I received a copy of this book from Head of Zeus in exchange for an honest review.

Jar Garlath has never gotten over the death of his college girlfriend Rosa who was suspected of taking her own life, and her body was never found. Jar is convinced that Rose may still be alive and has a habit of hallucinating her. But when he sees her, clear as day, at a train station, he knows something's up and it sparks a series of events that leads him down a dark and dangerous path as he tries to get to the bottom of what happened to Rosa.

This book was one crazy ride! Right from the very start, which sees Jar spotting Rosa at the train station, I was hooked! There was something about the writing - the desperation and urgency of both Jar's mission to find Rosa and Rosa's sadness over the father's death and what to do next - that really just grabbed me. This whole book just has your whole body one edge and her heart beating that bit faster as you have no idea of what's going to come around the corner. This is helped by short and snappy chapters which make the book a very fast-paced and easy read.

I really liked Jar as a main character. His feelings for Rosa were very genuine as was his grief for her. He was still clinging onto that bit of her, because he had never had closure due to there being no body. So, it was pretty understandable he would still be cut up over her disappearance/death. I did like that he had tried to move on, he did have relations with other girls - just none that stuck. He was also well aware that he had problems considering he was hallucinating Rose. I liked his friendship with Carl (though this book is the type that makes you suspect every character so I was looking at him suspiciously for a while) and how he was able to be open and honest with him about almost everything. It also might sound weird, but Jar was written in such a way that he felt like a writer. I could completely believe that he was capable of creative and emotive writing from how Monroe built his character in the book.

The ending of the book was just insane. As things started to become unwrapped and it became clearer what the truth about Rosa was, I was just transfixed. It got so dark and twisted, my stomach was really turning at points but I couldn't put the book down.

I will say that I really hated reading the parts during this book that discussed animal testing in labs and some past experiments on animals. I am big into cruelty-free products and this was just upsetting for me to read so I found it hard and anyone who is of a similar mind may also find these bits tough to read (there was nothing too descriptive, it was more the point that it was a reminder there are places that still do this kind of thing and that there were experiments on dogs to test out the 'learned helplessness - that that was a real thing and i hated learning that it had actually happened to innocent creatures.)

This book was a great, fast read though and I definitely recommend to people looking for a new thriller.

Blood for Blood is the sequel to Wolf by Wolf, which told the story of Yael, a young girl living in an alternate version of our world where Germany won the WW2. It's 1956 and Yael now has to deal with the consequences of her actions at the end of Wolf by Wolf. Yael is armed with two new companions is on the flight of her life as she tries to figure what her next step will be to bring down the Fuhrer.

I really enjoyed this one and I do think I enjoyed it more than Wolf by Wolf. There were a lot of things in the first book that left me a bit dissatisfied as Yael just didn't live up to this 'trained assassin' image she was being portrayed as. She definitely improved in this book though she did still annoy me at times - maybe I am just being callous but it's something that really annoys me when a character is an assassin or a trainer fighter/killer and then gets all mopey about actually killing someone. This book was really fast-paced for me and the story took place over the course of about a week I think. I'm glad it wasn't dragged out longer as the timeframe made the story more intense and realistic.

There was something that happened near the end that did shock me a bit and did leave me a little heart-broken but I understand why it was there, I guess. This is the kind of book that you can't expect everyone to have their happily-ever-afters as it is literally war. The twist at the end took me by surprise too and I really loved it, so clever.

3.75 stars

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

In the desert surrounded city of Sharakhai, Çeda is one of the most famous pit fighters, hiding behind her moniker as The White Wolf. Away from the pits, Çeda is attempting to figure out how she can get her revenge on the Twelve Kings, the immortal rulers of the city who were responsible for the death of her mother. Eventually, Çeda uncovers a secret that pave her way to her revenge.

I’ve wanted to read this book for a while and I’m glad I was finally able to get around to it when Bradley Beaulieu kindly provided me with a copy. This book was really great and was just the kind of high fantasy I needed to read more of it, as I feel I probably haven’t read as much as I’ve wanted to recently.

This book was just a great example of good high fantasy. I felt like the world building was really great and Çeda’s stories really provided the reader with what the city was like and all about its histories with the King and how the ordinary people lived. I liked the desert/Middle Eastern type setting and I love how Çeda would often wear a niqab when out and about and I just felt like this was a nice inclusion. It’s one of the reasons I chose the book cover I did on Goodreads rather than the one with her hair long, as I felt like the cover where she’s covering her hair was a lot more connected to the story.

I loved that this was the type of book that despite having a lot of characters and different factions, I was able to remember everyone and know who was who and if they were a part of The Moonless Host, the Blood Maidens, the Silver Spears or the Twelves Kings.

The fight scenes in this book were also great. I loved that it had a gladiator aspect to it with the actual slavery part removed (as far as I’m aware anyway). The people went into the tournaments and fights willingly to win money and I loved hearing about how Çeda got into the pits - though I think I would have liked that backstory a bit earlier in the book.

