review – Bibliophile Book Club

Blog Tour: Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan

Hi lovelies,

Today, I’m delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan. I’ll be sharing my review for this beauty a little further down!

About the author:

Natasha Ngan is a writer and yoga teacher. She grew up between Malaysia, where the Chinese side of her family is from, and the UK. This multicultural upbringing continues to influence her writing, and she is passionate about bringing diverse stories to teens. Natasha studied Geography at the University of Cambridge before working as a social media consultant and fashion blogger.

She recently moved to Paris, where she likes to imagine she drifts stylishly from brasserie to brasserie, notepad in one hand, wineglass in the other. In reality, she spends most of her time getting lost on the metro and confusing locals with her French.

She is represented by Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary. Her YA novels THE ELITES and THE MEMORY KEEPERS are out now from Hot Key Books, and GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE was published in November 2018 by Little Brown, with GIRLS OF STORM AND SHADOW RELEASING THIS NOVEMBER.

Follow Natasha at: http://natashangan.com or on Twitter: @girlinthelens

About the book:

The Girls of Paper and Fire did the impossible.
They escaped.
But out in the unforgiving wild, hunted like prey, Lei and Wren learn that the most terrifying prisons have no walls.

‘Beautiful and heart-breaking and meaningful . . . Ngan’s writing is stunning’ Young Adult Reads

Lei, the naive country girl who became a royal courtesan, is now known as the Moonchosen, the commoner who managed to do what no one else could. But slaying the cruel Demon King wasn’t the end of the plan – it’s just the beginning. Now Lei and her warrior love Wren must travel the kingdom to gain support from the far-flung rebel clans. The journey is made even more treacherous thanks to a heavy bounty on Lei’s head, as well as insidious doubts that threaten to tear Lei and Wren apart from within.

Meanwhile, an evil plot to eliminate the rebel uprising is taking shape, fueled by dark magic and vengeance. Will Lei succeed in her quest to overthrow the monarchy and protect her love for Wren, or will she fall victim to the sinister magic that seeks to destroy her?

Click the link below to order your copy:

Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan

My review:

I loved the first book in this series, so I was delighted to be able to read Girls of Storm and Shadow for the blog tour.

Girls of Storm and Shadow is unrelenting in its plot. It deals perfectly with the aftermath of the events in Girls of Paper and Fire, without shying away from the horrific things Lei and Wren have seen and experienced.

The action in this book seems more heart-wrenching than Girls of Paper and Fire if that makes sense? Probably because you, as a reader, become so invested in these characters and have followed their stories so much that you’re willing them on to better things.

Girls of Storm and Shadow is richly imagined and beautifully written. Captivating, raw, dark and intricate, it is such a compelling series. My only issue is that the author has finished this one with the dreaded cliffhanger. And now I have to wait for ages to find out what happens next!

Brutal, engaging, visceral yet tender, Girls of Storm and Shadow is a must read.

Highly recommended!

Check out the blog tour:

Blog Tour: Sanctuary by V. V. James

Hi everyone,

Today, I’m delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Sanctuary by V. V. James, and I’ll be sharing my review with you all just a little further down this post.

About the author:

V.V. James is the author (as Vic James) of the contemporary fantasy trilogy GILDED CAGE, TARNISHED CITY, and BRIGHT RUIN. GILDED CAGE is a 2018 World Book Night pick and a Radio 2 Book Club selection. V.V. worked as an investigative producer for Channel 4 News and now directs documentaries for BBC1 and BBC2.

About the book:

Sanctuary. It’s the perfect town. . . to hide a secret.

To Detective Maggie Knight, the death of Sanctuary’s star quarterback seems to be a tragic accident. Only, everyone knows his ex-girlfriend is the daughter of a witch – and she was there when he died.

Then the rumours start

Bereaved mother Abigail will stop at nothing until she has justice for her dead son. Her best friend Sarah will do everything in her power to protect her accused daughter. And both women share a secret that could shatter their lives.

It falls to Maggie to prevent her investigation – and Sanctuary itself – from spiralling out of control.

A gripping thriller for fans of Big Little Lies, A Discovery of Witches and The Familars.

Click the link below to order your copy:

Sanctuary by V. V. James

My thoughts:

I picked up Sanctuary to read the first few chapters just to see what it was like, and I didn’t look up again until I was 150 pages in! It’s safe to say I was hooked from the beginning.

When the star quarterback of the Sanctuary football team dies in what appears to be a tragic accident, Detective Maggie Knight is called into a seemingly open and shut case. What she discovers though, is that there is much more going on in Sanctuary than meets the eye.

Sanctuary has been likened to Big Little Lies, and I can totally see why. This small town is full of secrets and lies, and those involved will do whatever it takes to keep them hidden.

I loved Sanctuary. It reminded me a lot of Practical Magic, mixed with a really gripping murder mystery. I powered through this book, unable to put it down.

The characters were really interesting, I thought the premise was great and the witchcraft element added a whole other dimension to this story. It definitely elevated it to more than your average mystery thriller.

Sanctuary is compelling, dark and engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would happily, and highly, recommend it!

Check out the tour:

Blog Tour: The Undoing of Arlo Knott by Heather Child

Hey everyone,

Today, I’m taking part in the blog tour for The Undoing of Arlo Knott by Heather Child, and I’ll be sharing my review with you all a little further down.

About the author:

Heather Child’s experience in digital marketing has brought her into close contact with the automation and personalisation technologies that herald the ‘big data’ age. She lives in Bristol and Everything About You is her debut novel. Find her on twitter at @Heatherika1

About the book:

What if your life had an ‘undo’ button?

Arlo Knott discovers he can rewind time – just by a minute or two – enough to undo any mistake, say the right thing or impress his friends with his uncanny predictions…

But second chances aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. As wonderful as his new life is, a mistake in Arlo’s traumatic childhood still haunts him and the temptation to undo, undo and keep undoing is too much to resist.

The Undoing of Arlo Knott by Heather Child

My thoughts:

The Undoing of Arlo Knott is a really unique read, I guess it’s speculative fiction if you had to try and definite it? Whatever it falls into, it’s definitely a different and clever read.

Arlo Knott discovers he has the ability to rewind and redo moments in his life. He can retain certain information, but not the likes of lottery numbers, that can bring him back to specific moments. These are usually recent, but he does try to go back further for various reasons.

It will make you question whether if you had the same ability, would you treat it the same way? Or would you keep going the way you’re going, mistakes and all? I liked the way the story was written, and I found myself really feeling for Arlo Knott at times.

This is a really hard one to review without saying too much. I really enjoyed The Undoing of Arlo Knott. It is unique, a little melancholy at times, but it’s got real heart. It’s almost like a cautionary tale on how to treat your mortality, but with more than life lessons to be learnt. A real gem of a book.

Check out the tour:

LoveReading Book Buzz: Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

Hey everyone,

So today is my last review as part of the Dark Artifices book buzz, and Ill be sharing my review for Queen of Air and Darkness just a little further down!

About the book:

What if damnation is the price of true love?

Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the disease that is destroying the race of warlocks. Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love.

Click the link below to order your copy:

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

About the author:

Cassandra Clare was born overseas and spent her early years traveling around the world with her family and several trunks of fantasy books. Cassandra worked for several years as an entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter before turning her attention to fiction. She is the author of City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy and a New York Times bestseller. Cassandra lives with her fiance and their two cats in Massachusetts.

My thoughts:

Queen of Air and Darkness is the third book in the Dark Artifices series, and it’s the culmination of all of the action and information in the previous two books.

After the events in Lord of Shadows, the Blackthorns are struggling to come to terms with everything that has happened. Jules and Emma are also in massive turmoil due to the increasing issues surrounding their parabatai relationship.

I found Queen of Air and Darkness much more dense than the other two books. Physically, it is a longer book. But it also has a lot more details for the reader to take in, and a larger cast of characters to keep track of as well.

I really enjoyed this one though. It was a really fitting addition and it brought everything from the previous books together really well.

What I noticed most in this book is the overall theme of love. Love for your friends, love for your family. It just seems to be a continuous undercurrent in the series, but it’s evident most in Queen of Air and Darkness. I really liked that aspect.

Queen of Air and Darkness is a fitting end to the three books. It answered any questions I may have had left over from Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows too. It is dark in parts, but it also has hope between the pages.

Highly recommend this series!

Check out the other great blogs taking part:

LoveReading Book Buzz: Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare

Hey guys,

Welcome back to my second review for the LoveReading Dark Artifices book buzz. Today its the turn of Lord of Shadows, and I’ll be sharing my review a little further down!

About the book:

Emma Carstairs has finally avenged her parents. She thought she’d be at peace. But she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for her parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the brutal consequences of parabatai relationships, she has begun dating his brother, Mark. But Mark has spent the past five years trapped in Faerie; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter again?

And the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters’ demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, Emma, Julian, and Mark must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear—before it’s too late.

Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices) by Cassandra Clare

About the author:

My thoughts:

Lord of Shadows is the second book in the Dark Artifices series, and it picks up after the events of Lady Midnight. For fear of spoilers if you’ve not read the first book, I’m not going to go into the plot of this one because I don’t want to give anything away.

There is plenty happening in Lord of Shadows. With the return of Mark Blackthorn, and Emma and Julian still trying to figure out how to live within the rules of the parabatai, this book shows the complicated relationships of the characters.

There is quite a political undertone in this one too. Not least in relation to how the Shadowhunters are being policed. I found that Lord of Shadows was a much darker book than Lady Midnight. There is a lot going on, but the threads from the previous book are woven really well into Lord of Shadows.

There is a lot more focus on the characters in this on, secondary characters especially come to the fore in Lord of Shadows. I have to say, Ty is definitely one of my favorites and I really enjoy reading about him and Kit.

Lord of Shadows definitely lives up to the first book in terms of action and intrigue. The plot moves fast and there are more than a couple of shocking moments peppered through the book.

Lord of Shadows is a great read. It captures the imagination of the reader and it creates a tapestry of imagery that really helps to paint a picture of the Shadowhunter universe.

Recommended for sure!

Don’t forget to come back next week for my final review of the series, Queen of Air and Darkness!

Check out the other blogs taking part in the book buzz this week:

Night by Night by Jack Jordan

‘If you’re reading this, I’m dead.’

Rejected by her family and plagued by insomnia, Rose Shaw is on the brink. But one dark evening she collides with a man running through the streets, who quickly vanishes. The only sign he ever existed – a journal dropped at Rose’s feet.

She begins to obsessively dedicate her sleepless nights to discovering what happened to Finn Matthews, the mysterious author of the journal. Why was he convinced someone wanted to kill him? And why, in the midst of a string of murders, won’t the police investigate his disappearance?

Rose is determined to uncover the truth. But she has no idea what the truth will cost her…

Night By Night by Jack Jordan

It’s been ages since I’ve finished a book and reviewed it on the same day, but here we are!

Night by Night has been on my TBR for a while (too long really!) so I picked it up yesterday just to get it started. And here we are 24 hours later and I’m done.

I’ve read and loved all of Jack’s books up to now, and Night By Night is definitely another excellent read. It was really compelling and I just couldn’t stop reading it once I started.

Rose is an insomniac, and it’s essentially ruining her life. When we meet her, she is on the edge. Exhausted, paranoid, emotional, everything that goes hand in hand with being barely able to function with no sleep. And when she experiences a tragic event, everything she has known is thrown into chaos.

Fast forward a few years and she is a shell of her former self. When she collides with a man on the street, who promptly disappears, she becomes embroiled in a situation that becomes increasingly dangerous for her and those around her.

Night By Night actually broke my heart, repeatedly. It is a highly emotive book and the narrative is very taut throughout. There is an underlying tension woven through the book, and it doesn’t let up.

Even though the subject matter is really tough, and it made me quite sad, Night by Night is a really great book. Emotionally charged, disturbingly relevant and delivered with honesty, Night by Night is Jack’s best book yet in my opinion

Highly recommended!

LoveReading Book Buzz: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Hi everyone,

Today I’m going to be sharing my review for Lady Midnight with you all just a little further down! This is the first of three posts coming over the next three Tuesdays as I review this series! Make sure to check back next Tuesday for my Lord of Shadows review!

About the book:

It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.

Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions…

Making things even more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark-who was captured by the faeries five years ago-has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind-and they need the Shadowhunters’ help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn’t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?

Click the link below to get your copy now:

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

About the author:

My thoughts:

I haven’t read Cassandra Clare for years, but when I was approached by LoveReading to read the Dark Artifices series, I was delighted because YA fantasy is one of my favorite genres to read now.

Lady Midnight took me a while to get into, I’m not going to lie, but once it got it’s claws into me I was hooked.

Having read some of the Shadowhunters series some years back, I had some idea of the characters and the history that led to where/when Lady Midnight is set.

Emma Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, and together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, she sets out to find out what really happened when her parents were killed five years ago. I haven’t fully caught up with the Mortal Instruments books, but I didn’t feel like I was missing out having not read some of the later books in the series.

Lady Midnight is a big book, packed with characters and information, which can be a lot to take in. Once I found my stride though, I was thoroughly invested in the journey that Emma goes on. I don’t want to go into plot details, because I always think that I’m essentially rehashing the blurb, so you won’t find that here.

I really enjoyed Lady Midnight. The characters were interesting, and though the premise is dark, there are some moments of levity in the narrative. The story definitely grabbed me, and I was intrigued to see where the author was going to take me.

I had been looking for a new YA series to get hooked on, and I have definitely found it with The Dark Artifices. It has plenty to keep the reader turning those pages, and I found myself racing to the end to see what was going to happen.

As soon as I finished Lady Midnight, I dove straight into Lord of Shadows, so make sure to come back next week to see what my thoughts are on that one.