Happy Canada Day: #CanadianReads

Hey Bookworms!

Today is July 1st, which means it is Canada Day! This year marks Canada’s 150 birthday since becoming a country back in 1867. Canada in my opinion is the best country in the world! I am proud to be Canadian, and so are these amazing Canadian YA authors.

I thought it would be a fun post to make with all my favourite Canadian recommendations. It’s a bit of a long list, but I hope you can stick around until the end!

Morgan Rhodes

Morgan Rhodes lives in Ontario, Canada. As a child, she always wanted to be a princess — the kind that knows how to wield a sharp sword to help save both kingdoms and princes from fire-breathing dragons and dark wizards. Instead, she became a writer, which is just as good and much less dangerous. Along with writing, Morgan enjoys photography, travel, reality TV, and is an extremely picky, yet voracious reader of all kinds of books. Under another pen name, she’s a national bestselling author of many paranormal novels. Falling Kingdoms is her first high fantasy.

Notable Novels/Series:

Falling Kingdoms Series

Spirits and Thieves Series

E.K. Johnston

E.K. Johnston had several jobs and one vocation before she became a published writer. If she’s learned anything, it’s that things turn out weird sometimes, and there’s not a lot you can do about it. Well, that and how to muscle through awkward fanfic because it’s about a pairing she likes.

Her books range from contemporary fantasy (The Story of Owen, Prairie Fire), to fairy-tale reimaginings (A Thousand Nights, Spindle), and from small town Ontario (Exit, Pursued By A Bear), to a galaxy far, far away (Star Wars: Ahsoka). She has no plans to rein anything in.

Notable Novels/Series:

A Thousand Nights Duology

EXIT, Pursued by a Bear

That Inevitable Victorian Thing

Star Wars Ahsoka

Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers’ dismay. All efforts to make her produce “normal” stories failed.

Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She’s the author of the NYT-bestselling “Women of the Otherworld” paranormal suspense series and “Darkest Powers” young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.

Notable Novels/Series:

Darkest Powers Series

Age of Legends Series

Kevin Sands

Since escaping from university with a pair of degrees in theoretical physics, Kevin Sands has worked as a researcher, a business consultant, a teacher, and a professional poker player. He lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of the bestselling The Blackthorn Key series.

Notable Novels/Series:

The Blackthorn Key Series

Erin Bow

Hi! My name is Erin Bow — physicist turned poet turned author of young adult novels that will make you cry on the bus. I’m a white girl, forty-something, feminist, geeky enough to do the Vulcan salute with both hands — in public. I live in Canada. I love to cook, hate to clean, and yes, I do own a cat.

Notable Novels/Series:

Prisoners of Peace Duology

S.K. Ali

S. K. Ali is the author of Saints and Misfits. She lives in Toronto with her family, which includes a very vocal cat named Yeti. She is currently working on her second YA novel, featuring an ensemble cast of diverse souls, as well as LOVE.

Notable Novels/Series:

Saints & Misfits

Sarah Raughley

Sarah Raughley grew up in Southern Ontario writing stories about freakish little girls with powers because she secretly wanted to be one. She is a huge fangirl of anything from manga to SF/F TV to Japanese Role Playing Games, but she will swear up and down that she was inspired by ~Jane Austin~ at book signings. On top of being a YA Writer, she is currently completing a PhD in English, because the sight of blood makes her queasy (which crossed Medical School off the list).

Notable Novels/Series:

Effigies Series

Alwyn Hamilton

Alwyn Hamilton was born in Toronto and spent her childhood bouncing between Europe and Canada until her parents settled in France. She grew up in a small town there, which might have compelled her to burst randomly into the opening song from Beauty and the Beast were it not for her total tone-deafness. She instead attempted to read and write her way to new places and developed a weakness for fantasy and cross-dressing heroines. She left France for Cambridge University to study History of Art at King’s College, and then to London where she became indentured to an auction house. She has a bad habit of acquiring more hardcovers than is smart for someone who moves house quite so often.

Notable Novels/Series:

Rebel of the Sands Series

Kenneth Oppel

I was born in 1967 in Port Alberni, a mill town on Vancouver Island, British Columbia but spent the bulk of my childhood in Victoria, B.C. and on the opposite coast, in Halifax, Nova Scotia…At around twelve I decided I wanted to be a writer (this came after deciding I wanted to be a scientist, and then an architect). I started out writing sci-fi epics (my Star Wars phase) then went on to swords and sorcery tales (my Dungeons and Dragons phase) and then, during the summer holiday when I was fourteen, started on a humorous story about a boy addicted to video games (written, of course, during my video game phase). It turned out to be quite a long story, really a short novel, and I rewrote it the next summer. We had a family friend who knew Roald Dahl – one of my favourite authors – and this friend offered to show Dahl my story. I was paralysed with excitement. I never heard back from Roald Dahl directly, but he read my story, and liked it enough to pass on to his own literary agent. I got a letter from them, saying they wanted to take me on, and try to sell my story. And they did.

Notable Novels/Series:

Silverwing Series

Every Hidden Thing

Lesley Livingston

LESLEY LIVINGSTON is a writer living in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of twelve books to date. Her first novel, WONDROUS STRANGE, was winner of the CLA Young Adult Book of the Year 2010, a White Pine Honour Book, shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Speculative Fiction, and in 2015 was named one of CBC’s “100 YA Books That Make You Proud To Be Canadian”. DARKLIGHT, the second book in this series was a finalist for the Indigo Teen Read Awards. The concluding volume in the trilogy, TEMPESTUOUS, was a finalist for the Monica Hughes Award. These books have sold to more than ten countries to date, and WONDROUS STRANGE has been optioned for film/TV by Shaftesbury Films. Her other trilogies have both won the Copper Cylinder award for Young Adult fiction.

Notable Novels/Series:

Wondrous Strange Series

Starling Series

The Valiant Series

Amy Alward

Amy Alward is a 30-something Chinese-White author, born in the UK and raised in Canada, currently based in Toronto. In 2013, she was listed as one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars. Her debut fantasy adventure novel, The Oathbreaker’s Shadow, was published in 2013 under the name Amy McCulloch and was longlisted for the 2014 Branford Boase Award for best UK debut children’s book. Her first book written as Amy Alward, The Potion Diaries, was an international success and the second novel in the series, The Potion Diaries: Royal Tour will be published in August 2016. She loves travelling the world, researching extraordinary settings and intriguing stories for future books.

