House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City 1) By Sarah J. Maas

 

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis: Bound by blood. Tempted by desire.  Unleashed by destiny. Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life working by day and partying all night. But then a demon murders her closest friends leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone.  Once the accused is behind bars the crimes start up again and Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation.  She will do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.  Hunt Athalar is notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, hes offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.  As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion – one that could set them both free.

Maas has done it again.  This book was 799 pages and I literally could not put it down. This series is up there with A Court of Thorns and Roses and the beginning of the Throne of Glass series. Bryce Quinlan is definitely my favorite badass heroine right now. Bryce goes through hell and back literally and still comes out on top.  Hunt is the tortured angel with the good heart that is trying to pay back his mistakes with no end in sight. The two of them together are trying to figure out what they are up against and how they can get rid of it.  There is a little bit of a love story but it doesn’t take over the entire book.  There is a lot of will they or won’t they vibe which enhances the story as a whole.  The story is pretty fast paced considering how long it is. Honestly if you are a fan of ACOTAR you will definitely love this book.

Nikki 🐛

The Heir Affair By Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

 

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis:  Rebecca “Bex” Porter must survive her own scandals as she adjust to life in the glamorous British royal family.  After her fairy-tale wedding turned into a nightmare Bex and her husband Prince Nicholas  are in a self-imposed exile.  The public is angry and the Queen even angrier.  With the press salivating, cutting themselves off from friends and family and escaping the worlds judgmental eyes it felt like the best plan to protect their fragile relationship.  But a crisis forces the new Duke and Duchess back to London, and old family secrets and new ones are threatening to derail the monarchy as a whole.

I requested this book on netgalley mostly because I am slightly obsessed with the British monarchy so I look forward to reading books that talk about them.  I also didn’t realize this was a sequel that is clearly my bad for not doing my research before hand.  I did enjoy the book.  The characters were a little hard to keep up with in the beginning because again this was a sequel so a lot of their stories had already been told.  The different story lines were great from the fertility story to the Queen’s secrets.  I don’t want to spoil too much for you.  I did feel like the book was a little longer then necessary there were elements of the stories that I felt were a little unnecessary.  All in all this was a really fun read even without reading the first book.  I would recommend this book to those that like a quirky love story and a happily ever after.

 

Nikki🐛

The Gilded Ones By Namina Forna

 

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Synopsis: Deka is a sixteen year old girl living in fear and anticipation of her villages blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member village.  Deka has always been different from everyone else because of her intuition.  She prays that she will have red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.  But on the day of the ceremony her blood runs gold, the color of impurity, Deka knows that she will face a consequence even worse than death.  A mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her.  Alaki, or near immortals with rare gifts.  They are the only ones who can stop the empires greatest threat.  As Deka continues her journey she learns that everything is not how it may seem, including her.

Deka is a young teenager whose life is turned upside down in a blink of an eye.  She always felt different then everyone else but her hope was that she wouldn’t be.  When she bled gold blood instead of red she knew then that her life would never be the same.  White Hands appeared to her and offered her a choice would be her savior and the thorn in her side for the next few months.  Deka chooses to fight and is sent to the Warthu Bera training grounds.  The toughest place for all Alaki. These girls are put through hell in order to fight a war that is nowhere near what it seems.  The more Deka trains the more she learns that she is not a typical Alaki.  There is something different about her and she is determined to find out what it is.

“Are we girls or are we demons? Are we going to die, or are we going to survive?”  This was another Netgalley book that I requested and I’m so glad that I did.  This is a West-African fantasy adventure that is written so beautifully I really can’t describe it.  Forna creates such a wonderful world with so much realism in spite of the clear fantasy element.  The issues that the girls face in this book while they are exaggerated to an extent they still are true to the everyday issues that we as women have to deal with on a regular basis.  I couldn’t put this book down and anyone that loves fantasy will love it as well I definitely recommend this book.

 

Nikki🐛

Dreams of Justice: A Paranormal Mystery By Allison Maruska

 

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Synopsis: Sonia James has been having nightmares.  Some nights she can feel the blade sliding through her skin, puncturing her organs.  But no matter the circumstances the ending never changes.  She dies and excruciating death.

