Tag: book recommendation

This meme is hosted by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. A similar meme, This Week in Books is hosted by Lipsyy Lost and Found.

Why not join in? Just answer the following three questions in a post and then put a link to that post in the comments over at Taking on a World of Words.

This meme will be categorised together with my book reviews. All links will get you to the book’s Goodreads listing, as always 🙂

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What I’m currently reading

The Magicians’ Guild

I’m really enjoying this! The first half was a bit repetitive for me (Sonea runs, Sonea hides, Sonea is discovered, Sonea runs,… you get the idea) but I’m over halfway there now and am looking forward to see what’s next. The world building is excellent, and I can’t wait to learn more about it.

I seem to remember trying this author before and I couldn’t get into her then, but this time I’m definitely intrigued.

Blurb:

This year, like every other, the magicians of Imardin gather to purge the city of undesirables. Cloaked in the protection of their sorcery, they move with no fear of the vagrants and miscreants who despise them and their work-—until one enraged girl, barely more than a child, hurls a stone at the hated invaders…and effortlessly penetrates their magical shield.

What the Magicians’ Guild has long dreaded has finally come to pass. There is someone outside their ranks who possesses a raw power beyond imagining, an untrained mage who must be found and schooled before she destroys herself and her city with a force she cannot yet control.

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What I recently finished reading

EVO Ghost

I’ll keep it short because my full review will be up tomorrow:

EVO Ghost was a great end to the trilogy. I especially liked Rave and Fernan, but I wanted more to go wrong. It was all a bit too smooth for me.

(How’s that for a flash review?)

Blurb:

Her name is both feared and revered. 
Her name is that of a ghost. 
Her name is Teddie Leason, and she’s back from the dead.

Teddie never agreed with Woodman’s hare-brained declaration of war that cost the lives of those dear to her, but now, she is the main participant in forwarding what he started. There is no turning back, the war has to play out, and she must end the oppression of her kind. EVO are at the mercy of a man with outdated ideas and the power to wield them. Britain will be reshaped forever unless enemies become allies and sacrifices are made. 

Becoming the ‘Face of the Rebellion’ is bitter sweet, with the potential for justice, but also a weight she struggles to shoulder. The fight has never been more important, and EVO have never been more at risk. They will follow where she leads. Does Teddie have the strength to bear that responsibility?

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What I think I’ll read next

Empress

I know my ever-growing tbr list doesn’t allow for re-reads (especially such long ones), but I’m tempted to re-read this all the same. Empress was the book that made me realise I wanted to be an author, and I’d love to pick it apart to see what makes it work. It clearly made an impression on me, and I’d love to see just how it’s put together.

I will still draw something new from my tbr jar, but damn this is tempting!

Blurb:

Her name is Hekat–
And she will be slave to no man.

In a family torn apart by poverty and violence, Hekat is no more than an unwanted mouth to feed, worth only a few coins from a passing slave trader.

But Hekat was not born to be a slave. For her, a different path has been chosen. It is a path that will take her from stinking back alleys to the house of her god, from blood-drenched battlefields to the glittering palaces of Mijak.

This is the story of Hekat, slave to no man.

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Have you read any of these and would like to chat about it? I look forward to hearing from you if you do – just leave a comment below and we can get this book club started!

Sign up for my newsletter for updates on my books and recommendations to help you grow as a writer:

This meme is hosted by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. A similar meme, This Week in Books is hosted by Lipsyy Lost and Found.

Why not join in? Just answer the following three questions in a post and then put a link to that post in the comments over at Taking on a World of Words.

All links will get you to the book’s Goodreads listing, as always 🙂

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What I’m currently reading

EVO Ghost

This is my second ARC in one month! I’m hoping to be halfway through by the time this post goes live (I’m preparing it ahead of time as always), and can’t wait to see how everything is going to conclude. Book 2 ended with a bang–literally!–so this one has a lot of to live up to!

Blurb:

Her name is both feared and revered. 
Her name is that of a ghost. 
Her name is Teddie Leason, and she’s back from the dead.

Teddie never agreed with Woodman’s hare-brained declaration of war that cost the lives of those dear to her, but now, she is the main participant in forwarding what he started. There is no turning back, the war has to play out, and she must end the oppression of her kind. EVO are at the mercy of a man with outdated ideas and the power to wield them. Britain will be reshaped forever unless enemies become allies and sacrifices are made. 

