Review: This Raging Light by Estelle Laure

Title: This Raging Light

Author: Estelle Laure

Published: 12 January 2016
Publisher: Hachette Children's Books Australia
Source: Hachette Children's Books Australia via netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: ****

My Review:

I fell in love with this book from the first page.  From the first line I knew I would not be able to put it down until the last line and even then I kept trying to scroll for more pages on my kindle in the hope that there was more.

I really loved the voice of this book.  Right from the beginning I felt connected so it was easy to relate and feel for Lucille as the story progressed, to understand her feeling of barely keeping her head above water as every thing around her changes and falls apart and I really wanted things to work out for her.

I loved the way the author really captured that awkward crush stage when overnight someone you may have know for ever, you suddenly see  in a different way where you can't actually be in the same room as them and actually be able to speak and you can seem to take that change back no matter what you do and I could feel the growing connection between Lucille and Digby even if I didn't always approve of the way it developed.

This book also caught be by surprise.  I was caught up in the read and the feels and the rhythm of the story when suddenly Ms Laure took the story up a notch and this change of rhythm really adds to the story and suddenly a really good story was a really great story and couldn't ait to see how  it would turn out.

I went through all sorts of emotions whilst reading this book and in dealing with the realness of it.  As a mother, I struggled to fathom how a mother could leave her children like that... but it happens and this breaks my heart. I marvelled at Lucille's bravery as she deals with life and having to be the main care giver for a younger sibling and holding it together while her whole world is falling apart .  Add in a cast of solid supporting characters and Ms Laure has created a story that feels real and fills you up in the way only a good book can.

I adored this book and give it 4 stars.

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book:

This Raging Light by Estelle Laure 

 

How is it that you suddenly notice a person? How is it that one day Digby was my best friend's admittedly cute twin brother, and then the next he stole air, gave jitters, twisted my insides up?

Lucille has bigger problems than falling for her best friend's unavailable brother. Her mom has gone, leaving her to look after her sister, Wren. With bills mounting up and appearances to keep, Lucille is raging against her life but holding it together - just.

A stunning debut to devour in one sitting, Laure captures completely the agony and ecstasy of first love.

 

Purchase: Booktopia  | Book Depository | Hachette Children's Australia | Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

     

Review: Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray

Title: Ten Thousand Skies Above You

Author: Claudia Gray

Published: 3 November 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Harper Collins Australia in return for an honest Review
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: *****

My Review:

Oh my goodness!  This book was so worth the wait! I do believe that this is even better that book 1.

In A Thousand pieces of you, we were introduced to Marguerite Caine, her parents and inventors of the Firebird technology and their grad students Paul and Theo looking for a man she believed to be her father's killer and uncovering inter dimensional conspiracy.

In Ten Thousand skies Above you, we see the affects that that conspiracy has had on them all with Theo sick from his exposure to NightThief and Paul splintered and scattered through a number of different dimensions.  Once again it is up to Marguerite, the perfect traveller, to travel to the different dimensions to save her world's version of Paul and Theo

This story flows seamlessly.  Whether it is from one dimension to another or one idea or scene to another, each world we visit and each version of the characters we see brings us further into the story and as Marguerite gets closer and closer to her goal, she ( and the reader uncover more and more questions.

I loved reading and seeing the different worlds that Marguerite visits.  Each of them were completely distinct and the world building so complete that I couldn't help but be completely immersed in the story from beginning to end.  Even better we got to revisit some of the worlds from book which, revisit some previous characters and see the impact Marguerite's original visit had had.

All in all this book ahad everything I could want in it;  Romance, action, interdimensional travel.  I was completely entranced from beginning to end and could not get enough.

I need book 3 now!

I give this book a definite 5 stars! :-)

 

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book:

Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird #2) by Claudia Gray

Ever since she used the Firebird, her parents' invention, to cross into alternate dimensions, Marguerite has caught the attention of enemies who will do anything to force her into helping them dominate the multiverse—even hurting the people she loves. She resists until her boyfriend, Paul, is attacked and his consciousness scattered across multiple dimensions.

Marguerite has no choice but to search for each splinter of Paul’s soul. The hunt sends her racing through a war-torn San Francisco, the criminal underworld of New York City, and a glittering Paris where another Marguerite hides a shocking secret. Each world brings Marguerite one step closer to rescuing Paul. But with each trial she faces, she begins to question the destiny she thought they shared.

