Monthly Archives: May 2018

Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3.1) by Sarah J Maas

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Title: A Court of Frost and Starlight
Author: Sarah J Maas
Publisher/Year:  Bloomsbury 5/1/18
Length:   215 Pages
Series:  A Court of Thorns and Roses

Overview

Narrated by Feyre and Rhysand, this bridges the events in A Court of Wings and Ruin and the upcoming novels in the series.

New in the #1 New York Times bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series, A Court of Frost and Starlight is a glimpse into the lives of Feyre and Rhys as they begin to recover from the war that changed their world.

Feyre, Rhysand, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve. Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated — scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

My Thoughts

i LOVE this series and i’m so glad that while it’s short, we get another installment to the series.  Where we left off with all these characters – the war had ended, and Elain and Nesta were ‘MADE’ and kingdoms are shattered and lives were lost.  It’s a troubled time, yet we know that this group of family/friends will do whatever they can to get back to normal life and make sure that they are with the ones that matter most.  the Winter Solstice is the perfect time for them to come together and enjoy each other’s company.

Of course, it’s easier said than done when Elain is still in her shell and wants nothing to do with Az who is her mate.  And Nesta wants nothing to do with anyone, including her mate Cassian.  So we get to see how that all starts to affect the larger group.  Rhys and Feyre have found that their love is stronger and runs deeper than ever and that’s the thread that carries the gist of the story.

So i consider this to be a novella – i guess it’s kind of noted as it’s a #.1 but it’s a bit longer than a traditional novella.  Each chapter is based on a different characters story at the time in things, and we get to see how the results of the war shape what their path is.  Amren now as a human, Mor trying to get past the fear that she has of looking weak, the men who are both macho and who want to make things right with their soulmates.

On top of that lighter part of the story, we have the undertone of what’s going on in the bigger picture of the world now after the war, and what i assume will be the main factor of the next installment.  There’s unrest among the people, there’s fear and hatred that so many died and there’s no longer a divide between the human and fae worlds, so we know that there’s bound to be issue and catastrophe there as well.  Tamlin is a shell of a man now and his land is the one that borders the human world, yet he won’t accept help from Rhys since there’s too much pain and hatred tied to Feyre.

Anyhow-  while this is a lighter more surface installment, it’s a good lead into what’s to come and i know that it’ll be great since the other installments were AMAZING.  The pre-read chapter in the end of the next book really shows us that Nesta is going to take a main role – her journey into the cauldron was something that even it did not expect, and she’s taken from it and will hopefully use those powers to help Rhys and Feyre and their allies v. against them.  we’ll have to wait and see i guess.  On that note – enjoy your day all!

Review: Shake it Up (Man of the Month #8) by J Kenenr

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Title: Shake it Up
Author: J Kenner
Publisher/Year:  Martini & Olive 4/29/18
Length:   132 Pages
Series:  Man of the Month #8

Overview

There are a million reasons why I need to stop thinking about Taylor D’Angelo naked.

She’s too young for me, for starters.

She’s too ambitious.

She’s my job.

Romance was the last thing on my mind when I agreed to look into her stalker as a favor.

Now, she’s all I can think about–and in every position I can imagine.

I’m not the only one obsessing.

The threats against her are intensifying along with our connection.

If I give in, if I let our bodies take over, it could draw her stalker out.

Our passion could save her.

Or it could destroy us both.

My Thoughts

This is yet another great installment to the greater series by our wonderful author.  Yes, while you don’t ‘have’ to read all of the stories to get the gist of things, it’s really helpful to have them all in your head since there are links in each.

In any event, we had just met Landon in the previous story, seeing the hot detective from afar, and now it’s his turn to get a story.  There’s also the bit of Taylor – a girl who’s been in the series from the beginning, really helping get things handled for the contest each time.

Of course each has a complicated backstory, but in this case it’s really about Taylor and her past which she makes it very hard for us and Landon to get information about.  She’s run from a past which isn’t the best (seems to be a trend in this series) and we never really get to know what made it what it was until perhaps it’s too late.  That’s where Landon comes into play since he’s a detective and has been asked to help sort out who is watching her, stalking her etc.

