Saturday 31 January 2015

Stacking The Shelves #24


Welcome to Stacking The Shelves! Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga Reviews and is a meme to share those books, both print and e-book, that have been added to your shelves in the last week/s.

Up until Thursday this week, I wasn't sure there would be a Stacking The Shelves this week as though I was expecting a few books to arrive, the post has been disappointingly bare. On e-book front however, from Thursday, things picked up and I ended up with some really awesome ARCs to read and review.

That being said, my week on the blog has been extremely productive, with two reviews posted and a further 2 scheduled, 4 books read and a post for virtually every day this week which hasn't happened in a while :-)



Review - E-ARCs( Netgalley)

I am review the first book in the below series in 2013 and recently reposted that review here and I bought book 2 in 2014 so I was extremely glad to be approved for book 3 this week by Penguin Teen Australia.



Kin (Tales of Beauty & Madness #3) by Lili St. Crow



Ruby deVarre is Rootkin – the granddaughter of the most revered clanmother in all of New Haven.

For Kin, nothing comes before family, and it's about time for Ruby to start thinking about settling down and starting one of her own. But settling down is the farthest thing from wild-child Ruby's mind. All she wants to do is drive fast with her friends and run free through the woods with Hunter and Thorne, two of her favorite boykin. But Ruby knows that if she keeps disobeying her Gran's wishes, she might end up beign Collared – the worst punishment and disgrace in the kin community.

Then Gran announces that they'll be hosting a guest – a handsome boy named Conrad Tiercey from a kin family across the Waste. Ruby accompanies Gran to the train station, and sparks fly immediately. Conrad is gorgeous. Maybe settling down with someone like him wouldn't be so bad . . .

But as Ruby gets to know Conrad more, she starts to realise something's...off. First, he snaps at her for being late. Then, she talks on the phone with a boytoy, and he grabs her arm so hard it bruises. Just when she feels ready to walk away, Conrad apologises – she's so beautiful and he just loves her so much, is all – and Ruby forgives him, chalking it all up to passion. She stays with Conrad, and hides everything from her friends Cami and Ellie, from whom she's becoming increasingly distant.

Then the murders start. First, heartbreakingly, it's Hunter – found dead in the woods, an axe at his side. Then three girls disappear, one by one, all of them with red hair like Ruby's, who eventually turn up dead all over New Haven. And then the villain strikes Gran. She's not dead, but she's been dangerously poisoned and admitted to hospital in a coma.

Weaker than ever and rudderless without her friends, Ruby must find the strength to confront Conrad, whom she now suspects more than ever. But he's got a plan of his own, and his secrets go deeper than she could have ever imagined . . .

Just on the heels of her mesmerising renditions of Snow White and Cinderella, New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow completes the Tales of Beauty and Madness trilogy with this enchantingly dark, beautifully suspenseful update of Little Red Riding Hood.

This next e-Arc is actually the first four episodes of a serial and  comes courtesy of Stone Ink Press

The naturals(Eps 1 - 4) by  ,   


A small town full of secrets. A coming darkness. Teens with supernatural abilities. Think you know the story? Think again.

As Summer ends, the students at Silverwood High are getting ready to go back to school and resume their normal, everyday lives. Too bad "normal" is no longer an option. When these teens get their very first tastes of what destiny has in store, will they embrace that destiny... or flee from it? Will they be selfless... or ruthless? Will they master their abilities... or will their abilities master them?

This is their awakening, the first step of an epic journey. But it's only the beginning of something bigger than they could ever imagine.

The sleepy little town of Silverwood is about to wake up.






Review - E-ARC (Edelweiss)

Particularly excited about this one.  I started reading it this morning and I am hooked!



Red Queen (Red Queen Trilogy #1) by Victoria Aveyard



A thrilling new fantasy trilogy for fans of DIVERGENT and THE HUNGER GAMES.

This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.

The poverty-stricken Reds are commoners, living in the shadow of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from the Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Then Mare finds herself working at the Silver palace, in the midst of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.



Review - e-ARC (Blog Tour)


I am taking part in a blog tour for this next book in march.  My post date is 2nd March so don't forget to come back and see what I thought.



Gathering Frost (Once Upon A Curse #1) by Kaitlyn Davis
Goodreads | Amazon  



Will his kiss be enough to revive her frozen heart?

Once Upon A Time meets La Femme Nikita in GATHERING FROST, a dystopian romance from bestselling author Kaitlyn Davis that reimagines the classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.

Jade was only a little girl when the earthquake struck. Before her eyes, half of New York City disappeared, replaced by a village that seemed torn out of a storybook. Horses and carriages. Cobblestone streets. A towering castle. And, above all, a queen with the magical ability to strip emotions away.

Ten years later and Jade has forgotten what it is to feel, to care...even to love. Working as a member of the queen's guard, she spends most of her time on the city wall staring at the crumbling skyscrapers of old New York. But everything changes when the queen's runaway son, Prince Asher, returns. Jade is tasked with an unusual mission--to let the Prince capture her, to make him trust her, and then to betray his secrets to the crown. In return, she'll earn her freedom. But life outside the queen's realm is more than Jade bargained for. Under Asher's relentless taunts, her blood begins to boil. Under his piercing gaze, her heart begins to flutter. And the more her icy soul begins to thaw, the more Jade comes to question everything she's ever known--and, more importantly, whose side she's really on.







So what did you add to your shelves this week?




Friday 30 January 2015

Review: Nameless by Lili St Crow

Title: Nameless (Tales of Beauty & Madness #1)
Author: Lili St. Crow
Published: 20 March 2013
Source: Penguin Teen
Reviewed: Sapphireddragon
SapphiredDragon Rating: *** 3/4


Nameless (Tales of Beauty & Madness #1)
 by Lili St. Crow


When Camille was six years old, she was discovered alone in the snow by Enrico Vultusino, godfather of the Seven—the powerful Families that rule magic-ridden New Haven. Papa Vultusino adopted the mute, scarred child, naming her after his dead wife and raising her in luxury on Haven Hill alongside his own son, Nico.

Now Cami is turning sixteen. She’s no longer mute, though she keeps her faded scars hidden under her school uniform, and though she opens up only to her two best friends, Ruby and Ellie, and to Nico, who has become more than a brother to her. But even though Cami is a pampered Vultusino heiress, she knows that she is not really Family. Unlike them, she is a mortal with a past that lies buried in trauma. And it’s not until she meets the mysterious Tor, who reveals scars of his own, that Cami begins to uncover the secrets of her birth…to find out where she comes from and why her past is threatening her now.

New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow thrilled legions of fans with her dark paranormal series Strange Angels. Now she has crafted an evocative update of Snow White, set in a vividly imagined world and populated by unforgettable new characters.



Review: 

This story is set up as a Snow White retelling but set in a dystopian/magical setting that was both alien and familiar. The author, Ms St Crow, feeds the reader pieces of the world as the story continued, which was a little confusing but ultimately did not harm the telling of this tale.

While the story took a little longer than i would have liked to set up, once it had I was drawn into this rich, evocative, haunting tale and eager to see where and how it would progress and in the end was not disappointed. Although the important elements of a Snow White tale where kept, Ms St, Crow completely turned the tale on its head with re-imagined tale and on the whole, at least for me, it definitely worked.

I liked Cami, Nameless' main character. She was strong yet vulnerable in a way that made her a sympathetic character that you wanted to see conquer her challenges. I also liked her friends Rubie and Ellie and could see two more fairy tales in the making with these two characters but I think that just gave me a better understanding of them.

For some reason though I didn't like the character of Nico at all. There was something about him that made me really wary of him that had nothing to do with the way the story unfolded. I couldn't seem to find any connection with him which saddened me a little and made me much less sympathetic to him as a whole.

