Beauty is the key to the crown. Two twin sisters. One who dreams about traveling and seeing the world, the other just wants to be with her family and true love. One scarred, the other, not a single blemish. This is a story about Nor (Coral) and Zadie (Pearl), two twin sisters who live in a village in which only the most beautiful girl is sent to marry the prince. Nor has a tiny scar on her face that sets her apart from her sister and marks her as less beautiful ( apparently). However, Zadie is adamant about not going and staying behind to marry her true love, decides to scar herself to take herself out of the running completely ( and good for her, I definitely thought “balls of steel on this lady”). So Nor is sent in her stead and what she begins to learn is that everything she thought that was pleasant about being sent to marry a prince is definitely turned on its head. It doesn’t help that she falls in love with the prince’s brother Talin, after about 3 conversations with him ( I honestly did not see the chemistry between these two and they barely interacted ). Now, onto our antagonist, Prince Ceren, I’m going to be honest and say he was my favorite character in this entire book. Off the bat I was very intriuged by him. He is a bit unhinged, creative in his endeavors, and sympathetic once you understand where he’s coming from. I actually found him to be quite funny and I honestly did like him. His circumstances are understandable and the reasoning behind his madness is understandable. Yes, he isn’t exactly the nicest person but honestly I could see where he was coming from. I was holding out for the enemies to lovers between him and Nor, as they had more chemistry from my point of view but that did not pan out. They definitely had great banter and there were moments where I liked them together. Nor, was a bit naive and disillusioned for my taste, she was strong and I give her major points for her bravery but some of her decisions I just found myself shaking my head and saying “ GIRL GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME. THINK” a majority of her decisions had me wanting to scream at her to try and think. Talin on the other hand was a barely fleshed out character and suddenly by 80% in he is all over the place. All in all the story was interesting, I definitely read this for Prince Ceren and well, knowing that there is a sequel I am curious to see where the story continues.

Here we are again, this is the sequel and finale to Crown of Coral and Pearl. The story picks up where we left off with Nor returning home after stabbing Prince Ceren. Unfortunately for her but fortunately for us Prince Ceren has survived! ( I was genuinely so happy my favorite character survived haha, you really can’t keep a bad bitch down). Nor, now facing the fact that her sister’s boyfriend Sami is missing and that Ceren is after her, must now embark on another journey. This time she is accompanied by Talin and her Zadie. We are also introduced to a new character, Roan, aka the random love interest that is supposed to create a love triangle between Nor and Talin. A majority of this book is spent with Nor struggling with her feelings of feeling trapped by Talin and not know what to do with her future. We are also introduced to Talin’s family and how his mother plays into the political situation in the story. Ceren doesn’t really make an appearance until about 40% into the book and thats when things start to actually pick up, after consuming Nor’s blood he is now connected to her and they both have been seeing visions of each other. Ceren still is a sympathetic villain to me and honestly, he still remains my favorite character out of everybody in this duology. Sadly, the story wasn’t as interesting as the first book but still was a nice way to conclude the journey of the characters. The first book was much more focused and had a more stake driven plot with Nor trying to survive the palace, while this one was much more of a road journey story about Nor and co trying to reach a destination and than trying to sort out the political drama amongst all of them. All in all this was a fine way to end the series and I was so happy to get to read more about Ceren!

*Thank you Netgalley and Inkyard Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Here we go, the sequel to Havenfall. The story picks up where the previous one ended, with our protagonist Maddie facing the aftermath of the Silver Prince and her uncle Marcus recovering. The plot starts off pretty better than the previous story but fades by the time we reach the end and suddenly it abruptly ends. I was honestly surprised when I finished reading the e-arc and was greeted with the acknowledgements page. The story abruptly ends and left me feeling like there should have been more chapters wrapping up what was even happening. As opposed to the previous novel being about a murder in a inn, this one is about Maddie’s journey into a new land, a heist, a prison break, and a final battle that just ends. This story felt a bit unfinished. If I’m being honest this one left me feeling even more underwhelmed than by the previous book. The story has so much potential to be so much more but sadly it just did not work for me and wraps up in a way that is unsatisfactory. The characters aren’t expanded further and there isn’t really any growth in them. I found the weird love triangle between Maddie, Brekken ( her childhood friend/ soldier), and Taya ( Maddie’s not adopted brother’s sister) to be unnecessary and a bit odd. Maddie constantly flipping between her feelings was kinda of irritating especially when she clearly was in a relationship with one of them and not with the other. Maddie’s character kinda grated on me more than it did in the previous book, the decisions that she makes throughout certain situations had me asking myself “ should this powerful and all important inn really be left in her hands???” If I’m being honest, you could have just read the first book and left it off there. All in all, this was on par with the first book, but I honestly prefer the first book. The story was okay but considering this is the final in the duology it seems a bit lacking in the end. If you like the first book than maybe you’ll enjoy this one, but sadly it didn’t work for me.

* Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA Children's Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review *

A beautifully illustrated story about the joys of winter. The artwork was absolutely charming and I loved the interweaving aspects of winter from the woodland creatures, to the fun activities of winter in this book! I think this would make a wonderful winter read for kids!

This was definitely a strange and different werewolf love story. There is a baker, a amnesia riddled movie star, a husband who faked his death, and werewolves on the loose. All of these tied together to make a romance story.

An anonymous love advice locker and two people who run into each other at the exact wrong time, what could go wrong? The story follows Darcy Phillips, a highschooler who runs a side business of giving love advice to anyone for just $10 and it all has to be done anonymously through a letter in a defunct locker. Too bad for Darcy, she gets caught by Alexander Brougham, who is willing to blackmail and pay Darcy to help coach him get his ex back. And so begins one very quirky and very cute love story. Darcy has been in love with her best friend Brooke since forever and can’t seem to ever make it work. Brougham challenges Darcy and she finds herself really looking at what she’s doing and maybe seeing that Brougham isn’t as cold and rude as he seems. I adored the enemies to friends to maybe something else that was between Darcy and Brougham. They had so much chemistry and they had adorable and such sweet bonding moments. Darcy is part of the LGBTAQ club at her school and her feelings and fears on biphobia really touched me. I had so much fun reading this book and watching the bond between Darcy and Brougham grow was just the best! I would highly recommend this for anyone looking for a fun and great romance story!

THIS IS SO CUTE!! I absolutely adore it! The romance is perfection. I can't stop gushing about this. The drawings are cute and the puns? They slay me. This is such a great cute read. PLEASE CHECK IT OUT!

I have always enjoyed reading Lang Leav’s poetry and this one is just as beautiful as the other books. My favorite poem from this was “Grief”, I found it absolutely touching. The other poems were really great and if you love any of their previous works you’ll definitely enjoy this!

A beautiful book of poems about grief. Each poem is touching and truly beautiful. I really enjoyed reading this and could relate to a lot of the grief in these poems. I would highly recommend this selection of poetry for anyone who enjoys poetry!

*Thank you Netgalely for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*