Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

My current favorite book of this series!!

(fourth installment after Heir of Fire)

Time to get down ladies and gents. Things don't take too long to progress in this book because everyone is currently at war. Celaena seeks to help her Kingdom by taking down it's evil King but now a new threat stands in her way; her once ally and now possessed enemy, Prince Dorian. Torn between the mercy of saving and the mercy of killing, she must face truths and find ways to think ahead of her enemies! So much drama to be had! Past enemies become friends, past romances become reluctant allies, current romances become steamier. (Helloooo bathroom scene!) More intense battle scenes and dangerous foe!

Things really take a big step in this book, a lot of the old history in the series is also brought forth to be dealt with so make sure you know about the back stories! Plenty of drama and action to keep readers strung along, I dare not reveal a single morsel in fear I shall spoil the delight of this book for you. What I liked least about this book was again, the POV of the witches, though I found it more tolerable than before since a new character is introduced and we get some more back stories. Eventually these two worlds collide, definitely making it more interesting so I'm intrigued to what will happen next!

 5 stars

 

Trial By Fire by Josephine Angelini

Alternate universes and witches? 

Sign me up!

I found Trial by Fire to be interesting and intriguing with it's tale of alternate universes with a twist of magic. As we all know, our heroine Lily ends up in a different universe where there is another version of her, who is powerful and supposedly cruel. This part of the book is where the story gets interesting. At first though, as much as I hate to say it, Lily is completely and 100% a pathetic Mary Jane. Sick and weakly, and hung up romantically on an obviously douche-y best friend, when Lily finally left her universe I could only hope that she would get it together and woman up!

It took a little time, and some 'woe is me' moments, but I was happy to see Lily start to come into her own, and become open to her unique powers. There were a couple typical things that I felt could've been more refined, for example Lily discovers that she can speak to her sister in this new universe through her mind. Guess what they call it? Mind-speak. Surely there could be a better name for it?
 

Despite this though this new world is fascinating, with it's magical willstones that define their owners and become such a part of them, that it's painful and/or intimate to touch another's stone. Other unique points were that their ideals were different from ours as in nudity does not faze them, and their world has monsters that are disgusting, terrifying, and carnivorous.

There are sisterly bonds of love, dark secrets, possible universes linking together, an ominous and ongoing war, and of course a sexy love interest, Rowan. Who could ask for more? The ending left me feeling slightly confused, nervous, and yet still somewhat excited. I can only hope that Angelini will introduce more of this magical world and an even stronger more independent heroine in her sequel!

Lauren - 4 stars

Coming this September! 

A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab

Magical and exciting! Another winner from Victoria Schwab.

Imagine if you had magic: the ability to travel from one parallel universe to the next. Pretty awesome, right? 

Welcome to Kell's everyday life.
At first a slow start, I found myself soon wrapped up in Kell's plight. His troubles begin with his irresistible urge to collect items from the other Londons that he visits. Tricked into smuggling over an extremely dangerous magical item, Kell must rise to the face the consequences or risk losing his London, as well as the others.

Schwab gave great details and emotional connections in this book that helped bring the different worlds to life. I could almost feel the dustiness of Grey London, the chill of White London, and the glow of the Red London. It was fascinating to know that each was connected, but became unconnected when Black London became corrupted and devoured by it's magic. Each character was unique, strong, and brave in their own way, but Schwab built powerful connections. I simply loved Kell and Lilah. Lilah is so headstrong and spunky, it's hard not to like her! I was easily ensnared, with the strength and connection of them, and there were plenty of things left open to amp up excitement for the next book.

Lauren - 4 stars  

Shit is going down!! Feb 2016! 

The Unbound by Victoria Schwab

5 stars

Love the matching theme cover, I must say!

(sequel to The Archived)

No sequel trauma here! What a knockout!!

Back with our independent heroine Mac, we start off with a new beginning, a new territory: school. Mackenzie is trying to cope with the trauma she experienced in the previous book with Owen, while attempting to take control of her life. Easier said than done in her case.

She finds it of course difficult since she suffers from morbid night terrors involving Owen that start to bleed into her waking life making her wonder if she's slowly going insane. What's especially difficult is that she can't show weaknesses right now since her job as a Keeper has been put on the line. 

To add to the mystery and chaos of it all people are disappearing and their only connection is to Mackenzie. 

Dun, dun, dunnn!

The Unbound round house kicked me in the face with awesomeness. We get more character development, more action, more mystery, and more layers of the "Archive" onion peeled away to reveal that there is more to this library of the dead than we could have ever hoped for...

For fellow Mac and Wes fans, I'm pleased to announce that they grow much closer in this book! (Finally!) 

Once again, I'm left dying for the next in the series, because everything was raw and intense. You feel Mac's pain, anxiety, and terror throughout the book and the ending leaves such promise for the third.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

5 stars

Look at that cover!! It's freakin' fantastic!

AHmazing!! I am so happy this book 
lived up to my expectations!

If you don't read this book you will be missing out. In my perspective, this book was a whole new view on the dead. This isn't about ghosts, and it isn't about a troubled teenager. It's about life, death, and something more. 

That's right, there's more!

So you have the three main "worlds" in this book. 

You have the Outers, everyday life for us normal beings. 

The Narrows, in my head I pictured a sort of go between for these different worlds for it has many doors and one narrow hallway like description with fog and darkness. 

Then you have the Archived, a library of dead people called Histories. 

Histories can awaken and they slip, where they start to lose themselves and their eyes become all black, it sounds pretty creepy. Mac's job is to find these histories and return them to the Archives. Sounds mundane, except that when they slip they can become violent and Histories don't bleed and are strong which ups the danger and excitement of this story!

What makes this book such a winner is the fact that its creatively imagined, the story is kept interesting because the apartment that Mac lives in has a dark back story of it's own which keeps the background intriguin. You also have a mysterious conflict and I loved the characters, and just when you think you know everything, there is much more to it than you thought you knew!

Just blew your mind there.
 All the excitement, mystery and action is why I can't wait for the second book, plus I want Wesley and Mac together. No lie.
The only complaint I have are that I pretty much figured out the villain right away. <spoiler>It had to be who I had priginally suspected, because the character was too...vague. We only knew that he/she was a sad character who had a somewhat mysterious past. 
I found Mac to be a strong heroine, defiant, and funny. I also thought the grief in this story was appropriate, not too whiny or clingy, but a family trying to recover from a harsh loss. The climax was awesome and blew my mind, especially when some of the clues were pieces together to reveal the "final form," as I'd like to put it.

The characters are wonderful and well developed as well. I simply adored Roland. Wes is pretty funny but I love Roland hands down. Just had to put that in there, that this book earns its fifth possibly secret sixth star for Roland. He is such an awesome character, I mean any character who wears Red Converse is just amazing automatically! I'm happy to find that Victoria Schwab has made another winner.

My review to the sequel, The Unbound.