This is an awesome story! It reminded me of popular YA fantasy ...
586822
This is an awesome story!

It reminded me of popular YA fantasy stories, such as Throne of Glass. However, this story has a princess who gets a protector.

Though this is a stereotypical story (of the princess being saved), Meda is very rebellious. She is a multidimensional character: she has flaws. But I really liked her.

The story was fast-paced. Some parts were repetitive because Meda kept acting up in the same way, which was frustrating. But the action moved quickly, so I was never stuck in one place too long.

I really liked this story and recommend it for YA fantasy readers.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.
1751386
Wow! When I first started reading this, I wasn't sure it would be something I normally would choose... But, I am so glad I won this book as I was pleasantly surprised :) Awesome fiction, fantasy or paranormal for anyone from YA to adults! ... I was truly impressed with this young, new author's writing, as this story kept me engaged & the pages turning so that I read it in 3 sittings all in one day :) ... You have to check this out & add it to your must read list!!
4436108
An excellent original story that has the feel of the fairytales I loved growing up. An enchanted forest where all is not what it seems. Magic that pulls the MC, Larkin, toward some forbidden future. Twisted, tangled love. Amazing!

Larkin rocks! She has had to be strong in a community that sees her and other women as having little value. Her father is a useless drunk she tries to protect her sisters from. When she goes against everything she's been taught to rescue her youngest sister from the forest's dark claws, she starts to unravel secrets about not just what really lies at the heart of the forest but the darkness that festers in her own community. The two worlds appear separate but are tied together in surprising ways that threaten both.

The magic system and creatures were a little fuzzy and unclear at times. Though I loved the tree magic and even how painful it is to wield it. Argyle's worlds and darker magic systems always make me feel so bad for the characters. I'm okay with having some questions on the end since it is the first book of a series, but now I'm anxious for the next book!

A great read for fans of fairytales and fantasy!
2211208
This book was the perfect blend of YA, drama, magic, mystery, and romance! I'm pretty confident that I'm in love with a certain hunter, but there's a little part of me that doesn't want to totally give up on a certain prince too (maybe that's not right of me, but I can't help it lol). Great world-building and lots of action! Enjoyed this book a lot!
4190544
Songstone is a YA Fantasy written by Lena Goldfinch.

4 Magical Stars
A Thrilling Adventure with Mystery and Magic!

The Review:
Songstone is a dramatic and stunning tale of how bravery, determination and love can withstand prejudice, isolation and self-loathing. As with all the books I've read by Lena Goldfinch, this read was crafted with an exciting story, captivating scenery and delectable characters!

Story/Characters...
Kita is different. Her too pale skin, green eyes and red hair stand out in the brown skin, eyes and hair of her tribes people. Found as an infant bordering the woods, alone, starving and dirty, young Noni takes her home to her mother but after Kita is cleaned and her pale skin shines through all the dirt, her adoptive parents instantly know she's of the feared and dreaded Huwi, who are rumored to have evil, magical powers and steal people into the mist. Though they keep her and raise her, she is an outcast in the village and she is shunned by her peers.

At the age of eight, she's carted away with the village's medicine man, Makito, who claims he needs a servant girl but behind the walls of his hut, evil deeds take place as he uses her heritage to serve his black magic needs.

Her life is a tenuous thing and her days are filled with fear and servitude, until one day a journeyman comes to fulfill a promise to her village and Kita forms a plan to leave with him.

Her journey takes her on a dangerous path where she discovers her origins, makes fleeting friendships, finds love and even finds herself and what she's made of. But something or someone is always there to take away Kita's happiness and this time is no different.

I really enjoyed Kita and her story. I loved that she wasn't this long lost savior of her people but rather a simple girl who just got separated from her family. She was real and her plight was real. I felt a deep well of sympathy for her as she tried to find a place to belong and never quite getting it. She was different and no matter where she wanted to hang her hat, it just didn't fit. I also really liked the sweet, simple romance between Kita and Pono. He was strong and his bravery won out each time.

