TBR Bites #4

Hey guys! 

I thought I'd hit you guys with another TBR Bites seeing as I haven't got any reviews right now! 

I went with Fantasy as the theme this time round, feel free to let me know which genre you'd like to see a couple of next time! 

Love my shooting location....hate the uneven ground that makes all the photos look wonky! 

Anyway, I've got three fantasy books for you guys, one that I think is fairly unknown and two that you're all going to be shocked I haven't read yet and probably shout at me! 

The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian

Yep, I don't think many people have read this? I've never come across anyone who has, if you have give me a shout and tell me how awesome it is! I think I stumbled across this on GoodReads and it sounded totally awesome so I ended up getting it and it's been sitting on my TBR, along with everything else, ever since! I'm actually really eager to get to this one, especially as the second book came out recently I think! But then....story of every book on my TBR isn't it? 

When Zoe Faust--herbalist, alchemist, and recent transplant to Portland, Oregon--begins unpacking her bags, she can't help but notice she's picked up a stow away: a living, breathing, three-and-half-foot gargoyle. Dorian Robert-Houdin is no simple automaton, nor is he a homunculus; in fact, he needs Zoe's help to decipher a centuries-old text that explains exactly what he is. Zoe, who's trying to put her alchemical life behind her, isn't so sure she can help. But after a murder victim is discovered on her front porch, Zoe realized she's tangled up in ancient intrigue that can't be ignored.

The Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan 

Okay so let the shouting begin! I know everyone raves about this authors books, she's like a staple in fantasy right? I was really intrigued by her latest series and I was going to pick it up but I figured i'd better read whichever series actually came first and my friend reliably informed me that this is where I need to start! *sigh* I do love fantasy....

This year, like every other, the magicians of Imardin gather to purge the city of undesirables. Cloaked in the protection of their sorcery, they move with no fear of the vagrants and miscreants who despise them and their work-—until one enraged girl, barely more than a child, hurls a stone at the hated invaders...and effortlessly penetrates their magical shield.

What the Magicians' Guild has long dreaded has finally come to pass. There is someone outside their ranks who possesses a raw power beyond imagining, an untrained mage who must be found and schooled before she destroys herself and her city with a force she cannot yet control.

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

Shouting intensifies I'm sure! I think Shazina might actually shout at me for this one...but yeah. This got recommended to me on GoodReads and I do love fantasy and I do love the sound of this one so it's patiently sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to get my ass in to gear and get around to reading it....

Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone and what is left of them lies in my mother's tomb. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword, and as evil as you please. We ride this broken empire and loot its corpse. They say these are violent times, the end of days when the dead roam and monsters haunt the night. All that's true enough, but there's something worse out there, in the dark. Much worse.

From being a privileged royal child, raised by a loving mother, Jorg Ancrath has become the Prince of Thorns, a charming, immoral boy leading a grim band of outlaws in a series of raids and atrocities. The world is in chaos: violence is rife, nightmares everywhere. Jorg has the ability to master the living and the dead, but there is still one thing that puts a chill in him. Returning to his father's castle Jorg must confront horrors from his childhood and carve himself a future with all hands turned against him.

TBR Bites #3

Hey guys! 

It's time for another TBR Bites post! I didn't really have a particular theme in mind for these, I just liked the green and gold together...I mean...maybe summer? Books on my TBR that look like Summer? I don't know, just roll with it! 

Right so this week I've got another three books, they're all hardcovers....really pretty hardcovers! Plus they're all books I've seen people raving about and you'll probably all shout at me to read them immediately! They are also all YA! 

Firstlife by Gena Showalter

First we have the brand new book from Gena Showalter, and it's signed, which makes me happy because I don't think Gena has ever been over here for a signing!? Anywaaaaay, I loved her Alice in Zombieland series and there was an excerpt of this in the back of the last one and it got me totally pumped up for it! I believe this is the first in a series and not a standalone but I'm not 100% sure! 

Tenley "Ten" Lockwood is an average seventeen year old girl who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she'll live after she dies. There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death. In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug of war between the two realms who will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she's drawn to isn't where the boy she's falling for lives? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision. 

