#1 Arcadian Wars

 

This book was the one I picked for my March TBR. It had been on my kindle for ages and I finally read it. I'm glad I got this book because it was a really enjoyable and pleasant read. This what absolutely not what I was expecting. I liked it way more than I thought I would!
I liked the fact that there were multiple POV's, it's something I enjoy in and I wish it was the case in more YA books. The characters were great and quite well developped for such a short book with so many different perspectives, it was well done!
The plot was kind of special, nothing exceptional, but not too typical either.
I did not gave it 5 stars because of the ending. I felt like it was sometimes slow and then everything was rushed at the end. But it makes me want to read the second book really really badly, so I guess it's kind of a great thing too.

 

Also, now I'm ready for #TBRTakedown 3.5 that starts in 1h30 here! I don't think I'm going to read anymore tonight, but then I won't be able to read tomorrow and that kind of sucks for a read a thon. I know that I won't be able to get a lot of reading done this week end but I still really want to participate cause Shannon's read-a-thons are always so much fun! I'll do my best.

Hi everyone!

 

To celebrate the upcoming release of The Fall of Arcadia novella, I'm running a promo for The Prophecy of Arcadia, the first book in the Arcadian Wars series.

 

To get your copy, click the link: http://amzn.to/19p86vb

 

Here is a sneak peek:

 

“Knock, knock,” I said before opening Sam’s bedroom door. No point in waiting for permission I wouldn’t get. I closed the door behind me.

“What do you want?” she asked without looking in my direction. She was lying on her bed pretending to read a book.

Her white hair was fanned out on the pillow, and wherever the light touched it, it shone like silver. Her entire room was all white with black accents here and there. She looked like she was part of the décor lying like that, white hair against black pillow.

“I just came here to let you know that I’ll be picking Alexia up at the airport with you.” I casually leaned against the closed door and put my hands in my pockets.

“Whatever. I don’t care.” She didn’t even glance in my direction. It pained me to see her so distant. It also infuriated me.

I hadn’t been lying when I’d told Alexia that I missed having Sam as my friend. Every time I looked at her, I felt a pang in my heart. But I could not explain my behavior after her ‘accident’ in Arcadia, because I didn’t know why I felt the way that I did. None of us had any recollection of the events of that week. I just wasn’t able to look at her after that without feeling deep anguish. I had known then that if I let Sam get close to me, she would see it written all over my face. So I had avoided her instead. With time the anguish feeling had passed, but by then it had been too late. She wouldn’t talk to me anymore.

“Stop pretending I’m invisible, Sam!” I exclaimed as I propelled forward, forgetting my casual stance.

The conversation with Alexia had made me edgy. I walked toward the middle of the room, getting closer to Sam so I could have a clear look at her face. Even though I could tell she was trying to be stoic, I wanted to see if there was any sign that she still cared.

She closed the book she was pretending to read and sat up on her bed, looking at me like I was a nuisance. “You know I don’t want to talk to you. Why do you insist?”

She stood up suddenly, throwing her book on the bed with such force that it bounced and landed on the floor. My gaze followed the book’s trajectory and stayed on it for a few seconds as I tried to control my rampant emotions. Sam’s question hurt, and it subdued my anger a little. I took a deep breath and found her face again.

“Do you even have to ask? How many times do I have to say I’m sorry for what I did to you seven years ago?” My voice came out strained. I was sure she had noticed, but her angry posture didn’t change.

“Just tell me what really happened then. Just tell me, Matt.” She used my nickname — something she only did when she forgot she was supposed to be mad at me. Her voice had a pleading tone to it now, and it gave me hope. I looked into her eyes and saw all the hurt there. I wanted to tell her, I truly did, but I just didn’t know what to tell her.

Thank you to Diane at Oops I Read It Again Tours for letting me take part in this blog tour. As soon as I read the synopsis I couldn't wait to read this book. This was a really good book. I know some people might be hesitant to read this as this is the debut book from the author but I urge you to give it a chance.

There are lots of characters in this book. Alexia has 6 protectors. Zach, Sean, Matt, Samantha, Mel and Mia. Alexia thinks they are her cousins. Alexia doesn't know about Arcdia, special powers, the prophecy or her part in it. She thinks she is an ordinary girl with a lot of cousins.

