Wishing For Wednesday #97

Happy Wednesday guys! 
I hope you're all well and enjoying your summer! This is up really late, I know, but I've been super busy lately and I clean forgot about it until like 1am last night when I realised and I pretty much crashed out not long after, then I've been taking photos this morning and lamenting my sunburned and blistered shoulder :') BUT IT'S HERE FINALLY! 
First up is the sequel to an intriguing and original book that I read last year, I completely loved it and the ending had me crying out for more because I needed to know what happened next so I'm excited to find out! 
Second up is the next book in a steampunk series that I love to another level! Honestly I'm so in love with George Mann's books, but I do need to read his Ghosts series still! ANYWAY, I feel like I've been waiting years for this next book! 

Poisoned Blade

In this thrilling sequel to World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott's captivating young adult debut, a girl immersed in high-stakes competition holds the fate of a kingdom in her hands. 
Now a Challenger, Jessamy is moving up the ranks of the Fives--the complex athletic contest favored by the lowliest Commoners and the loftiest Patrons alike. Pitted against far more formidable adversaries, success is Jes's only option, as her prize money is essential to keeping her hidden family alive. She leaps at the chance to tour the countryside and face more competitors, but then a fatal attack on her traveling party puts Jes at the center of the war that Lord Kalliarkos--the prince she still loves--is fighting against their country's enemies. With a sinister overlord watching her every move and Kal's life on the line, Jes must now become more than a Fives champion.... She must become a warrior.

Poisoned Blade is out August 16th, pre-order your copy.....here! 
Add it to your TBR....here!

The Revenant Express

Following their bloody encounter with the Executioner, Sir Maurice Newbury's assistant Veronica Hobbes is close to death. Desperate to save her life, Newbury and Veronica's sister Amelia board a sleeper train bound for St. Petersburg, in the hope that Gustav Faberge might have the answer. But there are enemies on board, and Newbury and Amelia will need all their strength and cunning to survive the Revenant Express.

The Revenant Express is out August 30th, pre-order your copy...here! 

Add it to your TBR...here! 

Review: Bite

Bite
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Kid is trying to survive in a world gone mad.
Hungry, thirsty and alone in a desert wasteland, she's picked up on the side of the road by Wolf, Dolly, Tank and Pretty Boy - outlaws with big reputations and even bigger guns.

But as they journey across the wild together, Kid learns that her newfound crew may not be the heroes she was hoping for. And in a world that's lost its humanity, everyone has a bit of monster within them...

I was curious about this one, I wasn't entirely sure it was my thing but you don't really read about Cannibals all that often and I was curious to see what the author was doing with it! I've not actually seen Mad Max (don't shout at me!) so that comparison actually means nothing to me, but once I started to read and the book really got going, I found myself invested in this band of misfits and I had to know what happened to them! 

Bite is bloodthirsty, there's blood and gore and severed limbs all over the place. You find yourself rooting for this group of cannibals, these murders. You end up loving them, and wanting them to come out on top. You can feel for them, the world has been well and truly messed up and they're just trying to survive. They're an interesting bunch of characters, you don't get much history form them, just little bits. I genuinely liked all of the characters. Kid becomes the baby of the group, the others look out for her like older siblings. 

Wolf isn't the greatest most of the time, he's kind of selfish among other things but he has these little moments with Kid that override it. 
Tank takes on a big brother role, and I loved when he refused to leave Kid and looked out for her from that moment on. 
Dolly keeps an eye on her and also looks out for her. I was most curious about her, not going to lie!
Pretty Boy though....you rooted for him to be a better person, to be less of a coward and he did surprise me a time or two, but I was sad with how things ended for him. The group has such a strange loyalty, and brilliant relationships that really make the book, along with their personalities, despite what they do they still have feelings and friendships and are still loyal when noone else is. 

The world is vivid and atmospheric,  you can see the wasteland they're travelling across. The plot slowly hooks you in as the characters come up with more and more insane plans, and they succeed despite their lack of preparation and planning. They rush in to things without thinking basically, and have better luck than most I think! The book is darkly funny and full of twists and turns but this is definitely not for the faint hearted! 

Review: Behind The Throne

Behind The Throne
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Meet Hail: Captain. Gunrunner. Fugitive.

