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Review of ‘The Raven and the Dove’ (The Raven and the Dove #1)
Synopsis Four fates collide in this avian-inspired, epic fantasy retelling of Tristan and Isolde perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Sabaa Tahir, and Leigh Bardugo! A princess longing to be free... On the dawn of her courtship trials, Princess Lyana Aethionus knows she should be focused on winning her perfect mate, yet her thoughts wander to the open sky at the edge of her floating kingdom. One final adventure calls. Upon fleeing the palace, the last thing she expects to find is a raven prince locked in a death match with a dragon. A bastard aching to belong... Reviled son of a dead king, Rafe would do anything for his beloved half-brother, Prince Lysander Taetanus, including posing as him in the upcoming courtship trials. When a dragon interrupts their secret exchange, he orders his studious sibling to run. After suffering a fatal blow, Rafe is saved by a beautiful dove who possesses forbidden magic, just like him. Fate brought them together, now destiny will tear them apart... Unknown to the world above, on the foggy sea ten thousand feet below, a young king fights a forgotten war. He believes Lyana is the queen prophesied to save the world, and with the help of his favored spy, hidden deep in the highest ranks of the dove royal house, he will stop at nothing to have her. Three shocking betrayals. Two star-crossed lovers. One unforgettable journey. If you like fierce heroines, brooding heroes, forbidden romance, and action-packed magical adventures with twists you'll never see coming, don't miss The Raven and the Dove!
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘Red Hood’
Synopsis A dark, engrossing, blood-drenched tale of the familiar threats to female power--and one girl's journey to regain it. Five starred reviews greeted this powerful story from Elana K. Arnold, author of the Printz Honor winner Damsel. You are alone in the woods, seen only by the unblinking yellow moon. Your hands are empty. You are nearly naked. And the wolf is angry. Since her grandmother became her caretaker when she was four years old, Bisou Martel has lived a quiet life in a little house in Seattle. She's kept mostly to herself. She's been good. But then comes the night of homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life over roots and between trees, a fury of claws and teeth behind her. A wolf attacks. Bisou fights back. A new moon rises. And with it, questions. About the blood in Bisou's past, and on her hands as she stumbles home. About broken boys and vicious wolves. About girls lost in the woods--frightened, but not alone.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘Spellhacker’
Synopsis From the author of The Disasters, this genre-bending YA fantasy heist story is perfect for fans of Marie Lu and Amie Kaufman. In Kyrkarta, magic--known as maz--was once a freely available natural resource. Then an earthquake released a magical plague, killing thousands and opening the door for a greedy corporation to make maz a commodity that's tightly controlled--and, of course, outrageously expensive. Which is why Diz and her three best friends run a highly lucrative, highly illegal maz siphoning gig on the side. Their next job is supposed to be their last heist ever. But when their plan turns up a powerful new strain of maz that (literally) blows up in their faces, they're driven to unravel a conspiracy at the very center of the spellplague--and possibly save the world. No pressure.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
‘Of Silver and Shadow’ Review
Synopsis Ren Kolins is a silver wielder--a dangerous thing to be in the kingdom of Erdis, where magic has been outlawed for a century. Ren is just trying to survive, sticking to a life of petty thievery, card games, and pit fighting to get by. But when a wealthy rebel leader discovers her secret, he offers her a fortune to join his revolution. The caveat: she won't see a single coin until they overthrow the King. Behind the castle walls, a brutal group of warriors known as the King's Children is engaged in a competition: the first to find the rebel leader will be made King's Fang, the right hand of the King of Erdis. And Adley Farre is hunting down the rebels one by one, torturing her way to Ren and the rebel leader, and the coveted King's Fang title. But time is running out for all of them, including the youngest Prince of Erdis, who finds himself pulled into the rebellion. Political tensions have reached a boiling point, and Ren and the rebels must take the throne before war breaks out.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘The Scapegracers’ (Scapegracers #1)
Synopsis An outcast teenage lesbian witch finds her coven hidden amongst the popular girls in her school, and performs some seriously badass magic in the process. Skulking near the bottom of West High’s social pyramid, Sideways Pike lurks under the bleachers doing magic tricks for Coke bottles. As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider, she’s had a hard time making friends. But when the three most popular girls pay her $40 to cast a spell at their Halloween party, Sideways gets swept into a new clique. The unholy trinity are dangerous angels, sugar-coated rattlesnakes, and now–unbelievably–Sideways’ best friends. Together, the four bond to form a ferocious and powerful coven. They plan parties, cast curses on dudebros, try to find Sideways a girlfriend, and elude the fundamentalist witch hunters hellbent on stealing their magic. But for Sideways, the hardest part is the whole ‘having friends’ thing. Who knew that balancing human interaction with supernatural peril could be so complicated? Rich with the urgency of feral youth, The Scapegracers explores growing up and complex female friendship with all the rage of a teenage girl. It subverts the trope of competitive mean girls and instead portrays a mercilessly supportive clique of diverse and vivid characters. It is an atmospheric, voice-driven novel of the occult, and the first of a three-book series.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'Winterwood'
