Wolves and Roses (Fairy Tales of the Magicorum #1) by Christina Bauer Review

Wolves and Roses by Christina Bauer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Bryar Rose has a problem. She’s descended from one of the three magical races—shifters, fairies, or witches. That makes her one of the Magicorum, and Magicorum always follow a fairy tale life template. In Bryar’s case, that template should be Sleeping Beauty.

“Should” being the key word.

Trouble is, Bryar is nowhere near the sleeping beauty life template. Not even close. She doesn’t like birds or woodland creatures. She can’t sing. And she certainly can’t stand Prince Philpot, the so-called “His Highness of Hedge Funds” that her aunties want her to marry. Even worse, Bryar’s having recurring dreams of a bad boy hottie and is obsessed with finding papyri from ancient Egypt. What’s up with that?

All Bryar wants is to attend a regular high school with normal humans and forget all about shifters, fairies, witches, and the curse that Colonel Mallory the Magnificent placed on her. And she might be able to do just that–if only she can just keep her head down until her eighteenth birthday when the spell that’s ruined her life goes buh-bye.

But that plan gets turned upside down when Bryar Rose meets Knox, the bad boy who’s literally from her dreams. Knox is a powerful werewolf, and his presence in her life changes everything, and not just because he makes her knees turn into Jell-O. If Bryar can’t figure out who—or what—she really is, it might cost both her and Knox their lives… as well as jeopardize the very nature of magic itself.

My Review:
As a top reviewer on Netgalley, I was pre approved for this book as well as Thrax by the same author from the site in exchange for a review.

This first person book with rotating viewpoints is set in New York, and begins with one of the main characters, Bryar Rose, waiting to go into her Magicorum Teen Group Therapy. It’s a special kind of therapy for four kinds of people, witches, shifters, fairies, and non magical humans related to the above four. Supposedly magic is disappearing from the world, and the Denarii League is not about to let that happen. No one in the group is very fond of the facilitator, Madame Grimoire. This is all explained in the first couple pages. The rest of the group includes Elle, Bryar’s best friend, scam artist, Scarlett, a werewolf, and a new girl named Avianna.

The other viewpoint is of Knox, a Werewolf Warden, one of two alive at any time. He’s constantly wrestling with his inner wolf, who has a separate personality and voice that he can hear. I really liked that in this book, it isn’t something you read about very often. He’s rough around the edges and a little scary at times but his inner wolf is convinced that Bryar is their mate, even though she’s just a boring human and not a shifter. He know that this can’t be the case. Not only can they not mate beyond their kind, Wardens can’t mate at all.

The other two main characters are Elle and Alec, although we don’t see their points of view they’re included in the story a lot of the time. Since I picked up the story I couldn’t put it down, and I really enjoyed reading it. A lot of the time when there’s multiple supernatural beings it seems a little muddy but this book wasn’t at all. The characters developed a lot throughout the book and came through their situation different people and I really liked that. It seems like they all learned a lot. The story took turns I never expected, even including mummies in the mix, which isn’t written about a lot lately. Overall I really liked this book and definitely want to check out the next in the series. I really liked the cover too. Check it out if you get a chance!

Here’s a link to the authors twitter page, and another link to buy the book on amazon.

https://twitter.com/CB_Bauer

https://www.amazon.ca/Wolves-Roses-Fa…

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The Shoe on the Roof by Will Ferguson Review

The Shoe on the Roof by Will Ferguson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
From the Giller Prize–winning novelist of 419 comes the startling, funny, and heartbreaking story of a psychological experiment gone wrong.

Ever since his girlfriend ended their relationship, Thomas Rosanoff’s life has been on a downward spiral. A gifted med student, he has spent his entire adulthood struggling to escape the legacy of his father, an esteemed psychiatrist who used him as a test subject when he was a boy. Thomas lived his entire young life as the “Boy in the Box,” watched by researchers behind two-way glass.

But now the tables have turned. Thomas is the researcher, and his subjects are three homeless men, all of whom claim to be messiahs—but no three people can be the one and only saviour of the world. Thomas is determined to “cure” the three men of their delusions, and in so doing save his career—and maybe even his love life. But when Thomas’s father intervenes in the experiment, events spin out of control, and Thomas must confront the voices he hears in the labyrinth of his own mind.

The Shoe on the Roof is an explosively imaginative tour de force, a novel that questions our definitions of sanity and madness, while exploring the magical reality that lies just beyond the world of scientific fact.