Notable Novels/Series:

Potion Series

Elly Blake

Elly Blake loves fairy tales, old houses, and owls. After earning a BA in English literature, she held a series of seemingly random jobs, including project manager, customs clerk, graphic designer, reporter for a local business magazine, and library assistant. She lives in Southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and a Siberian Husky mix who definitely shows Frostblood tendencies.

Notable Novels/Series:

Frostblood Saga

Danielle L. Jensen

Danielle L. Jensen is the USA Today bestselling author of the acclaimed Malediction Trilogy: Stolen Songbird, Hidden Huntress, and Warrior Witch (Angry Robot Books). A prequel, The Broken Ones, will hit shelves in June 2017.

Danielle was born and raised in Calgary, Canada. At the insistence of the left side of her brain, she graduated in 2003 from the University of Calgary with a bachelor’s degree in finance. But the right side of her brain has ever been mutinous; and in 2010, it sent her back to school to complete an entirely impractical English literature degree at Mount Royal University and to pursue publication. Much to her satisfaction, the right side shows no sign of relinquishing its domination.

Notable Novels/Series:

Malediction Trilogy

Eve Silver

National bestselling author Eve Silver has been praised for her “edgy, steamy, action-packed” books, darkly sexy heroes and take-charge heroines. Her work has garnered starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Quill and Quire, two RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Awards, Library Journal’s Best Genre Fiction Award, and she was nominated for the Romance Writers of America® RITA® Award. The first book in Eve’s new teen series, THE GAME: RUSH, is available now. Watch for PUSH, coming from Katherine Tegen Books, June 2014.

Eve lives with her husband, two sons, an energetic Airedale terrier and an exuberant border collie/shepherd.

Notable Novels/Series:

The Game Series

Otherkin Series

Rachel Hartman

Rachel Hartman’s first YA fantasy novel, SERAPHINA, will be published by Random House on July 10th, 2012.

Rachel was born in Kentucky, but has lived a variety of places including Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, England, and Japan. She has a BA in Comparative Literature, although she insists it should have been a BS because her undergraduate thesis was called “Paradox and Parody in Don Quixote and the satires of Lucian.” She eschewed graduate school in favour of drawing comic books. She now lives in Vancouver, BC, with her family, their whippet, and a talking frog and salamander (who fight zombies)(really. There are a lot of zombies in the Pacific Northwest).

Notable Novels/Series:

Seraphina Duology

M-E Girard

M-E GIRARD is a Canadian writer of contemporary fiction—mostly young adult fiction, sometimes new adult fiction, usually queer fiction, and always about girls. Her debut novel GIRL MANS UP will be published in September 2016 by HarperTeen/HarperCollins and HarperCollins Canada. M-E was a fellow of the 2013 and 2015 Lambda Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices. Her writing has appeared in Plenitude Magazine. M-E is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Writers’ Community of Durham Region.

Notable Novels/Series:

Girl Mans Up

Amy McCulloch

Amy McCulloch is a Canadian living in London, who fits writing around work as a Editorial Director at one of the UK’s leading children’s publishers.

She was bitten by the travel bug at an early age while accompanying her parents on buying trips around the world for their oriental carpet business. It was this love of travel that inspired her to set a novel in a hot, desert location (moving to freezing Ottawa, Canada, where her first winter hit -40°C, might have had something to do with that too). She studied Medieval and Old English literature at the University of Toronto.

Notable Novels/Series:

The Knots Sequence

Heather Fawcett

I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, where I enjoy wandering around in the wilderness and only occasionally getting lost. I’ve also spent extended periods of time in Italy, where I learned very little Italian but ate quite a lot of pizza, and Ireland, where I searched half-successfully for puffins and selkies.

Before becoming a writer I worked, among other things, as an archaeologist, a technical writer, and a backstage assistant for a Shakespearean theatre company (which I could write several novels about). I have a Master’s degree in English Literature and briefly considered becoming a professor, before I realized it involved more than reading books, drinking excessive amounts of tea, and wearing colourful elbow patches.

Notable Novels/Series:

Even the Darkest Stars Duology

Kristen Ciccarelli

Kristen Ciccarelli hails from Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula where she grew up on her grandfather’s grape farm. She spent her childhood running wild with her cousins, adventuring in the woods, building forts in the barn, and obsessing over books, dragons, and girls wielding really cool weapons.

Notable Novels/Series:

Iskari Series

Gabrielle Prendergast

I’m a writer, teacher and designer living in Vancouver, Canada.

In 2014 I was the Writer in Residence at Vancouver Public Library. In 2015 I was nominated for the BC Book Prizes and chosen to tour the province to promote BC Books. I have also been nominated for the White Pine Award and the CLA Award. I won the Westchester Award for Audacious. Audacious was included in CBC’s list of 100 YA Books That Make You Proud to be Canadian. A poem from Capricious was chosen for the 2014 Poetry in Transit Program. Pandas on the East Side was chosen as an Ontario Library Association Best Bet for Junior Fiction in 2016.

Notable Novels/Series:

The Nahx Invasions Series

There you have it! Some of my favourite Canadian authors and their amazing books. Have you read any of these? If so which ones are your favourite?

Until next time,

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I Loved Them More Than Expected | Top 10 Tuesday

Hey guys!

Welcome back to another Top 10 Tuesday weekly fun on my blog! Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. If you want to join in the fun, hop on over to their blog to see what it’s all about!

This week’s topic is Top 10 Books I Loved More Than I Thought I Would.

There is always a book that gets iffy reviews and you are reluctant to read because of it. But me being me, I like to form my own opinions about things. So I do give them a try, with an open mind of course. These ten books that I am about to list are books I loved more than I expected I would. Gosh I sure do love surprises!

Seven Ways We Lie

Seven students. Seven (deadly) sins. One secret.

Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—from Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage, to Valentine, the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal.

When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the seven unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Serpent King

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. Dill’s only escapes are his music and his secret feelings for Lydia, neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending- one that will rock his life to the core.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Unrivaled

Everyone wants to be someone.

Layla Harrison wants to leave her beach-bum days for digs behind a reporter’s desk. Aster Amirpour wants to scream at the next casting director who tells her “we need ethnic but not your kind of ethnic.” Tommy Phillips dreams of buying a twelve-string guitar and using it to shred his way back into his famous absentee dad’s life.

But Madison Brooks took destiny and made it her bitch a long time ago.

