Tag Archives: fantasy

Review: THE RAVEN KING by Maggie Stiefvater

 

Title: The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Supernatural
Source: book bought
Buy Links: Amazon | B & NIndiebound | iBooks

The fourth and final installment in the spellbinding series from the irrepressible, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love’s death. She doesn’t believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

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Review: COMPULSION by Martina Boone

compulsionTitle: Compulsion (The Heirs of Watson Island #1)
Author: Martina Boone
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publication Date: October 28, 2014
Source: bought
Buy Links: Amazon | B & N | Indiebound | Book Depo

Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient curse.

All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she lives with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead—a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.

Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family’s twisted secrets. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.

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Review: BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE by Maggie Stiefvater

 

blue lily, lily blueTitle: Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: October 21, 2014
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Supernatural
Source: book bought
Buy Links: Amazon | B & NIndiebound | Kobo

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.

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e-ARC Review: THE WINNER’S CRIME by Marie Rutkoski

the winner's crimeTitle: The Winner’s Crime (The Winner’s Trilogy #2)
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Publication Date: March 3, 2015
Source: eARC from publisher via Netgalley
Buy Links: Amazon | B & N | iTunes | IndieBound 

Book two of the dazzling Winner’s Trilogy is a fight to the death as Kestrel risks betrayal of country for love.

The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement…if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.
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Review: THE DREAM THIEVES by Maggie Stiefvater

 

the dream thievesTitle: The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Supernatural
Source: book bought
Buy Links: Amazon | B & N Indiebound

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same.

Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life.

Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after…
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Review: GRAVE MERCY by Robin LaFevers

grave mercyTitle: Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1)
Author: Robin LaFevers
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Publication Date: April 3, 2012
Source: bought physical copy
Buy Links: Amazon | B & N | BAM | Powell’s | IndieBound

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart.
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Excerpt & Giveaway: A COLD LEGACY by Megan Shepherd

 

A Cold LegacyTitle: A Cold Legacy (The Madman’s Daughter #3)
Author: Megan Shepherd
Publishing Date: January 27, 2015 (Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins)
Genre: Historical Fiction, YA, Fantasy, retelling
Buy Links: Amazon | B & N

After killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor’s own walls.

Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.

With inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the Madman’s Daughter trilogy is about the things we’ll sacrifice to save those we love—even our own humanity.

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Review: THE RAVEN BOYS by Maggie Stiefvater

 

the raven boysTitle: The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Supernatural
Source: book bought
Buy Links: Amazon | B & NIndiebound

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

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