Milky Way of books

Feature and Follow #263

Friday, July 24, 2015

Welcome to the Feature & Follow

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow me and them to show off more new blogs!

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code at the host blogs and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!

Question of the Week:

What is your favorite movie? - Suggested by A Kernel of Nonsense

My answer:

I have thousands of favorite movies! But I decided to sum up my favorite Disney ones in an amazing video I found out on Facebook two days ago!

This epic video will send chills down any gen y kid's spine. Edited by: indrancole3 All rights reserved to disney.
Posted by Gen Y Kids on Παρασκευή, 10 Ιουλίου 2015

One movie I watched recently and can't take out of my mind is "Interstellar". I have a love for sci-fi, especially the ones which deal with time travel. On this movie a father travels though a warmhole in search for a new planet. Yet time passes different for him and his children back on Earth.

My feelings can be shown to the perfect gif below (which I also love as a movie)

"Interstellar" is chilling, freaking amazing and of course, it was directed by Christopher Nolan, the man behind "Black Knight".

What is your favorite one?

Now for the Follow Fun!

FOLLOW ME ON GFC ON YOUR LEFT!!

Alison Can Read

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Review: "Falling Kingdoms" (Falling Kingdoms #1) by Morgan Rhodes

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads

In the three kingdoms of Mytica, magic has long been forgotten. And while hard-won peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest now simmers below the surface.
As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed... and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

It's the eve of war.... Choose your side.

Princess: Raised in pampered luxury, Cleo must now embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of magic long thought extinct.

Rebel: Jonas, enraged at injustice, lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country cruelly impoverished. To his shock, he finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Sorceress: Lucia, adopted at birth into the royal family, discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Heir: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, firstborn son Magnus begins to realise that the heart can be more lethal than the sword....

BUY ON AMAZON (click the covers for affliate links)

"FALLING KINGDOMS" Spin-off

REVIEW

I'd be an idiot if I wouldn't admit that I really, really enjoyed this book! It's like reading "Game of Thrones" minus all the gore, death and...the rest.

"Falling kingdoms" transports the reader into the world of Mytica an island surrounded by the Silver Sea, where magic has almost disappeared and two kingdoms will unite against the third. It's curious how the actions of one brought the disaster I read on this book, not to mention that it reminded me the "butterfly phenomenon"; where it is said that the movement of a butterfly's wings can cause a typhon in the other side of the world.

I had absolutely no problem with the POVs. I like the use of third POV in high fantsy novels, since the MC can show more than the 1st POV. Cleo, Magnus, Jonas, Lucia and the rest of the characters become interwined with each other although I think that the first book was more about Cleo.

Too much drama for her.

I hope also to read more about the Watchers, these immortal beings who like to spy through golden hawks (which is really cool!). I will surely continue reading the rest of the series, since I want to catch up with Morgan's latest release "A Book of Spirits and Thieves"!

About the author:

Morgan Rhodes lives in Ontario, Canada. As a child, she always wanted to be a princess -- the kind that knows how to wield a sharp sword to help save both kingdoms and princes from fire-breathing dragons and dark wizards. Instead, she became a writer, which is just as good and much less dangerous. Along with writing, Morgan enjoys photography, travel, reality TV, and is an extremely picky, yet voracious reader of all kinds of books. Under another pen name, she’s a national bestselling author of many paranormal novels. Falling Kingdoms is her first high fantasy.

http://www.morganrhodes.net

Review: "Shatter Me" (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

BUY ON AMAZON (clcik the covers for more details)

REVIEW

I decided to begin this book after learning that it would turn on a TV series. I was surprised why I hadn't started this one before! Despite its dystopian genre, one I feel bored to read, I found Mafi's writing to be extraodinary and very emotional.

Julette is locked in some kind of prison for 264 days. She hasn't seen or spoken to anyone in this part of her seclusion. And no one wants to get close to her because her touxh kills. So when a boy is thrown into her cell, everything changes and her past comes back to her.