My Review:
Received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

This book begins with Thomas being forced to go to church by his girlfriend, Amy, and then immediately after she takes a pregnancy test that comes up positive. Of course they can’t have a baby, and Thomas tells her straight out he knows someone who can get rid of it, and she kicks him to the curb with nothing more than the toothbrush she uses to scrub between the tiles.

A lot of the beginning of the book is spent explaining how brains work. Thomas doing social experiments on his own, then later trying to figure out how the brain perceives god, wondering why that can’t be recreated in a lab, and then creating a sort of “God helmet” and doing more experiments to simulate the feelings of religion. He’s determined to figure out how it works. His father wants him to make something of himself, lie he did, and he’s not going to let everyone watch him fail.

Thomas is curious about those people who think they’re Jesus. He’s met three of them out of nowhere and it goes along well with his study of religion on the brain. He wants to fix these people, and find out what makes them the way they are while he’s doing it. He’s found his break. At first he only wants to do it because of the girlfriend he lost, thinks it will win her back. For selfish reasons. But then his scientific curiosities kick in and this story is just so refreshing and different than all the other books I’ve read lately.

I absolutely loved every bit of this. The ending took a turn I never expected. The characters changed so much throughout the book. It took me a little bit to actually get into it, but once I was I couldn’t put it down. The characters are realistic, the story is interesting and I found myself laughing out loud at some of the things I was reading. I’m so glad I read this book. I definitely recommend checking it out if you get the chance.

Here’s a link to buy the book on amazon.

https://www.amazon.ca/Shoe-Roof-Will-…

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
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Plague Land by Alex Scarrow Review

Plague Land by Alex Scarrow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
Leon and his younger sister Grace have just moved to London from New York when news of an unidentified plague begins to fill the news.

Within a week the virus hits London. People in the streets turn to liquid before their eyes, and what follows is a frantic hunt for a safety which may no longer exist.

A new gripping series from Alex Scarrow.

My Review:
I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

How do you escape an airborne virus? Leon and Grace are trying their best. This specific virus has taken over the world in a matter of days. No one knows what it is or where it came from, even if it’s natural or man made, but whatever it is, it completely turns all soft tissue into liquid. Little do they know, the piles of jelly left behind aren’t just evaporating, they’re crawling off on their own. It’s a hive mind.

Honestly while I was reading this book I kind of thought this was just like any other apocalypse book that has a virus in it, nothing really exciting or special happened and the characters seemed kind of average until about sixty percent of the way through the book. I’m glad I pushed through the first half. It’s changed into something else. The virus wasn’t just mindlessly killing everything in its path. It was learning. It was collecting. It was rebuilding.

Overall I really liked the book when I was finished with it, and if you read it you have to give it a chance, because the first half is a little slow. The characters really learn to adapt throughout the book. The cover is interesting and the story line was exciting once the actual action started. Definitely check it out!

Here’s a link to the authors twitter page if you have any questions!

https://twitter.com/AlexScarrow

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Nirvana (Nirvana #1) by J.R. Stewart Review

Nirvana by J.R. Stewart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
When the real world is emptied of all that you love, how can you keep yourself from dependence on the virtual?

Animal activist and punk rock star Larissa Kenders lives in a dystopian world where the real and the virtual intermingle. After the disappearance of her soulmate, Andrew, Kenders finds solace by escaping to Nirvana, a virtual world controlled by Hexagon. In Nirvana, anyone’s deepest desires may be realized – even visits with Andrew.

Although Kenders knows that this version of Andrew is virtual, when he asks for her assistance revealing Hexagon’s dark secret, she cannot help but comply. Soon after, Kenders and her closest allies find themselves in a battle with Hexagon, the very institution they have been taught to trust. After uncovering much more than she expected, Kenders’ biggest challenge is determining what is real – and what is virtual.

Nirvana is a fast-paced, page-turning young adult novel combining elements of science fiction, mystery, and romance. Part of a trilogy, this book introduces readers to a young woman who refuses to give up on the man she loves, even if it means taking on an entire government to do so.

My Review:
I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

The year is 2086. The world is crumbling. The bees are extinct, there’s almost no water, and food is dwindling. Everyone either lives in bunkers, or the bubble, but only the rich live in the bubble. The air is thick and polluted and stings when you breathe. Virtual reality is taking over the world in the form of Nirvana, here you can sit in a completely immersive room and do literally whatever you want. It’s addicting, and that’s exactly what the company Hexagon wants. To some Nirvana is the best anti anxiety, anti depression medication. You just plug in and you’re weightless, everything making you tense just dissolving as you can do literally anything in the virtual reality. People spend all their hard earned money for Nirvana sessions.