Ultimately I am glad that I picked up and read this story. The writing evoked rich images so I could visualise the tale the whole way through and it was this writing that pulled me into the story and allowed me to be taken away bu the tale..

I give this story 3 3/4 stars.

Sapphired Dragon xx


Cover Reveal: Gods of Chaos (Daughter of Chaos #2) by Jen McConnel #M9BFridayReveals

M9B-Friday-Reveal
Welcome to the Cover Reveal for
Gods of Chaos (Daughter of Chaos #2) by Jen McConnel
presented by Month9Books!
Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!
Gods of Chaos
The gods of chaos cannot be trusted.
When DarlenaAgara declared to follow Red Magic last fall, she had no idea what she was getting into. Since then, however, she's had a crash course in danger, deceit, and destruction. In an effort to gain an ally, Darlena heads to Scotland in search of another Red Witch, but she didn't count on the new obstacles (and crazy gods) that await her.
add to goodreads
Title: Gods of Chaos (Daughter of Chaos #2)
Publication date: March 31, 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Jen McConnel
Chapter-by-Chapter-header---About-the-Author
Jen McConnel
Jen McConnel now lives and writes in the beautiful state of North Carolina. When she isn't crafting worlds of fiction, she teaches writing composition at a community college. Once upon a time, she was a middle school teacher, a librarian, and a bookseller, but those are stories for another time.
Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Chapter-by-Chapter-header---Giveaway
Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!
(Winners will receive their book on release day)

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Wednesday 28 January 2015

Review: The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1) by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Published: 3 July 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing
Source: Amazon
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: *****

My Review:


What an awesome start to the year.  Two 5 star reads in a row!

I wasn't originally sure I would like this novel.  It is one of the reasons it took me so long to pick it up.  I wasn't sure it would be my kind of story but then I started seeing so many glowing reviews of it and my online book club chose it for January so I figured now was as good a time as any to read it :-)

I was hooked by the first page, by the first couple of lines.  I am not quite sure what it was but suddenly I wanted to know more about Kestrel's story so I kept reading.  Though real life commitments meant it took me a few sittings to get through it, I found myself anxious to get back to it when ever I could and found myself thinking up ways to give myself just a little bit more reading time.  I  literally finished this book in two days even with all my real life commitments going on around me.

I loved the characters of Kestrel and Arin.  They really came off the page for me.  Kestrel, as the daughter of a famed general, intelligent and bold but becoming increasingly frustrated with the choices society has given her for her life and Arin, a slave who holds a secret, and is not who he appears.  Both on their own and together, I felt Ms Rutkoski painted their portraits extremely well showing both her characters strengths and highlighting their flaws.  I felt the tension between them and and lived and breathed with them as they made their way through the story.   Ms Rutkoski paces the growing relationship between the two of them utterly perfectly to take advantage of the growing tension and make it even more realistic.

The  world building in this novel is also done extremely well.  This is a world where history has most certainly been written by the conquerors and right and wrong are not necessarily so clearly defined.  There is much going on both in front and behind the scenes in this society and again, Ms Rutkoski balances it perfectly.  We also see this in the way Kestrel's character develops through the book and starts to see more of what's around her.

The plot and Ms Rutkoski's writing is what holds this story together. I for one, did not necessarily know where the story would go or ultimately where it end up but I enjoyed the ride through, breathlessly waiting to see what would happen next and happy with where it ended, so much so that I cannot wait to devour book 2, The Winner's Crime when it is published.  Ms Rutkoski's writing style makes it easy to just sink into the story  and just read.

I give this novel 5 stars.

Sapphired Dragon xx .





About The Book:





Winning what you want may cost you everything you love

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.


Tuesday 27 January 2015

Waiting on Wednesday #10 : The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy #2)by Marie Rutkoski


Welcome to Waiting on Wednesday!  Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly featured hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight the not yet released books that I wish were in my hot little hands right now.

