A Court Of Mist And Fury (A Court Of Thorns And Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

My Rating: 4.3/5
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult, New Adult

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The Falconer (The Falconer #1) by Elizabeth May

Heiress. Debutant. Murderer. A new generation of heroines has arrived. 

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1844 

Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother. 

Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways. 

But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge?

My Rating: 3.3/5
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal (Fey), YA

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called "Le Cirque des Reves," and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway--a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

 True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per-formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.


My Rating: 2.0/5 
Genre: Fantasy, Adult, Contemporary


Hardcover, First Edition, 387 pages 
Published September 13th 2011 by Doubleday

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) by Kendare Blake

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. 

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead, keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. 

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.



My Rating: 4.4/5
Genre: YA, Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal (Ghosts), Romance

Ebook, 387 pages 
Published August 30th 2011 by Tor Teen

The Grisha Trilogy: Ruin and Rising (Book #3) by Leigh Bardugo

The capital has fallen. 

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne. 

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army. 

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives. 

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

My Rating: 1.0/5 
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, YA


I abandoned it on page: 111 of 417 - 27 %

Reading Progress:

The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo: Siege and Storm (Book #2) Review

Darkness never dies. 

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long. 

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm. 




My Rating: 2.9/5
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal (Magic)
Read from November 9 to 24, 2014
Hardcover, 358 pages 
Published June 5th 2012 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee. 

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. 

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart. 

 Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

My Rating: 3.8/5
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal (Magic)
Read from November 2 to 8, 2014



Hardcover, 358 pages 
Published June 5th 2012 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Poison Study (Study #1) by Maria V. Snyder

Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison... 

 About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. 

 And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison. 

 As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...

My Rating: 4.4/5
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Read from September 30 to October 02, 2014


Paperback, 412 pages 
Published March 1st 2007 by Mira (first published June 1st 2004)

Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

Then.

When Sam met Grace, he was a wolf and she was a girl. Eventually he found a way to become a boy and their love transformed from curious distance to the intense closeness of shared lives.

Now.
That should have been the end of their story. But Grace was not meant to stay human. Now she is a wolf. And the wolves of Mercy Falls are about to be hunted in one final, spectacular kill. 

Forever. 
Sam would do anything for Grace. But can one boy and one love change a hostile, predatory world? The past, the present and the future will all collide in one pure moment - a moment of death or life, farewell or forever. 

Paperback, 416 pages
First published July 12th 2011

My Rating: 2.5/5
Genres: Fantasy, Young-Adult
Read from 23 August to 26, 2014

Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

The longing.
Once Grace and Sam have found each other, they know they must fight to stay together. For Sam, this means a reckoning with his werewolf past. For Grace, it means facing the future that is less and less certain. 

The loss. 
Into their world comes a new wolf named Cole, whose past is full of hurt and danger. He is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of a human. 

The linger. 
For Grace, Sam and Cole, life's a constant struggle between two forces - wolf and human - with love baring its two sides as well. It's harrowing and euphoric, freeing and entrapping, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But will it be enough?

Paperback, 384 pages
First Published January 1st, 2010 by Scholastic Inc.

My Rating:4.1/5
Genres: Fantasy, Young-Adult
Read from August 18 to 22, 2014

The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey #3) by Julie Kagawa

My name is Meghan Chase. 

I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, where behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron Fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from my banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it. 

This time, there will be no turning back. 



Paperback, 358 pages 
Published January 25th 2011 by Harlequin Teen 



My Rating: 3.5/ 5
Genres: Fantasy, Young-Adult
Read from August 4 to 5, 2014

Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stifvater

For years, Grace has watched the wolves behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf -her wolf- is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human.. Until the cold makes him shift back again. 

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human - or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever. 


Paperback, 392 pages
First published 1 August 2009 by Scholastic



My Rating: 3.1/5
Genres: Fantasy, Young-Adult
Read from August 14 to 17, 2014
Order online in Alibris

The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey #2) by Julie Kagawa

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the winter faery queen. As war looms  between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey - ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan's only fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor would be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.  

Paperback, 359 pages
First published January 1st by Harlequin Teen


My Rating: 3.8/5
Genres: Fantasy, Yound-Adult
Read from 2 August to 3, 2014
order online in Alibris

The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1) by Julie Kagawa

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; One she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses than everything she's known is about to change.

But she never could have guessed the truth - that she's the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn to a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Paperback, 363 pages

Published February 1st 2010 by Harlequin Teen (first published January 1st 2009) 
My Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Fantasy, Young-Adult
Read from July 25 to August 01, 2014
Order online in Alibris


THE REVIEW:

Overall, The Iron King by Julie Kagawa is a book i enjoyed reading. It has a very interesting storyline, that carried out well though it was based on the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. That alone made it a challenge, because.. ehm, Shakespeare is still Shakespeare and The Iron King is just another teen-arlekin-young-adult novel. Knowing that quality difference between the two i was not dissapointed. On the contrary, i admired the author who created a world i could not get enough of. That book made me wanna scream

[SPOILER]

What made me hesitant really, is the fact that there is a love triangle comprised by the main characters, Meghan, Ash and Puck/Robbie. And guess what? Love triangles are not my thing. What made me continue reading this is the fact that both boys have interesting story plot between them and the both have strong personalities which do make it difficult to choose between the two. None of the two is perfect (say hello, Twilight) without loosing the glamour of their faery nature.

Meghan was really getting on my nerves at first. Whiny, erratic and unable to get a hold on her daily problems - all being things i dislike. But as the book carried on, i got along with her because she changed to someone more focused, determined and mature.

[End of Spoiler]

Unfortunately the poor language Julie Kagawa used is what really let me down. My personal opinion is that a more... lyrical style of storytelling would be more fitting. It's based on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" after all. What kept me interested is the catching story, with its twists and turns that i wasn't expecting at all. Ashe, the brooding prince, Puck/Robin the prankster, Grimalkin the infuriating and lovable cat and Meghan made quite the team - I laughed, loved and cried with them and in the end i was caught in a bargain. I would go on with the second book of the series. And you know how unbreakable the faery bargains are! :) 

If you want to check out my reviews on the rest of the books in the series, click on the image below to be redirected: