#BookReview: Falling Kingdoms (Falling Kingdoms, #1) by Morgan Rhodes with #WinterHavenYABC

Reviewed By: Jessica P. 

Publisher: Razorbill

Recommended Age: Young Adult 

Genre: High Fantasy 

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:

In the three kingdoms of Mytica, magic has long been forgotten. And while hard-won peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest now simmers below the surface.

As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed... and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

It's the eve of war.... Choose your side.

Princess: Raised in pampered luxury, Cleo must now embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of magic long thought extinct.

Rebel: Jonas, enraged at injustice, lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country cruelly impoverished. To his shock, he finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Sorceress: Lucia, adopted at birth into the royal family, discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Heir: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, firstborn son Magnus begins to realize that the heart can be more lethal than the sword.... 

#NerdBlast: She Doesn't Know by @shanemorales069 @JeanBookNerd #Giveaway

Publisher: Xylem Flow Publishing

Recommended Age: Young Adult 

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:

Chloe Parker has just been uprooted to a tiny American compound in Saudi Arabia. You’d think after fourteen years of being an Air Force brat, she’d be used to being the new kid, but it still sucks. At least until she meets charming, charismatic Alex and falls for him hard. 

But Alex is a year older and is heading off to boarding school in Switzerland. Chloe won’t see him again for nine months and it’s breaking her heart. She doesn’t even know if Alex likes her back until he gifts her his private binder of hand-written stories and song lyrics to remember him by. That has to mean something, right? 

At long last the wait is over and Alex returns, but he's a haunted shell of his former self. Something bad happened while Alex was away, something that killed the light in his eyes, and Chloe is determined to help him. She has to get the old Alex back. 

But Chloe doesn’t know you can’t bring someone back from a place you’ve never been. All you can do is be there when they finally decide to come home.

#BookReview of Sorry, It's a Girl by Scheherazade Mikhail

Reviewed By: Rachael

Publisher: Femella Press

Recommended Age: Young Adult

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book: Love, tradition and unspeakable secrets form a tangled web when five privileged women from Lahore, Pakistan discover a truth they cannot run from.

How far will each push the envelope of tradition that cocoons them? How far will they dare venture for their freedom? For love?

Sorry, It’s a Girl is a piercing examination of a patriarchal society that goes to great lengths to prevent female independence as five women continue to test the shackles their birth has placed on them.

The novel is a bittersweet story of love and honor, and what happens when tradition clashes with the modern world.

#BookReview: Bring Me Their Hearts (Bring Me Their Hearts #1) by @Sara_Wolf1 @EntangledTeen

Reviewed By: Jessica P. 

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Recommended Age: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy (Storytales) 

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book: Zera is a Heartless – the immortal, unageing soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger ever since she saved her from the bandits who murdered her family, Zera longs for freedom from the woods they hide in. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly.

Until Nightsinger asks Zera for a Prince’s heart in exchange for her own, with one addendum; if she’s discovered infiltrating the court, Nightsinger will destroy her heart rather than see her tortured by the witch-hating nobles.

Crown Prince Lucien d’Malvane hates the royal court as much as it loves him – every tutor too afraid to correct him and every girl jockeying for a place at his darkly handsome side. No one can challenge him – until the arrival of Lady Zera. She’s inelegant, smart-mouthed, carefree, and out for his blood. The Prince’s honor has him quickly aiming for her throat.

So begins a game of cat and mouse between a girl with nothing to lose and a boy who has it all.

Winner takes the loser’s heart.

#BookReview: Lies You Never Told Me by Jennifer Donaldson

Reviewed By: Jessica P. 

Publisher: Razorbill

Recommended Age: Young Adult 

Genre: Thriller

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:

Gabe and Elyse have never met. But they both have something to hide.

Quiet, shy Elyse can't believe it when she's cast as the lead in her Portland high school's production of Romeo and Juliet. Her best friend, Brynn, is usually the star, and Elyse isn't sure she's up to the task. But when someone at rehearsals starts to catch her eye--someone she knows she absolutely shouldn't be with--she can't help but be pulled into the spotlight. 

Austin native Gabe is contemplating the unthinkable--breaking up with Sasha, his headstrong, popular girlfriend. She's not going to let him slip through her fingers, though, and when rumors start to circulate around school, he knows she has the power to change his life forever. 

Gabe and Elyse both make the mistake of falling for the wrong person, and falling hard. Told in parallel narratives, this twisty, shocking story shows how one bad choice can lead to a spiral of unforeseen consequences that not everyone will survive.

#CoverReveal: Mewranters - Attack of the Sea Monster by @kachiugo @XpressoTours

Mewranters – Attack of the Sea Monster
Kachi Ugo
Publication date: November 6th 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Middle-Grade, Young Adult
If there are no sea monsters ravaging the seven seas, or three-headed hydras prowling our streets, it’s not because they don’t exist; it’s because we exist.
We are the last line of defense against nature’s indiscretions.
We are nature’s police.
We are Mewranters.

When Perry Johnson hits twelve, he finds out he’s a Mew—an almost extinct species of people who possess the ability to change shape into three different forms: an aerial form, a terrestrial form, and an aquatic form.
On the day of his initiation, he shifts into a huge Golden Eagle. But this is a bad thing since no eagle Mew makes it past the age of twelve. To complicate his life, his shifting into an eagle Mew has reawakened the sea monster. A tentative partnership is formed between the different clans. But when Perry Johnson realizes that this partnership could mean the death of his parents, he has a decision to make.
With every Mew in the country out to kill him, and the sea monster calling him out to the sea, Perry must quickly learn why every Mew is threatened by the existence of an eagle Mew if he is to stand a chance at saving his parents and killing the monster. If he fails, it may very well be the end of his family…and the rest of the world.

#BookReview of Blind the Eyes by K.A. Wilson

Reviewed By: Rachael

Publisher: Snowmelt & Stumps

Recommended Age: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy, Dystopia

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book: When hope kills and dreams are deadly, her only shot at survival is to shut it all down.

In the Towers of Refuge, regulation dictates every aspect of life.

Haunted 17-year-old Cole would do anything to shake her reputation as a failure. The only way to survive the nightmarish Mara is absolute obedience, and she’s down to her last chance.

But when a charismatic stranger shows up claiming to know her and Cole discovers Refuge's absolute control and guarantee of safety are both illusions, she realizes hers isn’t the only life at stake and goes on the run.

In the underground club Freedom, nothing’s forbidden.

Cole needs allies to help her expose Refuge’s lies and escape execution by nightmare. Too bad the only candidates are a hedonistic rebel, a childish ghost, a stylist with a secret and an imaginary friend with a talent for monster-hunting.

With enforcers in pursuit and the dead invading her dreams, Cole must figure out who to trust and stop the dying before the nightmares eat her alive.

Trusted authorities lie, allies have their own agendas and even the monsters wear masks in this YA dark fantasy suitable for ages 14 and up. 

#BookReview & #Giveaway: The Orphan's Wish by @MelanieAuthor @ThomasNelson

Reviewed By: Jessica P. 

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Recommended Age: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy (Christain), Retelling (Aladdin) 

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:

From the streets to an orphanage in a faraway kingdom, Aladdin has grown up alone. Until he meets Kirstyn. With a father who is the duke of Hagenheim and a mother who is the patroness of the orphanage where Aladdin lives, Kirstyn is a member of the most powerful family in the land . . . and way out of his league. Despite the difference in their stations, Aladdin quickly becomes Kirstyn’s favorite companion for taking walks in the forest, and their childhood friendship grows along with them.

Through his scrappy skills, intelligence, and hard work, Aladdin earns a position serving in the duke’s house. But he knows it isn’t enough to grant him his one desire: Kirstyn’s hand in marriage. If he hopes to change his station in life and feel worthy of marrying Kirstyn, he must leave Hagenheim to seek his fortune.

But once Aladdin leaves, no one is around to protect Kirstyn, and the greedy men desperate to take advantage of her father’s wealth take notice. Now, more than Aladdin’s background stands in the way of the future he’s worked so hard to obtain. His only hope is to rescue Kirstyn and somehow manage to win her hand as well.

#CoverReveal: The Witch’s Tower (Twisted Ever After, #1) @TamaraGrantham #Giveaway @XpressoTours @CleanTeenPub ‏

The Witch’s Tower
Tamara Grantham
(Twisted Ever After, #1)
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: March 11th 2019
Genres: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Young Adult

Gothel is a witch. Punished for the actions of her mother, her choice is simple: either she stands guard over Princess Rapunzel—or she dies. But just because a choice is easy doesn’t mean it’s pleasant. Protecting Rapunzel means watching as the princess lays trapped in a tower, bedridden by hair that is so long and heavy it’s slowly driving her insane. Gothel’s life has become one of imprisonment and solitude as well—until a prince and his handsome squire appear at the tower.

Only one object can cut Rapunzel’s hair and end the curse: a pair of magical shears. But the shears are guarded by the most terrifying witches in the land, who also happen to be Gothel’s aunts. As Gothel and the prince’s squire, Raj Talmund, work to form a plan, she finds herself more and more drawn to the mysterious young man from the Outerlands. Unfortunately, his destiny is far more dangerous than she wants to admit: to save a princess, he must kill the witch who’s been forced to guard her.

THE WITCH’S TOWER is the first in an inspired new series of fairy-tale retellings from award-winning fantasy author Tamara Grantham.