From Goodreads: Breezy remembers leaving
the party: the warm, wet grass under her feet, her cheek still stinging
from a slap to her face. But when she wakes up, scared and pulling dirt
from her mouth, a year has passed and she can’t explain how. Nor
can she explain the man lying at her grave, dead from her touch, or why
her heartbeat comes and goes. She doesn’t remember who killed her or
why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious - and not only that,
she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past. Haunted
by happy memories from her life, Breezy sets out to find answers in the
gritty, threatening world to which she now belongs - where killers hide
in plain sight, and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures
like her. What she discovers is at once empowering, redemptive, and
dangerous.
My Rating: 1.5 hearts
Thoughts on the Novel: Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace began
promisingly with the main character talking about killing a man after rising
from her grave, having died under mysterious circumstances. It lost steam after
that as it turns out that Breezy isn’t one of a kind – there are, in fact, a
whole host of other paranormal creatures that exist in the world, unknown to
most humans; and they’re being hunted by a cult group for not being human.
Combine that with the very slow pacing, characters that weren’t fleshed out, the
plot sometimes becoming confusing, and Breezy knowing how she died but refusing
to admit to it; and I was bored for most of Shallow Graves.
Shallow Graves was released by Katherine Tegen Books in January
2016.
In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (Harpercollins) via Edelweiss.
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From Goodreads: Lorelai Diederich,
crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked
queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To
do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have
in common- magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful
than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen. In
the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older
brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the
second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his
kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic - and the only way to get it is to
make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal
huntsman ... and bring her Lorelai’s heart. But Lorelai is nothing
like Kol expected - beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable - and despite dark
magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting
to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman - who she likes far more
than she should - Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked
queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move
may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.
My Rating: 3 hearts
Thoughts on the Novel: As someone who loves fairy tale retellings,
I was really excited to read C.J. Redwine’s The Shadow Queen, a retelling
inspired by Snow White. Unfortunately, The Shadow Queen didn’t turn out to be a
very memorable read for several reasons. First, the characters were quite
bland, and the romance didn’t make me swoon. Also, despite having mardushkas
(i.e. people who can wield magic), ogres, and dragons, the setting in The
Shadow Queen seemed like a very generic fantasy setting. Finally, Queen Irina
lacked depth as a villain, and never felt truly dangerous.
The Shadow Queen will be released on February 16, 2016 by Balzer
+ Bray.
In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (Harpercollins) via Edelweiss.