Quick, sarcastic, and lethal, Hailimi Bristol doesn't suffer fools gladly. She has made a name for herself in the galaxy for everything except what she was born to do: rule the Indranan Empire. That is, until two Trackers drag her back to her home planet to take her rightful place as the only remaining heir.

But trading her ship for a palace has more dangers than Hail could have anticipated. Caught in a web of plots and assassination attempts, Hail can't do the one thing she did twenty years ago: run away. She'll have to figure out who murdered her sisters if she wants to survive.

So mention Star Wars to me, or any SW character and you'll have immediately sold me on a book, mention Han Solo in particular and I will be going GIMME GIMME! What made me excited to read this? Being told the main character was like a female Han Solo. I read this book in one sitting and I was completely and utterly hooked. It did not disappoint. Hail is indeed a female Han Solo and I completely loved her and was rooting for her every step of the way, right from the opening chapter. She doesn't want to go home, but she gets dragged back and she has to do her duty, she was never supposed to be Empress or Heir...but now she is. Her inner struggle about it all over the course of the book was interesting to read, and very believable, you could relate to her and what she was feeling. 

The opening of the book is tense and thrilling, and it doesn't really let up from there. You've got lots of action, plot twists, a fantastic main character in Hail, and a funny, and intriguing supporting cast who all work well together on the page and help to bring the world of the book to life. Speaking of the world, the world building is fantastic. The ruler is always female, the females basically run things, the kingdom broke away from Earth and is having some trouble with the Saxons and I'm sensing more is going on, which I'm intrigued to see play out! So the world is incredibly rich as it's politics and religion and so on. It's all so intricate and described so you understand without being bogged down in information. Behind The Throne is pacey, and there's never a dull moment. 

This book draws you in, you get deeper and deeper in to the story and then you realise it's been hours, your hungry and you kinda need to pee, but it's so good it's hard to put down. I loved the characters as much as the world they inhabit. Hail is my favourite. I loved her from page one. She made me laugh so many times with her comments both aloud and in her inner monologue. She was a badass, she was struggling with her duty and everything going on around her. I felt for her and I was rooting for her and she was a character that just felt very real. 

Our supporting cast are intriguing and have just as much depth as Hail. Zin and Emmory where definitely my favourites. They where both amusing, together and separately! Zin is all proper and polite, and Emmory...not so much! So you'd have Zin nudging him to make sure he apologies for any impropriety or anything else and I loved seeing Zin loosen up over the course of the book, it was hilarious! I liked how Emmory kind of had this entire career change but he rolled with it and you see him and Hail become a team, Emmory and Zin really get her and understand her and how she thinks and the three of them are the perfect team. 

There's a few other characters I loved and can't wait to see more of, Cas for one! Bless him. That's all I can say really, poor guy! Alba and Stasia, Hails Chamberlain and maid. I loved the two of them, much like Zin and Emmory once they got to know Hail, they really knew her and cared for her and where looking out for her. Which was rare in this book with everything going on, Stasia was quite fierce for a maid with her knife and her orders! There's also all of the rest of the guards for Hail, they're a great bunch and you get a feel for them, even if you don't see them much, of course there where new ones added in at the end, and I'm waiting to see what they're like! The characters are just totally brilliant though. They all fit so well with Hail and figure her out pretty early on and just roll with it. 

Our bad guys. There are many. Some of them are very obvious like Ganda and Laabh. They screamed shady, as did Nal who I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw. But there's more going on to them and what they're up to. Laabh though. He really takes the cake. I was reading and I was like....I can't believe he did that to his own mother and sister? I knew it was him as soon as he was mentioned as a suspect, I just knew and he wasn't even sly. He has a sucky poker face. Bial is more intricate. I was never sure whether to trust him or not, I'm probably pronouncing his name wrong, but the way I'm saying it I'm like...you're clearly up to no good....but is he?! He gave me pause many times, I just could never make up my mind about him! 

Behind The Throne is a fantastic Sci-Fi read that hooks you in and keeps you reading with it's fast pace, action packed plot, brilliant characters and rich world. It's funny, laugh out loud funny, it's tense thanks to all the political intrigue and the Game of Thrones style royal treachery, and it's very intricate, there's a lot more going on than what's on the surface! I'm so intrigued to read the next book and meet certain characters that have been mentioned a lot, and see more of my favourites from this book and find out who the hell Wilson is! I'm not going to lie to you, my brain is picturing that damn vollyball from that Tom Hanks film! ANYWAY! I'm not much of a Sci-Fi reader because I'm quite picky, but I legitimately sat down and read this in one sitting because it was SO GOOD. 

The Month in Books: July

Hey guys! 

Soooo I did a lot better this month at reading! Last month was horrific and I was all reading slumpy and it was such a slog to read anything, even good books. This month I'm right back at it again, and I'm working my way through the backlog my reading slump gifted me. I'm making speedy progress because I have a lot of reading time on my hands, thanks to being on set! Although there was more talking going on than reading, which is unusual! 

All of these have been reviewed right here on my blog, or will be in the near future! Scheduling is a nightmare right now because I'm trying to get all of them out as fast as possible! Which is why there's none of my other usual blog posts up, but TBR Bites, and Bookshelf Tours will be coming back shortly when I've calmed down with the reviewing! :) 

The Master and Margarita 

I'm doing quite well with Classics these days and it's not taking me as long to get in to the writing style of some of the older ones as it has before! While I was a bit iffy at the beginning, I did find myself being drawn in to the story, at one point it felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland but more adult, and I'm probably the only one who thinks this but at some points it felt a bit Terry Pratchett as well! 

This Savage Song 

Boy oh boy was I glad to finally get to this and I can't believe how long I've been missing out! I read the first two thirds of this in one sitting and had zero regrets! I got completely drawn in to the world that had been created, and Schwab always manages to get me hooked! Brilliant characters, plenty of originality and some amazing scenes. The opening for instance...this book definitely starts with a bang! (This post is scheduled because I'M TOTALLY MEETING HER TODAY! LIKE POSSIBLY RIGHT NOW IF YOU'RE READING THIS AT 7ISH!)

Soldier 

The third installment in Kagawa's Talon series and boy was it a doozy. The title of the book...the added POV...I knew it was leading to something and I had a bad feeling the more and more I read this. I loved Ember's character development, her very real struggles with everything that's happened, I briefly rooted for Dante to come to his senses, the romance is resolved. Ember makes her choice. But then the end comes in to completely ruin your life. I'm basically still in denial so don't get me started on it. 

King Slayer 

One of my most anticipated reads! Witch Hunter was an instant favourite of mine and I completely loved it! I'm forever sad that this is only a duology, but hopeful that there might be books with other characters! I rated this a 5 because for all intents and purposes it was a cracking sequel and conclusion. Giant bloody battle? Check! Romance? Check! Obstacles so the romance isn't too unrealistically easy considering the fallout from the last book? Check! Elizabeth struggling now she's changed? Check! I totally loved seeing Elizabeth struggling with no longer having her stigma...no longer being able to do what she did before, feeling that her entire value was placed on that stigma by others, the conflict it caused with John. Everything wrapped up nicely? Check! Although I still need more Elizabeth and John and Fifer and Schuyler There is one issue with this. One. Malcolm. I had an extensive conversation with Naz about this and I won't get in to it too much but he ended up being quite the...hero in this book. But at the same time after what he did to Elizabeth he didn't get any punishment and I felt like we where supposed to feel sorry for him? I didn't know what to make of him, and I would have liked him quite a lot if not for his actions in Witch Hunter. 

Prudence

This was a re-read for me, because I wanted to re-fresh my memory and because I think The Custard Protocol may just be my favourite of all Carriger's series. I just love Rue and Quesnel so much and I ship them so hard, so I re-read this super fast, it actually helped to pull me out of my slump enormously! It's such a great continuation of the main series, but with new characters and their own story, with the occasional appearance from our favourite characters. This book is genuinely a lot of fun and one of the best Steampunk books I have ever read! Or I should say series with lots of mini series. 

Imprudence 

The sequel to Prudence and...as I was devastated to find out...the final book in the Custard Protocol. Turns out it's a duology *ugly sobbing* It perfectly wraps everything up not just with Rue and co but with her parents as well. There's an ongoing plot thread that hints of where mentioned in PP, and in this book you see it finally come to fruition and get dealt with. Everything feels like it's been finished well, but I'm still hoping Carriger might change her mind because I need more Rue and Quesnel! I read this book so fast it was ridiculous and the romance is adorable, and the world is captivating and it's just perfection. 