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E Pearson

I actually got this because I remember seeing the book on a list of Top Ten Beautiful Endpapers or something similar, and I was like OOOHHHHH. Then I looked it up and read it and was like NEEEEDDD. I actually have the second one as well, but it's still in the US right now, so I'm holding off reading this because ya know...the third one is out soon and I need the second one to be sent to me so I figure I'll wait and read them all at once! 

In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia's life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight but she doesn't and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighbouring Kingdom, to a prince she has never met. On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles in to a new life, hopeful when mysterious and handsome strangers arrive and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets even as she finds herself falling in love. 

Endgame: The Calling by James Frey

Yes. The state of the cover hurts me too, but it arrived like that when I bought it from Amazon. Shocking for a new book, I know, but there you go. I saw so many people raving about this that it piqued my curiosity, and then it went really cheap on Amazon and I figured I'd go for it anyway. I really need to get to this one soon because the second book is out and everything! 

The end of the world is coming. Play now. Or we all lose. After centuries waiting in secret, twelve unbroken bloodlines, armed with hidden knowledge and lethal training, are called to take humanity's fate in to their hands. Omaha, Nebraska: Sarah stands at her graduation ceremony - perfect SATs, a star athlete, her life ahead of her. Then a meteor wipes out half her school. But Sarah is not hurt and not surprised. Because she is the Player of the 233rd line - the Cahokian. And she knows what this means. Endgame is here. Juliaca, Puno, Peru: Jago walks the streets after the meteor hits. There's looting and violence but he's not scared. He is the Player of the 21st line - the Olmec. And he's ready. Endgame is here. China, Australia, Turkey...Twelve meteors fall. Cities and people burn. The news is full of the end of the world. But Sarah, Jago and ten others are already plotting and planning for the fight. They are the Players and Endgame is here. All but one of them will fail. But that one will save the world. We hope...Written into this book is a puzzle. Solve the puzzle, and you will find the key to open a case of gold. Read the Books. Find the Clues. Solve the Puzzle. Who will Win?

TBR Bites #2

Hey guys! 

Two things! First...thank you so much for all the positive feedback and encouragement for my new feature! It's given me the determination to continue it! I'm not sure how regular it will be at this stage, I'm aiming for every week but we'll see!

Second...welcome to TBR Bites 2: Brandon Sanderson Edition! I know I said I'd only show you a couple a week but I hauled Mistborn off my shelves to take the Currently Reading photo for it and I thought....I should probably do them all together and seeing as I've pulled a few of them off already..why not! So let's get acquainted with the Sanderson books occupying my TBR shelves!

The Mistborn Trilogy

First up is the Mistborn Trilogy! Although, there are other books and I'm not sure if they're spin off's from the trilogy or if this was supposed to be a trilogy but ended up being longer! Either way I have the first three books, and I got them ages ago after everyone was raving about them when one of the others came out! I can't resist a fantasy and I've been told again and again how brilliant Mistborn is! I'm actually writing this while I'm still reading Ink and Bone but I am reading The Final Empire next, and when this goes up I'm probably going to be still reading it! 

In the world of this book the Dark Lord has gained dominion over the world. A world of ash and pain. A world subjugated. But a world where magic can be drawn from metals. A world waiting for a new heroine, a new hope. 

Warbreaker

This I picked up when I picked up Steelheart because I had one of those Waterstones stamp cards and I got a free tenner to spend, and ya know...everyone raved about Brandon Sanderson and I decided to pick up these two seeing as they didn't have the first Mistborn book in stock at the time and these two sounded interesting! Not gonna lie, Warbreaker is also purple which is my favourite colour and may have swayed me a little bit! I'm banking so hard on liking Sanderson's writing! 

In Warbreaker we have a tale of two sisters who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them will have to marry, a lesser god, and an immortal trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago. In this world, those who die in glory return as gods, but they have to live confined in a Pantheon in the capital city. The world has been transformed by BioChromatic magic, a power that's based on the essence known as breath. Therefore using magic is arduous, and breath has to be collected one unit at a time from individual people. But the rewards are well worth the trouble. By using breath and drawing upon the colour in everyday objects...all manner of miracles and mischief can be performed. 

