that magic had certain rules and regulations that needed to be followed, and when they weren’t, something happened (don’t want to go into too much detail about what). It was also a fun twist on the concept of magic that it wasn’t always helpful in the way that we know magic to be. Some things were actually made harder, this is something you don’t normally expect from magic.

I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next. Between he mystery surrounding the Society and the characters, rules regulations etc. To what Jo was planning to do and how she did it – I constantly felt the need to pick the book back up when I put it down. I definitely gravitated toward the characters and I cannot wait to find out more about them and their pasts (One thing I didn’t mention is that Pan reminded me of a gender reversed Peter Pan… but that might just be me and my imagination). I absolutely cannot wait for the next instalment and gave this book 5/5 stars.

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Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Published: January 6th 2015 by Del Ray

Amazon: Golden Son

As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor while dreaming of the better future he was building for his descendants. But the Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Darrow’s kind have been betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds—and their only path to liberation is revolution. And so Darrow sacrifices himself in the name of the greater good for which Eo, his true love and inspiration, laid down her own life. He becomes a Gold, infiltrating their privileged realm so that he can destroy it from within.

A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.

I feel like I should really be kicking myself for not picking this series up sooner. I picked up this book as soon as I had finished Red Rising and, like book 1, this book had me hooked from beginning to end. What I liked most about this book was that it focused on other aspects of the world and the rebellion where the fist book didn’t – so I feel that the continuation really did a great job of building the events even more.

I liked the fact that this book focused more on the political side of things, rather than character building etc. like the first book did. Whilst there was character and plot building going on, I felt that focusing on the politics of the rebellion and the society really helped to solidify why Darrow was doing what he was doing, as well as give us a better understanding of the society itself and the Gold race. I loved the hypocrisy shown by the Golds within their politics and the system that they have created.

It was also interesting to watch Darrow struggle to come to terms with what he was doing and what he was becoming. He has friends amongst the Golds, which he never believed he would have, and a relationship with Mustang that he also believed he would never have – so he struggles to internalise that with everything that he has to do for the Rebellion to free his own people. I liked watching him grow as a character and how he faced and dealt with new problems and how he learned from new mistakes that he makes along the way. There were times where I really wanted to shout at him because I felt like he was acting pretty stupid, but that’s just Darrow.

It was interesting to see how the relationships between Darrow and other characters really formed and developed within the book. There was a lot of betrayal going on and it was difficult to really know who you can trust and who was going to stab Darrow in the back – and I often times chose wrong! There were characters who I really believed wouldn’t betray Darrow, despite the fact that he kept pushing them away because of the struggle he was having with himself, and there were other characters who I was expecting to betray Darrow, who really stuck by him throughout everything.

The plot itself was fast paced and had me completely hooked! I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next, and there were a lot of twists and turns that I did not see coming! Can I also just mention the ENDING?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!? What even did I read in that end? I stared at my kindle for about 20 minutes before I even moved, I was that shocked.

All in all, I absolutely LOVED this instalment to the Red Rising series. I am currently reading Morning Star, but I haven’t gotten that far because of the hectic that was Christmas, however, I am hoping to get some more read later today! I really should have picked this series up sooner than I did *Facepalm* I gave this book 5/5 stars.

Find me Here: 

Instagram/Twitter/Goodreads/Litsy @ Lauren’s Page Turners

Goodreads Monday

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted here. To participate, choose a random book from your TBR and show it off! Don’t forget to link back here and feel free to add your links to the comments so that others can see what you picked!

Hey everyone! As usual, I hope you had a good weekend. It was extremely sunny over here (but also freezing) so the weekend was pretty good!

This weeks pick for me is a book that I read a couple of years back, and one that I want to re read because I never actually finished the series off! I really enjoyed the first book from what I can remember, so I don’t really know why I didn’t pick up book 2 at the time.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Published: March 22nd 2011 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

Amazon: Wither

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape–before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden’s servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Find Me Here:

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The Switch by A. W. Hill and Nathaniel Hill

The Switch by A. W. Hill and Nathaniel Hill

Published: August 28th 2017 by Curiosity Quills Press

IMAGINE THAT you could change your world with the flip of a switch. You might be prettier, more athletic, more popular, or even living on an exotic island, because your history—your world line—would be different. But here’s the catch: you have no way of knowing if the reality on the other side of that switch will be better… or much worse.

JACOBUS ROSE is a fifteen year-old who believes—as many fifteen year-olds do—that his life could use improvement. School is a numbing routine, and his parents’ marriage seems to be imploding before his eyes. ‘Maybe I was born into the wrong world,’ he thinks. Lured by his best friend, CONNOR, into a strange little house containing nothing but empty rooms and an oversized circuit breaker, he’ll discover that reality comes in a plural form, and that our choices create a continuous web of branching worlds, any of which is as ‘real’ as another.

