Fiction Archives - Page 21 of 32 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Favorite Couples in Books

By Brookelorren on February 12, 2019February 11, 201933 Comments

Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday! Valentine’s Day is coming up, so this week we’re talking about favorite couples in books! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Fangirling on Friday’s topic is also about couples in relationships, so I’m combining topics, so consider this my Fangirling on Friday post too (a few days early)!

Dune (Day/June) – Legend

Day and June are absolutely my most favorite couple! They’re so cute together. They both go through so much, and they both are willing to sacrifice for each other. I just love them. After Champion, I was heartbroken because of what happened. I love them so much, I’ve written a lot of fanfiction about the two of them.

I loved Life After Legend and Life After Legend II. I’m eagerly anticipating Rebel, the fourth Legend book, this fall!

FourTris – Divergent

Four and Tris were probably the very first Young Adult couple that I fell in love with. I absolutely loved them together, and for me, they belong together forever.

Of course, the ending of Allegiant was heartbreaking to me. I wasn’t about to accept it. That’s what got me into fanfiction. Divergent fanfiction is fun to read, and I’ve written some Divergent fanfiction myself.

Adelina/Magiano – The Young Elites

Another couple that I’m absolutely in love with is Adelina and Magiano from The Young Elites. Even though Adelina is evil, Magiano is a good influence on her. It seems like I have a thing for cinnamon roll boys and the girls that love them… anyway, this is another story that broke my heart, but I’ve also written fanfiction to heal my heart. I haven’t published it yet, but I’m working on it.

Clace (Jace/Clary) – Mortal Instruments

Clary and Jace are a couple that I love as well. I ship them so much. Even though there’s other couples in The Mortal Instruments, they’re my favorites. Over the course of this six-book series, they go through so many trials, but they are always there for each other.

One of my favorite lines from Jace is “Break up with Clary? Are you insane?”

Akos/Cyra – Carve the Mark

I love Akos and Cyra together as well. They’re perfect for each other. Cyra causes pain to anybody that touches her because of her currentgift, and Akos disrupts the currentstream, which helps take away her pain. It’s a good thing that they end up liking each other!

I’ve written fanfiction for all five of the above couples. I guess that’s just a thing I have… if I don’t have enough of them, I write more!

Mariko/Ōkami – Flame in the Mist

Do I really need a reason to like them together? I just think they’re kinda hot as a couple. They had sparks flying even before Ōkami realized that Mariko was not a boy — which he found disturbing.

Will/Tessa – The Infernal Devices

I loved Will and Tessa together, and it was one of the reasons why I ugly-cried through the last two chapters of Clockwork Princess. Cassandra Clare masterfully dealt with the whole mess of how Tessa loved both him and Jem. I can’t wait to read more of their family’s story in Chain of Gold later this year.

Elias/Laia – An Ember in the Ashes

I feel for this couple so much. They just can’t seem to get a break. And now we have to wait until 2020 to find out what happens to them! Ms. Tahir, you have to put them together! If she doesn’t, there’s always fanfiction. Because they need each other. I need them to be together, finally.

Lazlo/Sarah – Strange the Dreamer

I love Lazlo and Sarah together. It’s so sweet how they meet in dreams and have their first kisses together and all that. And then they have to be broken apart…

But this story ends on a hopeful note. And there’s always fanfiction?

Free/Cole – Into the Hollow

There wasn’t a tenth couple that really jumped out at me when I thought of couples in books. I didn’t want to say Jude/Cardan because although I like them together, they’re a fairly toxic couple. But I really liked Free and Cole in Into the Hollow. This is a book that I didn’t think got enough love when it came out.

Free and Cole are such a wonderful couple together. They both come from dysfunctional homes that they’re embarrassed about, but they want to make a better life for themselves. And they’re good for each other as a couple. They might not be the first couple that I think about when I think of book couples on Valentine’s Day, but I loved this book, and I loved them together.

