The Unbroken Hearts Club by Brooke Carter is a short novel/novella about a girl and her father recovering from her mother’s death from Huntington’s Disease. She’s having difficulty in school, and has to finish her media project in order to graduate. Her best friend Cole is helping her get through this time.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an Advanced Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Unbroken Hearts Club was an enjoyable enough story. Lo (short for Logan) is an interesting character who enjoys taking photos and bonds with Cole over their shared passion for 90’s movies. Cole would like their relationship to be more, but Lo is having difficulty feeling much of anything after the death of her mother.
I thought that Lo and her father’s grief seemed realistic. While Lo turned into herself, her father sought the companionship of other people (which is why he allows a grief support group to meet in their basement). We don’t always have the same reactions to grief, and I like how this book shows that.
Although the book was enjoyable overall, this book did have a few problems. It probably could have used a little more editing to make the prose tighter. Some of the conversations seem a little off. Lo and Cole’s relationship issues seemed to resolve themselves a little unrealistically. These were minor issues that didn’t keep me from enjoying the story, but it did keep it from being a four-star read.
Although The Unbroken Hearts Club is a cute story, it’s not going to be one of my favorite books this year. It’s not available yet, but it is available for pre-order. It is scheduled to be released on January 29th.
For today’s edition of Fangirling on Friday, we’re discussing Dragons! Fangirling on Friday is hosted by Books in the Skye!
There haven’t been a lot of books with dragons lately that I’ve seen lately, but if I was to predict the future, I’d say that dragons will be making a comeback soon. Whenever people mention The Priory of the Orange Tree, one of the first things I hear people get excited about is the dragon on the cover. I think people want to read about dragons.
I hope that’s the case, because there is a dragon in my book. And I expect there to be lots of dragons in the second book. I’m still finishing up the first draft of the first book, so we’ll see what goes on with those dragons. A lot can change between the first draft and the finished product.
Anyway, I’ve been fangirling over books with dragons for a long time. For me, when I think about books with dragons in them, I think of Dragonlance. There’s about 100 books in this series (and spinoffs), and I’ve read the majority of them.
Dragonlance has a special place in my heart. When I had known my then-boyfriend for about two months, he gave me Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Guys, the way to a girl’s heart is books. Or at least it should be. I had to marry him a couple of years later, of course. We named our kids after Dragonlance characters. My daughter is lucky she was born in Italy, because otherwise we would have named her Lauralanthalasa. We were afraid they’d mess up the birth certificate though, so she got the nickname of Laurana instead.
Hopefully we’ll see more dragon books soon, but until then, there’s Dragonlance, Priory (coming out February 26th) and The Song of Ice and Fire (which I don’t recommend to younger readers).
Do you like books with dragons?
Next week: Favorite Nicknames of characters. I’m not sure what I’ll do with that one, but I’ll probably think of something.
In 2018, I read the main books (so far) in the Shadowhunter’s Chronicles. All of them. After finishing City of Heavenly Fire, I didn’t think that I would be interested in another ship as much as I was in Clary and Jace’s. I was so disappointed to finish that series, but I wanted to find out what happened next. I was wonderfully surprised when I read Clockwork Angel and discovered how lovely that was.
When Tessa Gray arrives in England from America, she is in for a surprise. Instead of her brother waiting for her, there is a coachman. The dreams she may have had of the city are replaced with nightmares. She is kidnapped, forced to learn how to shapeshift (she didn’t know she could do that before) and then is told that she is supposed to marry someone called The Magister. Huh? But then, lucky for her, the Shadowhunters show up and save her. But that’s not the end of her adventures.
I think it’s at this point in the story where I begin to fall in love with the whole Shadowhunter’s series, because I start to fall in love with these new characters and with the Shadowhunters of London. There are characters here that we already know, like Magnus Bane, and I begin to be amazed at how the London Institute and what happens here has a history that is seamless with The Mortal Instruments, which I just read.
