The Bookboard

10 awesome books that i got in my mail, but couldn't accept to review for some reason. Just to give those books some love; I listed them down below! (only 6 for today)

The Immortality Game

Moscow, 2138. With the world only beginning to recover from the complete societal collapse of the late 21st Century, Zoya scrapes by prepping corpses for funerals and dreams of saving enough money to have a child. When her brother forces her to bring him a mysterious package, she witnesses his murder and finds herself on the run from ruthless mobsters. Frantically trying to stay alive and save her loved ones, Zoya opens the package and discovers two unusual data cards, one that allows her to fight back against the mafia and another which may hold the key to everlasting life.

Author's Website

Blood Gift

In a world of impossible things, where to touch the ancient power of the Strand brings mysterious and powerful gifts, an unnamed assassin on the edge of death is rescued by a nobleman driven by the urge to use his gift to bring ease to the peoples of the land.

It is an opportunity that brings the promise of redemption to the man renamed Vehemence. But Vehemence is more than an assassin wanting to give up his burdens. He is a blood-linker and the needed talent in the nobleman (under the alias of) Dolour's group of hex-breakers. It is as a blood-linker that he is given a home and a new cause - to assist the group in their good works. 

But Dolour's group operates under the watchful eye of the oppressive Guild of Impossible Things, and when their attention is turned elsewhere, does not hesitate to associate with the Faction, which works against the Guild in an invisible war.

Just when it seems likely that Vehemence will bring the Guild and Faction together in a new peace, he is uneasy. What are Dolour's real motives? Is there really a war between those who touch the Strand, and those touched by it? As they make plans to head out into the fearful Swamps, where the whole land lies under a deadly hex, Vehemence finds himself asking difficult questions, and deciding he must find the answers - even if it costs him his one chance for redemption.

Author's Website

Book I, Lost Legacy

A beautiful young woman is entombed alive as a sacrifice to angry gods…
A temple priest embarks upon a desperate flight across a hostile landscape deep in the heart of a lost continent…
In the possession of each, a sacred crystal skull.
England, 2012: With her life falling apart around her, Gemma Mason’s sleep is increasingly disturbed by vivid images of crystal skulls, golden cities and star travellers. Dreams that tell of courage, danger and heartbreak, and in which the future of the human race itself is at stake. As these dreams unfold, she realises she has been chosen to share an ancient knowledge, one that will have repercussions for the whole of humankind.
Reluctantly, Gemma accepts her destiny, only to find herself hurled irretrievably into the maelstrom of Earth’s forgotten history. Suddenly, everything she has ever believed in is called into question as myth and legend crystallise into irrefutable fact. With the foundations of her own world crumbling, Gemma must confront her deepest fears, for she is being asked to reveal to the people of Earth the explosive secret of our lost past. It is a secret that will change forever the way we look at ourselves and our place in the universe. But are we ready to hear such a truth?

Author's Blog

Reincarnation

Hailey had always been afraid to go home. She had always kept her head down, never speaking a word of her home life to anyone except her best friend, Jennifer.
But, when Jennifer moves away, her loneliness begins to engulf her, leaving her unstable at best. When Johnny, the hottest boy in school, humiliates her on a fake date, she is suddenly pushed over an edge, an edge she didn’t know she had.
In her rage, she releases an unexpected and powerful force, throwing her mother across the room in a blinding flash of light.
In a matter of a few days, her life is turned upside down. After discovering her powers, she is suddenly teleported across the universe to an alien kingdom, where she meets an oddly familiar prince. It is here on this strange but beautiful alien world where she learns who she was, and who she is destined to become.

Author's Website

The Shadow's Relic

Set in the late seventeen hundreds, The Dark Warrior, a powerful killer with telekinetic abilities, steals an ancient weapon from the American government and uses its powers to unlock his own army of dead. With black skeletal beasts known as 'Death Angels' hailing down from the sky and ravenous 'zonbis' rising from the grave, Kaie Ellinger and Curtis Reynolds must join forces to protect the Caribbean, and ultimately, the recently united Thirteen Colonies. Ellinger, a doubtful yet trained assassin, and Reynolds, former thief with newly acquired super human strength, will need to do everything in their power to hunt and stop The Dark Warrior before he fully launches his final plot to cull only the 'strong' and 'worthy' from his wake of death and destruction.

Nighthawks at the Mission

In today's universe, The Oberon is the last place a settler from the USA can find the American dream alive and well. Thousands of settlers have come to live in this mysterious land on another world accessed only by an energy portal in the South Pacific. Facing a hopeless future and betrayed by her long-time boyfriend, Sarah Orange is one of those who leave the Earth. Quickly she falls in with a group of illegal salvagers that operates at night in the empty ruins. Sarah risks death from both The Oberon's corporate overseers as well as the indigenous beings who hate the settlers. With her life spinning out of control from drug addiction, Sarah searches for love and money in a world so close to - and yet so different from- our very own. But first, she must survive a terrorist threat that slowly begins to destroy her new homeland.