And the idea of weaving a story into stone with song for generations to relive the tales of their predecessors, was romantic and beautiful.

Wishlist...
I had a few problems with some of the elements in the story. I disliked the way Kaikanu treated Kita. Even after she explained her story and he knew she wasn't the vile person he thought her to be, he never wavered in his hate for her. And at the end, when she finally "proves" she's not after the magic, he still can't find it in his heart to actually love her. It was his fault she didn't grow up with the people she was supposed to, so maybe his dislike came from guilt, but that was never explained and his dislike of her seemed cruel and petty. I also wanted to know more about Pono. Where did his gift come from and why could he do what he does? There were also some other things that didn't feel resolved in this story but I don't want to give too much away and spoil it. I'm just left with a big wish list of things I wanted that I didn't get and since this is a stand alone, I'm left to guess and wonder.

The Wrap Up:
I love this author's writing style. She can create fantastical worlds with amazing characters and a wondrous story that will thrill and enchant the imagination. Even though this was a fictional tale, I could easily imagine this way of life back when indigenous people ruled the land with their enigmatical beliefs and rich mythology. And all that is due to this authors creative words. Though I was left with too many questions and not enough resolve to the story, I still loved this read and all its beauty and charm!

NOTE: I read this as a R2R with We  YA Books! at Goodreads. As always, a special thank you to the mods and author for allowing me to participate.
2100592
LOVED THIS STORY!  "School of Shadows" involves Destiny, a teenager being raised by her pastor grandfather. She was orphaned early by her mother's death and has had an "imaginary" friend visit often growing up, that she referred to as Prince Charming. She is a sweet, insecure, overweight girl. She is a great character and very likeable and real. She has the opportunity to attend a special school. It's at this school, life changes! She learns that she is special - a member if the nephilim and becomes friends with others like her from around the world.
Liam is the heartthrob she falls in love with - but Liam has a dark side, one that Destiny may not realize until it's too late!

 The characters are well developed and the storyline well- paced with no lag. The dialogue, interactions, and plot are realistic and believable to some extent for the fantasy genre. The biblical facts and verses interwoven with mythological history - makes for an interesting demon vs. angel mix.

Looking forward to the next installment of this story!
4550424
This was a great story!  I highly recommend it!
4751433
This was such a cool idea: a human would have the change to become one of the "embodied ones," a human-turned-dragon! The fantasy world of Ilanta where this takes place was so vibrantly described; Sapegin has his rules and runs with them fluidly and naturally. The story kept me wanting more every time I sat down to read it. If you like fantasy, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Inheritance cycle, you will definitely want to pick up the first book in The Dragon Inside series. I gave the book four stars instead of five because of the translator's typos and grammatical errors; the story itself is interesting and well-executed. Check it out!
1453553
Brightly Woven is a wonderful new YA fantasy from bright fiction newcomer Alexandra Bracken. I honestly didn't know what to expect when I picked it up -I knew that it was YA, but I admit that I was expecting something more attuned to romance or more in the vein of the popular YA paranormal genre. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.

Brightly Woven takes place in a vivid new world filled with rouge wizards, powerful magic and a mysterious land steeped in myth. Young Sydelle lives in the land's arid deserts, where she enjoys weaving. After ten years of drought, a strange wizard named North brings rain, but also whisks Sydelle away and enlists her as his apprentice. Sydelle finds that North is filled with secret intentions and that her own destiny is far more than she ever could have imagined.

Though seemingly cliche, Bracken injects the plot with a freshness that made it easy to float from page to page. Naturally, this was helped by the fact that she is an absolutely fabulous writer -the words just seem to flow easily across the page, the characters are drawn effortlessly and the mythology and plot are well-woven. I guess my only tiny criticism is the fact that it's a little slow getting to the action and revealing the secrets, but becomes explosive near the end, and feels a little too simple, almost like a short story.

