Morning Star by Pierce Brown

Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.

Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

4 STARS 

I have to get this off my chest first. When I got halfway or a little more than halfway (hell I don't know) through the book I wanted to toss it!



and then I wanted to jump into the book with my clones and take them all out!



and then the way things were done and the way someone was ripped apart and then the ending I was like okay fine.


Soooooooooooooooooooooooo, I'm not going to say what led me to all of these issues. <--- whatever you want to call them. I think I'm getting more picky with my books the more I read. I don't know, but things are getting to me and something will make me mad and the whole set of books will go to the trade in store box.

Moving on. In the beginning there is a good amount of torture that happened to one of our main characters. They were finally saved about a year later. I didn't like how was of the saviors was killed because of stupidity, but that is neither here nor there.

There was a death that I wasn't happy with at all and I would have traded that death for another in the crew, but that's neither here nor there either.

The ending was pretty sweet though, I mean I can't deny that and if you have read or do read the book then you will or know what I'm talking about. Pax. . . .

I wanted to slap about a million people just getting to the end game though! Accept Sevro, his wit made the book awesome. =)

I have to say again, the death of one of the evil people was sooooooooooo good. I could re-read that over and over! And the death of another evil person was pretty good too. No one helped them die <-- only the ones that have read this will know what I mean by that unless you forgot :-D

Either way, good ending. 

GOODREADS REVIEW: 

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1937050697

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation.

Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within.

A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices. @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

4 STARS 

Can I just take a moment to give credit to this wonderful ending ↓



I can't even right now!

Okay, lets move on to a little bit of a more sedate review. First off I love Sevro, Ragnar and Mustang and I swear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I can't even write this review! This book is all over the place with everything!

Blowing people up in space, bloody battles, stupidity, more people being blown up here and there and everywhere! People you like getting killed. People you don't like that you want to beat into the ground!

Let me just add some random excerpts that have to do with Darrow and Sevro and stuff!

I explode through the bridge like a ball of lead shot into a store of china and glass. I crash into displays and strategy desks before blasting through the reinforced metal of the bridge walls, through the steel of the hallways till at last I slam bodily into a bulkhead a hundred meters through and past the bridge. Dazed. Can't find Sevro. I call him over the com. He groans something about his ass. Maybe he did shit himself.

Okay, so here is a moment that Darrow and Sevro had together after finding out a revelation. It brought a tear to my eye for reasons, there's always reasons people. Well, the tear to my eye came after the first part and some stuff and then the other stuff =D

Sevro spits in my face, right under the eye. "Guess wrong again and I leave you like this." He snaps his fingers. "I will not come back. I will not help you. I will not bleed for you. I will not sacrifice my friends for a man who doesn't give enough of a shit about me to put his neck out just once. Trust goes both ways, Darrow. This time you have to take a leap."

shfosehgsoihgsiodhfsidfhsifh some stuff and. . .

He can't say any more because I'm hugging him and crying. I sob and hold on to him, shaking, scaring him. He doesn't move except to pat me on the head. All the weight falls from my shoulders. Someone knows. He knows and he's here. He knows and he came to help me. To help me. I can't stop shaking and saying thank you. Eo was right. I was right. "You are my friend," I tremble out like a child. It almost makes him cry seeing me this way.

I'm done here people, I can't after that part again! On to Morning Star!

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1934976883

Kindle Sales ~ Wings of War Series by Karen Ann Hopkins

The first three books in this series are on Kindle Unlimited if you have that option. Otherwise, I'm listing the prices as of today: March 9, 2017 =) 

Embers is  99 cent's on kindle today! 

 There are descendants of angels walking among us. Ember is one of them.

Embers is an epic paranormal adventure/romance about a seventeen year old girl who discovers that she's immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents. Following a violent episode with her aunt's boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember's exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she learns that she's a Watcher, a descendant of angels.

While Ember is instructed about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two teenagers who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the young men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it's cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war that's been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil, and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She may be one of the few champions willing to make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.

