June-Reading Wrap Up

Disclaimer: I had exams this month so everything I read was crammed after I finished exams.

       

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross: (audible) YES! YES! YES! The most heart pining love story I have read. I need the second book right now! On my Goodreads you can see how desperate I am for the second book. Goodreads review of Divine Rivals. Blog Review!!

If my month couldn't get better. I then read Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

(audible) If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. AND WE ARE GETTING FOUR MORE BOOKS AFTER THIS ONE. I've never been this excited to go broke. Goodreads review!!

        

(arc-digital) Sing me to Sleep was the perfect way to get down from the high of fourth wing. I was in a Fantasy mood this month but needed a break from dragons after Fourth Wing. Luckily Sing me to Sleep had every other fantasy creature but dragons! Perfect! Goodreads review :)

Finally, this was the last book I read. Yes we are back to dragons. However, Writers of the Future is full of short stories, not just about dragons but about aliens, humans, demons and more. It was very interesting and made my head turn a few times as well as staring into space. Like I said...interesting. Definitely worth a look into! Goodreads review! Blog Promotion!!

Notes:

This month didn't have a lot. I crammed the audibles in within a few days because I was just so obsessed. Sing me to Sleep hit that perfect spot after Fourth Wing. It saved me from a reading slump. 

This was a very VERY last minute Wrap Up. Sorry. Next time I will do this post a little earlier. Just have been so busy the past few days enjoying my exam free life. 

If you are still doing exams then GOODLUCK! 

Writers of the Future (Vol 39)

 Release Date: May 16, 2023

Waterstones | Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Barnes & Noble

In the world of speculative fiction...your favourite authors...have selected the best new voices of the year.

24 Award-Winning Authors and Illustrators. 3 Bonus Short Storues by Kevin J. Anderson - L. Ron Hubbard - S. M. Stirling. Art and Writing Tips by Lazarus Chernik - L. Ron Hubbard - Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Edited by Dean Weasley Smith - Jody Lynn Nye. 16-page colour gallery of artwork - Cover art by Tom Wood.

Check out the stories Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Nnedi Okorafor, Robery J. Swayer, Kevin J. Anderson, Jody Lynn Nye and others chose as the best of the best. Be amazed. Be amused. Be transported ... by stories that take you by surprise and take you further and deeper into new worlds and new ideas than you've ever gone before...Twelve captivating tales from the most exciting new voices in science fiction and fantasy accompanies by three from masters of the genre.

Contents:

-Kitsune// Devon Bohm: A miracle? An omen? Or something else? One day, they arrived in droves - the foxes of the desert, the field, the imagination... Illustrated by Alaya Knowlton. 

-Moonlight and Funk// Marianne Xenos: When a vampire, a dragon and a shape-shifting Chihuahua meet on a beach in Key West, fireworks go off! But that's just the background. Illustrated by April Solomon.

-Fire in the Hole// Kevin J. Anderson: Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., faces one of his funniest and most perplexing cases ever- an enlighteded ogre, a salamander with low self-esteem, and a raging fire dragon terrorixing the Unnatural Quarter!

-Death and Taxman// David Hankins: The Grim Reaper, trapped in an IRS agent's dying body, must regain his powers before he dies and faces judgement for his original sin. Illustrated by Sarah Morrison.

-Under My Cypresses// Jason Palmatier: In a metaverse future, a women who exposes falseness in others must decide what is real to her, the love she lost or the love she may have found. Illustrated by Helen Yi.

-The Unwilling Hero// L. Ron Hubbard: Vic Harden wasn't lured by glory on a daring mission into the reaches of outer space, he was ordered out there by his editor. Illustrated by Bruce Brenneise. 

-White Elephant// David K. Henrickson: Dangerous opportunites present themselves when an alien ship arrives in the soloar system seeking repairs. Illustrated by Kritsen Hadaway.

-Piracy for Beginners/ J. R. Johnson: With her spaceship at the wrong end of a pirate's guns, a former war hero must face down her enemies and demons to save Earth's last best chance for peace. Illustrated by Chris Binns.

-A Trickle in History// Elaine Midcoh: Years after the Second Holocaust, the last surviving Jews on earth attempt to rewrite the past. Illustrated by Jose Sánchez.

