Fairytales outside of Disney | How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale
By Jane Yolen
Published on November 5, 2018
320 Pages
Fantasy, Short Stories, Retellings

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

Fantasy legend Jane Yolen presents a wide-ranging offering of fractured fairy tales. Yolen fractures the classics to reveal their crystalline secrets, holding them to the light and presenting them entirely transformed; where a spinner of straw into gold becomes a money-changer and the big bad wolf retires to a nursing home. Rediscover the tales you once knew, rewritten and refined for the world we now live in―or a much better version of it.

The good, the bad, and the unclear | The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season
The Bone Season #1

By Samantha Shannon
Published August 20th, 2013
466 Pages

The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing. It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die. The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine and also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

Questioning my entire existence, but in a good way | All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

All Our Wrong Todays
By Elan Mastai
Published on February 7, 2017
384 pages
Adult, Science Fiction, Time Travel

You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we'd have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren's 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed . . . because it wasn't necessary.
Except Tom just can't seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that's before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident of fate, Tom makes a rash decision that drastically changes not only his own life but the very fabric of the universe itself. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland.
But when he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and—maybe, just maybe—his soul mate, Tom has a decision to make. Does he fix the flow of history, bringing his utopian universe back into existence, or does he try to forge a new life in our messy, unpredictable reality? Tom’s search for the answer takes him across countries, continents, and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.

Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Spoltight + Giveaway

I am happy to introduce to you the Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Party! My stop of the party includes an excerpt of Stone's Kiss by Lisa Blackwood as well as a HUGE giveaway. First place prize is a $1,000 Amazon Gift Card, but we also have 12 runner up ebook and paperback prizes! Entering will connect you with 21 paranormal romance and urban fantasy authors for more great deals, freebies, and giveaway, so in a way, everyone wins!

Before you enter the giveaway, check out an excerpt of STONE´S KISS by Lisa Blackwood, one of the authors sponsoring the giveaway!

Art, Life, and Love according to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch

By Donna Tartt
Published October 22, 2013
773 pages
Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction, Art

Theodore Decker's life was a mess, even before he stumbled museum, and subsequently, into a terrorist bombing with his mother.
As fulfillment of an old man's dying wish in the wreckage of the museum, Theo leaves with a priceless painting, but without his mother. 
From that day on, Theo's life is spent bouncing from place to place, and family to family. He starts at the house of a wealthy family friend in New York to the dusty streets of Las Vegas and the quiet isolation of Amsterdam. The only thing that stays with him is the painting from that cursed day in the museum.
One stolen painting in his childhood leads to a life on the edge, where there is a fine line between good and bad. Theo must decide if life, love, and art are valuable enough to keep fighting for.

Review | The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Secret History
By Donna Tartt
Published in September, 1992
559 Pages
Adult, Thriller, Fiction

Five college students commit murder. They mercilessly kill one of their supposedly best friends. Someone that they used to trust, laugh with, share secrets with, and treat as their own family. But all of that changed over the semester. 
These seemingly ordinary students privately study the Classics with their eccentric teacher. They talk about the philosophies and ideals of Greek and Roman culture, and constantly regret that they cannot live there. Richard, a dream-struck boy from California, falls into their group without the knowledge of the true intentions behind their studies. He must navigate through the new world of college temptations, Greek translations, secrets hidden from him, and the puzzle of who he can trust. But as they learn more about classic culture, they go to extreme measures to replicate the customs of the time. And people get hurt. Murdered actually. 

Review | The Truth of Never by O. E. Boroni

The Truth of Never

By O. E. Boroni
Never Trilogy #3
Adult, Romance
Released on October 20, 2015
360 pages






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

Can love really conquer all?
Thirteen years ago, Lenora Baker and Nathan Roque ran into each other in their boarding school courtyard. Despite the bitter losses and experiences that they were both nursing in their hearts, they somehow managed to find in each other a passion that healed as powerfully as it burned. But demons aren’t chased away that easily. 
Now, thirteen years later, everything is rekindled with a ferocity that neither of them can ignore. They’ve found their way back to each other but in this conclusion to the trilogy, their hope for the love-filled future that neither of them ever believed that they could have is on the line. 
Life happens; disaster rocks the already shaky ground that they’re standing on, and dreams begin to seem like nightmares.
Will they find the answers to the questions that have plagued them for so long, or will they once again succumb to their fears?

Why I Didn't Love The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo's Calling

By Robert Galbraith (also known as J.K. Rowling)
Cormoran Strike #1
455 pages
Published on April 30, 2013
Review by Tessa

Cormoran Strike. Former soldier. Son of a rockstar. Amputee. Private Detective. Ex-fiance. Homeless man. 
It is safe to say that Strike's past is as complicated as the case that has just been handed to him. 

Supermodel Lula Landry jumped out of her apartment balcony months ago. The press went nuts in the aftermath. Why would such a beautiful, successful, and young girl suddenly decide to call it quits? The police did not know that, but they thought that they enough evidence to call her death a suicide and close the case. 

When Landry's brother seeks Strike out to prove that his sister was pushed out of her balcony, the opportunity seems too good to be true. Strike's office is on the edge of bankruptcy and his personal life is in ruins. Proving the murder of Landry could be the big break that he has been looking for to turn everything around. But it might also be impossible. The closed case was tossed aside by the police, the media, and ultimately, the public. Everyone has ruled her death as a suicide. But Strike is willing to prove them wrong. 

His investigation brings him into the darkness of the famous and wealthy. He observes the lives of supermodels, fashion designers, and rock singers. Underneath the facade of money and fame, Strike finds something even more terrifying and dangerous.