So what about you? What OTPs do you dream about or love? Yes, I’ve literally dreamed about some of these (and one dream became the basis for my book, The Brightness of Shadow). I can’t wait to see what everybody says this week.

On next week’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday, we’re going to talk about books that I loved that have less than 2000 ratings on Goodreads. Most of these books aren’t eligible for that (although I was surprised about one book). For Fangirling on Friday, we’ll be talking about slow-burn romances. A couple of these might show up again there. Be back then!

Second Star: Calling Peter Pan!

By Brookelorren on February 11, 2019February 11, 20196 Comments

I was recently scanning Netgalley for something soon-to-be released, and I saw Second Star by J.M. Sullivan. Ooh, I know J.M. Sullivan! She’s one of the hosts of #AuthorConfession on Twitter! I always love to read books fantastic people (although I have to confess, it can make writing a review more difficult sometimes).

Second Star by J.M. Sullivan is a Peter Pan retelling. So if you love Peter Pan, then you already have a reason to read this book. I think the story is okay, although I haven’t seen it in years (the Disney cartoon, that is). I’ve seen some of the Peter Pan movies over the years, like Hook, and I’ve never read the original book. Like Heartless, I think you’ll get more out of this retelling if you’re more familiar with the original story.

Our story follows Peter and Wendy. Peter is a mechanic on the Jolly Roger, a star ship out on a mission. Wendy is an intelligent girl whose parents push her to be an overachiever. At the military academy, Wendy seems to develop a crush on the historical James Hooke, a captain who was lost years ago. Eventually, the paths of Hooke, Peter, and Wendy cross on a star far away from Earth.

The Good

Ms. Sullivan does a great job combining the classic Peter Pan tale with a futuristic starship story. There’s Tinc, a nanobot that Peter put together that behaves eerily like Tinkerbell from the classic story, SMEE, who is Captain Hooke’s assistant, the Lost Boys, and even mermaids. The book speaks of themes like immortality (which Hooke is searching after) and there’s even a thimble in there. I probably miss a great deal since I haven’t seen the classic cartoon in eons, but there’s a lot of cleverness in there.

The friendships are great in this book. Wendy seems to be a little difficult to warm up to, but her friends are loyal and she loves them back. I’m glad the kids she became friends with at the academy get to be with her on all of her adventures.

What Could Be Better

While Second Star was very entertaining, it seemed like it could use a little more polish. It’s difficult to describe why I felt this way, although it’s a very subjective measure rather than anything concrete I can point out.

One other thing that I thought could be better is the relationship aspect of this story. The friendships in this book are great, but Wendy and Peter have something of an insta-love that would probably be better if they slowed down a bit. While I could understand if they felt insta-attraction, they were emotionally invested in each other a little too quickly for my taste. There’s the possibility of a love triangle in the second book (I kinda hope not though).

Overall

Second Star was overall entertaining, even though it’s not likely to make any of my best-of lists. I do plan on reading the second book in this series, and not just because J.M. Sullivan wrote it. I want to find out what happens to Peter and Wendy. If you’re only going to read one book this year, I probably wouldn’t choose this one, but if you like Peter Pan or retellings, you might want to consider adding this to your TBR.

Favorite Diverse Reads

By Brookelorren on February 8, 2019January 27, 20194 Comments

It’s Friday, so that means… it’s tie to Fangirl! Today’s topic is Favorite Diverse Reads. To be honest, I never really pay too much attention to whether a book is diverse or not, but I know that representation matters to people who are underrepresented in books, so it’s good for authors to think about diversity.

I’m just going to lump Marie Lu’s books all together, because they’re all diverse. Day from Legend is primarily Mongolian, while June is part native American. Although The Young Elites is a fantasy novel set in a fictonal world, Adelina Amouteru could probably be described as Middle Eastern-ish while Magiano is black. In Warcross, Emika is Chinese while Hideo is Japanese. There is also a nonbinary character in the sequel, Wildcard.