The second book in the Firebird trilogy, Ten Thousand Skies Above You features Claudia Gray’s lush, romantic language and smart, exciting action, and will have readers clamoring for the next book.

Publication Date: 3 November, 2015

Pre-Order:Booktopia  | Book Depository | Amazon

Review: Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas

Title: Ash & Bramble

Author: Sarah Prineas

Published: 15th September 2015
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: Harper Teen via Edelweiss
Reviewed: Sapphired Dragon
Rating: ****   

My Review:

This book was an unexpected surprise. I knew it was a fairy tale retelling and I thought it sounded interesting but to be honest I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

The things whilst it is technically a fairy tale retelling rather than actually retell, it turned the original tale on its head asking what if Cinderella didn't actually want to marry the prince? What if the prescribed happily ever after was not actually happily ever after the characters wanted? And what if story got in the way of people living their lives the way they want to.

These are some of the questions that are posed during this tale in which Pin, a seamstress in the Godmother's fortress decides that she doesn't want wants been prescribed for her future and attempts to escape picking up a shoemaker "Shoe" along the way but after being recaptured, the Godmother sets in motion Pin's story but Pin and Shoe are determined to write their own ending.

I loved the premise behind this story and they way it all unfolded. I loved that characters weren't always what they were supposed to be and the tale didn't go the way it was supposed to which meant I got to follow a whole new journey. The writing, which split between Shoe and pin's perspectives, is well crafted, flowed along nicely and was well paced. I found myself connected to the story the whole way through.

This is a fun fresh tale for fans of series such as the Inkspell series by Cornelia Funke.

I very much enjoyed this story and give it 4 stars.

Sapphired Dragon xx

About The Book:

Ash and Bramble  by Sarah Prineas

Goodreads | Book Depository | Booktopia

When the glass slipper just doesn’t fit…

The tale of Cinderella has been retold countless times. But what you know is not the true story.

Pin has no recollection of who she is or how she got to the Godmother’s fortress. She only knows that she is a Seamstress, working day in and out to make ball gowns fit for fairy tales. But she longs to forsake her backbreaking servitude and dares to escape with the brave young Shoemaker.

Pin isn’t free for long before she’s captured again and forced to live the new life the Godmother chooses for her—a fairy tale story, complete with a charming prince—instead of finding her own happily ever after.

Sarah Prineas’s bold fairy tale retelling is a dark and captivating world where swords are more fitting than slippers, young shoemakers are just as striking as princes, and a heroine is more than ready to rescue herself before the clock strikes midnight.

     

Teaser Tuesday #85: Gathering Frost (Once Upon a Curse #1) by KaitlynDavis

Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too muchaway! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My current read is  Gathering Frost (Once Upon a Curse #1) by Kaitlyn Davis and my two lines are from location 743 of 3064

A moment passes between us, brief,but I know it is significant. My heart twinges uncomfortably, a feeling I haven't experienced before, almost as if something has tugged on it, urging it to life.

Gathering Frost (Once Upon a Curse #1) by Kaitlyn Davis

Goodreads | Amazon   

Will his kiss be enough to revive her frozen heart?

Once Upon A Time meets La Femme Nikita in GATHERING FROST, a dystopian romance from bestselling author Kaitlyn Davis that reimagines the classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.

Jade was only a little girl when the earthquake struck. Before her eyes, half of New York City disappeared, replaced by a village that seemed torn out of a storybook. Horses and carriages. Cobblestone streets. A towering castle. And, above all, a queen with the magical ability to strip emotions away.

Ten years later and Jade has forgotten what it is to feel, to care...even to love. Working as a member of the queen's guard, she spends most of her time on the city wall staring at the crumbling skyscrapers of old New York. But everything changes when the queen's runaway son, Prince Asher, returns. Jade is tasked with an unusual mission--to let the Prince capture her, to make him trust her, and then to betray his secrets to the crown. In return, she'll earn her freedom. But life outside the queen's realm is more than Jade bargained for. Under Asher's relentless taunts, her blood begins to boil. Under his piercing gaze, her heart begins to flutter. And the more her icy soul begins to thaw, the more Jade comes to question everything she's ever known--and, more importantly, whose side she's really on.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!