#AdvancedReadingCopy

[fieldofproses]

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[fredhandbag]

Where is the buzz for this book? Chosen Ones is an adult fiction novel by Veronica Roth - a slight change from her usual YA. Readers of YA should also enjoy this one. “What happens to your life after you defeat the enemy of the world as a teenager? People move on - except the paparazzi and the gossip mags. How do you make friends or be a regular person? Five teenagers - Sloane, Matt, Albie, Ines and Esther - defeated the Dark One a decade ago. Since then life has been hard, especially for Sloane. She can’t shake the funk of what her life has become. She misses the magic and having a purpose. And after Albie’s death, three of them are pulled to a different place where magic is common...and the Dark One might still be alive...” What a story from Roth 😮 She gives us a look behind the scenes of a group that once had great power and puts them in a different environment. I loved the world building of Genetrix. The Drains are terrifying. Some great action here. And I loved the messy ending. It was mostly unexpected but works here. Great story and great characters from Roth. Thanks to @netgalley and @houghtonmifflinharcourt for the ARC. #chosenones #veronicaroth #netgalley #houghtonmifflin #advancedreadingcopy #magicalrealism #bookstagram #bookshelves #bookswithcharacter #bookhoarder #bookworm #sodacityreads #bookreview #bookcollector #bookhaul #bookspines #goodreads #homelibrary #fiction #thriller #bookcollection #kindlecollection #beachread (at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEHXDiFALF4/?igshid=1hjl4o4vrvgh1

[emmiebbooks-blog]

Hey there Fairy-Friends! I’m looking for some lovely people interested in receiving the relaunched Little Witches series FREE in exchange for an honest review of the books when they re-release (plus two that are brand new to the world). The link for the sign-up form is below.  

I’ll be closing the sign-up period September 20 and you will be notified no later than September 25. Also, feel free to share this with people you think might be interested, it would be a great help. Thanks!

Little Witches is a children’s chapter book series written for 7-9 year olds. The series follows Lila Teafeather and her friends as they navigate life growing up as a witch/wizard. 

With love, 

Emmie B.

ARC Review Sign-up: https://forms.gle/ipsvaypYm8wAQNLUA

[emofairyprincessofarkansas]

Happy release day! Unfortunately my ARC came late, so I haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet. #legendborn #advancedreadingcopy https://www.instagram.com/p/CFLMgQOF3lS/?igshid=1jqzmznrbsnew

[littlewitchstudio]

Sneaky Peaky Witchy Itchy

Little Witch Studio is officially launched today! Welcome to our sneak peak at Little Witch Coloring Book #LittleWitchStudio #ColoringBook #LunarPunk Selected Pages from #Advanced Reading Copy

[brownanddickson]

Just started and I can already tell I'll be done this weekend. So good. #bookselleradvantage #advancedreadingcopy #arc #chasedarknesswithme #jensen @billyjensen https://www.instagram.com/p/B0bpZlkn83L/?igshid=1s4qg8oin3ldd

[atruebloodwrites]

My publisher just shared this on their feed. Is it possible to be excited and nauseous all at the same time???? 🤗😮🤢 #acrossabrokenshore #amytrueblood #advancedreadingcopy ##yareads #yahistorical #booksta #bookishpost #yareadersofinstagram #booklove #writersonig @fluxbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwu6YronCDD/?igshid=2sth52wloa3e

[chplteens]

