Queen of Books

Thursday, 7 July 2016

Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey Review

This is a spoiler free review!

Love, Lies and Spies

Written by Cindy Anstey

Genre: Young Adult/Historical Fiction/Romance

Publisher: Swoon Reads

Release Date: April `9, 2016

Pages: 368

Source: Library

Places to Get this Book: Amazon Barnes and Noble Book Depository

Recommended Age: 13 and up!

Summary:

Juliana Telford is not your average nineteenth-century young lady. She’s much more interested in researching ladybugs than marriage, fashionable dresses, or dances. So when her father sends her to London for a season, she’s determined not to form any attachments. Instead, she plans to secretly publish their research.

Spencer Northam is not the average young gentleman of leisure he appears. He is actually a spy for the War Office, and is more focused on acing his first mission than meeting eligible ladies. Fortunately, Juliana feels the same, and they agree to pretend to fall for each other. Spencer can finally focus, until he is tasked with observing Juliana’s traveling companions . . . and Juliana herself

Review:

I have such a soft spot for Victorian/Nineteenth century England books. I adore the romance, the characters and the writing. This book has quickly become one of my favorite YA Historical Fiction books. It had so much potential and it lived up to it. I adored the book.

COVER

The cover is really nice. I really like the fact that it is in all black and white except for the words. I also like how there are lots of keys on the cover and I especially like the fact that there is a young woman chasing a carriage because frankly that resembles Juliana a ton.

WORLD-BUILDING

The world building is done fairly well. We get to view a lot of London and what it was like in the nineteenth century. We get to see what each gender's role was in that time and what each person was supposed to do. I found it really interesting and Victorian London is one of my favorite time periods for books.

Then there are the characters.

JULIANA

We first meet Juliana when she is hanging off a cliff. Juliana happens to be clumsy. She is always tripping over things or getting herself into quite the muddle. She is very independent even though some things [such as her falling off cliffs] seemed to show she wasn't. It is also clear from the beginning that she has no interest in entrapping any young man. Nor is she swooning over any man she happens to meet. She is such a Lizzie type character [Lizzie from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen] and I really enjoyed going on adventures with her.

SPENCER NORTHAM

Spencer is such a gentleman and a really unique character. I expected him to be compared with Mr. Darcy a bit but he really wasn't that type of person. Except he does do a little bit of brooding. But he wasn't mean to her or anything. Quite on the contrary, he was really polite and gentlemanly towards her. Spencer also showed a lot of compassion for the people he loved or cared about. He is also a very attractive and well-educated bachelor. To be honest, if I lived in that time period or in the book, I would totally go for him.

LORD BOBBINGTON

He is such a Mr. Bingley type character. He is best friend's with Spencer and their friendship is amazing. I really appreciate a good friendship and with some of the books that I have been reading lately, that is a given. He is hilarious and has his attentions on Lady Vivien when it is obvious that she doesn't like him.

CARRIE
She really cares about her best friend and cousin but sometimes she shows it in a bit of an awkward fashion. I really enjoyed seeing Carrie and she was a main character.

PLOT

The plot greatly resembles Jane Austen books except for the ending which was a bit more exciting. You can even pick out some of the characters and put them in place of your favorite Pride and Prejudice characters or stuff like that. The women are supposed to marry well and have their husbands provide for them but the main character doesn't want to marry. She prefers to be free and study her hobby which is bugs or insects. She's even writing a book with her father. I really like how the plot plays out. There isn't any love at first sight and the plot is hilarious and highly enjoyable.

ROMANCE

There is no love at first sight here which made me super happy. I was a little worried about a love triangle but that did not happen. Bobbington knows Spencer has his eye on Juliana and doesn't get in his way. The pair only have eyes for each other. Juliana is eighteen and Spencer is probably twenty-one or something around that. They act just like young lovers and are shy of their affections.

The ball scene was adorable and them dancing just made my day. There is one swoony scene that made my day and they are just so adorable and cute.

WRITING

The writing is perfect. It would fit in with the Jane Austen books or books from that time period perfectly. The way the characters speak or describe things is so eloquently put. The writing is wonderful and I adored it.

Final Thoughts:

If you like historical fiction novels then I highly recommend this one. It has the perfect dose of everything and it is highly enjoyable. Be ready to read on into the night and rate it as high as you can. I adored this book. This tagline is perfect: In this hilarious homage to Jane Austen, a lady with a penchant for trouble finds a handsome spy much more than merely tolerable.

Quotes from the Book:

“I shall be considered completely beyond the pale if I am dashed upon the rocks. Aunt will be so uncomfortable. Most inconsiderate of me.”

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Crowns

Wednesday, 6 July 2016

Top 5 Wednesday | Favorite Books Outside Your Comfort Zone

TOP FIVE WEDNESDAY

TOP 5 WEDNESDAY IS A WEEKLY MEME HOSTED BY SAM. YOU BASICALLY GET A NEW TOPIC EVERY WEDNESDAY, AND YOU LIST YOUR TOP 5 BOOKS RELATED TO THAT TOPIC. HEAD OVER TO THE GOODREADS GROUP, AND ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST OF WEDNESDAY-ERS IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING!

Today’s topic is “Favorite Books Outside Your Comfort Zone” This is such a hard topic for me to do because I don't read that many books outside my comfort zone or if I do, I usually DNF them. Well, here it goes.

5. Me before You

I adore this book. I do not pick up Adult books like ever but I am planning on reading more Adult books in the future. I also don't really read romance adult and while this wasn't all romance it was still there. I enjoyed this a ton and I did tear up cause this book makes you feel all the emotions so prepare yourself.

4. Open road summer

This was really really good. I did not end up eating it Five stars but I still really enjoyed it. I have started reading contemporary but normally I shy away from them because I feel like they are kind of fake and too cutesy but this was a lot different.

3. Falling Kingdoms by morgan Rhodes

I only picked up this book because it got good reviews. But it is compared with Game of Thrones and that is a show that is not up my ally. I wasn't really prepared for the amount of death that happened in this book but I still highly enjoyed it and is one of my favorites for this year.

2. fallen By Lauren Kate

I adore fantasy but I don't reach for paranormal like ever but I picked up this book and I enjoyed it so so much which surprised me a lot.

1. Obsidian by jennifer l. armentrout

I love this book but it is another book I would never pick up on my own. I don't read paranormal ever and then I picked this up and enjoyed it so so so so so much.

Monday, 4 July 2016

UPDATE!

Hello guys.

So, as I have mentioned before, I am going to California and am not sure how much I will be able to post there. I will try to post a review once a week but I am not certain yet. I have to see how my grandparents' wifi is and if I can use their computer.

That being said, I will be doing a ton of reading so I hope to have a lot of reviews coming in the near future.

I will also try to keep up with weekly memes or give them all to you at the end of the month/beginning of next month when I return.

I am going to miss all of you so so much but I can't wait to get back on here and post.

And I'll leave you all with a little gif from Jim Kirk. Btw. I am going to see the new Star Trek movie that comes out this month. I can't wait!!!!!

WINGS OF WAR BOOK BLITZ

Hey guys. I am so excited to share this with you all. This is a book blitz for the Wings of War Series by Karen Ann Hopkins.

Embers

There are descendants of angels walking among us. Ember is one of them.

Embers is an epic paranormal adventure/romance about a seventeen year old girl who discovers that she’s immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents.

Following a violent episode with her aunt’s boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember’s exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she learns that she’s a Watcher, a descendant of angels.

While Ember is instructed about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two teenagers who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the young men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it’s cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war that’s been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil, and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She may be one of the few champions willing to make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.

Embers is the first novel in the dark and gritty YA paranormal romance series, The Wings of War.

Gaia

Watchers and Angels are at war. Which side will Ember choose?

Humankind is on the precipice of the apocalypse.

As the Demons grow bolder and the walls between the planes of existence weaken, Ember is forced to develop her powers as quickly as possible, and she seeks out a powerful earth Watcher to continue her supernatural lessons. Her glimpse of the future demands she fight the dark forces spreading across the earth.

But her new mentor has his own agenda, making her question everyone and everything she ever trusted.

When Ember is thrust into the world of the Watchers, she learns of their plans—ones that defy the scripture and make them enemies of the Celestial Host. Ridding the world of evil gets complicated when it becomes impossible to take sides.

As Ember struggles with morality, she soon discovers that there’s something more frightening than anything she’s faced before.

Tempest

Ember must stop the apocalypse from happening, but at what cost?

The Angels of destruction have arrived, and only Ember stands in the way of their mission to carry out God’s wrath and annihilate His enemies.

When the barrier between celestial creatures and humans beings is broken and Angels descend to Earth, Ember soon learns there’s a fine line between good and evil. As she faces a world full of monsters and magic, a terrifying darkness rises and threatens to destroy everything she’s fighting for.

In the riveting third installment of The Wings of War series, Ember and her friends embark on an epic journey, where unlikely allies are forged and age-old beliefs crumble to dust. And just when Ember accepts love in her life, it’s ripped away from her in the most terrifying way possible.

ADD TO GOODREADS

PURCHASE [EMBERS WILL BE 99c DURING THE BLITZ!

Excerpt

Ivan spoke with an excited voice. “Do you hear it, Ember?”

I tilted my head and listened. It was faint, but there was a low rumble in the distance. As we walked forward the sound grew.

“Yes. Is that the falls?” I asked.

He nodded his head. “We’re almost there.”

Soon the noise was a deafening roar, vibrating in my ears. When we stepped out of the cover of the trees, I was astonished. Raven Branch Falls was much larger than I expected. The water dropped from nearly seventy feet into a dark pool. Giant boulders jutted out below the pool to create smaller falls, which led into a rapidly flowing rocky creek bed.

My gaze was drawn to a tree leaning out from the side of the falls where a large grey owl was partially hidden in the foliage. There was something familiar about its eyes, and the way it was looking at me gave me the distinct feeling that I knew the bird. Could it be the same owl I saw racing through the air the day of my arrival?

Ivan grasped my arm and tugged me closer to the falls. He held my arm tightly as we stepped onto the boulders beside the deep water hole. Spots on the enormous rocks were wet and slippery from the spray of the falls and I was grateful for his help. He led me out to the farthest point we could go, where a carpet of soft moss blanketed the surface of a particularly large boulder. Ivan gestured for me to sit, which I did, and then he bounded off, climbing along the boulders until he was a little ways downstream.

I watched him go, thinking what a nice boy—or wolf, he was.

Without looking, I knew Sawyer was behind me. The movements of my stomach and heart gave him away. He sat down very close.

“Where did you come from?” he coaxed softly.

For a second I saw the boy from my dream.

The breath caught in my throat. I gazed at him.

He doesn’t seem evil to me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen Ann Hopkins resides in northern Kentucky with her family on a farm that boasts a menagerie of horses, goats, peacocks, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs and cats. Karen's main job is home schooling the kids, but she finds time to give riding lessons, coach a youth equestrian drill team, and of course, write. She was inspired to create her first book, Temptation, by the Amish community she lived in. The experiential knowledge she gained through her interactions with her neighbors drove her to create the story of the star-crossed lovers, Rose and Noah.

Karen grew up about a mile from Lake Ontario in Upstate New York. She was bitten by the horse bug at the age of five, and after diligently taking riding lessons for several years, was rewarded with her first horse at the age of eleven. The feisty horse's name was Lady, a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred cross, who became Karen's steadfast companion. Through the years, the constant force in her life was horses. Eventually, she found her place as a riding instructor herself. Before accepting her fate in the barnyard, she worked a short stint as a paralegal, traveled abroad, and guided tourists on horseback riding tours in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Karen is currently working on her Amish mystery series, Serenity's Plain Secrets, along with the YA paranormal/fantasy series, The Wings of War, and the continuation of the Temptation series. Karen is also excited to announce the Temptation series has been optioned for TV by Pilgrim Studios and is available on Audible.

"I loved joining Rose and Noah during their journey in the Temptation series by Karen Hopkins."-Katie McGarry, acclaimed YA author

WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / TWITTER / GOODREADS

GIVEAWAY

$25 Amazon gift card and books 1-2-3 [Embers-Gaia-Tempest] Ends July 14

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Music Monday #20

I got this idea from the blog Trust in the Words.