-The Withering Sky// Arthur H. Manner: When I said I'd do anything to pay off my debts and get back home to Earth, I didn't mean survey a derelict spaceship at the edge of the solar system, but here I am. Illustrated by Ximing Luo.

-The Fall of Crodendra M. / T. J. Knight: High-powered telescopes bring galactic life to our TVs, and network tuner Hank Enos figures he's seen everything, until the day an alien boy stares back. Illustrated bt Chris Arias.

-Constant Never// S. M. Stirling: Kights, damsels and dragons, curses and fates foretold, the stuff of legens and stories, but unexpectedly perverse. Illustrated by Nick Jizba.

-The Children of Desolation// Spenser Sekulin: Determined to save his wife, Tumelo takes an unlikely client through South Africa's ruins to the heart of the Desolation, a journey that will cost or save everything. Illustrated by Alexandra Albu

-Timelines and Bloodlines// L. H. Davis: When a terrorist smuggles a nuclear weapon into London, a team regresses in time to AD 1093 to assassinate a knight on the battlefield, thereby eliminating the terrorist a millennia before his birth. Illustrated by Clarence Bateman.

-The Last History// Samuel Parr: The Grand Exam, a gateway to power for one, likely death for all others, its entrants include ambitious nobles, desperate peasants, and Quiet Gate, an old woman with nothing left to lose. Illustrated by Dao Vi.

My thoughts in the most chaotic way possible:

Honestly such an enjoyable read. I would be lying if I said I read it all in one go. Although it was an easy read, there was moments I had to drop my kindle out of pure shock and then go back to it. 

As always with short stories, you aren't going to find every single one enjoyable but to my surprise I enjoyed different aspects of different stories. I put my kindle down after every story to full digest the world and the area I was put in. Each world was different and each story was a unique experience.

This had been such an enjoyable read!

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

 Release date: April 04, 2023

         Amazon UK | Waterstones | Amazon US | Goodreads | Barnes & Noble

NO GOD

NO CREATURE

NO WAR

CAN COME BETWEEN THEM

When two young rivals journalists find love through a magical connection, their fate depends on their facing the depths of hell...together.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again...

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris's best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette. 

But when Iris's letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands- that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper - an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.

This book has taken over BookTok so much that you knew I also had to find out what the excitement was for. 

Trope: Enemies-to-Lovers

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5 stars 

hate each other, hate each other, hate each other, "lets work together." screaming!

This book follows the story of a girl who write stories to her missing brother. A guy who reads them. Who are they to each other? oh, they are just two rival journalists working at the same firm trying to get the same promotion.

When he writes back to tell her that her letters aren't going to her brother, he also doesn't tell her who he is. Even though he knows who she is. 

The two start talking over letters and he slowly falls in love with her. 

This is the classic, "he falls first, she falls harder." 

Then you get the most heart-aching moments when he wants to tell her who he is but it just is not the right time. She thinks she is falling in love with someone, but she doesn't know it is him. 

Iris and Roman were both great characters. Iris, someone who came from a poorer family background, became the sole provider for her family. She had her heart set out to find out what has happened to her brother. He hasn't wrote back for such a long time. She was worried. She needed Oath Gazette. Her only chance. She is portrayed as a very desperate but feisty character with no preparation for what she will expect of the front lines. Roman, however, comes from the wealthier side of town. Roman was set out as a cold, heartless character with his set goals in life. He wanted nothing more than to win. Seeing Iris at the frontline only turns on the emotion switch in his brain. He doesn't need money, or family. He needs her. Someone to love him. 

As much as I loved this book, I think the world-building wasn't that well done. I was still struggling to understand what was happening around me or imaging how the front line actually looked. I just needed more world-building for me to understand fully. Where were the gods from? What is the actual reason behind this war? How is there magic in this world? I had quite a lot of questions, so I would've loved to see more time spent on the history of it all. Apart from that, the rest of the world-building was amazing! I absolutely loved the Dual-POV to help with the world-building. 

Overall, I absolutely adored this book. Everyone needs their hands on this book!

If you like OUABH series then READ THIS