Anna And The French Kiss Review.

A beautifully written contemporary debut novel from Stephanie Perkins will make you remember why you love the genre.

 

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a
loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris–until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all…including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

 

 

Meet Anna Oliphant, a senior in high school who is American as they come. She works at her local movie theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, and has her own movie blog. She aspires to be a move critic, a writer, like her father; and that’s about the only thing she and her father have in common. She has a couple of issues with her father; one being that he is a bestselling romance novelist, and two, he’s sending her to Paris, France, for her senior year of high school.

“For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.”

Anna will be attending the SOAP, the School Of America in Paris. Here she will live in a dorm, take french class, and just soak up the french lifestyle while she finishes out her high school career. Sounds good to me, but certainly not to Anna. She is not happy to give up her life in Atlanta.

“The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.”

Once Anna arrives, she meets her new roommate, and falls in with her great group of friends. From there, she and her newfound friends have fun in Paris, and Anna even manages to meet the perfect boy, Etienne St. Claire, the only problem? St. Claire has a girlfriend, a serious girlfriend at that. What’s a girl to do?

“I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.”

I loved this book. I wasn’t much for contemporaries before this, but this has completely changed my mind. It was beautifully written, the ending is fantastic, and it gave me all sorts of emotions, but in the best way. If you want a feel good book, or just need a new book to read, pick up this one, it’s amazing, and is now one of my favorites.

Overall

This was an amazing read, I give it a 5 out of 5 stars and would recommend to pretty much anyone. Please do pick this one up and read it, I sorely doubt you’ll regret it.

The Kiss Of Deception Review.

A girl just wants to have fun… and freedom. Mary E. Pearson’s novel is about the risks and rewards one princess finds in trying to control her own life.

A princess must find her place in a reborn world.

She flees on her wedding day.

She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor’s secret collection.

She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.

She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.

The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can’t abide. Like having to marry someone she’s never met to secure a political alliance.

Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.

“It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered.”

Mary E. Pearson’s fantasy novel centers on a princess named Lia. Lia wants a life different from her current one, one outside that of royalty. her parents have already made arrangements for her marriage, and she is none too thrilled about it.

“Maybe there was no one way to define it. Maybe there were as many shades of love as the blues of the sky.”

She is to marry prince Jaxon, whom she has never met before. Her parents have chosen this suitor so that they may have a much needed political alliance with his country. Lia is not the type of girl to take this sort of injustice lying down, so in the morning on the day of her wedding, she escapes with her best friend, and they flee their county of Morrighan to go and live with her friends cousin in the countryside.

“If one can’t be trusted in love, one can’t be trusted in anything. Some things can’t be forgiven.”

This is where Lia settles into her new life as a waitress in a small bar. She is quite content with her new situation, that is, until she meets two handsome strangers in the tavern. Their names are Kaden and Rafe, and she can’t get enough of either of them. She forms budding relationships with both over the course of a couple months. Lia has no idea who these men are, and why they have been sent to track her down. One is an assassin sent to kill her, and the other is the prince that she left at the altar. During her attempt at normalcy, many secrets are revealed, and many adventures await for Lia and company.

“Today was the day a thousand dreams would die and a single dream would be born.”

I had heard about this book a lot on Booktube, it had really high rating’s on Goodreads, and the premise was intriguing, so I thought I should just pick this book up and give it a go. I thought it was okay. It wasn’t really my cup of tea, per se. I thought the pacing was kind of slow, as this book is absolutely massive, it took me awhile to finish it, and I even had it on audiobook as well, if that tells you anything. I din’t find anything in it really compelling, but I did think that it was quite well written, with in-depth detail that allowed me to picture everything that happened without be too detailed.

Overall

I thought this was a good book, I might pick up the sequel. I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars, and would recommend for people who are fans of fantasy. Mary E. Pearson is a good writer, I just didn’t enjoy this one too much.

 

Snow Like Ashes Review.

Sara Raasch delivers a beautifully written fantasy that’ll have you gripped until the very last word.

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

“Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake.”

Meira is just one of the eight people left from her kingdom of Winter, when it was taken from them 16 years ago. She and her best friend Mather were both orphans from the deadly war that took their parents, Mather’s being the King and Queen of Winter. Meira and Mather have been training their entire lives to be able to fight to free their people and take their country back.

“Someday we will be more than words in the dark.”

Meira has always felt like a nobody. She stays at camp and trains, and that’s it. She is not allowed to out on missions, or do anything besides sit around and wait. The only joy she gets from her days are when she gets to spend time with the boy she loves, Mather. Meira doesn’t know it, but she was never meant to be a nobody. When one day, she finally decides to take matters into her own hands, and use the skills she’s spent years honing, she learns that the choice was never hers in the first place.

“They make decisions; they mold your future. The trick is to find a way to still be you through it all.”

This book had an interesting premise, and I just knew that it was something I really wanted to read. I hadn’t heard much about it, but when I read about, it felt really original, which was awesome. I really liked this book. The pacing was great, the world was good, really nice characters, and an unexpected plot. It brings the emotional attachment to the characters, so you really feel everything that happens. Sara Raasch took me to an entirely new world that I thoroughly enjoyed.

“Fear is a seed that, once planted, never stops growing.”

Overall

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars and would recommend. This series is now complete so you can marathon it if you so choose, which I love to do and would also recommend. Sara Raasch  transports you to a rich new world with her excellent writing and exciting plot.