This week I am waiting on The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski. It is the second book in The Winner's trilogy and having finished book 1, The Winner's Curse over the weekend, I am DYING to get my hands on this one and find out what happens next. I alwso think the cover is gorgeous and this is definitely one I will buy a print version of, just so I can admire the pretty cover :-)

In the mean time, you can check out what I thought of The Winner's Curse on the blog tomorrow (29/1/15).








Book two of the dazzling Winner's Trilogy is a fight to the death as Kestrel risks betrayal of country for love.

The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement…if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.

As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.



 check out the good reads link
Publication Date: 3 March, 2015
Pre-Order:Booktopia  | Book Depository


What book are you 'waiting on' this week?


Monday 26 January 2015

A Cold Legacy Release Day Blast & Giveaway



I am so excited that A COLD LEGACY by Megan Shepherd releases today and that I get to share the news, along with an excerpt
from the book!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Megan Shepherd, be sure to check out all the details below.



This blast also includes a giveaway for a signed copy of the book and swag courtesy of Megan and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.



Title: A
COLD LEGACY
Author:
Megan Shepherd
Pub. Date:
January 27, 2015
Publisher:
Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins
Pages: 400

After killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor’s own walls.

Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.

With inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the Madman’s Daughter trilogy is about the things we’ll sacrifice to save those we love—even our own humanity. 



A COLD LEGACY excerpt
p.21-24

Montgomery stopped the horses outside a tavern. He came to the carriage door, opening it just a crack to keep the rain from drenching us. “I’m going to ask directions. We can’t be far now.”

We watched him saunter over the muddy street as though he didn’t even feel the bite of freezing rain. A face appeared in the tavern window. The door opened and he spoke to a woman in a wool dress for a few moments, then stomped back through the mud. “This village is called Quick,” he told us. “The manor’s only five miles from here.”

“Did you hear that?” Lucy murmured to Edward, still stroking his hair. “We’re almost there. Just hold on. Everything will be all right once we arrive.”

Montgomery’s eyes shifted to me. Neither of us wanted to remind Lucy that the prospect of Edward’s fever breaking—and the Beast’s reappearance—was almost more frightening than the fever itself. Delirious, he was less of a threat.

“Let’s go then,” I whispered to Montgomery. “And quickly.”

He closed the door and in another moment we were moving again, passing through the rest of Quick. Then all too soon the village was nothing but fading lights. The storm grew and the road became rougher, and all the while Edward’s eyes rolled back and forth beneath shuttered lids.

Thunder struck close by, and Lucy shrieked. Montgomery whipped the horses harder, pulling us along the uneven road impossibly fast, trying to outrun the storm. I twisted in the seat to look out the back window at the pelting rain. A stone fence ran alongside us.

“We must be getting close,” I said.

“Not soon enough,” Lucy breathed. “We’re going to crash if he keeps driving like this!”

The road widened, straightening, letting us travel even faster. Lightning struck close by, blinding me. The horses bolted. Lucy screamed and covered her eyes, but I couldn’t tear mine away. The lightning had struck an enormous oak tree, twisted from centuries of wind. The oak took flame, blazing despite the rain. A smoking gash ran down the trunk—the lightning’s death mark. I watched until the rain put out most of the flames, but it still smoldered, billowing hot ash into the night.

The horses pawed the earth, and I grabbed the window to steady myself. At this wild speed, just hitting a single rock at the wrong angle would send the carriage shattering to the ground. It was madness to go so fast. Couldn’t Montgomery calm the horses?

Just when I feared the carriage would careen out of control, it stopped short, throwing me against the opposite wall. I tangled in Lucy’s limbs as the chains around Edward’s body clinked. Balthazar grunted, jerking awake at last. We scrambled in the bottom of the carriage until the door flew open.
Montgomery stood in the pelting rain. I feared he’d say we’d broken another strut or the horses had gone lame or we’d have to spend the night in the harsh storm.