Great for fans of Robin McKinley, Tamora Pierce or Kristin Cashore.
1942401
Awesome! I just loved this story. What a fantastic plot. The characters are all unique and fun. The main character Sara / Sapphire is a nice fifteen year old with a lot of new magical things to learn and a lot of changes. It's well written and reads at a fast pace. This is the second one of the series that I've read. Not sure of all of the books in the series, but I know that I've like both. I recommend it for all ages and am looking forward to another.
196907
This was such an awesome fantasy! The world building was done well, and I loved all of the characters. It was so fast paced and action packed, and I thought both of the main characters were such badass women! This one definitely lived up to all of the hype for me. I thoroughly enjoyed Truthwitch.
3730489
This fantastic tale hooked me in the first chapter and I quickly became engrossed in this new magical world. I had a hard time putting this story down and I finished it quickly because it was a captivating read! If you are looking for a new book to jump into, I recommend you try this one because I loved it!
1840525
My thoughts (Theo):

You will love this story! Trust me!
We are in Creepy Hollow and us  as humans  can never travel there. Why? It is easy: we are not faeries or other magical creature. We will die in our way there, and probably that is why we don't know so much about it. But then there are guardians: trained fae to protect and cherish the human life. That basically means that if you are in danger of being attacked by an invisible creature that has magic, someone from the Guild will come over and eliminate the threat before you are exposed. You cannot see them, but they see you!

The characters:
Violet or Vi, is a faerie guardian and in her attempt to save the life of a human  Nate  she finds herself discovered by the human. She help the human, but he clings too her and come back with her on the faerie realm. Sick? Not really! She manages to survive and finds out about the creatures that live beyond out imagination. And he is like any other human put in the face of a creature that he does not understands: he bombards her with tons of questions. Typically for a human, don't you think? Well, he does find out that faeries are not exactly small, with wings, making wishes come true [they exists, but Vi is not one of them], he discovers that there are faeries trained and going to school in order to get their diploma and become full guardians. Awesome, right?

So, Violet is this girl  17 years old  ready to make the world change. She is courageous an orphan and someone to rely on any time you want. She does not have friends, but she has an enemy or better said someone that hates her to the moon and back: her colleague Ryn.

Nate is another human trapped in a world he does not know anything about. But wait; didn't I just say that humans cannot live in that realm? Well, he is not exactly human as we will find out along the novel. He is a Halfling: someone from both sides  a human and someone from the faerie realm. He is strong and willing to find his mother, someone sincere and nice. Or not.

Ryn is doing everything he can to make Vi look like a loser. You might ask yourselves why that is, well he is so desperate to prove that the little girl is helpless because of the loss of his brother Reed  Vis best friend. He is driven by rage and hate, and he is always annoying you, but not until the very end of course.
Vi is supposed to take Nate back to his world, but on their way back something happens: they are attacked by Zen and his friend. They are tortured almost to death, but they find a way out. After this Vi is supposed to make Nate forget everything, but she just cannot do that. She finds herself soon enamoured by this beautiful human and spends a lot of her time with him. When she is getting suspended for a week from school you can imagine where she is all the time.

But soon the things are about to change. In a bad manner, because we are going to get a lot of gasps for air when the pieces of the cess table are being moved around. This is not a story for children, this is a story for people ready to believe that there is another world besides our, that we are truly protected by things we do not see. Alliances will be made with people that we never thought would be together and betrayal is still feeling like being home.

Happy readying everyone!
4967375
Ascenders: High School for the Recently Departed by C L Gaber is a young-adult novel with elements of fantasy and romance. Written in first person, we follow Walker Callaghans story as she struggles to accept her new life at The Academy. This is a fun and exciting read that is full of twists and turns. If you love your romances with a twist of fantasy, you need to read this book!

