My Reviews

Sabrina Hawes of Galen City is a common woman, a renowned sorceress who had a heart for adventure and a celebrated mind of magic. After tragically losing her parents three years ago, she confronted their attacker, a clergyman, but the confrontation accidentally ended with his death by her hand. Sabrina had retreated to the shadows of the city forced into hiding by rumor and suffocating city gossip. Though a position as one of the king’s advisors helped her keep a daily routine, she never fully recaptured the citizens’ good favor. With her days predictable and planned, she spent her leisure time exploring the world away from the eyes of the city where she once flourished. The king’s nephew, affable Baron Maxwell Aldaine, is a Galen City soldier, recently wed to noble darling Hazel Barnaby. He lives the polished, rehearsed, and unhappy life of a young royal with a generous, phony smile to his skeptical citizens. He also had been missing for three months and feared dead, after he and a team of soldiers ventured on a rescue mission to save their missing friend, a Galen City naval captain. The failed operation left the baron alone in a lightless dungeon, waiting for death. Sabrina, while exploring a neighboring island, stumbles upon Galen City’s nephew, Baron Maxwell, and rescues him. Through a case of mistaken identity, she believes he is but a common man. His irritability helps create a contentious journey home and lays the framework for two individuals always at odds.… Read More »Spellbound by Melody Arlene

Darkness is falling… The children of the land are devoured by it.  Slowly every child in possession of magic is being turned into something twisted and horrid – a Darkling. Nobody knows how to stop it.  Nalani has a Gift that can help the Darklings. It beckons her to do its bidding for her. She grew up hating the magic inside of her; it must have been the reason her father left her. It certainly was the reason she didn’t get along with her mother. When the Gift suddenly demands that she journey to the mainland, she sees it as a chance for escape, for a new life and purpose. With both hands, she grabs for it. Except as she settles into her new life in the city of Karas, she soon discovers more questions than answers. The history of the city and some of the darker secrets are coming into light. With the help of those she encounters including a Darkling boy and Luca, a young man whose research seems to hold the key, Nalani sets out on a path that will forever change her life. But will she figure out all of the answers, including ones shadowed inside herself, before the darkness overpowers them all.  With its young adult protagonist and themes of self-discovery, coming of age, and setting out on one’s own, this novel should appeal to adults and YA alike. My review: Let me start by saying: I thoroughly enjoyed this book! This is an incredibly… Read More »The Shard by Jane Shand

Lark Kravinoff knows what it takes to be a skilled huntress and a feared warrior. She has worked hard, training for the human uprising against the vicious creatures of the night called Nokturns. Nokturns could be Vampires, Werewolves, or Reapers, all of which give a human plenty of reason to be terrified. But, when a twist of fate forces Lark to fight for her own survival, she finds her life colliding with that of the Nokturns. Her life becomes entangled with a Nokturn who calls himself ‘Ash’ and she begins to see a different side of the monsters she has learned to hate. When Lark realizes she isn’t so ordinary after all, and not knowing who she can trust, she has no one to turn to but Ash. As tensions rise between the four factions and civil war seems inevitable, Lark must face difficult decisions that bring her own humanity into question. She must choose to rebel with the human faction, or turn her back on them, leaving their fate in the hands of their predators and possibly sending humans into extinction. Can Lark survive the fall of the blade that threatens the fragile hierarchy of Nokturns? Or will greed and envy consume her? My review: A Sword of Greed and Envy is a young adult book, through and through. I really enjoyed the beginning of the story up until the second half, where I started thinking I should’ve read it when I was still 16! The sixteen year old me would’ve… Read More »A Sword of Greed and Envy: A Nokturn Rising Novel (Nokturn Rising #1) by M.C. Clay