I wasn’t mad about the relationship between Çeda and Emre. There was something about it that a bit angsty and it was a bit are they/aren’t they and I definitely preferred them as friends. I actually didn’t warm to Emre at all and I found him really annoying! I much preferred Ramahd and thought he and Çeda had way more chemistry together than she and Emre. I felt they were always weirdly awkward, especially for best friends.

The book took me quite a while to read, compared to how long i normally read books. So near the end I did start wondering when it would end and got a bit fed up. I think this was more so because I couldn’t change the font size on my Kindle with the format so I had to read it slower. i did love a lot of what happened near the end and i think the next book has been set up really, really well. I can’t wait to read it.

This Shattered World is the follow up to These Broken Stars which saw Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen become stranded on an island and dealing with some strage sentient beings they called the Whispers. In its sequel, Jubilee 'Lee' Chase and Flynn Cormac live on the planet of Avon but come from different worlds. Jubilee is a ruthless soldier and Flynn a native 'rebel' but when Flynn ends up accidentally kidnapping Jubilee, they stumble across something bigger than them that could change Avon forever.

I loved, loved, loved this. I really enjoyed These Broken Stars and still remember my reaction to that crazy twist ending so I couldn't wait to see what this book brought. This book follows two new characters on a completely different planet but there are subtle links to its prequel. Immediately, I couldn't help but love this book because of its Irish connections. All the natives of the colonised planets and therefore the 'rebels' or the 'Finian' are of Irish descent which meant a whole load of beautiful Irish names, Irish language and shared Irish myths and legends (Niamh, Oisin and Tir Na nOg) that I would have grown up reading and hearing about. But what is great about the Irishness of the book is how Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner managed to weave a connection between the natives of Avon and how they were taken over by the army and denied freedom, schooling, healthcare and deemed terrorists and Ireland's own battle for freedom against the British for...oh just 800 years or so. It was done so well that I'm not sure if anyone non-Irish would pick up on it, but I loved seeing those similarities.

The story itself is great and was really fast-paced. I really warmed to both Jubilee and Flynn straightaway and if there's anything Kaufman and Spooner are great at doing, it's some amazing couples. Just like Lilac and Tarver, Jubilee and Flynn had the air cracking with chemistry all the time. There were some really beautiful quotes in this book too, which I will leave down here:

"He can't take his eyes off the stars, but I can't take mine off his face. I can see the stars reflected in his eyes, can see the wonder of it in the way his mouth open but no sound comes out. His eyes, his face - they're beautiful."

"He could tell me he loved me, but he doesn't know me the way a lover would; he knows the shape of me, though, the curve of my heart, as I know his. He could tell me he doesn't want to lose me, but we're both already lost, and only the tether between us keeps us from drifting out into the black."

"'There are other things this universe had to offer,' says the creature. 'Light. Life. Touch. Sensation. The way you are all made of the same pieces, the same fragments of stardust, and yet you are all so different, all so alone.'"

The ending of the book was really satisfactory and I came out on a high. Absolutely loved every moment of this book and can't wait to read the final book in the trilogy.

I received a copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.

Kate is dealing with a lot as she moves out of her home following the breakdown of her marriage. With three children to support and an ex-husband preoccupied with his new, younger girlfriend and baby she's terrified of what will happen next and then her only daughter Jess is diagnosed with cancer. As Jess gets sicker but the family come together in support, Kate may have to face up to one of the hardest things she will ever have to do - allow her daughter to die.

This book is quite touching and emotional and will definitely leave many people weeping a bit at times (so probably not one to finish on the train home!). The story is quite easy to read and while I found the writing a bit simple at first I got used to it and the story began to flow quite naturally for me. At first I was a but unsure of some of the other POV's added such as Piper's but I got used to them and eventually liked them.

One of my main frustrations in this book was Nick, Kate's ex-husband. Literally everything he did was annoying, frustrating and over the top and he was just the type of character that would make any reader mutter under their breath. Even when Jess was sick, he would go off on one and shout at hospital employees and while I understand why he reacted the way he did at the end, I still hated him. I felt there was very little character development and for the entire book he remained an egotistical, selfish, d-head.

I also would have preferred to not have had to read Bobby's diary - I understand the point of it to see Bobby's side but I'm not sure it was really necessary plus, I didn't really want to read a deliberately misspelled kid writing diary.I actually thought considering how smart Bobby was with a lot of things, his writing and spelling would be good - or at least way better than what it was in the 'diary.'

While, I liked the ending as much as I could like an ending like that I think there would definitely be some people, depending on their own beliefs and feelings about the issue, that might find it very, very hard to read. I personally do not have ill feelings towards what ended up being of the main points of the book and would be an advocate for it, but others might find it more difficult. This is a good book for an emotional read but I would warn people off who may have had close friends or family members ill with cancer or a similar disease and/or those who find it tough to read about children with an illness.

When Han 'Cuffs' Alister takes a magical amulet from a group of teenage wizards, he has no idea the adventure and horror that is soon to be set out for him. Escaping a life as a streetlord, Han is trying to find his place, switching between looking after his family and finding a real home with one of the Clans. Raisa, the princess heir, is also dealing with her own issues as her name day approaches and suitors begin to swarm. Raise and Han's stories will soon collide as war brews on the horizon and wizards begin to wish for more power.