Embers is the first novel in the dark and gritty YA paranormal romance series, The Wings of War. @goodreads 

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Embers-Wings-War-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00NABBTHY?_bbid=3172307&tag=bookbubemailc-20

Gaia is free on kindle today!

Watchers and Angels are at war. Which side will Ember choose?

Humankind is on the precipice of the apocalypse.

As the Demons grow bolder and the walls between the planes of existence weaken, Ember is forced to develop her powers as quickly as possible, and she seeks out a powerful earth Watcher to continue her supernatural lessons. Her glimpse of the future demands she fight the dark forces spreading across the earth.

But her new mentor has his own agenda, making her question everyone and everything she ever trusted.

When Ember is thrust into the world of the Watchers, she learns of their plans—ones that defy the scripture and make them enemies of the Celestial Host. Ridding the world of evil gets complicated when it becomes impossible to take sides.

As Ember struggles with morality, she soon discovers that there’s something more frightening than anything she’s faced before. @goodreads 


AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013EJM84O/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Tempest is $3.99 on Kindle Today. 

Ember must stop the apocalypse from happening, but at what cost?

The Angels of destruction have arrived, and only Ember stands in the way of their mission to carry out God’s wrath and annihilate His enemies.

When the barrier between celestial creatures and humans beings is broken and Angels descend to Earth, Ember soon learns there’s a fine line between good and evil. As she faces a world full of monsters and magic, a terrifying darkness rises and threatens to destroy everything she’s fighting for.

In the riveting third installment of The Wings of War series, Ember and her friends embark on an epic journey, where unlikely allies are forged and age-old beliefs crumble to dust. And just when Ember accepts love in her life, it’s ripped away from her in the most terrifying way possible. @goodreads 

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BDN5KD4/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

I haven't read these books yet but I couldn't pass up sharing the prices with everyone. And, like I said, they are also on Kindle Unlimited so you don't have to buy them at all if you are in that program. 

Enjoy! ♥

 

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

With this stunning debut novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver emerged as one of today's foremost authors of young adult fiction. Like Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and Gayle Forman's If I Stay, Before I Fall raises thought-provoking questions about love, death, and how one person's life can affect so many others.

For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.

However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined. @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

2 STARS 

I am not going for these evil •sshole girls on here!



I cringed and raged through most of the book. I didn't give a rat's •ss about these evil girls. The worse was Lindsay to me.

The only reason I have the book 2 stars is because Sam redeemed herself after all of the days she relived. She went back and did all of the right things. Whether it was all a dream or something, I don't know but she did good in the end. The very end was bittersweet in it's own way.

But, going through the books and hearing all of the things the girls did to other people, because they were bullies, was just sick. I hate bullies so freaking much and the book has to blow my mind in order for me to love a book with them in it. This one just didn't.

I'm not going to go on and on about it. I'm so glad that sooooooooooooo many of my friends loved the book with the exception of a few =) 

I'm not scared, if that's what you're wondering. The moment of death is full of sound and warmth and light, so much light it fills me up, absorbs me: a tunnel of light shooting away, arcing up and up and up, and if singing were a feeling it would be this, this light, this lifting, like laughing. . .

The rest you have to find out for yourself.

 
GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1421270769

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

The #1 New York Times bestseller and sequel to Steelheart—a novel that James Dashner called “fantastic.” Brandon Sanderson, the author of Words of Radiance, coauthor of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and creator of the internationally bestselling Mistborn trilogy, presents the second book in the Reckoners series: Firefight. And don’t miss Calamity, the exciting conclusion to the Reckoners series available now!
    David Charleston has lived for one purpose: to kill Steelheart, the supremely powerful, seemingly invincible Epic who murdered his father. Now Steelheart is dead and David is beginning to question everything that he—and the world—understands about the superhumans they call Epics.
    David’s suspicions are the reason he follows Prof to the flooded city once known as New York. But what he finds there could be what ultimately ends him. The truth might just burn deepest of all. . . . @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

4 STARS 

BRANDON SANDERSON



David and the crew is back, although some of them take a back seat in this book because a few go to Babylon Restored.