She’s Hollywood’s hottest starlet, and the things she did to become the name on everyone’s lips are merely a stain on the pavement, ground beneath her Louboutin heel.

That is, until Layla, Aster, and Tommy find themselves with a VIP invite to the glamorous and gritty world of Los Angeles’s nightlife and lured into a high-stakes competition where Madison Brooks is the target. Just as their hopes begin to gleam like stars through the California smog, Madison Brooks goes missing. . . . And all of their hopes are blacked out in the haze of their lies.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Scorpion Rules

Greta is a Duchess and a Crown Princess. She is also a Child of Peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world, the great Artificial Intelligence, Talis. This is how the game is played: if you want to rule, you must give one of your children as a hostage. Start a war and your hostage dies.

The system has worked for centuries. Parents don’t want to see their children murdered.

Greta will be free if she can make it to her eighteenth birthday. Until then she is prepared to die with dignity, if necessary. But everything changes when Elian arrives at the Precepture. He’s a hostage from a new American alliance, and he defies the machines that control every part of their lives—and is severely punished for it. His rebellion opens Greta’s eyes to the brutality of the rules they live under, and to the subtle resistance of her companions. And Greta discovers her own quiet power.

Then Elian’s country declares war on Greta’s and invades the prefecture, taking the hostages hostage. Now the great Talis is furious, and coming himself to deliver punishment. Which surely means that Greta and Elian will be killed…unless Greta can think of a way to break all the rules.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Impossible Fortress

Billy Marvin’s first love was a computer. Then he met Mary Zelinsky.

Do you remember your first love?

The Impossible Fortress begins with a magazine…The year is 1987 and Playboy has just published scandalous photographs of Vanna White, from the popular TV game show Wheel of Fortune. For three teenage boys—Billy, Alf, and Clark—who are desperately uneducated in the ways of women, the magazine is somewhat of a Holy Grail: priceless beyond measure and impossible to attain. So, they hatch a plan to steal it.

The heist will be fraught with peril: a locked building, intrepid police officers, rusty fire escapes, leaps across rooftops, electronic alarm systems, and a hyperactive Shih Tzu named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Failed attempt after failed attempt leads them to a genius master plan—they’ll swipe the security code to Zelinsky’s convenience store by seducing the owner’s daughter, Mary Zelinsky. It becomes Billy’s mission to befriend her and get the information by any means necessary. But Mary isn’t your average teenage girl. She’s a computer loving, expert coder, already strides ahead of Billy in ability, with a wry sense of humor and a hidden, big heart. But what starts as a game to win Mary’s affection leaves Billy with a gut-wrenching choice: deceive the girl who may well be his first love or break a promise to his best friends.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

Legend

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Sun is Also a Star

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Tell Me Three Things

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Paper Princess

From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself.

These Royals will ruin you…

Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone.

Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.

Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.

He might be right.

Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Cruelty

When her diplomat father is kidnapped and the U.S. Government is unable to help, 17 year-old Gwendolyn Bloom sets off across the sordid underbelly of Europe to rescue him.

Following the only lead she has—the name of a Palestinian informer living in France—she plunges into a brutal world of arms smuggling and human trafficking. As she journeys from the slums of Paris, to the nightclubs of Berlin, to the heart of the most feared crime family in Prague, Gwendolyn discovers that to survive in this new world she must become every bit as cruel as the men she’s hunting.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

Well there you have it! Top 10 Books I Loved More Than I Thought I Would. What are some of your favorite books you weren’t expecting to like as much?

Until next time,

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Top 16 Books of 2016 | Books at Dawn

Hey guys!

Welcome to a new year. How crazy has time flown by though; so insane. Well to start off the new year right, it only makes sense to list my favorite reads from 2016. The top 16 best books to be exact. Get it, 16 for 2016. I know, how original.

By doing this I hope to discuss some of the books that we both read together, or bring to your attention some books that you might have overlooked last year. So without further ado, here is my Top 16 Books of 2016:

16. Siren’s Song

Nym and Draewulf prepare to face off in a battle destined to destroy more lives than it saves.

With the loss of Tulla still fresh in mind, Rasha’s fate unknown, and Lord Myles taken over by the dark ability, Nym and the few Bron soldiers rush to warn Cashlin’s queen. Only to discover it may already be too late for the monarch and her eerie kingdom. As the Luminescents are sifting through Nym’s past memories and the queen is reading into her future, Nym is given a choice of how to defeat Draewulf, but the cost may be more than she can bear. And even then there are no guarantees.

With that reality burrowing into her bones—along with the guilt of the lives she will sacrifice—Nym returns to her homeland of Faelen to raise an army of peasants through promises of freedom. But when the few friends she has left, along with the world and citizens she loves, are staring down the face of a monster and his undead army, will Nym summon every element her blood is capable of controlling . . . or surrender to a different strength—one of sacrifice?

Because in the end, death may be more merciful for them all.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

Siren’s Song Review

15. Paper Princess

From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself.

These Royals will ruin you…

Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone.

Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.

Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.

He might be right.

Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

My Thoughts:

Paper Princess was a deliciously addictive contemporary romance with tons of drama, sex, and swoon worthy bad boys. I can’t wait to pick up the sequels in the near future!

14. Air Awakens

A library apprentice, a sorcerer prince, and an unbreakable magic bond…

The Solaris Empire is one conquest away from uniting the continent, and the rare elemental magic sleeping in seventeen-year-old library apprentice Vhalla Yarl could shift the tides of war.

Vhalla has always been taught to fear the Tower of Sorcerers, a mysterious magic society, and has been happy in her quiet world of books. But after she unknowingly saves the life of one of the most powerful sorcerers of them all—the Crown Prince Aldrik—she finds herself enticed into his world. Now she must decide her future: Embrace her sorcery and leave the life she’s known, or eradicate her magic and remain as she’s always been. And with powerful forces lurking in the shadows, Vhalla’s indecision could cost her more than she ever imagined.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

My Thoughts:

Air Awakens is the beginning of what I imagine is going to be a vast and intriguing fantasy about the last of her kind. This book sets up a lot with characters, world, and history. I look forward to some more action and adventure in the future installments!

13. The Swan Riders

Greta Stuart had always known her future: die young. She was her country’s crown princess, and also its hostage, destined to be the first casualty in an inevitable war. But when the war came it broke all the rules, and Greta forged a different path.