I love the characters here, and the relationships. Will Herondale has a love for books and reminds me a lot of his descendant Jace. Tessa seems to see through his self-disparaging attitude. Jem is kind and has a love for violin playing. Then there’s Charlotte and her absentminded genius of a husband, Henry, who invents things that don’t always seem to work as planned.
Even though Tessa has been rescued by Will and Jem, the Magister is a threat. Plus, he has her brother. Will they be able to take down the Magister and rescue her brother? You’ll have to read this book to find out what happens. As you do, you’ll see Tessa become the brave person she was meant to be, discover that some villains you didn’t expect, and become immersed in London of the late 1870s.
Clockwork Angel convinced me that I needed to read all the core Shadowhunters books. While reading this series, I went ahead and bought Lady Midnight (which was on sale at the time) and pre-ordered Queen of Air and Darkness. Because I wanted to read all of them at that point. When I finished this book, I was impatient to read the next book in the series, Clockwork Prince.
It’s Top Ten Tuesday again! Today’s topic (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “New to Me Authors I Read in 2018”. I mentioned last year that I just found out how amazing Goodreads was last year, which allowed me to discover a lot of fantastic authors, so this list will be a little embarrassing. You may read this list thinking “how could she not have read that author before?” Anyway, here are some of the new-to-me authors that wrote the most highly rated books last year:
I’m not embarrassed that I had never read Gita Trelease before last year. After all, her book isn’t even officially out yet! I was so excited when I was selected to receive an ARC of her debut, Enchantée. I am so happy that this book will have a sequel as well. She wrote my favorite book last year.
Who has written more than a dozen books, has a movie and a television show, and I never heard of before 2018? Cassandra Clare. Out of all the new-to-me authors from 2018, I think it’s my biggest embarrassment that I had never read her books before this year. I don’t think that I’ll end up buying everything that she ever writes — some of the storylines don’t interest me immensely — but her core Shadowhunter books are on my auto-buy list. Which means that I’ll be buying at least six more books from her in the foreseeable future.
Holly Black is another new-to-me author from last year. She’s written several other books, but from what I can tell, The Cruel Prince was a runaway hit for her. I absolutely loved this book (and The Wicked King, which I read last week) and am looking forward to reading more of her books in the future.
Sabaa Tahir is another new-to-me author from 2018. Her Ember books are amazing, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading the final book in this series. She’s also a really nice person on Twitter – you should follow her.
Laini Taylor is another new-to-me author from 2018, and I actually got ideas from her in the book I’m writing. One day, she tweeted that there was a city in France called Malicorne, which of course was where evil unicorns lived. You may not see any malicorn in the book I’m writing, but they do make an appearance in “Brenna Morgan and the Silver Portal“, a fanfic I wrote with characters from Katie Masters’ book, Clary and Jace from the Shadowhunters books, and a couple characters from my book. Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares were great books, and I’m looking forward to reading more from her!
Another new-to-me author that’s embarrassing that I never heard of before 2018 was Sarah J. Maas. She’s only written two of the most popular YA book series in the last several years! But prior to 2018, I got my book recommendations from movies mainly, so I guess it’s understandable that I never read her before. I have a lot of catching up to do now!
Renée Ahdieh has had several books out so far, including the amazing Flame in the Mist. New to me last year. I read three of her books in 2018, although I still have to read the sequel to The Wrath and the Dawn. Maybe I’ll get around to reading it this year.
Caraval and Legendary were books that I loved last year, and Stephanie Garber is another new-to-me author from 2018. These books were magical, and I can’t wait to read Finale when it comes out. One thing about reading so many amazing new-to-me authors last year is that there are so many books that I’m looking forward to!
Another author that has been wildly successful in recent years that I hadn’t heard of before was Victoria Aveyard, who wrote the Red Queen series. I ended up reading all four books last year.
Last year I also read Amanda Foody for the first time. Ace of Shades is not her debut, but I think that it’s been her most successful book yet. I plan on reading the sequel to this book, King of Fools, sometime this year.
