(ARC) Magic Harvest, by Mary Karlik | Book Review #405

**Disclaimer: I received an Advanced Reader Copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way impacted my review.**

Magic Harvest is the first Fairy Trafficking book by Mary Karlik.

Young fae girls are disappearing.

Layla has never belonged to the fairy realm – at least, half of her hasn’t. She’s never known anyone with human blood, not even her father. When she was three, the dragon Fauth attacked the fairy festival, murdering her fae mum & stepfather. Frankly, some fairies think she should’ve been eaten too.

As she grew, despite being called names like “fuman” for being a half-blood, she’s discovered that being half-human isn’t terrible. She may lack magic, but she is immune to iron sickness, and she can wield a sword with elven skill.

Magic in the human world is disastrous.

Sixteen years later, when Layla’s half-sister is kidnapped and taken through a portal to the forbidden human realm, Layla rushes to the rescue. She’s older and stronger, and she’s not about to let her last living family member be taken from her without a fight.

Only someone who belongs to both worlds can find the truth.

The portal spits her out in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, but neither her sister or the kidnapper are anywhere to be found. Stuck in a world she only knows from school books, Layla forges unlikely alliances to find her sister. As she becomes tangled in the dark world of fairy trafficking, magic harvesting, and murder, Layla will have to find the strength within if she is to survive and save her sister.

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Publication Date: September 18, 2018.

Prior to actually sitting down and reading Magic Harvest, I thought that the premise was intriguing. I’m also always down for a YA Fantasy Mystery, so that’s another point of why I was interested in Magic Harvest.

City In Embers, by Stacey Marie Brown | {ARC} Book Review #383

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of City In Embers by Stacey Marie Brown from Mark My Words Book Publicity, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way impacts my review.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse Mention, Child Abuse Mention, Rape Mention, Blood

Zoey Daniels has been tossed from foster home to foster home, where she grows up fast and tough. When she is placed in her “last-chance” home, she finds a reason to stay and turn her life around: her foster sister, Lexie, who is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Zoey will do anything to keep her safe.

After high school, Zoey is hired by a special government agency, the Department of Molecular Genetics (DMG), where she meets the other reason to remain: Daniel, her co-worker. The man she loves.

But there is something unique about Zoey. She can see fae. Because of this, the DMG hires her to work as a Collector: catching, researching, testing, and using the fae to save human lives. The work never registers on her sympathy radar. She was raised to think of fae as beasts that feed on humans and want to destroy them.

When devastation hits Seattle, Zoey’s whole world is turned upside down. The electric storm connects her to a ruthless fae, a Wanderer named Ryker, whose dealings expose them to even more trouble and danger. They embark on a journey, running and hiding from both the government and fae, both of which threaten their lives and those they love.

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Publication Date: February 04, 2015.

What initially drew me to City In Embers was the fact that this book is a New Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Now I don’t know about you, but it is difficult for me to find a New Adult Fantasy novel. So I decided to give this book a try.

I’m not going to lie to you: I had incredibly high hopes for City In Embers.

(DNF) Has to Be Love, by Jolene Perry | {ARC} Book Review #376

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of Has to Be Love by Jolene Perry from Albert Whitman & Company, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. This in no way impacted my review.

Years ago, Clara survived a vicious bear attack. She’s used to getting sympathetic looks around town, but meeting strangers is a different story. Yet her dreams go far beyond Knik, Alaska, and now she’s got a secret that’s both thrilling and terrifying—an acceptance letter from Columbia University. But it turns out her scars aren’t as fixable as she hoped, and when her boyfriend begins to press for a forever commitment, she has second thoughts about New York. Then Rhodes, a student teacher in her English class, forces her to acknowledge her writing talent, and everything becomes even more confusing—especially with the feelings she’s starting to have about him. Now all Clara wants to do is hide from the tough choices she has to make. When her world comes crashing down around her, Clara has to confront her problems and find her way to a decision. Will she choose the life of her dreams or the life that someone she loves has chosen? Which choice is scarier?

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Publication Date: September 25, 2015.

Please note that I marked Has to Be Love as Did Not Finish (DNF) at 23%. 