Synopsis Be careful of the dark, dark wood… Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even. Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing. But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago. For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, shows us why.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘The Memory Thief’
Synopsis Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Victoria Aveyard, The Memory Thief by debut author Lauren Mansy brings readers on an unforgettable journey through the city of Craewick---a city where memories are currency, citizens are divided by ability, and “Gifted” individuals can take memories from others as they please. In the realms of The Memory Thief, memories are currency that can be traded for goods, services, skills, and experiences. A group of people—the Gifted—can steal and redistribute memories. Etta is secretly one of them, but she hasn’t used her Gifted abilities since she left the rebel Shadows following her mother’s accident two years ago. But when her mother is again in danger, Etta has no choice but to return to the underground group in order to complete her greatest heist and save her mother’s life. Etta faces startling attacks, unexpected romance, and above all, her own past as she uncovers a conspiracy that challenges everything she knew about herself and the world around her. In a place where nothing is what it seems, can Etta ever become more than a memory thief?
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘Sword in the Stars’ (Once and Future, #2)
Synopsis In this epic sequel to Once & Future, to save the future, Ari and her Rainbow knights pull off a heist...thousands of years in the past. Ari Helix may have won her battle against the tyrannical Mercer corporation, but the larger war has just begun. Ari and her cursed wizard Merlin must travel back in time to the unenlightened Middle Ages and steal the King Arthur's Grail---the very definition of impossible. It's imperative that the time travelers not skew the timeline and alter the course of history. Coming face-to-face with the original Arthurian legend could produce a ripple effect that changes everything. Somehow Merlin forgot that the past can be even more dangerous than the future...
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘The Dark Beneath the Ice’
Synopsis Something is wrong with Marianne. It is not just that her parents have split up, or that life has not been the same since she quit dancing. Or even that her mother has checked herself into the hospital. She is losing time. Doing things she would never do. And objects around her seem to break whenever she comes close. Something is after her. But a first attempt at an exorcism calls down the full force of the thing's rage. It demands Marianne give back what she stole. And Marianne must uncover the truth that lies beneath it all before the nightmare can take what it think it's owed, leaving Marianne trapped in the darkness of the other side.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘Bring Me Their Hearts’ (Bring Me Their Hearts, #1)
Synopsis 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.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘The Vanished Birds’
Synopsis Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. Her friends and lovers have aged past her; all she has left is work. Alone and adrift, she lives only for the next paycheck, until the day she meets a mysterious boy, fallen from the sky. A boy, broken by his past. The scarred child does not speak, his only form of communication the beautiful and haunting music he plays on an old wooden flute. Captured by his songs and their strange, immediate connection, Nia decides to take the boy in. And over years of starlit travel, these two outsiders discover in each other the things they lack. For him, a home, a place of love and safety. For her, an anchor to the world outside of herself. For both of them, a family. But Nia is not the only one who wants the boy. The past hungers for him, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
Review of ‘Diamond & Dawn’ (Amber & Dusk #2)
Synopsis Lyra Selene returns to the incandescent magic of Amber & Dusk in a second installment about the corrosions of even the most dazzling dreams, and the strength of hope amidst darkness. Mirage, triumphant in her coup of the Amber Empire, returns to the palais prepared to take her place as Empress. With the support of her friends, Luca and Lullaby, and a tentative, blossoming romance with Sunder, Mirage is on the cusp of taking hold of everything she has wanted. However, her place in the sun is not as sure as she expected; nor is it quite as bright as she imagined. When the Empress Severine's body is recovered from the battle, she is not dead after all -- in a coma, she still represents a threat to Mirage's newfound power. Worse, a distant cousin, Gavin d'Ars, Duc de Douane, appears in court to challenge both women with his blood claim, and to propose a series of trials to determine the most deserving heir. In Mirage's fight to defend her vision for the empire, she begins to splinter all of her networks. Will the battle for control leave anyone untainted?
By Cyn's Workshop6 years ago in Geeks
