Death Sworn (Review) by Leah Cypress

Ileni was trained since birth to be a sorcerous, she was suppose to be the best, strongest, most powerful person on Earth. But Ileni started to lose her magic, she felt it leaving her long before her teachers and friends new, simple spells took to much effort and left her drained. She was becoming of no use to her people, so they sent her away. 

They sent her into the mountains, to teach the assassins with what little was left of her magic. For centuries the assassins left those with magic alone, and helped protect them from the Empire who wished to kill them and take their power. All they asked in return was a teacher to enter the caves and teach it's students basic magic. 

The Elders send Ileni for one purpose, to find out what had happened to the previous two teachers. Both had died under mysterious circumstances, and only two months apart. She could still be of use to her people, using what magic she had left she could find out why all the teachers of the Assassins were dying. Ileni was ready for her mission, the worst thing that could happen to her was that she would die, and death was something she not only could accept, but yearned for in the absence of magic. 

Things are difficult in the mountain, everyone around her could kill her as easily as look at her, she has no friends, and Ileni realized that the previous teachers had been involved in dealings and practices that didn't uphold with the values of their people. Secret meetings, private magic lessons, murder and plans more than twenty years in the making are coming to light as Ileni continues to run out her magic trying to find out what's really going on in the Assassin's Mountain, and nothing she finds is good. 

I thought this book was great. It was a afar and simple read. Leah Cypress wove a beautiful tale with a whole separate world with a rich history. The characters have depth and emotional levels, the descriptions of the different places in the book created a picture that I could see in my head, and scenes that fluidly moved te story forward seamlessly. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a fun fantasy adventure series. 

The Wide Awake Princess (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty)

            While fairy tale retellings written by people like Gregory Maguire and GThe Wide Awake Princess.

ail Carson Levine are written for adults, or at least a slightly more mature audience, there is something amazingly wonderful and almost Disney like about most of the retellings. Often written at the middle grade level, they are quick and easy one sit reads, and sometimes that is exactly what I want. Such was the case when I read

            I got this book on my kindle coming off of my Alice in Wonderland retelling high, in fact I think I bought some ten new books, all retellings after reading Death of the Mad Hatter. This is a twist on the Sleeping Beauty tale, only the main character isn’t Sleeping Beauty, or anyone from the classis tale, but rather her younger sister Gwen. After the magical bestowing on Annie (Sleeping Beauty), the King and Queen were worried that their new daughter would have a similar fate of sleep and death put upon her. Hearing their worry, the Blue Fairy gave Gwen the one and only magical gift she could ever have, the curse/blessing of being impervious to magic.

            Gwen grew up normal, with normal qualities. She did not have charm, beauty or grace granted upon her, but more than that, when ever someone who had been given a magical blessing (or curse) was around Gwen their charms would start to fade. This made Gwen an outcast in the royal court, but handy around the guards, cooks, and their children who never had gifts. Gwen was able to stop evil witches and sorceresses who attempted to attack the castle, and with the prophesy of Gwen’s 16^th birthday sleep near, Gwen made numerous rounds with the palace guards.

Of course, no matter how much time Gwen spent with the guards and away from her family (because no one wanted their beauty, age, charm, etc to fade) no one can change destiny. When the castle falls under the spell of sleep, Gwen sets out to find the one true prince to kiss her sister and awaken the kingdom. But who will it be? As Gwen travels with one of the palace guards who was making rounds in the village when the spell went into effect, they collect an interesting string of princes all hoping to deliver the perfect kiss of true love. Will it be Digby, the self-centered neighboring prince who Gwen had a childhood crush on? Andreas who loves to play games and make people (especially proper princesses and noble) uncomfortable, the bear who claims to be a prince under a spell, or maybe someone living in secrets and lies of his own making.

Gwen not only is on a mission to save her sister and the kingdom, but find herself along the way. Although, she is so focused on her mission she misses the hints and clues the seemingly simple guard keeps dropping. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a quick read, an adventure staring a strong minded female character, Sleeping Beauty, magic, and of course retellings of classic tales.

Under My Skin (Skinned #1)

I honestly sort of forgot about this book, I think I read it at the beginning of January and never really took the time to write or even thing about it. What does that tell you about the book? A bit boring actually. To much cheesy romance, predictable plot lines, and over done vampires, werwolves and other mythical creatures. Just the main characters name is pretentious. Eryn, with a y?! No offense to real life Eryns, but really? Trying to make the characters seem more mystic by adding "Ys" where they don't belong is so aggravating.
Now the story, Eryn lost both of her parents a few months ago under unusual circumstances. Her mother was a hybrid wolf and her father was a mystical hunter. After their deaths, the council sent her to live in a small town with her grandfather, only the small town is full of mystical beings. Even without realizing it Eryn is drawn to the goth girl and her egocentric, "weirdo" crowd. Turns out they are fairies, hunters, witches and wolves. But the real problem in town, the vampires. And unluckily for Eryn, the leader's son is obsessed with her. Two sides of the paranormal are tearing the town apart, and Eryn is stuck in the middle. What side will she choose, especially since both sides are keeping secrets and nothing is as black and white as Eryn first thought it was.
If you like books like Twilight, Immortals, or any of the paranormal romances that have gained popularity the last few years then you will like this. But for me, I prefer a little more action and paranormal rather than the romance.

