Posted June 4, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Magic Study by
Maria V Snyder Series: Study #2 Publisher: Luna (2006)
Audiobook {11 hours and 35 minutes} (392 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: Poison Study,
Fire Study Also in this series: Poison Study,
Fire Study Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
You know your life is bad when you miss your days as a poison taster…
With her greatest enemy dead, and on her way to be reunited with the family she’d been stolen from long ago, Yelena should be pleased. But though she has gained her freedom, she can’t help feeling isolated in Sitia. Her Ixian background has changed her in many ways—and her newfound friends and relatives don’t think it’s for the better….
Despite the turmoil, she’s eager to start her magic training—especially as she’s been given one year to harness her power or be put to death. But her plans take a radical turn when she becomes involved with a plot to reclaim Ixia’s throne for a lost prince—and gets entangled in powerful rivalries with her fellow magicians.
If that wasn’t bad enough, it appears her brother would love to see her dead. Luckily, Yelena has some old friends to help her with all her new enemies…
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Tagged as 5 star, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted May 21, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
The Jewel by
Amy Ewing Series: The Lone City #1 Publisher: HarperTeen (2014)
Audiobook {10 hours and 12 minutes} (358 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: The White Rose,
The Black Key Also in this series: The White Rose,
The Black Key Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Not just any kind of servitude. Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty—because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring.
Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.
Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence… and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.
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Tagged as 4 star, Catholic, Catholic Connections, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted May 14, 2015 in Reading, Review / 2 Comments
Beauty by
Robin McKinley Publisher: HarperCollins (1978)
Hardcover (247 pages)
Via: Library Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Birthday Month,
2015 Fairytale Retelling,
2015 Re-Reading,
Read 2015 Synopsis
A young woman, well educated and honourable, accepts responsibility for her father’s act and leaves her family to enter the enchanted world of castle and Beast. The Beast she finds is not the one she imagined, but can she stay with him?
A gifted storyteller embellishes the classic tale, developing a new and very real world of her own in a love story that has all the wonder and magic of the fairy tale.
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Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Birthday Month Reading Challenge, Catholic, Catholic Connections, Fairy Tales, Fairytale Retelling Challenge, Library, Read 2015, Rereading Challenge, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted May 11, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Divergent by
Veronica Roth Series: Divergent #1 Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books (2011)
eBook (487 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
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Tagged as 4 star, Catholic, Catholic Connections, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted March 9, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Victoria and the Rogue by
Meg Cabot Publisher: Avon Books (2003)
Paperback (241 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: The Princess Diaries,
Princess in the Spotlight Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup,
2015 Birthday Month,
2015 Re-Reading,
Read 2015 Synopsis
Growing up in far-off India, wealthy young heiress Lady Victoria Arbuthnot was accustomed to handling her own affairs — not to mention everyone else’s. But in her sixteenth year, Vicky is unceremoniously shipped off to London to find a husband. With her usual aplomb, however, Lady Victoria gets herself engaged to the perfect English gentleman, even before setting foot on British soil.
Hugo Rothschild, ninth earl of Malfrey, is everything a girl could want in a future husband: he is handsome and worldly, if not rich. Lady Victoria has everything just as she’d like it. That is, if raffish young ship captain Jacob Carstairs would leave well enough alone.
Jacob’s meddling is nothing short of exasperating, and Victoria is mystified by his persistence. But when it becomes clear that young Lord Malfrey just might not be all that he’s professed to be, Victoria is forced to admit, for the first time in her life, that she is wrong. Not only about her fiance, but about the reason behind the handsome ship captain’s interference.
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Tagged as 4 star, Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, Birthday Month Reading Challenge, Read 2015, Rereading Challenge, You Read How Many Books Challenge