She is no longer princess. No longer hostage. No longer human. Greta Stuart has become an AI.

If she can survive the transition, Greta will earn a place alongside Talis, the AI who rules the world. Talis is a big believer in peace through superior firepower. But some problems are too personal to obliterate from orbit, and for those there are the Swan Riders: a small band of humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.

Now two of the Swan Riders are escorting Talis and Greta across post-apocalyptic Saskatchewan. But Greta’s fate has stirred her nation into open rebellion, and the dry grassland may hide insurgents who want to rescue her – or see her killed. Including Elian, the boy she saved—the boy who wants to change the world, with a knife if necessary. Even the infinitely loyal Swan Riders may not be everything they seem.

Greta’s fate—and the fate of her world—are balanced on the edge of a knife in this smart, sly, electrifying adventure.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

The Swan Riders Review

12. The Impostor Queen

Sixteen-year-old Elli was only a child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic in service of her people. The only life Elli has known has been in the temple, surrounded by luxury, tutored by magic-wielding priests, preparing for the day when the queen perishes—and the ice and fire find a new home in Elli, who is prophesied to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.

But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found.

Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between her love for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must choose the right side before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

The Impostor Queen Review

11. Court of Fives

On the Fives court, everyone is equal.

And everyone is dangerous.

Jessamy’s life is a balance between acting like an upper-class Patron and dreaming of the freedom of the Commoners. But away from her family, she can be whomever she wants when she sneaks out to train for the Fives, an intricate, multilevel athletic competition that offers a chance for glory to the kingdom’s best competitors.

Then Jes meets Kalliarkos, and an improbable friendship between the two Fives competitors—one of mixed race and the other a Patron boy—causes heads to turn. When Kal’s powerful, scheming uncle tears Jes’s family apart, she’ll have to test her new friend’s loyalty and risk the vengeance of a royal clan to save her mother and sisters from certain death.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

Court of Fives Review

10. Empire of Dust

In Macedon, war rises like smoke, forbidden romance blooms and ancient magic tempered with rage threatens to turn an empire to dust.

After winning his first battle, Prince Alexander fights to become the ruler his kingdom demands—but the line between leader and tyrant blurs with each new threat.

Meanwhile, Hephaestion, cast aside by Alexander for killing the wrong man, must conceal the devastating secret of a divine prophecy from Katerina even as the two of them are thrust together on a dangerous mission to Egypt.

The warrior, Jacob, determined to forget his first love, vows to eradicate the ancient Blood Magics and believes that royal prisoner Cynane holds the key to Macedon’s undoing.

And in chains, the Persian princess Zofia still longs to find the Spirit Eaters, but first must grapple with the secrets of her handsome—and deadly—captor.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

Empire of Dust Review

9. Fate of Flames

Years ago, everything changed. Phantoms, massive beasts of nightmare, began terrorizing the world. At the same time four girls, the Effigies, appeared, each with the unique power to control a classical element. Since then, they have protected the world from the Phantoms. At the death of one Effigy, another is chosen, pulled from her normal life into the never-ending battle.

When Maia unexpectedly becomes the next Fire Effigy, she resists her new calling. A quiet girl with few friends and almost no family, she was much happier to admire the Effigies from afar. Never did she imagine having to master her ability to control fire, to protect innocent citizens from the Phantoms, or to try bringing together the other three Effigies.

But with the arrival of the mysterious Saul—a man who seems to be able to control the Phantoms using the same cosmic power previously only granted to four girls at a time—Maia and the other Effigies must learn to work together in a world where their celebrity is more important than their heroism.

But the secrets Saul has, and the power he possesses, might be more than even they can handle…

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

Fate of Flames Review

8. Boy Robot

Seventeen-year-old Isaak discovers the truth about his origin and the underground forces that must come together to fight against a secret government organization formed to eradicate those like him in this high-octane science fiction debut.

There once was a boy who was made, not created.

In a single night, Isaak’s life changed forever.

His adoptive parents were killed, a mysterious girl saved him from a team of soldiers, and he learned of his own dark and destructive origin.

An origin he doesn’t want to believe, but one he cannot deny.

Isaak is a Robot: a government-made synthetic human, produced as a weapon and now hunted, marked for termination.

He and the Robots can only find asylum with the Underground—a secret network of Robots and humans working together to ensure a coexistent future.

To be protected by the Underground, Isaak will have to make it there first. But with a deadly military force tasked to find him at any cost, his odds are less than favorable.

Now Isaak must decide whether to hold on to his humanity and face possible death…or to embrace his true nature in order to survive, at the risk of becoming the weapon he was made to be.

In his debut, recording artist Simon Curtis has written a fast-paced, high-stakes novel that explores humanity, the ultimate power of empathy, and the greatest battle of all: love vs. fear.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

Boy Robot Review

7. The Sun is Also a Star

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

The Sun is Also a Star Review

6. Tell Me Three Things

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

Tell Me Three Things Review

5. The Serpent King

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. Dill’s only escapes are his music and his secret feelings for Lydia neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending one that will rock his life to the core.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

The Serpent King Review

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter is midway through both his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys. He wants to dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream).

He wants to find out about the mysterious event that supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn’t happened for hundreds of years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he’s not normal – even by wizarding standards.
And in his case, different can be deadly.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

My Thoughts:

Can you believe that I am almost 25 years old and I am finally reading Harry Potter for the first time? That’s insane right? Well I am LOVING it. HP and the Goblet of Fire is by far my favorite one in the series so far. Just like it was my favorite of the movies also. I love how much more character growth and insight we get from the books. I’m hoping I can finish the series by years end!

3. We Are the Ants

There are a few things Henry Denton knows, and a few things he doesn’t.

Henry knows that his mom is struggling to keep the family together, and coping by chain-smoking cigarettes. He knows that his older brother is a college dropout with a pregnant girlfriend. He knows that he is slowly losing his grandmother to Alzheimer’s. And he knows that his boyfriend committed suicide last year.

What Henry doesn’t know is why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.

But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.

The question is whether Henry thinks the world is worth saving. That is, until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

We Are the Ants Review

2. Golden Son & Morning Star

Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind’s last hope. Until Darrow discovered that it was all a lie, and that the Red were nothing more than unwitting slaves to an elitist ruling class, the Golds, who had been living on Mars in luxury for generations.

