Review: Midnight Thief

Author: Livia Blackburne
Goodreads Rating: 3.70
Pages: 376

Growing up on Forge’s streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And when that’s not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass guards helps her take what she needs.

But when the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows how to get by on her own, and she’s not sure she wants to play by his rules. But he’s persistent—and darkly attractive—and Kyra can’t quite resist his pull.

Tristam of Brancel is a young Palace knight on a mission. After his best friend is brutally murdered by Demon Riders, a clan of vicious warriors who ride bloodthirsty wildcats, Tristam vows to take them down. But as his investigation deepens, he finds his efforts thwarted by a talented thief, one who sneaks past Palace defenses with uncanny ease.

When a fateful raid throws Kyra and Tristam together, the two enemies realize that their best chance at survival—and vengeance—might be to join forces. And as their loyalties are tested to the breaking point, they learn a startling secret about Kyra’s past that threatens to reshape both their lives.

In her arresting debut novel, Livia Blackburne creates a captivating world where intrigue prowls around every corner—and danger is a way of life.

Book Through Thursday

Book Through Thursday is a weekly meme that asks a questions about books and/or reading. It's a discussion post so please leave your answer (or link to your answer) in the comments! Interested in participating yourself? You can find the question for the week here.

So since there wasn't a new question posted (and this is the first time I'm doing this), I'm using the question from last week.

How do you store your books? On bookcases? In piles? In piles on bookcases? Are they sorted? Do you know where everything is? What’s the most creative storage you’ve seen or used for your books?

I have two bookshelves: one for unread books and the other for read books. Both bookshelves are organized alphabetically by author (the easiest organization system I have found).

Since I have a plethora of unread books... I have some books stacked on the floor. As I move books to the "Read shelf", I gradually move books off the floor and onto the unread shelf.

 I've seen a wide range of ways to organize books: by color, genre, title. I've also seen a bunch of creative bookshelves, usually in different shapes. But this....

Is just pure awesomeness! If it was more in a couch form (to allow me to lay down, aka my ultimate reading position), I'd be screaming...

Be sure to post your answer to the topic question in the comments or post a link to your answer :)

Waiting on Wedneday #2

(Brought to you by our friends at Breaking the Spine)

Author: Betsy Cornwell

Goodreads Rating: 3.84

Pages: 304

Release Date: August 25, 2015

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home.

But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.

Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn't want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

Top 10 Fairytale Retellings

(Top Ten Tuesday brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish)

Time for another Top 10 Tuesday and I absolutely LOVE this week's topic!!! I'm going to divide this into two sections: 1-6 are my favorite retellings and 7-10 are retellings I want to read. Enjoy!

My Favorite Retellings

 1. Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
Duh this is my number 1 :) I am only completely in love with the whole series and it is probably one of my favorite retellings ever! Retelling Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel so far (With Snow White coming in November ;) )

2. Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis
Another sci-fi retelling of Snow White that keeps pretty close to the original Snow White (as opposed to the Disney-fied version). Really enjoyed it and it is one of my favorite retellings :) I absolutely love Essie and Dane!



3. The School for Good and Evil (#1) by Soman Chainani
Another great retelling with a twist. Kids are kidnapped brought to a school for training the princes/princesses and villains of popular stories. Absolutely love this series :)

4. The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines
A retelling geared toward adults that is a cross between some popular princesses (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White) with Charlie's Angels. Now, it's the princesses turn to save the prince from Cinderella's horrid stepsisters. These princesses kick some major booty!

5. Grim edited by Christine Johnson
This is a collection of short story retellings by a bunch of popular YA authors like Julie Kagawa and Claudia Grey. All stories are inspired by different Grimm fairy tales (and I highly recommend reading the originals to compare to the retellings). I really enjoyed reading the multitude of different stories. Some took a fantasy spin, some took a sci-fi spin, and some just took the original story in more detail. There was something for everyone :)

6. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
A great retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I really enjoyed the relationship between Nyx and Ignifex from beginning to end. It also had a lot of the elements from the Disney version in it :) And this was actually an ending that was, as I described, "cute as a baby bunny" :)

Retellings I Want To Read
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
A retelling of Beauty and the Beast with some Faerie lore mixed in. A retelling of my favorite fairytale, by one of my favorite authors? YES PLEASE!

8. Splintered by A.G. Howard
This has been on my TBR list for a while and I'm still super excited for this Alice in Wonderland retelling :) Good thing I have both this book and it's sequel.

9. Beastly by Alex Flinn
I've heard so many good things about this book! It's a retelling of my favorite fairytale that I'm even surprised at myself for not reading this yet. I'm going to have to get on this....

10. The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins
Again... another Beauty and the Beast retelling :) I've seen this on a number of WoW's and am so excited to dive into this!!

So tell us.... what are your favorite retellings?? :)

Review: The Darkest Path

Author:
Goodreads Rating:
Pages:

A civil war rages between the Glorious Path--a militant religion based on the teachings of a former US soldier--and what's left of the US government. Fifteen-year-old Callum Roe and his younger brother, James, were captured and forced to convert six years ago. Cal has been working in the Path's dog kennels, and is very close to becoming one of the Path's deadliest secret agents. Then Cal befriends a stray dog named Bear and kills a commander who wants to train him to be a vicious attack dog. This sends Cal and Bear on the run, and sets in motion a series of incredible events that will test Cal's loyalties and end in a fierce battle that the fate of the entire country rests on.