SILENCE FALLEN – MERCY THOMPSON #10

Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs
Published by Ace Books
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Adult, Paranormal
For fans of: Alpha and Omega, Dreg City, Werewolves, Vampires, Shapeshifters, Strong women who never stop getting up when they’ve been kicked down
My Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form, Mercy escapes only to find herself without money, without clothing, and alone in the heart of Europe…

Unable to contact Adam and the rest of the pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, and she needs to figure out which is which. Ancient powers stir, and Mercy must be her agile best to avoid causing a war between vampires and werewolves, and between werewolves and werewolves. And in the heart of the ancient city of Prague, old ghosts rise…

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WATERSHIP DOWN – RICHARD ADAMS

Watership Down by Richard Adams
Publisher: Avon Books
Rating: 5/5!
Genre: Classic, Fiction, Animals, Young Adult (I refuse to call this a children’s book)
Post Book Thoughts: I was too busy crying to think…

Watership Down is a remarkable tale of exile and survival, of heroism and leadership… the epic novel of a group of adventurers who desert their doomed city, and venture forth against all odds on a quest for a new home, a sturdier future.

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SLEEP, PALE SISTER – JOANNE HARRIS

Sleep, Pale sister by Joanne Harris
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Historical fiction, Ghost story, Gothic
Post Book Thoughts: hmm… interesting. BUT! Is anyone going to put me out of my misery and help me with that ending?!

Originally published in 1994 — and never before available in the United States — Sleep, Pale Sister is a hypnotically atmospheric story set in nineteenth century London. When puritanical artist Henry Chester sees delicate child beauty Effie, he makes her his favorite model and, before long, his bride. But Henry, volatile and repressed, is in love with an ideal. Passive, docile, and asexual, the woman he projects onto Effie is far from the woman she really is. And when Effie begins to discover the murderous depths of Henry’s hypocrisy, her latent passion will rise to the surface.

Sleep, Pale Sister combines the ethereal beauty of a Pre-Raphaelite painting with a chilling high gothic tale and is a testament to Harris’s brimming cornucopia of talents.

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TEN BOOKS I’M ON THE FENCE ABOUT

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event created by The Broke and The Bookish, now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

 

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FOE – IAIN REID

Foe by Iain Reid
Published by Gallery/Scout Press
Genres: Sci-Fi, Fiction, Horror
For fans of: The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, The Swapper , Limbo, Ida
My Rating: 4 stars out of 5

We don’t get visitors. Not out here. We never have.

In Iain Reid’s second haunting, philosophical puzzle of a novel, set in the near-future, Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with alarming news: Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm…very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won’t have a chance to miss him, because she won’t be left alone—not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.

Told in Reid’s sharp and evocative style, Foe examines the nature of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it means to be (or not to be) a person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first words to its shocking finale.

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SLEEPING GIANTS | THEMIS FILES #1

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
Published by Del Rey
Genres: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Fiction
For fans of: The Iron Giant, Pacific Rim, “Found items” stories
My Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved – the object’s origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history’s most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

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CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE | LEGACY OF ORISHA #1

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
Genre: Fantasy, YA
For Fans of: Avatar the Last Airbender, The Conqueror’s Saga, and, Throne of Glass
My Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zelie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. 

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now, Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good. 

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for the enemy.

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SING NO EVIL – J.P AHONEN AND K.P ALARE

Sing No Evil by J.P Ahonen and K.P Alare
Published by Harry N. Abrams
Genres: Graphic novels, Music, Fantasy, Horror, Fiction
For Fans of: Incredible art, stories that take you by surprise.
My Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Twenty-something guitarist Aksel stutters when he sings, and the latest reviews say he has the voice of a crow with throat plague. That’s not a compliment, even for the avant-garde music his band Perkeros plays. Aksel is having a hard time keeping the band together, stopping his girlfriend from kicking him out, and not getting eaten by his drummer (who happens to be a cranky brown bear). There are also the rival bands that Perkeros find themselves in battle with to save the city from supernatural forces set loose by ancient music. The key to it all could be in the music Aksel hears in his dreams—if it doesn’t drive him mad first. With a visual soundtrack that blasts off the page, Sing No Evil is a wild ride through otherworldly dangers and the power of pure rock’n’roll.

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THE MINIATURIST – JESSIE BURTON

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
Publisher: Ecoo Press
Ratings: 2.5/5
Genre: Fiction, Historical fiction, Mystery
Post Book Thoughts: Ok look! I really liked this book but what the hell!!

Set in seventeenth century Amsterdam–a city ruled by glittering wealth and oppressive religion–a masterful debut steeped in atmosphere and shimmering with mystery, in the tradition of Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters, and Sarah Dunant.

“There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . .”

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office–leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

But Nella’s world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist–an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .

Johannes’ gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand–and fear–the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction?

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THE GIRL IN THE TOWER | THE WINTERNIGHT TRILOGY #2

The Girl In The Tower by Katherine Arden
Published by Del Rey
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, YA
For fans of: Uprooted, Joan of Arc, Sweeping dark fantasy that isn’t afraid to take its time.
My Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingalecontinues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.

Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.

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