Dragons of Nova, Elise Kova – Blog Tour

Cvareh returns home to his sky world of Nova with the genius crafter Arianna as his temperamental guest. The mercurial inventor possesses all the Xin family needs to turn the tides of a centuries-old power struggle, but the secrets she harbors must be earned with trust — hard to come by for Ari, especially when it comes to Dragons. On Nova, Ari finds herself closer to exacting vengeance against the traitor who killed everything — and everyone – she once loved. But before Ari can complete her campaign of revenge, the Crimson Court exposes her shadowed past and reveals something even more dangerous sparking between her and Cvareh.

While Nova is embroiled in blood sport and political games, the rebels on Loom prepare for an all-out assault on their Dragon oppressors. Florence unexpectedly finds herself at the forefront of change, as her unique blend of skills — and quick-shooting accuracy — makes her a force to be reckoned with. For the future of her world, she vows vengeance against the Dragons.

Before the rebellion can rise, though, the Guilds must fall.

*ARC received as a part of a blog tour. The thoughts are entirely my own and in no way biased.*

Dragons of Nova is the second installment of The Loom Saga Trilogy by Elise Kova. This book picks up exactly where Alchemists of Loom left off and explores the world of Nova.

What I loved here was all the dang character building we got! It was so great. This was a shift from the action packed, plot driven first book. Kova paid more attention to character arcs and building them than on the action. Not to say that she forgot about the plot, because the plot of this story was just as intriguing as the first one and there were many twists that I did not anticipate. So, it was a treat to readers with both plot and character building. Of course, there was also action and magic and just all round awesomeness happening throughout the book.

What I loved here was that Ari & Cva’s relationship was hashed out and explored so minutely. They had their ups and downs and all arounds, but god! These two gave me so many FEELS! Their relationship was all over the place and though it was so obvious that they cared for each other deeply (not to mention some shocking declarations by Cva about his intentions), they left things on a bad note in the end of this story and I REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AFTER! I mean, I just want them to be okay and together and happy and just… happy. I hope that they find happiness (hopefully with each other) by the end of the third book.

The characters were all their badass selves in this book too. I loved that though they grew, they still were the same people that I met at the start of the first book. It was so neatly written!

This book had a whole lot of stuff for everyone – there’s drama, action, romance, politics, magic, mayhem. See, something for everyone! Just go and read this! Pronto! 😀

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Elise Kova has always had a profound love of fantastical worlds. Somehow, she managed to focus on the real world long enough to graduate with a Master’s in Business Administration before crawling back under her favorite writing blanket to conceptualize her next magic system. She currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and when she is not writing can be found playing video games, watching anime, or talking with readers on social media.

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Alchemists of Loom, Elisa Kova – Book Review

Ari lost everything she once loved when the Five Guilds’ resistance fell to the Dragon King. Now, she uses her unparalleled gift for clockwork machinery in tandem with notoriously unscrupulous morals to contribute to a thriving underground organ market. There isn’t a place on Loom that is secure from the engineer turned thief, and her magical talents are sold to the highest bidder as long as the job defies their Dragon oppressors.

Cvareh would do anything to see his sister usurp the Dragon King and sit on the throne. His family’s house has endured the shame of being the lowest rung in the Dragons’ society for far too long. The Alchemist Guild, down on Loom, may just hold the key to putting his kin in power, if Cvareh can get to them before the Dragon King’s assassins.

When Ari stumbles upon a wounded Cvareh, she sees an opportunity to slaughter an enemy and make a profit off his corpse. But the Dragon sees an opportunity to navigate Loom with the best person to get him where he wants to go.

He offers her the one thing Ari can’t refuse: A wish of her greatest desire, if she brings him to the Alchemists of Loom.

*Review Copy received as a part of a blog tour. The thoughts are entirely my own and in no way biased.*

Alchemists of Loom was my first foray into actual steampunk fantasy and let me tell you, I absolutely enjoyed it. So much! 😀

What I loved about this story was this carefully crafted world with so many intricacies and divisions. It was amazingly crafted. But, the thing that I have issues with is the fact that nothing about the world was really explained to the reader as the story started totally action packed. Now, I don’t want the world to be just available for me to read about and understand as soon as I  start chapter one, but some explanation would have been nice. I spent so long in trying to understand what was going on and who was what that it moved me away from the story a little bit. But, amazing worldbuilding.

Another thing that I love about this story is that the dragons aren’t actually dragons but humans who are descendants of dragons. They don’t breathe fire, but they have strong powers and their magic levels are off the charts – so I guess that compensates for the fact that they’re not cool enough to breathe fire.