The Ember in the Ashes Quartet is set in a Roman-ish type of land with characters of various races. Laia is a character with Middle Eastern-ish roots (the Roman Empire at its height controlled Northern Africa and a good deal of the Middle East anyway). This series also has a lot of folklore from the Middle East as well.

Flame in the Mist is a book resembling the setting of feudal Japan. I absolutely loved this book and it’s setting.

Probably diversity is not the first thing that you think about when you think of Enchantée, which was set in France right before the French Revolution. Most of the people there are going to be European and white, right? While Enchantée does have a lot of historical accuracy to it, despite it being a fantasy book, France wasn’t 100% white at the time. France was already expanding its colonies, and Lazare, the main love interest, was the child of one of the guys that left to colonize India (I think) and one of the natives there, so yes, even this fantasy book set in Europe has it’s own diversity to it.

So there are some books that I love with diversity in it. Next week, I’m going to combine Fangirling on Friday with Top Ten Tuesday for my favorite couples in books. Since Top Ten Tuesday is out out on Tuesday, I’ll be posting a few days early.

Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key

By Brookelorren on February 7, 2019December 27, 2018Leave a Comment

Recently, I read Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key.

Last summer, I was on Twitter and there was a discussion about things that it would be really cool to happen to you as a writer. Katie Masters (who is really nice) wrote that it would be really cool if someone wrote fanfiction of her work. So I said “I’ll write a fanfic for you.” Because that’s one of the things that I do. Write fanfiction.

I didn’t know that she already had a book out until months later! So that’s how I happened to end up picking up Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key. It was a good book, and I’m looking forward to reading more stories from her.

Brenna’s family moves around a lot. Her parents are writers and she’s homeschooled. When they stop by Ireland for four months, she’s immediately drawn into an adventure involving fairies… both good and bad. She has to protect a girl, but she doesn’t know who she is or where she’s located. And there’s this cute boy, Patrick, that is her closest neighbor that she discovers also sees fairies.

There were a lot of things I liked about the story. We don’t get too many stories set in Ireland, so I really liked that. There’s a wee little bit of Irish in this book… Irish is the second-most difficult language that I’ve ever tried learning (Hebrew is slightly more difficult for me) but I thought it was cool to see it here. And no, you don’t have to speak any Irish to enjoy this book.

The fairies in this book share many similarities, although they are slightly different from, the fairies you might find in The Cruel Prince or The Shadowhunter’s books. These fairies are tricky, but they could potentially lie.

I liked the adventure in this book. After Brenna agrees to protect the girl, she has to find out who the girl is, where she is, and how to protect her. With the help of Patrick and some new fairy friends, she discovers the answers and even gets into a couple of fights. This propels the story forward.

The relationships in this story are good too. Brenna is close to her mom, and she seems to share a typical mother-daughter relationship with her. Mom threatens to share embarrassing baby pictures with her, cajoles her into going to school on time (they decide that she’ll attend school while she’s in Ireland), and is upset when her adventures take her out too late at night. She has a slow-blossoming love relationship with Patrick, a fairy that might be taking an interest in her, and a friendship that she develops at school.

It’s not the perfect book. It has the feel of a debut at times. There were a few places where it should have said “breathe” but said “breath” instead, but I’ve seen minor things like that in books from more established authors as well. Overall, the book was good.

I did write that fanfic too, if you’re interested. “Brenna Morgan and the Silver Portal” is a crossover fanfic that occurs after this book, where Brenna is in college, Patrick is visiting her, and they just happen to run into Jace and Clary and get portaled into Erenya (my world from the book I’m writing) and have to go on a quest in order to get back.

Books That Have Been on My TBR the Longest

By Brookelorren on February 5, 2019February 4, 201929 Comments

It’s Tuesday again, and Welcome to this week’s Top Ten Tuesday! As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic was supposed to be “Upcoming Releases I’m On the Fence About” but it seemed a little negative to me and I just put a book on my TBR suddenly without thinking about it much, so I’m doing “Books on MY TBR the Longest that I Still Haven’t Read”. It goes well with the most recent TBR additions, which we did last week. So here goes:

One of the oldest books on my TBR is 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West. These books with the years on them are usually pretty interesting. Lately, I’ve found that history is a great way to find ideas for the books I’m writing too. This book has been on my TBR forever.

