Review: Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

Published: December 9th 2014 by Delacorte Press

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Available from:
 

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Synopsis:

Game of Thrones meets the Grimm's fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty's daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.

Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora's throne ten years ago.

Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it's too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?

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Review:

After reading so many series, I needed to read a stand alone, and Princess of Thorns fit the bill. I've read Stacey Jay books before so knew I wouldn't be disappointed, and I wasn't.

This isn't a retelling, in its true respect, more of an addition to the original story. After years of mourning the loss of her deceased mother, Aurora persuades her father to marry again. Her new mother is a fearsome magical queen of another realm, who also happens to be her mothers sister and aunt. Queen Ekeeta soon holds the kingdom and its King in a thrall of adoration for her, but Aurora, with the little magic she knows, breaks the curse and Aurora and her brother, Jor, witness the death of their beloved father. Before their own demise, Aurora and Jor are rescued in the nick of time and taken to safety by a kindly guard, who takes care of them and becomes a father figure for the next nine years.  Aurora spends the rest of her childhood planning to retake the kingdom which is hers by right.

Prince Nicklaas is also under a curse. His father loved to rule his own dragon kingdom so much he placed a curse on all his sons to die on their 18th birthday so they wouldn't take his throne. However, the witch who performed the curse changed it without the King knowing. Instead of dying, all the boys turned into swans and didn't die. Prince Nicklaas knows of this curse and hunts for the only way to be redeemed of his feathered fate. He pursued the witch, who eventually told him the only way to escape his fate is to marry a princess of another kingdom. Nicklaas begins his search for the lost Princess Aurora, knowing she's the only one left who can save him, and hoping he can use his wits and charm to get her to marry him before his 18th birthday.

This is a story of adventure, trust and of loss, and learning to deal with that loss. Whilst Nicklaas tends to be flippant and jovial, he carries his burden none too lightly, and feels his fate growing from the beginning. Aurora is more serious. She knows who is accountable for her fate and wants to punish the queen dearly. When Nicklaas and Aurora meet, you can tell fate has a hand and without knowing it, they both help each other overcome the sadness that sits on the horizon, waiting.

Throughout their many adventures, and while Nicklaas believes for the most that Aurora is a boy, their friendship grows steadily. Only near the end do the tangles of emotion hamper them, and that's only because of their stubbornness in trying to do the right thing.

I loved how the twist at the end sorted their relationship out. When they find the witch, the very one who placed the original curse on Nicklaas and his brothers, their paths should have separated but neither of them are that cold hearted as to leave the other behind. When they do, fate strikes again and brings them together for the finale.

For a stand alone, this book had a satisfying beginning, middle and end. And once done, with all ties nicely tethered, the story put my faith back into retelling's of fairy tales. Some authors, particularly Stacey Jay, can do them justice.

-CBx

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About the Author

Stacey Jay is a recovering workaholic (or at least working hard at recovering) with three pen names, two small children, and a passion for playing pretend for a living. She’s been a full time mom-writer since 2005 and can't think of anything she'd rather be doing. Her former careers include theatre performer, professional dancer, poorly paid C-movie actress, bartender, waiter, math tutor (for real) and yoga instructor.

You can find Stacey Jay here:

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Arc Review: One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Rating: 5 out of 5

Expected publication:May 30th 2017 by Delacorte Press

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Synopsis:

One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.

Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

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Review: The Unfailing Light (Katerina #2) by Robin Bridges

The Unfailing Light by Robin Bridges

Publishers: Delacorte
Published Date: October 9th 2012
From: Bought
My rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis:
Having had no choice but to use her power has a necromancer to save Russia from dark forces, Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, now wants to forget that she ever used her special powers. She's about to set off to pursue her lifelong dream of attending medical school when she discovers that Russia's arch nemesis--who she thought she'd destroyed--is still alive. So on imperial orders, Katerina remains at her old finishing school. She'll be safe there, because the empress has cast a potent spell to protect it against the vampires and revenants who are bent on toppling the tsar and using Katerina for their own gains. But to Katerina's horror, the spell unleashes a vengeful ghost within the school, a ghost more dangerous than any creature trying to get in.

Review:
The First 20%
We start with a sneaky Prologue that at the time of reading means nothing but an awful tragedy. Gradually you begin to realise that the enemy of the Tsar, Konstantin, is involved, albeit with his daughter--and suddenly we're cast back into the wonderful story that began with The Gathering Storm. We know things are going to go array almost immediately when Katiya glimpses Grand Duke George Alexandrovich whilst she's on holiday with her family. After a few heart-fluttering moments he insists that she return to Smolny, her school, instead of attending University in Zurich which happens to be her lifetime ambition. While the Grand Duke insists it is only for her safety, Katiya is unsure and feels like the Imperial family are holding her against her will, even forbidding her to leave the school. Things take a turn for the worse when Katiya accidently comes across an ancient throne hidden in some caves and reads out loud the decription written in an ancient language. She's transported to a place called the Graylands-an inbetween place of life and death-where she comes face to face with the dreaded Konstantin (wannabe/was Tsar). She escapes with the help of an unknown young man.
Eventually her holidays end and she does indeed return to Smolny. But things are different there also. Now there's a ghost to deal with and the secretive Princess Alix.

