Review of The Curseborn Saga by Trowa D. Cloud

Hello book lovers! I hope all is well on your end of the line! Sorry that I haven't posted in awhile, been busy with exams! But what's really brightened my week was reading The Curseborn Saga by Trowa D. Cloud.

Synopsis:

The Curseborn Saga is about Eiendrahk, the never-ending war between the Goddess of Life and the God of Death. In written legend, every 100 cycles Death breaks free of the chains that cage him to his dark world, and he once again descends upon Life in an attempt to steal her element and enter the first sun of the Universe; a place that can only be entered when Life and Death are one. The Goddess of Life is protected by the Sorians, a race of Demi-Gods that live on floating islands within her world. However, because of a terrible curse, the realm of Soria has been divided and broken, and many believe it is only a matter of time before the Purebloods and the Curseborn go to war. Will the Sorians be destroyed by themselves, or find out the truth to their timeless curse, and with it, the truth to their very existence? 

For nearly 500 rings Caim and Storm have been training in the art of swordsmanship under their grandfather Ronin. Can they overcome the final challenge of their training and defeat the World of Inner Depths? Meanwhile on the floating country of Risia, Remi, Baelie and Maile, three adopted daughters of the Empress, are summoned to the Valyti by Lady Enies, the Vice Captain of the Force. The Valyti, home to the nine strongest women of Soria, is a dark and dangerous place, spoke of only in rumor and myth. Will the three sisters be brave enough to answer the summoning and make the journey to the mysterious Valyti? 

Review of The Curseborn Saga:

5/5

Wow! That's basically all I can say!

 

I went into The Curseborn Saga, knowing a minimal amount of information of the plot. And I ended up being thrusted into a beautiful and well thought out, adventurous, enthralling, story.

We follow two brothers, named Caim and Storm, who go on a epic fantasy journey battling the world of Inner Depths, and traveling to the first floating world of Falia.

We also follow three sisters, who's names are Remi, Baelie, and Maile. All three sisters encounter great obstacles and paths, to becoming guards for a group of very strong women, who call themselves The Valyti.

Trowa did a fantastic job with the point of view changes from Storm to Remi. It wasn't at all confusing, which I was really fond of because not many authors execute POV changes as well as Trowa did. Every character was extremely well developed and all of the characters felt relatable in some way. I also really enjoyed how invincible and strong all of the characters were, especially the obstacles that each one faces.

Fade to Black was completely engaging! Trowa has a talent for blending different concepts of anime into his storytelling, which makes it truly unique. His writing style is extremely dynamic, which made me completely involved. I loved the combination of art that was peppered throughout the entire novel. It really helps you get aquatinted with the world your immersed in, as well as visualizing the characters. Trowa's detail for description is mind blowing!! He completely surpasses Tolkien, when it comes to description and world building! 

The Curseborn Saga was such an amazing and fast paced read! And the Four Lords did a phenomenal job! I cannot wait to read the next installment!

Thank you so much for sending me The Curseborn Saga for review! It is extremely appreciated!

I hope you all liked the review! Please go check out The Curseborn Saga! You can read the first novella for free at Curseborn.com

If you've read The Curseborn Saga, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it!

have a wonderful day!

Love,

Jade Crow

Also to learn more about The Four Lords, please click here!

To purchase The Curseborn Saga, please click here!

Review of Uncovering Love by Kacey Shea

Hello all! I hope everything is going well in your life right now! What have you all been up to recently? What are you currently reading?

Anyways today I'm going to be talking about Uncovering Love by Kacey Shea. It's the first novel in her trilogy, and honestly it's the best first novel I've ever read in a trilogy!

Synopsis

Evelyn Harper lived the perfect life.

Until she was fired from her job.
After a ridiculous idea devised among friends comes to existence, Evelyn finds herself part owner in a private investigation firm specializing in matters of the heart. Throughout wild antics with her best friends Jonathan and Kate, Evelyn conducts relationship background checks for a wide variety of clients.

Soon it becomes clear that one case has moved beyond professional and Evelyn finds herself fighting an attraction she cannot resist. Will Evelyn admit her feelings when she uncovers love in the most unexpected of places?

Review of Uncovering Love

Let's just start with saying I LOVED THIS BOOK! The way that Uncovering Love was created, makes you get out of any funk you have. As for me, I has a reading slump, so out of the blue I decided to read Uncovering Love, and it was the best decision I've ever made in quite some time! I ended up reading it within a night! 