But then I saw the lights behind him, and the night took shape into a turreted stone manor with bright lamps blazing and gargoyles on the roof vomiting rain into a stone courtyard.

Montgomery’s eyes met mine beneath the low brim of his hat.

“We’ve
arrived,” he said.





About Megan:

Hello! 

I’ve been many things, like a professional exchange student, park ranger in Montana, and LOST enthusiast, but
what I am now is a writer.

I think it’s fair to say I was born into it. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, raised behind the counter of my parents’ independent bookstore, Highland Books in
Brevard. Ah, so many free books. But I never thought being a writer could be a real career. After college I thought I’d end up as a foreign service officer somewhere dashing and exotic, like Canada. I studied French, Spanish, German, and Russian and still speak a few of those. Then I joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in Senegal, where I learned a few more languages I’ll never speak again and lived in a mud hut with no electricity or running water. You can probably imagine how that experience went, but if you’re curious, 
here are the dirty
details

It wasn't until a chance aquaintance read something I wrote and said, "have you ever considered being a writer?" that something clicked and I realized it was possible. My husband encouraged me, and I quickly fell head-over-heels in love with writing and children's literature in particular. I started out writing articles, which have appeared in Faces, Appleseeds, and Calliope magazines, and stories for younger children. I soon realized I wasn’t sweet enough to write fiction for that age and found myself writing young adult literature instead, which doesn’t require nearly as many tender moments and includes a lot more cursing.

When I'm not writing, I can usually be found horseback riding, day dreaming at coffee shops, or hiking in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. I love to hear from readers, so please drop me a line!

I am represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary.
Author Photo by Kristi Hedberg Photography






Giveaway Details:
1 winner will receive a signed copy of A COLD LEGACY and swag! US Only.
Ends on
February 6th at Midnight EST!


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Teaser Tuesday #82: Legacy (Night School #2)





Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too muchaway! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My current read is Legacy (Night School #2) by C J Daugherty  and my four lines are from page 163

A chill ran through her and her eyes flicked towards the door through which carter woud be walking any minute. When she looked back at Sylvain he was studying her curiously. She didn't like the way his gaze could stil unsteady her.







In the last year, Allie's survived three arrests, two breakups and one family breakdown. The only bright point has been her new life at Cimmeria Academy. It's the one place she's felt she belongs. And the fact that it's brought dark-eyed Carter West into her life hasn't hurt either. But far from being a safe haven, the cloistered walls of Cimmeria are proving more dangerous than Allie could have imagined. The students and faculty are under threat, and Allie's family - from her mysterious grandmother to her runaway brother - are at the centre of the storm. Allie is going to have to choose between protecting her family and trusting her friends. But secrets have a way of ripping even the strongest relationships apart...
add to good reads

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

Sunday 25 January 2015

Review: The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2) by Samantha Shannon

Title: The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2)
Author: Samantha Shannon
Published: 27 January 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing
Source:  Bloomsbury Publishing via netgalley in return for an honest review
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: **** 

My Review:

I really enjoyed this novel and in fact I am enjoying this series. I actually bought book 1, The Bone Season a while back as I had heard good things but had never really gotten round to reading and given the size of my current TBR pile,if I hadn't requested and been approved for Mime Order, I may not have gotten round to reading it for some time.

However I am so glad I did. Mime order, as mentioned is the second book in the Bone Season series and takes place immediately after The Bone Season finishes. After leading the escape from Sheol I and her Rephaim captors, main character Paige aka Pale Dreamer, has finally gotten herself back to her old life that she missed but now it seems that Paige is no longer the person she was when she left her sydicate which makes fitting back into her life even harder as she starts to see all that is wrong with both her previous life and the sydicates themselves. Knowing what she knows about the Rephaim and Scion, Paige realises that if she wants things to change she is going to have to leave her old life behind despite being the most wanted person in London.