I liked the way Mafi used lined sentences in order to show the difference between what Julitte was saying and what she was truly feeling. It was very awful for her to live like that: even her own parents gave her away thinking her as a monster. And when Warner, the leader of the Reestablishment wants to use her as a weapon, becoming also psychotic about her, I became pretty sure, that Adam will be the only love interest in this story.

After survaving the "Arcana Chronicles" by Kresley Cole, I really don't want to fall in yet another love triangle. But all the points go to the lyrical wrting and the world building. Even how Juliette slowly discovers the happiness of being touched made my heart melt.

I liked it very much and surely I will try to get the next book too!

About the author:

She was born in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Santa Monica, California, where she drinks too much caffeine and finds the weather to be just a little too perfect for her taste.
When unable to find a book, she can be found reading candy wrappers, coupons, and old receipts.

http://www.taherehbooks.com/

Audiobook Review: "Dead of Winter" (The Arcana Chronicles #3) by Kresley Cole

Monday, July 20, 2015

Dead of Winter by Kresley Cole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads

Can Evie convince her rival loves to work together? Their survival depends on it in this third book of #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole’s Arcana Chronicles, a nonstop action tale of rescue, redemption, and a revenge most wicked.

Heartbreaking decisions
Evie was almost seduced by the life of comfort that Death offered her—until Jack was threatened by two of the most horrific Arcana, The Lovers. She will do anything to save him, even escape Death’s uncanny prison, full of beautiful objects, material comforts…and stolen glances from a former love.

Uncertain victory
Despite leaving a part of her heart behind with Death, Evie sets out into a frozen and perilous post-apocalyptic wasteland to meet up with her allies and launch an attack on The Lovers and the vast army they command. Such formidable enemies require a battle plan, and the only way to kill them once and for all may mean Evie, Jack, and Death allying. Evie doesn’t know what will prove more impossible: surviving slavers, plague, Bagmen and other Arcana—or convincing Jack and Death to work together.

Two heroes returned
There’s a thin line between love and hate, and Evie just doesn’t know where she stands with either Jack or Death. Will this unlikely trio be able to defeat The Lovers without killing one another first?

BUY ON AMAZON (affiliate links, click the covers)

Audiobooks

Book Series

REVIEW

This series is going to be the death of me! Not only "Endless Knight" ended on a cliffhanger but also "Dead of the Winter" ended in a similar manner! Which also left me crying and almost tossing my Ipod to the wall.

Don't worry, the Ipod survived...

So why the missing star? Let's begin with the love triangle. All the story is a journey for Evie, Jack and Death in order to save Selena from the Arcana Card, the Lovers. I'm not going to say the details since I will spoil you but let's focus on the facts:

I liked the way Kresley Cole delivers the anguish and the fear of surviving in her apocalyptic world. I think it's even worse that spending your life on District 12, if you know what I mean.

On the other hand, I couldn't decide if I should strangle Evie or kick her on her rosy butt for her indecision. It's clear that Death had a horrible eternity and I get it but Jack was the one who saved her and LOVED her first. It was unfair for Jack to be treated like this even after everything he did.

Another part I did like on the thrid book was the rest of the Arcana. How they worked together and how amazing their powers are. We also get to meet the High Priestess, another Arcana who I believe will have a major role on the fourth book. She seemed to have a good relationship with the Empress in the past games so I hope she will become an ally.

In the end of the story the most terrifying Card appears: the Emperor who does something unthinkable just to the point where Evie had settled on her feelings. I can't wait for 2016. I need the next book now!

About the author:

Kresley Cole is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the electrifying Immortals After Dark paranormal series, the young adult Arcana Chronicles series, the erotic Gamemakers series, and five award-winning historical romances.

A master’s grad and former athlete, she has traveled over much of the world and draws from those experiences to create her memorable characters and settings.
Her IAD books have been translated into twenty foreign languages, garnered three RITA awards, and consistently appear on the bestseller lists, in the U.S. and abroad.

Cole lives in Florida with her family and “far too many animals.” You can learn more about Kresley at www.kresleycole.com.