The characters are all so fantastic! The main character Evie is extremely relatable and yet unique! I love how strong her character is! Her sassy attitude kept me going throughout the novel. 

I really enjoyed reading Evie's relationship between both her friends Kate and Jon.

Even though they're opposite genders, both Jon and Evie make it work when living together and working as private detectives.

Evie's relationship with Kate is so sweet! Their friendship has been through the thick and thin and when working together, they are so strong! Another thing I'd like to point out is the humor. It wasn't too much, but it was just enough to keep you going and wanting more!

Kacey Shea, author of Uncovering Love did a fantastic job going in a full 360 when writing her novel. All of the characters emotions and actions fit together with the plot, like a puzzle piece. I found that the story she created, is so relatable in the real world. But while reading Uncovering Love I felt like I was thrown into a new world full of emotion,strength, romance, and so much more. The characters put quite an impression on me. So now with my free time I find myself thinking about them.

The story and plot that Kacey created is absolutely exquisite! You can clearly tell that she put a lot of time and effort into her novel. The story is super diverse, and I feel like the subject matter isn't written a lot about, especially in a romance novel.

Evie and Tait just have this swoon worthy chemistry that makes you drool. Their actions and emotions flow over each other so beautifully. I really liked how Tait wasn't your average cliché, brooding, egotistical man. His sweetness and caring for others really showed in the novel, and I thought that it was a really great edition in Uncovering Love.

Uncovering Love  really hit it off for me! It's so far the best first novel in all of the trilogies I've read. Written in a way that makes you wanting more, and throws you into the sequel! 

Also I want to point out that these novels can be read as a whole, or a standalone.

To learn a little more about Kacey Shea, please click here! 

To purchase Uncovering Love, please click here.

Book Review of Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

3/5 stars
A lot of you are probably going to hate me for this but I didn't like Glass Sword as much as I thought I would. I don't dislike it and I don't absolutely love it. When I first read Red Queen I really enjoyed it. The ending of it threw me into wanting more of the story. And now that I have the second installment, I'm somewhat disappointed.

For the longest time, I felt that getting into Glass Sword was hard. For me, it took a very long time to get into the story. And when I wanted action, it wasn't there. Then when I got action, it felt sporadic, like it wasn't dispersed right.

Don't get me wrong, the entirety of both Red Queen and Glass Sword's story is awesome! I love the fact that there's a diverseness between Red Bloods and Silver Bloods. The political problems that the main protagonist "Mare"faces is addicting. I love the tension between all of the characters! I like how the world building is somewhat subtle, but just enough to make you crave a little more.

I loved Mare in Red Queen! What she does and goes through is intense. And she goes through even more in Glass Sword. But I felt like her actions became repetitive at times. It seemed like every couple of chapters, the main character was doing the same thing over and over again. And after awhile it kind of got tiring.

Mare Barrow it a very strong female character. That strength carried on into Glass Sword, but since Mare was going through so much, she ended up loosing a lot of her strength and bravery.
I was really sad about this because as a female, I looked up to the strong character that Mare was. I waited a year or so for the sequel to Glass Sword, anticipating what would happen next. And from Mare being so lost, it was disappointing. Just reading about her being depressed made me depressed.

But just like humans, characters can go through many emotions as well. Which I understand. But I just had all of these expectations in my head about not only Mare, but the other characters, and the story itself. It ended up being a let down.

 Another thing I'd like to talk about, is how aggravating all of the other characters were treating Mare.

Kilorn, Farley, Cal, Shade,and so on all treated Mare like crap. It made me mad, because even through Mare was obsessed with basically trying to help everyone in the world, in the end all of her friends and family turned their backs on her throughout the entirety of Glass Sword. They basically gave up on her. For the most part, everything that Mare was doing, was for the greater good for her country. I'm not sure why this bothered me so much, but it did. Maybe it was because this issue with Mare and her friends was really unfair?


The relationship between Mare, Cal, Maven, and even Kilorn, put me through so many emotions!
If you've read Red Queen, then you'll know that Mare will always have problems with Maven. He's just pure evil. #TeamMaven!!
 But Mare and Cal... I so wanted to see more of a connection between the two in Glass Sword. (I'm a hopeless romantic) Since there was so much going on, their relationship didn't thrive like I wanted it to. And again I'm sure that was disappointing for everyone.
Plus Kilorn's and Mare's relationship just reminded me too much of The Hunger games series with Katniss and Gale. I felt like it was a little nice embellishment in Glass Sword. But it really wasn't a necessity.