So there you have it — ten authors who were new-to-me in 2018. Since I’ve been book blogging for a little while now, there probably won’t be as many “wait, what? I never heard of that author” on next year’s list, but there are still plenty of amazing authors out there that, sadly, I’ve never read before. I hope to fix that at least a little bit, this year.
So what authors were new to you in 2018? I’m looking forward to seeing your Top Ten Tuesday this week.
Enchantée is an amazing book! I had a feeling that I would love this book when I first started hearing about it, and I was certainly not disappointed. This book was so amazing that, with about 30 minutes left in the book, I actually considered coming to work late so I could finish it. The responsible part of me prevailed; I ended up going to work on time and finishing it at lunch. When I finished the book and started putting my things away to go back to work, the smile this book left me was so bright, one of my co-workers thought I was going home. It’s that good!
Netgalley gave me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
I probably should add a little background information on myself because it might influence how much I love this book. I love history. Last year, I took a class on Coursera about the French Revolution. Part of the charm of this book to me was seeing this part of history come to life. There’s a lot in this book that is historically accurate, and I love that about this book. While I loved the historical aspect of the book, it’s not a central feature of the story. The French Revolution is in the backdrop of this powerful story of love, magic, and illusion.
Camille is our heroine. Her family has fallen on hard times, as it has for most Parisians. Her brother is an abusive drunk, and they’re behind on their rent. Sophie, her younger sister, is an excellent hatmaker who dreams of marrying into nobility.
Although everything seems bleak, Camille and Sophie’s lives change when Camille helps a couple of balloonists with their runaway balloon. Their lives further change when Camille chooses to use la magie to transform herself into an aristocrat and start gambling at Versailles.
She falls in love with Lazare, one of the balloonists. When she discovers that he’s actually an aristocrat and sees him at Versailles, things become complicated in her life. To top it all off, the Vicomte de Séguin seems to have taken an interest in her, and Camille doesn’t want to have anything to do with him.
With a half hour left to go in the story (there were no page numbers in my book, just approximate reading time), I was wondering how Ms. Trelease was going to pull off a satisfying ending. Camille was in an almost impossible situation, and I didn’t know how her life was going to end in anything but disaster. This was either going to be one of the best books that I read for the first time in 2018, or it was going to have a disappointing ending for me like Allegiant chapter 50. I was not disappointed. The ending was more delicious than I could have even imagined. The ending of Enchantée made me want to perfect the ending of my own novel that I was outlining at the time.
J’aime Enchantée so much! The writing was magical. The characters were amazing. I loved Camille and Lazare together, and I love how Camille cared for her sister. This story had me hooked from the very beginning.
Enchantée will be released on February 5th. I highly recommend this book. It is one of the best books I read last year, and I definitely plan on reading it again someday.
Yesterday on Twitter I saw that Books in The Sky was starting a new weekly prompt: Fangirling on Friday. It sounded like a lot of fun, and I typically don’t post anything on Fridays, so I figured I’d try it out. I think her first prompt was from last Friday, so I decided to jump in — on a Sunday!
This week’s prompt was Fandoms, so I decided to start with my favorite fandoms: Book Fandoms I have Written Fanction For. Writing fanfiction takes a lot of effort, so there has to be a reason for it. Even reading fanfiction takes time from all of the other amazing books out there. So these are kind of in order from my earliest fandom favorites to last month.
The first two novels I ever wrote were band fanfics (that’s why I’m narrowing this topic to book fandoms). It took me a year to write both books. Then I stopped writing for a long time, as I went to college and got busy in other things.
But then I read Divergent. Probably the first book series I really fangirled over. I got to about page 50 in this book, and then… I read the rest of this book, Insurgent, and Allegiant in two days. I remember going to bed crying and heartbroken at 4 AM.
But at the same time, I thought “this is fiction. I’m not going to take this ending.” So the next day, I discovered fanfiction. I didn’t start writing it right away… and I really have to admit, I’m not very impressed by my first effort now. But my recent Divergent fusion fanfic with the next fandom turned out okay…
If we magically teleport forward to 2016, we’ll find the Legend fandom, which I’ve written the most fanfiction for to-date. My husband had to go to the hospital one evening (fairly routine for us because of his sickle cell anemia) and I had just reread Legend, and I thought, “what did happen to Day and June after Champion?” This was before Life after Legend or the Legend 4 announcement. I didn’t want to leave it at that, so I wrote my first Legend fanfic and… didn’t finish it. I only wrote 14 chapters.
