under different stars review

this week i read a really pretty book called "under different stars" and let me tell you: that cover was not the only thing that was out of this world!

i ordered this book when i saw it on amazon and recognized the author, amy a. bartol. i read a book in her other series years ago and i remember enjoying it a lot, so i thought i'd give this one a try. and i am so happy i did!

i did not expect this book to be sooooo great! 

it starts off a bit confusingly, but is that not the case with most new books that heavy on the fantasy/sci-fi? but by the end of chapter one, i was obsessed and needed to constantly have this book in my hands. this book was addicting!

kricket hollowel, i thought her name would bother me but it didn't (and when we found out the meaning behind her name, oh gosh<3), has been on the run from social workers. she has no parents and had been in the foster care system until she ran away. when we meet her, she's a few months shy from her eighteenth birthday which means she a few months shy from f r e e d o m ! ! 

but on a train ride home, kricket is confronted by three mysterious guys (the leader of which is trey *wink wink*). he tells her that he has come to take her home where she must pay for her "crimes"! 

"You cannot thrive under the wrong stars, Kricket . . . the stars here are in opposition to you."

of course kricket is all "oh hell no!" and douches them with pepper spray like a strong, independent main character! (seriously, this scene though? soo funny!!) she is fiesty, daring and hilarious! i laughed at her comebacks and sarcastic replies.

kricket is seriously bad ass. she stone. she cannot be broken even though earth has tried to. but she is eventually kidnapped and taken to her "home" which happens to be in another freaking universe! becuase she is in fact not even human! she's from a planet called ethar! and that is her home. and even though a home is what she wants most, she isn't going to go easy. she was kidnapped after all! 

"It's done. I'm theirs. I just have to figure out how to navigate this world and you can't help me with that."

see, kricket may be in a completely new planet, alone and helpless, but she isn't going to stay that way for long. she wants her freedom. and she is willing to do it alone except that she isn't so alone anymore. not when she traveled from one planet to another with trey allairis. but wait! don't go lumping uds with many of the other ya books that have insta-love because this doesn't happen. kricket has trust issues and believes the only person she can trust is herself. (awww!) but trey, oh, trey. he knows she's special and strong and a fighter (like he) and so he ends up falling for her.

"She's in your head, Trey."

"My head, my heart, my blood," Trey responds immediately. 

sigh. i really enjoyed this book because of their slow romance. oh! and there isn't really a love triangle, even though the official summary makes it seem so. kricket likes trey. trey likes kricket. kyon is just a crazy psycho trying to marry her. ha! but i will admit that he is pretty captivating. i'm interested in seeing where his character goes in the next book!

the world of ethar is really amazing too! and there is a lot of building of it and we learn things about them. it can get a bit overwhelming, like i said, but it does make it better and realistic. i also adored jax and wayra who were secondary characters but no less charming than trey. i enjoyed every scene with them! i want more of them!

i just want more of this book, tbh. read it. i hope that you'll come love it just as much as i did!

Snow Like Ashes Review

this past january i read a book called "snow like ashes" and let me tell you: i want to marry this book. 

published in october 2014, “snow like ashes” is a new ya fantasy novel by sara raasch. i can say with so much conviction that you need to read this book because it is everything you want. yes, you heard me right. i absolutely adored this book. it was a refreshing new story and it included a great new female heroine. 

oh that heroine! she is an exceptional protagonist. after having read so many book of the ya fantasy genre, a lot of the female protagonist come to have the same characteristics. i found that meira [pronounced as may-ruh?] wasn't like that from the start. she wasn't annoying or overbearing. i found myself connecting with her easily and feeling the strength she had echoing within me. meira is possessed by a strong need to prove herself. she wants to show that she is a worthy “winterian” fighter and capable of being a good soldier.

“But no matter how often I prove myself, I can never push beyond his restrictions—though that won’t stop me from trying. That’s what all of us do: keep trying to live, to survive, to get our kingdom back no matter what.” 

she was raised by sir, a general of the winter kingdom which has been conquered by the spring kingdom.  so she's been living in barren lands since she was a baby, along with other survivors from their fallen kingdom [there's only like 8 of them including king mather of winter with whom our heroine is totally in love with]. those who didn't manage to escape were enslaved by the king of spring. so on the run in a vacant land, meira is trying to learn to fight and to take a stand for her king *swoon* and for her kingdom that was stolen. 

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

and boy, does the blizzard get going! so many things happen! so. many. in order for meira and king mather to win winter back they have to find the locket- which is a conduit and can help harness magical powers. when their group finds the location of winter's locket, meira is determined to get it.

one of my favorite things about this book is the world. <3 my goodness, i love it. basically there are 8 kingdoms within the land of primoria. 

four kingdoms of eternal season: Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring.

since meira is a winterian, we learned a lot from that world and not so much about the others. [but that's okay because i'm sure we'll see them in future books!] winterians, like meira and mather, have pale skin, with white hair and ice blue eyes.  they have super crazy traditions like:

“All Winterians are cradled in bowls of snow on the fifth day after their birth.” 

“Winterian weddings are held during thirst morning snow. The bride and groom drink from a cup of water, and the water that remains is frozen in a perfect circle to represent unity. The circle is buried underneath the ceremony site.” 

isn't that just so adorable! these little traditions help make winter believable. i want to be a winterian! 

then there’s the other four kingdoms that cycle through the seasons: cordell,paisly, ventralli, and yakim. we only get to explore one of these kingdoms [i won't say much on it because i want you to go in blind!] but think of them like regular kingdoms we typically see in movies or other stories. 

i don't know what else i can say to convince you to read this book. if you own it, read it! put it on top of that tbr pile. if you don't own it, why? look at that cover! don't you want it on your bookshelf? you know you do. 

Blogging!

hello everyone! (or no one ha ha) 

i've decided to start a blog. this will be most likely be about thing(s) i love: books and every now and then other bookish things. 

i've never had a blog. i've had a tumblr account for several years and maybe that sort of counts? i do read several blogs on a wide variety of things but i am excited to be able to join this world.

i hope i am able to bring something new and refreshing along!

xo, 

nanna