WOW. I was initially drawn to the cover (do I have a thing for hot strong women holding pointy weapons on covers? yes, yes I do) and intrigued by the blurb, but I tried to keep my expectations low. That was completely unnecessary as this is easily one of my favorite books so far this year. Full of action, a flawed-but-trying heroine, and lots of twisty intrigue, it’s impossible to put down. The night before she graduates from the Mareen Republic’s premier military academy, Ikenna learns that her grandfather’s death was actually an assassination, one that had to be perpetratedRead the Post
Review: Hunt the Stars – Jessie Mihalik
I have basically two responses to a book I absolutely, ridiculously love. I either make tons of highlights because I just love every single line of prose, or I highlight almost nothing because I’m too caught up in the story. This book is definitely of the second variety. It also hits all of the right notes for me, with a focus on found family, a twisty plot, and just enough romance to keep my HEA-loving heart interested. “I’m a bounty hunter. I hunt criminals and murderers; I don’t work for them.” In the few years since the decades-spanning war betweenRead the Post
Review: Activation Degradation – Marina J. Lostetter
Oh, hello, blurb that barely scratches the surface of this book. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting in to with this book, but it was exactly what I needed right now. At its heart, it’s a book about found family, about finding the people who love you even when you mess up, who love you for who you are and not what you can do for them. “It had a job to do. It wanted to do its job. It wanted to pilot the boat, defeat the aliens, earn its handler’s praise, and then live out the restRead the Post
Review: I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories – Kim Bo-young
This book consists of two pairs of stories by a South Korean author known for her speculative fiction. Both deal with a sort of time-is-relative theory, though in very different ways. The first and last stories are from the perspective of an engaged couple. One is traveling back from Alpha Centauri, so rather than wait the few years for her to return, the other decides to board a spaceship that’ll accelerate up to light speed – meaning that it’ll only be a few months for him. But even when things don’t go the way they’re supposed to, he continues toRead the Post
Review: Symbiosis – Nicky Drayden
Content warnings: Hello, another gorgeous cover! This is the second in the Escaping Exodus series and absolutely cannot be read without reading the first. Trust me, the book is confusing enough without it! The book picks up three years later with Doka and the rest of his people having made great strides in approaching a less harmful – a less parasitical – living situation with their Zenzee. It also means that a lot of sacrifices have had to be made, including leaving a chunk of the population still in stasis, not to mention numerous quality of life changes. Adalla andRead the Post
Review: Escaping Exodus – Nicky Drayden
Content warnings: First, this cover is gorgeous. Second, this book was recommended to me as basically a lesbian environmentalist story set on a space octopus, which, I mean, who can resist checking something like that out? And I would agree, it’s a sort of environmental manifesto, along with a complicated f/f relationship and lots of alien ship body fluids. Seske is the epitome of the spoiled princess, heir to the Matris, ruler of the people on this particular beast. She can’t even comprehend how good she has it, and she’s absolutely awful at her job. Her best friend, Adalla, on the otherRead the Post
Review: The Frozen Crown – Greta Kelly
Content warnings: I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this fantasy debut, but I enjoyed it immensely. While this book doesn’t really do anything new with the various standard fantasy bits and pieces, it’s an engrossing and fast-paced read. As a warning, this is the first book in a duology, and it does have a heck of a cliffhanger. Askia’s cousin has killed her grandfather the king, stolen the throne, and basically made Seravesh into a vassal state of the Roven empire. Askia and her band of warriors have fled to a neighboring country in hopes of involving theRead the Post
Review: Prime Deceptions – Valerie Valdes
Content warnings: I am still deeply in love with the cover art for this series. The Cat floating in space! The neon text! The gorgeous colors! I would totally hang this up near my bookcases. This is the second in the Chilling Effect series, so there a!re spoilers for the first book in this review I came out of the last book disappointed because I was expecting something, well, not as dark, plus I’m not a huge fan of plot lines that revolve around the main character lying to everyone. So I wrote my review of Chilling Effect and figuredRead the Post
Review: Chaos Reigning – Jessie Mihalik
Content warnings: I’ve been a huge fan of Jessie Mihalik ever since Ilona Andrews posted about her first serial novella, and I was hooked. I’ve been absolutely blown away by each of the Consortium Rebellion books, from their gorgeous covers to their heroines to their tropes, and I’m honestly sad that this is last book in the series. “I wished I had Ada’s confidence or Bianca’s intelligence. I would even take Benedict’s boisterous arrogance. But all I had was me. It wasn’t enough, but I was still a von Hasenberg—I wouldn’t go down without a fight.” After I read PolarisRead the Post
Review: Aurora Blazing – Jessie Mihalik
Content warnings: I am pretty much ride-or-die for kickass space princesses. Give me a broken relearning-how-to-be-kickass space princess, plus the whole princess/bodyguard dynamic? My love knows no bounds. This was pretty much one of my most anticipated reads for 2019 and I am so happy that it did not disappoint! While this is the second in a series, you could conceivably read this as a standalone, though you’ll miss some background about the previous couple. After the death of her husband, Bianca has spent the past year recovering – mentally, physically and emotionally – from the damage he caused, andRead the Post