Friday, February 28, 2014

Upcoming New Releases - Week of March 3rd


Here are the releases for the up coming week of March 3 - 9, 2014




Tuesday, March 4, 2014







Thursday, March 6, 2014




Books I'm looking forward to:

  • Nil by Lynne Matson
  • A Death Struck Year by Makiia Lucier
  • Knight Assassin by Rima Jean
  • Half Bad by Sally Green
  • The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
  • Donna of the Dead by Alison Kemper
  • Let The Storm Break by Shannon Messenger
  • Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
  • Immortal Muse by Stephen Leigh
  • Shattered by Teri Terry
  • The 47 lives of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen 

So um, obviously I'm in trouble this month. There are just SO MANY awesome books coming out! D: How am I supposed to read them all?! The main ones I'm 100% reading are Shattered, Let The Storm Break, The Winner's Curse and Words of Radiance. 3 of the 4 are sequels so I'm excited to find out what happenes next, specially Words of Radiance, The Way of Kings was bloody amazing. If you like fantasy you MUST read it. I'll be writing a review for it soon. I already had the chance to read Death Sworn and well, it wasn't as great as I wanted it to be with that kind of setting. If you'd like to the my review, here it is.


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Unraveling: The Emperor's Edge Series by Lindsay Buroker

Forged in Blood II by Lindsay Buroker
Series' Title: The Emperor's Edge
Publication Date: December 22, 2010

Imperial law enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: she can deter thieves and pacify thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of coffee canisters onto their heads. But when ravaged bodies show up on the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad overwhelmed.

Worse, Sicarius, the empire's most notorious assassin, is in town. He's tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order her to hunt him down. Either they have an unprecedented belief in her skills... or someone wants her dead.
  
*First book is free on amazon!*




***




My Thoughts



"You're the only person who's ever wanted to give me happiness," Sicarius said.


"You were thinking of all that when you wrote that letter? I had... no idea you cared as to who ended up on the throne."
"I did not foresee Sespian winning the position when word of his heritage got out. I thought he would approve of this alternative."
"All along, I thought I was running things," Amaranthe said, "and here it turns out you're the mastermind."
Sicarius touched his chin.
"Here."
"Pardon?"
"Your gaze of adoration. It's focused on the window currently."
She grinned and gazed at him.
"I apologize."


Oh, this series...The feels...I can't express how much I loved Sicarius and the last two books, which were half in his PoV, just cemented that feeling that much more. I think from now on I'll be comparing every assassin character I come across with Sicarius and I'm sure that most are going to fall painfully short. He was exactly how an assassin should be. Killing with no regret, a badass with knives, sneaky, smart, silent, and deadly. It took so long and so much work on Amaranthe's part to get him to even joke around as he did in that quote and that was half the fun of these books. And that second to last chapter! Totally worth the slow, but sure progression of their relationship <3
Sicarius strode out, utterly naked except for a technical manual in his hands. He didn’t bother to wield it strategically to hide...anything.
Amaranthe gaped at him. After a startled moment of surprise, she forced herself to keep her eyes focused on his face. Mostly. “Sicarius. I, ah...” Have always wanted to see you like this, she thought. No, she couldn’t say that. Was wondering if you were blond all over. No, definitely not that.


As I've said before I'm a girl that needs awesome characters, or at least believable ones, and Buroker was a genius at creating all the characters in The Emperor's Edge. Their interactions and just livliness of them was amazing. I felt like they were there with me and I was a part of their group. It was painful to say goodbye to such great characters. I'll miss them.

"He eyed Amaranthe - and her revealing attire. "If she's here, can we say you're my..."
He groped for a relation that would suggest absolutely no sexual connotations.
"Daughter?" Amaranthe suggested.
"Dear ancestors, no. She'll think I'm ancient. Er, my age, anyway. And what would she think of my parenting influence if she saw you in that outfit?"
"Did you just, in the same breath, call me old and promiscuous?"
"Uhm."
"Should this turn...confrontational, we don't have our two most proficient fighters here."
Maldynado propped his hand on his hips. "You have me."
Books looked him up and own, then focused on Amaranthe again.
"We don't have our two most proficient fighters here."

Amaranthe, could be said, was the glue of the group. She brought them together and kept them together. Through all their bickering, ribbing, and teasing.

"Akstyr, is there a way to keep them uncounscious?"
"Shoot them?", Akstyr said.
"You're supposed to be a Science advisor," Books told him, "not a Sicarius acolyte."
Maldynado cleared his throat.
"For the record, that would have been my response, too."
"You've tested the mask?" Yara finally asked.
"Ah, sort of. We tested its ability to block out noxious fumes."
A few feet away, Maldynado snickered.
"Let me guess who supplied them," Yara grumbled.

