Tag: Fantasy

Single Shelf Tour

As you all know, I’ve read a lot this year.

I mean, this really, probably isn’t a shock to any of you.

At some point, I drifted away from wildly popular, mainstream books for less popular books – typically small press/indie pubbed or self pubbed. I was looking for a specific kind of book – i.e. Upper YA/New Adult High Fantasy with a dash of spice. I’ve read a lot of high fantasy this year, it’s been a great escape while at work, and in looking for books to fit my wants, I stumbled across quite a few. Now, some of these I’ve found previously, and others are new to me this year. Most of them I bought physical copies for the covers, but they all sound good and I’m looking forward to reading the ones I haven’t had a chance to read yet. Continue reading “Single Shelf Tour” →

Book Review: Stealing Embers (Fallen Legacies #1)

Title: Stealing Embers

Author: Julie Hall

Pub. Date: September 22, 2020

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A realm of monsters. A world of lies. She belongs to both.

My name is Emberly, and everything I’ve ever been told is a lie.

Monsters don’t exist. Wrong.
The nightmarish spectrum world is just my imagination. Wrong.
In a few months, I’ll finally be free. Wrong.

It takes being dragged to a secret training academy in the mountains to unravel the truth. My captors–an elite race of angel-born warriors called Nephilim.

The deadliest of them all is an arrogant shape shifter, Steel. He’s gorgeous, lethal, hot-headed . . . and convinced I’ll be the death of them all.

Maybe he’s right. As soon as I show up, the monsters that have haunted me my entire life breach the academy walls. My only hope of saving my new friends is learning how to control my powers, but when a stunning betrayal hurts someone I care about, I have an impossible choice.

Stay and fight for a place to belong . . . or decide once and for all that I’m better off alone. Continue reading “Book Review: Stealing Embers (Fallen Legacies #1)” →

Book Reviews: The Venatrix Chronicles Pt. 1

So, I found a new Upper YA High Fantasy series to binge read. It’s all I’ve been doing for like the last week and a half or so. It was totally on a whim too and definitely not on my TBR.

And get this – there are SEVEN books.

SEVEN.

Which means there’s no shortage of story to get lost in.

I’m currently on book 5, and since there are so many of them, I’m opting to do mini reviews for each book. So, in this post, I’ll be reviewing the first two books in the series Daughter of Shades and Visions of Fate. Make sure you check this series out – it’s just getting better and better.

Enter the world of The Venatrix Chronicles, where deadly spirits lurk in the shadows, good and evil wage eternal war, and secrets threaten to tear a kingdom apart. If you love kick-butt heroines, slow-burn romance, breathtaking action, and stories that leave you with a book hangover for days after you finish . . . you need to discover this dark and deadly series. Prepare to turn pages late into the night!

Continue reading “Book Reviews: The Venatrix Chronicles Pt. 1” →

Book Review: A Vow So Bold and Deadly (Cursebreakers #3)

Title: A Vow So Bold and Deadly

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Pub. Date: January 26, 2020

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Face your fears, fight the battle.
Emberfall is crumbling fast, torn between those who believe Rhen is the rightful prince and those who are eager to begin a new era under Grey, the true heir. Grey has agreed to wait two months before attacking Emberfall, and in that time, Rhen has turned away from everyone—even Harper, as she desperately tries to help him find a path to peace.

Fight the battle, save the kingdom.
Meanwhile, Lia Mara struggles to rule Syhl Shallow with a gentler hand than her mother. But after enjoying decades of peace once magic was driven out of their lands, some of her subjects are angry Lia Mara has an enchanted prince and magical scraver by her side. As Grey’s deadline draws nearer, Lia Mara questions if she can be the queen her country needs.

As two kingdoms come closer to conflict, loyalties are tested, love is threatened, and an old enemy resurfaces who could destroy them all, in this stunning conclusion to bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer’s Cursebreaker series. Continue reading “Book Review: A Vow So Bold and Deadly (Cursebreakers #3)” →

Cover Reveal – The Crown of Gilded Bones

I know this has technically been out for a while, and then it got a little bit of a makeover, so I’m sure you’ve already seen it. But I’m a big JLA fan and love to hype her books, so here we are. I also just recently reread both From Blood and Ash and A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire and I’m feeling a tad deprived of the world and the characters. My impatience for this book is also through the damn roof, so I’m going to share this cover with you.

Now, if you haven’t yet read From Blood and Ash (and subsequently A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire)

  1. What are you doing with your life?
  2. Please pick up book 1 ASAP

No, seriously. If you’ve read JLA’s other books, this one won’t disappoint. If you’re looking for a new vampire read, this one won’t disappoint. If you’re looking for something to fill the high fantasy hole in your heart, this one won’t disappoint. Overall, it just won’t disappoint. Continue reading “Cover Reveal – The Crown of Gilded Bones” →

Book Review: The Empire of Empty Wars (The Serpents and Kings Trilogy #3)

Title: The Empire of Empty Wars

Author: S.M. Gaither

Pub. Date: April 15, 2020

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Death. Betrayal. Destruction.
This was Alaya’s destiny, written in the stars on the night she was born. She should have been killed because of it.

She wasn’t.

The once crown prince of the highest throne in Sundolia is now the high king, and all of his advisors agree on one thing: He should have destroyed that dangerous Dragon woman when he had the chance.

He didn’t.

Now war spreads like a wildfire from the southern kingdom. The empire is burning. The day of prophecy is arriving. Alaya still lives, her power more dangerous and unpredictable than ever.

