I got this book in early June as an ARC. It took me a while to get to it because I was reading a few other books first, but I was so excited when I did start it! Let me begin by giving you the synopsis for the book.

Britta's father has been the King's revered bounty hunter for years. She has been trained by him her whole life, and is challenged in talent only by his apprentice, her friend, Cohen. When her father is suddenly murdered, Britta's world is turned upside down. On the brink of starvation, she decides to risk hunting on the King's land. When she is caught, she is certain she will be executed. However she is offered a lifeline. Track down and return with the man accused of killing her father, and she will not only be excused for poaching, but she will be given her father's lands. Sounds too good to be true right? Pretty much. The murderer is none other than Cohen. Britta must choose between her life or that of the man who stands accused of killing her father, the man that she has grown up with and loved for years. ​

I loved this book! It was a great first book, both in the series and for the author, Erin Summerill. It is reminiscent of an epic adventure. You have this new world, with magic, kings, war and intrigue. The characters have backstories that slowly get unraveled before your eyes, and not always in ways that you predict. I could write an entire book on why I loved this book and why it was great, but a pros and cons list might be faster (that way you will eventually get to the book itself.)

I have so many feelings about this book that I want to share, BUT I CAN'T!!! All I can say is the SECOND it comes out, y'all need to go buy it because I need to fangirl with someone!! You won't regret it! I PROMISE! Come December 27th make sure you run out and get this book! Better yet preorder it so you can get it right away!! Most importantly keep an eye out for Erin Summerill, because if this book is any inclination, she is going places!

I have heard a lot of hype about the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer, both from friends & from students. After some intense pressure from those around me I finally decided to pick them up. All the hype was worth it! This series was amazing!! So let's start with a quick spoiler-less summary.

Cinder is an orphaned cyborg, with no memory of her past, living with her stepmother & stepsisters. A plague is devastating the Earth & they are on the verge of war with the Lunars (a branch of humanity that lives on the moon & has the power to manipulate the minds of those around them). The only way Earth can avoid this war is if there is a marriage alliance made between one of the royal family members & the Lunar Queen Levana, a cruel & manipulative woman. Stories have it that she not only killed her sister (the queen before her) but her 3 year old niece, Selene, just so should could remain queen. Now just as everything is about to fall apart for Earth the Princess Selene is found, alive after all these years! Together with her & her friends can they over thrown Levana & restore peace to the two worlds?

     I recently read the book Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I had heard about the upcoming movie adaptation of this book & I have to admit I love Sam Claflin. I have seen I saw him in the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie (even though that movie was ridiculous, he was great.) Anywho I was looking up the movie & found out that it was based on a book, so I decided hey I'm going to check out this book. It must be pretty good if they decided to turn it into a movie. So I did just that.
     Let's start off by talking about the summary of this book. Will Traynor is an adrenaline junkie. The bigger the adventure the better. But that all changes one day when he's crossing the street & gets hit by a motorcycle. From that day on his life might as well be over in his eyes. He is paralyzed from the neck down. He ends up quitting his big time job & moving back home with his parents who want to help take care of him. He shuts himself off from the world & falls in to a nonstop depression.
     Two years later enter Louisa Clark. She has just lost her job at a local cafe & is one of three supporters in a household of six. Needing to find a job to help continue to support her family, she finds a listing for a caregiver needed for a quadriplegic. Pay is good & the only real tasks are to keep the employer company & basic household tasks (cooking, cleaning, etc.). So Louisa goes to be interviewed. To her amazement the wealthy, slightly snobbish woman (Will's mom) hires her. But the job is harder than she thought. Will is about as antisocial as they come & besides dealing with his paralysis, Will is riddled with side-effect health issues that keep her & his nurse busy. 
     Try as she might Louisa can't get through to Will. But when she learns that Will doesn't plan on living past the next 6 months, she kicks it in to overdrive to try & change his mind that his life is over. Over months Louisa & Will bond. He starts to leave his house, starts talking to people again & even starts to show signs of happiness that his family hasn't seen since before his accident. But is it enough?

     Last month I went to Barnes & Noble & bought some books, amongst them was Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I had heard a lot of great reviews for the book, about how great it was, but I never really heard much about what the plot was or really of the author's skills. So I didn't entirely know what to expect when I started this book. Let me give you a summary really quick.
     Mare Barrow is a Red slave. There is nothing extraordinary about her, besides being a fairly good pick=pocket. However a chance meeting with a supposed palace servant named Cal, a theft gone wrong, lands Mare a job working in the palace serving the Silver lords. During a display of super-human abilities, which all Silvers possess thanks to their silver blood, to win the heart of the Princes (Cal & Maven), Mare falls to her doom. But a fall that should have been lethal to an ordinary Red, doesn't even leave a scratch. In a panic trying to get away, Mare ends up creating electrical lightning, something NO Red should have the ability to do. Of course she is caught & brought before the King & Queen who tell her that if she wishes to remain alive after her "display" she will go along with the lie they have made up to explain the anomaly that is her. From this day forward she is to be Mareena Titanos, the daughter of a great lord & lady, who were killed years ago in the war. She was taken as a baby & raised to be a Red. She believed herself to be a Red until that very day when she found her powers. To keep herself & her family safe, Mare agrees to go along with this lie. But that isn't all. She is now given to the second Prince, Maven, to be his bride. Fighting to keep her family safe, harness her new found powers, & live among those that have walked all over her & her kind like they were nothing more than animals are the new struggles Mare must face. But what if she could change the master/servant quo? One girl alone might not be able to but a new force is rising in the kingdom, the Scarlet Guard. A rebellion that wishes to make Silvers & Reds equal. But at what cost? Mare must fight now, more than ever, to take care of those she loves & to stay alive in a beautiful game of cat & mouse. Along the way she finds that not all Silvers share the common belief that Reds are beneath them. She finds a Prince born to lead, but who isn't sure yet to want ends he wishes to lead his country. She finds a Prince in the shadows, who has a heart for the people but not the power to make a change. She finds friends & enemies around every corner. But who to trust? As the quotes go, "Words can lie." & "Anyone can betray anyone."
     I don't want to go into too much detail about this book because part of the magic of this book is wondering who is to be trusted & who isn't. It kept me on the edge of my seat. While I've heard a lot of people say that it isn't original, that they've heard this story before, it is the not knowing who is good & who is bad that made me love this book. It was almost like a who done it kind of read. The characters were great. You had characters that were great, but had faults that made them more realistic. I didn't even make it to the end before I went & ordered the sequel Glass Sword, which is coming out February 9th! Thank God I won't have a long wait! I would recommend this to any of my friends.

     I started reading a book called An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir in December. It was a book that I had seen a lot of, but hadn't heard too much about it. It looked & sounded interesting enough so I checked it out from my library. Well I ended up not getting into it right away. So I had to renew it through the library because I wasn't finished, anywhere close to finished actually. Well Christmas came & went & I got a series that I immediately wanted to read so this book got put on the back burner, which wasn't terrible because I had barely made a dent in it. Well earlier this month I went to Barnes & Noble & got an Educator's membership card. I decided I would use some of my Christmas money to get myself some new books. This was among the ones I decided on because I couldn't recheck out the book anytime soon since I had renewed it already & there were a few people behind me that were wanting to read it. So I just bit the bullet & bought it. Well I finished my series Monday, so I decided to restart this book. It made a world of difference that I have been devouring books left & right at this moment, as apposed to a month ago when I wasn't in a book slump persay but I was very picky about what I wanted to read. I discovered that I really enjoyed this book. 
    Elias is a Martial soldier, the deadliest kind a Mask, trained the majority of his life in the elitest of "schools", Blackcliff. However while is is at the top of his class, he has never wanted to be a weapon in his empires arsenal. So before he graduates, he plans to desert. If he is caught it will be the death of him.
     Laia is a lowly Scholar, a thorn in Martial sides. Her world is turned upside down when her grandparents are murdered by a Mask & her brother is taken prisoner for being in cahoots with Scholar rebels. Her options are flee or be killed on the spot. She flees. Desperate to find a way to save her brother. As luck would have it, the rebel forces stumble upon her. Now she is on a spy mission to the most deadly of places, Blackcliff. In return for any useful information she can give them, the rebels will help release her brother from Martial custody. But Laia doesn't know the danger & torture she has signed up for when she accepted this mission. 
    Elias & Laia are from different worlds, master & slave, but they both have something to offer the other, even if it's just a friend. 
     This book is full of action, espionage, adventure, danger & a little bit of love. It was a great book... I will give it that. I can't wait for the sequel, A Torch Against the Night. However it took a long time for the plot to build & when it finally did it was practically the end of the book. I don't know... I feel as though this book would have done better to be a longer book. It was good, the plot was solid, but it took so long to build & then they hurried the ending. But I will say the characters were worthy of taking your time with them. Luckily I don't have TOO long to wait for the sequel! Seriously this was a good book that y'all should definitely read! 