Becoming the ‘Face of the Rebellion’ is bitter sweet, with the potential for justice, but also a weight she struggles to shoulder. The fight has never been more important, and EVO have never been more at risk. They will follow where she leads. Does Teddie have the strength to bear that responsibility?

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What I recently finished reading

(this looks longer than it is…)

Vancouver

I won’t say too much now because my review is up tomorrow 🙂 (or you can read it now on Goodreads)

I read the first one either one or two years ago, I can’t remember… I’ve fallen in love with Meldon’s writing since then, and while I’ve read a few others I had yet to return to this series. It was everything I remembered, if less steamy than Book 1.

But more on that tomorrow 🙂

Blurb:

Aphrodite, goddess of love and lust, is not impressed. After giving up her penthouse suite in trendy Manhattan to go monster hunting around the world, she finds herself in a sad hotel room in Vancouver with a decidedly distracted Loki. She hadn’t expected this job to be so serious, and her Norse partner isn’t exactly bowing to her whims these days. What was the point in coming with him if they weren’t beneath the sheets all hours of the day? It seems like such a waste of sexual compatibility. Humph.

Meanwhile, Loki, Norse trickster, is equally unimpressed. He hadn’t thought taking on a beautiful partner would make his work so difficult. Her unfocused energy grates on his nerves, and his lust for her is only surpassed by his desire for more godly power. He will complete this job, whether she likes it or not, and he’ll walk away one step closer to regaining his old abilities. Now, if only he can get his partner to focus on the task at hand, not seduction. Ridiculous woman.

Aphrodite and Loki, an unlikely team if there ever was one, find themselves in the City of Vancouver hunting vampires. The job is pretty straightforward: rescue the damsel, kill the monster. Unfortunately, even the easiest of jobs hardly ever go according to plan. 

Westwick College

I thought this would be perfect to fill my review slots while I read longer books, being a novella and all, but it was long for a novella. Still a quick read, but definitely the longest of the three! It had the smallest level of smut and the highest level of risk, and the promise of more gods being in the next one is a mean tease!

My review will be up next week Thursday 🙂

Blurb:

Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and lust, is so done with taking cases in Nowheresville towns. She thought partnering up with Loki to fight supernatural baddies meant excitement, drama, and exotic adventures. So far, the sleepy town of Westwick in rural Idaho isn’t quite meeting her expectations. Still, spending day in and day out with the Norse god of lies and trickery adds more than a little spice to life. And she’d rather be with another god, bored, than all by her lonesome again.

Meanwhile, Loki, Norse trickster, is trying—and failing—to come to terms with the fact that his powers aren’t returning as fast as he’d hoped, even with all his freshly acquired followers. When an academic from his past implores him to help battle a magical presence at Westwick College, he puts his mounting frustrations aside in order to help a friend, dragging his gorgeous, albeit occasionally moody, love goddess along for the ride.

Magic has descended on Westwick College in Idaho, holding its students hostage by creating bouts of sickness and eerie bumps in the library stacks when night falls. While Loki believes it will be a simple fix, Aphrodite, having learned from her time with vampires in Vancouver, braces herself for a tough road ahead. 

And as if that isn’t enough, something—someone—is watching Aphrodite’s each and every step. Biding their time. Waiting for the right moment to strike.

Insignia

You may remember from my last post two weeks ago that I kept my expectations low, and I guess you could say it didn’t disappoint in that regard? It wasn’t great. I didn’t get very far before I moved on. It’s not a good sign when you’re still in the first chapter and already sentences make no sense. It needed a professional editor and cover designer, badly. The premise was interesting, but sadly the execution wasn’t there.

This strikes me more as a book the author published to see her name in print rather than because she takes it seriously as a career.

Blurb:

Living on Earth in the year 2026 is supposed to be great. Electric cars, clean air, advanced computer technology. Holograms even. The world has come far from where it was decades ago. 

For Riy “Rai” Veilheart, it’s the opposite. It couldn’t be fun being the target of cruel jokes and pranks on a daily basis. Despite being a good student, all people know him as is “Albino Kid”. 

So getting a tattoo on his arm couldn’t make things, worse, right? It couldn’t become worse than it already is, was his thought at the time. But it did get worse. Just not in the way he would have expected. Now the high school junior has a sword wielding assassin after him, “monsters” biting at his ankles at every turn. Yet that’s not the strangest part. 