I love that this books takes us right into the underbelly of the London Unnatural underworld. We saw glimpses it The Bone season but in this book we see what life is really like for Paige and its gritty and dangerous and unpredictable. We learn more about its workings and its leaders, we meet the various and individual characters of this world and Ms Shannon's world building of this hostile and alternate future where paranormal abilities are outlawed and reviled, is so complete that you feel like you are living right inside it so you can feel the encroaching danger of Scion, the Rephaim and even the other sydicates.

There are so many threads running through this book, be it the Seven Seals, the unnatural assembly, Scion or the Rephaim but they are spun together so seamlessly the the picture we are spun is a story that will keep you enthralled until the end.

The writing is also cleverly paced with the action well balanced with the strategy and the character development and story in general. Speaking of character development, the characters Ms Shannon introduces us to are delighfully diverse, deliciously evil or colourful to the extreme. This is not a perfect world and neither are its players but what they are.

This novel has everything that makes a great story: original story, interesting characters, flawless world building and action aplenty.
 
 
I thoroughly recommend this series and give this novel 4 stars.

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book:





Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal prison camp of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the survivors are missing and she is the most wanted person in London...

As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on the dreamwalker, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city's gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take centre stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner. Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. But where is Warden? Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided.


Friday 23 January 2015

Stacking The Shelves #23


Welcome to Stacking The Shelves! Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga Reviews and is a meme to share those books, both print and e-book, that have been added to your shelves in the last week/s.

Small week this week with only the one e-book and print book but it seems, even though unintentional, I have a bit of a theme this week :-)


Purchased (Ebooks)


Used the last of my Itunes Christmas credit to buy this this week.  I am actually kind of pleased I managed to make my christmas credit last this long.  Anyhew, having only really read the Lux series and Don't Look Back of Jennifer L Armentrout's books, I decided this week I might try some others :-)



Wicked(A Wicked Saga #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout



Things are about to get Wicked in New Orleans.

Twenty-two year old Ivy Morgan isn’t your average college student. She, and others like her, know humans aren’t the only thing trolling the French Quarter for fun… and for food. Her duty to the Order is her life. After all, four years ago, she lost everything at the hands of the creatures she’d sworn to hunt, tearing her world and her heart apart.

Ren Owens is the last person Ivy expected to enter her rigidly controlled life. He’s six feet and three inches of temptation and swoon-inducing charm. With forest-green eyes and a smile that’s surely left a stream of broken hearts in its wake, he has an uncanny, almost unnatural ability to make her yearn for everything he has to offer. But letting him in is as dangerous as hunting the cold-blooded killers stalking the streets. Losing the boy she loved once before had nearly destroyed her, but the sparking tension that grows between them becomes impossible for Ivy to deny. Deep down, she wants… she needs more than what her duty demands of her, what her past has shaped for her.

But as Ivy grows closer to Ren, she realizes she’s not the only one carrying secrets that could shatter the frail bond between them. There’s something he’s not telling her, and one thing is for certain. She’s no longer sure what is more dangerous to her—the ancient beings threatening to take over the town or the man demanding to lay claim to her heart and her soul.







Purchased (Print Book)

Bought this one for an online book club I am part, The Bookish Beauties Book Club of as it is our February read.  Looking forward to the read :-)



Wait For You (Wait For You #1) by J Lynn



Some things are worth waiting for…

Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago—an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing…

Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that’s just so… so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet…

But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she’s has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

And some things are worth fighting for…









So what did you add to your shelves this week?




