A Lost Legacy: Awakening by C.E. Dimond - spoiler free review

Hi booklovers

A while ago I started following author C.E. Diamond on Instagram and she was giving away review e-copies of her first book. The story sounded interesting so I decided to ask for a copy. So, here's my non-spoiler review. The fact that this was sent to me for free in return for an honest review doesn't affect my opinion of the book.

Title: A Lost Legacy: Awakening.

Author: C.E. Dimond

Genre: YA, paranormal, witches

Format: e-book

*Story:

Meet Finn - Fionnuala - a 16 year-old girl. It's the beginning of a new school year and she's not really looking forward to it. Luckily, her best friend Tyler will be there as well. Finn seems to be your average teenager, but she's been having these strange dreams lately. Strange things start to happen around her. Then she meets Eamon, who recently moved to her town. When Finn's mother disappears, Eamon comes to - reluctantly - help her and the story takes off from there.

*Characters:

-Finn: I liked Finn as a character. She goes through a lot of things very quickly, but she somehow manages to get through it more or less okay. Although, I did sometimes feel that this went a bit too smoothly, but more about that later.

-Tyler: We don't really get to know him that well yet, but I have a feeling we might get to see more of him in the next part of the story. He's not your typical football playing teenage boy with all the girls flocking around him. He's actually genuinly concerned about Finn. You can tell early on in the story that he's in love with Finn, although she doesn't seem to notice this.

-Eamon: At first, I hated Eamon with a passion. He is such an arrogant prick, who's a so full of himself. He redeemed himself a bit because of what happened in his pas, but he still wasn't my favourite character.

- Of all the side characters, I liked Neely best. He's a very likeable, down to earth kind of guy.

*Plot:

At first I found the story moved along very quickly, a bit too quickly to my liking. Everything started happening really fast and I felt like the author didn't really take the time to explain things well enough. I also thought that Finn accepted her new found abilities and everything that was happening to her a bit too easily. She doesn't question the things that are taking place enough in my opinion. This rapid succession of events also made me feel like the author jumped around a lot in the story (for lack of a better way to describe it). Later on the story became more coherent and I enjoyed it a lot more. The storyline is much more developped which definitely helps the story. There's also more worldbuilding later on in the book. I started to get more into the story and because of the sort of cliffhanger ending I'm curious to see what will happen next.

*Overall rating:

I gave this story 3.5 stars. I couldn't give it a higher rating because of the beginning of the story. Beware that there are still some spelling and punctuation errors in the story, but that didn't really bother me - I just highlighted them, because the teacher in me couldn't resist :-)

Will I be reading the sequel? (It doesn't come out until next year :-( ) I'm pretty sure I will. 

Will I be reading the prequel? I'm not sure yet, because the prequel is from Eamon's POV and I'm not his biggest fan. But the premise does sound pretty good, so who knows...

So, if you want to read a story about modern-time witches and warlocks, this could be the book for you.

I would like to thank to C.E. Dimond for the chance to read and review this book.

Bye for now

Annelies

Fantasy Favourites Read-A-Thon

Hi booklovers

A while ago Olivia (click on her name to go to her blog) and Inge invited me through Goodreads (Click on the link if you want to follow me there) to join the Fantasy Favourites Read-a-Thon. This looked like fun, so I decided to join them. Plus, the read-a-thon will take place in July, which is when I'm on my break.

This read-a-thon takes place from Sunday the 10th of July until Monday the 18th of July and this is my introduction post.

1. Who are you?
My name is Annelies, I'm a 35 year-old teacher who loves to dive into all kinds of stories and tales.

2. Why are you joining the read-a-thon?
When I got invited through Goodreads and I saw that it was a fantasy read-a-thon, I thought it looked like fun. Like I said before, it takes place in July which is ideal for me since I'm on my summer break and I will have more time to read. And when I saw that we could read the Throne of Glass series, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to pick up Queen of Shadows, because I still need to read that one.

3. Which books do you intend to read?
Oops, I already answered this in the previous question, but I'm planning on reading 'Queen of Shadows' by Sarah J. Maas. I pre-ordered this book last year but because it's massive I hadn't gotten around to reading it just yet. I am planning on reading the summaries for the rest of the books on Recaptains so I can dive straight into QOS.

4. How many pages do you think you’ll manage?
I'm hoping to read the entire book, which is 645 pages. I think I will be able to finish it, but I'm not planning on putting any other books on my TBR. If I do finish it, I might start rereading A Court of Thorns and Roses so I can move on to A Court of Mist and Fury. I'm not going to read any of the other suggested series since I've read the Grisha trilogy at the beginning of the year and I have no interest in picking up the Percy Jackson books.