🎤SWIPE LEFT for a recycled #singprettyday because I was too lazy to film another hahaha!💕 • Happy Thursday!! I hope your day is lovely! It's super hot again - in the 90s!! 😓☀️If it's as hot again tomorrow as it is today, maybe I'll actually go in our pool this time 🙌🏼🏝🏊🏼‍♀️ • 🌈 Here are two of the ARCs I showed in my story yesterday. How gorgeous are these covers?! I love how similar yet different they are. Both of these books focus on social media. The more I think about it...it's kind of creepy how they compare contrast - physically, content wise, in their titles...🤤. I'm about halfway through Textrovert which is pretty cute! The writing isn't that spectacular and it moves really fast, but I like the idea of the story. Go look it up! • 🏷Tags: Thanks to my beautiful friend Kalli @kmbooks24 for both of these:. #photogenic #ifellinlovewithabookcover • 📝don't forget you can always forward me song requests you might like to hear! • #bookphotography #booksofinstagram #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookblogger #bookporn #ilovebooks #booksbooksbooks #bibliophile #bookaddict #bookaholic #ya #ireadya #yalit #bookstagram #youngadult #yabook #happyreading #wattpad #lindseysummers #textrovert #antisocial #advancedreadingcopy #jillianblake #socialmedia

[unlikely-allies]

****WARNING SPOILERS****

I received an advanced reading copy of this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaways.

3.5/5

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan centers around Nadya, a cleric with divine powers granted by the 20 gods whom she speaks with in her mind. Nadya is believed to be the last of the clerics, and as such she is protected within the monasteries walls so that she may be trained to fight in the war against the heretic nation of Tranavia. When the High Prince of Tranavia and his soldiers begin attacking the monastery in their search for the cleric, Nadya is forced to flee with the high priestess Anna, leaving behind her childhood friend Kostya to fight off the soldiers and buy them some time to flee.

During a fight with Tranavia soldiers in the woods, Nadya and Anna meet up with Rashid, Parijanan, and a Tranavian named Malachiasz. They share a common goal of wanting to end the war, so the five team up to assassinate the king of Tranavia. At the court of Tranavia, a competition called the Rawalyk is scheduled to be held to find a consort for the High Prince. The team of rebels decide that Nadya will infiltrate the court and find them an opportunity to carry out their plan.

Tranavia’s High Prince Serefin, a blood mage prodigy, has been at the front line of the war for years and is unhappy that his father is calling him back to court over something as trivial as finding a consort. After arriving at court, Serefin begins to uncover his father’s plan to have Serefin killed so that his power may be siphoned and granted to the King. Serefin’s power, combined with the siphoned power of the other blood mages at the court, would serve to make the King into a god-like being.

Through a series of events, Serefin and our rebels decide to join forces in assassinating the King. It is during this time that Serefin reveals that Malachiasz is the Black Vulture, the leader of a cult of elite blood mages, and is the one who informed the King of the processes required to gain the power he seeks. Malachiasz claims that providing the King with that information was a mistake and that it is why he is looking to put a stop to the King’s plans. Serefin ends up kidnapped and it is unclear whether he was actually “killed” or not. Regardless, Serefin wakes to find that he has been altered in some way. It is revealed that Malachiasz assisted the King in carrying out his plan, but it is still unclear what his motivations are. Nadya kills the King and confronts Malachiasz, who tells her that the only way to save their countries is for him to take the King’s newfound power. Malachiasz drinks a chalice filled with the King’s blood and transforms into some kind of creature. Malachiasz flees and Serefin is left to assume the the role of king of Tranavia. The book ends with Nadya feeling betrayed by Malachiasz and abandoned by her gods, Serefin taking the throne, and Malachiasz flying away to plan his next move, losing his humanity as each moment passes.

So I was really torn when deciding how to rate this book. The beginning for me fell pretty short. With little personal interaction to go on, the relationship between Kostya and Nadya feels very surface-level. Anna, who assists in Nadya’s escape, also feels like an after thought and their lack of personal interactions doesn’t coincide with the familiarity with which Nadya refers to Anna. I think it is this lack of personal connections that makes the motivations behind the characters in the first half of the book seem insufficient.

