Make Me Bad by R.S. Grey (ARC)

This book was the epitome of how I want my rom coms; quirky and relatable with all the feels.

It follows Madison, a quirky children’s librarian who’s been a good rule abiding girl all her life, as she decides that enough is enough. It’s time to step out of her comfort zone and try to live life to its fullest. The question is, how to begin. So, when an unexpected opportunity steps into her library, she takes it.

R.S. Grey has a delicious sense for tension and an endearing knack for portraying relationships (both romantically and other) that makes the whole story even more addicting. Throw in some great references, swoon worthy scenes and believable storyline, it’s no wonder that Make Me Bad swaggered up to the top of my rom com favorites before I’d even finished half the book! If you like reading romance or are curious about romantic comedy, this is your candidate. Be prepared to smile a lot. I know I did! 😊

Links to Amazon and Goodreads.

SYNOPSIS:

I was issued a warning: stay away from Ben Rosenberg.

As Clifton Cove’s resident “king”, he thinks he’s entitled to anyone and anything.

The trouble is, I’ve spent my whole life following the rules and playing it safe. I know what it feels like to be the good girl. I’m the police chief’s daughter and a librarian—for adorable children, no less. My wardrobe consists of colorful sundresses and baggy jeans. I might as well have a Post-it stuck to my forehead that reads: Yup, she’s a virgin.

An all-nighter with a fictional hunk is about as exciting as my life gets, until one day, fate decides to take pity on me and shove me straight into the path of Mr. Off-Limits himself.

Oof.

Just as I suspected, every inch of him promises to be my demise. Up close, he’s tall, menacing, dangerously handsome—the type of man who’s never spent a single moment worrying about the opinions of others. A well-behaved girl would do as she’s told and avoid him at all costs, but I’m overdue for a little rebellion.

No more Friday nights sprawled out on the couch in my comfiest pajamas. No more wishing I had the courage to misbehave.

Everyone thinks Ben is going to ruin me.
They think he’ll chew me up and spit me out.

Well, Ben…go ahead.
Tempt me. Taunt me.
Make me bad.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (ARC)

The Gilded Wolves is set in a dark and glamorous part of Paris in 1889. It follows Séverin, a treasure hunter and wealthy hotelier, and his crew of specialists as they are enlisted by a powerful organization to find an ancient artifact.

Oh, holy mother of books! I LOVED The Gilded Wolves! It has a bit of everything that I’m drawn towards in a book: love, humor, intrigue, action and mythology/history. It has a group of characters with a dynamic that I always fall for – the one where a group of misfits becomes a family in both friendship and hardship. They fit each other in any combination therein, despite or perhaps because of their respective personality flaws. The worldbuilding is phenomenal and sucks you in just as much as the character dynamics. The plot reads like an Indiana Jones adventure with puzzles, clues and a heist with traps along the way.

The whole thing was awesome, and I can’t recommend it enough! So, if you like Six of Crows or The Raven Boys, I highly recommend this book.

 

Published by Wednesday Books.

Granted through Netgalley.

Release date: 2019-01-15

Rating: 5 stars

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Big thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this e-arc!

Colliding Skies by Debbie Zaken

It may be unwise to chase a starlight, but I’ll gladly take the risk to continue chasing one with Skye!

4,5 ⭐️

Colliding Skies has all the fun elements of a YA sci-fi romance with coming of age, adventure, advanced technology, invasion by aliens and of course the girl-meets-boy scenario. The getting to know someone and falling in love part is one of my favorite sequences of YA and romance novels, and Debbie Zaken does a very good job of describing that chemistry between her main character Skye and her two suitors. It’s interesting how the characters twist and turn within their perspectives. Each reacting on events in their own way and having to navigate the consequences of their choices.

I thought the overall pacing was good and the storyline believable within its premises with a good balance between light and heavy topics. What happens if an alien race, or any group of people, were to insinuate itself with your government and proclaim only good intentions? Do you welcome them or question their motives?

Read the synopsis here: Goodreads

Get your copy here: Amazon or Bookdepository

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine (ARC)

This wasn’t a book that made me feel highly excitable, where I was left feeling like the story was almost going too fast for me to keep up. This was a steady influx of tense adrenaline in the pit of my stomach. You know the feeling, the feeling of wondering when the other shoe will drop and there’s bound to be trouble afoot. Don’t mistake my description for a dull read, because believe me when I say that there’s plenty of action in this story. It’s the way it’s told that make you feel all anticipatory. There’s a sense of danger through the whole thing and the characters are well cemented to further strengthen it all. They are well thought through and oh so clever. I loved the whole thing from start to finish, though I do warn you of the prologue. It can seem a little dry, but you’ll need that backdrop to get familiar with the world of the Great Library. It’s worth every word of academic style dryness, as it gives you an overall perspective for when you meet the main character Jess and the other players in this story.

This is a different setting than Caine’s other books but her storytelling is as good as her Weather Warden series. It pulls you in and stays with you during the day when not reading. You’ll not be sorry to pick this up!