Never fear, I got a note last February from someone who wanted to read the end of my story. I was missing writing by then, so I finished it. And I started writing more stories, in multiple fandoms. Which led to me starting my first original novel for last NaNoWriMo.
I write fanfiction because I want to tell a story about the existing characters that I already love. I fell in love with Adelina and Magiano. They’re so sweet together! After I read the ending to The Midnight Star, I didn’t want to leave it at that, but I saw a glimmer of hope at the end. So I started writing Saving Adelinetta. It’s on haitus at the moment, but so far it’s at over 68,000 words, and I have about 1/3 of the book left to write.
I also have a cute little modern-day AU that I set aside for NaNoWriMo where Adelina and Magiano meet over World of Warcraft. I was originally planning on a longer work, but I think this will make a cute short story. I can always write a sequel later. As a short story, I might be able to get this out in a month-ish. My non-fanfic work is taking priority though.
I just love Akos and Cyra from Carve the Mark! They’re perfect for each other. I was a little wary of The Fates Divide, especially with the tagline “He’d Die for Her, She’d Kill for Him” but I was pleasantly surprised about that end. So… I never felt the need to write a long novel or novella about these two, but I did write a very short story (only 618 words) about what happens to these two about five years after the end of the story. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I have to write more about their story, but you never know. I get ideas from the strangest of places.
The last story I’ve actually written was a strange combination of fandoms that I’ve never written about before: Clary and Jace from the Mortal Instruments run into Brenna and Patrick from Brenna Morgan and the Iron Key while they are being chased by a demon. Clary, thinking that she’s going to get them to someplace safe and planning on getting backup, accidentally teleports them to the universe of the story that I’m writing. And then they have to find their way home.
I’m not really comfortable writing much Shadowhunter’s fanfiction yet. There is so much to that universe, and I try to be very detail oriented with my fanfiction, so I haven’t written anything else yet. Although I do like to read Shadowhunter’s fanfiction.
The final fandom that I love enough to write fanfiction about is Warcross… kind of. I loved this duology, and I have nothing more to say about this particular story at the moment… however…
Marie Lu said that Asher Wing is related to Daniel Wing from Legend. That got me thinking: “how did the Wing family go from Asher being this mega superstar to Daniel’s family being dirt poor?” And “Why is June named June when she was born in July?” So, although I haven’t written a word to this story yet, I’ve been kicking around this story, about Asher’s grandchildren/Day and June’s grandparents (different sets of grandparents… I’m not going to make them inbreeding cousins or anything) that answers these questions. It’s going to be mostly original characters with cameo appearances from some people from Warcross.
So that’s it! Fandoms I fangirl over so much I write/read fanfiction of them! On Friday (no, I don’t plan on making the Sunday edition a thing) I plan on writing about Dragons!
The Wicked King, by Holly Black, was sitting in my mailbox yesterday, and after reading The Cruel Prince, I had to read it right away. It was an un-putdownable book. After finishing it, my first question was “How long until the next Folk of the Air book again?” The next book, The Queen of Nothing, can’t come soon enough, if you ask me.
Because The Wicked King is the second book in a trilogy, there may be spoilers for The Cruel Prince in this review.
When we last left Jude and Cardan, Jude had managed to place Cardan on the throne as High King of Faerie. It was a scheme to eventually put her brother Oak on the throne while keeping her foster father, Madoc, from having control of the realm. Instead, she was actually the one in control, with Cardan as her puppet king. When we join them at the beginning of this book, Jude is acting as Cardan’s seneschal, and he has to do anything that she commands.
The two are no longer enemies in school. They spend their days running a kingdom where its inhabitants have to be truthful, even if they are scheming and deceptive. They still see themselves as enemies, but they have to work together nonetheless.