Honestly I really expected this book to fall somewhere between Jay Kristoff’s Nevernight and Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse books, however the main character Nadya is less badass heroine and more self-doubting spell caster. Throughout the novel we see her struggle with her faith, flip-flopping between zealot and heretic before settling somewhere in-between. A little resolve and some edge would serve to round out Nadya’s character a little better and make her much more enjoyable. The best part of the first half of the book is Serefin. The chapters told from Serefin’s perspective are what allowed me to get through to the good part of the book. Serefin is witty and charming in a way that isn’t forced. Also, his interactions with Ostyia are always funny. These portions are make up a big part of what took this rating from a 2.5 to a 3.5.

Finally the story started to pick up once Nadya and her pack of stragglers makes it to the Tranavian court. I think that a big opportunity was missed by not utilizing more of the Rawalyk, the contest to become the High Prince’s consort. I had pictured something like the competition for the King’ assassin in Throne of Glass mixed with the Bachelor, but the story barely saw the competition at all.

During the time at the court, Nadya discovers her power that isn’t granted to her by the gods and this causes her to question her faith. She also questions her trust in her traveling companions after she discovers that Malachiasz is actually the Black Vulture. This honestly didn’t come as that big of a shock to me. What did bother me was when Malachiasz ends up betraying his friends and taking the coveted power for himself. This seemed very out of character for someone who is portrayed as smart and basically moral, escaping from a dark past that he found to be inherently wrong. In the beginning he refers to himself as a monster several times, but this was always hard for me to take seriously. It’s like when my kitten tries to face off with my mother’s cat and he tries to act tough, but you just want to roll your eyes and tell him how cute he is. Malachiasz comes across as having a hard shell with a gooey center, so the shift to power-hungry hot-head seems sudden and out of place.

Overall, I think the last half of the book was very entertaining. I could have skipped the first half up until they arrive in Tranavia and the story would’ve been more appealing to me. The characters could’ve been better developed and the names could’ve been less cumbersome, but overall Wicked Saints was an entertaining read. Subsequent books would be able to solve both the character development and likability issues. Hopefully my slight confusion by Malachiasz’s actions at the end will also be remedied in a future sequel.

[fieldofproses]

REVIEW: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 Stars

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster and Chloe Gong for destroying my week giving me a free ARC for my honest review.

My review can really be summed up into one emotional, heart-felt statement that I’ve been screaming at the top of my lungs since about Chapter 5 of These Violent Delights.

CHLOE GONG HOW VERY DARE YOU?! To have the AUDACITY to write a book so devastatingly good... I have lost many nights of sleep over this book and all of your characters now live rent-free in my head forever.

While I probably shouldn’t say this, I’m saying it anyway... Gong took Romeo and Juliet, shook it up, and just made it better.

These Violent Delights takes place in 1920’s Shanghai and revolves around Juliette Cai, the heiress of the Scarlet Gang, and Roma Montagov, the heir to the rival gang, The White Flowers. After completing her education in America, Juliette returns to Shanghai to the rumors of a monster causing madness in her streets. In order to save everything she cares about, she must team up with Roma to solve the mystery of the madness... but to do this they’ll need to get over their past love and current hatred for each other.

If you love slow burn romance, bad ass lead females (who happen to kick ass wearing dresses and a garrote wire necklace), so much diversity seamlessly and easily woven in you’ll wonder why other authors find it so difficult, mystery, and retellings... this book is most definitely for you.

But I warn you... once you come for the plot, you’ll be staying for Gong’s writing and looking forward to whatever she writes next. With descriptions like: “A boy with steel skin and a heart of glass.”, you’ll be swooning over more than the romance!

Now... GO READ IT! Happy publication day, Chloe Gong! 🥀

[fredhandbag]