Larissa Kenders, seventeen, is in an animal rights activist band called Sixty Sextet that plays mostly in bars by night, and by day she works at Hexagon recording peoples Nirvana sessions. Her fiancee, Andrew, is the head programmer for Nirvana. People only live to be about forty or fifty these days, and Kenders and Andrew are convinced Hexagon spying on everyone and everything is not for the greater good. Everyone who lives in the bubble uploads their consciousness to the server, making them essentially immortal.

I was sucked into this story from the moment I started reading it. Although I’m not usually a big fan of viewpoint changes, I really liked getting to see both sides of the story like in this book. I loved the characters, they seemed so cool. The story is exciting and I didn’t expect what was happening next. It’s so unlike any of the other dystopia books I’ve read lately. I want to read the next book but it’s not out yet! Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

Here’s a link to buy the book on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.ca/Nirvana-Book-1-…

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
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The Siren Chronicles, Book 1 by Douglas J. Sloan Review

The Siren Chronicles, Book 1 by Douglas J. Sloan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
While leading the clean up of the worst oil spill in California history, Marine Biologist Elias Courtney stumbles upon the unthinkable. The beautiful young woman, washed up on the desecrated beach, tangled in the black seaweed, is still alive, but barely. What would possess someone to enter these black poisonous waters, the cause of so many innocent creatures’ demise?!! For that matter, how IS she still alive? How long has she been under the water? As Courtney would soon find out — her entire life. In fact, this was the young mermaid’s first time on land.

Lorelei with companions, Seanne and Millisine, has travelled a long way to walk these scarred shores. Now separated by the horrific oily mess that only humans could have caused, the three sirens must struggle to stay alive as they attempt to navigate this strange new world. They must reunite and begin the “Earthquest” that is their reason for being on land. Their underwater home is sick, dying off at an alarming rate. And whatever is causing the near extinction of the last remaining mermaid colony, clearly originated from exactly where they find themselves.

Edward Titan had waited decades for this moment. All three have arrived, hopeful and innocent, completely unsuspecting. Soon the ocean’s strongest, smartest and most intuitive sirens will find themselves up against years of festering anger and hatred. Titan’s retribution will be swift and brutal. And it will mean the end of an entire civilization. The Sirens’ Song will soon be no more.

THE SIREN CHRONICLES: BOOK ONE, is the exciting first installment in a series of SIRENS books that will follow these miraculous young heroines across the globe, both above and beneath the ocean. As they try desperately to stave off a psychotic creature bent on destroying the planet, they discover new species, battle old enemies and face challenges they never could have imagined.

My Review:
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

Sirens are intelligent, strong, and beautiful beyond human comprehension. Seanne, the most beautiful of the three, has a fin that changes colour with her moods, and is a fierce warrior. She’s also very passionate about her homeland. Lorelei, although plain looking in comparison of Seanne, has a beautiful singing voice and writes captivating songs she’s a perfectly pitched soprano. Millisine, the youngest of the three by almost a year, but also the most brilliant.

The story follows the three mermaids as the world around them crumbles due to an oil spill among other things. It also follows Dr. Elias Courtney, an environmentalist cleaning up the spill. His life has been pretty normal up until the day he came home from university one day and found that his father had shot his mother six times.

The thing is, the mermaids got separated on their way to the surface to start their quest on dry land. Lorelie finding refuge with a mother and daughter duo who live with an abusive husband, Seanne getting first picked up by a frat house and then arrested by the cops, finding herself in a mental hospital, and Millisine living with Dr. Elias Courtney in his home. They don’t actually get to start their journey together until about 70% of the way through the book.

I really enjoyed reading it, and from the beginning I was hooked. Not many books are about mermaids lately, and the few I have read seemed childish but not this one, I’ve never read anything like this. Although just the beginning of their quest, I definitely want to check out part two. The characters are all different but they seem realistic personality wise, despite them being mythical creatures of the sea. The story is exciting and the world although like our own is a nice change of pace. Definitely check it out if you get the chance!

Here’s a link to buy the book on amazon.

https://www.amazon.ca/Siren-Chronicle…

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
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