This book is written from 3 POV. Alexia, Sam and Matt. While you may think this might get confusing it's not. They all have very different voices so it's pretty easy to work out who's POV it is even in the middle of the chapter.

I really liked Alexia. I enjoyed seeing her character develop throughout the book. I'm intrigued to see how she will change in the next book. ]

Sam was definitely my favourite "cousin". She was cool and she always wore the best clothes. She's a good friend to Alexia but she was pretty rubbish at keeping Alexia's secrets from the rest of the group.

Matt was very interesting. I didn't quite understand his power or how it worked. I hope there's a bit more clarification in the next book.

I'm not sure that I trust Julian. There were a few weird scenes and I'm really interested to see how his character develops throughout the series.

All the "cousins" had different personalties and it must be hard work for Gary living with so many teenagers. I found Sean really funny.

I absolutely loved this story and can't wait for book 2 and the rest of the series. I'm excited for how the prophecy will unveil.

I enjoyed the premise of The Prophecy of Arcadia. I think the characters were great, but the story seemed to focused on them, and not the plot line.

I loved every single character. We get multiple points of view so that we know what is going through the characters’ minds. Each character has their own issues going on, and they don’t know who to believe or trust. It seemed like the book was zeroed in on them and whatever crisis they were going through at the time. I felt like I was watching a show on the CW. (Totally not a bad thing.) I love Alexia. She doesn’t know the truth of what’s going on, but she still manages to stand up for herself. Samantha is strongwilled, and loyal. She loves hard, and tries to keep a level head. Matthew annoyed me most of the time. But that’s because I felt he was acting selfish at times.

I like the premise of the book, and this is a great series beginner. I would have liked to know more about the Arcadians, and what the inner workings were. These things were glossed over. I hope that we get more detail in the following books. And holy mother cliffhanger! With an ending like that I want to know what happens next.

The Prophecy of Arcadia is a good read and a nice introduction to the Arcadian Wars series. I’m not going to rehash the blurb because it tells you everything you need to know. We start with a prologue from 115yrs ago when a planet is being invaded and someone is sent to put a plan into action, all hope is placed in this plan and a prophecy is born… fast forward to present day where we meet Alexia, Sam & Matthew and the story will be told from each of their POVs, I enjoyed the different viewpoints throughout the book, it kept the story fresh and helped to know things that were going on in different places etc. which was handy also because Alexia is in the dark about her status in the prophecy, so the only way we knew what was going on about that was by the POVs of the people in the know. I liked all of the characters; not just the three who are voiced, there are quite a few who are charged with protecting Alexia and who all live together in one house with a parental figure. Each of these have certain abilities that help them and make them capable of being a guardian and I found it quite interesting and I’m definitely interested in all of their stories. With this being the first book, it is very much a ‘getting to know you’ book and the vast majority of it focussed on the budding relationships between Alexia and her soul mate and also Sam & Matthew and again this is where I enjoyed the differing POVs because we were getting love from both sides of the fence so to speak where one side shouldn’t fall for someone because a soul mate will put an end to any relationship and another where a romance is inadvisable when you’ve been using the ‘cousin’ card because you are undercover and are duty bound to be focussed on other things. This gave both angles a forbidden love feel and they were both sweet but I have to say that Sam & Matthews relationship hit me a lot more than Alexias. Storyline wise, I liked getting to know all of the characters, I liked learning about the protectors powers and that there were ‘prodigies’, they were touched upon but not in great detail so I’m really curious about these people. I liked that Alexia was in the dark about who she was but I wished that she had been told sooner, I liked what started to emerge in her but again, only an smidge of potential that I need to see more of. I thought the story could have done with a lot more action, we had no specific enemy until at least 80% of the way through and whilst I enjoyed getting to know the characters, I needed some action and not just at the end of the book. It was a promising start though and now the cat is partially out of the bag, I look forward to seeing how Alexia deals with her circumstances, how the relationships develop (I have my eye on at least another two possible couples), how the prophecy is going to play out and having a definite bad guy/girl to battle and bring some action & excitement.