Audiobook: Arcana Rising

Arcana Rising is the latest book in Kresley Cole's Arcana Chronicles and is narrated by Emma Galvin.

When the battle is done . . . 
The Emperor unleashes hell and annihilates an army, jeopardizing the future of mankind--but Circe strikes back. The epic clash between them devastates the Arcana world and nearly kills Evie, separating her from her allies.

And all hope is lost . . . 
With Aric missing and no sign that Jack and Selena escaped Richter's reach, Evie turns more and more to the darkness lurking inside her. Two Arcana emerge as game changers: one who could be her salvation, the other her worst nightmare.

Vengeance becomes everything.
To take on Richter, Evie must reunite with Death and mend their broken bond. But as she learns more about her role in the future--and her chilling past--will she become a monster like the Emperor? Or can Evie and her allies rise up from Richter's ashes, stronger than ever before?

The Breakdown:
1. This is one of my favorite post-apocalyptic series.  I love the magic and the games with the Arcana.  Although at first I was not sure that Galvin is what I imaged Evie would sound like but as the story progressed I really liked her narration.

2.  Evie in this book goes through so much.  Her grief over Jack, and her determination to exact revenge on Ritcher drive her in the first half of the book.  Then dealing with her grandmother's crazy ranting and her feelings for Aric.  Plus there is the question of is she losing her mind, things that can't remember and possible memories that did not happen.

3.  So, I did kind of like Sol, the Sun card, despite what he was doing and his alliances. He was witty and really a romantic at heart. I do hope to see more of him in future books.

4. Ah, and Aric, I really like him.  He is broody and hot, and he really cares so much for Evie. Plus, who does not love a man with a plan, and he really has great plans to win the game.

5. Side note, I recommend reading Day Zero before reading this book.  It gives many characters background stories from what happened to them on day zero.  Plus, it gives glimpse to Arcana that already dead that Cole never really shows in the books including Calanthe, Spite, and Stellan.

6. Honestly, Cole kind of killed me with the ending in this one. She drops a huge piece of information then basically mic drops the book.  I am dying for the next book and want to know that things will turn out for Evie and Aric and who is the Hanged Man.

List of Arcana:
0. The Fool, Gamekeeper of Old- Matthew
I. The Magician, Master of Illusions- Finneas
II. The Priestess, Ruler of the Deep- Circe
III. The Empress, Our Lady of Thorns- Evie
IV. The Emperor, Stone Overlord- Richter
V. The Hierophant, He of the Dark Rites- Guthrie 
VI. The Lovers, Duke & Duchess Most Perverse- Vincent and Violet
VII. The Centurion, Wicked Champion- Kentarch
VIiI. Strength, Mistress of Fauna- Lark
IX. The Hermit, Master of Alchemy- Arthur
X. Fortune, Lady of Chance- Zara
XI. The Fury, She Who Harrows- Spite
XII. The Hanged Man, Our Lord Uncanny
XIII. Death, the Endless Knight- Aric
XIV. Temperance, Collectress of Sins- Calanthe
XV. The Devil, Foul Desecrator- Ogen
XVI. The Tower, Lord of Lightning- Joules
XVII. The Star, Arcane Navigator- Stellan
XVII. The Moon, Bringer of Doubt- Selena
XIX. The Sun, Hail the Glorious Illuminator-Sol
XX. Judgement, the Archangel- Gabriel
XXI. The World, The Unearthly One- Tess

To Read or Not to Read:
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The Darkest Lie

The Darkest Lie is by Pintip Dunn.

“The mother I knew would never do those things.
But maybe I never knew her after all.”

Clothes, jokes, coded messages…Cecilia Brooks and her mom shared everything. At least, CeCe thought they did. Six months ago, her mom killed herself after accusations of having sex with a student, and CeCe’s been the subject of whispers and taunts ever since. Now, at the start of her high school senior year, between dealing with her grieving, distracted father, and the social nightmare that has become her life, CeCe just wants to fly under the radar. Instead, she’s volunteering at the school’s crisis hotline—the same place her mother worked.

As she counsels troubled strangers, CeCe’s lingering suspicions about her mom’s death surface. With the help of Sam, a new student and newspaper intern, she starts to piece together fragmented clues that point to a twisted secret at the heart of her community. Soon, finding the truth isn’t just a matter of restoring her mother’s reputation, it’s about saving lives—including CeCe’s own…

The Breakdown:
1. Dunn not only gives a decent  murder mystery, but deals with some heavy subjects in it including the lose of a parent and child pornography.  I think Dunn does the best job with dealing with how Cece learns to live again after the scandal and death of her mother.

