Review: Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

Book: Empress of All Seasons
Author: Emiko Jean
Series: N/A, standalone

In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems.

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy. 

Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast.

Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy.

Review: Frost Like Night by Sara Raasch

Book: Frost Like Night
Author: Sara Raasch
Series: Snow Like Ashes #3 (final)

Angra is alive, his Decay is spreading—and no one is safe.

Meira will do anything to save her world. With Angra trying to break through her mental defenses, she desperately needs to learn to control her own magic—so when the leader of a mysterious Order from Paisly offers to teach her, she jumps at the chance. But the true solution to stopping the Decay lies in a labyrinth deep beneath the Season Kingdoms. To defeat Angra, Meira will have to enter the labyrinth, destroy the very magic she’s learning to control—and make the biggest sacrifice of all.

Mather will do anything to save his queen. He needs to rally the Children of the Thaw, find Meira—and finally tell her how he really feels. But with a plan of attack that leaves no kingdom unscathed and a major betrayal within their ranks, winning the war—and protecting Meira—slips farther and farther out of reach.

Ceridwen will do anything to save her people. Angra had her brother killed, stole her kingdom, and made her a prisoner. But when she’s freed by an unexpected ally who reveals a shocking truth behind Summer’s slave trade, Ceridwen must take action to save her true love and her kingdom, even if it costs her what little she has left.

As Angra unleashes the Decay on the world, Meira, Mather, and Ceridwen must bring the kingdoms of Primoria together…or lose everything. 

Review: The Darkest Star By Jennifer L. Armentrout

Book: The Darkest Star
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Origins #1

When seventeen-year-old Evie Dasher is caught up in a raid at a notorious club known as one of the few places where humans and the surviving Luxen can mingle freely, she meets Luc, an unnaturally beautiful guy she initially assumes is a Luxen...but he is in fact something much more powerful. Her growing attraction for Luc will lead her deeper and deeper into a world she'd only heard about, a world where everything she thought she knew will be turned on its head...

#1 New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout returns to the universe of the Lux in this brand new series, featuring beloved characters both new and old.

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Review: Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch

Book: Ice Like Fire
Author: Sara Raasch
Series: Snow Like Ashes #2

It’s been three months since the Winterians were freed and Spring’s king, Angra, disappeared—thanks largely to the help of Cordell.

Meira just wants her people to be safe. When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria’s lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity—with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra. But Meira fears the danger the chasm poses—the last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay. So when the king of Cordell orders the two on a mission across the kingdoms of Primoria to discover the chasm’s secrets, Meira plans to use the trip to garner support to keep the chasm shut and Winter safe—even if it means clashing with Theron. But can she do so without endangering the people she loves?

Mather just wants to be free. The horrors inflicted on the Winterians hang fresh and raw in Januari—leaving Winter vulnerable to Cordell’s growing oppression. When Meira leaves to search for allies, he decides to take Winter’s security into his own hands. Can he rebuild his broken kingdom and protect them from new threats?

As the web of power and deception weaves tighter, Theron fights for magic, Mather fights for freedom—and Meira starts to wonder if she should be fighting not just for Winter, but for the world.

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Book Feature: Kings & Criminals by Mungo Magennis

Hi everyone! I'm doing a book feature today, for Kings & Criminals by Mungo Maginnis! It sounds pretty awesome, so do check it out!

The first book in the exciting new series takes you into the inner workings of Max’s mind as he sets out to learn what power and influence really mean.

Max is a bright, young man looking for a way to change a broken world that he sees around him. One day he finds it. An idea takes hold and doesn’t let go. He’s driven to create a secret group with the aim of putting each of the members into the most powerful and influential positions in the country. After recruiting them one by one for their varying interests and skills, he brings them together to ask that they dedicate their lives to the pursuit of something bigger.

Their motivations are altruistic… long-term. However, as the group members plan their futures, events that could jeopardise everything force them to make tough decisions now. They quickly have to learn the difference between ‘the battle’ and ‘the war’, and decide what is justifiable now to ensure they all make it to act II.

Does a sixteen-year-old boy have what it takes to build such a group? How far will each go to protect the rest?

Mungo Magennis is the author of the new Kings and Criminals series. He arrives fresh to the world of literature from magical world of tech where he’s worked with some of the world’s most powerful and influential companies. His debut novel, Kings and Criminals, explores what people are really capable of when there is a clear goal in mind. The idea for K&C has been burning at the back of his mind for the past 15 years. However, the motivation for the book came just four years ago during a late night discussion with an old school friend who was working in children’s TV. His friend’s enthusiasm for the story inspired Mungo to start writing Kings and Criminals the next day.

Four years have passed, including long writing nights after long working days, and the 33-year old is now ready to publish the first in what what promises to be an exciting new series. The story begins in the author’s hometown, bringing to life this semi-autobiographical account of youth and ambition.

Mungo’s writing influences include Stephen Fry, Alexandre Dumas, Robert Harris, Alexander McCall Smith, Dan Brown.

More info on Mungo’s website - www. mungomagennis.com.

Please also follow Mungo on Instagram.

Available to purchase January 18th on Amazon - Kindle and paperback.

Review: Legacy of Light by Sarah Raughley

Book: Legacy of Light
Author: Sarah Raughley
Series: Effigies #3 (final)

The world is in chaos.

After Saul’s strike on Oslo—one seemingly led by Maia herself—the Effigies’ reputation is in shambles. Now they’re being hunted by nations across the globe, grouped in with the very terrorists they’ve been trying to stop.

With Maia’s resurrected twin, June, carrying out vicious attacks across the world, everyone believes Maia is a killer. Belle has gone rogue, Chae Rin and Lake have disappeared, and the Sect is being dismantled and replaced by a terrifying new world order helmed by Blackwell. As for Saul, his ultimate plan still remains a mystery.

And Maia? No one has seen or heard from her in weeks.

It’s all somehow connected—Saul, Phantoms, the Effigies, everything. But if the Effigies can’t put the pieces together soon, there may not be much left of the world they’ve fought so desperately to save.

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Review: Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Book: Oathbringer
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: The Stormlight Archive #3

In Oathbringer, the third volume of the New York Timesbestselling Stormlight Archive, humanity faces a new Desolation with the return of the Voidbringers, a foe with numbers as great as their thirst for vengeance.

Dalinar Kholin's Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified.

Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. And Dalinar realizes that his holy mission to unite his homeland of Alethkar was too narrow in scope. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar's blood-soaked past and stand together--and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past--even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.

Goodreads Link