Hello friends! I am back with another monthly book haul! I was pretty good this month with not acquiring new books, but I preordered so many for the upcoming few months, so look out for those. I’ve been utilizing the library more for ebooks, so I haven’t been purchasing as many. I still get my subscriptions but I also got a few books from publishers!
SUBSCRIPTION BOXES
Goddess in the Machine (Goddess in the Machine #1), Lora Beth Johnson – OwlCrate Special Edition
Head Over Heels, Hannah Orenstein – Book of the Month
AMAZON
This book was a preorder, and I already own the first one and want to read them together.
The Crow Rider (The Storm Crow #1), Kalyn Josephson
PUBLISHERS
Many thanks to Algonquin Books for sending me these books in exchange for an honest review.
In a month where so much stuff happened, I managed to acquire a good amount of books from several different outlets. Quarantine has definitely made me more click happy with purchasing books, but next month I need to purchase a wedding dress so I will need to work on not buying more books! Though I do know I have another order or two that will come in early July…
SUBSCRIPTION BOXES
I received both May and June OwlCrates during this month along with my larger than normal BOTM haul!
Where Dreams Descend (Kingdom of Cards #1), Janella Angeles – OwlCrate
GIVEAWAY WIN
I won a giveaway on bookstagram so I got an ARC of this book!
The Other Mrs., Mary Kubica
BARNES AND NOBLE
Due to everything going on in the world, I decided to buy two books by BIPOC authors in order to support them in the book community. Too often they are underrepresented not just as characters in books but as agented and signed authors as well.
Kingdom of Souls (Kingdom of Souls #1), Rena Barron
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (A Song of Wraiths and Ruin #1), Roseanne A. Brown
BLACK OWNED BOOKSTORES
With everything going on in the world, I also bought two book from black owned bookstores in order to support them.
The Boundless (The Beholder #2), Anna Bright
Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2), Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
AMAZON
There was a sale, what can I say. I’m not a perfect person.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0), Suzanne Collins
Wild at Heart (Wild #2), K. A. Tucker
BOOK OUTLET
So Book Outlet sucks now, but I ordered this haul before they posted horribly discriminatory and racial stereotyping nonsense.
Dark Shores (Dark Shores #1), Danielle L. Jensen
Through the White Wood, Jessica Leake
The Last Namsara (Iskari #1), Kristen Ciccarelli
This Cruel Design (This Mortal Coil #2), Emily Suvada
Frost Like Night (Snow Like Ashes #3), Sara Raasch
Title: Everafter Song (The Evermore Chronicles #3)
Author: Emily R. King
Publisher: Skyscape
Publication date: December 10th, 2019
282 pages
4.25/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
There’s a price on Everley Donovan’s head. Fleeing from the queen’s false accusation of murder and sorcery, the girl with the clock heart knows there’s only one way to prove her innocence. Everley must catch Killian Markham, the fugitive prince guilty of the crimes for which she’s been condemned. To do that, Everley must follow him into the towering realm of the Silver-Clouded Plain. It’s where flesh-eating Behemoths thrive, long-lost gods hide, and an artifact of destructive force awaits the death grip of the immortal prince.
Haunted by visions of burning Everwoods and bloody battlefields, Everley’s fears are rising. Because the elusive relic threatens more than the very power that drives her clock heart. In Killian’s hands, it can lead to the dismantling of the seven worlds. With everything—and everyone—Everley loves at stake, she must depend on Killian’s one weakness to outwit him: in his mad ambitions, Killian has underestimated her once again. For Everley is the Time Bearer. This is her destiny. The time of reckoning is at hand.
Review
**Thank you to Skyscape, Netgalley, and Emily R. King for this ebook copy in exchange for an honest review**
In the last book in The Evermore Chronicles, Everley is so close to stopping Killian Markham, but he keeps slipping through her fingers. Time and time again she walks right into his traps, and he walks away with the lead. Everley must travel more than ever and get used to powers she didn’t realize she had, and quickly so she can use them to gain advantage on Markham. Several endings have been foretold, and Everafter Song brings even new magical creatures – elves, giants, trolls, sea hags, etc into the fold. Everley is doing all she can to maintain the structure of the worlds and not allow Markham to rip them all apart. But will she have the strength to make the hard decision when it comes?