2. Cece is definitely a complicated character. She is having serious trust issues after the death of her mother, an supposed suicide after a student claimed to be having an affair with her.  She cannot reconcile the mother with knew with these revelations, and is angry at her mother for it. She has trouble trusting other students because of the way she was treated after her mother's death.  As she digs into her mother's past, she learns that there was more to it and the scandal and her death that what it seems.

3. I really liked Sam.  He seemed like a  good guy that wanted to help others.  In fact, I get a little offended on his behalf with Cece keeps suspecting him of having darker motives for wanting to be with her and help her.

4. My biggest disappointment was that Dunn, for me at least, tipped off the killer/pornographer before the reveal. There was a conversation between them and Cece, and I just knew by what they were saying that was who it was. Thus, I was not surprised with Cece figured it out.

To Read or Not to Read:
Read

Audiobook: Circle of Jinn

Circle of Jinn by Lori Goldstein and narrated by Rebecca Schwab is the second and final book of the Becoming Jinn series

Being Jinn is Azra’s new reality. As she grants wishes under the watchful eye of the Afrit council, she remains torn between her two worlds—human and Jinn. Soon, secrets spill. Zars are broken. Humans become pawns. And rumors of an uprising become real as the Afrit’s reach extends beyond the underground world of Janna.

Straddling the line becomes impossible. Aware of her unique abilities, Azra must not just face but embrace her destiny. But when the role she must play and those she must protect expand to include a circle of Jinn greater than her own, Azra will be forced to risk everything. A risk that means there’s everything to lose, and at the same time, everything to gain—for herself and her entire Jinn race.

The Breakdown:
1. I will admit that I did not like this book as much as the first book overall.  This book dragged a little in the middle for me. I felt that Goldstein over monologued for Azra at times. I did think that Schwab fit what I thought Azra would sound like.

2.  I really was not a fan of the Azra-Nate relationship.  I did not really feel that there was much chemistry there. It just seemed forced. Not like the Azra-Henry relationship. Now that one had great chemistry.  I am totally team Henry.

3.  I did really like getting  to finally meet male Jinn. Zac is sent to help Azra with her wish for Megan, and I loved his character.  He and Arza were so much fun together.  They had fantastic banter between them.  Plus once Zac's secrets are out in the open, I liked him even better.

To Read or Not Read:
Read

Gemina

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff is the second book of The Illuminae Files.

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy's most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station's wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They've totally got this. They hope.

The Breakdown:
1.  In this book, Kaufman and Kristoff tell the story of the Heimdall station.  It takes places mostly at the same time or just after the events of the first book, Illmuninae. It is again told in reports, video analysis, and emails.  I did really like the addition of Hanna's journal with her drawings of incidents.

2.  Like the first book, it is hard to really connect with the characters due to how it is written. That being said, I loved the journal that Hanna kept.  Her drawings of people and things made me feel a little more connected to her.  I did very much enjoy the banter between her and Nik, and Nik's cousin, Ella.

3.  I was glad this book showed why Heimdall was not answering the message's from the ships from Kerenza, and that it introduced Kady's father and what happened to him. There was a lot of twist in this book that I enjoyed being surprised by.  I am excited to see what will happen in the next book.

To Read or Not to Read:
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ARC: Blood Rose Rebellion

Blood Rose Rebellion is by debut author Rosalyn Eves and is the first book of a trilogy of the same name.

Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden is barred from society by a defect of blood. Though her family is part of the Luminate, powerful users of magic, she is Barren, unable to perform the simplest spells. Anna would do anything to belong. But her fate takes another course when, after inadvertently breaking her sister’s debutante spell—an important chance for a highborn young woman to show her prowess with magic—Anna finds herself exiled to her family’s once powerful but now crumbling native Hungary.

Her life might well be over.

In Hungary, Anna discovers that nothing is quite as it seems. Not the people around her, from her aloof cousin Noémi to the fierce and handsome Romani Gábor. Not the society she’s known all her life, for discontent with the Luminate is sweeping the land. And not her lack of magic. Isolated from the only world she cares about, Anna still can’t seem to stop herself from breaking spells.

As rebellion spreads across the region, Anna’s unique ability becomes the catalyst everyone is seeking. In the company of nobles, revolutionaries, and Romanies, Anna must choose: deny her unique power and cling to the life she’s always wanted, or embrace her ability and change that world forever.

