I loved this story!!! I found myself completely lost in the world of Ren Crown and her days at the magic school - it will not be what you expect. Her mini-adventures and other student mages that she meets are just amazing, I loved them all - ever the ones I hated.
Ren is a great character. What I like best about her is how real she seems. Her guilt and grief over the death of her brother, her confusion when she first realizes magic does exist, and her reaction to a secret crush is just adorable. She may be a powerful mage, but she really knows nothing about magic. Her method of trying it all gets her some interesting predicaments and she's quite clever at working around them. Her way of working out problems was quite genius and I loved seeing her thought process and she worked through it all.

She accumulates an odd group of friends. They all are very unique themselves and the way she managed to bind the group together was a lot of fun. I'm not sure I've seen such a hodge podge of personalities get along so well!

There is lots of adventure, magic gone right, and magic gone wrong. Ren can never be sure who might be aligned with the bad guys. There are times I'm not even sure if she's trusting the right people. But it all seems to work out in a crazy magical way. I hope to get my hands on book two soon!

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review.

Quite an interesting turn of events for Mac in this one. In fact, we don't pick up from her point of view. Instead be get to see through the eyes of another sidhe-seer as Mac descends into madness. A good chunk of this book is Barrons trying to snap her out of it - but his methods are far from traditional. And while I applaud his originality and ability to stick with it for sooooo long, it was really soooooo long and I got a little sick of it. But that is just the first section of the book.

The walls are gone - no more - zip - nadda - gone, and both Seelie and Unseelie are roaming the world freely. This leads to some very big what the hell moments because things are seriously messed up. I really enjoyed seeing Mac explore this new world and adapt to it as things kept getting thrown her way.

This wasn't my favorite of the series - mostly because I want more fighting Mac and less, well, the Mac at the beginning of the book.

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I am so in love with this series. I love the characters and the way the various other entities interact with them. They are all brought into the modern world and to life with such amazing personalities and motivations. Lily is a dancer - yes the exotic type that uses a pole. But she doesn't do it just because it's a good way to make money. The music calls to her and if she doesn't dance she will probably go crazy. Her life changes on her 21st birthday when some very interesting men enter her life.

Brodie and Zev are about as different as they could possible be. It's to be expected when one is an angel and the other a demon. But they both want Lily. She is a very special person with some tough decisions to make. As her life is turned upside down, she is thrown into a spiral of confusion that was incredibly well written. She knows what she wants to decide, she just needs to find the courage to do so - and stay out of all the traps set to keep her where she doesn't want to be.

There were lots of surprises in this book as her lineage is slowly revealed. I loved exploring all the skeletons in the closet of Hades' and Persephone's family. There are quite a few of them, and we all love a good bit of juicy gossip. The end was a fantastic adventure with just enough action to get my heart racing paired with some wonderful moments of true love.

The characters in the series are so real, I almost expect to run into them on the street some day. It just seems natural that they are a part of the "real world" and we just don't know it yet.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

I generally love a good sci-fi dystopia, but this one fell a little flat for me. It got off to a great start, but I quickly stopped enjoying Illyria's sarcastic attitude that seemed to pervade every conversation she had. Her first trip to the city left me tons of questions - in a good way - it was very well done. But I disliked Bastian as well. He became far too brooding and moody for my tastes. Eamon, on the other hand, just never seemed to get it. There was no development, and I felt very little emotion from him.

The love triangle seems neverending. I don't mind a little hesitation or conflict between what is confortable and what is new and exciting, but Illyria seems to choose wrong every step of the way. And what's worse is she seems to know it! But just keeps going anyways! I really couldn't relate to her at all.

The world building was a lot of fun. I loved the conflict with the aliens and the history that we learn as the story continues. It was quite fascinating. It's just hard to enjoy a story when you can't seem to like the main characters.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

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This was a fun and entertaining collection of short stories. There were some that stood out from the other and some that fell a little short, but over all I really enjoyed it.