David, Tia, Prof are the ones that go and leave Abraham and Cody behind with Edmund. I love Abraham and Cody so much.

Anyhoo, the crew are going to meet with some other Reckoners to try to take out Regalia. She's another epic that wants to cause trouble since the death of you know who. She has an epic named Obliteration who is super bad and there are some other randoms.

I forgot to say our crew meets up with Val, Mizzy and Exel (the other reckoners) and there is an underwater bunker thing and it's awesome.

Regalia herself deals in water so this is a great water epic. What fun it was! Although, Obliteration is blowing everything up for her so it's like water meets fire!

And Megan (Firefight) is in the city as well and things are looking up. Yassssssssssssssss!

There are some revelations! Are there not always revelations? There are some deaths. Aren't there noalways some deaths? There were some good times and bad times. I'm not going to ask again =)

I loved this book and I was so happy to have Megan back - BUT - I really hope one of the bad things doesn't stay a bad thing in the next book. <--- I'm always sooooooo cryptic, or stupid, however you want to look at it =D

Anyway, I love Sanderson, I'm loving this trilogy and I hope all goes well in Calamity! 

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1931560107

Fatemarked by David Estes

In the spirit of fantasy epics like George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, The Fatemarked Epic promises immaculate world building, an ancient prophecy, a mysterious source of magic, interesting characters, war, political intrigue, and romance.

The Hundred Years War has ravaged more than three generations of kings, queens, and citizens across the Four Kingdoms. Corrupt rulers dominate. Religious intolerance runs rampant. The cycle of vengeance continues to turn with the seasons.

An ancient prophecy by a legendary oracle has been long forgotten. The prophecy promises the return of peace to the Four Kingdoms on the backs of a chosen few, the fatemarked, individuals marked at birth and blessed with specific magical powers. One shall be the Kings’ Bane, and will bring death to the warmongering rulers, using fear to force peace; another shall be the Peacemaker, bestowed with the rare ability to heal. Opposite sides of the same coin, dark and light, death and life, the Kings’ Bane and the Peacemaker are responsible for the fate of an entire continent.

As they fight to achieve their destinies, adversity will hinder them in every realm: in the frozen north, assassination attempts and a brutal power struggle; in the holy west, a vicious queen and her self-righteous army of warriors; in the mysterious iron-clad forest of the east, revenge and glory rule the day; and in the southern empires of Calyp and Phanes, maturing dragons, slaves, and a civil war.

To truly fulfill the oracle’s prophecy of peace, both the Kings’ Bane and the Peacemaker, as well as the other fatemarked, will need to overcome those who seek to destroy everything in their pursuit for power. @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

What is it that comes rolling across the plains to kill



Okay, there are so many characters in the book. It's not really confusing because we go back in forth through each little groups journey which eventually connects them all in one shape or form.

We have:

1) Bane
2) Roan
3) Gwen
4) Grease
5) Annise
6) Arch
7) The Armored Knight / Arme/Tarin
8) Sir Dietrich
9) Zelda
10) Sir Drunk Craig
11) Rhea
12) Bear Blackboots

Okay, so there are a lot more but these are the ones I like the most.

Actually, I absolutely loved, Annise and The Armored Knight (Tarin). Annise is bad to the bone and I loved that the author added a plus sized hero to the book. I mean she's always talking down about herself looking like a pear, etc. But she can kick major butt! And The Armored Knight gets on to her about this, he is sent to protect her. The Armored Knight is bad to the bone himself and um, (I have a little crush on him) There is a mystery about him but I won't even let that slip, it's something you need to read for yourself.

Annise and Arch are brother and sister and when something happens, they need to take over as King and Queen. <--- another bunch of stuff you will have to read.

There are people in this world that are marked with different abilities and they are called "Fatemarked." Most of these people are put to death or used in other ways.