The Breakdown:
1. I received an ARC of this book from a friend. In this book debut author Eves, blends fantasy and history together. I loved the setting of Victorian Europe with the added element that there is magic, but only the aristocrats have assess to it due to a special spell called The Binding.  Plus, Eves used actual historical events and molded them to fit into the story.  It just worked really well.

2. I found Anna an interesting character.  She is caught between two worlds. First, she is born into the Luminate but has no magic of her own and thus is shunned by society and then she is pulled into revolutionary world were she is out of place.  I enjoyed her journey to discover who and what she is.

3. While I liked Anna and Gabor's relationship, I felt the romance part of it began to feel a little rushed.  They started out as grudging partners and started to develop a friendship and that I liked.  Once the romance sprang up, Eves rushed them a little and I wish she had drawn it out more, maybe spreading it to another book for the development.

4.  My favorite part of this book is when Anna was in the Binding spell. I loved learning why the Binding was created and how.  Although, the most emotionally wrenching moment happened during one of her journeys into the Binding. Plus the Binding introduced me to one of the most intriguing characters, Hunger.  He reminded me a lot of the Erlking in Jenna Black's Faeriewalker series. There is something dark about him, but he also helps Anna several times when she needs it.  I hope to see more of him in future books.

To Read or Not to Read:
Read

Audiobook: Into the Abyss

Into the Abyss by Stefanie Gaither and narrated by Angela Dawe is the sequel to her Falls the Shadow.

Violet Benson used to know who she was: a dead girl’s clone, with a dead girl’s memories. But after Huxley’s attempt to take over the government left her memories and personality wiped, all she has left is a mission: help the CCA fight back against the rest of Huxley’s deadly clones that are still at large.

But when a group of clones infiltrate CCA headquarters, Violet is blamed. Already unsure of where her loyalties should lie, Violet finds herself running away with an unlikely ally: Seth, Jaxon’s unpredictable foster brother. With Seth at her side, Violet begins to learn about a whole new side of her city’s history—and her own.

But when she learns the shocking truth about cloning, Violet will have to make a choice—and it may be one that takes her away from everyone she ever loved.

The Breakdown:
1. I really enjoyed the first book, Falls the Shadow, and was excited to see that Gaither' wrote a follow up it.  In this book, she switched from Cate's perspective to Violet's.  The narrator, Dawe, is not what I would have pictured as the sound for a teen-aged girl, but it really works with Violet's character.  It is a little more of a gritty sounding and works wonderfully with the story.

2.  Violet is struggling to find her place in the CCA after President Cross brings her back.  She does not remember her life before and most of the CCA hates her and what she represents.  She tries so hard not to care about others, like Cate and Seth, but she finds that she is more than an emotionless clone.

3. I really liked Seth in this book. He is more than what he seems, and has a great wit about it.  He has some great secrets that come out in this book.

4. The ending was not what I expected but it really works with the story.  The only thing is that I wonder if Gaither was going to continue with the series.

To Read or Not to Read:
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Being Sloane Jacobs

Being Sloane Jacobs is by Lauren Morrill.

Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life.

Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’s ever played. If she messes up? Her life will be over.

When the two Sloanes meet by chance in Montreal and decide to trade places for the summer, each girl thinks she’s the lucky one: no strangers to judge or laugh at Sloane Emily, no scouts expecting Sloane Devon to be a hero. But it didn’t occur to Sloane E. that while avoiding sequins and axels she might meet a hockey hottie—and Sloane D. never expected to run into a familiar (and very good-looking) face from home. It’s not long before the Sloanes discover that convincing people you’re someone else might be more difficult than being yourself.

The Breakdown:
1. This is the second book of Morrill's that I have read, and both have been fun reads.  I think I liked this one even more than My Unscripted Life.  The story is a fun switched places story, reminded me a little of the movie Model Behavior meets The Parent Trap, with some serious life/family crisis happening.

2.  I loved both Sloanes. Each is going through their own little identity crisis and dealing with some serious family issues. Both are looking to escape for a little bit and along the way find themselves and a little bit of love.  I love that these girls from very different lives form quite the friendship due this switch up. My favorite was probably them planning their switch and chowing down on junk food.

3. I think my biggest complaint is that the supporting character of Bee was underused.  I really liked her and Sloane Devon interactions, and their heart to heart toward the end was a great scene.  I just wish there had been more of her.

To Read or Not to Read:
Read

Carve the Mark

Carve the Mark is Veronica Roth's newest book and the start of the series of the same name.