None of them really knew how to deal with Sicarius half the time. The only one that really treated him as a fellow companion and human being was Amaranthe. The rest just kept a healthy dose of wariness when dealing with him. But Sespian came a long way though, and if you have read the first one you would know why that's important ;)

"Everyone without diving suits drowns down here?"
He seemed to realize he was talking to someone without a suit, for he added, "And, er, just so you know, this wouldn't fit you, Sicarius, so there's no need to stab me in the back for it."
"I wouldn't do that," Sicarius said as they turned into another corridor.
"That's a relief," Maldynado said.
"It would compromise the suit"
“Do many people try? To hug you?”
“Few. Usually women.”
“Ah. Amaranthe.” Sespian’s face grew wistful, though it seemed accepting as well.
“Infrequently.” Sicarius headed for the ladder leading to the top of the tower.
“Really? If a girl was inclined to hug me, I’d encourage her to do it frequently.”
“I am not good at… encouragement.” Sicarius climbed the ladder and found the harpoon launcher where he’d left it.
“I’ve noticed,” Sespian said, reaching the top behind him. “It’s easy though. You spread your arms like this and give a girl your most inviting smile. Do you… have an inviting smile?”
“No.”
“Any sort of smile at all?”
“No.”
“I can see where you’d have a problem then,” Sespian said.

While the books weren't perfect in any stretch of the imagination, they were incredibly addicting, entertaining and just plain fun to read. The world building wasn't fantastic but it was more than good enough. The readers get the information they need as the books progress. We learn tid bits of the political problems each regions went through in each book and we get one step closer to dealing with the main for, Forge, as well, till the final show down in the last book. It was one hell of a mess. What I liked the most where always Amaranthe's crazy plans and her knack in talking people into the craziest things. She paid a price in the end for it, but the whole journey was great to watch.


So...

Would I Recommend it?



***


Other books in the The Emperor's Edge Series:

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Early Unraveling of Death Sworn by Leah Cypess

Death Sworn by Leah Cypess
Title: Death Sworn
Series: Death Sworn Book One
Author: Leah Cypess
Publication Date: March 4, 2014

When Ileni lost her magic, she lost everything: her place in society, her purpose in life, and the man she had expected to spend her life with. So when the Elders sent her to be magic tutor to a secret sect of assassins, she went willingly, even though the last two tutors had died under mysterious circumstances.

But beneath the assassins’ caves, Ileni will discover a new place and a new purpose… and a new and dangerous love. She will struggle to keep her lost magic a secret while teaching it to her deadly students, and to find out what happened to the two tutors who preceded her. But what she discovers will change not only her future, but the future of her people, the assassins… and possibly the entire world.
  photo B1426D4C-9EEC-4C0B-A1FB-90524B03C0CA-1855-000001A1E82B3B3E_zps17d98f4d.jpg 




***




My Thoughts



A copy was provided through Edelweiss and the Publisher in exchange for an honest review

After months of having read this book and finally sitting down to review I still don't know what to write. I have so many conflicting thoughts about it. Notice how I say thoughts and not feelings. That, I believe is the main problem for me. I have no feelings for this, it wasn't either bad, but it wasn't good either. It just was.

So what can I say about Death Sworn? I was ecstatic when I first read the blurb. It's a cave full of assassins!! How could I not be excited?! I'm glad to say that at least that part was good enough. The kid assassins did behave like assassins. They had discipline, they were bad ass, and their views about death were spot on with how they were raised. The Master has brainwashed them. They are pawns in his chess board, willing sacrifices in this game he is playing that they aren't even remotely aware about. I mean they know there is a plan, and obviously a main goal, but not what it truly encompasses. You know how we love that saying that says, "so if someone told you to jump off a bridge, you would?" The Master illustrates it here beautifully.

While I loved the whole assassin bit, the rest of the book felt bland and at times underwhelming. The plot? Could have been done and over with during the first few chapters. She literally could have known who did it as soon as she was at the crime scene, but she took the long road cause that would have depleted the already meager magic she had and while I understand she wouldn't want to be completely defenseless, I also felt it was dragged out way too much. 

There were a few twists, all of them foreseeable and not surprising, but that last one with the Master was underwhelming. After the care Cypess took to make such an elaborate and complicated character as the Master and have that whole shindig at the end happen? My only thought was, that's it? And don't even get me started on the world building, there was none. All you are told is, there is magic, there is an Empire that needs to be put down with it's requisite renegade group and the assassin's cave. Which is all pretty standard fare in any fantasy book. I can't even remember the name of the empire of the renegade group. It was mentioned so little.

Lastly we have the romance and the characters. I felt nothing for Ileni. I was just reading through the motions. I just wasn't connected to what she did, felt, or thought, therefore the romance was bland as well. While I appreciate that there was no love triangle, the romance also wasn't anything to write home about. It just was, like everything else in this book. It was just there. Maybe the problem was me, maybe other readers will have a much better time with it than me, but it just wasn't doing it for me.


So...

Would I Recommend it?



***

Other books in the Death Sworn Series:

Friday, February 21, 2014

Upcoming New Releases - Week of Feb. 24th


Here are the releases for the up coming week of February 24 - March 2, 2014




Tuesday, February 25, 2014







Thursday, February 27, 2014






Books I'm looking forward to:

  • Tsarina
  • The Well's End
  • Banished


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