Initially I had high hopes for Has to Be Love. I really wanted to know what happened to Clara and if she came to terms with her scars, or if she got her scars fixed. yet quickly into reading Has to Be Love, I realized that this book just wasn’t for me. Which is disappointing, because I genuinely did want to end up liking this book.

What I didn’t like about this novel was that I did not like the attraction that Clara had towards her new student-teacher that is still, technically, a student himself. That’s what drew me away from finishing the rest of this novel.

I give Has to Be Love, 1 star.

Happy Reading!
— Adele

The Spirit Chaser, by Kat Mayor | {ARC} Book Review #372

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of The Spirit Chaser by Kat Mayor from CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. This in no way impacted my review.

Trigger Warning:
Blood, Possession, Suicide,
Drug Paraphernalia, Drug Use Mention

Some places are too evil. Some places should be left alone.

Austin Cole has it made. Star of the hit television show Spirit Chaser Investigations, he has become the world’s most famous paranormal investigator. Although hard work, a talented investigation team, and favorable genetics have something to do with it, it’s his lack of fear and willingness to take risks no one else will that make Spirit Chaser Investigations cable’s number-one show. When a ghost-hunt-gone-wrong seriously injures his best friend and lead psychic, Austin is forced to find a replacement for a team member he considers irreplaceable.

Casey Lawson can’t catch a break. She’s been on her own since she turned eighteen and is scraping by as a part-time psychic and cashier at a New Age store. When a desperate Austin Cole calls her up and offers her a position on his team, has her fortune finally changed?

He’s a control freak; she’s stubborn and opinionated. It takes time, but when they finally realize they’re working on the same side, everything clicks, both on and off screen.

Over the years Austin has angered plenty of demons, and one of them has set her sights on him. Now he’s the one in danger, and it’s up to the team to rescue him from the riskiest investigation of their lives.

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Publication Date: November 03, 2015.

It’s been quite a while since I last read a Horror/ Romance novel and I was so excited. What piqued my interest about The Spirit Chaser was actually the fact that the characters in this story actually make up a TV show that they themselves star in. Think “Ghost Hunters,” or “Ghost Adventures” (my personal favourite).

In the first chapter there were multiple points of view that bled into one another, making the story seem all the more confusing, I had to really concentrate on what was being said. Quickly I acclimated to the way the story was being told. Which helped a lot because we’re never given a way to decipher whose point of view we’re reading from. You really have to concentrate on the way the story is being told to not only understand what was happening, but to be able to understand whose point of view you’re reading from. 

Inherit the Stars by Tessa Elwood | {ARC} Book Review #371

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of Inherit the Stars by Tessa Elwood, from Perseus Books, Running Press, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way impacted my review.

Trigger Warning:
Blood

Three royal houses ruling three interplanetary systems are on the brink of collapse, and they must either ally together or tear each other apart in order for their people to survive.

Asa is the youngest daughter of the house of Fane, which has been fighting a devastating food and energy crisis for far too long. She thinks she can save her family’s livelihood by posing as her oldest sister in an arranged marriage with Eagle, the heir to the throne of the house of Westlet. The appearance of her mother, a traitor who defected to the house of Galton, adds fuel to the fire, while Asa also tries to save her sister Wren’s life . . . possibly from the hands of their own father.

But as Asa and Eagle forge a genuine bond, will secrets from the past and the urgent needs of their people in the present keep them divided?

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Publication Date: December 08, 2015.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m a total mood reader. It’s taken me a while to get back into the groove of wanting to read Science Fiction novels.

I have high hopes for Inherit the Stars. I imagined that this novel would be action packed with a bit of romance. 

(DNF) Endangered, by Dani Hoots | {ARC} Book Review #359

Thank you to Victory Editing, via Netgalley, for allowing me to read Endangered (Daughter of Hades Book 1) by Dani Hoots, in exchange for an honest review. 

Chrys has been in the Underworld for thousands of years, hidden away by her father, Hades, from all the other gods. He’s afraid that if someone finds out about her, that they will destroy her because of the dichotomous power that she holds, the power of life and death. So she has remained in the Palace of Hades all her life, making very little friends and always bored out of her mind.