And the stars, it seems, told no lies.

Or did they? Continue reading “Book Review: The Empire of Empty Wars (The Serpents and Kings Trilogy #3)” →

Book Review: The King of Burning Skies (The Serpents and Kings Trilogy #2)

Title: The King of Burning Skies

Author: S.M. Gaither

Pub. Date: December 20, 2019

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

War is coming to the Sundolian Empire.

Can a forbidden love between a prince and a dragon save it?

Or are they destined to bring it all down in flames?

The kingdoms are shattering.

A tyrant rules from the north.

The Dragon clan, once exiled beyond the edges of the empire, has joined forces with a bloodthirsty, opportunistic king in the south.

And the crown prince of Rooks is running out of options to keep the people and places he loves safe. His best chance to save his world and take the crown from his mad father may lie in the most dangerous of those exiled Dragons—a woman who is just as likely to ruin him as she is to save him.

Alaya is part human, part divine, and fully prepared to use her growing powers to destroy everyone that has hurt and betrayed her. The list of those people is long. Despite her pain, she still intends to find a way to bring peace to her world—but she can’t do it alone.

The high king must fall. 

What was broken must be mended. 

And somehow, both Dragon and Rook must find a way to protect each other from the dark side of the magic building within and around them…

Or else watch their world burn to ashes. Continue reading “Book Review: The King of Burning Skies (The Serpents and Kings Trilogy #2)” →

Book Review: The Queen of Cursed Things (The Serpents and Kings Trilogy #1)

Title: The Queen of Cursed Things

Author: S. M. Gaither

Pub. Date: September 12, 2019

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

She’s the last member of a cursed and deadly clan.
He’s the crown prince with a dangerous secret.
Together, they’ll save the empire. Or destroy it.

Decades ago, the High King of Sundolia waged a war that vanquished the serpent clan and drove them out of the empire, reducing them to nothing more than legends spoken of in occasional frightened whispers.

But they did not leave peacefully. Their parting gift included curses that now rest within the empire’s soil, beneath the shade of its jungles, treading through the waves of its seas. Growing more and more dormant as the years pass under the shadow of that increasingly tyrannical high king.

Until Alaya—a girl with a hidden serpent mark who shouldn’t exist—accidentally wakes one of them up. Then another. And suddenly she finds herself near universally despised and feared, a scapegoat exiled from her adopted village and left with no choice but to seek the truth about her cursed bloodline. About her true home. About a power, stolen from the serpent goddess herself, that is supposedly resting in that home. It is the sort of power that could help her overthrow a king, expose the lies he’s told, and put a stop to his wars.

But the closer she gets to that power, the more complicated the truth becomes. The more dangerous her waking power seems. And the more she begins to wonder: Can you still be the hero if you were born a curse? 

Continue reading “Book Review: The Queen of Cursed Things (The Serpents and Kings Trilogy #1)” →

Book Review: Beauty in Darkness (Royal Hearts #1)

Title: Beauty in Darkness

Author: Elizabeth Briggs

Pub. Date: May 16, 2019

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

They’ve been enemies their entire lives, their two kingdoms locked in a never-ending war—until an arranged marriage sparks a passion they can’t ignore…

To save her father’s life, Princess Rose must wed the handsome, brooding wizard king Raith, her kingdom’s greatest foe. Though she always knew she’d be married off in a political alliance, she never expected it to be to that monster. Or that the only time she would see her elusive husband is when he’s teaching her magic, treating her more like his student than his wife.

King Raith may have taken a bride to end a war and protect his people, but after his former wife’s murder he has no interest in falling in love again, especially when Rose defies him at every moment and refuses to stay out of trouble. But Rose’s beauty and boldness tempt him to open his heart a second time, and every day it gets harder to resist her.

Just as Rose begins to see another side to Raith, she discovers her new home holds deep, dark secrets that threaten the entire land, secrets no one dares speak of—and he’s at the center of them. As their desire for each other grows, Rose will do whatever it takes to uncover the truth about his past and the shadows spreading across the land. But when darkness threatens to tear them apart, they’ll have to find a way to stop it together—or doom their kingdom forever. Continue reading “Book Review: Beauty in Darkness (Royal Hearts #1)” →

Blog Tour – Book Review: Warmaidens (Gravemaidens #2)

Title:Warmaidens

Author: Kelly Coon

Pub. Date: December 15, 2020

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Warmaidens is the dark, action-packed conclusion to the heartwrenching Gravemaidens fantasy duology. Kammani and the maidens are now going to war against the ruler who tried to entomb them.

Just a few moons after escaping the tomb in Alu, Kammani and the other runaway maidens have found refuge in the city-state of Manzazu. There, Kammani has become a respected healer, especially among the warriors she’s brought back from the brink of death. Now that the nightmares of Alu are fading, she can finally decide whether or not to take Dagan’s hand in marriage.

But when an assassin murders a healer he believes is Kammani and attempts to kill the displaced queen of Alu, the maidens realize they’ve been found.

Hungry for revenge, Manzazu’s queen wants to strike back at Alu with her fiercest weapons—her scorpion warrior maidens—but Kammani knows that war harms more than it heals. To save the innocents and any chance of a future with Dagan, Kammani must take down Alu’s ruler before their lives burn up in the flames of war.

Continue reading “Blog Tour – Book Review: Warmaidens (Gravemaidens #2)” →