On a planet where violence and vengeance rule, in a galaxy where some are favored by fate, everyone develops a currentgift, a unique power meant to shape the future. While most benefit from their currentgifts, Akos and Cyra do not—their gifts make them vulnerable to others’ control. Can they reclaim their gifts, their fates, and their lives, and reset the balance of power in this world?

Cyra is the sister of the brutal tyrant who rules the Shotet people. Cyra’s currentgift gives her pain and power—something her brother exploits, using her to torture his enemies. But Cyra is much more than just a blade in her brother’s hand: she is resilient, quick on her feet, and smarter than he knows.

Akos is from the peace-loving nation of Thuvhe, and his loyalty to his family is limitless. Though protected by his unusual currentgift, once Akos and his brother are captured by enemy Shotet soldiers, Akos is desperate to get his brother out alive—no matter what the cost. When Akos is thrust into Cyra’s world, the enmity between their countries and families seems insurmountable. They must decide to help each other to survive—or to destroy one another.

The Breakdown:
1. So, originally, I was on the fence on whether I wanted to read this book or not.  Don't get me wrong, Roth is an amazing author, but she broke my heart so much with the Divergent series, I was not sure I wanted to get emotionally invested again.  But who I am kidding, warring civilizations in another galaxy, plus I was able to see her on this book tour a couple weeks ago, so I had to read it.  Although super glad I got to hear her talk about so I would know how all the names of people and things were pronounced.

2. I was glad to see that she did much better in the changing of perspective betweem characters in this book, which was the weakest part for me in Allegiant.   She was able to make Akos and Cyra's chapters unique to the characters.

3. Speaking of Akos and Cyra, they are an interesting pair thrown together by, shall we say, fate. Akos taken from his home in Thuvhe part of the planet and forced into service of the Shotet royal family. His love and loyalty to his brother is amazing, plus he learns to see past Cyra's thick walls and find the girl underneath them. Cyra is the sister of the Shotet ruler, and lives her life in constant pain due to her currentgift. Deep down she does not want to be the monster he brother paints her as, but guilt holds her to her brother.

4. I found the idea of the current and current gifts interesting.  The current is like a force in the universe and it gifts people with abilities.  Although this abilities have both good and bad things to them.  It is almost like having a magic that is a tangible thing.

5. Oh, and the last 50 pages are amazing and exciting. There are some big twist there, and some big reveals made that you don't want to miss.

To Read or Not to Read:
Read

Audiobook: The Revival

The Revival is written by ChrisWeitz and narrated by Jose Julian, Spencer Locke, Christine Lakin, Aaron Landon, and Adetokumboh M'Cormack, and is the conclusion to the Young World trilogy.

The world ended. A new one began. But who gets to choose what it looks like?

After two violent years spent scavenging for food and territory while struggling to survive, an easy life in Sickness-free England has a certain appeal to Donna. Only one thing—one person—could make her want to return to the ruined chaos of New York City. And she thought he was dead.

Jefferson dreamed of starting over—uniting all the warring teens and creating a Utopia. Instead, the discovery of the Cure fuels a massive power struggle in the city, and it turns out, the whole world wants a piece of the pie.

With some of their own tribe in trouble, a deranged madman on the loose, and an unspeakable threat looming large, Donna and Jefferson must save not only themselves but what’s left of their world in this conclusion to The Young World trilogy. Because what good is living if everything you care about is gone?

The Breakdown:
1.  Weitz brings everyone back to New York for the conclusion of this trilogy.  It is an action packed book from the saving the Washington Square tribe and gaining control on the "football and biscuit." I was a great book to listen too, with different narrators to help really capture the different characters perspective which the book is being told from.  I love that Weitz writing makes each characters voice unique and the different narrators really bring that to life.

2.  Weitz adds in the perspective of Evan in this book. Who from previous books was quite the antagonist, but in this book getting to hear it from his on voice made me realize how much a psychopath he really is. Her is definitely a character I love to hate.  He is like on the level of Joffery from A Song of  Ice and Fire of hating.

3. Surprisingly, Weitz creates this strange  love square between Donna-Jefferson-Rab-and Kath that seems to work.  I liked the awkwardness between them, especially Jefferson and Rab. It made them feel like real people trying to understand others despite the crazy situation.

4. I thought the end to this book was very fitting for the series. It was not a perfect everything solved and tied with a neat bow ending. Without giving too much away, it left it at the Tribes of New York learning to work with the rest of the world and finding a place for themselves.  It just made sense with the story.

To Read or Not to Read:
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