Walker Callaghan has just experienced the strangest day of her life. Yesterday she was living her normal teenage life in Chicago. Today, shes in a strange town and is attending a new school; a school that doesnt have any rules, consequences and most importantly, homework. And then shes told the truth. Walker Callaghan, at the young age of 17, is dead. When teenagers die, they arrive at The Academy. This is a middle realm, between heaven or hell, that holds all teenagers with one thing in common: they were the subject of morning announcements in their high school, because they died young. This strange in-between leaves Walker thinking shes moved to a small town in Michigan, its that normal. Still dealing with jocks, popular girls and stereotypical high school cliques, she struggles to come to terms with the truth. And to top it all off, all of her teachers seem strangely familiar. All they want her to do is learn and each day consists of expanding her mind with things she loves to learn about. When Walker meets Daniel Reid, she finds herself in terrible trouble. He wants to break the one rule that exists; travelling back to the living realm. Falling in love is the biggest danger there is, and as Walker finds herself drawn to Daniel she risks everything to help him. Can they survive the dangerous journey they're about to embark on? Or will The Academy stop them from learning the one thing they want to know: the truth.

Ok, this book was fun. This is not normally something I would pick out, but after the title grabbed my attention I knew I had to do a little more research about it. By the time Id gotten to the end of the blurb, I was sold. What an interesting, unique and fun premise! I don't normally enjoy fantasy-type stories, but nothing about Ascenders feels too far out; those of you who are more interested in the romance side of things will have no issues, I promise! It has one of those plots that has you hooked and then before you know it, youve read half the book in one sitting. I only stopped reading this to sleep (and that was only because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer!) and the moment I could, I was back to reading it. I don't want to give too much away, but there are some really fun and shocking twists. I cant say too much (so just read it!) but there was multiple times I was holding my breath or sitting on the edge of my seat. But above all else, this is a fun read. One of my favourite things was meeting all the different teachers (for me, music teacher Kurt was like a dream) and making the connections as to who they were. Non-Americans may not make some of the connections (I had to Google some!), but thats all part of the fun that comes with this book. If you're in a book slump or fancy trying something new, I cannot recommend this book enough. It has some wonderfully complex characters, Im looking at you Daniel Reid, which just add to the enjoyably of this story. I really bonded with Walker and I loved that we, the reader, were learning things at the same time she was. I felt like I was on this journey with her, especially during the dangerous moments!

Overall, Ascenders is, simply, such a good read. It has everything you want from a book: a great plot, well-developed characters and some real shocks. I am so glad I gave this book a chance and Im sure you won't be disappointed either. Thanks to the author for such an exciting read!
4856165
I very much enjoyed the reader for this audio book, especially how she differentiated the characters with tone or accent.

First of all, what a great premise for a book! This urban young adult fantasy is about a boarding school for teenagers (mostly female) who stumbled upon hidden fantasy worlds and then for one reason or another were sent back to the real world. Their families are usually unable to cope with their returned children's ravings about made-up places, and end up sending them to this school to "recover" - whatever they may think that means.

I enjoyed the vast majority of this book. The main character is a serious girl trying to adjust to the fact that she will probably never be able to return to the Halls of the Dead where she feels she truly belongs. She meets many of the other students and even becomes friends with a few. We learn their stories and about their worlds. I loved most of that world and character building. Seanan McGuire offers a refreshing array of diversity in her characters when it comes to their sexuality, gender identities, and personality. (Just a note: I didn't notice much in the way of racial diversity.)

My big complaint about the writing comes here: Diversity is wonderful and I want more of it in all of the books I read, but especially in young adult novels. However, McGuire has a habit of overexplaining any aspect of a character not necessarily considered mainstream. The main character is asexual (Yes!) but she explains this multiple times to multiple people and also in her own mind (Ugh!). Once is fine for the reader, and honestly it would be much stronger writing to just SHOW that she's asexual rather than TELL us constantly that she is. She managed much better with the transgender character, showing us through his story and how other students interact with him the realities of what being trans can be like.

Another complaint is that after the plot takes off, there is a stretch in the middle of the book where I got pretty bored due to the lack of any kind of action. It was just characters gathering in various places in various groupings, talking about their past or their feelings. Which... is interesting? But in smaller doses, please, and in a way where I'm more certain that I care about these things being related to the actual story being told.

I'm sounding awfully nitpicky here, I realize, but I loved the premise of this book so much that I wish a few other parts measured up to its level of awesome.

