Tag: #Urban Fantasy

Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch

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Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch

Published: July 1st 2014 by Entangled Teen

Perfection comes at a price.

As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.

Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows… and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.

But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving… and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.

For fans of Kiera Cass’ Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.

I have had this on my TBR for AGES! I have also had it on my kindle for the longest time. So, when I was offered a place on the blog tour for the third book (which releases in a few days), I thought it would be a great time to FINALLY pick this series up. I actually really enjoyed this book, and I am totally bummed at myself for not picking it up sooner!

I liked the concept of this book. The idea of certain humans being raised to be ‘pets’ (and those people being exclusively women) was unique. It was very reflective of society today in the way in which they have expectations of how they are to act and present themselves and what is expected of them b their ‘owners’ – they were expected to be thin, beautiful, have shiny hair, hold themselves in a certain way, have multiple talents, etc.But of course they weren’t allowed to speak for themselves. It is very reflective of the way in which some parts of society still see women and I liked the fact that it was compared to slavery in its own way (which it basically was).

I also liked the fact that the author didn’t shy away from using language that really drove home the fact that these people were considered pets and, therefore, property. She repeatedly used phrases such as ‘pets’, ‘Kennel’, ‘Trained’ etc. It made me extremely uncomfortable in places that humans were considered this way, and I liked the fact that it made me stop and consider it.

What I also like about this book was the fact that a lot of people in the society were vehemently against the idea of keeping humans as pets, despite the fact that the MC didn’t really understand that she was a slave in her own right. Whilst a lot of dystopian books focus on MC’s who are a part of the rebellion to change the society they are in, this book wasn’t like that. It took a lot of convincing from people outside of the MC’s usual life, along with other aspects, for her to really understand what was going on.

This book, however, was a little predictable – much like a to of the books written around this time period,I think. I had already guessed from relatively early on why the previous girl had been sent away and I was expecting the ending to happen in the way in which it did. I also felt like the ending was a little too easy (Don’t want to give away spoilers) and I would have liked to have seem more of a challenge for the characters to face.

I would have also liked to have seen the characters be fleshed out a little more. I felt that they were a little superficial and I struggled to really connect with them. The relationship between Penn and Ella was eye roll worthy because of the insta love and I felt like that could have been developed much better to be a slow burn, as opposed to what it was.

All in all, despite a couple of issues, I enjoyed this book. I liked the pacing of it and the plot overall and the way in which it reflected aspects of today’s society. I gave this book 4/5 stars.

 

March Wrap Up

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Hey guys! I hope you all had a great month. I have definitely had an amazing month, and when I look back through it, I feel like March has been extremely long. In amongst everything I managed to read, I also managed to binge watch Vampire Diaries up until about episode 8 in season 5. So… I’ve definitely gotten through a lot this month!

Read:

Started:

Bought/Acquired:

ARCs/Review Copies:

Beta:

  • Rock – A – Bye Baby by LRW Lee

Goodreads Monday:

 

Other posts:

Book of the Month:

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The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Published: January 2nd 2018 by LBBFYR

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

I hope you all had an amazing month like I did! Feel free to add your links to the comments so I can check them out!

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

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Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Published: August 31st 2010 by Simon & Schuster

In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Timesbestselling Mortal Instruments series.

The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London’s dark supernatural underworld in search of her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies are the demon-slaying Shadowhunters—including Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons, warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them…

I picked this book up as soon as I had finished City of Glass (as per Clare’s recommended reading order). I had heard from a lot of different places that The Infernal Devices series was a lot better than The Mortal Instruments, so I was extremely excited to pick it up. However, whilst it was mostly enjoyable, it didn’t blow me away the way I was expecting it to, which left me a little disappointed.

As mentioned, whilst I enjoyed the plot as a whole, I wasn’t completely hooked on it. It was fast paced, easy to follow and had some slower moments to help balance it out. I found the plot to be typical Shadow Hunter world, which was easy to step back into. I also enjoyed the steampunk aspect of the book, which is something I wasn’t particularly expecting.

I wasn’t entirely invested in the characters. Whilst I am interested in knowing what Will’s story is and why he is the way that he is and what happened, I’m not emotionally connected to any of them. None of them were stand out unique – which is another reason that I wasn’t entirely hooked on this book. I am also not committed to either #TeamJem or #TeamWill as of yet, but I do have an idea as to who I will eventually commit to – as well as an idea of what is going to happen to Jem by the end of the series.

I did like the fact that we got to see Magnus again! I did read somewhere after this that Magnus is the only character who has been in every single book so far – so I guess it wasn’t all that surprising to see him again. I do like the fact that we got to see more of his character from a different time period and to see his similarities and differences between TID and TMI.

The time jump between The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices was a little off putting and difficult to get into. I picked this book up straight after finishing City of Glass, so I struggled to make the transition between current day Shadow Hunters and 1878 Shadow Hunters. I think the time difference between City of Glass and Clockwork Angel also stopped me from really getting into the story because I kept forgetting that we had gone back in time.