The book goes back and for talking about war with the other people since something out there is killing off all of the important people. So the other important people are trying to get a foot in the door until they are killed off. lol <--- I'm great at explaining things :-D This is how I go about not giving out spoilers, I make it so confusing you have to read the book to see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, there is a revelation later on about the thing that is killing people and I knew it!!!! I knew where that was going, but it took me a little bit. It is sooooooooo good, but nobody better not kill off Tarin or Annise or I will crack some heads!

I really do enjoy the other groups of people too but the group with Annise in it is so much better. Her and Tarin make the whole book for me. Oh, and the fatemarked people and all they can do is really cool, well maybe not so much all of the gifts.

I look forward to what else we have in store and I hope Annise and Tarin kick major butt!

GOODREADS REVIEW:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1933035664

Les MIserables by Victor Hugo

Introducing one of the most famous characters in literature, Jean Valjean—the noble peasant imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread—Les Misérables ranks among the greatest novels of all time. In it, Victor Hugo takes readers deep into the Parisian underworld, immerses them in a battle between good and evil, and carries them to the barricades during the uprising of 1832 with a breathtaking realism that is unsurpassed in modern prose. Within his dramatic story are themes that capture the intellect and the emotions: crime and punishment, the relentless persecution of Valjean by Inspector Javert, the desperation of the prostitute Fantine, the amorality of the rogue Thénardier, and the universal desire to escape the prisons of our own minds. Les Misérables gave Victor Hugo a canvas upon which he portrayed his criticism of the French political and judicial systems, but the portrait that resulted is larger than life, epic in scope—an extravagant spectacle that dazzles the senses even as it touches the heart. @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

3 STARS 

I'm in the minority unfortunately. I thought the book was okay. I was hoping it would blow my mind and be a favorite like The Count Of Monte Cristo, as I was afraid of that book too, but alas, it was not =(



I might as well put the ole spoilers tag up on here! Oh and even though Jean's name will be changed in the book, I'm sticking with Jean so I won't get all messed up!



FANTINE

1)An Upright Man
2) The Fall
3) In The Year 1817
4) To Trust Is Sometimes To Surrender
5) The Descent
6) Javert
7) The Champmathieu Affair
8) Counter-Stroke

I worry at times when reading classic books because I feel I won't understand a lot of them. And some I haven't. Come to think of it, I have read books that aren't classic and never understood them and still loved them. I'm strange, I know.

I felt the same way when I went into The Count of Monte Cristo. I was so worried I wouldn't get it enough to like it and uh, it's one of my favorite books to date!

Les Mis has given me some trouble during the first of the book. I have felt like I'm not going to like it too much and then there would be parts that I just loved. So we shall see when I finish it awhile from now.

I really liked M. Myriel, he was a very nice man. I mean just because he's a man of the cloth doesn't mean he will be nice but he was and I loved him. It was sad when he died.

Jean Valjean was a prisoner of 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to try to feed his sister and her seven children. They don't care if people or kids starve to death and going to jail for 19 years. Wow! Jean only heard of news one time of his sister and the youngest child working and going to school. No one knows what became of the rest of the children.



After the 19 years Jean was let out on parole. He couldn't find a place to take him in for the night and feed him. He had money but they didn't want a criminal in their inns. But he came upon M. Myriel who was a Bishop at the church. (if I have it all correctly) He let Jean have a bed for the first time in years, gave him food and was very kind to him. In turn, Jean stole away in the night with the silverware. But being the kind man M. Myriel was he didn't press charges when the coppers dragged Jean back. He did tell something to Jean that made him change his ways.

The bishop approached him and said, in a low voice. "Do not forget, ever, that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.

Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of any such promise, stood dumbfounded. The bishop had stressed these words as he spoke them. He continued, solemnly, "Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying from you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!"

Jean was a changed man after this and it was good.

Next is the story of Fantine. This broke my heart! Fantine and some of her so called friends had suitors and they all thought they were going to be together and get married, all of the wonderful things. But it was not so. The men left the woman with nothing. Fantine was left with child and her so called friends all went separate ways.