5. What’s your favourite thing about the fantasy genre?
I love how authors are able to invent this completely new world, whith magical creatures and enchanting places for me to get lost in. I admire how authors are able to take a single idea and turn it into a complete story.
 
6. Which fantasy books do you always recommend?
Hmm, that's a tough one: I usually recommend Harry Potter, but I also think the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman is really good. I also really like 'The Wheel of Time' series by Robert Jordan, although I haven't finished it completely.

7. Which fantasy books are you dying to read?
I just ordered 'The Wrath and the Dawn' by Renee Ahdieh and 'The Raven Boys' by Maggie Stiefvater, so I'm pretty excited to read those. I'm also curious about ACOMAF.

8. If you could travel to one fantasy world, which one would it be? (I know it’s hard, but try not to say Hogwarts.)
I would really love to visit the Winter kingdom in Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch. I really love the winter season and I think it would be special to have that season all year round.

I'm really looking forward to this read-a-thon and hopefully I'll be able to complete all the challenges.

Are you taking part in this read-a-thon? Have you read Queen of Shadows? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

10 books I would like to read this summer

Hi booklovers

The schoolyear is almost over, so that means I have a two month break coming up, during which I'm hoping to get a fair amount of reading done :-)

I no longer do TBR's because I hardly ever stick to them, but this is a list of 10 books I would like to read during the months of June (what's left of the month, anyway), July and August. These are not really in any order, btw!

1) Since You've Been Gone - Morgan Matson. I've been on a Morgan Matson binge lately, having reread Amy & Roger and currently rereading Second Chance Summer. I've had SYBG on my TBR for over a year no, so I think it's high time I picked it up.

2) The Unexpected Everything - Morgan Matson. I don't own this one yet, but I want to order it, so I can read it back to back with SYBG. This was on my anticipated releases of 2016 list, but I haven't bought it because I haven't read SYBG yet.

3) Long Way Down - Krista & Becca Ritchie. I've been putting off reading this book ever since it was released last year, because I know I'm going to have a very hard time putting this one down. So, I need to make sure I have plenty of time to read it.

4) Royal Assassin - Robin Hobb. I really enjoyed Assassin's Apprentice when I read it last year, but I haven't found the courage yet to pick up book 2, because it's significantly bigger than book 1.

5) Queen of Shadows - Sarah J. Maas. Even though I pre-ordered this book last year, I haven't gotten around to reading it. This is a huge book and since I'm a bit of a slow reader, I need my time to get through this. I would like to read this before Empire of Storms comes out, but I don't think I will pre-ordering that one. I'll just buy it when I want to read it.

6) A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas. I haven't ordered this one yet, but I want to soon. I'm thinking of rereading A Court of Thorns and Roses and then moving on to this one.

7) Written in Red - Anne Bishop. After picking up Murder of Crows and thinking it was the first one in the series, I ordered this one, but I haven't started it yet. I've heard a lot of great things about this series, so I want to start it soon.

8) The Lies of Locke Lamore - Scott Lynch. Ever since hearing Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes raving about this book, I've wanted to pick it up. 

9) Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. I've been wanting to buddy-read this with Bre Faucheux ever since I bought it last year. Maybe I'll be able to convince her to read it this summer ;-)

10) Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Bre sent this to me as a gift and I've been very curious to read it after hearing her rave about it :-) Thanks again for sending this to me, sweetie!

 

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments which of these I should read first.

Bye for now

Annelies 

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch - spoiler-free review.

Hi booklovers

I'm hopelessly behind on reviewing the books that I've read, so here's my attempt at getting back on track.

The first book that I finished this year was Snow Like Ashes, so that might be a good place to start.

Title: Snow Like Ashes

Author: Sara Raasch
Genre: YA, fantasy
Format: Paperback
 

*Story:
Imagine being on the run for 16 years because your kingdom was conquered. Meira is one of only eight survivors who managed to escape. The others were taken captive and are used as slaves.

*Characters:
-Meira: She is one of the eight survivors who got away after the Winter kingdom was conquered. She is an orphan. Meira wants nothing more than to join the other survivors when they go on missions to get Winter's conduit back. She's in love with her childhood friend and future king Mather. Like all inhabitants of Winter, she has vibrant white hair, which intrigued me very much.

-Mather: He is the future king of the Winter kingdom. He's trained as a warrior, but he's also being prepared to become king. He's in love with Meira, but they both know there might never be anything more between them.

-William / Sir: He is the leader of the survivors. He's a very strict leader, who doesn't usually show his emotions.
 

-Angra: Evil Spring ruler who has enslaved the Winterians.

-Noam: He is the king of Cordell, one of the Rhythms. Sir asks Noam for help to get Winter back.