No that would be the girl with blue hair approaching him, claiming to come from another world. Anyone would be crazy to believe such a thing, but upon following her closely he discovers not only is this “other world” real, it’s dangerous. 

And for some strange reason, Riy feels like he’s changing. Subtly, into something he never knew existed. Welcome to a world of Magic, Demons and Spirits. 

Welcome to Arlaum.

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What I think I’ll read next

My tbr glass has been upgraded to a tbr jar, actually (you can see why… so many scattered around it, and I’ve added to it since!) but until I take a new picture this is it 😛

I got a few new books for my birthday and they’ve been added to it, too, so there’s a nice choice next time I draw a book <3

I draw all new reads on Instagram in my stories – feel free to follow the next one!

(In case you were wondering:

Yellow – Fantasy

Orange – Fiction

Blue – SciFi)

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Have you read any of these and would like to chat about it? I look forward to hearing from you if you do – just leave a comment below and we can get this book club started!

Sign up for my newsletter for updates on my books and recommendations to help you grow as a writer:

This meme is hosted by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. A similar meme, This Week in Books is hosted by Lipsyy Lost and Found.

Why not join in? Just answer the following three questions in a post and then put a link to that post in the comments over at Taking on a World of Words.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! A little late, perhaps, but I had nothing to report two weeks ago. Hope you all had a good start to the year 🙂

This meme is no longer categorised with my book reviews! You can now find all WWW Wednesday posts in their own category 🙂

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What I’m currently reading

Vancouver (Lovers and Liars #2)

Planning ahead a bit again here as I’m preparing this post on Tuesday and still finishing The Light Over Broken Tide!

Originally, I was going to read Court of the Phantom Queen next but I read Book 1 of this series last year and want to finish it before I start a new one, short as they all may be <3

After one disappointing read, one mediocre one, and one brilliant one, I wanted a book I knew I’d love, and Meldon’s novellas are sure bets for me. Plus, they buff out my reviews a little while I read longer books 😛

I usually get through her novellas in a day, sometimes two, so will start and finish this before Friday!

Blurb:

Aphrodite, goddess of love and lust, is not impressed. After giving up her penthouse suite in trendy Manhattan to go monster hunting around the world, she finds herself in a sad hotel room in Vancouver with a decidedly distracted Loki. She hadn’t expected this job to be so serious, and her Norse partner isn’t exactly bowing to her whims these days. What was the point in coming with him if they weren’t beneath the sheets all hours of the day? It seems like such a waste of sexual compatibility. Humph.

Meanwhile, Loki, Norse trickster, is equally unimpressed. He hadn’t thought taking on a beautiful partner would make his work so difficult. Her unfocused energy grates on his nerves, and his lust for her is only surpassed by his desire for more godly power. He will complete this job, whether she likes it or not, and he’ll walk away one step closer to regaining his old abilities. Now, if only he can get his partner to focus on the task at hand, not seduction. Ridiculous woman.

Aphrodite and Loki, an unlikely team if there ever was one, find themselves in the City of Vancouver hunting vampires. The job is pretty straightforward: rescue the damsel, kill the monster. Unfortunately, even the easiest of jobs hardly ever go according to plan.

***

What I recently finished reading

The Light Over Broken Tide

Now this is how you self-publish! <3 This was an excellent emotional rollercoaster of a book. I still have roughly 13% left as I’m preparing this post but it’s a quick read and right now, I’m a little bit broken.

It’s my first read by Ducarte and I love her melodic, sometimes poetic, always clear writing style. Normally I read two books before putting an author on my insta-buy list, but in this case it only took the one <3

My full review will follow next week. You should definitely get this in the meantime.

Blurb:

Out of the blue, Rebecca Stafford’s Father arrives to parent her after years of absence. He then extracts her last bit of normalcy by moving them to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The shocking news plunges Rebecca into a despair that brings about an otherworldly encounter; she begins to have visions of her deceased Mom.
Uncertain whether what she sees is reality or the product of a troubled mind, Rebecca searches for an anchor to keep her from drifting in the new coastal town. She clings to Shawn, the eccentric, spritely boy-next-door promising adventures…with surprises of his own, involving an Irish legend and a hidden lighthouse. This brings on a whole new dimension to Rebecca’s visions, and sparks feverish romance between her and Shawn. A bond eventually threatened by forces beyond her control, sending her spiralling into dark, stormy places, leaving her to wonder how broken a mind can get.