Fantine had to leave little Cosette at a home until she got enough money to get her. The home was a fake and they were rude and horrible people. Fantine sent them money to keep Cosette. Year after year she sent money. She worked for Jean who had a different name and owned a business. Sadly for Fantine she was fired because of some jerk workers and Jean never knew about it.

Fantine was forced to sale her hair, some of her teeth and become a whore so Cosette would be okay.



One day Fantine was taken to jail for scratching a jerk man. Jean found her there and took her to the hospital. He saved her from being put in prison, but unfortunately she had a disease and would not live. He made a promise to find Cosette. It was so very sad that she had to live the life she did and never see her daughter ever again. She was thrown away........

COSETTE

1) Waterloo
2) The Ship Orion
3) Fulfillment Of The Promise Made To The Departed
4) The Old Gorbeau House
5) A Dark Chase Requires A Silent Hound
6) Petit-Picpus
7) Cemeteries Take What Is Given Them

Soooooooooooooooo, I wasn't feeling this one as much until it got to Jean & Cosette.

Jean found Cosette carrying a heavy water bucket and asked her many questions. He found out she was the girl she promised Fantine he would take care of, her daughter.



Jean watched how the couple were treating Cosette because he was staying at their Inn. He as livid and so was I at the way Cosette was treated. Jean told them he was taking her away with him, paid them money (overcharged) for his stay there. Oh, and I loved when he went out and bought her a most expensive doll for her alone because only the owners two daughters got toys to play with, it was so bitter sweet.

They stayed on the run for a time. Jean was always on the run on and off as he's always wanted. He can never shake that freaking, Javert.

Jean and Cosette ending up staying with a man Jean had saved awhile back. Jean worked in the little garden.

Jean, who had lost all thoughts of loving anything when he was in prison. He was a hard man with no love, no anything. But then he felt a spark that grew and grew for Cosette, his daughter, for that's what she became. So sweet.

His whole heart melted in gratitude and he loved more and more.
Several years went by like this. Cosette was growing up.

Unfortunately, I'm not liking this book as much as I would have hoped. I love the parts with Jean and Cosette and hope that there will be more and I will at least love it just enough.

*The rest of the sections and books in the book I was reading.*

Marius

1) Paris Atomized
2) The Grand Bourgeois
3) The Grandfather And The Grandson
4) The Friends Of The ABC
5) The Excellence Of Misfortune
6) The Conjunction of Two Stars
7) Patron-Minette
8) The Noxious Poor

Saint-Denis And Idyll Of The Rue Plumet

1) A Few Pages Of History
2) Eponine
3) The House On The Rue Plumet
4) Aid From Below Or From Above
5) An End Unlike The Beginning
6) Little Gavroche
7) Argot
8) Enchantments And Desolations
9) Where Are They Going?
10) June 5, 1832
11) The Atom Fraternizes With The Hurricane
12) Corinth
13) Marius Enters The Shadow
14) The Grandeur Of Despair
15) The Rue De L'Homme-Arme

Jean Valjean

1) War Between Four Walls
2) The Intestine Of Leviathan
3) Much, But Soul
4) Javert Off The Track
5) Grandson And Grandfather
6) The White Night
7) The Last Drop In The Chalice
8) The Twilight Waning
9) Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn

Afterword
Selected Bibliography

The story continues on with Cosette growing up, finding Marius and love. A revolution. Javert still on Jean's trail. The marriage of Cosette and Marius. And the deaths of Javert and Jean.

The book did bring some tears to my eyes.

It was really sweet with Cosette and Marius. They were made for each other. Even though Jean wasn't too happy about it, he did save Marius in the end so he would live for Cosette.



Javert finally gave up. Jean had saved him from death and Javert threatened once again to kill him, but alas it was his own life he took. He was just tired.....


Jean was on his deathbed when Cosette and Marius found him. He was so happy to see his daughter and Marius. Jean had an angel watching over him and he went peacefully.



Jean, you were a most wonderful man!

The night was starless and very dark. Without any doubt, in the gloom, some mighty angel was standing, with outstretched wings, waiting for the soul.

GOODREADS REVIEW:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1621590558