To be honest with you, I’m actually not grabbing the books added last on my TBR. I have some entries from 2013… and then they go straight to 2018. So I’m going to mix it up a bit because otherwise it would be really boring. A Court of Thorns and Roses was one of my oldest 2018 adds.

You’ll probably see a pattern between the oldest books on my TBR and the books I added in 2018. Anyway, New Deal or Raw Deal? was a book I added in 2013. There’s a lot of controversy regarding the whole New Deal and I don’t think there’s a clear-cut answer, because it did some good things and some not-so-good things. I suppose what we’re going through today might be looked upon history the same way. Anyway, here’s another book to learn about the past.

Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu is another one of my oldest TBR entries from 2018. It’s going to have to stay on my TBR for about another year, because it’s not supposed to be released until 2020. I think it’s supposed to come out in the spring though, so maybe I can start begging for an ARC by the end of this year at least?

The Real Thomas Jefferson: The True Story of America’s Philosopher of Freedom is another book I added in 2013. These books are really thick, but the type is pretty large. I still haven’t read this one yet though.

Here’s another book that has been on my TBR for a while that hasn’t been released yet. I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading Kingdom of Back long before I end up reading The Winds of Winter.

Throughout history, most of the world’s population has not lived under conditions that we would consider to be free. The Miracle of Freedom: 7 Tipping Points that Saved the World covers seven major events form history, going all the way back to the days of the Assyrians, that led to freedom for people. And I still haven’t read this book, even though I put this on my list in 2013.

All the Little Lights by Jamie McGuire sounded like a good book, and I added it to my Goodreads to try to win a contest, but I still haven’t read it yet. It still sounds like a good book, about two people who become friends, are separated, and then are reunited again, with some trouble brewing too.

Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy sounds like an interesting book. This was another period of history where a lot of people didn’t trust each other. I still haven’t read this book yet, but I really should someday.

When I first heard of the Holodomor, where Stalin tried to starve the Ukrainians, I thought it was a fascinating period of history that I wanted to learn more about. Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine sounded like an interesting book when it came out, but there was a wait list at the library and I didn’t want to wait for it. When I last went to Barnes and Noble with some money to spend, they didn’t have it. So I still haven’t read it.

So there you have it: some of the oldest books on my TBR. I think I’ll read A Court of Thorns and Roses fairly soon… I am on the waiting list at the library for it… but who knows when I’ll get to the others. What’s one of the books that have been on your TBR for a LOOOONG time? I’m looking forward to seeing what books people are on the fence about this week!

Next week: My favorite couples in books.

One More October 1st Release to Get Excited About!

By Brookelorren on February 4, 2019February 4, 2019Leave a Comment

As if we didn’t already have enough to look forward to on October 1st, Veronica Roth is releasing a book that day too! The End and Other Beginnings is a book of short stories, which contains stories from the Carve the Mark Universe, “Inertia” (which was my favorite story from Summer Days and Summer Nights), and some other stories.

I thought we were going to have to wait until 2020 to read something else from her, but nope! I’m excited for this one too.

It’s already available for pre-order, although I just spent the remainder of my Amazon money on Rebel, so I have to wait a couple of days to buy this one. I’m so excited for this one though! I know what I’ll be doing October 1st and 2nd now (unless I happen to score a couple of ARCs on these).

Roth and Lu are my two auto-buy authors, so I’m really psyched!

We Can Stop Calling it Legend 4 Now…

By Brookelorren on February 4, 2019February 4, 20192 Comments

So, Saturday night while I was on my last break at work, I saw that there would be a major reveal from Marie Lu on Monday morning (that’s today). So this morning, first thing I did was look to Twitter to see what the reveal would be. I was thinking it would probably be the title, and I was right.