And they still just happen to have this weird attraction to each other. Which I love from a reader’s perspective.
It’s been five months since Cardan pledged to be obedient to Jude, and she can feel the months trickling away. Sooner than she’d like, he will be released from his promise, and he can do what he’d like again. Oak still won’t be old enough to rule. What then? Jude is concerned about all of this, when threats come to her, Cardan, and Oak from the Queen of the Undersea. She wants him to marry her daughter, Nicasia. And that’s all I’m going to say, because you’ll want to find out what happens for yourself.
The book was well-written. The prose slides through your mind like you’re watching a movie, and you forget it’s even there. Ms. Black brings the characters and the setting to life, and even though it was getting late as I read this, I just could not put it down. It’s almost as if I was in Faerie dancing: once you start, you can’t stop until it’s over.
At the same time, the ending! It was a little unexpected, but I absolutely loved it. It didn’t exactly end in a cliffhanger, but I wanted more. Immediately. I must have the next book!
Needless to say, I highly recommend The Wicked King. It’s the best book that I’ve finished all year (so far). Never mind that it’s January 9th and I’ve only finished three books. I have a good feeling that The Wicked King will end up on the list of my favorite books of 2019 anyway.
So when does The Queen of Nothing come out? Because we needs it! I will definitely try to get an ARC of the next book, because I need to find out what happens as soon as I can!
Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday! Today we’re going to talk about some of the amazing books that are coming out in early 2019. Since I could only find eight books from the first half of the year that I absolutely plan on reading, I’ll be rounding off this list with my two most-anticipated fall releases. Here we go!
If you’re reading this in the afternoon Mountain time, then I’ll probably be reading The Wicked King by Holly Black. The Cruel Prince made my list of top books last year, and I’m excited to read the second book in the series. Today!
Last year, I read The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices. That’s a lot of reading, because not only do those three series consist of 12 books total, none of those books are short! Anyway, now that I’ve read all of those great books, I’m looking forward to Ghosts of the Shadow Market that’s supposed to come out in June.
Last year I read Caraval and Legendary by Stephanie Garber, so this year I’m excited to read the last book in the series, Finale. I love how this book is supposed to be from both Tella and Scar’s perspectives, and we finally get to see how their stories end!
I think that out of all the debut authors I know of coming out with books this year, I’m looking forwad to Astrid Scholte’s Four Dead Queens the most. It feels like I’ve been hearing about this story for about forever now! The book comes out next month, so there’s not much longer to wait now.
Another book that I’m looking forward to is King of Fools, the next book in Amanda Foody’s The Shadow Game series. I got Ace of Shades when it was on sale last year, and I plan on continuing this series with the second book (of a planned 3).
Although Enchantée is not on this list (because I’ve already read it), there is another book set in the same time period that I’m looking forward to reading this year: Spectacle. Since they both come out in February, get ready to immerse yourself in pre-Revolution France next month (The Gilded Wolves is also based in France and comes out next week, although it’s set 100 years later).
Hopefully this year I’ll be reading several Russian-themed books, like The Bear and the Nightingale and Romanov by Nadine Brandes. I speak some Russian, and one of the countries in the universe that I’m creating in my writing life is Soyuza, which is based on pre-Soviet Russia. Although I love history in general, so even if I wasn’t already interested in Russia itself, I’d probably still want to read this one.
I’ve pre-ordered the Kindle edition of The Priory of the Orange Tree (because it’s 848 pages). It looks like an epic fantasy novel that I would find interesting, and several people who generally have good taste for these kinds of books say they liked it, so I plan on reading it as well. Besides, the book I’m writing has dragons in it too, so maybe I’ll get some inspiration. This one comes out the same day as Four Dead Queens… which one do I read first?