Steelheart & Firefight

I'm actually so annoyed I didn't realise these where round the wrong way *frowny face*

So, I picked up Steelheart using the Waterstones stamp card because it sounded brilliant and right up my street...the other week I picked up the sequel Firefight with another Waterstones stamp card! I'm eager to get to these two because I'm getting fantasy superhero vibes! 

In Steelheart, Calamity came to the world ten years ago. It gave ordinary people extraordinary powers, and the awed public started to call them Epics. But Epics are no friends of man. With their incredible gifts, came the desire to rule..big surprise there. Nobody fights the Epics, nobody except for the Reckoners. The Reckoners a shady group of normal people, they spend their lives studying the Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. David wants in. He wants Steelheart, the Epic who killed his father, and is said to be invincible. He's spent years doing the same as the Reckoners, studying and planning and now he has something they need. But it's not an object, it's an experience...he saw Steelheart bleed. 

I'm not going to say much about Firefight because I don't want to spoil it for myself or others but from what I'm aware it's the continuation of David's story and he's looking for answers and hunting down another Epic called Firefight. I think! 

The Way of Kings

I actually won this one from the publisher! I'm a bit confused though because I think it's supposed to be the entire Stormlight Archive collection but then...it has Volume One written on the cover and I can't find a Volume Two to match so if anyone knows what that's all about do let me know! This book is freaking huge, I'm not going to lie, and I'll probably get around to this one last because it takes me ages to read huge books like this, like it's Game of Thrones level huge! 

According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured Heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms and the Voidbringers followed. They came against men ten thousand times. To help them in their fight the Almighty gave men powerful suits or armour and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of Knights known as Radiants..mankind finally won. Or so the legends say. The only remnants of these battles are Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself, and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned on mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one to unite all of makind under one throne. 

On a world scoured down to rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few days, a young spearman is forced in to the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn't understand and doesn't really want to fight. What happened deep in mankinds past? Why did the Radiants turn against mankind? What happened to the magic they used to wield? 

I know, I have quite the collection for someone who still hasn't read even one of his books! The thing is, a trusted friend loves them and I'm 99% sure I'm going to love them too. I love fantasy and each one of these books sounds so different not only from the others, but from any other fantasy I've come across! From what I've read of the synopsis, the author takes each new book and makes an entirely new world with with magic and myths and legends all of their own and that's astounding as it is! I really need to complete my collection so there's some Mistborn I need to pick up, some novellas and Elantris and I think that's it! I'm actually really excited to dive in to all these different worlds! 

TBR Bites!

Hey guys, what's up!? 
Welcome to my new feature! Each week or so I'll be bringing you a couple of books from my TBR shelf! I'm fairly certain this hasn't been done before, but I could be wrong! I'm picking them at random at the minute, but if you want to see what I have from a specific genre, let me know! Not sure how much you guys are gonna like this, so this is experimental for now! If it does well, I'll keep it up, if it doesn't I may not! 

Anyway, this week I've got three for you and I picked three that I'm eager to get round to...eventually....hopefully....I mean...I am aiming to clear my TBR this year? 

Jackaby

I've heard such good things about this, and I had actually ordered the hardcover of this but Book Depository sent me the paperback! Jackaby is an investigator of the unexplained, and Abigail ends up being his assistant! Their first case? A serial killer roaming about, and Jackaby's convinced the killer isn't human. 

Seraphina

Um...I'd love to give you guys a really awesome reason for picking this up...but I actually went for it because of the cover I mean, it's purple and there's a dragon and it's pretty! It does sound awesome though! Humans and Dragons live in a fragile peace but the anniversary of the treaty draws near and a member of the royal family is murdered in a suspiciously draconian fashion! 

The Princess, The Scoundrel and The Farm Boy

Star Wars and Alexandra Bracken...need I say more?! I totally need to get the other two as well! As far as I'm aware, Alexandra Bracken has re-written the classic Star Wars A New Hope, which means it's going to be completely awesome!