Lots of luck,
Bee

busy, busy, busy!

Okay. Lets have a chat.

I haven't been posting much as of lately.. i know, I feel the shame, but over winter break i'm going to try to read more and write on here more often.

The reason that I've been absent lately is that i'm trying to get more into my school work. I've been studying a lot more than i'm used to and schools has become very time consuming.

And i'm just a bit lazy, can't deny that.

So yeah. Pretty much whats going to happen is that i'll try to post more often and yeah. That's it really.

Have a nice afternoon!

Bee

Snow Like Ashes by Sarah Raasch

I am so joyful to have read this novel. It was refreshing because of it's creativeness and it proved that there's still room for originality in the high-fantasy industry.

A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. training

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her           destiny is not, never has been, her own.

to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So basically this novel revolves around a Winterian girl, Meira, who alongside a handful of other refugees are trying to free their enslaved kingdom from the mad king of Spring. One particular person that she's with is called Mather, who is Winter's king, and they're kinda in love but they're also kinda not because they can't be together because he's royalty and blah blah. You get the drill.

The first topic i'd like to touch is how nicely written the whole thing was in general. It felt so poetic yet simple and I just enjoyed this novel so much for just that fact.

Of course  being written awesomely isn't the only reason why I recommend this to all YA High-Fantasy fans. The world of Primoria is so peculiar and awesome. When I turned the first few pages and observed the map I noticed the seasoned kingdoms and... that's just so cool! I adore that idea. One thing that I was a bit disappointed by though was the lack of information of other kingdoms in Primoria like Praisly, Summer and others that I don't even remember the name of... But I suppose that can be justified by the fact that this is only the first novel in the series.

But seasons aside, the magic was also portrayed in a lovely manner. Not the clearest magic I've seen but just original enough to be intriguing.

Meira. She. is. infuriating. I get that she's only a 16 year old girl in her adolescence and that she's trying to find herself and who she wants to be... but come on girl. get your stuff together. 

Don't get me wrong, she was WAY better than most YA female main characters. Meira was actually productive and toed the line of being clever at times.. but yikes, sometimes the little girl just shone through and I couldn't stand her. Like when she started stating and repeating the obvious over and over again.

And the weird-ish love triangle. Like guys guys GUYS. What was going on with that? Both Mather and Theron (Prince of another Kingdom, he gets introduced about midway through the novel) weren't very straightforward and stuff was a mess. Especially Mather was annoying. 

Now that we're speaking of His Highness, let me rant here for a bit. He was all over the place and nowhere at the same time. Like... his whole existence was useless, the novel could have worked just fine without him being a part of it at all. Except for the ending thingy which I won't spoil... but yeah. Mather was a no for me.

Also, the first few pages were pretty good, but around page 40 it started to go downhill and towards drama town. only at page 214 (Yes, I put a note on that page) shit started to go down!

What I found very disappointing was the plot twists. I guessed all of them. And I supposed they weren't that obvious... but my mind always wanders to worst case scenarios and you know. I almost always guess endings of novels; it's hard to surprise me. Still, that was a bummer.

Last thing is the cover. Now I agree with all the fangirls that are commenting on how beautiful it is, but there's something not quite right. It bothers me to no end that I can't figure out what the circle means! Like, I have no idea whatsoever what it could be. A conduit? Don't think so. Spring and winter? Maybe, but why in a circle? So many questionss.

Fear is a seed that, once planted, will only grow bigger

Lots of Luck,

Bee

Aversion by Kenechi Udogu

I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review

I don't go for paranormal YA romance often, but i'm glad that I picked Aversion up a few days ago! This book holds an intriguing but lighthearted story with just the right amount of romance and action to be appealing for a grand amount of readers, including kids.

For Gemma Green’s first time, things should have been straightforward. Find your subject, hold their gaze and push a thought into their head to save them from future disaster – Aversion complete. A pretty simple process given that the subject was to have no recollection of the experience. But Russ Tanner doesn’t seem to want to forget. In fact the more she tries to avoid him, the more he pushes to get to know her. Gemma knows she has a problem but is she facing the side effects of a failed Aversion or has the school’s tennis champ really fallen for her?

When I turned the first page of Aversion I wasn't expecting much. The Paranormal YA genre isn't my favorite, in fact I find most books in this genre despicable, but I must admit that Udogu did an extraordinary good job at pulling me into this story.

Now this novel isn't a masterpiece. There are some things that didn't work for me, but i will get to those later. First I want to emphasize how wonderful I found the writing. It was clean, simple and yet beautifully crafted. Because of this simplistic language, It's a perfect story for children. I'm not saying that it doesn't belong it the YA category, I just think that if you're looking for a bedtime story to tell your little ones? Go for Aversion.