So here it is. We don’t have to call it Legend 4 anymore, we can now call it Rebel! She also revealed the publication date (October 1st, you can pre-order it now like I did) and a description of the novel:

Respect the Legend. Idolize the Prodigy. Celebrate the Champion. But never underestimate the Rebel.

Eden Wing is a brilliant student. He’s about to graduate a year early from Ross University of the Sciences, with honors, and already has an internship lined up back in the Republic. But most people don’t introduce Eden this way. Instead, they say, “This is Eden, Daniel Wing’s younger brother.”

Ten years ago, Eden’s brother Daniel was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. His name was spray-painted on walls, his profile splashed on both rebel pamphlets and wanted posters. He went from being a hunted criminal to a national hero in less than a year.

Day has spent the past decade piecing together his memory of his time in the Republic, pretending to enjoy life in Antarctica’s capital, Ross City , and quietly hiding out from the world—even if it’s meant giving up June, the great love of his life. As long as he can keep his little brother safe, that’s all that matters . . .

But Eden isn’t safe. As the two brothers struggle to accept who they’ve each become, they grow more distant from one another than they’ve ever been. Eden finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into Ross City’s dark side, until even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own.

When June suddenly steps back into Day’s life, rekindling the flames of their romance, the pair team up to do whatever it takes to rescue Eden. But like the rest of the world, they may have underestimated Eden—what he’s capable of, where his loyalties lie, and how hard he’s willing to fight for what he believes.

There’s a lot of wonderful books coming out this year, but I think I’m looking forward to this one the most.

Favorite Books of January

By Brookelorren on February 1, 2019January 26, 20198 Comments

It’s Friday, so guess what we’re doing today? We’re fangirling! Fangirling on Friday is hosted by Books in the Skye. Since it’s the first of the month, we’re going to talk about the best books I read last month.

Is The Queen of Nothing out yet? Because I’m definitely in need of an ARC of that book. Stat. The Wicked King was an amazing book. If you liked The Cruel Prince, you won’t be disappointed in it’s sequel.

Books that come out at the beginning of the year are sometimes at a disadvantage when it comes to my “Best Books I Read for the First Time in 20XX” list, because by the time the end of the year comes around, I sometimes forget how great the books I read at the beginning of the year were. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Wicked King ends up making my “best of” lists this year.

What is it that makes books set in historical France so good (and so popular) this winter? Spectacle was another great book that I read in January. Other books set in historical France you might be interested in are Enchantée and The Gilded Wolves.

Spectacle was one of those books that was hard to put down (but I had to, because I had to go to bed). Will it make my end of year list? Maybe. Again, this book is at a disadvantage because I read it in January, but whether it makes my end-of-year lists or not, I’m pretty sure it’s going to get a lot of mentions on Top Ten Tuesdays this year.

Well, that’s enough fangirling for now! Next week, we’re going to talk about favorite diverse reads. I might have to list several because some of my absolute favorites I already fangirl over all the time, So maybe I’ll fangirl over those AND some others just for there to be a little more variety.

The Ten Most Recent Additions to My TBR

By Brookelorren on January 29, 2019January 28, 201926 Comments

It’s Tuesday again, which means another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s Topic is “The Ten Most Recent Additions to my TBR”. I am writing this slightly in advance, so it might change a bit, but these are what was added to my TBR when I wrote this.

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

The Queen of Nothing – Holly Black

I stayed up to finish The Wicked King on the day that I got it. I didn’t want to put it down. While the ending wasn’t a huge cliffhanger (I mean, nobody got stabbed right before the end or anything), I certainly want to find out what happens next. ASAP. I’ll be looking for ARCs of this when it comes out.

The Tiger at Midnight – Swati Teerdhala

This description from the author: “I’m the author of THE TIGER AT MIDNIGHT, which is LEGEND x AN EMBER IN THE ASHES set in a fantastical ancient India.” completely got me. She must be a mind reader or something, because I fangirl over both those books. All the time. I need to read this book! Can I get an ARC? I’ll be stalking Netgalley for this one.