Once Upon a Curse

My review for this will be up tomorrow, so I won’t go into detail now. I really enjoyed some of the stories while others felt unfinished and didn’t actually conclude their story. The editing wasn’t even, so some stories were edited a lot better than others which I found quite off-putting–I’d read one story and enjoy it, and then the next would be riddled with mistakes.

I really did enjoy some of them (maybe half?) and loved that I recognised the original fairy tales in most. Overall, I was a little disappointed with the quality since it advertises itself as having been written by bestselling authors.

Blurb:

Seventeen magical stories from NY Times and USA Todaybestsellers and award-winning authors that will entice you to the darker side of faerie tales. More Grimm than Disney, in this collection you’ll find twists on Snow White, Hansel & Gretel, Rumplestilstskin, The Snow Queen, Cinderella, The Pied Piper, Alice in Wonderland, and Red Riding Hood, plus new tales paying homage to the old traditions.
Shadows cannot exist without light, however, and you’ll find enough happily-ever-afters to lift your spirits in this anthology full of adventure, dark powers, and ultimately the enduring power of true love.

Visions of Zarua

Unfortunately, I didn’t actually finish this. I hate giving up on any book, but I just wasn’t looking forward to coming back to it. Most of the chapters felt like filler and as a result I didn’t enjoy the story. The world-building was good (no map, though, even though several important maps were mentioned in the story) and the chapters written in the past intrigued me a lot more, but there weren’t many of them and it took almost half the book before it was clear why they were there at all.

So I’m sorry I didn’t finish this, but it just didn’t work for me.

Blurb:

Two wizards, 350 years apart. Can they save the realm of Paltria from Zarua’s dark past? 

An ancient darkness haunts the realm of Paltria. 
Apprentice wizard Paddren is plagued by visions of a city on the brink of annihilation. When his master Kalesh dies in mysterious circumstances, the Royal Order of Wizards refuses to investigate. 
Helped by his childhood friend, the skilled tracker Varnia, and her lover Leyoch, Paddren vows to find the killer. 
The investigation leads Paddren down a sinister path of assassins, secret sects and creatures conjured by blood magic. But he is guided by a connection with a wizard from centuries ago – a wizard whose history holds the key to the horror at the heart of the abandoned city of Zarua. Can Paddren decipher his visions in time to save the Paltrian people from the dark menace of Zarua’s past? 

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What I think I’ll read next

Insignia

I drew this at random from my tbr-jar, but to be honest I don’t have high hopes for it. The cover doesn’t make it look promising and the edition I have wasn’t on Goodreads, where it has one review despite having been out since late 2014.

I fear this author isn’t taking this self-publishing thing overly serious, but I want it to surprise me with great writing so bad. It’s not a long book, so unless it’s unreadable I’m determined to finish it.

After all, looks aren’t everything and I really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I really want this to surprise me.

Blurb:

Living on Earth in the year 2026 is supposed to be great. Electric cars, clean air, advanced computer technology. Holograms even. The world has come far from where it was decades ago. 

For Riy “Rai” Veilheart, it’s the opposite. It couldn’t be fun being the target of cruel jokes and pranks on a daily basis. Despite being a good student, all people know him as is “Albino Kid”. 

So getting a tattoo on his arm couldn’t make things, worse, right? It couldn’t become worse than it already is, was his thought at the time. But it did get worse. Just not in the way he would have expected. Now the high school junior has a sword wielding assassin after him, “monsters” biting at his ankles at every turn. Yet that’s not the strangest part. 

No that would be the girl with blue hair approaching him, claiming to come from another world. Anyone would be crazy to believe such a thing, but upon following her closely he discovers not only is this “other world” real, it’s dangerous. 

And for some strange reason, Riy feels like he’s changing. Subtly, into something he never knew existed. Welcome to a world of Magic, Demons and Spirits. 

Welcome to Arlaum.

***

Have you read any of these and would like to chat about it? I look forward to hearing from you if you do – just leave a comment below and we can get this book club started!

Sign up for my newsletter for updates on my books and recommendations to help you grow as a writer: