Warrior Witch (The Malediction Trilogy #3) by Danielle L. Jenson

Published by: Angry Robot

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, YA, Romance.

Tagline: Sometimes, one must become the unimaginable

Rating: ****

Warrior Witch picks up from the events of Hidden Huntress with a bang. Okay not literally, but you get the point. We're inserted back into the narratives of Cecile and Tristan, something that started in the second book, and it is hard to describe how this book made me feel. It's the last book. Kept continuously on my toes, I tried to force myself to finish this book in the brief slow parts, but when I was past them, then it was straight forward and easy going. 

We start with Cecile who's desperately trying to save the people of Trollus and of course, her husband. She's strong and fierce in one moment, and vulnerable the next. A perfect queen, even if she doesn't know it yet. Tristan on the otherhand comes across as a right pain. There's something about the gap between the books that has made me grow to dislike him. 

However. it's a good ending. A bit different, but good.

You can buy Warrior Witch from Amazon UK now.

Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes #1) by Sara Raasch

Published by: Balzer + Bray

Genre: YA Fantasy, YA, Magic

Rating: *****

This has got to be a book that has gathered dust on my shelf for over four months. I never touched it except to move over books around, it just stayed there looking rather wistfully at me as I chose other books. However, this has changed!

Snow Like Ashes is the first book in an exciting series about a fantastical world that follows the life of orphaned Meira. Meira has always known her status as an orphan to mean she is nothing, she desperately tries to prove her worth by becoming a soldier and anything she can to help her longtime love, and King, Mather.

Yet there's a twist. As always there's a bloody twist. Meira's world is based on the seasons. Her race is Winter, a place that has been destroyed and taken over in a war that has cost their population to decrease severely. But there's a tonne of secrets that if I even tried hinting at, I would definitely spoil this for everyone, therefore, I will remain silent.

It's an exciting book that echoes Game of Thrones and Throne of Glass (seriously it does!). I was swept away in the way that Raasch writes. Completely blew me away this book, and now I've just got to finish the second in hopes that it'll be just as good, or even better.

You can buy Snow Like Ashes from Amazon

Am I Normal Yet? (The Spinster Club Series #1) by Holly Bourne

Published by: Usborne

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Mental Health, Teenagers

Tagline: It's tough being a girl

Evie is a typical teenager. Okay, she's not quite as 'normal' as society might dictate. Instead, she suffers from a mental health illness that requires her to take medication. In fact, by the time we meet her, she's just coming off of them. All she really wants is to be normal and go out to parties, meet guys and potentially get a boyfriend like almost every teenager wants to have at that age.

But there's an issue. Generally the case for most teenage girls, relationships are messy and can often blur the line between sane and crazy (pardon my usage of the word). Evie is caught up with the emotions and rush of the moment, her mind and heart conflicting against one another as she tries to pretend that she is one of the girls, that she does not have anything wrong with her. But how much is enough?

In all honesty, I truly liked this book. Thinking that it was a series based around Evie solely, I picked the book up and devoured it instantly. As someone who had issues with OCD as a teen myself, I felt that this hit one issue that not many people write or know about without making obscene and stupid remarks about.

Evie is a great protagonist. Her friends are as well. They work well together and balance each other out as collectively one could consider them 'normal'. I think naming the series a spinster club is good and bad. They are just impressionable young women and spinster is usually a derogative term but in this case, they are trying to change the meaning to create something positive, the power of female friendship.

Perhaps this is what Bourne is trying to do. She is very honest and open about being a feminist, something that most female YA authors are speaking out about in a movement that is long overdue. I think this is wonderful. It's teaching the next generation of readers the basics of feminism whilst educating them on female friendship and that it is okay to be different. I can't think of anything better.

Am I Normal Yet? Can be purchased from Amazon now.

See How They Run (Embassy Row #2) by Ally Carter

See How They Run (Embassy Row #2) by Ally Carter

Published by:Scholastic Press

Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Contemporary

Rating: Four Stars

Following on from the thrilling first novel in the Embassy Row series, Ally Carter crafts an intriguing story that carries on from the aftermath of Grace's revelations. The arrival of her brother in the Embassy sets her on an edge, one bigger than the troubles of the previous book, and things certainly don't get boring. Filled with a thrilling tale of who is to blame for her mother's death and whether she can trust anyone at all, See How They Run is absolutely fantastic. You're always kept on your toes.