Cover Reveal: Nobody’s Goddess by Amy McNulty #M9BFridayReveals

M9B-Friday-Reveal
Welcome to the Cover Reveal for
Nobody's Goddess (The Never Veil #1)
by Amy McNulty
presented by Month9Books!
Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!
Nobody's Goddess
In a village of masked men, each loves only one woman and must follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. And a man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.
Where the rest of her village celebrates this mystery that binds men and women together, seventeen year old Noll is just done with it. She’s lost all her childhood friends as they’ve paired off, but the worst blow was when her closest companion, Jurij, finds his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever loved her: she is in fact the goddess of the mysterious lord of the village, a Byronic man who refuses to let Noll have her right as a woman to spurn him and who has the power to fight the curse. Thus begins a dangerous game between the two: the choice of woman versus the magic of man. And the stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither Noll nor the veiled man is willing to lose.
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Title: Nobody's Goddess (The Never Veil #1)
Publication date: April 21, 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Amy McNulty
Chapter-by-Chapter-header---About-the-Author
Amy McNulty
Amy McNulty is a freelance writer and editor from Wisconsin with an honors degree in English. She was first published in a national scholarly journal (The Concord Review) while in high school and currently spends her days alternatively writing on business and marketing topics and primarily crafting stories with dastardly villains and antiheroes set in fantastical medieval settings.
Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Chapter-by-Chapter-header---Giveaway
Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!
(Winners will receive their book on release day)

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Monday 19 January 2015

Teaser Tuesday #81: Mime Order (The Bone Season #2) by Samantha Shannon





Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too muchaway! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My current read is Mime Order (The Bone Season #2) by Samantha Shannon  and my three lines are from location 3565 of 6086

The realisation of my powerlessness choked me. Before anyone could notice the real Paige Mahoney was stranding in the vicinity, I raced into the back streets. Black hair, a scarf and a paid of contacts wouldn't hide me for much longer.









Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal penal colony of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the fugitives are still missing and she is the most wanted person in London.

As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on Paige, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city’s gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take center stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner.

Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. But where is Warden? Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided. Will Paige know who to trust? The hunt for the dreamwalker is on.
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PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

Sunday 18 January 2015

Review: The Wells Bequest By Polly Shulman

Title: The Wells Bequest (The Grimm Legacy #2)
Author: Polly Schulman
Published: 5 September 2013 by Oxford University Press (First Published 13 June 2013)
Source: Book Depository
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: **** 

My Review:


I really enjoyed this read. What I particularly liked about it was that it was an fun, light and fast read. It didn't take itself too seriously but at the same time had an entertaining plot and fun characters and time travel.

The Wells bequest is the companion novel to The Grimm Legacy, a novel which I first read a couple years ago. When I finished it, I found out there was to be this novel coming out however its taken me a couple of years to find it. So I was greatly looking forward to treading it when it arrived.

It is probably more of a middle grade to younger YA novel but that still didn't stop it being an entertaining read. Leo Novikov comes from a family of scientists but feels like he has never quite lived up to his family name. After he sees himself 6 inches high and travelling in a time machine with a beautiful girl, he finds out about the New York Circulating Material Repository whilst working on a Science fair project and everything changes.

Whilst The Grimm Legacy was more about fairy tales and the objects from them come to life, this books dwells mostly in the realm of Science Fiction, dealing with, as it's name suggests, the writing of HG wells and well as mentioning objects from the writings of Jules Verne, Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain.

As I often mention, I love stories about time travel which this has in abundance along with all the time travel paradox discussion that goes with it along with the literary philosophy of fiction and magic working in the real world. However this is never more than a play and it never delves too deeply other than giving just enough to move the plot line at all without going into huge explanations.

The story line is fairly straightforward, with not too much subplot bringing the reader in with its easy style and providing enough twists along the way to make it an enjoyable and quick read.

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to have certain items of fiction available in the real world and would like to read about them in a light, entertaining setting then this is the read for you.

I give this novel 4 stars.

Sapphired Dragon xx



About The Book:




It was an evening like any other for Leo Novikov. That is until a miniature version of himself appears before his eyes . . . from the future! Not only that, he's riding on some kind of weird machine, with his arms wrapped around the hottest girl he's ever laid eyes on!

He heads off to the New York Circulating Material Repository to do some research and meets Jaya, the girl from the future. Together they embark on a dangerous mission to save New York City . . . a mission that will take them to the other side of the world, and to the other side of time.