A solo odyssey becomes a duo, a trio, and then a quartet, as Jacobus befriends other interdimensional travelers along the way: GORDON NIGHTSHADE, the veteran pilgrim and chief theorist; MOSES DeWITT, the alley cat with an old soul; JEMMA DOONE, a girl of many-worlds who becomes the main river home for Jacobus and his crew; and finally, his lost friend Connor, who just may have preferred an alternate universe to his own.

THE SWITCH is the story of their journey home. The question is: if they get there, will it be the same place they left behind?

Note: I received a review copy of this book via Netgalley. This in no way influences my opinion.

I first discovered this book on Netgalley. The cover is eye catching and the premise sounded extremely promising – so of course, I had to request it! However, for me, this book fell flat and didn’t live up to its promise – I ended up DNFing.

I think my biggest issue with this book was the writing style itself. Whilst I don’t mind the author breaking the fourth wall and having the characters’ speak directly to the reader, it has to be done right for it be successful. For me, it wasn’t done right and was written more as if the character was stood with me talking to me, rather than hooking me into the story itself. The writing was very much “and then this happened, and then that happened…” which irritated and bored me. The writing style itself affected the execution and it just didn’t work for me.

Another issue I had with this book was the plot. Whilst the premise sounded extremely promising, I don’t feel that the plot lived up to my expectations. It was relatively repetitive, which made me want to put the book down and do something else. I loved the idea of multiple realities and all of them being different, but I would have liked to have seen more of the reality that he switched to before he switched again. The multiple switches in such a short space of time meant that we didn’t really get to see a lot from the other characters and how they changed etc.

Which brings us to the next issue, which was the characters. They fell mostly flat for me, but I think that was because the authors didn’t give us enough time to really get to know and care about the characters before switching them out for another reality and a new set of personalities. I didn’t have that reader/character connection because I felt that I wasn’t given the opportunity to really get to know anyone other than Jacobus

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with this book. Whilst the premise itself was extremely promising, I don’t feel that it lived up to that promise. I gave this 1/5 stars.

Find me Here:

Instagram/Twitter/Goodreads/Litsy @ Lauren’s Page Turners

Goodreads Monday

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted here. To participate, choose a random book from your TBR and show it off! Don’t forget to link back here and feel free to add your links to the comments so that others can see what you picked.

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! It finally snowed, but I can’t go out with my son in it like I wanted to because he’s ill -.- Talk about timing!

Anyway, this weeks pick for me is a relatively new release that I snagged whilst out shopping for Nikolaus gifts!

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Published: November 7th 2017 by Feiwel and Friends

Amazon: Renegades (International Edition)

Secret Identities. Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone…except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

Find me here: 

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Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Published: January 28th 2014 by Del Rey

Amazon: Red Rising: Red Rising Series 1

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”

“I live for you,” I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

Read Red Rising, they said.  It’ll be fun, they said. Well, I can say that I have read it and I feel like I need therapy. I will be sending Piecre Brown the bill. This book was absolutely FABULOUS! I cannot even believe it took me this long to pick this up because I really should have picked it up sooner and I didn’t… what even is my life?!?

I will start with the one bad thing I have to say about this book, and that is the fact that it was a little slow to start and it takes a few pages to really wrap your head around what is actually going on and where they are etc. As soon as I got my head around that, I was completely hooked! I had already been kicked in the feels by around page 50 (I cried in the corner) and I knew that it was going to be a complete rollercoaster ride.

The world building of this book was out of this world (see what I did there?) I think that might have been whatI needed to get my head around – the fact that it was set on Mars! I loved the idea of colonising Mars and the way that it was written and done. The book definitely did a great job of showing a futuristic setting and world with a very backward way of thinking and colonising etc. The hierarchy itself was extremely interesting and I would have loved to find out more about how the colours came about. I also loved the way that Brown weaves in historical aspects, like Pluto and Cicero and the Romans, into what is a futuristic sci fi world.

As soon as the book really got started and I managed to get my head around the setting etc. the plot was amazing. It was a fast paced, pretty bloody affair and I had no idea what was going to happen next. I loved the lessons that were being taught to the students and the way in which it was being taught – the school is pretty ruthless! Brown did a great job of showing the evolution of mankind in various situations and whether they evolved to be better people or whether they succumbed to their more basic and primal instincts. Nothing was done without a reason in this book and it all came about to teach another lesson to Darrow and the other students – which also helped with the world building and understand the society that is currently in control on Mars and how they came to be there. It was easy to get lost in the plot itself – especially because I had no idea what was going to happen next, or who was going to die etc. The author did a great job of making the reader forget completely why Darrow was there and what he was there to do – until something happened and the reasoning hits the reader in the face!