A couple of my favorites:

Perilous Windows of Time - although I may be a little biased. I love all of Charlotte Bronte's work and see her come to life in a fun short story was great! Her time traveling was a lot of fun, and her reaction to the present was genuine. Even though it was a short story, there was good development and I just really enjoyed it.

Demon Days - an interesting and fun story about what might happen if a demon got lose at a book fest. I loved the little minions and Abby's attitude through the whole thing. The side characters had a good dose of personality and it was just a great mix of paranormal with a little bit of laughs.

The remaining stories were not bad, they just didn't stand out like these two did.

Another fun addition to the Lake Morgan Book Fest short story anthology - only this one is a little hotter. There's quite a variety of quick romance-style short stories in this one. Again, some really stood out and I loved them, while a couple fell a little flat.

Here's a couple of my favorites:

Lucy Charm: This was an amazing story - my favorite of the bunch. A good dose of awkward girl meets a strange man from the past - or the present - it's one of those where things seem to mix and merge and I was never 100% sure. But that was part of the fun of reading it. I different take on the one night stand genre that I really enjoyed.

The Gift: More of a romance in the traditional sense. I really fell in love with Rachel from the get go, she was a great character. And while I had a harder time with Ian, in the end he was a great guy - just a bit one dimensional. He is quite the gentleman when the two of them get stuck in the basement - I sure wouldn't mind being stuck down there with him!

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

A very exciting conclusion to the Red Rising Trilogy - with lots of surprises. I wasn't sure how Pierce Brown was going to find a way out of the ending to Golden Son, but find a way he did. Darrow is back and so are the Sons, but neither of them is the same. Things are quickly escalating out of control and plans need to be made to finish this fight.

But what a fight it is. Stretching from the far reaches of occupied space, Earth, the moons, and on board the ships - the fighting is everywhere. Some of these battles are quite complex with multiple layers of attack - so make sure you pay attention. Every move is important. Every word has meaning. Every person has their fate (and I didn't like all of them). Darrow ingenuity and way of thinking will be very important and could either win or lose the war for them.

The ending was a bit of a surprise. While I had some suspicions it may head in a similar direction, it took quite an about-face at the last minute and left me quite surprised at the maturity of a small boy. I was sad to see the saga end - I have grown to love all the characters and will miss hearing of their adventures and schemes. But the ending was very satisfying as well.

- See more at: http://www.hotofftheshelves.com/2016/04/morning-star-by-pierce-brown-review.html#sthash.Tk89quc5.dpuf

Quite a fun version of a Steampunk Cinderella tale. Finette is an inventor and tinkerer whose only dream is to fly in the big airship race. But in true Cinderalla fashion, her step-family stand in her way at every turn. I really enjoyed Finette - she had just the right amount of attitude and needed just the right amount of help for me to keep cheering for her.

Her prince charming was a little different - I loved the way they met, and you know right away that they will end up together. You just aren't sure how it's going to happen. The two played nicely off each other and I really liked how they interacted.

My biggest complaint was Finette's father - he just didn't sit right with me at all. I never understood how he acted at all. Her friend and fellow pilot was amazing though. She'd make a great character for her own little romance.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

I love Maggie! She is exactly like I would want to be in a werewolf military romance story. I loved her attitude, her computer nerdiness, and how she wasn't some drop dead gorgeous blond bombshell. She was just her regular tom-boyish self. Luther was just the right mix of uptight jerkwad and concerned bad boy. Once his eyes are opened about the truth of Rossi's organization, he will have to make quite a lifechanging decision.

There is tons of action in this ad we finally get a glimpse of Rossi's full organization and just how twisted he really is. So much happened in the book and a couple times I did get my wolves mixed up a little bit, but in the long run it was just an excellent addition/continuation to the series. You can just feel how close they are to getting their bad guy - but they just haven't quite gotten there yet.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*