Determined to end the dreams Sonia meets with a hypnotist that suggests she could be having visions of a murder that remains unsolved.  Given a week by her boss Sonia flies across the ocean to try to find some answers and help the voice in her head.

This is my second Net Galley book and I really enjoyed it.  The story line wasn’t slow and Maruska kept it interesting.  I wasn’t sure about the back and forth time jumps in the beginning.  Once I started to understand what was going on and see where she was going I realized that it was definitely vital to the story.  All of the characters even the supporting ones were well placed.  The main characters weren’t over done, they were realistically written and well relatable.

Overall I would recommend this book to people that like mystery books, ghost stories and a little fantasy.

 

Nikki 🐛

 

A Perfect Mother By Jo Crow

 

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Synopsis:  Laurie Miller is left in shock when her husband vanishes without a trace, leaving behind a mountain of debt that she knew nothing about.  As time goes by with no word from her husband or a body she accepts a photography job with a former sorority sister and returns home to Milwaukee and the trauma that made her flee in the first place

I’m not really sure where to start with this book.  I feel like it could have been really good but it just didn’t hit the mark.  This was my first ARC read from Net Galley so I felt like I needed to see it through and also wanting to see how it ended is honestly what kept me reading it.  But the story line was all over the place.  I don’t know if it was the copy that I received but one chapter talked about an incident and the next chapter was actually a continuation from two chapters before.  I actually spent an hour going back over what I had read because I thought I had missed something only to find out that it was the book and not me.

The characters were a little on the predictable side.  The main character Laurie had severe OCD due to a trauma she experienced in college.  There were times that I felt bad for her but I feel like Crow wrote her to be unlikable on purpose.  The ending was pretty good I saw some of it coming but not all of it the twist was pretty good.  I’ve never read this author before so I want to look into any other books she’s written because the potential in this book was there.

Nikki 🐛

 

A Blade So Black By L.L. Mckinney

 

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Synopsis:  This isn’t the Wonderland you remember.  The first time a Nightmare came , Alice almost lost her life.  Now, with the help of magic weapons and hardcore fighting skills, she battles these creatures in the dream realm called Wonderland.  But life in the real world isn’t as simple.  Alice has to juggle school, a diva best friend and an overprotective mom all while trying to figure out who poisoned her mentor.  She has to go deeper into Wonderland then she has ever gone before and hopefully come out with her head.

McKinney really wrote a fun and adventurous book.  The story line was action packed from the very beginning.  Alice was constantly at odds with her mother due to her not knowing about her daughters extra curricular activities.  Her best friends were Courtney who was the yang to Alice’s yin.  Chester aka Chess and Alice had a will they won’t they vibe which I thought was done really well and super cute.  There was the same vibe with her mentor Addison Hatta.  That was a little bit more dubious mostly because we don’t really know how old Hatta is just that he looks around the same age as Alice but Wonderlandians age slower than humans.

There were a few parts of the book that were a little murky but the fight scenes in my opinion more than made up for that.  I think that the author could have fleshed out her relationships a little more.  Most of the interactions with her friends, and family were pretty quick.  I did find myself asking a lot of questions that never really got answers but I suppose that helps with getting a person to continue to read the series.  All in all this book was really great and well written and I will definitely be checking out the sequel.

Nikki🐛

The Girl with the Louding Voice By Abi Dare

 

 

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Synopsis: Adunni is a 14 year old girl from Nigeria who’s only wish is to have an education so she can become a teacher.  Shes the only daughter of a poor father.  She is pulled from school and sold as a third wife to an older man.  When tragedy strikes in her new home she is sold into servitude to a household in the wealthy enclaves of Lagos, where no one will talk about the disappearance of the previous house maid Rebecca. No one but Adunni.

