Dividing Eden by Joelle Charbonneau

Posted on by lynndellwatson

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Dividing Eden by Joelle Charbonneau is an intense fantasy adventure. Carys and Andreus are royal twin siblings hiding a secret from the kingdom. When the power outage overwhelms Garden City, chaos follows. Andreus helps fix the outage problem right before their brother Micah and their father, the king, are brought home from the warfront by the King’s guards. Both Micah and the king have been killed and the only witnesses to their deaths are soon killed also. The secret the twins are hiding is the sickness Andreus suffers from; it causes him weakness and is supposedly the curse that the seer prophesied after the birth of the twins. The Elders have set up a tournament for Andreus and Carys to compete against each other for the throne, since both the king and his heir are dead. The winner will be the new ruler of their kingdom. They compete unwillingly and try to make the tournament go in favor of Andreus. The danger builds and the suspicion grows stronger as Andreus and Carys struggle to learn who they can trust. It saddened me how quickly Andreus believed that his worth was above everyone else’s. I love the ingenious, clever way the story is told with the alternating points of view of Carys and Andreus and how they overlap at times. This way of telling the story makes the reader’s emotions take a roller coaster ride. I would love to see a map in the sequel and I give this book 5 stars for the adventure and intrigue!

Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews

Posted on by lynndellwatson

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Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews. Echo wakes up in a strange place and she’s having a difficult time getting her bearings. It’s too dark to make out much and as she’s feeling around she touches something stringy like hair. She realizes she’s not in her bedroom or even her home. She hears creepy laughing and screaming and what she thinks might be a cutting tool. She’s spooked and terrified and she’s told by a scary nurse/nun that she’s now in Middle House. The other residents are young people also and Echo assumes that Middle House is an orphanage but the truth freaks her out even more. She learns to accept being a Middle House resident and gains friendship and help from the others as she discovers why and how she was brought to Middle House. The beginning of the book led my mind one direction and the continuation led it to a completely different direction. I don’t want to give the mystery away because it’s the reason I kept reading. Reminiscent of Everlost by Neal Shusterman, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and a tiny bit of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Bad Girl Gone is a supernatural romance surrounded in mystery, 4 stars.

Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

Posted on by lynndellwatson

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I received a paperback copy of Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody through a Goodreads giveaway and I also received an ARC from Harlequin Teen and NetGalley. Everything is a bit confusing with the descriptions of the illusions as the story begins. Sorina creates illusions, she’s the daughter of a freakshow master and she has no eyes. Her family members are actually all illusions created by Sorina. The illusions act as real people do and they are leading their own lives. Someone starts killing the illusions and investigations begin. People are accused and finally the killer is found. The writing conventions are done well, but I just had a difficult time with and understanding the concept and world building of the story. 3 stars.

Freeze by Kaitlyn Davis

Posted on by lynndellwatson

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I am reviewing Freeze by Kaitlyn Davis for a blog tour. Freeze begins where Frost left off. Pandora is imprisoned in a cell and Sam visits often. He teaches her to transport, and that along with her power to hide in the shadows and become invisible, helps her escape with another prisoner, Naya. Naya is a werejaguar and a necromancer. Pandora and Naya help each other through escapes and attacks. They also become friends and share their secrets with each other. Naya wants to save her brother who has been turned into a vampire while Pandora wants to speak to her mother that is no longer alive. This is how Pandora plans to find out the mysteries of her past. Pandora isn’t sure about Sam or Jax , the two men she cares for, and she doesn’t fully trust either of them. Pandora’s life continues to become more complicated and confusing. When she finally speaks to her mother, she’s given advice and more vague warnings about her future and the people she knows. The story continues in the third book, Fractured. The complex characters and situations keep the mysteries strong and the story interesting. 5 stars for a intriguing supernatural read!

Unblemished series by Sara Ella (review of first two books)

Posted on by lynndellwatson

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson–Fiction for the opportunity to read and review Unblemished by Sara Ella. There’s a mystery surrounding El, her recently deceased mother and their pasts. El has a crimson birthmark on one side of her face and this has made her insecure, along with all the taunts and rudeness she has received from others throughout her lifetime. Her mother passed guardian responsibilities to Joshua, a young man El has known about three years. She’s almost eighteen and Joshua is only a few years older, so she finds this arrangement ridiculous. The world she knows is only a small part of the world she learns about and is thrown into. Alternate worlds or Reflections surround El and her true history. I enjoyed the book and movie references throughout the story and the humor brought with them. The worlds consist of many intertwined characters and their relationships as well as their skills. The author keeps the reader on top of everything and keeps it organized by having the main character, El, review as she learns, smart and helpful. Deep characters and a fantastic world rates 5 stars. The story continues in the sequel, Unraveling.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson–Fiction for the opportunity to read and review Unraveling by Sara Ella. The story continues on from Unblemished as El struggles with her role as Queen and her relationships with others. Her insecurities still hamper her ambitions and self-esteem, while many of the relationships she thought she understood keep changing. Her life and surroundings are unraveling. It ends as though there will be more to come. The story has many twists and the characters have many layers and more secrets continue to be revealed. This did get a bit tiring because I never knew what the characters were fully dealing with and could not get a grasp on what was going on, but I suppose that’s why the title is Unraveling. Interesting and complex characters and creative world building earn a 4 star rating.

Story continues in Unbreakable, scheduled for release May 2018.

Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault by Candace Robinson

Posted on by lynndellwatson

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I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault by Candace Robinson. The sinister prologue spooked me and made me curious at the same time. Perrie is an only child living with her single father, since her mother left years ago. Her best friends are her next door neighbor and cousin, Maisie, and August, the teenage boy she has more than just friend feelings for. There’s an odd mystery about the breakup with her ex-boyfriend, Neven. One day, on their way home from school, Perrie, Maisie and August see a large building that they’ve never seen before, Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault. A sign stating there are job openings is hanging on the door. Curiously, Maisie has a job there by the next day. The characters are charming and the humor is refreshing, while something creepy lurks in the background. People are disappearing from their community and August and Perrie enter the Glass Vault when Maisie can’t be found. I don’t want to give anything away, but the twists floored me! A wonderful supernatural horror story full of fairy tale and historical retellings, worthy of 5 stars! Look closely at the cover for hints of retellings in this story!