Full stars for the character, setting, and plot. I'm gonna dock two for style and readability, but I'd really give it 3 and a half stars if I could because I still enjoyed the heck out of this despite my complaints.
4125447
I loved Shadow and Bone and found it to be wonderfully unique and exciting. I loved the world building and the setting. Everything was so different from anything Ive ever been exposed to in YA fantasy!

 I am extremely unfamiliar with any Russian mythology, so as to whether the novel did a good job of using Russian elements well, I cant really comment. There seems to be a sort of Goodreads opinion that it was horribly executed as far as introducing Russian elements correctly, but I think the author did a great job of introducing awesome fantasy elements for a Western culture. (And to be fair, even though Im very knowledgeable about Greek/Roman mythology, I love it when those elements are changed around, used in unique ways, even if certain myths are completely incorrect in the retelling. So yeah. I don't understand the bashing.)

Shadow and Bone was awesome. The world was unique and so were the characters. I liked Alina, although she started off quite weak. She grew a lot along the way and she learned to develop her power. I liked the way her character was developed and her journey from orphan to Grisha. I absolutely loved The Darkling. His character was fantastic. I think he might be my favorite villain ever. I swear I see some good in him and I could read about him all day. He was so fascinating. Genya was another amazing character. She was sassy, firm, and incredibly helpful. Her personality really radiated and I think she was crucial to Alinas development. The only character I didn't really like was Mal. I think perhaps he was under developed, but maybe I just didn't really care because hes not The Darkling? Im not sure.

 And perhaps the best part of the story was the incredible twist. Not much in the world of fiction surprises me anymore because I read so much. And I was truly surprised by the way the story just shifted in direction. I won't say anything else regarding plot details, but you guys that have read the book know exactly what I'm talking about!!

 If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend picking it up. Its awesome, unique, and a bit romantic, too.
1524939
"Kiss of the Royal" was a really fun YA fantasy/romance that is suitable for even younger YA readers. In this alternate world, Royals have magical powers that can be unlocked with a Kiss (to be differentiated from kisses which are sans magic/for Lust). They are partnered as a Prince/Princess to fight against the evil creatures threatening to take over the lands and kill the citizens in the kingdom. As a pair, the Princess gives the Prince a magical Kiss that will aid him in the fight- her powers go towards his battle skills- but Kisses can also be used to break curses or heal.

As part of the Legion (not to mention the current most powerful as a direct descendant of Myriana), Ivy has been paired with several partners who have been killed in the line of duty. The Legion has separated emotion from Kisses, and although they are allowed to occasionally give into Lust, they do not believe Love exists. Eventually, Ivy will be retired to Freida where she will be required to create heirs with whomever the council decides should be the father. Ivy would like to avoid going to Freida and wants to fight for her people and make her cold mother, the Queen, proud (a very difficult feat).

When a new powerful swordsman arrives, Ivy is excited to learn that he has been chosen to be her partner. His accomplishments without Kisses are so impressive that she can't wait to see what he can do with a Kiss. However, Zach is not like the other Princes Ivy has known. He is determined to continue without a Kiss- and potentially without a partner. His mother was a Romantica- a group of people who believe in Love and marriage (unlike the Legion). Zach believes Kisses should not be used and might be willing to let Ivy fight at his side, although certainly not just to use her powers. Setting out on a quest to save humanity will not be easy with their ideologies completely at odds.

Ivy and Zach were fantastic characters to follow, and I actually wish we got both points-of-view instead of just Ivy's because the suspense was killing me at times! The romantic tension absolutely could be cut with a knife. It certainly gave an extra dimension to an already interesting premise that carried the book forward easily. This was a page-turner that should not be missed!

Overall, it's pretty clean- a couple times things got a little out of hand, but not enough that I would caution against this for younger YA readers. The premise is very cute and the lessons good for a younger audience. I think it's a great read for a variety of ages. It's a highly enjoyable story about adventures, sacrifice, and love, and I absolutely adored it!

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.