A Magical Story- "The Queen's Rising" by Rebecca Ross

Brienna has had a hard time figuring out what her passion is at Magnalia House since her grandfather dropped her off, but she decides to master knowledge with only three years left. As her seventeenth summer solstice gets closer, so does her need to have everything go according to plan. This plan includes only two things: actually mastering her passion and finding a patron, which is easier said than done. Let’s just say that the summer solstice doesn’t go well. A month later, Brienna gets an offer of patronage from a mysterious lord with a huge secret. This secret leads Brienna to the center of a dangerous plot to overthrow a ruthless, bloodthirsty king and maybe even figure out who her family is along the way.

This book is filled with mysteries and secrets galore! I like that you don’t realize you know something until you know it! You aren’t given family trees and character lists because it’s hard to keep track of all of the information. The reason is far more pleasing to figure out on your own and I feel like you would appreciate the amount of creativity that went into creating this world and these characters more if you make connections as you read as opposed to you getting a heads up from reading this review. If I try to explain this book, this post will be far too long and I feel like reading the book would take less time than me trying to do so in my own words.

This story is so intricate and everything is well-connected. Every little detail is important, you can’t afford to skip even when you just want to know what happens next! Ross forces you to pay attention to everything by giving all of her words a kind of magic that draws your attention. In your rush to find out what happens next, you aren’t going to skip to the dialogue like in a lot of other books, you’re just going to want to read faster. You’ll want to skip to the good parts, but the whole book is one big good part. The only thing that changes is the pace, the level of intensity. While you’re reading this book, you will undoubtedly find yourself up passed midnight because all you’ll want to do is find out what happens next!

I can’t wait for you all to fall under the spell of The Queen’s Rising by Rebecca Ross, which will be on bookstore shelves in February 2018!

Time is Literally Money- "Everless" by Sara Holland

In a world where blood is time and time is currency, Jules and her father have started to run low on funds ten years after being chased out of the glamorous castle of Everless and its cushioned lifestyle. In order to get more time, Jules returns to Everless to work where others’ time is given out generously. While working in Everless, Jules begins to delve into secrets of her childhood that her father never wanted her to know about. These secrets will drag her into a past she doesn’t understand (her own) and an insidious plan for time itself.

I raced through this book. It was fast paced and before I knew it, I was three quarters of the way done with it! Even though this book went by quickly, I was able to stop for a few minutes to inquire what would happen next. I like that I was able to do that because it allowed me to stay connected to the story despite how fast I was reading.

I enjoyed that there was a contrast between the different sides of time being currency: how common people truly are drained while the Gerling family and the elite class, including the Queen, are only benefitting. In scenes that take place in villages, all you see is the taking of blood, while in Everless, everyone consumes time. During the scenes in Everless where blood is being taken, you rarely see it because the guards just drag them away. It’s scary because we never find out what happens to those characters. There are other reasons, but that would involve me revealing spoilers that I think would ruin the level of cruelty that Everless hides within its walls.

Another element that I liked was that romance wasn’t a big part of this story, it takes a bit of a backseat in this one. It’s a bit of a surprise and just pops up here and there. This leaves room for the complexity of time. The role time plays in this book is really intricate, like the work of a master seamstress.

I would definitely suggest that you guys read Everless by Sara Holland when it comes out in January 2018! It is a great story that is based in a completely new world with a whole new kind of darkness that just sneaks up on you.

And Then There Was The End- "And Then There Were Four" by Nancy Werlin

Antoine Dubois, Saralinda de la Flor, Evangeline Song, Martha McKenyon, and Caleb Colchester Jr have been brought together but they do not understand why until the roof collapses on them. This is just the start of the mysteries in their journey to figure out why this is happening, but can they do it before time runs out for all of them?

And Then There Were Four by Nancy Werlin was intense and I just had to keep on reading. There did not seem to be any down time, it was just constant motion and I was constantly wondering what would happen next! I know that I have already read a mystery book, but this one seemed different because I just got Agatha Christie vibes from the title.

This story is told through Caleb and Saralinda’s point of view for reasons that you will understand when you finish reading the book (no spoilers here). Saralinda’s chapters were a little hard to read because it’s written in the way she thinks, but Caleb’s chapters are written like he’s outside of  himself. Even though these points of view are completely different, a couple of times I would find myself being confused about whose point of view I was reading. That may have been because of how fast I was reading, though. I was laughing and gasping out loud and just smiling more than a couple of times while reading this book. The characters were lovable because of their flaws, which are pretty personal and made their connections with each other more intimate, along with our connection to them, especially Saralinda and Caleb. It was so enjoyable to read, though it was creepy at times, but that’s a trademark of a mystery book isn’t it?

Another thing that I liked was Caleb’s character growth throughout the book because you really see it in his chapters but it continues in Saralinda’s chapters as well. He was so inside his head because of his flaw, but then he really connected with Antoine, Saralinda, Kenyon, and Evangeline. It warmed my heart to see how he was growing and how he would sometimes slip up about the way he has been forcing himself to think. I was catching so many different feels while reading this book, but that made it so engaging and almost impossible to put down! Even when you do put this book down (because you’ll have to at some point because homework and life), you will be thinking ahead and trying to guess what happens next!

A Reading Style Out of this World- "Illuminae" by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

In the very distant future, Kady and Ezra are having a worse day than you and I. They are in the thick of a war between mining corporations along with everyone else on the ice planet they call their home. Luckily, a fleet of space ships comes to their aid and evacuates everyone they can- there is just one problem though- an enemy warship has been sent to kill all witnesses of the attack. On top of that, a mystery plague has started mutating and making its way through workers and refugees alike. The AI (Artificial Intelligence) installed on one ship has also gone rogue with the intention of protecting everyone on the ship.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff was fun to read! The story is told through various official documents like emails, IMs, interview transcripts, reports, schematics, and military files. It takes a little bit to get used to the different style, but it is very engaging. You can get through it quickly, so it’s a good thing that this book is very long, over five-hundred pages! This story is just incredible and very well thought out. It was very intricate and I had to double back a couple of times to fully understand what was going on, but that’s just me reading too fast! I just really enjoyed reading this story because it was so dynamic, you can tell that a lot of thought and creativity went into the story.

What drew me in to this story was that it would be told through various types of documents because I do not think that I have ever read a book where the story is told this way. Even people who do not normally enjoy reading, will like reading this book, I think because the documents are so quick to read and your eyes are not just looking at blocks of text. There are so many good things to say about this book! I just feel like the ending came a bit out of nowhere, but hopefully this gets explained in the other books. This can also be seen as a good thing, though, because the twists are true surprises to everyone even though you have been following the story so closely. I think that many people will enjoy reading this book and hopefully the rest of the trilogy because I want to find out what happens next!