Book Review: The Archived

By Cheshire

Wow. This was kind of just a “wow” book. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second. But for now I have Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier, The Young Elites by Marie Lu, and Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld, plus Blue Lily, Lily Blue and all those other books on my shelf that I am just dying to read. Sigh. So many books, so little time.

Summary: Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what she once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: Ensnared

By Cheshire

I received this ARC from the program I participate in at the local indie bookstore. Thanks to the publisher (Amulet Books) and Red Balloon!

Summary: After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She’s determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world–a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that’s gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: Unhinged

Since I’m currently reading an ARC for Ensnared, it seems only fitting that I review the book that preceded it. So here goes.

Summary: Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she’s always dreamed of.

That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs.

As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind.

If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she’ll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.

My Review: FOUR STARS

Book Review: A Cold Legacy

Isn’t it a lovely cover? I got this ARC for review from a special program I participate in for an indie bookstore, and I would just like to say GO TO INDIE BOOKSTORES, THEY ARE WONDERFUL, BEAUTIFUL PLACES. Thanks, Red Balloon. 🙂 Here goes.

Summary: After killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor’s own walls.

Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.

My Review: THREE AND A HALF STARS

Book Review: Her Dark Curiosity

By Cheshire

I actually have nothing to say except WE HAVE FIFTY FOLLOWERS NOW, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I am actually so touched. We love you all! 🙂 Here goes.

Summary: Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father’s island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

My Rating: FIVE STARS!

Book Review: The Raven Boys

By Cheshire

I read this book a while ago, so my review probably won’t be super detailed. But I. Loved. It. 🙂 Not very often that you come across a book about Welsh mythology in the wild. Here goes.

Summary: It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

My Rating: FIVE STARS

Book Review: Cruel Beauty

By Cheshire

My apologies in advance, because I am going to be on hiatus until Labor Day-ish. But, on the bright side, we have received two ARCs for review! Yay! But I also wanted to warn all our lovely readers that the reviews will be coming a little less frequently starting early September. So… keep that in mind. Here goes.

Summary: Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom- all because of a reckless bargain her father struck. And since birth, she has been training to kill him.

Betrayed by her family yet bound to obey, Nyx rails against her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, she abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, disarm him, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle- a shifting maze of magical rooms- enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. But even if she can bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him?

My Rating: FIVE STARS

Book Review: Code Name Verity

By Cheshire

Hey everyone, Blue is back and should be up to writing reviews soon. She also recently posted her own responses to the Liebster Award questions if you’d like to take a look of that. But for now… my latest review! Here goes.

Summary: When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she’s sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worse nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

They’ll get the truth out of her. But it won’t be what they expect.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure, and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from a merciless and ruthless enemy?

My Rating: FOUR STARS

Book Review: Abhorsen (Cheshire)

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By Cheshire

So this is the final review (until Clariel) that I will be doing of the Old Kingdom trilogy. It is also the last review Blue and I will be doing separately on the same book for a while. So, enjoy it while you can. Warning: this may contain spoilers (both for this book and Lirael.) Here goes.

Summary: Orannis the Destroyer has been freed. And only Lirael, newly come into her in her inheritance as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, has any chance of stopping it. She and her companions- Sam, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget- have to take that chance. If Orannis’s unspeakable powers are unleashed, it will mean the end of all Life. With the help of her companions and a vision from the Clayr to guide her, Lirael must search in both Life and Death for some means to defeat the Destroyer- before it is too late.

My Rating: THREE AND A HALF STARS

Book Review: Sabriel (Blue)

By Blue

As Cheshire stated in her previous review, we’re now writing separate reviews on some of the books that we’ve both read and loved, thanks to a genius suggestion from our new guest author, March Hare. This way, we can see the same books from different angles, providing different sides of each story. So, for the second time, we have a review of Sabriel by Garth Nix. Here goes!

Summary (THIS IS THE SAME AS CHESHIRE’S, SO SKIP IF YOU HAVE ALREADY READ IT): Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. She soon finds companions in Mogget, a cat whose aloof manner barely conceals its malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories. As the three travel deep into the Old Kingdom, threats mount on all sides. And every step brings them closer to a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death—and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own destiny.

My Rating: FIVE STARS!