January 29, 2017

What's her name again? | A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnson

A Thousand Nights
By E. K Johnson
A Thousand Nights #1
A Thousand Nights (A Thousand Nights, #1)October 6th, 2015
328 pages
Fantasy, Retelling, Diverse



Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.
And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.
Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.
Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster. 


January 20, 2017

The Feels of a Five-Star Book | Queen of Chaos by Kat Ross


Queen of Chaos
By Kat Ross
The Fourth Element #4
Published on January 18, 2017
Fantasy, Young Adult, Diverse
308 pages

This book was provided to me from Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. I swear on my bookshelf that this has not affected my opinion of the book.





Persepolae has fallen.
Karnopolis has burned.
As the dark forces of the Undead sweep across what remains of the empire, Nazafareen must obey the summons of a demon queen to save Darius’s father, Victor. Burdened with a power she doesn’t understand and can barely control, Nazafareen embarks on a perilous journey through the shadowlands to the House-Behind-the-Veil. But what awaits her there is worse than she ever imagined…
A thousand leagues away, Tijah leads a group of children on a desperate mission to rescue the prisoners at Gorgon-e Gaz, the stronghold where the oldest daēvas are kept. To get there, they must cross the Great Salt Plain, a parched ruin occupied by the armies of the night. A chance encounter adds a ghost from the past to their number. But will they arrive in time to avert a massacre?
And in the House-Behind-the-Veil, Balthazar and the Prophet Zarathustra discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. But is it enough to redeem the necromancer’s bloodstained soul and thwart his mistress’s plans?
As a final showdown looms with Queen Neblis, the truth of the daēvas’ origins is revealed and three worlds collide in this thrilling conclusion to the Fourth Element series.


Luckily for you, the first book in the series, The Midnight Sea, is currently FREE on Amazon. Now you can start your addiction to this series at no cost!


January 18, 2017

Waiting on Wednesday | January 2017


Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme (or monthly in my case), hosted by the amazing Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Since I am a rebellious blogger, I am not following the traditional Waiting on Wednesday rules. Instead of posting the meme weekly, I am going to do it monthly (work smarter, not harder). Plus, my WOW will only include books that will be releasing (or have already been released) in the same month, so you don't have to wait forever to get these beauties. 

This month's books vary from the start of a promising high fantasy to the ending of a favorite series. There are some extremely exciting books and some of them are my most anticipated of 2017!


January 16, 2017

Riordan sets bar for diversity in middle-grade | The Hammer of Thor

The Hammer of Thor
By Rick Riordan
(Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2)
Published October 4, 2016
The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #2)471 pages
Middle Grade, Mythology, Fantasy, Diverse




Thor's hammer is missing again. The thunder god has a disturbing habit of misplacing his weapon--the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds. But this time the hammer isn't just lost, it has fallen into enemy hands. If Magnus Chase and his friends can't retrieve the hammer quickly, the mortal worlds will be defenseless against an onslaught of giants. Ragnarok will begin. The Nine Worlds will burn. Unfortunately, the only person who can broker a deal for the hammer's return is the gods' worst enemy, Loki--and the price he wants is very high.



January 2, 2017

Excuse my excuses | A story of blogger regret and recovery




I have made a lot of excuses since I started blogging five years ago. I have blamed my problems on my lack of time management, co-bloggers, laziness, fear, forgetfulness, cute puppies who just want me to sleep with them, etc. Some of them were blatant problems that plagued my life, while others were just lies and excuses to make myself feel better. But, every time an excuse slipped out of my mouth (or from my keyboard) I instantly felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. 

Every missed post, every unanswered comment, every blank email made me feel like I was drowning in my responsibilities as a blogger. I felt as if I was letting everyone down, especially myself. 

I started this blog in the beginning with two of my best friends in the world. We were naive little bookworms who thought that blogging only consisted of writing posts. HAHAHA, right? Soon enough, we realized that there was a lot more that we did not account for when we gave life to our project. In fact, both of them have decided that blogging is not the right path for them anymore, leaving me the sole owner of Crazy for YA. This proves that bBlogging is so much more than just writing and posting, but that is a discussion for another time. 

The point is, I could continue to blame my naivety, my lack of time, my personal life and the many other things that seem to make blogging impossible, or I can own up to the fact that my blog will not be perfect.