In RED RISING, Darrow infiltrated Gold society, to fight in secret for a better future for his people. Now fully embedded amongst the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his dangerous work to bring them down from within. It’s a journey that will take him further than he’s ever been before – but is Darrow truly willing to pay the price that rebellion demands?

Hic sunt leones.

A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s growing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.

Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

For my full thoughts, check out my review:

Golden Son Review & Morning Star Review

1. Frozen Tides & Crystal Storm

CLEO: Reeling after a bloody showdown in Limeros ending with Amara’s abduction of the water crystal, and a vacancy in the Mytican throne, Princess Cleo must cast aside her feelings and look toward her kingdom with the eyes of a Queen.

MAGNUS: With the kingdom in chaos, Princess Lucia still missing and quite possibly in danger, and a shocking realization about Cleo, the steely prince is once again torn between love and duty, leaving him wondering whether he’s strong enough to rule his people.

LUCIA: The young sorcercess has had her vengeance after the cruel death of her first and only love. Heartbroken and unable to trust anyone, she allies with the awoken Fire god, who also seeks revenge.

JONAS: After escaping death by the skin of his teeth, the defeated rebel—along with a mysterious stranger–leader reunites with Princess Cleo, only to find himself a mere pawn in a dangerous hunt for the elusive Kindred.

KING GAIUS: Abandoned by Melenia and betrayed by his own children, Gaius flees Mytica and sails to Kraeshia, where he attempts to ally with the famously brutal emperor across the Silver Sea.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

My Thoughts:

You all know that the Falling Kingdoms series is my all time favorite. Well book 4 does not disappoint at all! It’s fun, action packed, and a wild ride from beginning to end. So much is revealed in this installment that my brain and feels could not take it anymore! A ship finally gets together… and one of my favorite characters rises from the dead. Considering how many characters have died in this series, it’s not much of a spoiler to who it is!

The ruthless Empress Amara of Kraeshia has taken the Mytican throne, and now uncertainty looms over the three kingdoms. Since Lucia unleashed the fire Kindred, wreaking havoc throughout the land, Myticans have been looking for someone—anyone—they can trust. They believe in Amara, not knowing her grand promises are built on lies.

In Paelsia, Magnus and Cleo reluctantly follow King Gaius to the home of his exiled mother, Selia. Selia is a powerful witch and claims she can help unlock the magic of the Kindred—if the visitors agree to her terms. When Jonas arrives from Kraeshia, he is shocked to find that his rebel army now includes his sworn enemies. Along with Nic, Felix, and the mysteriously resurrected Ashur, the contentious group agrees to cast aside old grudges—for now—and united against their common enemy: Amara.

Meanwhile, bearing the child of a Watcher and feared by all, Princess Lucia travels across Mytica to find her family. But time is running out. The impending storm signals the dark prophecy Timotheus warned her about. Her fate is written, and it includes none other than the rebel Jonas. When their paths collied, Jonas and Lucia must decide between blindly following their destiny or fighting for their own free will.

The battle for power culminates at the Paelsian palace, where Amara resides. Rain pours. Blood spills. And soon all will discover that the darkest magic comes at an even darker price.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 Stars

My Thoughts:

OH-EM-GEE. What a freaking ending that was. How, why, what???? This series has now taken on a whole new level of awesomeness. My poor babies…. what is going to happen to my precious, precious characters?? I guess we will have to sit back and find out!

Well there you have it! My Top 16 Books of 2016. What did you think? What were some of your favorite books of 2016? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

TWITTER | GOOD READS | INSTAGRAM | BLOG LOVIN’

New to Me Authors: 2016 Edition | Top 10 Tuesday

Hey guys!

This week’s topic is Top 10 New to Me Authors: 2016 Edition.

I love getting the opportunity each year to read books by new authors or authors I have never read before. Because of this I get to explore new worlds and stories and find my newest favourtie authors! Here are my top 10 now:

Kimberly McCreight

Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, which was nominated for an Edgar, Anthony and Alex award. She attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

Books I Read by Kimberly:

Julie Buxbaum

Julie Buxbaum is the New York Times best selling author of Tell Me Three Things, her young adult debut, and the critically acclaimed novels The Opposite of Love and After You. Her work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Julie’s writing has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times. She is a former lawyer and graduate of Harvard Law School and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two young children, and an immortal goldfish.

Books I Read by Julie:

Sarah Fine

Sarah Fine is the author of Of Metal and Wishes, Of Dreams and Rust, and the Guards of the Shadowlands series. She was born on the West Coast, raised in the Midwest, and is now firmly entrenched on the East Coast, where she lives with her husband and two children. When she’s not writing, she’s working as a child psychologist.

Books I Read by Sarah:

Erin Bow

TEN THINGS ABOUT ME:

1. I’m a physicist turned poet turned YA novelist.
2. I am world-famous in Canada, which is kind of like being world-famous in real life.
3. I wrote a book about Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy: THE SCORPION RULES, Simon & Schuster Fall 2015
4. I wrote a not-at-all-cute book with a talking cat in it: PLAIN KATE (called WOOD ANGEL in the UK), Scholastic Fall 2010
5. I wrote a book about cat’s cradles that can repel spirit zombies: SORROW’S KNOT, Scholastic Fall 2013
6. All these books will make you either cry on the bus or snort milk out your nose. I am dangerous to your dignity and should be stopped.
7. I think Hufflepuff is the best house, Xander was the best Scoobie, Five was the best Doctor, and Spock was the best everything.
8. I am married to another novelist, and we can actually pay our bills.
9. My daughters want to be scientists.
10. My bookshelves will always be full.

Books I Read by Erin:

Colleen Oakes

Colleen Oakes is the author of books for both teens and adults, including YA fantasy retellings The Queen of Hearts Saga and The Wendy Darling Saga, and the Elly in Bloom series which is women’s fiction. She lives in North Denver with her husband and son and surrounds herself with the most lovely family and friends imaginable. When not writing or plotting new books, Colleen can be found swimming, traveling and totally immersing herself in nerdy pop culture. She currently at work on another YA fantasy series and a stand-alone YA novel.

Books I Read by Colleen:

Erin Watt

Erin Watt is the brainchild of two bestselling authors linked together through their love of great books and an addiction to writing. They share one creative imagination. Their greatest love (after their families and pets, of course)? Coming up with fun–and sometimes crazy–ideas. Their greatest fear? Breaking up.

