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.

Goodreads Link

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

Review: To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Book: To Kill a Kingdom
Author: Alexandra Christo
Series: Standalone

Goodreads:
Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?

Top 100 Young Adult Book Blogs

Hi everyone!

So, here's an interesting tidbit of information: despite my lack of presence these past months, my blog was featured as part of the Top 100 Young Adult Book Blogs and Websites to Follow in 2019 by Feedspot. My blog was listed as #51.

Your reaction is the same as mine. WHAT???

I have no idea how this happened, but regardless, I am absolutely thrilled and honoured to have made it on the list. And ranked 51, too! Huh, this definitely helps boost my determination to do this blog right this year.

So my thanks go out to all of you. I'm not sure my humble blog's name was circulated to Feedspot, but it fills me with happiness to know that there are others who enjoy my blog enough to recommend it to others. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my bookish heart for sticking through with me <3

Also, I get to add this shiny new badge to my blog, hooray!

That's it from me now. I'll be back soonish with a quick review of the book I'm reading soon!

Happy reading!

And Months Later...

Hey guys!

So...yes. I know it's been a few months since I've surfaced. Months. Ugh. It leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth.

What's going on???

Excellent question. The same question and the same answer I've been fugitively giving the entire past year: school.

I'm into my final year of another academic program. Way more demanding, since it's research based. Meaning time has been extremely tight, leaving less room to properly blog. I'm still reading--evident by my active and constantly updated Goodreads account--and doing mini reviews there, but nothing in the same capacity as my blog.

So what does this mean? I'm now faced with two options: a more permanent blogging hiatus until I complete my schooling in its entirety, or doing smaller, less time-consuming posts.

Honestly, I'm kind of inclined towards the second option. I miss the blogging world.

And so! That is my New Year's Resolution. I can't promise you a full return, but I can promise you that I will be trying as hard as I can to post every now and then. Which, in my opinion, is way better than just disappearing permanently.

But do let me know what books you've been reading lately (I'm currently reading Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson and To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Cristo)! And also, what books are you looking forward to reading this year?

Okay, that's all from me. Short and sweet apparently will have to be my new motto, huh? *groans at time constraints* Also, just a note, the fastest way to reach me is probably going to be by messaging me on Goodreads (find me here!).

Happy reading, everyone!