Okay, moving on. Ari is such an awesome character! She’s a thief and has gray morals, so yay! I mean, I love me some gray MCs. They’re always the best. But, Ari is more than that. She’s a good friend too. She’s hella smart and intelligent. She is very determined and intuitive and doesn’t stop at anything to get what she wants. So, of course, I love her. She’s so awesome and she does all these amazing things on heists and she’s an amazing fighter and really, just a great MC. I really like her. 🙂

Then, there’s Flo. She’s so cute and adorable! I loved her throughout the story and her character arc was all sorts of amaze. Of course, her friendship with Ari is the best thing. I love how they’re so in tune and would do anything to protect each other. Gosh, they’re #FriendshipGoals 😀

Then, there’s Cvareh. He’s sort of my new book boyfriend with all his swoon. He’s so great! He is kind of self righteous in the beginning and there is a lot of things I can point out that I didn’t like, but as the story progresses, he learns more about himself and those around him and his views change. I love him! 🙂

I loved this book because it was so fast paced and action packed and just all types of awesome. Definitely a must read for fantasy fans! 🙂

 

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Elise Kova has always had a profound love of fantastical worlds. Somehow, she managed to focus on the real world long enough to graduate with a Master’s in Business Administration before crawling back under her favorite writing blanket to conceptualize her next magic system. She currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and when she is not writing can be found playing video games, watching anime, or talking with readers on social media.

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The Disappearances, Emily Bain Murphy – Book Review

What if the ordinary things in life suddenly…disappeared?

Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery: vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila’s reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother Miles are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town far from home–and the place where Juliet grew up.

Sterling is a place with mysteries of its own. A place where the experiences that weave life together–scents of flowers and food, reflections from mirrors and lakes, even the ability to dream–vanish every seven years.

No one knows what caused these “Disappearances,” or what will slip away next. But Sterling always suspected that Juliet Quinn was somehow responsible–and Aila must bear the brunt of their blame while she follows the chain of literary clues her mother left behind.

As the next Disappearance nears, Aila begins to unravel the dual mystery of why the Disappearances happen and who her mother truly was. One thing is clear: Sterling isn’t going to hold on to anyone’s secrets for long before it starts giving them up.

*ARC received as a part of a blog tour. The thoughts are entirely my own and in no way biased.*

Where do I even begin? Gosh! This book is so amazing. I love it. I adore it. I just have a lot of feels for it. Okay? So, yes, this will have a lot of flailing, because that’s what I do best!

Let’s start with the plot – so fucking genius. Like, really. It is absolutely amazing with the right amount of mystery and magic and fantasy and romance and friendship and family. This book has it all. And they all form such an important part of the story and the characters that it’s just amazing. I love how the author went about hashing everything out and how she had all these amazing characters who were so very important in their own way. And I loved that all the subplots just meshed so well with the story. Nothing felt forced or out of place or anything. It was like this was meant to happen, you know? So, of course, so many points for such an amazing plot. And then, brownie points because she took such an amazing plot and then meshed it with the brilliance of Shakespeare and literature and made it into a treasure hunt. So, yes, amazing af plot, okay?

Okay, moving on. The writing. It was so structured. And it flowed so well. The chapters were written in alternating POVs and I never felt that it deterred me. I haven’t read fantasy with changing POVs so it was new for me, but it didn’t take anything away from the story like I was afraid it would. And, there was clear distinction in who’s side a particular chapter was, even though the author didn’t go with the traditional XYZ POV on top of each new chapter. But, there were different markers and it made it very easy for me to understand what was going on.

And then, there’s the characters. Aila is such a good MC. She’s not particularly miss goody – two – shoes, but she stays out of trouble. However, she doesn’t think twice before sneaking out of the house at night to go race. She loves her little brother, but they argue so much and there’s times that she’s so mad at him that she’ll say something and he’ll say something and the whole thing will just blow over. And she is so passionate about reading, like all of us. She is always, always, always reading something or the other and that’s nice. Then, of course, there is her need – want – to clear her mother’s name from the blame game of the Disappearances that happen in Sterling and the lengths she goes to to do that. She’s determined, yeah. All in all, she has the makings of an amazing MC who comes off as a real person with flaws and contradictions. She’s absolutely amaze. I really like her.