Anyways those were just my thoughts on Glass Sword. I found this novel, shocking,amazing,intense, and displeasing at times. It's a love hate relationship for me. But from the well executed, killer cliffhanger. I'm most definitely going to have to pick up the third novel in the Red Queen series.

                                                                 

SPOILERS   

So I also have some spoilers I'd like to talk about so, if you haven't read Glass Sword yet or if your currently reading it. Please skip this part until you've finished it! Then come back to talk about the spoilers with me!                

                                                             
   




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So I want to start off by talking about the tension in Glass Sword and in Red Queen.
In Red Queen, once Mare is considered somewhat special since she's the lightning girl. She soon gets married off to Maven. (Honestly I wish she could've gotten married off to Cal) Both Mare and Maven start to draw closer together as a couple. And rather quickly Mare starts to fall in love with her fiancé.
But, horrible things happen.. and in the end Maven is one of the most dreadful and evil people ever!
From this, Mare cannot fathom how much she trusted Maven and how in the end he ended up betraying her. So it carried on into book two, and throughout the entire novel she basically didn't trust anyone. (even her family)



In book two, Mare and Cal travel with the Red Guard to a safe haven far away from Maven. (wow that rhymed)! Since Red Bloods and Sliver Bloods don't get along, Cal ends up getting thrown into confinement/prison.
During this time, Kilorn is trying to earn Mare's trust back, since Mare does't trust a soul. And since he'll do about anything to gain her trust back, he ends up caving in on Mare's crazy idea to break Cal out and escape from the Red Guard. During the time Mare and Kilorn are attempting to get Cal out of prison. The head leader of the Red Guard finds out about the escape and catches both Mare and Kilorn. And what does Kilorn do????  He shoves Mare in the cell with Cal and slams the door in her face. Mare completely enraged tries to use her power, but she can't because the cell she's in eliminates her powers. Looking through the cell window, Mare sees Kilorn mouth "I'm so sorry".

For days and days Mare is completely outraged about the entire escapade. Seething about how Kilorn, her best friend betrayed her. And it isn't easier when someone just was cranky as her, complains about everything. Soon after that, both Cal and Mare come to terms with themselves and realize that they aren't getting out anytime soon.

When the leader comes in the cell to talk (most likely kill) to Mare and Cal, Kilorn is with him. Mare notices that Kilorn is extremely jittery, but then all of a sudden Kilorn goes against the rules and stabs the leader with a syringe, with medication that will make him sleep for a bit. Frantic, Kilorn tells both Mare and Cal that they need to go. But Mare isn't ready to go quite yet, when all of a sudden...

BAMMMMMMM!!!!!

  Mare punches Kilorn hard and square in the jaw!!!!!


When I read that sentence in Glass Sword, I was so extremely happy and I laughed so hard!!!! I felt that Kilorn deserved to be punched because for days on end he made Mare believe that he betrayed her!
GIRL POWER!!!!!! GO MARE!!!!!






Way further into the book, Mare also kills Queen Elara. I was pretty happy about this incident too, because Queen Elara was not only one of my least favorite characters. But she did the most horrible and unimaginable things to people. She loved loved loved to torture people. And since Queen Elara was Maven's mom. That was an extra bonus for Mare when she ended up killing her. I honestly didn't like the hateful attitude that Mare had when she came to terms with herself that she actually did kill Queen Elara. I was kinda sickened because Mare felt powerful when she knew that she killed her. And at that moment Mare seemed like she as turning into Maven. That part was a little scary! Because Mare is supposed to be good!

I cannot believe that Mare's brother Shade dies at the same event, that Mare killed Queen Elara. Shade wasn't only Mare's bother, but he was her favorite bother, the one that understood her the most and never judged. Plus he was a boyfriend to Farley, and maybe even a father..

Around the end of the novel during Shade's funeral, Farley was holding her stomach a lot, and she decided not to go on Mare's dangerous mission. I'm getting the vibe that she might be pregnant. Plus there's a big chance since both Shade and Farley were already being intimate.

Anyhoo, I honestly don't want to talk about the ending of the novel because that will give the biggest spoiler away to all of you! Even if you already have finished Glass Sword, I just don't want a reader who hasn't read it yet to accidentally scroll all the way down and see the biggest spoiler in the universe.