Endless Knight: The Arcana Chronicles

While I am not a huge fan of romance, especially the paranormal kind, I can get past it in this series because it is so good! I find myself looking at least once a week to see when the third novel is going to be published. While the first novel in the Arcana Chronicles was great, this sequel Endless Knight is even better.

Evie has accepted her powers and her fate, despite her feelings for the mortal Jack, she starts using her powers to keep herself and her current allies alive. Jack is scared and starts to see her only as a monster, that is until she is kidnapped by Death, aka Eric. While in his stronghold Evie learns more about not just her powers, but her previous selves, and her relationship with Death. He is not all he’s cracked up to be, rather a good guy. And Jackson, he isn’t the good guy that Evie thought he was.

Alliances are shifting, relationships are changing, and everyone that Evie thought was on her side have been lying to her since the beginning. I hate that the ending is a cliffhanger, but I love this series. I think the whole Tarot card exchange is amazing, and I love how complex and muti-layered the characters are.

Gilded by Christina L Farley REVIEW

This was one of the options a few months ago from Amazon Prime to try out for free. It took me a while to actually read it, one because there are so many books that I know I want to read and two because it was a little boring.

The story takes place in modern day Korea, and follows the journey of Sixteen year old Jae Hwa Lee who recently transferred from America after her mother’s death. Things is Korea are not easy for Jae, the school she attends is filled with the best and brightest, her crush isn’t Korean, and therefore off limits according to her father, her grandfather is dismissive and cruel, and a mythical immortal is trying to steal her soul.

Korean demi-god Haemosu has been terrorizing the women in her family for hundreds of years, ever since her ancestor refused his marriage proposal and escaped from his murderous clutches. Now Jae is the one he’s after, only this time he has more immortals and weapons at his disposal. He can travel whenever he wants, transform any place into one of his choosing, not to mention his obsession with taking Jae has caused her family and friends to be kidnapped, hurt and entombed in his other worldly fortress.

Jae knows that she has to stop Haemosu from taking any more of the people that she loves, enlisting the help of Marc (a fellow classmate who has mystic family secrets of his own) to save her family and break the curse.

*****SPOILER: Of course, they eventually beat back the demi-God, and because Jae proved how strong and willing to die for her loved ones the Gods save her life. They manage to save her family, and free the spirits of her ancestors.*****

I felt that the book was entirely predictable, and while I understand it takes place in Korea and with a Korean girl, I felt like the author spent more time proving how much Korean history she knew that it took me out of the story and into a textbook. I personally gave this book two stars, the story was a good one but so much emphasis was placed on the culture that I was bored.

Anna Dressed in Blood

I started Anna Dressed in Blood nearly half a dozen times before I got past the first few pages, and I am so glad that I did. The beginning was a bit rocky, and there was a section in the middle that I found extremely boring and unnecessary, but the book overall was good.

Cas comes from a legacy of ghost killers. Ever since his father was torn apart by some demon, ghost thing that got away, Cas has been on a mission to hunt down every spook he can and send them to their resting place. Armed with his father’s old knife, he and his mother travel the county based on tips from different covens and inner circles to destroy every beast they can.

Going off of a tip one of his friends gave him, Cas heads to Canada hoping to find and destroy the spirit Anna Dressed in Blood. But things are different here, not just with the spirit but with Cas as well. Cas has always put up walls, no reason to connect with other teenagers when he’ll be moving on soon, but that was before he met Thomas and Carmel.

Thomas isn’t ordinary, he can read people’s minds when he concentrates and comes from a long line of witches and voodoo channelers. It was Thomas who made contact with Cas’ inner circle to bring him hear, to destroy Anna.

But Anna is different than any other entity that Cas has faced. Her power comes from somewhere else, she knows that she is a spirit, and hates that she hurts people. There is something else, a demon inhabiting her spirit form. She wants out of her predicament, just as much as Cas wants to put her out. There is more to her original death than meets the eye, and more evil lurking around Cas then even he knows, things that go back to the murder of his father.

I really thought that this book was excellent (well, besides the part in the middle that just dragged on and on without any point or direction). I thought it was a great little ghost story, that delved into the misuse of magic, without being to scary of hard hitting.