The Dragon Lords

I enjoyed this book immensely. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but I was sold on the whole "Guardians of the Galaxy meets the Hobbit" description. Now this book is huge, it's like 500 pages or something and even I struggle with that many pages sometimes, but I breezed through this thanks to the writing style, the action and how freaking hilarious it was. It's genuinely laugh out loud funny and the Dragon's POVs where just brilliant it has to be said. The characters are memorable and interesting and really bring the world of the book to life for you. 

Red's Untold Tale 

Perfect for any fans of OUAT who also happen to have Red as one of their favourite characters! It's a quick, easy, and fun read, with an adorable romance that makes the show and the scenes to do with Peter and Red all the more heartbreaking. You get to learn more about Red and her life and what she's been through before we meet her in the show and FYI there's a character who is the most vilest girl I've come across in a while! 

Sing

Sing is the perfect summer read. Genuinely, it's got a cute romance, a relatable character and a beautiful setting that's described vividly so you feel like you're there. It also has its surprises, especially the ending, I wasn't expecting that ending I have to admit! But it did make a nice change to the usual. 

New Pompeii

New Pompeii had some serious Jurassic Park vibes but with Romans instead of dinosaurs, like personally I'd take the dinosaurs because they aren't gonna toy with you first and make you fight people. They'll just eat you straight out. Probably. Maybe. New Pompeii starts out slow but soon reels you in with an intriguing narrative told from two different people, I was nerding out a little bit it has to be said! 

Who's Afraid? 

I took part in the blog tour for this book and it completely blew me away. I read it in one sitting and was surprised at every single turn. Even the bad guys weren't who I was expecting! The ending though...that was the biggest shock of all! I loved our MC, I loved our supporting cast and it was an original take on werewolves that had you glued to the page to see what would happen next! 

How did you guys do for reading this month? 

Review: Red's Untold Tale

Red's Untold Tale 
Rating: 4/5 
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher, Titan! 

It's Wolfstime, the foreboding period around each full moon when villagers must protect their homes and families against the giant, ferocious wolves that roam the forest. On the day Red turned thirteen, Granny gave her a special red cloak upon which a spell had been cast to protect Red from wolves.Red is now sixteen and is desperately trying to fit in among her peers, save Granny's failing bakery business, and, of course, protect herself from wolves. Her crush on Peter and her determination not to let the mean girls sabotage her blossoming romance cause Red to make some questionable choices.Will these choices let the wolves in? Will Red pick the right battle? Will her skills be strong enough to keep her alive?

Once Upon a Time is one of my favourite shows okay. It cheers me up, it makes my day, it has stunning costumes and I'm not gonna lie, I would trade a spare organ to get to be in it. Red is one of my favourite characters from the show, she's not in it enough in my opinion, and so getting to read this...to learn more about her and her background? Amazing. 

Red's Untold Tale is a fast paced, quick and easy read, that's also kind of heartbreaking if you've watched the show and know what happens to Peter. Honestly I loved the romance and friendship between he and Red and it makes the scenes from the show so much more heartbreaking and it made reading the book a little bit of a sad experience at points! They where so adorable together and it gave me the warm and fuzzies when I was watching it all play out. 

I felt for Red a great deal. She's lost her parents and it's just her and Granny. They're struggling to pay taxes, to bring in money, to get the business back to being a success and Red is doing everything she can to help Granny. She's also being bullied by the nastiest character I've met, Violet. Her and her friends are not only messing with Red but they're messing with Granny's business too and Red hasn't told anyone and no-one notices, I was a bit disappointed in Peter for that actually! I came to dislike Violet with a burning passion, but Red did the right thing in the end, although I was disappointed there was no apology to her. 

The narrative smoothly switches between time periods taking us from Red's present to different periods of her past...when she received her cloak for example. You end up getting a lot of glimpses in to Red's background and childhood. We also get glimpses of some of Red's Wolfstime dreams, and if you've watched the show...they're mighty interesting too. I loved seeing Red become the hero of the book, seeing everything she faced and her struggles. It was brilliant to see how she got to the place she is in the show, to see her become more fleshed out. 

Red's Untold Tale is a fantastic addition to the OUAT world, it takes a fan favourite character, and gives you more information on her, brings her more to life, and expands on her past and her relationship with Peter, both making the show more interesting and more heartbreaking if you watch it again after having read this. After reading this, I need to get my hands on the other OUAT companion books, if they're as good as this one is! 

