Review: The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

The Star-Touched Queen
By Roshani Chokshi

Hardcover, 342 pages

Published April 26th 2016 by St. Martin’s Griffin

Average Rating: 3.61

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mythology, Romance
POV: Third Person Limited (Maya)
Cover Love: A+++++++
My Rating: 3.5/5 stars

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Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you’re only seventeen?

Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of death and destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire…

But Akaran has its own secrets—thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most…including herself.

August 2016: Most Anticipated Releases

THE BOOK GODS HAVE BLESSED US WITH AN EPIC BOOK RELEASING SPREE THIS AUGUST!!! I’m stoked to show you which books I’m fangirling over and what I’m most excited about!

Let’s just get right to it!

Here are my most anticipated August book releases!

Review: This Is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang

This is Where the World Ends
By Amy Zhang

Hardcover, 304 pages
Published March 22nd 2016 by Greenwillow Books
Average Rating: 3.47

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction,
POV: First Person Limited: After (Micah) and Before/Journal Entries (Janie)
Cover Love: The feathers!! The background with the words!! So wonderfully beautiful.
My Rating: 3.5/5

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Janie and Micah, Micah and Janie. That’s how it’s been ever since elementary school, when Janie Vivien moved next door. Janie says Micah is everything she is not. Where Micah is shy, Janie is outgoing. Where Micah loves music, Janie loves art. It’s the perfect friendship—as long as no one finds out about it. But then Janie goes missing and everything Micah thought he knew about his best friend is colored with doubt.

Using a nonlinear writing style and dual narrators, Amy Zhang reveals the circumstances surrounding Janie’s disappearance in a second novel.

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Review: The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Problem with Forever
By Jennifer L. Armentrout

Hardcover, 480 pages

Published May 17th 2016 by Harlequin Teen
Average Rating: 4.09

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
POV: First Person (Mallory)
Cover Love: The watercolours, the title, the ART.
My Rating: 4.5/5

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For some people, silence is a weapon. For Mallory “Mouse” Dodge, it’s a shield. Growing up, she learned that the best way to survive was to say nothing. And even though it’s been four years since her nightmare ended, she’s beginning to worry that the fear that holds her back will last a lifetime.

Now, after years of homeschooling with loving adoptive parents, Mallory must face a new milestone—spending her senior year at public high school. But of all the terrifying and exhilarating scenarios she’s imagined, there’s one she never dreamed of—that she’d run into Rider Stark, the friend and protector she hasn’t seen since childhood, on her very first day.

It doesn’t take long for Mallory to realize that the connection she shared with Rider never really faded. Yet the deeper their bond grows, the more it becomes apparent that she’s not the only one grappling with the lingering scars from the past. And as she watches Rider’s life spiral out of control, Mallory faces a choice between staying silent and speaking out—for the people she loves, the life she wants, and the truths that need to be heard.

Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows
By Leigh Bardugo

Kindle Edition, 462 pages

Published September 29th 2015 by Henry Holt and Company

Average Rating: 4.41

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Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Kaz’s crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

The Body Finder (The Body Finder #1)
By Kimberly Derting

Hardcover, 327 pages

Published March 16th 2010 by Harper
Average Rating: 3.97

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Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world… and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly. But even as Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer.. she might become his next prey.

Review: Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Emmy & Oliver
By Robin Benway

Kindle Edition, 352 pages

Published June 23rd 2015 by HarperTeen
Average Rating: 3.91

Emmy’s best friend, Oliver, reappears after being kidnapped by his father ten years ago. Emmy hopes to pick up their relationship right where it left off. Are they destined to be together? Or has fate irreparably driven them apart?

Emmy just wants to be in charge of her own life.

She wants to stay out late, surf her favorite beach—go anywhere without her parents’ relentless worrying. But Emmy’s parents can’t seem to let her grow up—not since the day Oliver disappeared.

Oliver needs a moment to figure out his heart.

He’d thought, all these years, that his dad was the good guy. He never knew that it was his father who kidnapped him and kept him on the run. Discovering it, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, all at once, has his heart racing and his thoughts swirling.

Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. In Emmy’s soul, despite the space and time between them, their connection has never been severed. But is their story still written in the stars? Or are their hearts like the pieces of two different puzzles—impossible to fit together?

Readers who love Sarah Dessen will tear through these pages with hearts in throats as Emmy and Oliver struggle to face the messy, confusing consequences of Oliver’s father’s crime. Full of romance, coming-of-age emotion, and heartache, these two equally compelling characters create an unforgettable story.

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I can’t explain how this book makes me feel because I feel so many emotions that I can’t distinguish what they are. Every time I think of this book or remember the story, I get this feeling in my chest. There are good emotions like happiness, sympathy and pride, and there are sad emotions like heartache, sadness, pain, and honest-to-god understanding and acceptance.

Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen
By Victoria Aveyard

Hardcover, 383 pages

Published February 10th 2015 by HarperTeen
Average Rating: 4.11

This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

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So…I’m rather embarrassed about how long it took me to finish Red Queen. Took me about a year to finally complete the novel… Oops? *sheepish*

I remember when it first came out in 2015, I was super interested in the concept and it seemed like the YA novel to read. Borrowed it from the library, and returned it later not even halfway finished. I picked up more books, and Red Queen kind of got pushed down my priority list of TBR. Now, here I am, a year later, finished the novel and absolutely in awe with the world, the characters and the overall story.

Review: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury
(A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)
By Sarah J. Maas

Hardcover, 624 pages

Published May 3rd 2016 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Average Rating: 4.77

Feyre survived Amarantha’s clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas’s masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

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Lordy, lordy, lord. I just finished this book and I’m ready to explode from the intense feels I have stored in my body. Brace yourself for a raving review.

Review: Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassin #3)
By Robin LaFevers

Hardcover, 444 pages

Published November 4th 2014 by HMH Books for Young Readers
Average Rating: 4.12

Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.

She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind doesn’t mean she has…

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This book frustrated the hell out of me. IT WAS TORTUROUS. I couldn’t take it. The whole time I wanted to punch Annith in the face, then when I finished, I was speechless.

ONE OF THE BEST ENDINGS OF A SERIES EVER.

And the thing is, I hated Annith for half of the novel!!! I don’t know how Robin LaFevers managed to redeem herself because ultimately, I love this trilogy.