Books I Read by Erin:

Kate Elliott

As a child in rural Oregon, Kate Elliott made up stories because she longed to escape to a world of lurid adventure fiction. She now writes fantasy, steampunk, and science fiction, often with a romantic edge. It should therefore come as no surprise that she met her future husband in a sword fight.

When he gave up police work to study archaeology, they and their three children fell into an entirely new set of adventures in dusty Mexican ruins and mouthwatering European pastry shops. Eventually her spouse’s work forced them to move to Hawaii, where she took up outrigger canoe paddling.

Also, there is a schnauzer.

Books I Read by Kate:

Sarah Raughley

Books I Read by Sarah:

Adam Silvera

Adam Silvera was born and raised in the Bronx. He has worked in the publishing industry as a children’s bookseller, marketing assistant at a literary development company, and book reviewer of children’s and young adult novels. His debut novel, More Happy Than Not, received multiple starred reviews and is a New York Times bestseller, and Adam was selected as a Publishers Weekly Flying Start. He writes full-time in New York City and is tall for no reason.

Books I Read by Adam:

Simon Curtis

Simon Curtis was born in Michigan and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was diagnosed with leukemia at age ten and began performing in musical theater and opera that same year. He was the happiest bald, chemotherapy-addled cancer patient ever seen on stage.

At eighteen, he moved to LA. After various roles on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, Simon left acting to pursue music, releasing his first album, 8bit Heart, as a free download, followed by his second album, RA. Simon continues to write and release music as an independent recording artist, and looks forward to his new chapter as an author. Above all else, he strives to inspire hope in young people.

Books I Read by Simon:

Well there you have it! Top 10 New to Me Authors: 2016 Edition. What are some of your favorite villains?

Until next time,

TWITTER | GOOD READS | INSTAGRAM | BLOG LOVIN’

Ruthlessly Sinister Villains | Top 10 Tuesday

Hey guys!

This week’s topic is Top 10 Ruthlessly Sinister Villains.

You all know at least one ruthlessly sinister villain. Whether it be from your favorite book, or tv, or movie, or even from the comic books. Being an avid reader, I know many sinister villains. They can sometimes be one of my favorite characters. I find them complex and compelling to read, and without them our heroes can’t reach the greatness we know they will.

So without further ado, here are some ruthlessly sinister villains for all to enjoy!

10. Queen Irina from The Shadow Queen

Queen Irina is not to be trusted. She married her dead sister’s husband to kill him and his children in order to be the rightful heir. But of course things never go as planned for the villain. The said children survived and are coming back to reclaim their kingdom and Queen Irina will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to keep that from happening!

9. Queen of Hearts from Splintered

The Queen of Hearts is a tyrant in almost all her retellings. This one is no surprise! She thinks Wonderland is rightfully hers to rule with an iron thumb. But Alyssa doesn’t agree. The Queen of Hearts needs to be stopped from finding a permanent to host her sinister soul. But she will definitely not go down easy. Wonderland will never be the same again when she is gets through with it!

8. Draewulf from Storm Siren

Draewulf is just plain evil. He will cut you open and hop into your body to overtake your soul. Of course like all villains, his plan is to take over the world. Which means he must get rid of all the Elementals left living, including our heroine Nym. No land is safe once Draewulf takes over, and the best part is, no one even knows what he looks like. Suprise!

7. Queen Olympias from Legacy of Kings

Queen Olympias is just plain crazy. Not only does she prance around doing spiritual spells and incantations, but she also plays with snakes. And by play, I mean she lets them bite her and such. She will stop at nothing to get her son, Alexander, his rightful spot on the throne. Even if that means she has to kill everyone to do so, including her daughter.

6. Manon from Heir of Fire

Now I know Manon is not the true villain of the Throne of Glass series, but she is being used by one. It doesn’t help that she has razor sharp teeth and finger nails and comes with her own squad of other ruthless witches and their dragon companions. They feed off scared humans, piece by piece. I wouldn’t want to cross paths with her, that’s for sure!

5. King Gaius from Throne of Glass

King Gaius is nothing but cold and ruthless. All he wants is to be the ruler of pretty much everything. He had no trouble taking over two other kingdoms, including killing everyone that got in his way. He even goes as far as to use his only children to achieve this. From public beheadings, to behind the scenes murder and torture, King Gaius has done it all.

4. The Darkling from Shadow and Bone

The Darkling doesn’t come off as the villain in the first book. He makes you fall in love with him and when you least expect it shit hits the fan! He wants Ravka and everywhere else he can get his grubby hands on to live in the Fold, a perpetually dark and dangerous place. Thankfully for our resident sun summoner. What better way to fight off the darkness, then with some light!

3. Voldemort from Harry Potter

Voldemort is probably one of the most famous book villains there ever was. He wants to be the most powerful wizard there ever was. The only thing standing in his way is the child he couldn’t kill oh so many years before. But that won’t stop him from coming back and finishing the job. Voldermort leaves a trail of death wherever he goes and with his dark army of wizards behind him, our heroes better get together and be prepared to fight back!

2. Talis from The Scorpion Rules

If you want to talk about ruthless then meet Talis. He is a 400 year old artificial intelligence that currently runs the world we call Earth. Although his intentions are well, like stopping the world from warring, or rationing off water supply, doesn’t mean he’s not opposed to blowing up a city or country to do so. He even goes as far as taking children hostages from all the royals and rulers of the Earth to prevent them from making big moves. Just think, one moment you’re living your life, and then the next Talis blows up it up. No thank you.

1. Jackal from Red Rising

I’ve saved the most sinister for last. The Jackal is by far the grimiest, dirtiest, creepy, calculating, conniving villain I have ever known. In the first book he wants to win no matter what. Even if it means killing in the most ruthless ways including cannibalism. The second book is all about building trust and conniving his way to the top. And the final book has him executing all his planning and going behind everyone’s back to achieve ultimate domination.

Well there you have it! Top 10 Ruthlessly Sinister Villains. What are some of your favorite villains?

Until next time,

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The Swan Riders by Erin Bow (Prisoners of Peace #2)| REVIEW

The Swan Riders by Erin Bow (Prisoners of Peace #2)
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on September 20th 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Pages: 384
Format: ARC

LINKS: Good Reads | Amazon | Indigo | Book Depository

Greta Stuart had always known her future: die young. She was her country’s crown princess, and also its hostage, destined to be the first casualty in an inevitable war. But when the war came it broke all the rules, and Greta forged a different path.

She is no longer princess. No longer hostage. No longer human. Greta Stuart has become an AI.

