Review: An Ember in the Ashes

Jun 25, 2018

An Ember in the Ashes An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Okay. so I have had a few days to digest this book. I haven't started book 2 yet because I wanted my thoughts on this book to be clear.

I have had this series on my TBR for sometime. I keep seeing people giving high ratings and did not want my expectation to be to high so I waited but with the release of the new covers and the 3rd book coming out, I had to pick it up.

I did listen to this on audio book and the cast was amazing. You have 2 POV on this. It took me 2 times to listen to the second chapter to understand that the story is about 2 different people. I expected to go straight from chapter one and her story continue into Elias but that was not the case. Laia and Elias have 2 POV and finally come together around mid book. You start seeing what his happening and how their life joins together.

Laia was at home in bed one night when her brother sneaks into the window and she questions his motives but they are raided and she flees for her life leaving her brother behind. Her journey is through out this book is to find her brother and she keeps hearing him call to her in her thoughts to save him. She makes an alliance that she thought she could trust. He is sold to a camp as a slave girl and brutally beat at times because their are absolutely no tolerance for mistakes as a slave girl.

Elias was kidnapped as child and brought to this camp where he was raised and had to fight several stages of his life to survive. The only thing is Elias is not like the others. He has a heart. He lets his emotions get in is way but he tries to hid it. He later runs into a slave girl that he knows is going to be whipped and he does nothing about it because he knows that if he does, he could be killed for his crime. He watched a young 10 year old that was whipped to death in chapter 4 and this chapter tour my heart out and the details that went into this story. (To me this was not for the faint of heart).

The story of Laia and Elias is a story like I have never read before. It was very gripping and compelling and your find yourself so wrapped up in the lives of these characters. You are so invested that you are praying the best for them both.

The side characters make this story so amazing. The trails that they have to fight in the book leave you holding your breath and heart broke toward the end of some of the trails.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. I am so glad I picked this book and now its time to move on to book 2.


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Review: The School for Good and Evil

Jun 19, 2018

The School for Good and Evil The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very cute middle grade novel.

We are met with 2 different girls. One pretty and one ugly. One evil and one good but destined to be best friends. The only thing is, good and evil can not be friends.

When 2 girls are kidnapped and dropped off at 2 different schools, one good and one evil, the girls try to find away to get back home.

This story has a very unique twist to it. I love the ending.

I do believe that Agatha is my favorite character. Evil can sometimes be good and good can sometimes be evil.

I highly recommend this book. I will continue on with the series. I would be satisfied stopping in the first book only because I was very well pleased with the ending but I will continue on just to see how things began to turn again.

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Review: Made You Up

Jun 15, 2018

Made You Up Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had wanted to read this book for a while since I heard Emma from EmmaBooks on YouTube talk about this book.

I finished this book in one day. It was a pretty fast read.

I enjoyed the first part of the book but then It fell short on me toward the end. I guess I was a bit disappointed at the ending.

I enjoyed seeing the main character as she struggled with knowing what was real and wasn't real but toward the end, it left me wondering what was real and wasn't. I wanted more mental illness aspects out of this book. But there was a lot more of the romance feel to it.

Other than that, the book was very enjoyable. I do think that young adults would really enjoy this book because it is set a school setting.

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Review: The Beauty of Darkness

Jun 14, 2018

The Beauty of Darkness The Beauty of Darkness by Mary E. Pearson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to this series on audio book through my library. I love the narrators. It was a multi cast. It took me 3 days to listen to this book. It was 18 hours long but I did listen to it on 2X the speed. With me working a fulltime 40 hours job and taking care of my 5 dogs and husband, this was a very fast listen to me.

Such a great ending to a trilogy. I highly enjoyed this entire book series. If you love a good fantasy, I would recommend you to pick up this series. It has went straight up to one of my favorite series. The strength that Lia has to put others first is just amazing. She is willing to sacrifice her life and her the love of her life for the protection of her people.

It is hard to give you any details on this book since this is the 3rd book in the series. BUT WOW... that ending. I had some happy and sad moments in the end, but Mary Pearson did not disappoint. I love how the life of Kaden and Pauline went. The strength these 2 have that change in them and their love and strengths amaze me. Pauline has a story that is strong. She is a side character in the book but I loved her story.

Lets not forget Rafe. He had me torn apart. Having to sacrifice his love for Lia for his Kingdom. Wow.. these strengths of these characters are so good.

Mary Pearson did a great job telling this story. I loved the world building. It was so vivid and so in detail you could see it world as she described it.

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Review: The Heart of Betrayal

Jun 8, 2018

The Heart of Betrayal The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

WOW.... That ending...

This book was great. I think I enjoyed book 1 more but this was a very strong 5 star second book. There were some slow moments but they were story building to the plot.

We are still following Rafe and Lia as they have been captured and they are fighting to escape. This book is so great. There are moments of blood shed that my heart was ripped out. I felt the pain that Lia was feeling.

I can not wait to move on to book 3!

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