Those are the spring and summer releases I’m looking forward to. These are my must-read books for the fall:
If you’ve been reading this blog for very long, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to know that Legend 4 by Marie Lu is my most anticipated read of 2019. At all. I’ll probably be one of the first people to pre-order this book. I’ll be begging for an ARC too. When I heard about this book while I was on my last break at work a few months ago, I was completely giddy, and told all my customers at work about how excited I was. The fact that I can actually tell you where I was when I first heard about this should probably tell you how excited I am.
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare is another one of those books that I have already pre-ordered. I cried so much through the last chapter and epilogue of Clockwork Princess, and I’m excited to read more about this part of the Shadowhunter’s timeline. I’ll probably want to reread The Infernal Devices before it comes out, but I’m in luck: my parents gave me a boxed set of TID for Christmas.
So there you are: the eight books from the first half of 2019 that I’m definitely planning on reading, and two books from the second half of the year that I’m excited about. Next week we’re going to talk about new-to-me authors I read in 2018… some of whom I’m sure that many readers have known about for nearly forever, but I had been clueless about.
Back to the Future was one of the most popular movies of the 1980s. Here and Now and Then is a book that reminds me a little bit about that movie. The book has time travel, having to avoid time paradoxes, and the driving need to save family members. I recently had the opportunity to read this book, and I highly recommend that you read it too.
I was provided with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Kin is a time traveler from the year 2142. I wonder if all of these authors are trying to tell us something, because the epilogue to Champion ends in 2142 as well. Hmmm… Anyway, the time traveling program is classified, so he’s not supposed to tell his family members and loved ones about it. None of this would be a problem, until he gets stuck in our time period. For years.
He ends up being stuck in our time for long enough that he gets a job, finds a wife, and has a daughter. And he lives happily ever after in our time, right? Not quite. Eventually, the people from 2142 figure out when he is, and they come back to rescue him, even though, at this point, he doesn’t want to be rescued.
So what happens to a time traveler’s family after they’re left behind?
The remainder of Here and Now and Then deals with the consequences of his life in our present. Kin is heartbroken over losing his family. When he looks into the past to find out what happened to them, he doesn’t like what he sees, and tries to change it. Of course, the Temporal Corruption Bureau has something to say about that when they find out…
Not only does Kin have to deal with what happened to his family, he also has to reacquaint himself to the future he left behind. To the fiancée he forgot about when he was living in our time. The time he spent in our time changed him. Will he be able to reconnect with the life he left behind?
You’ll just have read the book to find out how this all turns out. I was very happy about the ending. I think you will be too. It tied the Kin of our time with the Kin of the future together in a nice way.
Here and Now and Then will probably interest adult readers, as the protagonist is a parent dealing with a fiancée and a teenage child; however, the content is appropriate for all ages.
One of the most popular books of 2018 (according to Goodreads readers) was Holly Black’s book, The Cruel Prince. I had to wait forever for it to become available on my library’s waiting list, and it was so good, I ended up buying the hardcover during Amazon’s Black Friday sale anyway.
The book drew me in right from the beginning. The text was inviting, and the book starts with… a murder. From there, the story continues to stay interesting.
The story revolves around a set of sisters. The oldest, Vivi, was half faerie. The two younger twins, Jude and Taryn, are human. After their parents are murdered by Vivi’s biological father, they are taken to live in faerie.
Jude and Taryn don’t exactly fit in. The prince, Cardan, along with his friends, treat them cruelly. Despite this, Jude wants to be a warrior among the faerie. She has the temperament for it.
The king is expected to pass on his throne, and several of his children are conspiring to get it. As with a lot of transitions of power, this one might come with some surprises. Jude becomes involved in one conspiracy, only to find that her father is involved in some shady dealings of his own. You won’t want to put down this book as you find out what happens.
There were a lot of things that I loved about this book. First, the writing is great. It’s hard to explain why, I just could feel how it drew me in. Second, the setting and characters were great. I haven’t read too many books set in faerie, but that didn’t matter, reading this book. The characters weren’t flat good-guy or bad-guy types; they all had a little of both to them, just like real life. The plot was also great.
The Cruel Prince was one of my favorite books from 2018 for a reason. I’m looking forward to reading The Wicked King when it comes out as well.
