Posted October 17, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Rebel of the Sands by
Alwyn Hamilton Series: Rebel of the Sands #1 Publisher: Viking Books (2016)
Hardcover (314 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2016 Synopsis
Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic. For humans, it’s an unforgiving place, especially if you’re poor, orphaned, or female.
Amani Al’Hiza is all three. She’s a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can’t shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she’s destined to wind up wed or dead.
Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she’s spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she’d gallop away on mythical horse—or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew.
Rebel of the Sands reveals what happens when a dream deferred explodes—in the fires of rebellion, of romantic passion, and the all-consuming inferno of a girl finally, at long last, embracing her power.
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Tagged as 5 star, Read 2016
Posted October 15, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
A Drop of Night by
Stefan Bachmann Publisher: Greenwillow Books (2016)
Hardcover (439 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2016 Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Anouk has finally caught the break she’s been looking for—she's been selected out of hundreds of other candidates to fly to France and help with the excavation of a vast, underground palace buried a hundred feet below the suburbs of Paris. Built in the 1780's to hide an aristocratic family and a mad duke during the French Revolution, the palace has lain hidden and forgotten ever since. Anouk, along with several other gifted teenagers, will be the first to set foot in it in over two centuries.
Or so she thought.
But nothing is as it seems, and the teens soon find themselves embroiled in a game far more sinister, and dangerous, than they could possibly have imagined. An evil spanning centuries is waiting for them in the depths. . .
A genre-bending thriller from Stefan Bachmann for fans of The Maze Runner and Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods.
You cannot escape the palace.
You cannot guess its secrets.
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Tagged as 3 star, Read 2016
Posted October 13, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
The Shadow Queen by
C J Redwine Series: Ravenspire #1 Publisher: Balzer + Bray (2016)
Hardcover (387 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: 2016 Retelling Challenge,
2016 Royal Challenge,
Read 2016 Synopsis
Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.
In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.
But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.
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Tagged as 4 star, Read 2016
Posted October 11, 2016 in Reading / 8 Comments
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
This week’s list is the Top Ten Books I Read on Recommendations. There are so many books that have been recommended to me, especially since I began this blog. I’m just going to list the six I can think of right now (though I am sure there are more) in no particular order.
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Tagged as Top Ten Tuesday
Posted October 6, 2016 in Life / 6 Comments
Note: I debated writing and posting this for some time. It can be very hard to openly speak of mental illness, particularly when the people in my life don’t always acknowledge that mine even exists. Please remember this is only my own experiences and my own opinions. I am not a doctor nor any type of health professional. I am only a crazy, young woman who likes to pray and read books.
My first post on my mental illness has been my most visited post since I published it. I hope that it has been able to help some people and I hope that this post can do the same.
As those of your who follow my blog already know, I am currently taking online grad school classes as I work towards my Master’s degree. Anyone in grad school can tell you that this is super-stressful. I feel that I am especially affected thanks to my high-functioning depression and anxiety. Grad school makes me crazy busy and, every day, I question my sanity on pursuing higher education.
Anyway, here are five things I do to deal with my high-functioning depression and anxiety during grad school. These are probably applicable to anyone that is in grad school or even college, but I can only speak for myself on that matter.
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Tagged as Anxiety, Depression, Planner, School