One thing that that this novel lacked was character depth (no rhyme intended). Yes, every character (Which weren't many-not a bad thing, though) had their own personalities, pros and cons... but. There's a big but in there. I felt like all of them were very flat in their own ways. The main character, Gemma, was resourceful, pretty funny, very like-able and a realistic teenager, she's completely fine. But then we get the matter of her Dad, Russ and the villains. Gemma's Dad wasn't displayed enough in my opinion. He plays an essential part in the story and at the end of the book I wasn't very moved by any of his "revelations'' simply because I didn't know what to expect from him in the first place. Like I said, flat.

Then we have Russ, who is the perfect wonder-boy (really? really!?). Sporty (tennis, guys. Not even football or anything. tennis), funny, brave and he doesn't care about what people think of him. perfect boy right there.

Another point that i'd like to bring forward is the action and romance. I like how Udogu balanced them but (me being an action-lover) I found that the action lacked something. I wasn't on the tip of my chair and my heart wasn't pounding during any of these scenes. A bit more action wouldn't have hurt either.

Now the romance, Hah, I don't like Mr. Russ perfection. Why? He's not realistic and I found the romance very cheeky. Romance just isn't my thing, but if you enjoyed the romance in other Paranormal YA novels; you'll adore this!

Overall this YA (or childrens) novel was fun, lighthearted and easy to comprehend. Not only was it very enjoyable, but it's also super short! It has 133 pages and I read it within an hour. I'm very excited to start reading the sequel: Sentient.

Lots of Luck,

Bee

Reluctant Prince: Blog Tour

Today i'm taking part in the blog tour of Reluctant Prince (If you hadn't noticed from the title)! I haven't actually finished this novel for multiple reasons (one being the lack of reading time), but I enjoyed the first chapter! Down below you can find a synopsis of the book, a small excerpt and a GIVEAWAY! How awesome is that, huh? You're gonna wanna check all of that out!

Reluctant Prince Synopsis:

Betrayal lies cloaked in shadow.
Seventeen year old Ryleigh Donnovan is certain her life is cursed. Nothing ever goes smoothly, and her first job interview is no exception. An earthquake rocks the building, sending Ryleigh on a frantic search for her younger sister, a search which lands her in the hospital. Terrified they’ll push her for answers she can’t afford to give, Ryleigh flees with a mysterious stranger.
Jackson Maynard is about to be ordained as a Death Dealer, a warrior for the Kingdom of Cymmera, but first he must pass one more test. When he fails to acquire the human girl the prophet has chosen, he’s forced to stand trial for treason. Banished from his realm, he seeks out the girl from the vision, Ryleigh Donnovan, and together they embark on a journey to save his dying kingdom.

"A gorgeously wrought fantasy realm with a heroine who will make you cheer!"

~Wendy Higgins, NYT and USA Today bestselling author of the Sweet Evil trilogy.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Excerpt from Reluctant Prince

A rhythmic rocking comforted Ryleigh. She couldn’t open her eyes, but that was okay. She would just float in peaceful obscurity.

“Ryleigh.” A man shook her shoulder. “Ryleigh, can you hear me?”

Yes. She wanted to answer, but she couldn’t form the words. Humming, familiar, though she couldn't quite place it. Something pricked her arm.

“Ryleigh, can you answer me?”

“Mmm hmm.”

Pressure against her head. Oww. Why did her head hurt so bad? Why wouldn’t these people leave her alone? A flicker of memory teased her. Rocking, bumping, the floor moving. Was she moving now? She reached for consciousness, only to be dragged back into oblivion.

A bright light shone against her eyes. She lay still for a moment, enjoying the orange and black swatches of color that swirled behind her closed lids. The blackness began to take on shape, the oranges and yellows merging to form a halo around a human shaped silhouette. The silhouette of a guy, his broad shoulders.

“Ryleigh.” The man spoke louder this time.

She struggled to respond. The dreamy image dissipated the instant her eyes fluttered open, but the memory plagued her, followed her into consciousness. Everything hurt, as if she’d been run over by a truck. Background noise intruded on her confusion, beeping, talking, footsteps, more beeping. Bright light burned her eyes, added to the already thunderous headache threatening to overwhelm her. Bile surged up the back of her throat.

About the author

Dani-Lyn Alexander lives on Long Island with her husband, three kids and three dogs. She loves spending time with her family, at the beach, the playground, or just about anywhere. In her spare time, which is rare, she enjoys reading and shopping—especially in book stores. Some of her favorite things include; Bernese Mountain Dogs, musicals, bubble baths and soft blankets. She’s an incurable insomniac and has an addiction to chocolate.

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Lots of luck,
Bee