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Review: After Alice

After Alice 
Rating: 3/5 
Buy or Borrow: Borrow
Source: Copy courtesy of BookBridgr! 

When Alice fell down the rabbit-hole, she found Wonderland as rife with inconsistent rules and abrasive egos as the world she left behind. But how did Victorian Oxford react to Alice's disappearance? Gregory Maguire turns his imagination to the question of underworlds, undergrounds, underpinnings -and understandings old and new, offering an inventive spin on Carroll's enduring tale. Ada, a friend mentioned briefly in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, sets out to visit Alice but, arriving a moment too late, tumbles down the rabbit-hole herself. Ada brings to Wonderland her own imperfect apprehension of cause and effect as she embarks on an odyssey to find Alice and bring her safely home from this surreal world below the world. The White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat and the bloodthirsty Queen of Hearts interrupt their mad tea party to suggest a conundrum: if Eurydice can ever be returned to the arms of Orpheus, or if Lazarus can be raised from the tomb, perhaps Alice can be returned to life. Either way, everything that happens next is After Alice.

I completely and utterly loved Wicked so when I spotted this on BookBridgr, I HAD to request it! Aside from the stunning cover....it's a brand new Gregory Maguire book and I had a burning need. I love his writing style, the writing is just so beautiful, "Spires and domes like so much barnacled spindrift poke through first", I'm just so in love with the writing style. Yes, it's hard to read sometimes because it's so wordy, so it's hard to get in to. There are words mentioned that I haven't come across before and have no idea what they mean so I have to look them up. But despite that, the writing is brilliant. I love it. In the Victorian setting of the book, it's perfect. It fits so perfectly with the setting pulling you in to the book and the story, but it can take a few pages to get used to. 

There are a lot of Alice in Wonderland re-tellings out there, and this one is interesting don't get me wrong. We follow Ada, a character briefly mentioned in the original books, as she follows Alice down the rabbit hole and is trying to locate her in Wonderland. She meets many of the same characters as Alice so we see a lot of familiar faces, Queen of Hearts, Chesire Cat etc, which was fun. I actually liked Ada. She was interesting and had an entertaining narrative. She's been forced in to wearing this metal brace thing, and with the arrival of a new baby in the family she's pushed aside. As you read the book you watch Ada move further and further away from her smothering family life and she was a character you could root for. 

In alternating chapters we also follow Alice's sister Lydia who was supposed to be looking after her sister but has managed to lose her. Alice is missing, merrily wandering through Wonderland, and Lydia is socialising with Darwin...yep. That Darwin. An American gentleman and the boy he freed from slavery, Siam. She's sent out to find her sister with the help of Mr. Winters, Siam and Ada's governess who is also searching for Ada herself, and I wasn't sure I liked Lydia all that much. She didn't seemed bothered that her sister was missing, she acted like she was older than she was, but I came to like her quite a lot and towards the end you could see she cared for her sister. The more I read the more of her character I understood. She's just lost her mother and she's trying to deal with that, she acts like she's older than she is because she's having to grow up faster. She's trying to make sense of what happened, to understand it all and she has to make all of these decisions that she's not ready to make and she no longer has a mother to turn to for help and advice. 

Ada's POV was interesting and full of adventure. Lydia's not so much. There was a kind of adventure to it, but not as fantastical as Ada's. There's none of the action, and it's more character based. This book isn't a light read, there's a lot of historical study going on here, the author examines family and society at the time of the book, it's quite sombre and not by any means an easy read. The book wasn't really what I was expecting. I love Wicked. But this isn't in the same ballpark. I feel like there's a lot of bits and pieces taken from the original and turned around to suit this book and it felt like I'd read some of it before. There was none of the originality that I was expecting and I found my attention wandering once or twice. 

I'm conflicted about After Alice. I loved Maguire's writing style and his beautiful imagery, I enjoyed the characters, but the actual Wonderland aspects fell a bit short for me. I was more interested in the scenes in the real world, and seeing what life was like for the characters there. Which rather defeats the point of an Alice in Wonderland retelling doesn't it? I just found the characters and their Victorian struggles so interesting to read about and had little to no interest in the Wonderland scenes as it all felt a bit  deja vu.