I loved everything about this book from start to finish.  Adunni was such a fighter.  No matter what life threw at her she pressed on with her head held high telling herself that tomorrow will be better than today.  Education is the only thing that Adunni wants, living in America that is something that we take for granted.  Throughout this book Adunni is subjected to horrible and heartbreaking abuse.  In spite of this abuse there are some people that see the light that shines from Adunni and they work together to give Adunni her better tomorrow. There are sad parts in this book there is also love and happiness and even a little mystery.  Dare sprinkles interesting Nigierian facts throughout the book as well.

This is debut book of Abi Dare and she delivered!!  There are so many things that I can say about this book but the bottom line is you need to read this book right now.  I will recommend this book forever.  It definitely needs to be added to a school curriculum as soon as possible!!

Nikki 🐛

Jubilee By Margaret Walker

 

Rate: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Synopsis: Jubilee tells the true story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and his black mistress.  Vyry bears witness to the South’s wartime ruin and the promises of Reconstruction.  Margaret Walker weaves her own family’s oral history with thirty years’ worth of research and bringing the everyday experiences of slaves to the forefront.

This book is quite different from the other books that I normally review.  I tend to lean a little towards fantasy and sci fi.  But I was looking through bookstagram and discovered two IG pages that were talking about the 50^th anniversary of a book by Margaret Walker called Jubilee.  I will admit that I had never heard of it before, so I was intrigued.  Let me just tell you I live in Southern Virginia and I have experienced racism several times in my life not only here but also all over the world when I was in the military.  There were parts of this book truly infuriated me.  But there were also parts of this book that made me look at myself, my life, as well as my faith.

I went through these range of emotions and that is mostly because Jubilee was just so beautifully written.  Walker takes you through about 30 years of the life of Vyry Dutton with such feeling in the words that I felt as if I was watching a movie before my very eyes.  The scenery, the language, the details of her life made me feel so protective of Vyry.  By being the child of a slave and her master, she was looked down on by not only the owners of her home but from the slaves themselves.  There were excerpts in this book about racism that are still very much alive today.  Considering this book is written about the mid to late 1800’s and was written 50 years ago it’s amazing to see just how relevant the issues within this book still are.  I think that everyone should read this book especially if you are African American.  To be able to read these words and see how far we have come and to see also just how far we must go is something we should all be working towards.

 

 

Nikki 🐛

 

 

Serpent & Dove By Shelby Mahurin

Rate: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis: Louise LeBlanc fled her coven two years ago taking shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off of whatever she can steal. Unfortunately in this city witches like her are hunted and burned.

Sworn to the church Reid Diggory has lived his life by one rule: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His and Lou’s paths were never meant to cross but an unforeseen event forces them into holy matrimony.

The war between the church and witches is an ancient one. And Lou’s most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse then fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, and powerless to change what she is, a choice will have to be made.

Bound As One To Love, Honor, or Burn…

I really liked this book. The book is broken into three parts and each chapter is in the perspective of either Lou or Reid. The book begins from Lou’s perspective and she is in a brothel trying to find a ring that will hide her from someone. We are not told right away who it is she is hiding from but it is the beginning of her adventure. Reid comes around a few chapters in and as a Chasseur he is sworn to rid the world of all witches. Lou literally runs directly into him which will not be the last time.

Through an incident that can only be described as straight comedy they end up married. Of course, craziness ensues with Lou trying to avoid telling anyone that she is a witch even though a few people end up figuring it out. I don’t want to give anything good away but I found myself loving the characters in this book. There was something of a twist ending as which just made me even more excited for the next book in the series.

I highly recommend this book for those who love witches, and adventure with a little love thrown in the middle.

Nikki 🐛

I’m Baaackkk…

Hey guys. I know it’s been a while. But life unfortunately happens. But going in to 2020 I decided that I wanted to get back to blogging about the books I read. First book of the year is going to be Serpent and Dove By Shelby Mahurin. It’s her debut novel so I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do.

It’s 513 pages and I unfortunately have a day job 🙄. But I’m going to try and get this read in about a week which should give me a few days to write my review. My goal is to take no more than two weeks to read and write a book. I haven’t decided how many books I want to read this year quite yet. But I’ll have that goal ready by my next post and let you guys know.

Until next time

Nikki C 🐛