-Theron: Noam's son and the future king of Cordell.
 

*Plot:
There are eight countries in Primoria: four countries are Seasons, which means that the season stays the same the whole year around. The other four countries are Rhythms, where the seasons change.
 
The magic system consists of conduits that are used by each country's monarch. The conduit allows the monarch to 'channel' their magic. Each monarch uses their magic for different purposes. In this story the survivors are trying to find the two halves of Winter's locket, so they can put them back together and claim Winter's throne again and free the Winterian slaves.

*Overall rating:
I really liked this book. I especially enjoyed the way Primoria is divided and the way the magic is wielded.

I enjoyed the worldbuilding, you really get to see how people are affected by being in their own kingdom or in another kingdom with a different type of weather. I found the difference between the Seasons and the Rhythms very refreshing.
 
!!!!Spoiler!!!!
The love triangle is maybe a bit tropy, but I still felt sorry for Mather when Meira was promised to Theron to secure the help of Cordell.
 
The pacing of the story was good, for me there weren't any dull moments. Even though I don't really like politics in a story, in this book I didn't really mind it because even though it is important to the story, it isn't overwhelming or confusing.
 
!!!!Spoiler!!!!
I totally didn't see the plot twist coming, so I was completely blown away by the fact that Meira was in fact Winter's rightful queen. A plot twist I really enjoyed was the fact that Meira is Winter's conduit.



I gave this book 4.5 stars on Goodreads.
 
Have you read this book? If so, what did you think of it? Let me know in the comments.
 
Bye for now
 
Annelies

March - April 2016 wrap-up

Hi booklovers

This is what I read in March and April.

March
- Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo - 5 stars   
- Ruin and Rising -  Leigh Bardugo - 5 stars
- Inspire - Cora Carmack - 4.5 stars

- Nowhere But Here - Katie McGarry - 4.5 stars (reread)

April
- Walk The Edge - Katie McGarry - 4.5 stars  

- Clipped Wings - Helena Hunting - 4.5 stars 

- Cupcakes and Ink (Clipped Wings #0.5) - Helena Hunting - 4 stars

- Between the cracks (Clipped Wings #1.5) - Helena Hunting - 4 stars  

- Inked Armor (Clipped Wings #2) - Helena Hunting - 4.5 stars 

- Cracks in the Armor (Clipped Wings #2.5) - Helena Hunting - 3.5 stars 

- Kindred Spirits  - Rainbow Rowell - 3 stars

- The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan - 4 stars 

- Fables: Legends in Exile (#1) - Bill Willingham - 4.5 stars 

- Ice Like Fire - by Sara Raasch - 4.5 stars  

As you can see, April has been a very good reading month, but this is mostly thanks to the two week Easter break at the end of March and the beginning of April and the fact that I've read a couple of novella's.

My favourite books (per genre) of these two past months are:

* Fantasy: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. I loved all the books in the trilogy, but the second one is my absolute favourite.

* YA Contemporary: Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry. Katie is one of my autobuy authors and she hasn't disappointed me so far.

* NA Contemporary: Clipped Wings and Inked Armor by Helena Hunting. I really liked that this has such a raw edge to it.

What have you liked reading during the month of April?

Bye for now

Annelies

20 books I want to read in 2016 - update

Hi booklovers

Since we're over a quarter through 2016 I thought I would give you an update on how many books that are on my '20 books I want to read' TBR I have read.

A) Books I already own:

* Fairest by Marissa Meyer
* Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
* The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

B) Books I didn't own at the time of the original post but have bought since:

* Siege & Storm by Leigh Bardugo

* Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo
 

I already bought Six of Crows and Stars Above and I want to read them very soon.

5 books down, 15 to go, I can do this :-)
 

Bye for now
 

Annelies

Friday Reads #5 - April 29th

Hi booklovers

Let's take a look at what I read this week:

- I started listening to 'The Great Hunt' by Robert Jordan during the Author-A-Thon and I continued listening to it this week. I'm now 13hrs and 40 mins into the book. 

- I finished 'Ice Like Fire' by Sara Raasch.

- I started reading 'Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft'. This is so weird, but I'm liking it so far.

- I also, literally, read the first page of 'Cruel Crown' by Victoria Aveyard before falling asleep :-$ 

What I'll be reading this weekend and next week:

- I'll probably finish 'Locke and Key' on Monday.

- I'm going to continue listening to 'The Great Hunt', but since I mostly listen to it while walking to and from work and I have two days off at the end of next week, I might not finish it yet. But that's okay, because I don't mind taking it slow.

- I'm hoping to finish 'Cruel Crown' and maybe move on to 'Glass sword', so I can catch up with the series.

Let me know in the comments what you'll be reading next week.

Bye for now

Annelies