If she can survive the transition, Greta will earn a place alongside Talis, the AI who rules the world. Talis is a big believer in peace through superior firepower. But some problems are too personal to obliterate from orbit, and for those there are the Swan Riders: a small band of humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.

Now two of the Swan Riders are escorting Talis and Greta across post-apocalyptic Saskatchewan. But Greta’s fate has stirred her nation into open rebellion, and the dry grassland may hide insurgents who want to rescue her – or see her killed. Including Elian, the boy she saved—the boy who wants to change the world, with a knife if necessary. Even the infinitely loyal Swan Riders may not be everything they seem.

Greta’s fate—and the fate of her world—are balanced on the edge of a knife in this smart, sly, electrifying adventure.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

4 Stars

* CHECK OUT THE REVIEW FOR BOOK ONE: THE SCORPION RULES *

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: READ AT OWN RISK!!!

* Received an ARC from Simon & Schuster Canada for a honest review *

First Line:

One of the advantages of a purely mechanical body is that you can literally bang your head into things in frustration.

Review

COVER 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 PLOT 🌟🌟🌟🌟

CHARACTERS 🌟🌟🌟🌟 ROMANCE 🌟🌟🌟

WRITING 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 WORLD 🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Swan Riders by Erin Bow is the sequel to The Scorpion Rules and the conclusion to the Prisoner’s of Peace duology. It literally picks up where the first book leaves off and takes us on a long a grueling journey of self discovery and what it means to be human. I definitely had a much better reading experience this time around and here is why:

The Good

First off I want to talk about the interesting plot, or lack there of. But I mean that in a good way. Through out the whole book there is a war of rebellion going on the in background, but the story doesn’t focus on overcoming that. The Swan Riders focuses on the characters and the struggles to stay human. It was not plot driven that’s for sure; definitely all about the characters.

Greta still remains one of my favorite aspects of the story. She is no longer human. She gave that right up at the end of The Scorpion Rules to save Elian. She is now AI (artificial intelligence). Now she is Talis’ most prized valuable. She goes through major growth moments over the course of the book and remains the strong and in control character I love.

Talis on the other hand does a total 180. We see him become human again. With that comes hardships and pain. He is dying now. I don’t think in the last 400 years has anyone seen Talis as vulnerable as he was in The Swan Riders. But I think that was such an important aspect to the story. We need to remind ourselves of where we come from and remember to stay humble in the process.

Bow knocks it out of the park with her writing. I was fully immersed within the story because of it. The way she weaves her scenes, characters and dialogue together was masterful. Where as I had some trouble following her writing in The Scorpion Rules, that was not the case this time around.

It was fun to read about a post apocalyptic Canada. The descriptions really made the world come alive for me. I thought it was very unique and creative. I loved the world Bow has created here.

I absolutely love the cover of The Swan Riders. It follows the redesigned look of The Scorpion Rules but switching out the scorpions for swans and using a very pretty blue as the background. It’s simple yet sci-fi looking which is totally fitting for this new world that Bow has built.

The Bad

Sadly the romance level in The Swan Riders was rather dull. I get that it doesn’t play a huge role in the story, I just wish there was a little more of a spark between the love interest that played out this time around. Greta and Elian just have nothing going for them, especially since I felt more of spark between Greta and Xie from The Scorpion Rules. But that’s alright, it didn’t take away from my overall satisfaction of the book!

I am definitely satisfied with how the Prisoner’s of Peace has ended. It has left just enough open for you to wonder what’s next, but not enough for you to be pulling your hair out for the sake of it.

Let me know what you guys thought of The Swan Riders by Erin Bow! I would love to hear your opinions as well!

Until next time,

TWITTER | GOOD READS | INSTAGRAM | BLOG LOVIN’

#NoLongerHuman

TEN THINGS ABOUT ME:

1. I’m a physicist turned poet turned YA novelist.
2. I am world-famous in Canada, which is kind of like being world-famous in real life.
3. I wrote a book about Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy: THE SCORPION RULES, Simon & Schuster Fall 2015
4. I wrote a not-at-all-cute book with a talking cat in it: PLAIN KATE (called WOOD ANGEL in the UK), Scholastic Fall 2010
5. I wrote a book about cat’s cradles that can repel spirit zombies: SORROW’S KNOT, Scholastic Fall 2013
6. All these books will make you either cry on the bus or snort milk out your nose. I am dangerous to your dignity and should be stopped.
7. I think Hufflepuff is the best house, Xander was the best Scoobie, Five was the best Doctor, and Spock was the best everything.
8. I am married to another novelist, and we can actually pay our bills.
9. My daughters want to be scientists.
10. My bookshelves will always be full.

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow (Prisoners of Peace #1)| REVIEW

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow (Prisoners of Peace #1)
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on June 7th 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Pages: 400
Format: Paperback

LINKS: Good Reads | Amazon | Indigo | Book Depository

Greta is a Duchess and a Crown Princess. She is also a Child of Peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world, the great Artificial Intelligence, Talis. This is how the game is played: if you want to rule, you must give one of your children as a hostage. Start a war and your hostage dies.

The system has worked for centuries. Parents don’t want to see their children murdered.

Greta will be free if she can make it to her eighteenth birthday. Until then she is prepared to die with dignity, if necessary. But everything changes when Elian arrives at the Precepture. He’s a hostage from a new American alliance, and he defies the machines that control every part of their lives—and is severely punished for it. His rebellion opens Greta’s eyes to the brutality of the rules they live under, and to the subtle resistance of her companions. And Greta discovers her own quiet power.

Then Elian’s country declares war on Greta’s and invades the prefecture, taking the hostages hostage. Now the great Talis is furious, and coming himself to deliver punishment. Which surely means that Greta and Elian will be killed…unless Greta can think of a way to break all the rules.

🌟🌟🌟

3 Stars

First Line:

Once upon a time, at the end of the world.

Review

COVER 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 PLOT 🌟🌟

CHARACTERS 🌟🌟🌟🌟 ROMANCE 🌟🌟🌟🌟

WRITING 🌟🌟🌟 WORLD 🌟🌟🌟

No, blowing up cities doesn’t work, not in the long term. You’ve got to find something that the people in charge aren’t willing to give up. A price they aren’t willing to pay.

Which leads us to Talis’s first rule for stopping wars: make it personal.