The journey of this installment is kind of basic, yet there’s more chemistry and heat here than in some of the others, so again i don’t know how J Kenner does it, but she manages to keep things fresh.  Here, Landon isn’t really searching for anything for himself.  he’s waiting to get a new partner in the PD, and he’s renovating his house, but his past is really just one of a wife who wasn’t able to accept what he does for a living and left.  That hasn’t really stunted him exactly, so it’s not the case here that we need to find out what truly damaged him and gave him ghosts.  Makes it a bit easier for us to have a more in depth story for Taylor.  We don’t know anything about her except for the fact that no one really knows her longer than her senior year in high school when she moved to Austin.  She doesn’t talk about her family, and she doesn’t talk about anything that shaped her, so you know it has to be major.

So when she becomes the target of a stalker, someone who’s leaving scary notes for her, throwing bricks at her car (if you recall, that’s the car accident that we had in the last installment that was aimed at Taylor but she wasn’t driving at the time).  The stalkers’ identity is one that’s up in the air for the reader since Taylor hopes that it’s one person, knowing that it’s likely to be someone else.  Someone who wants to kill her for reasons that we still don’t know.

The question becomes what will lure out this stalker and will he get caught before anyone gets hurt?  What will then happen between Landon and Taylor, a couple that clearly has chemistry and sparks.  will they act on it or stay professional?  will they need someone or something to push them together faster?  Only way to find out is to read on.  And then wait a week for book 9 to see what’s next for this group!  enjoy!

Review: The Complication (The Program #6) by Suzanne Young

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Title: The Complication
Author: Suzanne Young
Publisher/Year:  Simon Pulse 4/24/18
Length:   324 Pages
Series:  The Program #6

Overview

Every cure has a cost.

Tatum Masterson learned this after years of being monitored by The Program. She witnessed it when her boyfriend, Wes, came back changed, erased. And now, even the newest “cure” has a heavy cost—one she and Wes paid.

The Adjustment came into Tatum’s life just when she thought she needed it most, a promise for Wes to get back his forgotten memories. But when the procedure went wrong, a revelation shattered everything Tatum thought she knew.

Now, with no one left to trust, Tatum must find out what really happened last summer. And with the help of the boyfriend she lost, Tatum will have to dig into the past and future of The Program and its handlers.

And discover the true cost of a cure.

My Thoughts

I”ve been on the journey with this series for quite a long time and seeing how our author Ms Young is able to weave the stories of the different couples at the varying stages in the program, while also making sure to continue the thread throughout that keeps them all continuous, constant, and concurrent is impressive.  We’ve seen so much pain and heart ache, so much trickery and lying, and some of our favorite characters will forever be on the run so that they can have their happy endings.  So it’s time to see not only how things end up for Tatum and Wes now that a huge bomb has been dropped on Tatum’s reality, but we also get to see how things continue and potentially end for The Program, for Realm and for a few others.

I think that it’s hard sometimes to get a good YA series that isn’t only on the surface a lot of the time.  That goes a bit deeper for several relationships and story lines, as well as gives us the romance, the aspiration that you know is needed in the genre.  We get that here.

Tatum’s world was blown up when she learned at the end of The Adjustment that her life isn’t at all what she thought.  that she went through The Program.  She now has absolutely no idea what’s real, what’s been taken and what’s been implanted and who’s been lying to her, her entire life.  It’s a crazy roller coaster story that we get here coming to terms with everything.  When we fear that handlers are all around them, i have to admit that i guessed who a few were.   When we worry that some of the authority figures and family members are on the right or wrong side, more often than not, i’m wrong.

The constant though which we saw in the other installments is that while the program was able to erase memories, it’s often unsuccessful in erasing what the heart feels and believes, and we see over and over again that the romances, the loves between these couples really continues to come through.

Throughout this installment, we’re taken back to Dr Warren who is Tatum’s therapist and who we learn has her own motives.  We are back at the Adjustment office and what we see and learn there turns the world upside down.  We’re introduced to new ‘legitimate’ folks who really do play a key role as the story comes to a finale.  We see lives ruined and lives brought back together.  The biggest question of all, is the Program dead once and for all?  i know that we believed that it was before, but i don’t know that we’ll ever learn the truth there.

I’m kind of sad to think that perhaps this is the last installment because of the events that happened at the end, i’ve been really engaged with all characters here.  Realm while cocky really intrigued me.  Sloane/James, Tatum/Wes, Realm/Dallas, Nicole/deacon….there are so many story lines that we got to follow and enjoy that now without them it’ll be sad.  Oh well – that’s the life of a reader right?  on that note, i hope you all enjoy the rest of your day!