July 19, 2016

Ten Books Set Outside The US

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created bThe Broke and the Bookish

Eleven Books Set Outside The US
(in no particular order)
These are some of my favorites books that are set outside of the US. 

Italy
Prisoner of Night and Fog (Prisoner of Night and Fog #1) by Anne Blankman (My Review)

France
Die for Me (Revenants #1) by Amy Plum

Czech Republic

Australia
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Maldives
On the Island (On the Island #1) by Tracey Garvis-Graves (My Review)

Canada
The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1) by Kelley Armstrong (My Review)

United Kingdom
I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Leave me your link in the comments.

July 18, 2016

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Book Date.
Each week we spotlight the books we are reading, planning on reading or just finished reading.

Click on the image to look description in Goodreads.

Finished reading
Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels #7) by Ilona Andrews (5/5 stars)
Tempted by Fire (Dragons of Bloodfire #1) by Erin Kellison (4/5 stars)

Currently reading 


What are you reading today?

July 9, 2016

Stacking the Shelves (57): June

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga´s Reviews, which showcases the books we've purchased, won, borrowed and received in the mail. 

These are the books I got in the month of June.

FOR REVIEW
Leave Me by Gayle Forman 

Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for the eARCs.

BOUGHT
Deceptions (Cainsville #3) by Kelley Armstrong


FOR MY KINDLE
Cracked (Soul Eaters #1) by Eliza Crewe
Wicked (A Wicked Saga #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Dream a Little Dream (Chicago Stars #4) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

The Witness by Sandra Brown

What books did you get?
Leave me your link in the comments.

July 8, 2016

Review: The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye


Title: The Crown's Game (The Crown's Game #1)
Author: Evelyn Skye
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release date: 17 de Mayo de 2016. EUA
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5/5

Buy onAmazon | B&N | BookDepository
Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the Tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.

And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the Tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.

Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?

For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.

And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love . . . or be killed himself.

As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear . . . the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.

The Crown's Game is a historical fantasy novel that takes place in 1825 in an alternate Imperial Russia. When I start reading this book I did not know about this time period, so I started researching on wikipedia and the Tsar of that time was Alexander I, whom no one of his legitimate children reach to their teenage years, but in this story he has 2 teenagers, Pavel Alexandrovich Romanov (aka Pasha) , he´s 16 years old and Yuliana 15 years old. So when I realized it was more fantasy than historical (only few events are real) I focused on my reading, without giving much importance to the historical facts.

In this alternate Imperial Russia when the Tsar need magical assistance to help him fight and protect his empire, he must call for the Enchanter of his time, which takes its magic from a mystical source, so when more than a Enchanter exist (something that rarely happens), the magic of Russia is divided between the Enchanters, so to choose the Enchanter than will serve the tsar, there is the crown's game, a magical game where they with magic, but in theory it is not a violent game, as each participant has their turn to use their magic somehow to impress the tsar and end of several turns on the game the Tsar himself will choose the winner, but if during the game one of them dies, the other is immediately declared the winner, so both must watch their backs at all times.

Vika is a 16-year-old girl, she was raised on an island and its specialty in magic is to control the weather and animals. So when the game starts, she finds herself in the city of St. Petersburg, alone and trying to win the game in order to become the Imperial Enchanter.

Meanwhile Nikolai is a 18-year-old boy, he lives in the city of St. Petersburg, so his magic is more elegant and his specialties are doing clockwork machines and architecture.

Vika and Nikolai will meet in the crown's game, in which each will have a certain number of opportunities to impress the tsar, but during the game they meet more than once and they immediately feel an attraction between them, they both try to ignore it because it will interfere with the game. Meanwhile the Tsarevich Pasha, is Nikolai´s best friend and when he first meets Vika is captivated by he; so the Tsarevich completes the love triangle, but the story does not focus on the romance.

The Crown's Game is the first book in a duology, so the story does not end here, but the crown's game do, it finishes in this book, so at the end we find out who is the winner. My favorite part of the novel was the magic and I especially liked the magic used by Nikolai. I´m looking forward to read what happens next.

Book trailer

July 5, 2016

Top Ten Books I Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created bThe Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Books I Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads
(in no particular order)
Me Since You by Laura Wiess (My Review)
The Lies About Truth by Courtney C. Stevens (My Review)

Made of Stars by Kelley York (My Review)
The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer (My Review)

SEQUELS
Guardian (Proxy #2) by Alex London (My Review)

Willowgrove (Hemlock #3) by Kathleen Peacock (My Review)

Honorable mentions:
Shutdown (Glitch #3) by Heather Anastasiu
Polaris (Avalon #2) by Mindee Arnett

Leave me your link in the comments.

July 4, 2016

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Book Date.
Each week we spotlight the books we are reading, planning on reading or just finished reading.

Click on the image to look description in Goodreads.

Finished reading
This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity #1) by Victoria Schwab (4/5 stars)

Currently reading 

What I´m going to read next?

What are you reading today?