     I recently reread the Throne of Glass (books 1-3 & the prequel) so that I could read Queen of Shadows for the first time. I bought the book back in September on my Nook & then for Christmas my folks bought the hardcover copy. That was all the motivation I needed to re-immerse myself in the series that I love. 
     So this book picks up where Heir of Fire leaves us. Aelin Galathynius (aka Celaena Sardothien) has accepted who & what she is & is returning to Adarlan after training with the Fae in Wendlyn. But the kingdom she returns to has radically changed... and not for the better. Her captain of the guard is a fugitive. The prince, her friend, is a collared monster bent on doing the King's bidding. Her long lost cousin is to be executed before they can reunite. And her old master is up to his old tricks. Her support system, that she came to depend on so much in Wendlyn, is an ocean away & her magic is gone once more. She'll have to fight her battles as Celaena Sardothien one more time. 
     We meet new friends & old ones. Nesryn is a loyal city guard, but helps Chaol lead the rebel forces that are saving the lives of many Rifthold citizens. Lysandra is an old pain in Celaena's side. She always vied for the full attention of not only Sam but Arobynn. But things have changed dramatically since they were young rivals, & so has Lysandra. Elide is a blast from Aelin's past. Her mother was Elides nursemaid & saving grace. Now she finds herself in a dark & dangerous place where evil is growing. Her only hope is to be reunited with her once queen, but how can she do that as a slave for the enemy? 
     Aelin has a list of things to do, and only a short time to do it. Evil henchmen of the Kings are taking magic wielders & either enslaving them or executing them, at an alarming rate. There are monsters from other worlds running rampant under the city of Rifthold, aiding in these captures. She needs to rescue her cousin before he is executed as a traitor to the crown. She must find the magical heirloom Arobynn took from her when he saved her life 10 years ago, as well as pay him back for the wrongs he's done to her & those she loves. She must save Dorian from a fate worse than death, even if that means ending his life. All this while trying to release magic so she can have a fair fight. But things are going on that even she doesn't know or yet understand. Things that can turn the tide of a war in the enemies favor. 
     This book brings in a new element that the other books didn't have. It has the feel of a classic epic fantasy novel. I personally found it reminiscent of a Wheel of Time. The character development, the overwhelming odds, the plot... so much of it made me feel like I was in a world so much like the Wheel of Time or Lord of the Rings. I highly recommend this book & the rest of the series to any lover of fantasy novels. While this book is classified as Young Adult, it strikes a cord in so many other genre's. Go get this series! It is a must read!

     Recently I read & LOVED Ice Like Fire​ by Sara Raasch. It is an epic adventure story that reminds me of Wheel of Time, Graceling & Throne of Glass. Pretty much some of my favorite fantasy books all thrown together! 
     In the book's world, Primoria, there are 8 kingdoms, 4 Season kingdoms (Autumn, Winter, Spring & Summer) & 4 Rhythm kingdoms (Cordell, Ventralli, Yakim, & Paisly). The Rhythm kingdoms don't like the Season kingdoms & vice versa. Each kingdom has a royal conduit that allows their heir to use magic to help their kingdom, only their kingdom & ONLY in their kingdom. However the conduits are very particular as to the gender of the heir that uses them. For example, if you have a male-blooded conduit but only female heirs, the conduit is pretty much useless until a male heir comes along.
     Spring ends up attacking Winter, breaks their conduit & kills their queen. The Winterian people are enslaved to Spring, except for a small group of refugees who go on the run for the next 16 years. Among them is an orphaned girl, Meira. She grows up along side the only living Winterian heir, Prince Mather (whom she has had a crush on for most of her life, but knows she's too lowly for) & a handful of other escapees. They spend their years hunting down the 2 pieces of their conduit. Spring keeps it in 2 pieces, 1 piece hidden & the other constantly moving around the continent. If they can find the pieces of their conduit they can begin the long journey of repairing their kingdom & freeing their people from slavery.