Cliste Bella: Taming the TBR | Mini Review Compilation #7

I might have overdid the reading this past few months. Is there such a thing as over reading or I just have a lot of time on my hands to read? LOL. After my last Taming the TBR, I tackled a lot of more of my back list books to read while waiting for my most anticipated reads of 2019 to come out. I feel so productive in the reading spectrum and so lazy in the blogging end. This is what happens when the job I'm supposed to be starting hasn't yet.

Sora can move as silently as a ghost and hurl throwing stars with lethal accuracy. Her gemina, Daemon, can win any physical fight blindfolded and with an arm tied around his back. They are apprentice warriors of the Society of Taigas—marked by the gods to be trained in magic and the fighting arts to protect the kingdom of Kichona.

As their graduation approaches, Sora and Daemon look forward to proving themselves worthy of belonging in the elite group—but in a kingdom free of violence since the Blood Rift Rebellion many years ago, it’s been difficult to make their mark.

So when Sora and Daemon encounter a strange camp of mysterious soldiers while on a standard scouting mission, they decide the only thing to do to help their kingdom is to infiltrate the group. Taking this risk will change Sora’s life forever—and lead her on a mission of deception that may fool everyone she’s ever loved.

Love, spies, and adventure abound as Sora and Daemon unravel a complex web of magic and secrets that might tear them—and the entire kingdom—apart forever. [n.1]

Review: I gave this book 3 stars because I feel like there is so much room for improvement for this book - better word building, more detail especially with the background stories and how they relate to each other (back to word building). Maybe more relatable characters. Don't get me wrong I actually liked this book except I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters because they feel so distant.

An instant New York Times Best Seller! In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper Lacy. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she's instead somehow sucked into Rhen's cursed world.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin. [n.2]

Review: Brigid Kemmerer never fails to impress. Being a sucker for retellings, I had a pretty high expectation and the book delivered. A Curse so Dark and Lonely is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a twist - Harper isn't your typical beautiful heroine, she doesn't even come from the world of the Beast and is not what I was expecting at all. Women (girls?) are kidnapped from earth as we know it and taken into the Beasts realm in hopes of breaking the curse. Rhen is a beast in all aspects, living and re-living his nightmare of a curse and his guilt is so heavy that I really really wanted him to finally be able to live up to what Harper expected him to be. And those last few chapter??? OMG please give me more of Rhen, Harper, and Grey's story.

Sybella has always been the darkest of Death’s daughters, trained at the convent of Saint Mortain to serve as his justice. But she has a new mission now. In a desperate bid to keep her two youngest sisters safe from the family that nearly destroyed them all, she agrees to accompany the duchess to France, where they quickly find themselves surrounded by enemies. Their one ray of hope is Sybella’s fellow novitiates, disguised and hidden deep in the French court years ago by the convent—provided Sybella can find them.

Genevieve has been undercover for so many years, she struggles to remember who she is or what she’s supposed to be fighting for. Her only solace is a hidden prisoner who appears all but forgotten by his guards. When tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands—even if it means ignoring the long awaited orders from the convent.

As Sybella and Gen’s paths draw ever closer, the fate of everything they hold sacred rests on a knife’s edge. Will they find each other in time, or will their worlds collide, destroying everything they care about? [n.3]

Review: I have to give this a low rating because I didn't gwt half of what was going on in the book. It looks like I should have read the original books where this spin off came from so that I would understand their world. This books is also very dragging with too many political descriptions.

Larkin should have been watching her little sister, should have paid more attention to the trees looming over her family’s fields. Now Sela is gone. Knowing full well the danger of the forest and its beast, Larkin goes after her anyway. With her sister clutched in her arms, she manages to escape, but not before discovering the truth lurking beneath the wicked boughs.

Review: Another retelling that has me wanting for more, This one is a mash up of Beauty and the Beast and The Pied Piper. Larkin was very annoying and kinda "stupid" for the lack of a better word. There was a time I was thinking the book should have ended here but it still went on and it was a little overkill. The best part was when Larkin first got to where the Pipers lived. It was magical and Utopian.

As a slave in the Kipchak Khanate, Jinghua has lost everything: her home, her family, her freedom … until the kingdom is conquered by enemy forces and she finds herself an unlikely conspirator in the escape of Prince Khalaf and his irascible father across the vast Mongol Empire. On the run, with adversaries on all sides and an endless journey ahead, Jinghua hatches a scheme to use the Kipchaks’ exile to return home, a plan that becomes increasingly fraught as her feelings for Khalaf evolve into a hopeless love.