The Main Characters
Katarina Alexandrovich, or Katiya, continues her adventures as she did in the last. She never once thinks for herself, always of others. And there's no point in mystery or intrigue in her life because she will immediately dive into them whatever way she can to solve them.
The one thing I do love is that she epitomises Russian High Society, she's very well educated and always on the lookout for more interesting foreign texts to read, always wanting to learn more. But the quaintness floods in every now and again. Sometimes she doubts that someone such as George can really hold her heart. She hopes it's true. Gradually through the story she hears tales of what George is doing in Paris and it's not all good.

The Story
I loved the first book, and eagerly awaited this one's release. The story is centred around Smolny again. We have more characters from the school coming into the story. Now we have were-wolves, vampires, the undead revenants, dark and light faeries and our own heroine as a Necromancer. We also hear about the antics of Katiya's brother and the various Order's. As we go on we also begin to doubt who is sincere and who is being traitorous. The clues are all there, and there are more than a few surprises. Suffice to say that i loved this book. Anything to do with Imperial Russia holds my interest, and the author did a fantastic job of informing us and spinning us a great yarn.

The End?
Oh boy. It's always about a boy, isn't it? George is seriously injured. As he walks away from Katiya I'm seriously wanting to know what happens next!! It isn't going to be good because the enemies are all still alive!

Overall
It took less than a day for me to devour this. I had only one moment, around 30%, where I was wondering which direction the story would take. However, I continued and was so far in without realising. Brilliant, amazing world-building, fun glittering balls, handsome love interest-what's not to like!!

-CBx

You can reach Robin Bridges here:

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Review: Rapture by Lauren Kate

Rapture by Lauren Kate

Publishers: Doubleday Childrens
Published Date: June 21st 2012
From: Bought
My rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis:

The sky is dark with wings . . .

And time is running out for Luce and Daniel.

In order to stop Lucifer from erasing the past, they must find the place where the Fall began. Only Luce can break the curse, and it is her choice alone that will decide all of their fates.

But as Dark Forces gather, great sacrifices will have to be made in this final, epic struggle . . .

In the fight for Luce, and for Love, who will win?

The astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can't wait any longer.

Review:

Rapture concludes the Fallen Series by Lauren Kate, and I have mixed feelings about it.

Lets start at the beginning. Fallen #1 was a great book. The story was original but with a few minor quirks. The two boy love twist, the good-come-evil librarian, and the inevitable big reveal (though nothing significant regarding Lucinda), and the great getaway. Torment (Fallen #2) was a little too Harry Potter's Hogwarts for me - a school for Nephilim and Angels alike? Other characters where introduced as was the meaning of the Announcers. The romance was touching but Daniel began to feel a little flat for me. Passion (Fallen #3) felt like an excuse just to time-travel back on previous stories of Luce and Daniel, although the introduction of Bill was the highlight of the book. An evil plot to erase the world was revealed right at the end to leave us hanging. Personally I felt that this book should probably have been an extra like Fallen in Love and not part of the main Series.

Rapture, in a way, was a relief. Yes, I had read all the books but I began to feel that the story was letting go some of the vital parts that the first Fallen book promised. After all, that is why we all wanted to read more after Fallen was released.

In my opinion, the quirky side-kick characters held none of their original charisma. The banter didn't feel real. Even Arriane, who is one of my favourite characters, only had a few lines of laugh-out-loud moments. And Roland and Cam were almost non-existent as far as characters, merely part of the background. Shelby and Miles, who were introduced and played a big part in Torment plus had their own section in Fallen in Love didn't really enter the story at all.

The good points have to go to the main historical elements of the story. Clearly Lauren Kate did her research regarding Bible and Angel lore, the depth of which is evident during the 'tellings' within the story. However, there were alot of moments where 'tellings' could have been more 'showings'.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I read it. I will always read Lauren Kate books, and I loved the finale (do you think the character of Nora was a nod to Becca Fitzpatrick?).I actually thought, with all the fig leaves and olive trees that Adam and Eve were going to be part of the story!!

-CBx

Want to read “Daniel’s Gift,” an exclusive Fallen short story?
Click on the above link to get it!