It's a bit hard to properly explain this book in one little summary so even after reading the back of the book, I didn't know what I was getting into. But I'm glad I picked it up as I really liked this book!

From the get go, I found Hans Alister an extremely interesting character. I thought he was a bit shy and unsure as Hunts Alone and then I found out he was former streetlord Cuffs Alister who made people pale in fright. He had so many sides to him and I thought it great the way Williams Chima was able to show us through her writing all the different faces of Han. I felt like there was a little bit of everything in the real Han, the wiles and toughness of Cuffs, the gentler, nature-loving Hunts Alone and then the family-orientated Hans Alister. I loved going into each chapter wondering which Hans I would be reading about.

Raisa on the other is fairly the same throughout but I did like her all the same. She is a typical Princess really, frustrated by her lack of freedom and her lack of knowledge of her people and how they live day to day. I did get frustrated at times with her interactions with Micah, Lord Bayar and her mother. I mean I feel like a lot of the time, so many answers were staring Raisa in the face and she was really, really blind. But I enjoyed her toughness and her tenacity and I mean, come on, she walked straight into a jail to bust out prisoners and basically staged a coup. Love it.

The world building was pretty good. I got a good feel for Raisa's kingdom and learned about the history of the royal family and the Naeming. There was also lots of mentions of other places, with suitors from different kingdoms visiting in order to woo Raisa. I did like Prince Liam and hope he appears again!

I am really looking forward to continuing this series and watch the character's progress in their schooling. Really excited to see how they get on. I'm also intrigued to see what happens between Raisa and Han now too

I mean, I feel like they were attracted to each other despite Amon and Bird, but I guess they are kinda related...basically cousins loads of times removed??

3.5 stars

I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

In 1944, when Dutch girl Noa finds a train cart of dying babies on their way to a concentration camp at a station she works for in Germany, she doesn’t hesitate to make a split decision in grabbing one of them and fleeing with him to safety. Noa and the baby eventually come across a circus where she is employed as an aerialist. She is trained by Astrid, a Jewish woman hiding from the Nazis herself and the two form a bond as they protect each other and the baby from the frightening world around them.

This book was really interesting - it was a circus story and a world war two story all wrapped up into one. I really liked how most of the book, things seemed to be pretty ordinary and almost idyllic with both women describing circus life and the monotony of their tough, daily training regimes but then there would be an inspection and the reader would suddenly remember the setting was wartime Germany. I really liked both characters - they were similar but also different. They both had a resilience that had to be admired but Noa was definitely a bit more gentle and trusting than Astrid.

While I didn’t mind Noa’s relationship with Luc, i felt like it was very insta-lovey. He talked to her all of two and a half times and was telling her he’d never met a girl like her before. Yawn, heard that before.

There were some parts in this book that sometimes seemed a bit improbably but I don’t know a lot of history about circuses and circus travel in WW2 so for all I know life could have been like that.

I do think this book would appeal to fans of The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, though it’s not quite as well written. But it’s also a story of two women struggling to survive the only ways they know how in the wartime while not being directly involved in the war effort. There’s also a fierce friendship and feeling in the book that can’t help but move a reader. I also felt both the beginning and ending of the books (prelude/epilogue) were extremely similar to The Nightingale.

The Exiled Queen is the second book in the Seven Realms series and follows on with the adventures of streetlord Hans 'Cuffs' Alister and Princess Raisa and how their separate journeys continue to evolve and interlap as political situations in the country continue to be fraught in turmoil and uncertainty.

I really, really loved this book and I think part of it is Cinda Williams Chima's writing and that I just love it, but I also just love the world and how she develops her characters. All the characters in this story are so well-rounded and have so many different sides to them and because of that, just seem really human and real. One of the things I loved about The Demon King was how Hans Alister would change between Hans, Hunts Alone and Cuffs and he was so lovely and complicated. This continued in The Exiled Queen except Alister was trying to just be Hans and leave Cuffs on the street but still finding ways he needed to be Cuffs in order to survive. Princess Raisa also developed as her alter-ego Rebecca Morley and we saw much more of her instead of just spoilt, closeted princess.

I loved that we got both magic school and warrior school in this book but neither of them were as simple as you'd think. I really enjoyed seeing how Raisa had to learn finance, history and geography as well as fighting and horseriding as a cadet and Hans needed to know about healing and amulet making as well for his future as a wizard. I thought it was done really cleverly and expertly and made Oden's Ford a lot more realistic in my mind.

I think I might have liked a bit more about Alger Waterlow again and how it will be effecting Hans. I feel like there's still a lot more to the story we're not getting and would have liked a bit more of a deep dive.

Kind of wondered if Crow could somehow be Alger Waterlow? But again, I don't know if Alger is suppose to be good or evil?

I enjoyed seeing Hans and Raisa finally have more interaction and I loved how that went.

I'm so excited to read the rest of this series. It's so good. Also sidenote: I need a novella or something about Fire Dancer because I love him.