Huntley would have never guessed that after he died that he would wake up with a beautiful girl standing over him. And that she would be the Dark Lord of the Underworld’s daughter. Yet, for some reason, she keeps him around as her tutor, as if he knows anything about the world. But Huntley knows that all she really wants is a friend; being trapped in the Underworld can get pretty lonely.

That is, until Chrys decides that she wants to run away to the human world after a big fight with her mother Persephone. Chrys claims that her father is over reacting and that nothing bad will come of it. There’s no way that the gods will notice she’s there for only a couple of days, right?

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Publication Date: May 13, 2016.
DNF’d at 59%

Immediately, when I knew that this book was part of the mythology genre, I was slightly interested in reading this book. When I found out that Endangered is from the point of view of Hades’ daughter, my interest was piqued and then I requested the novel.

I was very excited about Endangered, and I was truly looking forward to it.

Never Forgotten, by Kelly Risser | {ARC} Book Review #357

Thank you to Clean Teen Publishing, via Netgalley, for allowing me to read Never Forgotten, by Kelly Risser, in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger Warning:
Cancer Mention,
Cancer related Death

Meara Quinn is about to find out there are worse things than moving to a tiny oceanside town before her senior year. Like discovering there’s a secret being kept from her and knowing it’s a life-changer.

After experiencing vivid visions of her absentee father, Meara decides she deserves answers. With the help of her new friend Evan, a guy she happens to be falling for, she embarks on a journey in the hopes of unlocking family history and finding her true self. But when she meets a handsome stranger at a local club who knows far more about her than he should, her world is again shaken. In him, Meara may have uncovered the key to the very secret that will reveal not only who she is… but what she is.

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What I was most excited about for Never Forgotten was the fantasy portions of this novel, and the fact that Never Forgotten takes place in Canada! I’m always up for books that take place in Canada.

There were a couple of things that I didn’t like about Never Forgotten. The first is that the beginning to me, was a little iffy. And frankly, with a start like that I wasn’t sure if I would end up liking Never Forgotten at all.

Kieran. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter. I know for sure he’ll be a big part of the next book. Oh, and another thing that I didn’t like was the snobby-ness that Katie exhibited towards Maera and Maera’s father, David.

I didn’t like that David kept things secret from Maera, only explaining that “it wasn’t the time” for things to be revealed.

The last thing that I didn’t like about this novel was that it was predictable.

The things that I liked about this book though, were the fantasy aspects of this novel. I also like the fact that Maera and Evan truly do seem to love each other.

My thoughts towards Never Forgotten are that this story was pretty interesting! We aren’t given the all the details of what we need to know, but we’re given hints that lead up to how the information is revealed.

Something that I immensely enjoyed about this book was that the story and characters weren’t too over dramatic. I like that we see some of Maera’s everyday life. I also like that the story and writing gives just enough detail, but not to the point where you’re overloaded with everything. We’re given just enough detail so we know what’s going on.

Never Forgotten is a great start to the Never Forgotten series.

I give Never Forgotten, 3 stars.

Happy Reading!
— Adele

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, Volume 01 + 02, by Fujita | {ARC} Manga Review #29

Thank You to Kodansha Comics via Netgalley, for allowing me to read Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Volume 01, by Fujita, in exchange for an honest review. 

 

The awkward, romantic comedy manga about geeks in love that inspired the new anime! Can a professional man who’s secretly a hardcore gamer and a woman who’s secretly a fujoshi date without their hobbies getting in the way, or revealing each other’s secrets?

Extra-long book includes 2 Japanese volumes!

GAMES OVER ROMANCE

Narumi Momose has had it rough: Every boyfriend she’s had dumped her once they found out she was an otaku, so she’s gone to great lengths to hide it. When a chance meeting at her new job with childhood friend, fellow otaku, and now coworker Hirotaka Nifuji almost gets her secret outed at work, she comes up with a plan to make sure he never speaks up. But he comes up with a counter-proposal: Why doesn’t she just date him instead?

In love, there are no save points.

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I was pretty excited to read the first volume since the synopsis sounded SO GOOD. I’m really interested in the older-aged manga and anime characters. I’ve only read two older-aged-character manga’s as of late, but I love them both. That said, I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I started reading Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku. What I recieved though was pure gold. 