  You can reach Lauren Kate here:

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Dusty Reads #5. Meridian (Fenestra, #1) by Amber Kizer

Meridian (Fenestra #1) by Amber Kizer

Publishers: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Published Date: August 11th 2009
From: Bought
My rating: 4 out of 5

Dusty Reads is a weekly meme hosted by Giselle at Xpresso Reads where we spotlight a book sitting in our TBR pile. My twist is that I actually, finally, read them!

Synopsis:
Half-human, half-angel, Meridian Sozu has a dark responsibility.

Sixteen-year-old Meridian has been surrounded by death ever since she can remember. As a child, insects, mice, and salamanders would burrow into her bedclothes and die. At her elementary school, she was blamed for a classmate’s tragic accident. And on her sixteenth birthday, a car crashes in front of her family home—and Meridian’s body explodes in pain.

Before she can fully recover, Meridian is told that she’s a danger to her family and hustled off to her great-aunt’s house in Revelation, Colorado. It’s there that she learns that she is a Fenestra—the half-angel, half-human link between the living and the dead. But Meridian and her sworn protector and love, Tens, face great danger from the Aternocti, a band of dark forces who capture vulnerable souls on the brink of death and cause chaos.

Review:
After 18 months I scooped Meridian off my shelf to finally read. The top was coated in dust but the pages inside were perfect, still untouched. I should have read it sooner. The sequel is now out and the third one is available as an ARC. The time was right to give it a go. Finally!

For starters the story is simple. We don't get bogged down with lots of characters. The tension is throughout and the main character Meridian is extremely likable. The enemy is known from about the middle of the book and there are many surprises that come at Meridian from the start.

Auntie and Tens are an unusual combination. Tens is Auntie's man-Friday. As Auntie is 106 years old it surprised me how capable she still is, but as she shares Meridians angelness she becomes an excellent teacher of all things worldly, and not just with the otherworldly stuff. Tens comes over as stubborn and intense. Meridian is unsure if he likes her, even as a friend. But soon they share adventures that draw them together as much more.

And there's nothing better than an evil Church cult coming to town. The cult convince the townsfolk that Auntie is to blame for the bad things that have happened in their lives. Pretty soon Auntie is being shunned from her normal society and things turn really hairy when the leader starts intimidating Meridian. Only a few people come to the rescue but they are worthy.

While all this evil is happening Meridian is learning about her gift, her craft. She's a window that allows souls to pass through to the other side. Its tricky, and she doesn't get it right in the beginning. But Tens is there to help her through it.

I loved the freshness of this story. It's not like anything I've read before and I really enjoyed it. Even Tens, who I couldn't like in the beginning, changed my mind. Auntie is wonderful too.
The ending leads us on a path to the next book and I'm excited for the start of this series!
-CBx

You can reach Amber Kizer here:

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New YA Book Publications - week ending 16th March 2012

Week Ending 16th March

** HOT PICK  **

Steel by Carrie Vaughn


Out 13th March 2012

Goodreads:
It was a slender length of rusted steel, tapered to a point at one end and jagged at the other, as if it had broken. A thousand people would step over it and think it trash, but not her.

This was the tip of a rapier.

Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.

The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate’s life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.

Time travel, swordplay, and romance combine in an original high-seas adventure from New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.

 Charlotte thinks:

I love anything with a sword-wielding sassy girl, add a bit of time travelling and a smidgeon of romance and I'm all over it. And Carrie Vaughn never disappoints!

x

  **  also out this week  **

Review: Romeo Redeemed by Stacey Jay

My Rating: 4 out of 5

THANK YOU TO NET GALLEY AND DELACORTE FOR ALLOWING ME TO REVIEW THIS BOOK AND GIVE MY HONEST OPINION

Synopsis:
All will be revealed for fans who have breathlessly awaited the sizzling sequel to Juliet Immortal. This time Romeo takes center stage and gets one chance, and one chance only, to redeem himself.

Cursed to live out eternity in his rotted corpse, Romeo, known for his ruthless, cutthroat ways, is given the chance to redeem himself by traveling back in time to save the life of Ariel Dragland. Unbeknownst to her, Ariel is important to both the evil Mercenaries and the love-promoting Ambassadors and holds the fate of the world in her hands. Romeo must win her heart and make her believe in love, turning her away from her darker potential before his work is discovered by the Mercenaries. While his seduction begins as yet another lie, it soon becomes his only truth. Romeo vows to protect Ariel from harm, and do whatever it takes to win her heart and soul. But when Ariel is led to believe his love is a deception, she becomes vulnerable to Mercenary manipulation, and her own inner darkness may ultimately rip them apart.