The love interest, Will, is a little less likeable. He does the typical fuckboy things and pulls Aila in and then pushes her away, but he’s a nice boy overall. He gives Aila all these thoughtful presents and he makes sure to include her in stuff seeing as she’s new to town. He takes care of Aila’s brother, Miles too. He always makes them feel welcome in his home and he’s passionate about finding variants to substitute the Disappearances just like his father. He’s a good friend. And though he gets irrationally jealous at times and does stupid things (come on! He’s 17 for god’s sake, of course he’s going to be stupid!), overall, he’s a nice a guy. The romance between them is so cute and there are a few scenes that just make me want to go inside this book and hug Will because he was being so thoughtful and caring towards Aila and it melted my heart.

I like the open endedness of the book. Aila has helped Sterling with all that she could, but now it’s time to go back home. What will happen once she does? We haven’t a clue. Will her relationship with Will survive? And her friendships with the townsfolk that were forged during her time in Sterling? We don’t know. How will she cope being in her house without her mother? What will her father think of what happened? We don’t know anything about this. I like that. Aila herself is just 17 and she has the whole world ahead of her. She could do anything, be anything and her story could end anywhere. So, I think the open ending was pretty resonating. I like that.

All in all, this was an amazing book and you should definitely read it. Go, buy it now!

7/9 Tour Stops

Interview – The Hermit Librarian

Mystery Board – Pondering The Prose

Review – The Inkdin Book Blog

7/16 Tour Stops

Review – Bayy in Wonderland

Review – Lost in Ever After

Unique Post – Dani Reviews Things

Review – Mikayla’s Bookshelf

Review – Little Book Wyrm

7/23 Tour Stops

Interview – Blame It On The Books

Review – Reading in the Rain

Unique Post – YA and Wine

Review – Tine’s Reviews

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Emily Bain Murphy grew up in Indiana, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, and has also called Massachusetts and Connecticut home.

She loves books, Japanese karaoke, exploring new cities, and anything with Nutella. Her debut YA fantasy, THE DISAPPEARANCES, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2017.

Murphy currently lives in San Francisco with her family and is at work on her second novel.

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#BroodyBFF – Of Music and Songs

Um… hey guys! So, I’m not sure if you know, but I’m a part of the #BroodyBFF Street Team and IT’S BEEN A LOT OF FUN! Broody is always giving us all these new challenges so that we can prove that we’re actually BFFs and this week, he wants us to talk about music!

So, Music in YA is pretty important, what with all the authors having these book playlists that just give us all the damn feels and the Spotify & 8Tracks playlists that bring the book to life with music. Personally, my favourite YA book with music has to be The Color Project by Sierra Abrams! TCP chapters are all song titles and they just relate so well to the chapter they’re used for and the book in general and I LOVE IT! The reading experience of this book was a hundred times better with the playlist in the background and I just love how it just went in flow with the story and enhanced the experience so well! I just… I absolutely adore the TCP playlist! Apart from the chapter playlist, both the protags in the book, Bee & Levi are major music nerds and they have lots of conversations centered around music. In fact, Levi tells Bee he likes her by using a song (how cute is that?!?!?!?). Bee and her best friend, Gretchen, supply each other with songs for the day and any new song they might have discovered which they knew the other would like. So, yes, music is a huge part of TCP and I love how Sierra has incorporated all this amazing music throughout the book. I have discovered countless new artists thanks to this book and I love that even more! Seriously, this book is an amazing example of how to blend books and music together and I adore it! You guys should totally check it out! It comes out on 18th July which is right around the corner, so get those preorders in! I’ll leave the links to it below so that you can check the GR summary and buy links! 😀

Also, Sierra is self publishing the novel. You can donate to the cause on her Crowdrise page if you’re so inclined!

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Seeing as all us readers and bloggers are wannabe writers in every way, we tend to have writing music. Well, I certainly do. And sometimes, when I’m writing, I’ll just think of a particular song again and again and again (this has been happening a lot lately because in one of the embarrassing fanfics I’m writing, the MC is a singer/producer. So, yeah. Music.) Anyway, I have some standard writing music when all is said and done. Anything by Ed Sheeran really gets my creative juices flowing. His songs always give me all the feels and so that’s where I turn to when I wanna write. Like, when I wanna write romantic scenes I listen to Thinking Out Loud and Kiss Me, when I wanna write something angsty, I listen to Happier and More Than This by 1D a lot. Yeah, but really, Ed Sheeran is my go to artist when it comes to writing. I have his songs on repeat when I write. So, Ed is my writing jam and it’s working pretty good for me!

Okay, so that is all I have to say about music and books and writing. Thank you, Broody for this interesting topic! I had fun writing this. And thank you for listening to me rant, you guys! 😀

Don’t forget to preorder your #BroodyBook or to add it to your Goodreads!

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