The Scorpion Rules – Erin Bow

The Good

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow was definitely an interesting read for me. I’m a bit confused still even after reading it to be honest, but that’s not a bad thing. It follows Greta, a Child of Peace in a dystopian future of Canada. A world ruled by an AI, Talis as he tries to keep the peace among warring nations.

I loved that this book got a cover change. I disliked the previous cover and I can say that was one of the reasons I never picked the book up to begin with. But with this new cover it definitely drew me in to give it another shot!

I loved Greta as a character. All her life she knew that there was a chance that she was going to die as a Child of Peace. Let me explain what that means. So all the ruling nations of the world must give up their heir to Talis the AI. They live on a precepture with all the other children until they turn 18 and can return to their nations. The purpose behind this is to try and prevent the nations from going to war because if they do their child and only heir will die. Now flash forward back to Greta. She is strong, and intelligent and a natural born leader. I love how she interacts with the other children and friends, as well as her budding romance with Da Xia.

Talis on the other hand was the life of this book. You only hear of him in the beginning half of the book through reciting of his laws, and they were sassy as hell. Then by the last half of the book he makes his appearance through one of his Swan Riders (he took over her body with his operating system). Let me tell you, he doesn’t disappoint. He is just as sassy in person as he is in his law making.

Everyone needs to read this book, even just to meet Talis. He will by far go down as one of my favorite villain type characters!

I wished for impossible things. It was never going to have been a fairy tale for us. There are no fairy tales about two princesses.

The Scorpion Rules – Erin Bow

The Bad

There was nothing inherently wrong with this The Scorpion Rules, but I did find a couple of disappointments. One being the plot and pacing. I thought it was very dry and slow at times. I mean it spends a lot of time farming and playing around with goats. Yes I’m being serious.

Unfortunately Bow’s writing didn’t quite sit well with me. It felt a little all over the place in certain chapters then others and left me confused a lot of the time. It was quite unique, but it just didn’t work for me.

The love triangle was a bit exhausting at times as well. But I did like that Greta made a decision in the end and we were left hanging with who she might end up with.

Let me tell you something that I learned from my youth, from a sage called the Road Runner. You can walk off a cliff and the air will hold you. Only, don’t look down.

The Scorpion Rules – Erin Bow

Like I said before, there was nothing out rightly wrong with this, it just didn’t blow me away. I did enjoy it as a whole though and will definitely be picking up the sequel! Let me know what you guys thought of The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow! I would love to hear your opinions as well!

Until next time,

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#OneWrongMove

TEN THINGS ABOUT ME:

1. I’m a physicist turned poet turned YA novelist.
2. I am world-famous in Canada, which is kind of like being world-famous in real life.
3. I wrote a book about Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy: THE SCORPION RULES, Simon & Schuster Fall 2015
4. I wrote a not-at-all-cute book with a talking cat in it: PLAIN KATE (called WOOD ANGEL in the UK), Scholastic Fall 2010
5. I wrote a book about cat’s cradles that can repel spirit zombies: SORROW’S KNOT, Scholastic Fall 2013
6. All these books will make you either cry on the bus or snort milk out your nose. I am dangerous to your dignity and should be stopped.
7. I think Hufflepuff is the best house, Xander was the best Scoobie, Five was the best Doctor, and Spock was the best everything.
8. I am married to another novelist, and we can actually pay our bills.
9. My daughters want to be scientists.
10. My bookshelves will always be full.

1st Sentences | Top 5 Wednesday [#31]

Hey guys!

Welcome back to another Top 5 Wednesday! This fun weekly meme was created by Lainey over at GingerReadsLainey. If you want to join in the fun and be apart of the #T5W … you can find all the details at the GoodReads page.

This week’s topic is Top 5 – 1st Sentences.

1st sentences are a mood setter when it comes to a book or story. They can either be really exciting and fun, or dull and boring. I’ve read some really good ones over the years, and I’ve also read some pretty horrible ones. Luckily for you guys I have chosen the good ones in my opinion. I picked up some of my favorite and recent reads this time around. So sit back and enjoy!

5. Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Seven hundred and thirty-three days after my mom died, forty-five days after my dad eloped with a stranger he met on the internet, thirty days after we then up and moved to California, and only seven days after starting as a junior at a brand-new school where I know approximately no one, an email arrives.

4. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

I’ve read many more books than you. It doesn’t matter how many you’ve read. I’ve red more. Believe me. I’ve had the time.

3. Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

She’d never killed before tonight.

2. The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

Once Upon a Time, at the End of the World.

1. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

People often shit themselves when they die.

SOME OF THESE ARE PRETTY SIMPLE, BUT EFFECTIVE. AND I KNOW THE EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING ONE IS TECHNICALLY MORE THEN ONE SENTENCE. SUE ME.

I hope you enjoyed my Top 5 Wednesday this week. What are some of your favorite 1st sentences? Let me know!

Until next time,

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10 Books Set Outside the U.S.A | Top 10 Tuesday [#39]

Hey guys!

This week’s topic is Top 10 Books Set Outside the U.S.A.

Let’s face it. A lot of the books we read are based in the US. That’s because a lot of authors write what they know, and a lot of authors we read today are American. That is all fine and dandy, but sometimes we want something a little different. So here is my list of books that are set outside of the U.S.A!

10. The Blackthorn Key

Set in the UK!

9. Dark Days Club

Set in the UK!

8. Harry Potter

Set in the UK!

7. The Snow Empress

Set in the Japan!

6. Me Before You

Set in the UK!

5. Soulless

Set in the UK!

4. Legacy of Kings

Set in the Greece!

3. The Swan Riders

Set in the Canada!

2. Carry On

Set in the UK!

1. A Book of Spirits and Thieves

Set in the Canada!

Well there you have it! Top 10 Books Set Outside the U.S.A. What are some of your favorite books set outside of the US?

Until next time,

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Summer TBR Wipeout 2016!

Hey guys!

Summer had finally begun. It’s the time to sit back and let loose. For some, it’s time to put their minds to rest before school in September, for others it’s time to take a vacation from work and life. For me it’s neither of those things. For me it’s time to knock a ton of books off my TBR! So that’s where Summer TBR Wipeout comes in.

This read-a-thon is hosted by Olivia from The Candid Cover. This read-a-thon runs from July 3rd – August 14th. And the point of it, is to read as many books from your never ending TBR’s! Not to mention there is a sweet giveaway for all the participants as well! So come and join the fun!!