Sledgehammer by Rihanna

This song is my new obsession. I adore the song and first heard it in the Star Trek Beyond trailer which I am so so so excited for. I love the piano at the beginning and the background music and the lyrics. The music video confuses me a ton but oh well. But this song is so so so good and I recommend it so go listen to it.

What's in your headphones?

Happy reading everybody! <3

Sunday, 3 July 2016

Weekly Update: 6/27 - 7/3

I have decided to start doing a weekly post called weekly recap where I update you on my life, reading and watching. Plus any posts I have done or will do.

This was another lazy week. I stayed in most of the week and got chores done and things done before I go to California on Tuesday. I still have a ton of packing to do which is annoying.

New Books

Purchased:

Library:

The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye Review [The Crown's Game #1]

This is a spoiler free review!

The Crown’s Game

Written by Evelyn Skye

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Historical Fiction

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release Date: May 17, 2016

Pages: 399

Source: Library

Places to Get this Book: Amazon Barnes and Noble Book Depository

Recommended Age: 12 and up!

Summary:

Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the Tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.

And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the Tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.

Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?

For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.

And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love... or be killed himself.

As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear... the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.

Review:

I was so excited for this book. I kept eagerly checking the libraries new shelf in order to see if they had gotten the book in. And then finally when they had, I snatched it up and read it as quickly as possible. I really enjoyed it but not enough to give it a five Crown rating. I kind of imagined it as a super high stakes game in which people watched [sort of like in Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard] but I didn’t completely get that which disappointed me a bit.

COVER

The cover is amazing. I love it and it would look so beautiful on my shelf, if I owned it. :( But it is so beautiful. I love how the buildings of Russia are shown in the crown which makes it super unique.

WORLD-BUILDING

The world building was done extremely well. We got to see Russia in all its glory. I’ve always liked books that are set in Russia, either mythical Russia or real Russia. After finishing this book I really wanted to visit the places the characters see and visit.

Then there are the characters.

VIKA

I adored Vika. She was an amazing character and heroine and I can’t wait to see more of her. She stood her ground and was fierce just like she should have been. She seemed to remind me of the Scarlet Witch which was interesting. Her powers were amazing and I feel like she should be doing something great with them. She was a complex character and had a lot of layers and was a lot different than I thought when I first met her.

NIKOLAI

Nikolai was adorable and amazing though I confess I kind of didn’t trust him at the beginning. I thought he would for sure kill Vika because he had valid reasons to want to win. But Nikolai had a lot of compassion and I really liked him as a character.

PASHA

Pasha was Nikolai’s best friend and the heir to the throne. Pasha was fun-loving and adorable. He also had an amazing friendship with Nikolai that I adored. But he changed near the end of the book, because of certain circumstances which made him less lovable and more someone who annoyed me and I wanted out of the whole equation. But I still love him because I know he’s redeemable and he is totally adorable.

PLOT

The plot was pretty unique but I was a little disappointed that the crown’s game wasn’t a high-stakes game. Yes, the enchanters were trying to kill each other but I thought it would be scarier and more heart-wrenching. I enjoyed the plot nevertheless.

ROMANCE

The romance wasn’t insta-lovey and it almost didn’t exist. The enchanters were interested in each other for sure but they didn’t really form any romantic relationship or attachment. You could tell that Vika really cared for both Pasha and Nikolai but I don’t think it really came to love.

WRITING

The writing was beautiful. It flowed perfectly and made me really move through the book.

Final Thoughts:

This was a debut novel and it was brilliantly done. There were loads of twists and turns that were impossibly to figure out in advance. The characters were well thought out and well written. Vika is one of my new favorite heroines and Nikolai and Pasha are two of my new favorite characters/new book boyfriends.

I highly recommend this book to any fans of YA Fantasy and I hope you will all give it a try.

Quotes from the Book:

“Imagine, and it shall be.

There are no limits.⁠⁠⁠⁠”

“There are things more dangerous than a little magic.”