I loved Darrow as a character! He wasn’t perfect and had a lot of flaws, which makes him all the more relatable to the reader. He was pushed into doing something that he didn’t really want to do and he tries to keep the memory of what happened at the beginning so that he doesn’t lose himself. He makes a lot of mistakes throughout the book, from which he learns as the events of the plot unfold. It was interesting to watch Darrow try and navigate himself through an unfamiliar world, without becoming the people he hates. He struggles to consolidate the fact that not all Golds are evil with everything that happened at the beginning and everything that the Golds have done to the Reds.

I loved the fact that you never knew who you could trust. Some people that Darrow trusts end up betraying him, others that he doesn’t trust, stick by him etc. It made it difficult to really size up the characters as to who to like and who not to like. Sevro was a character who I was expecting to hate throughout the book, but as the book continues, I grew to like and understand him, despite his rough outer edge. On the other hand, Cassius was a character who I expected to like throughout the book and it turned out completely different after certain things happen. I loved his character development and the hypocrisy he shows throughout the book because of his brother and what happened. I’m interested to see what role he plays later in the series! This book was very much a character development based book and was complimented by the amazing plot, which helped to shape the characters into the people they are by the end of the book!

All in all, I absolutely LOVED this book! The plot kept me on my toes and had me crying within the first 50 pages! I loved the character development within this book and I cannot wait to see where Darrow ends up! I gave this book 4.5/5 stars!

Find me here:

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Warcross by Marie Lu

Warcross by Marie Lu

Published: September 12th 2017 by G. P Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Amazon: Warcross

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

I was extremely hesitant to buy a copy of this book purely because I haven’t liked any of Marie Lu’s previous works. I saw this in the bookshop quite a few times before deciding to buy it on a whim. I’d heard great things about it, so I thought I would give her another chance to blow me away. I am so glad I did because I absolutely LOVED this book! I can FINALLY say that there is a Marie Lu book out there that I like!

I would like to start off with the world building – it was rich, descriptive and definitely could have been something from the future – the near future at that. I constantly found myself wishing that someone would invent Video Tanaka’s Glasses already so that I could have some fun with them as well! I was completely drawn into the technology of the world and they way in which is was set up to be a part of the real world when you are wearing the glasses. The points system to level up was fun and even the bad aspects of Warcross made it all that much more realistic! I was a huge fan of the world that Lu built, around some technology that we already know, but was taken about 1,000 steps further.

I loved Emika as a character. She was definitely rough around the edges, as befitting the kind of life that she had, but she wasn’t apologetic about it. She was still a good person, despite having had a hard start and she stayed true to herself throughout the book. She would rather help people, than have them help her and that definitely hindered her in some aspects, but I loved watching her personality grow and change around the other characters and the way in which she was at the end with her other team mates. Her inner fangirling over meeting her hero (Hideo) was definitely relatable to me as a reader. I enjoyed watching their relationship grow as they got to know each other and the way in which the dynamic changed at the end.

I also enjoyed getting to know Hideo over the period of the book. We don’t find out a lot about him at the beginning because he is a very private character, but as he opens up toward Emika, we get to know him better – his past and the reason behind Warcross. I liked him throughout the book and often felt sorry for him and what he went through as a child. However, at the end of the book when everything was revealed, I felt torn about him as a character. I have so many questions about his past and what actually happened (if you have read the book, you will understand what I mean) rather than what he has created his memory to be… or recreated in this case.

This plot kept me completely hooked throughout the book. Between the legit Warcross games, to the hacking that was going on in between, going to the Dark World and meeting Zero, I couldn’t put this book down. The plot was fast paced and there was never really a moment where I felt bored or like I wanted to go an do something else. I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next.

I had figured out who Zero was before Emika did an after a certain memory from Hideo and I was glad to see that I was right. Having said that, I now have SO MANY QUESTIONS about their past, what really happened, where he has been etc. that I just need the second book already. This book has definitely left me wanting more and I cannot wait for the next instalment!

Whilst I figured out who Zero was, I didn’t understand why he was doing what he was doing… until the very end. By the end of the book, I felt played like a fool and spat out on the other side… in a good way! The ending shocked me completely and I am so torn about how to feel. On the one hand, I understand based on other things that happened why the ending happened that did, but on the other side, it is so inherently wrong, that it is unforgivable! Especially with the questions I have about Hideo’s past and what truly happened, I am so excited to continue this series!

All in all, I absolutely loved this book! The world building was strong and the characters and plot line bounced off that strong world. I felt played as a reader and I loved every second of it! I cannot wait for the next instalment. I gave this book 5/5 stars!

Find Me Here:

Instagram/Twitter/Goodreads/Litsy @ Lauren’s Page Turners

Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

Published: March 10th 2015 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Amazon: Perfect Ruin (The Internment Chronicles, Band 1)

On the floating city, you can be anything you dream – a novelist or a singer, a florist or a factory worker… Your life is yours to embrace or to squander. There’s only one rule: you don’t approach THE EDGE. If you do, it’s already over.

Morgan Stockhour knows getting too close to the edge can lead to madness. Even though her older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. There’s too much for her at home: her parents, best friend Pen, and her betrothed, Basil. Her life is ordinary and safe, even if she sometimes does wonder about the ground and why it’s forbidden.

Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially once she meets Judas. Betrothed to the victim, Judas is being blamed for the murder, but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find—or whom she will lose.

I added this to my TBR a while back (I think some time after I read Wither, which was a few years back). I really enjoyed Wither and I was definitely excited to check out more of this author’s work. However, this book fell flat for me and I ended up DNfing it about half way through.

Whilst the plot itself had a lot of potential, I feel like the execution of it left a lot to be desired. I often found myself putting the book down to go an do something else and I really had to force myself to sit and read it for the amount of time that I did. The plot itself was relatively repetitive, as well as the writing, and I didn’t feel like it was going anywhere in particular.

Another issue I had with this book was the fact that I didn’t feel any connection with the characters themselves and, so, I didn’t really care what happened to them or what was going to happen to them throughout the series. I struggled to pick this book back up when I put it down because I didn’t feel that connection that I feel is necessary for a reader to have in order to enjoy the book.

I feel like the world building lacked a little as well. I liked the idea of the floating city and the edge and what could happen to you if you get to close to the edge etc. but I don’t feel like it was executed well. We weren’t given enough information as to why the city is floating and why the things that happened to the people who got too close to the edge happened. I feel like I would have maybe enjoyed this book a little more had the world building been there and the explanations as to why certain things were the way they were.

All in all, whilst I feel like this book had a lot of potential, it definitely fell short for me and my expectations. I found this book relatively boring and the world building was lacking. I gave this book 1/5 stars

All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

Published: September 1st 2017 by Harlequin Teen

Speth Jime is anxious to deliver her Last Day speech and celebrate her transition into adulthood. The moment she turns fifteen, Speth must pay for every word she speaks (“Sorry” is a flat ten dollars and a legal admission of guilt), for every nod ($0.99/sec), for every scream ($0.99/sec) and even every gesture of affection. She’s been raised to know the consequences of falling into debt, and can’t begin to imagine the pain of having her eyes shocked for speaking words that she’s unable to afford. But when Speth’s friend Beecher commits suicide rather than work off his family’s crippling debt, she can’t express her shock and dismay without breaking her Last Day contract and sending her family into Collection. Backed into a corner, Speth finds a loophole: rather than read her speech—rather than say anything at all—she closes her mouth and vows never to speak again. Speth’s unexpected defiance of tradition sparks a media frenzy, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps, and threatens to destroy her, her family and the entire city around them.

This book was one of my highly anticipated reads for 2017 – the concept is completely unique and it had the potential to be amazing. However, I was completely disappointed with this book and ended up dnfing it.

The beginning of the book started out promising. We are immediately introduced to a world in which almost everything is paid for – words, gestures, fashion etc. We meet Speth, who is about to deliver her first speech (her first paid words) on her 15th birthday.  However, after witnessing her friend commit suicide, she decides to go silent instead – which causes chaos within both the system/society and her family. The beginning of the book had me hooked – I had to know about the world that Katsoulis had created and how it came about. However, I feel like, after a while, the book became relatively boring and repetitive, whilst not much was really happening plot wise.

I struggled to relate to the characters and the relationships between the characters because there was no real way that Speth could communicate. Her inner voice moaned a lot about the fact that she couldn’t communicate with anyone and how much she wanted to, but she decided to stay silent. It became repetitive and it affected the way in which Speth reacted and related to the other characters around her.

I also wish that there had been more world building around the way in which the laws came to be. There wasn’t much explanation as to why words became copyrighted and paid for and how society ended up the way it did. It would have helped the story along to know the backstory a little earlier – it took too long for the little information we did receive to come out.

I was extremely disappointed with this book, especially because it was one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2017. I did, however, like the concept of this book and the uniqueness of this book. I gave this 2/5 stars.