Jess Brightwell is the son of a black market dealer who specializes in acquiring and selling books in a world where books have been outlawed for the safety of both the humankind and the books themselves.

It’s about a world obsessed with words, with books, with knowledge. It’s a world where these things are strictly controlled by an organization named the Library who believes that the wrong kind of information can corrupt the denizens of the world and that humans thus need to be protected against themselves. Though no one may own a real book, it’s thought of as a sin to deprive the masses of the wisdom of the written word and so when the discovery of alchemy produced the mirrored tablet, the Library enabled everyone, even the lowest of the low, to have access to all the great (approved) works that’s ever been written. It’s a time of enlightenment where everyone can read and write, and to be chosen by the Library to preserve and protect the written word is an honor and a privilege.

For Jess, this means a life of constant danger. As his father’s son he’s meant to spy for the family business of black market dealings and no things are as valuable as original books in a world where they are the rarest item out there. And the best and worst place to acquire these rare books? The Library’s HQ of course, in Alexandria.

I’m really looking forward to read about how Jess and his friends fare in the next installment of the Great Library series, Paper and Fire. 🙂

I received this copy from the publisher (Berkley Publishing Group) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. To see the beautiful cover for this book, check it out on Goodreads or Amazon. It’s amazing!

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

First of all, Maggie Stiefvater nailed it with this series. I love Blue, Gansey, Adam and Ronan to pieces. Henry was a surprise and I really liked that he got a bigger part in their final story. I loved the creepy goosebumps-inducing name and the insight of their Enemy. Let’s just stamp the whole thing with a I LOVED THIS and move on shall we?

The only thing I can think of that might have brought it down a notch in the Raven King, for me, was this: I liked the way that she built up the storyline by inviting other perspectives, BUT it was also a bit confusing at times. One, two or three of the “new” characters (that until now has been a peripheral influence at best) were to me a bit confusing when they were introduced in a couple of chapters like they were the main characters to this story. Or that the characters themselves at least thought so. Not a big deal to be sure, but it left me a bit unbalanced and wondering if I’ve missed something in the earlier storyline. Are there bits of the story that I’ve forgotten from the previous books or are there novellas I haven’t read yet?

Anyway, overall this book (this series really) was awesome. Such a great adventure!

If you haven’t read this series yet, I really recommend that you read them in order as the Raven King is the conclusion to the Raven Cycle. The first book is called The Raven Boys and it’s there that you’ll first meet our dynamic group of main characters.

Blue lives with her mom and family at 300 Fox Way, a house filled with psychic women. For sixteen years she’s been told that she will kill her true love by a kiss. The longest standing prediction in 300 Fox Way. So when Blue, who has no psychic powers herself other than being an amplifier for such gifts, sees a spirit of a boy on the corpse road for the first time – there can only be one explanation. Either he’s her true love or she’s killed him. Or rather she will, within a year.

As fate would have it, she meets this boy named Gansey shortly after her vision of him on the corpse road. Even though she can’t imagine falling in love with Gansey, she’s determined to find out the truth and to prevent his death. So when she gets the chance to be involved in his search for the legendary king Glendower alongside his two friends Adam and Ronan, she takes it.

April Wrap Up

It’s unbelievable how fast time flies, it’s already the end of April. Or rather the beginning of May. And I’m not sure if I’ve come to terms with that just yet… Oh well, this month I actually manage to (mostly) stick to my TBR. I haven’t read Winter yet, but I think I’ll save that special nugget until my vacation week this summer. Plus, it’s a little on the heavy side (which makes me one extremely happy camper), so the more time I have the better I’ll be able to savor it.

I’ve read 5 and a half books this month. I still haven’t figured out how to count the one that I started reading one month and finish the next. How do you, my fellow bookworms, count that one? Is it one half in either month or does it counts as one in the month that I finish it? Take for example this month, have I read 5,5 or 6 books? I know, I know, it’s a problem that’s not really a problem, but I can’t decide and it annoys me. 😉

1. Opal (Lux #3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout – 4/5 stars
2. Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout – 4/5 stars
3. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab – 5/5 stars
4. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken – 4/5 stars
5. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell – 5/5 stars
6. Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill – 4/5 stars

Monthly summary: it’s been a good month. Reviews will be up soon. 🙂

Stephanie Perkins trilogy

“Ah, to be young and feel the bitter sting of love.” – Dumbledore

I love this YA trilogy from Stephanie Perkins. It embodies the feeling of falling in love, to find that one person who’s made for you, your true love. I’m talking about true love, not true crush or serial love-ships, but that individual that you know to your core is the one for you. The thought of leaving doesn’t exist, through rain or shine. It’s the two of you; past, present and future.

Of course these stories are about finding that person, so it’s not all sunshine and cakes. It’s just like human nature – a roller coaster where feelings like fear, insecurities and doubts are in play with the good ones. The characters have to fight to get to terms with them, make mistakes. It’s what makes the relationships stronger. If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a hopeless romantic. I love happy endings. This trilogy hit all my buttons. Oh yeah, if you like YA and romance, you won’t be disappointed.