Jinghua’s already dicey prospects take a downward turn when Khalaf seeks to restore his kingdom by forging a marriage alliance with Turandokht, the daughter of the Great Khan. As beautiful as she is cunning, Turandokht requires all potential suitors to solve three impossible riddles to win her hand—and if they fail, they die.

Jinghua has kept her own counsel well, but with Khalaf’s kingdom—and his very life—on the line, she must reconcile the hard truth of her past with her love for a boy who has no idea what she’s capable of ... even if it means losing him to the girl who’d sooner take his life than his heart.

Review: I've been reading a lot of Asian inspired books recently and I read this hoping it would feel like the other books I've read with a combination of historical and magical elements. Let's just say I was disappointed in how the book ended. The parts where Jinghua was singing or reciting poetry was just a snooze for me.

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, a woman who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. But what unfolds is not the princess's history. The tale Agnes recounts is her own.

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice at Aviceford Manor when she is just ten years old. Alone, friendless, and burdened with a grueling workload, Agnes carves a place for herself in this cold place that is home to Sir Emont Vis-de-Loup, a melancholic and capricious drunkard.

Using her wits and ingenuity, Agnes eventually escapes and makes her way toward a hopeful future, serving as a housemaid for the powerful Abbess Elfilda. But life once again holds unexpected, sometimes heartbreaking twists that lead Agnes back to Aviceford Manor, where she becomes nursemaid to Ella, Emont's sensitive, otherworldly daughter. Though she cares for Ella, Agnes struggles to love this child, who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, ultimately, the celebrated princess who embodies all our unattainable fantasies.

Familiar yet fresh, tender as well as bittersweet, the story of Agnes and Ella's relationship reveals that beauty is not always desirable, that love may take on many guises, and that freedom is not always something we can choose.

Danielle Teller's All the Ever Afters challenges our assumptions and forces us to reevaluate what we think we know. Exploring the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, this lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive novel shows us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound—and ultimately more precious—truth about our lives than the ideal of “happily ever after.” [n.6]

Review: In this book I liked how the "Ugly" step sisters were described and how the heroine of the story is always pure and heroic. Sometimes hey are just normal people who ac like spoiled children who don't see how people take care of them at their own expense. The reason why I gave it 2 stars is because of the religious element that I know was prevalent in that timeline and era of he story. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from all but one human: Echo, a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market.

The Avicen are the only family Echo has ever known, so when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it’s time to act. Legend has it that to end the conflict once and for all, Echo must find the firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, though if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it’s how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it. [n.7]

Everything in Echo’s life changed in a blinding flash when she learned the startling truth: she is the firebird, the creature of light that is said to bring peace.

The firebird has come into the world, but it has not come alone. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and Echo can feel a great and terrible darkness rising in the distance. Cosmic forces threaten to tear the world apart.

Echo has already lost her home, her family, and her boyfriend. Now, as the firebird, her path is filled with even greater dangers than the ones she’s already overcome.

After awakening the firebird, Echo is now the only one with the power to face the darkness she unwittingly unleashed upon the world…right into the waiting hands of Tanith, the new Dragon Prince. Tanith has one goal in mind: destroy her enemies, raze their lands, and reign supreme in a new era where the Drakharin are almighty and the Avicen are nothing but a memory.

The war that has been brewing for centuries is finally imminent. But the scales are tipped. Echo might hold the power to face the darkness within the Dragon Prince, but she has far to go to master it. And now she’s plagued by uncertainty. Is she strong enough to stare into the face of evil and not lose herself in its depths?

Review: Echo was adopted by The Ala, a seer and one of the oldest in a humanoid race that have feathers for hair - The Avicen. They have been at war with another humanoid race - the Drakharin for god knows how long and now they finall have chance at peace.

*Spoilers alert.* Echo being the Firebird felt like she wasn't really as powerful as the prophecy made her to be. I wish there was more detail about the childhood she ran away from and her name before she chose to be called Echo. I also wish that the race of the Oracle (humanoid with both feathers and dragon scales) had their own chapter or two or maybe half the 1st book as a background.

As a whole the series was a disappointed me worse and worse until the last book. The only parts that I actually liked was in Book one when the Avicen were introduced and their love for sweets and when The Dragon Prince fell in love with Echo (he didn't know it at that time). Their adventures wasn' as epic as I'd expected and the ending was anti-climactic.

Done with half (?) of the books I read from my TBR pile. Will be posting the other half maybe tomorrow if I'm not too lazy. LOL. Have you read any of these books in my list? What did you think of them?