WHAT IF FOLLOWING HER HEART MEANS ROSE COULD LOSE HER BEST FRIEND FOREVER?

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires - the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a Dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

Rose knows it is forbidden to love another guardian. Her best friend, Lissa - the last Dragomir princess - must always come first. Unfortunately, when it comes to gorgeous Dimitri Belikov, some rules are meant to be broken...

Then a strange darkness begins to grow in Rose's mind, and ghostly shadows warn of a terrible evil drawing nearer to the Academy's iron gates. The immortal undead are closing in, and they want vengeance for the lives Rose has stolen. In a heart-stopping battle to rival her worst nightmares, Rose will have to choose between life, love, and the two people who matter most... but will her choice mean that only one can survive?

WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT KIND OF ENDING IS THAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I KNEW IT! I WAS FANGIRLING SO HARD AND I WAS LIKE: Oh wow, this is so good now! SO THEN THE AUTHOR WROTE THE END AND I AM DEAD.

Sorry, I have the next book thankfully, but then my brother took my iPad. So it then came to my mind that instead of crying I should probably write up a review for this book. *wipes tears*

This is, hands down, my most favorite book in the series so far! But that ending . . . what happens?!

What’s painful is KNOWING I can read the next book RIGHT NOW. But, my brother—NO. NO. I will finish my review for this book.

Okay, so this book has also decided my love for Rose Hathaway. While she is a flawed character, she has really proven that her qualities are much more dominant, and she has really grown as a character, and a guardian so far in the series! Rose really doesn’t care what people think about her, she never lets it get in the way of anything! :D So, huge bonus for me there!

I think that the character conflicts were shown pretty great too! Rose-Christian HOLY hell do they make a kick-butt team! Rose-Dimitri (I’m DYING PEOPLE! AHHHH! *creepy smile*)! And, unfortunately, Rose-Lissa did break my heart, which made me more mad when my brother took the—by God, I need to stop doing that.

I never knew how problematic the Strigoi issue could turn out to be! It wasn’t until the second half where things started turning deadly. Also, I never knew how helpful the Shadow Kissed would play out in this story! It was pretty cool! But, at the same time, we need to read on ahead to know what happens next.

Also: TWO WORDS. Adrian Ivashkov. He’s mine. :D (Like, Dimitri is also mine, but Adrian is actually MINE mine, cause I have to share Dimitri)

“He stepped back and threw his arms out.

 

"I'm always crazy around you Rose. Here, I'm going to write an impromptu poem for you."

 

He tipped his head back and shouted to the sky:

"Rose is in red

But never in blue

Sharp as a thorn

Fights like one too.”   

“You, know I'm the Queen's favorite great nephew, Well, yeah I'm her only great nephew, but that's not important, I'd still be her favorite...”   

“My cigarettes and I are going outside. At least they show me respect.”   

I’M STILL NOT OVER THE ENDING.

Overall, Shadow Kiss is my favorite book in the series so far! I want to say SO much more, but I’m so hungover! I was really getting the feels in this one! It is SO KICK-BUTT guys, this series is REALLY starting to pick up, and the books are really easy to get through! I would recommend this to people who haven’t read a whole lot of Vampire stuff and want to try something new!

I NEED to start the next book either tonight before going to bed or first thing when I wake up in the morning!

Thanks for reading my review guys! Hope you have a great day! Until the next one! :D

Laia is a slave.

Elias is a soldier.

Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

This book. This book seriously played me and my emotions. Mercilessly.

“The field of battle is my temple. The swordpoint is my priest. The dance of death is my prayer. The killing blow is my release.”

This story isn’t fluffy. Everything is real—the world, the characters, the goddamn world-building! Everything! The narration of this book had such a strong feel to it, and the events and the way the story unfolded was magnificent. IT’S BEAUTIFUL!

Since this story is told between the dual points of view between Elias and Laia, I wasn’t expecting a lot from a certain point of view and then I was proven wrong. :D Elias was a character that was strong, or stronger than Laia, in the beginning. But then later on in the book, he turned into such an amazing character who realized his goals and purpose in the story!

“I'd rather die than live with no mercy, no honor, no soul.”   

Laia was kind of hard to read about in the story, because whereas Elias is a trained and ready soldier, Laia was more of a shy, timid girl who was literally just thrown into the fires after she’s discovered a world she hasn’t really ever known. There were times where I was so scared for Laia that my stomach was hurting for her. But, I later on learned that I never needed to be scared for Laia because she became so brave—she developed wonderfully.

“Once, I'd have wanted that. I'd have wanted someone to tell me what to do, to fix everything. Once, I'd have wanted to be saved.”   

I feel like as a team, Elias and Laia helped bring out one another’s strengths, and there were many times where I felt as if they could help each other in any situation! :D

“There are two kinds of guilt,” I say softly. “The kind that’s a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It’s damaged, but it’s there. Don’t let them take it from you, Elias.”    

This world is brutal, but I love this story too much to nitpick on those parts.

“You are an ember in the ashes, Elias Veturius. You will spark and burn, ravage and destroy. You cannot change it. You cannot stop it.”   

 

“You are full, Laia. Full of life and dark and strength and spirit. You are in our dreams. You will burn, for you are an ember in the ashes.”   

MY EMBERS! *cries in happiness*

Overall, An Ember in the Ashes is probably one of my favorite books I have read this year! It has the characters and the world that is amazing! I fell in love with the story around a couple of chapters in and I couldn’t put it down after! :D I would recommend this to fans of Fantasy, but if you don’t like dark themes and references to . . . molestation then you may want to be wary of this.

Thanks for reading my review guys! Hope you all have a great day! Until the next one! (I’m giddy from this book, still)

Tricked into releasing the evil spirit Ruin while attempting to close the Well of Ascension, new emperor Elend Venture and his wife, the assassin Vin, are now hard-pressed to save the world.This adventure brings the Mistborn epic fantasy trilogy to a dramatic and surprising climax as Sanderson's saga offers complex characters and a compelling plot, asking hard questions about loyalty, faith and responsibility.

I know above in the post it says that this is a review for The Hero of Ages but this is also my death certificate because I am dead. You are all officially invited to my funeral.

“Faith means that it doesn't matter what happens. You can trust that somebody is watching. Trust that somebody will make it all right.”   

I can now say that this is one of my favorite series of all time. Seriously.

With this book, I kind of went with the flow. From the last two books, I kept on becoming surprised over some plot points. But with this one, I kind of knew everything that was going to happen. THIS MADE THE BOOK EVEN BETTER.

“There has to be a balance, Vin," Elend said. "Somehow, we'll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be." He sighed. "But for now," he said, nodding to the side, "we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.”   

I do admit, in the beginning, I assumed the thing about Vin being able to understand Ruin, I thought it was because she releases Ruin from the last book. NO. It was from—never mind, I’ll just say it might be a spoiler. But, I’d predicted at a certain point why it happened and I was right!

“Breeze turned to look out the window. "You were always the best of us, Sazed," he said quietly. "Because you believed in something.”

From the point of the way this book started, a lot of character change happened with Sazed! OMG! And with Elend, it was kind of hard to read in the beginning because obviously Elend was a changed person, but once we kind of see the entry of the King of Fadrax, Yomen in this book, I could see the old Elend coming out! The whole philosophical discussion was great to read about.

I thought that the concept of the world building was done greatly. It was, and I don’t think it could’ve been done better. Brandon Sanderson has a way of expanding things so perfectly, that you don’t get confused. Whenever Brandon Sanderson would explain a new concept, then there was really never a confusion for me. INSTEAD, I would immediately understand everything because there are so many clues!

I never realized how closely linked the titles of these books are. It sounds stupid when I say it but I’m being serious. VERY serious.

There’s a lot I want to say about this book, but since they are spoilers, I will put them briefly (as not to bore you) in the spoilery section.

Overall, The Hero of Ages is probably one of the best books I’ve read this year. The world-building was expanded and done so perfectly, and the characters grew so perfectly! No character is the same from beginning to end of this journey! If you HAVE NOT read this series and are a fantasy reader then PLEASE PLEASE read this series! It’s become one of my all time favorites!

Thanks for reading my review guys, and until the next one!

Here's the list of books I plan on reading in the month of October (aka The Month of Releases I've Been Waiting an Eternity to Read)!

First up: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. 

I read Fangirl in September and I'm so excited to read another book by this author. I've heard nothing but good things about it, so my expectations are high.

Next: Confessions: The Private School Murders by James Patterson

This is book two in the Confessions of a Murder Suspect Series. I'm a huge James Patterson fan and I cannot wait to get my hands on this!! The novel will be released on October 7th.

 Next up: House of Hades by Rick Riordan

oooooohhhhhh my goodness. October is finally upon us. This book is so close I can taste it. This is the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, a spin-off of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, to be released October 8th. This is probably my favorite series ever and if you haven't read Percy Jackson, go do it now. The third book ended with literally the cliffiest of cliff hangers and I AM TOO EXCITED FOR THIS BOOK I CAN'T EVEN BREATHE.

And the fangirling continues with Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken.

This is book two in the Darkest Minds series. The Darkest Minds is an amazing dystopian debut novel that any fans of the genre should read. It's well written, original and action-packed. The sequel is to be released on October 15th.

 Finally, Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

This is book three in the Divergent Trilogy, another amazing dystopian series. Book two left us with an insane cliff hanger, and this final book is highly anticipated. It's going to be written in duel perspectives, which makes me a very happy camper. I'm very excited to see where this story goes next, and how Tris' story is going to finally come to a close. Allegiant is scheduled to be released on October 22nd.

I've literally been waiting a year for most of these and I AM SO EXCITED. I can already tell this is gonna be a great reading month for me! Expect lots of reviews! :)

XO Mackenzie