Short Review:

Anyone who has read Juliet Immortal MUST read this. Romeo was a rotting corpse at the end of Juliet Immortal, ready to do whatever it takes to get back his body and soul. Now its time to change sides and prevent someone with a future apocalyptic tendency. He must make Ariel love him in 3 days to prevent the destruction of mankind.

The two sides - Mercenaries and Ambassadors - are still at war but we get more of an insight to the evil that has been done, especially towards Romeo.

This tale twists us around with great character use, Gemma, Ariel and Romeo all play their own parts but who is telling the truth. And who is the villain?

Add this book to your To Be Read list - its so worth it!!

Full review will be added nearer the release date of 9th October

Don't Miss...

Read our review here...

Review: Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

My Rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis:
"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume."
—Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The most tragic love story in history . . .

Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love

Review:

If you know the story of Romeo and Juliet then forget everything you know. This isn't a romantic tragedy in the Shakespearean sense. Its a supernatural dark romance. The wicked, twisted evil bad-guys (Mercenaries)versus the selfless good-guys (Ambassadors).

A war has been raging for centuries and it just so happens that Romeo and Juliet were real people who got caught up in the war. For entirely his own reasons Romeo made a promise, thinking he was doing the right thing, but got dragged into a Mercenary life. Over the years his perception got twisted and now he wants nothing more than to end Juliets life.

They aren't immortal in the strictest sense. They shift through time taking over human bodies to accomplish their deeds. Juliet must make sure those marked as soul-mates meet, and find true love. Romeos task is to stop her and turn one of the couple towards the dark side. In this story Juliet jumps into the body of Ariel Dragland, a teenager badly scarred from a childhood accident. Romeo jumps into Dylans body. A trickster young man who plays with Ariel with wicked, spiteful intentions. But both Romeo and Juliet don't realise why this shift is different. It feels different, their supernatural abilities are different, petered down and almost non existent. Somethings changed and soon they will have to work together to figure out how they can both survive the shift.

I found this book difficult to get into in the beginning. The first chapter was easy, but the second chapter had to be re-read a couple of times for me to understand the underlining story. Once I got it I couldn't put it down. The secret behind the Mercenary and Ambassador magic is a little vague but something I can live with. The writing is beautiful, as is the character of Ben - so suitably better matched to Juliet than Romeo ever could be.

The ending was a surprise. Everything I'd read until that point stuck, but then the twist seemed to slot into place and help make sense of the battle between R & J.

I loved Ariel, such a brave character for the author to write about. I was sooo disappointed to finish this, I wished it had carried on but thankfully Romeo Redeemed is next to be reviewed :)

You can reach Stacey Jay here:

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Full review coming soon

Dusty Reads #2 - Timeless by Alexandra Monir

Dusty Reads is a weekly meme hosted by Giselle at Xpresso Reads where we spotlight a book sitting in our TBR pile.

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Timeless by Alexandra Monir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis:

When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s world, she is forced to uproot her life and move across the country to New York City, to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she’s never met. In their old Fifth Avenue mansion filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers a diary that hurtles her back in time to the year 1910. There, in the midst of the glamorous Gilded Age, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life – a man she always wished was real, but never imagined could actually exist. And she finds herself falling for him, into an otherworldly, time-crossed romance.

Michele is soon leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves – a quest that will determine the fate of both of their lives.

Review:

There's something about this beautiful tale that had me gripped from the very first page. This isn't a paranormal in the strictest sense. It's a time-travel love story that captures your heart and holds you in until you finish the last page.

Michele grew up with her mother, living a simple life on Venice Beach. She never knew her father or the reason why he left. She knows that her mothers family come from blue blood New York money. But they've made little attempt to be a part of her life. Her friends at school have been by her side since childhood. So it's a tragedy when her mother dies and she's taken to live with her grandparents in New York. People that she has no connection with apart from surname.

Before her mother died and for a long time before Michelle dreams of a boy with dark hair and blue eyes. Not just any boy. This is one she knows she loves, and he's always there waiting for her in her dreams.

After her arrival she gets given the last of her mothers belongings and inside one of the boxes is a strange key. The key acts as a portal to times before and she finally meets her family from the past. Actually the women in particular who have all suffered at the hands of polite society and etiquette rules in one way or another.

But at last she meets Phillip, and their love affair starts to transcend across the hundred years seperating them.

I can't tell you what a fantastically amazing story this is. It isn't just about love, although that's the main reason for Michele to travel back. It's also about Michele finding her family. A family she had little knowledge of. She helps them in many ways but they also help her with a sense of belonging to a real family at last.

This book definitely deserves more credit. It's actually a simply told story but very captivating!

You can reach Alexandra Monir here:

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Here's the Book Trailer! Enjoy!

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