Summerfall, by Claire Legrand Teaser Blast + Giveaway

Hey guys! Today, I'm showcasing a prequel novella--which publishes today--to a book I think EVERYONE should read (ehem Winterspell). 

Rinka is a faery, passionate and powerful, determined to maintain the tenuous peace between faeries and humans.

Chips, Metaphors, & Ehhs: A Review of Compulsion

Title: Compulsion (The Heirs of Watson Island #1)
Author: Martina Boone
Publication Date: October 28, 2014
Genre: Fantasy/Southern Gothic

Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient curse.

When loss is all you know, how do you find true love?

Beautiful Creatures meets The Body Finder in this spellbinding new trilogy.

All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she lived with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead--a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.

Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family's twisted secrets. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn’t what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead. -Goodreads

2 Stars

*Thank you Simon Pulse for sending me this copy, which did not affect my review in any way.*

Compulsion is like a bag of chips.

Aside: I DON'T EVEN LIKE CHIPS

Before you exit that browser and mutter how much of a loon I am (which may or may not be true) let me explain. See, it's a metaphor for this book I'M HUNGRY OKAY. Take a look at this picture:

Why I'm Stingy with 5-Star Ratings

Well, "stingy" is kind of a strong word, but hey, I'll be the first to admit that I'm prone to dramatics. Eh.

Yes, yes I am, Watson.

The other day, I was going through my Goodreads reviews and noticed how rarely I give out five stars--most of the time going the more safe route and giving the book 4.5 stars. And when I looked at my rating statistics, only 18% of my books are bestowed with the honor of 5 stars, while 26% are given 4 stars.

(In all honesty I believe the 18% to be a bit inflated, because when I love a series, say Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, I give the entire series five stars. So if it weren't for that, the percentage would most likely decline.)

Mini-Reviews: Of Beast and Beauty & What Happened to Goodbye

Title: Of Beast and Beauty
Author: Stacey Jay
Publication Date: July 23, 2013
Genre: Fantasy

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.
As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love. -Goodreads

4 Stars

Oh, how refreshing it is to read a YA fantasy novel that is not part of a series.

How invigorating it is to read of a fairytale that stays faithful to the original while deviating from the standard to create a world that is incomparable in characters and prose.

Review: Dreams of Gods and Monsters, by Laini Taylor

Title: Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #3)
Author: Laini Taylor
Publication Date: April 8, 2014
Genre: Fantasy

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter? -Goodreads

3.5 Stars

Ughhhhhhhhhhhh. You do not know how much I hate myself right now, how much it physically hurts to give this book any less than five stars. I AM DYING INSIDE. *hyperventilates*

Blog Tour: 3 Reasons to Read The Fire Wish + Giveaway!

Title: The Fire Wish (The Jinni Wars #1)
Author: Amber Lough
Publication Date: July 22, 2014
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: 3.5 stars

A jinni. A princess. And the wish that changes everything. . . .

Najwa is a jinni, training to be a spy in the war against the humans. Zayele is a human on her way to marry a prince of Baghdad—which she’ll do anything to avoid. So she captures Najwa and makes a wish. With a rush of smoke and fire, they fall apart and re-form—as each other. A jinni and a human, trading lives. Both girls must play their parts among enemies who would kill them if the deception were ever discovered—enemies including the young men Najwa and Zayele are just discovering they might love. -Goodreads

I just finished The Fire Wish a couple weeks ago, and OH MY GOD YOU GUYS HAVE TO READ THIS. There are Jinnis, princesses, princes, magic, palaces - basically, if you love fantasy, this book will satisfy you and go above and beyond your expectations. Yes, there are flaws, but most of them I was able to ignore.

Here are 3 Reasons to Read The Fire Wish!

1. Because it's far more authentic than the watered down Disney version (ahem, Aladdin) 

Book Reviewers Would Make Awesome Authors.

I created this post because I've noticed many people are down in the blogging community, so it's meant to be a pretty positive post. *sprinkles pixie dust and showers you with chocolate*

This isn't intended to "toot my own horn" or to establish bloggers as the kings and queens of the interwebz or maybe it is - and what's wrong with being proud of who you are, anyway?

Also, I'm including both book reviewers and book bloggers. Not everyone is both, but I'm sure most of us are book reviewers.

So, here are the reasons I believe book bloggers/reviewers would make AWESOME authors: