Review: A Curse So Dark And Lonely

Title: A Curse So Dark And Lonely
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Release Date: January 29, 2019

Fall in love, break the curse.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper Lacy. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

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Review: The Wicked King

Title: The Wicked King
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little Brown BFYR
Release Date: January 8, 2019

The enchanting and bloodthirsty sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Cruel Prince.
You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.

The first lesson is to make yourself strong.

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.

When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.

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Review: Muse of Nightmares

Title: Muse of Nightmares
Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little Brown BFYR
Release Date: October 2, 2018

In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice—save the woman he loves, or everyone else?—while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she's capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Timesbestseller, Strange the Dreamer.

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Quick update

Yep, it's that time.

I'm still on a quick hiatus as I try to get some reviews ready to go and figure out what else to post. Mainly because I'm so busy with life that I don't even know what's going on with this blog.

Don't worry, I'll be back very soon. I'm reading and writing reviews. And I'm figuring out what other things to post. It will just be like another week or so before things get back to normal!

Impromptu Hiatus, Whoops!

I know this keeps happening, but I'm sorry!

Between having a full time job and a full time business, it's really tough to keep up. I am trying though!

As far as the business goes, I'm less busy this weekend than I usually am, so I'm taking that time to get ahead on orders. So I'll be able hopefully get back to reading, because I'm behind. As always.

Also on the agenda is ALAAC in NOLA! Omg I'm so excited! Is anyone else going? My sister and I are going together, and I cannot wait. If you're going let me know and we will probably run into each other. I know Tracy from Cornerfolds (aka my business partner) is going. And I've heard Amber from DuLivre is also going, so maybe I will see you there too!

Other news on the horizon...

My friend Erin in Houston is moving and couldn't take her cat with her. She looked for weeks for a home for him and couldn't find one. The shelters are all still full from Hurricane Harvey, plus it's kitten season. And so, because my heart was breaking, I offered to take Kaz from her. I'm picking him up at the airport tomorrow.

I cannot keep him, as my cats are all declawed (I don't want to hear the "don't declaw your cats" argument. I agree with you people. But declawed cats still need homes and I adopted them declawed, so leave it.), and Kaz is not. It wouldn't be fair to them, as if they got in a fight they couldn't defend themselves. But I have multiple homes lined up for him.

I think thats pretty much it for what's going on! I'm gonna try to get back to things on here.

Review: Furyborn

Title: Furyborn

Author: Claire Legrand

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Release Date: May 22, 2018

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world--and of each other.

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Writing Journey - Part 3

In the wake of rejection, I decided to get working on another project to distract myself. 

Now, in case you are unaware, I'm a pantser. Terrible pantser. I've tried planning and it did not work out well, so I will continue what seems to work for me.

That said, I tried to go and write in my gender-swapped Cinderella retelling, and got basically a few sentences. Okay, better than nothing, right? But I'm just not feeling it. I don't know how to approach the story, even though I have plot ideas in my head. So I decided to put it on the backburner again.

Now, the shiniest unfinished project I have is Thorn of Dreams. This was what I was writing for Nanowrimo a few years ago. The reason I stopped? I realized I needed to do more research than I can conceivably do at the moment. I could read plenty of books and online articles, but this is a book that's based in Icelandic culture, and I really feel I should take a trip to Iceland to truly experience it. Sadly, this is something I cannot afford currently.

So of course, that one has stayed on the backburner, much as I want to write about creatures that are the living embodiment of nightmares.

This brings me to a conundrum. Do I write something new? I haven't had much time to think about stories lately, so I don't have any new ideas that I've not started floating around yet (oh but I will soon, just not at the moment. They always come, just when I least expect them). So no, I won't start something new since I've got many already started projects.

But what then?

Well, I have three projects that I wrote a while ago that could definitely use some sprucing up. One is particularly bad, but I'm going to ignore it for the foreseeable future, because dystopia. Lol. And so I have decided to do a full rewrite of Iron Curse.

You may remember this as a) the first book I submitted on Swoon Reads and/or b) the second book I ever finished. Once I'm done with this rewrite (and let's face it, there's plenty I'm going to keep. I've just grown as a writer, so I'd like it to be better), I'll likely begin revising Crash Story. 

Oh my gosh, so much to do! Are you working on a big writing project?