Review | Captive Prince #1 by C.S Pacat

Title : Captive Prince #1

Publisher : Viking: Penguin

Release Date : May 22nd 2012 

Genres : Adult Fantasy, LGBT

Pages : 252

Rating : 4.5/5

SYNOPSIS

Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos, but when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave.

Beautiful, manipulative and deadly, his new master Prince Laurent epitomises the worst of the decadent court at Vere. But in the lethal web of Veretian politics, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen is caught up in a dangerous play for the throne, he must form an alliance with Laurent to survive and save his country.
For Damen, there is just one rule: he must never reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him than anyone else . . .

Review | Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

Title : Flame in the Mist

Publisher : G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Release Date : May 16th 2017

Genres : YA, Fantasy

Pages : 393

Rating :★★★★☆

The only daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has always known she’d been raised for one purpose and one purpose only: to marry. [...]

So, at just seventeen years old, Mariko is sent to the imperial palace to meet her betrothed, a man she did not choose, for the very first time. But the journey is cut short when Mariko’s convoy is viciously attacked by the Black Clan, a dangerous group of bandits who’ve been hired to kill Mariko before she reaches the palace.

[...] Dressed as a peasant boy, she sets out to infiltrate the Black Clan and hunt down those responsible for the target on her back. Once she’s within their ranks, though, Mariko finds for the first time she’s appreciated for her intellect and abilities. She even finds herself falling in love—a love that will force her to question everything she’s ever known about her family, her purpose, and her deepest desires.

Review | I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

Title : I Believe in a Thing Called Love

Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Release Date : May 30th 2017

Genres : YA, Contemporary

Pages : 336 

Rating :★★★★☆

Desi Lee believes anything is possible if you have a plan. That’s how she became student body president. Varsity soccer star. And it’s how she’ll get into Stanford. 

But—she’s never had a boyfriend. In fact, she’s a disaster in romance, a clumsy, stammering humiliation magnet whose botched attempts at flirting have become legendary with her friends. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she’s applied to everything else in her life. 
She finds guidance in the Korean dramas her father has been obsessively watching for years—where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten. It’s a simple formula, and Desi is a quick study.

Review : The Call by Peadar O Gullin

The Call - Peadar O'Guilin
Publisher : David Fickling Books
Release Date : August 30th 2016
Genres : YA, Horror
Pages : 312 
Rating : ★★★★☆

Imagine a world where you might disappear any minute, only to find yourself alone in a grey sickly land, with more horrors in it than you would ever wish to know about. And then you hear a horn and you know that whoever lives in this hell has got your scent and the hunt has already begun.

Could you survive the Call?

REVIEW : Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake

Publisher : Tor Teen

Release Date : October 17th 2011

Genres : YA, Horror

Pages : 320

Rating : ★★★★☆

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.

REVIEW : Emerald Bound by Teresa Richards

Emerald Bound - Teresa Richards
Publisher : Evernight Teen
Release Date : September 29th 2015
Genres : YA, Fantasy 
Pages : 312
Rating : ★★★★☆

A princess, a pea, and a tower of mattresses. This is the sliver that survives of a story more nightmare than fairytale... Maggie Rhodes, high school junior and semi-reformed stalker, learns the tale's true roots after a spying attempt goes awry and her best friend Kate ends up as the victim of an ancient curse. 

At the center of the curse lies an enchanted emerald that has been residing quietly in a museum for the past fifty years. Admirers of the gem have no idea that it feeds on life. Or that it's found its next victim in Kate. 

Enter Lindy, a school acquaintance who knows more than she's letting on, and Garon, a handsome stranger claiming he knows how to help, and Maggie is left wondering who to trust and how to save her best friend before it's too late. If only Maggie knew her connection to the fairy tale was rooted far deeper than an endangered best friend.

REVIEW : An Ember in The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in The Ashes - Sabaa Tahir
Publisher : Razorbill
Release Date : April 28th 2015
Genres : YA, Fantasy
Pages : 446
Rating : ★★★★☆

Laia is a slave.

Elias is a soldier.

Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

REVIEW : The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender - Leslye Walton
Publisher : Candlewick Press
Release Date : March 27th 2014
Genres : YA, Magical Realism
Pages : 320
Rating :★★★★☆

Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.

In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration.

That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.

REVIEW : Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

Finding Audrey - Sophie Kinsella

Publisher : Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release Date : June 9th 2015

Genres : YA, Contemporary

Pages : 286

Rating : ★★★★☆

An anxiety disorder disrupts fourteen-year-old Audrey’s daily life. 

She has been making slow but steady progress with Dr. Sarah, but when Audrey meets Linus, her brother’s gaming teammate, she is energized. She connects with him.  Audrey can talk through her fears with Linus in a way she’s never been able to do with anyone before. As their friendship deepens and her recovery gains momentum, a sweet romantic connection develops, one that helps not just Audrey but also her entire family.

REVIEW : The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on The Train - Paula Hawkins
Publisher : Riverhead Books
Release Date : January 13th 2015
Genres : Psychological Thriller
Pages : 336
Rating : ★★★★☆

The debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives.

EVERY DAY THE SAME
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

UNTIL TODAY
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

REVIEW : Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Darkfever - Karen Marie Moning
Publisher : Delacorte Press
Release Date : October 31st 2006
Genres : Urban Fantasy
Pages : 309
Rating : ★★★★☆

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death—a cryptic message on MacKayla Lane’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. 

The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. 

  

She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed—a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae.

REVIEW : Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie

Bet Me - Jennifer Crusie 
Publisher : St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date : August 31st 2004
Genres : Chick-Lit
Pages : 391
Rating : ★★★★☆

Minerva Dobbs knows that happily-ever-after is a fairy tale, especially with a man who asked her to dinner to win a bet. Even if he is gorgeous and successful Calvin Morrisey. Cal knows commitment is impossible, especially with a woman as cranky as Min Dobbs. Even if she does wear great shoes and keeps him on his toes. When they say good-bye at the end of their evening, they cut their losses and agree never to see each other again.

But Fate has other plans, and it's not long before Min and Cal meet again. Soon, they're dealing with a jealous ex-boyfriend, Krispy Kreme donuts, a determined psychologist, chaos theory, a freakishly intelligent cat, Chicken Marsala, and more risky propositions than either of them ever dreamed of. Including the biggest gamble of all—true love.