All in all, whilst this book had an enjoyable plot, I wasn’t totally hooked and blown away like I was expecting to be. I am still looking forward to reading the next instalment because a lot of people have said that they are great books. I gave this book 3/5 stars

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

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City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Published: March 24th 2009 by Margaret. K. McElderry

Amid the chaos of war, the Shadowhunters must decide to fight with the vampires, werewolves and other Downworlders – or against them. Meanwhile, Jace and Clary have their own decision to make: should they pursue the love they know is a mortal sin?

I picked this book up and put it back down a couple of times before I finally got to the end. I wasn’t really in the mood for it the first couple of times that I picked it up; but after watching some of the shadow hunters series on Netflix, I decided it was finally time to revisit this book.

As with the previous books in this series, it was relatively predictable. I knew what was going to happen before it did and I also knew the truth about the whole Clary/Jace situation before it was revealed. Whilst the book was predictable, it was easy to get lost in the world of the Shadow Hunters again and I enjoyed revisiting these characters.

Speaking of Clary and Jace; despite the fact that I knew the truth about their situation, I loved the angsty romance scenes that Clare wrote between them. It was easy to get swept up by them as a couple and I was rooting for them throughout the whole book. I love them as a couple and I am excited to see how their relationship will grow and develop in the next books.

Can I also mention how adorable Alec and Magnus are? I have been rooting for them since the very first moment and I love the way that they overcame various obstacles as the series continued! I am so over the moon ecstatic that they actually managed to get their stuff together and the little snippet of them at a certain point in the book actually elicited a cheer from me – which got me some weird looks from my son!

I enjoyed the fact that we finally got the whole back story as to who Valentine really was and how things escalated to the point that they did. I liked finding out the backstory and how each and every character linked together and how the events came around full circle to explain what was going on in the current time. I felt like it really helped tie the book and the characters up.

I do feel that the ending was a little too easy? The characters went through a lot and was constantly being thwarted by Valentine, so I felt that the ending should have come around a little differently. Things slotted into place too nicely and I would have liked to have seen more of a fight for the ending that came around.

All in all, whilst predictable, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun read and an easy way to get back into the shadow hunter world. I loved revisiting these characters and I am looking forward to seeing how things will develop in the next books. I gave this book 4/5 stars.

Circle of Ashes by Elise Kova and Lynn Larsh

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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.

Note: I received an ARC copy of this via the authors for an honest review. This in no way influences my opinion.

After reading Society of Wishes, I was anxious to get my hands on this book. I loved the first book and I just needed to know how this story and world were going to develop – and I was not disappointed. This book had me so hooked and I fell in love with this world even more!

I think the best thing about this book was the wave of emotion on every single page. The authors really did a great job of making the emotions jump off the pages and it really added to my reading experience! I was invested in each and every character… well.. almost every character ( I hate Pan, #justsaying) and I really felt everything they were feeling throughout the book. It felt as if I were there with them and friends with them. There were times that I was crying ugly tears because I was so invested and affected by what was going on.

The book was extremely easy to get lost in. The character and plot developments, along with the world building and the emotions really swept me up into this world and kept me turning the pages. I had to know what was going to happen next and I ended up reading this book in one sitting because of that!

We got to know more about the characters and how they came to be in the society! I loved the fact that we got into some of the characters wishes and how different they seem! I loved the fact that the authors used actual historical events and based a couple of wishes around them explain why history took the turn that it did – along with creating their own histories (since the book is set in the future) to explain history affecting the characters as well. I also liked the fact that, whilst some of the wishes were on a larger scale that affected the course of history, other wishes really only impacted the characters themselves and the people in their lives. It was an even balance between the two and I liked the fact that not every character did something to help a whole nation of people because it kept the characters relatable.

We also got a little more into Snows character and I am infatuated! I was so intrigued by him in book one and I just kept gravitating toward him as a reader and wanting to know more about him – the same can be said about this one! I am still extremely intrigued by him and the history that he and Jo share and … I just want to know  everything, ok? He’s been around the longest and has seen everything and I just want to know what he knows… I am also completely and utterly curious about what his history is and how he ended up in the/creating the society! I need answers!

As mentioned previously, I hate Pan. I don’t want to go too much into it because spoilers, but I hate her character. She is such a dark and twisted character and, whilst I am intrigued to know more about her and how she ended up the way that she did, I also just want her to be killed off already. She still reminds me of a gender reversed Peter Pan, but an evil one.

I don’t want to get too much into the ending because, again, spoilers, but it broke me. I loved the fact that the authors didn’t take an easy ending and showed the idea that some things just don’t work out the way you expect them to, but it still broke me. I cried ugly tears for a good long while after finishing the book!

All in all, I absolutely loved this instalment! I enjoyed both the character and the plot development and the wave of emotions that left each and every page! I gave this book 5/5 stars.

The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell

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the last magician

The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell

Published: July 18th 2017 by Simon Pulse

Stop the Magician. Steal the book. Save the future.

In modern-day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic—the Mageus—live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power—and often their lives.

Esta is a talented thief, and she’s been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order—and the Brink—before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.

But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.

I have had this book sat on my shelf since some time last year, so when I saw that book 2 is being released some time this year, I had thought I had better pick it up. The premise of this sounded amazing and I have had high expectations for it since I first heard about it pre release. However, this book just fell short of what I was expecting and I was left pretty disappointed.

The beginning of this book felt extremely jumpy and disconnected. It didn’t make a lot of sense until Esta really went back in time for what she was meant to do throughout the main portion of the book. The constant jumping around between characters felt relatively jarring and I struggled to get into the book because of it. It did start coming together when Esta went back for the book and that is when I started to enjoy the book a little more.

Carrying on from that point, there was no real hook for me. Whilst the story was enjoyable whilst I was reading it, there was nothing really compelling me to pick it back up if I put it down. The book didn’t stay in my head when I had to do other things and it failed to really blow Me away.

The plot itself was ok, if not a little predictable. I enjoyed myself throughout reading it and it was a relatively quick read – butI had predicted a major plot twist at the beginning of the book. It was missing that spark to really blow me away and it didn’t leave much of an impression after I had finished the book.

Another issue I had was that I didn’t feel any real connection to any of the characters. Whilst I enjoyed reading the interactions between Harte and Esta because they were sassy and fun, none of the characters really stood out to me. The characters and their personalities bled together within the multiple POVs because their voices were just all too similar.

All in all, whilst this book was a quick read, it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. The plot was ok, but it was reminiscent of other booksI have read in this genre, and was executed as well as others I have read. I gave this book 2.5/5 stars.

A Poison Dark and Drowning by Jessica Cluess

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A Poison Dark and Drowning by Jessica Cluess

Published: September19th 2017 by Random House Books for Young Readers

The magicians want her to lead. The sorcerers want her to lie. The demons want her blood. Henrietta wants to save the one she loves. But will his dark magic be her undoing?

Henrietta doesn’t need a prophecy to know that she’s in danger. She came to London to be named the chosen one, the first female sorcerer in centuries, the one who would defeat the bloodthirsty Ancients. Instead, she discovered a city ruled by secrets. And the biggest secret of all: Henrietta is not the chosen one.

Still, she must play the role in order to keep herself and Rook, her best friend and childhood love, safe. But can she truly save him? The poison in Rook’s system is transforming him into something monstrous as he begins to master dark powers of his own.

So when Henrietta finds a clue to the Ancients’ past that could turn the tide of the war, she persuades Blackwood, the mysterious Earl of Sorrow-Fell, to travel up the coast to seek out strange new weapons. And Magnus, the brave, reckless flirt who wants to win back her favor, is assigned to their mission. Together, they will face monsters, meet powerful new allies, and uncover the most devastating weapon of all: the truth.

I’ve had this book sat on my shelf since it came out – so when I saw someone I knew reading book 1 and enjoying it, I decided it was about time to pick up book 2. I really enjoyed this instalment and I am definitely looking forward to the next book.

This book starts off where the previous left off. I liked the fact that not a lot of time had passed between the end of book 1 and the start of this one because there wasn’t a lot to catch up on. It was easy to remember what had previously happened so it was easy to follow.

Having said that, it took a little while for me to get into.I often felt that the beginning of the story felt a little disjointed and jarring in some places. I didn’t feel that the events joined together in a manner that flowed well for the first two chapters and it really affected the way in which I connected to the story and the characters in general. After a few chapters, the flow sorted itself out and it became easier to really get lost in the story and the characters.

Loved reconnecting with Blackwoods character. It was really interesting watching him develop throughout the book, whether it was good or bad. I liked watching the moments where he acted like his dad and how he handled it. In the first book, Blackwood was a relatively closed off character and I liked watching him begin toped umpire towards Henrietta and the connection that he felt toward her, even if she didn’t see it herself at the time. It was interesting watching his character develop – even if there were moments where he acted like his father.

I did find myself screaming at the characters. I wasn’t a huge Rook shipper, in either the first booker this book. I felt that Rook was more of a brotherly kind of character andI didn’t seem with Henrietta in any kind of romantic aspect… I just wanted to push him out of the picture.

I also enjoyed the fact that we got more of a backstory in this book. It was great to see how the monsters cam into the world ad how all of the characters were linked before Henrietta’s time. I liked the way in which the story started to come together, but in a way that kept the main elements of what we have already learned, but also introducing new elements to the backstory which kept it interesting.

I had guessed a major plot point before it had happened, but it didn’t detract from what had happened at the end and how it all came together. I liked the end and the way in which the characters and their connections really began to come to light and I am looking forward to seeing how things will continue in the next instalment.

All I all, I really enjoyed this story and I am looking forward t the net instalment. I loved the plot and the character development in this bookend I am really looking forward to seeing how develops in the book – especially after the ending! I have this book 4/5 stars.

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

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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:

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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).

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About the authors:

Elise Kova:

EK

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:

LL

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

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SOW

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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The Switch by A. W. Hill and Nathaniel Hill

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TS

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.

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