Once & Future – Amy Rose Capetta

A gender-bent King Arthur retelling set in the future? Sign me up. This was another book I found from Top Ten Tuesday bloggers.

Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages – Gaston Dorren

I’m a polyglot, so I’m always learning languages. If you learned twenty languages, you could speak to half of the population. This book sounded pretty interesting.

Sweet on You – Becky Wade

This is another Top Ten Tuesday book that I saw that looked good. Since it’s part of a trilogy, I guess I have to read the others first?

Song of the Abyss – Makiia Lucier

I still haven’t read Isle of Blood and Stone yet, but it’s in my TBR Jar. The second book is Song of the Abyss, which I added to my TBR because I was trying to win it. It looks good. Hopefully I’ll get to read it soon.

Blood Heir – Amélie Wen Zhao

I love how this story is Russian-inspired. I see it on Twitter all the time, and the author seems nice too. I’m looking forward to reading it! I requested an ARC on Netgalley; I hope I get approved.

The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead

I saw this book last summer and it looked interesting, but then I forgot about it. Another person’s Top Ten Tuesday post reminded me about it, so it ended up on my TBR.

The Land of Yesterday – K. A. Reynolds

The cover to this book is gorgeous! It looks like such a cute book. It’s a middle grade book that I plan to read and have my boy read too. My library doesn’t have it (gasp) but I ordered it through inter-library loan.

Ghosts of the Shadow Market – Cassandra Clare

I’ve pre-ordered this book already, so guess what I’ll be reading on June 4th? This book tells a bunch of short stories involving different shadowhunters throughout history, as seen from the eyes of Brother Zechariah (Jem Carstairs). Looking forward to reading it!

So there’s your Top Ten Tuesday for this week. Next week is supposed to be “Upcoming Releases I’m on the Fence About” but after writing it I realized I didn’t want to be so negative, so I changed it to a post on the books that have been on my TBR the longest.

What books did you recently add to your TBR? Are you inspired by other people’s TTTs like I am?

Spectacle was Spectacular!

By Brookelorren on January 28, 2019January 14, 20196 Comments

2019 is already turning out to be an amazing year for books. I recently read Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrock. It was a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. I was fortunate enough to be provided with an Advanced Review Copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Nathalie is a normal girl living in 19th century France. Or so she thinks. She recently got a summer job at Le Petit Journal writing the daily morgue report. In Paris back in these days evidently, unidentified bodies would be put on display at the public morgue for people to identify (and gawk at). Nathalie’s job is to visit the morgue every day and report on what she finds there.

Recently, there has been a murder. When Nathalie goes to the morgue to report on it, she touches the glass separating the body from the viewing public, and has a vision of what happened. She’s freaked out by this, of course. Evidently, she says something while she’s having the vision, but she doesn’t know what she says. She also ends up with memory loss after she has the vision. The book is written from third person limited perspective, so as a reader, we know what her lost memories are, even though she doesn’t.

As the summer progresses, there are more murders. Her ability to view the murders was not just a one time thing. She is torn by wanting to help, and accepting the accompanying memory loss, and wanting to avoid these visions. She’s also afraid that she might inadvertently attract the killer’s attention herself.

Nathalie eventually discovers where this ability came from, but I’ll leave that as something for you to discover when you read this book. Her ability is connected to the murders, which become more personal as the story progresses.

I didn’t want to put down this book, because I wanted to find out who the killer was and see him come to justice. I wanted Nathalie to find out more about her gift. While reading the book, I tweeted “If only I didn’t have to sleep! Spectacle by @jlzdrok is amazing! I’m 69% of the way through it and darn it… if I could get by on less sleep to finish it I would! You have to read it.” I think that’s a good recommendation for the book.

Spectacle won’t be released until February 12th, but you can pre-order it today.