Alas, this trilogy is over. I am 100% DEAD over the ending. NO spoilers here, but man am I sad about it. Everafter Song is the end book you want to bring a magical and wild adventure to an end. And, my most hated characters got what was coming to them in the end – which is great. I flowed through this book all in one day because I just needed to know how the story ended and whether Everley was able to prevail and save the worlds.
The world-building in this series is insane. So insane, it was almost hard to keep straight at times. I did read these on my iPad, so assuming there is a map in the print books that would help keep track of the worlds. The concept of Father Time has been interesting throughout this story, even if I didn’t always agree with their actions.
OH and we have a few quietly LGBTQIA characters. Multiple lesbian/gay/bisexual (not entirely clear but there were same sex relationships/interests) along with a transgender elf. I AM HERE FOR IT. Osric must be protected at all costs.
I just have to go back to the ending though. The end is really the kicker for me that pulled the rating down. I wish there had been a way to have a Happily Ever After ending, but I totally get why there wasn’t. I just feel like King built such a bad-a character in Everley and the ending took all of that away from her.
Overall, I think if you like epic world-building, YA Fantasy, and some irredeemable characters please go check out The Evermore Chronicles!
Title: Before the Broken Star (The Evermore Chronicles #1)
Author: Emily R. King
Publisher: Skyscape
Publication date: May 1st, 2019
294 pages
3.5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
A fierce young female adventurer battles time itself to claim her destiny in a sweeping new fantasy saga from the author of the Hundredth Queen series.
Everley Donovan is living on borrowed time. The lone survivor of her family’s unexplained assassination, she was saved by an ingeniously crafted clockwork heart. But the time she was given won’t last forever. Now, every tick-tock reminds her how fragile her existence is and hastens her quest to expose Killian Markham, the navy admiral who shattered her world and left her for dead. But Everley’s hunt for justice will be a long and hard-won voyage.
Her journey takes her to a penal colony on a cursed isle, where she will be married off and charged to build the new world. It is here, and beyond, that hidden realms hide, treasures are unearthed, her family secrets are buried, and young love will test the strength of her makeshift heart. When Everley discovers Markham may not be who he seems, her pursuit for truth is bound to his redemption, her tragic history, and her astonishing destiny.
Review
Could you become a monster to destroy one?
Emily r. king, before the broken star
Everley is an apprentice to a clockmaker, who also happens to be her uncle. She seems like an ordinary girl from the outside, but in fact she has a clock heart that keeps her alive after her entire family was brutally murdered and she was run through the heart with a sword. She lives her life focused on revenge, revenge against Killian Markham, the Governor who killed her family and tried to kill her. When Markham walks into her uncle’s clock shop, the perfect opportunity presents itself.
Everley ends up getting arrested and sentenced to live on a new colony on an island far away in order to help populate it. The important part to this is the Markham is the governor of the island, so she hopes to be able to kill him quickly and get on with her life. She has no idea the whirlwind her life will turn into when she gets to Dagger Island. Especially when she is forcibly married to a sweet lieutenant on the ship ride to the island. Before the Broken Star follows Everley’s attempts to understand her past, while living with the reality of her future. She must keep her clock heart hidden otherwise she would be sentenced to death immediately for sorcery.
Before the Broken Star held my attention. I love when books grab me and don’t let go. I prefer to have to wrench myself away to go about the charade of life and adulthood. I followed Everley’s story with excitement, but I can’t say I love where the story ended up. I’m really a Happily Ever After lover, and this is not a trope adhered to in this book. Also, Killian Markham and his associate Harlow are terrible people and it bothers me. They are the definition of irredeemable. Everley continues to help Harlow even when she is completely awful to her! Bothered me for Everley’s sake. BUT Lieutenant Callahan makes up for it *swoon*.
In a universe of magical worlds filled with pixies, grindylow’s, Father Time’s influence, and portals to the other worlds, Before the Broken Star has great world building, writing, and characters. Evie is a bad-a woman and I am with her all the way.
Baltimore Bibliophile 