Dragon Redeemer, by Amy Bearce | {ARC} Book Review #353

A huge thank you to Curiosity Quills Press for allowing me to read Dragon Redeemer, by Amy Bearce in exchange for an honest review. 

Dragon Redeemer is the third book in the WORLD OF ALUVIA trilogy.

Four years have passed since a fairy swarm released the voice of prophecy in Nell Brennan. In that painful moment, a skilled warrior became a reluctant leader and defender of Aluvia’s magic. Now a new enemy threatens their still-fragile lands, one Nell feels powerless to stop even with help from the voice within her.

A mysterious dark alchemist from the Ice-Locked Lands is rising to power on the strength of his sword arm and an ice-breathing dragon obedient to his command. He promises unlimited magic to his followers and death to those who defy him. If he takes over the ports, his corrupt elixirs will disrupt the delicate balance of peace between Aluvia’s people and all magical creatures.

The voice of prophecy sends Nell and her friends to their enemy’s treacherous domain to find a sword of legend. Only the sword’s magic can prevent a return to a world of dying fairies and caged merfolk. But Nell’s up against the toughest foe she’s ever faced. In order to defeat him, she must master the unimaginable power of the sword―and the unwanted magic inside herself.

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Two things appealed to me when I first heard of Dragon Redeemer. The first: it was the third and final book in the World of Aluvia series. Second, Nell, who we don’t really see much of in the first two books, finally had her own stance in the story. 

Winter Wolf, by Rachel M. Raithby | {ARC} Book Review #346

Thank You to Amazon Publishing via Netgalley, for allowing me to read Winter Wolf by Rachel M. Raithby, in exchange for an honest review. 

Trigger Warnings:
Murder,
Murder Mention,
Car Accident
Car Accident Resulting in Death,
Blood

Katalina Winter was prepared for life to change when she turned eighteen—but she never expected to actually change.

Learning that her birth parents were purebred wolf shifters is shocking enough. Now she’s expected to take her place in their unfamiliar world. Caught between two warring packs, Katalina must learn fast. One pack, led by the father she has only just met, wants to control her—and the other one wants her dead.

However, there is one bright spot to shifting, and his name is Bass Evernight. Tall, dark, and oh-so-handsome, Bass is the wolf that Katalina craves. He’s also strictly forbidden: a member of Dark Shadow, Bass is the son of her father’s mortal enemy. Yet deep down inside, Katalina’s new primal instincts howl that Bass is her mate. Can their love bring an end to the brutal war that has raged for so long, or will it spark the fighting around them into an all-consuming fire?

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Publication Date: October 27 2015.

I didn’t know that Winter Wolf would be part of a trilogy/series beforehand, so finding out that there are more books in the New Dawn series besides Winter Wolf is very intriguing.

Winter Wolf is an incredibly fast paced book — and a quick few hour read at that. I didn’t know what to expect within this story, but I knew that it was a shifter novel. I’ve had this ARC for a while, but honestly… I’m so glad that I read Winter Wolf. I was really in the need for a shifter novel and Winter Wolf definitely  provided!

There were a few ups and downs in this novel for sure. The first being the writing. I enjoyed how the story progressed, and the character growth that Katalina went through, but at some points the writing felt forced. Which can be a huge bummer, since forced writing can ruin a story.

The character growth that Katalina goes through is something to mention though. Katalina’s growth as a character is shocking, to say the least. While we don’t really see Katalina’s life before, we certainly see the aftermath of what happens. There’re some points in the story; especially the beginning, that I don’t think would be a normal reaction to Katalina’s happenstance. Comparing Katalina in the beginning versus the end, you can see that there’s a huge difference in her character. Kat completely grew into herself and what she is.

Another thing that I like about this novel was that it wasn’t very predictable. I mean, there are definitely some eye-roll moments that I had while reading this book. However, the one main thing that I predicted didn’t come true. Which I actually enjoyed.

Overall, Winter Wolf was an interesting story that I initially had really high hopes for. While the story did meet my expectations, the writing was something that dulled the overall feel of the book.

I give Winter Wolf, 3 stars.

Do you read shapeshifter stories?
If you do, what was the last one you read? 

Happy Reading!
— Adele