I was pleasantly happy with this book. As sequels come, this continued on from the first without a need to recap everything every ten pages. Instead I felt slightly reminded and then thrust back into Grace's world and her endeavour to seek the truth about her mother and her life. The reasoning behind the four stars was because I felt there could have been a bit more to the book. There was a moment that felt quite unrealistic. I mean come on if someone was stabbed, then they should be injured longer than a few pages.

See How They Run can be bought from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

P.S. I Still Love You (To All The Boys I've Loved Before #2) by Jenny Han

P.S. I Still Love You (To All The Boys I've Loved Before #2) by Jenny Han

Published by: Simon and Schuster for Young Reader

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Rating: ****

I've had the paperback sitting on a shelf for about a month and a half staring at me. Unfortunately due to the start of my third and final year of University and just not being in the right mood to read it, I've not properly been able to read it until now!

Jenny Han is famed for her amazing summer read series The Summer I Turned Pretty. That series made me fall in love with her writing style and the wonderful characters she creates. 

P.S. I Still Love You continues on from the first book, and follows young Lara Jean as she tries to decipher what her heart wants admist the fiasco with Peter. I'm not going to lie. As a twenty year old I had huge flashbacks for how I felt at her age and some parts I argued were a bit too fantasized but I'm not American or raised with her parents so maybe I'm wrong for feeling that way.

Lara Jean continues her deciding on whether she wants Peter or not, her sisters are so funny and she becomes as we all do, confused. I admire Han on not making her a weak character, a victim of the Bella Swan syndrome but instead simply who she is. A young teenager with the world ahead of her. I laughed and smiled my way through the book and by the time I closed the last page, I couldn't help but think of Belly from the Summer series. 

Both girls are so similar that I feel like I'm reading an alternative world version of the Summer series and that makes me feel like I'm getting another chance to relive that series. (Frantically burrows out the series.)

But there was so much that I couldn't fault. Miss Han has a fantastic way of creating teenage protagonists who mature and transform so much over the span of the series that it's almost as if we too are growing up with them. That's something I admire in authors, particularly Young Adult as it helps us become who we will be someday.

P.S. I Still Love You is available to buy from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1) by Jodi Meadows

The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1) by Jodi Meadows

Published by: Katherine Tegan Books (yay!)

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Rating:****1/2

Wilhelmina is a princess of a fallen kingdom. It fell during an invasion by the Indigo kingdom where Wil lost her parents and ran away to watch and plot from afar, her climb back to the throne. Hiding away in the Indigo kingdom, Wil is leader of a pack of thieves and orphans who she cares for and asks to aid her.

At a chance opportunity, Wil and best friend/fellow thief Melanie hide away in the castle under the guise of migrants seeking aid. Using the time to map out the kingdom and to work out a plan to get her kingdom back, Wil is literally on her own and becomes half the princess she is. Truly in the moment she is dressed as she should have been, she becomes this wise and strong leader that gives the reader faith that the sequel will be strong and amazing.

I'd write more but I'd probably drop more spoilers than describing the book. However one thing I have always stood by is that if  a book was published by Kathering Tegan, then it is amazing. Her imprint is almost always publishing captivating and thrilling books that make readers stop and think a little whilst sending them away to other worlds to be blown away.

The Orphan Queen is out now and is available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Book Haul - May/June

Book Haul - May/June

From left to right: The Heir by Kiera Cass, Us by David Nicholls, Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J, Maas and P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

In the time it took me to be paid and to venture online and outside the house, I managed to buy these lovely books. The Tahereh Mafi books were purchased via Amazon and I'm ecstatic to say that Unravel Me is a first edition *Insert a very happy face*. Then more happy news came. The Sarah J Maas one is a signed copy and I didn't expect that when I walked into Waterstones. I mean I'm sad I didn't get another opportunity to meet her, Yet the rest of the books are sadly not signed (yet). 

Perhaps one day I'll get to meet some of my heroes. 

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