Thanks @celadonbooks for the great book-sharing program with Little Free Libraries. This copy of Brothers on Three by Abe Streep was dropped at Irmo Community Park. Synopsis from Goodreads - From journalist Abe Streep, the story of coming of age on a reservation in the American West and a team uniting a community March 11, 2017, was a night to remember. On that night, in front of the hopeful eyes of thousands of friends, family members, and fans, the Arlee Warriors would finally bring the high school basketball state championship title home to Montana’s Flathead Indian Reservation. The game would become the stuff of legend, with the boys revered as local heroes. The team’s place in history was now cemented, but for starters Will Mesteth, Jr. and Phillip Malatare, life would keep moving on―senior year was only just beginning. In Brothers on Three, we follow Phil and Will, along with their teammates, coaches, and families, as they balance the pressures of adolescence, shoulder the dreams of their community, and chart their own individual courses for the future. And in doing so, a picture emerges of modern Indigenous life and the challenges of growing up on a reservation in contemporary America. Brothers on Three is not simply a story about high school basketball, about state championships and a winning team. It is a book about community, and it is about boys on the cusp of adulthood, finding their way through the intersecting worlds they inhabit and forging their own paths to personhood. #brothersonthree #abestreep #celadonbooks #littlefreelibrary #irmotownpark #nonfictionbooks #indigenousbooks #basketball #bookstagram #lfldrop #littlefreelibrarydrop #paperbacks #inspirationalreads #neighborhoodbookexchange #advancedreadingcopy (at Irmo Community Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTCgqULLhqO/?utm_medium=tumblr

[authoraliwinters]

Just got my ARC of #darktournament by @eli.amore and I'm sitting down to start it now! I've been so excited for this book for months now! #amreading #advancedreadingcopy #arc #fantasy

[ellelittoujours-blog]

Guys, I'm meeting Sarah Dessen NEXT WEEK! I can barely contain my excitement! So to help wait a little more patiently and In honor of @sdessen newest novel being released today, I have posted a photo of the ARC I received of Once And For All. I loved this book, it's my new fav SD book and I'm so happy everyone can now get their hands on it! Let me know if you got you copy today or plan in getting one. • • • #sarahdessen #sarahdessenbooks #onceandforall #sarahdessensummer #sarahdessennovels #sarahdessencollectionisgrowing #sarahdessenfangirl #bookstagram #booksofinsta #booksofinstagram #booksofig #bookstagrammer #bookstagramfeature #booksandnature #booksinnature #advancedreadingcopy #earlycopy #ya4life #yabooks #yaromance #yacontemporary #YAread #summerlovin #happypubday #bookbirthday

[starfish1966]

I'm just starting this #advancedreadingcopy of #theeyesofthequeen by #oliverclements, courtesy of @netgalley ❤ I'm currently #obsessed with #historicalmystery #fiction! #readersofinstagram #readingaddict #readingisfun https://www.instagram.com/p/CDSUBn3nwsKJiInFsSYqh31Pqo2QofRVIPuYuI0/?igshid=9wnltu9mb1y9

[atruebloodwrites]

Across a Broken Shore ARCs are here!!!!!!! Truth about this unboxing, I almost sliced my finger off opening the box. Many expletives may have been said.😲 Hats off to all of you who make “unboxings” look so easy. Stay tuned because early next week I’ll be doing a giveaway for an ARC & some other special swag! #acrossabrokenshore #amytrueblood #yahistorical #iwriteya #ireadya #advancedreadingcopy #yabooks #yareaders #yareadersofinstagram #amwritingya #booksta #bookalicious #medicine #1936 #sanfrancisco #booknerdigan #bookobsessed #booknerds #bookpics #bookcoverlove #bookcoverpic #writersofinsta #authorsofinsta @fluxbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/BxPj_2_HLZz/?igshid=bx9nifvn5jq5

[jolovesmoviesbookstv-blog]

Check out my 5⭐️ review of @sarracannon Deep Dark Secrets. Released today 25/08/17. https://jothinksandwrites.wordpress.com/2017/08/24/review-deep-dark-secrets/ #bookstagram #booksofig #booksofinstagram #instabook #amreading #readersofinstagram #readersofig #ilovebooks #ilovereading #lovetoreadbooks #lovebooks #nosuchthingastoomanybooks #books #reviewing #reviews #readingreview #bookreview #arc #advancedreadingcopy #deepdarksecrets #thespiritwalkers #trilogy