Giving this a 1-star without reading it because the author admitted that it's HEAVILY inspired by the Japanese manga Seven Days (i.e., the exact same story). He said he wanted to take that idea and make it more "realistic". Unfortunately, to him, it seems that Japanese culture and how their society addresses LGBTQ+ relationship isn't real enough. Sad that to some people, East Asian voices aren't valid.

Also, the fact that this writer is hashtagging this book as #ownvoices is absolute hypocrisy as he decided HIS voice was more important than the East Asian voice that wrote the original manga.

Seven Days Synopsis:
It is rumored that Touji Seryou, one of the more popular boys at school, would go out with anyone who asks him out on a Monday morning. But on this particular Monday morning, the first person he meets at the school gate is no other than Yuzuru Shino, Seryou’s senpai at the archery club. On a whim, and well-aware of Seryou’s reputation, Shino asks Seryou to go out with him. Thinking that it will be treated as a joke, they’re both guys after all, imagine Shino’s surprise when Seryou takes him up on the offer!

Date Me, Bryson Keller Synopsis:
Everyone knows about the dare: Each week, Bryson Keller must date someone new--the first person to ask him out on Monday morning. Few think Bryson can do it. He may be the king of Fairvale Academy, but he's never really dated before.

Until a boy asks him out, and everything changes.

Kai Sheridan didn't expect Bryson to say yes. So when Bryson agrees to secretly go out with him, Kai is thrown for a loop.

D'aw, my heart!

This was such a fantastic read about a dog from a not so great home and a boy who's home is being broken teaching each other to heal. A very simple read with a lot of heart.

I really enjoyed this little book!

Someone (on my old attempt at this blog) recommended this series to me. As the page said, I’m opened to suggestions, and so I took it. And I’m totally glad I did.

Yelena is a prisoner. She was arrested for murder and sentenced to execution. However, she has been listed as ‘next in line to be executed’, and the Commander’s food taster had just passed away. Now she has been offered the chance to live with just the CHANCE of dying instead of the guarantee. Trying to rid the ghosts (literally) of her past from her life, she finds herself stuck in the middle of an attempt to take over Ixia. Slowly growing into what she thinks are magic powers, which are forbidden in Ixia, Yelena has to decide whether she’ll run for her life, to the safety of Sitia, the southern land, filled with magicians, or work with the badass, good-looking, magician murdering assassin Valek to uncover the person behind the takeover.

Yelena is a strong willed, tough, pretty kick-ass female lead. And I really loved this book because of the action, and the connection between the characters. The mystery was pretty good too. The threat of death at any second. It was definitely a riveting book that kept me captivated (and interested) from beginning to end!

I really am glad that I took the recommendation, because I’ve found, yet another, series I like (well it’s a trilogy… eh). There’s your action fix, but there’s that hint of romance that everyone expects, but likes anyways, haha. Best book of the trilogy (in my opinion… in the other books she just wasn’t as kick-ass, but they were still good !)

Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
World Building: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
GoodReads Rating: 4.20/5

-review by Between Printed Pages

Yelena has made it to Sitia. She has reunited with her family... and yet she finds herself feeling like Ixia's more of a home than the one that has waited for her in Sitia. As she begins to hone her powers, she finds out more about herself and the rarity of her type of magic.

This was a pretty good book too~ Yelena is still as strong as ever, but her magic has caused her to falter in her steps. Though she has learned more about herself and her new found family, she finds herself even more isolated than before. I'm glad that Snyder found a way to put her motley crew back in because I love them, haha. The people in Sitia... there aren't too many to like. For such a closely knitted society the people and their feelings toward Yelena drove me insane. Otherwise, quite a good book~

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
World Building: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
GoodReads Rating: 4.08/5

-review by Between Printed Pages

Now this is where most of the action SHOULD happen. There's betrayal, hurt, anger, and actually a fair amount of action. However, at this point, Yelena's trying to deal with the idea of being a Soulfinder, the only one in the past 125 years (though many 'Soulfinders' were actually Soulstealers, so...) and now the rebel Sandseed clan is trying to take over Sitia. But who's their leader? And how can Yelena and her friends defeat someone who they don't know?

Exciting, action packed, and yet mildly irritating. Don't get me wrong, I burned through this book like fire (haha...see what I did there? (yeah, I'm a loser)), but Yelena was so irritating. She has this insane power and instead of exploring it, she shuts it out. I noticed that as the trilogy progressed, she was getting more needy, more dependent on others (though that might just be building trust, but I liked the independant Yelena), and less confident in both fighting and magic. I hate those needy female leads, and in this one, she was edging on it. However, the awesomeness of her friends slightly made up for her lacking character. I really liked the end of the trilogy though. Not the VERY end per say [ ;) ] but the resolution of all these issues. I definitely didn't expect the bad guy to be the bad guy (it was unexpected... and yet not, haha).

Something that I really loved Snyder for doing is creating novellas. Assassing Study was book 1.5 while Power Study was book 3.5 and Ice study was listed as book 3.6/4. It was nice being able to catch up on the characters after the series was finished and kind of kept the world alive.

It was a great series and I do recommend it. In the end, it was a good series, and it definitely keeps you thinking of it long after you've finished.

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
World Building: 5/5
Cover: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
GoodReads Rating: 3.96/5

-review by Between Printed Pages