But what I can say is... Wasn't that just an amazing and horrible ending?? It makes you wanting more doesn't it??? Gosh I honestly can't believe that Mare is back to square one.. or is she??






Thank you all for reading my review and being so supportive! What did you think about Glass Sword? If you've read both of them, then which book do you like more?
Until next time book lovers,
Best wishes and much love,
Jade Crow

Review of Blood Rose 1st book in the Blood Books series by Danielle Rose.

Hello Book Lovers! I hope all is well! Today I'm going to be talking to you about one of my most favorite novels of 2016 and that's Blood Rose by Danielle Rose! I could not put it down! I ended up giving it a 5/5 stars!

                                 Synopsis of Blood Rose 

Avah Taylor has been given a death sentence: as one of the only spirit users in her coven, Avah has been chosen to wield The Power, the ultimate weapon against the immortal vampire species witches have been at war with for centuries. The Power, given by the gods to one witch of each generation, is considered a great honor, but every witch before has died trying to master this all-too-powerful gift, one that the shell of a mortal can’t contain for long.

On the night of her birth rite, Avah’s coven is attacked, and Avah is left for dead. Confronted with a terrible choice, Avah must decide to either die or save herself by becoming like her enemies. Forced to seek refuge among the very beings she has sworn to kill, Avah vows revenge on those who took her former life from her.

As Avah slowly transitions into a life of blood and war and battles her own feelings for a man she is supposed to hate, she realizes everything she’s been told is a lie.

                               Review of Blood Rose 

Blood Rose is one of those special novels that is purely addicting. I want to say that it was the first chapter that got me hooked, but honestly it was the first couple of paragraphs. Danielle Rose clearly  spent a lot of time and effort into this exquisitely amazing story. She has a particular way of drawing you into the novel that makes you not want to stop. There wasn't ever a time the story was slow, it was more action-packed and fast-paced than anything I've read before. The diversity between all of the characters was so well executed. I found myself realizing how relatable, and enjoyable all of the characters were. 

Especially the main character Avah Taylor, she just has this huge sense of strength that embodies her entire being. It was super inspirational to see such an powerful and strong female protagonist in Blood Rose. I loved how even though Avah was going through extreme circumstances, she hardly let her fear show and instead kept her head on her shoulders. 

Another detail that really sold me were the spiritual aspects and embellishments that Danielle added in Blood Rose. I'm personally a very spiritual person, and I love practicing all different tastes of spirituality. So from reading Blood Rose, I at times felt one with myself because I could relate to the character and story.

Blood Rose has the ultimate dose of romance! Throughout the novel Avah crosses paths with a very handsome, and sweet vampire named Jasik. I want to say that their relationship was almost "insta-lovey" but I felt like there was more of a true bond or connection that both Jasik and Avah have. I'm very intrigued to find out more information of their bond...As well as Jasik ;) 

Danielle Rose somehow found a way to balance action,romance, humor,fantasy, vampires ,witches, and so on. And from that it created a very beautiful and unique novel. There's so many typical vampire novels as well as witch novels that just don't pull it off the way Blood Rose does. 

The climax in this novel was jaw dropping, there was a rollercoaster of emotions flowing through me at every moment. And it topped the charts when the ending came around! I'm impatiently waiting for the second novel in the Blood Books series! 

I hope you all love the review! I loved reading and writing about Blood Rose! I cannot wait for the 2nd novel in the Blood Books series "Blood Magic" which comes out March 29th of 2016

To purchase Blood Rose 1st novel in the Blood Books series please click here.

To preorder Blood Magic 2nd book in the Blood Books series please click here.

                                           A little about Danielle Rose.

Danielle Rose is a writer of fiction and travel, as well as the editor of Narrative Ink Editing LLC, an independent editing company that assists independent authors with prepping and publishing their manuscripts. Danielle currently resides in the Midwest, where she spends her days at a local coffee shop planning her next vacation or plotting her next novel.

Danielle holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program, where Danielle worked one-on-one with bestselling authors such as Nancy Holder, Theodora Goss, David Anthony Durham, Liz Hand, and James Patrick Kelly. In addition to her Master of Fine Arts, she also holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and certification in professional writing from the University of Wisconsin—Parkside.

When not writing, traveling, or writing about traveling, Danielle enjoys being outdoors, reading, binge watching television series, and cheering for her favorite football team (Go Packers!).