Tag: #reader

April Wrap-up

April Wrap-up

by BlackLotusReadss ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
Hellloo fellow readers, I hope you all are having a great day and being safe. If you guys are here I can only assume it’s because you’re curious as to what I read in April. Well no need to fret friends because I’m going to spill tea on the 13 books I read in the month of April.
Title : Shadow Frost Author : Coco Ma Genre : YA Fantasy Pages : 400

My thoughts : I picked this in the beginning of the month via audiobook. It was a random purchase from Libro.fm. I liked the characters and enjoyed the world building. The book was enjoyable but not memorable. I know there’s another book in the series but I’m not interested in the book to continue on. I more than likely don’t see myself picking this up again. I rated this ⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.

Title : The Sound of Stars Author : Alechia Dow Genre : YA Sci-fi Fantasy Pages : 400

My thoughts : This was a Sci-fi story about an AI who loves music and a young girl who loves books but both are illegal. I really enjoyed this story and the characters. I love reading books about people who love books. I gave this a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating.

Title : Code Girls Author : Liza Mundy Genre : Nonfiction Pages : 640 Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Title : Red Sister Author : Mark Lawrence Genre : Adult Fantasy Pages : 469

My thoughts : I really enjoyed this is fantasy the world building and story of Nona a 10 year old studying to be a Nun and Assassin. The story was interesting and kept me wanting to read. I rated this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Title : HeartStopper Vol. 1-3 Author : Alice Oseman Genre : LGBTQ Romance Graphic Novel Pages : 278-384

My thoughts : I fell in LOVE with HeartStopper and Nick and Charlie. This graphic novel series is a LGTBQ+ romance about two guys who meet in school. Charlie is in a toxic relationship when him and Nick meet. They become friends and things flow from there. I binged all three volumes in one sitting at like 2:00 am and I don’t regret it. Nick and Charlie have been on my mind since and I can’t wait to pick up Vol 4. Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Title : The Ruin of Kings Author : Jenn Lyons Genre : Adult Fantasy Pages : 560

My thoughts : When I read this book I decided to go the audiobook and ebook route. Which honestly was a great choice in the long run. I loved this book, the characters, world building, magic system, and dragons. What else can you ask for to make the perfect fantasy book. If you’d like to know more of my thoughts check out my review. My rating of this is ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Title : Grey Sister Author : Mark Lawrence Genre : Adult Fantasy Pages : 416

My thoughts : This is the second installment in the Ancestor Trilogy. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first. I started to just not really care about anything that was going on in the book. That’s not to say it wasn’t good I just think I was ready to read other things. I don’t see myself picking up the last book only because I was so uninterested in the second. I rated this ⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.

Title : Ring Shout Author : P. Djeli Clark Genre : Historical fantasy novella Pages : 185

My thoughts : Ring Shout I picked up on a whim, I had also purchased this on Libro.fm some time ago. I decided it was time to go ahead to and give it a listen especially seeing as how it was such a quick read. This is a historical fantasy with a supernatural twist. This story follows a young girls that’s fighting monsters called “Ku Kluxes”. I really enjoyed this short in captivating read. I thought it was truly interesting and a great novella. I rated it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Title : Before the Devil Breaks You Author : Libba Bray Genre : YA Paranormal Fantasy Pages : 552

My thoughts : The third installment in the Diviner’s series. I loved this book just like I have the rest. The characters are amazing, the plot is great, the magic, representation, the setting. Everything to make the most amazing series. I wrote a review for this book on my blog check it out if you’d like to know more thoughts! I rated this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Title : The King of Crows Author : Libba Bray Genre : YA Paranormal Fantasy Pages : 560

My thoughts : The fourth and final installment in the Diviner’s series. I loved this book just like I have the rest. The characters are amazing, the plot is great, the magic, representation, the setting. The wrap up and conclusion was great. This book ripped my heart out ugh I was I cried, I was mad, happy probably experienced every emotional possible while reading this. The Diviner’s series will never be forgotten in my heart. I wrote a review for this book on my blog check it out if you’d like to know more thoughts! I rated this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Title : The Unhoneymooners Author : Christina Lauren Genre : Adult Rom-Com Pages : 400

My thoughts : As many of you know I’m not a romance reader at all and I could care less. But this, this book right here OMG. This book was hilarious I was laughing just about half way through this book. This book follows a hate to love romance between the bridesmaid and best man. When everyone except them at the wedding has food poisoning. The bride her twin sister asks her to go on her Honeymoon instead with the Best Man whom she can’t stand. I listened to this entire book all the way through while I was working without pausing. I loved it so much, it has me curious to pick up more books from Christina Lauren. I rated this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

I hope you all enjoyed this months wrap up. I’m the comments Drop below one of your favorite five star reads from April! Stay safe and keep reading and dreaming 🌸✨🦋.

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WWW Wednesday 5.5.21

WWW Wednesday 5.5.21

by BlackLotusReadss ♥ 1 Comment
This post was originally hosted by A Daily Rhythm, and revived by Taking on a World of Words. In this post I will share with you what I’m currently reading, what I just finished reading, and what I’ll be reading next.
Title : The Space Between Worlds Author : Micaiah Johnson Genre : Adult LGBTQ Fantasy Sci-fi Pages : 336 Audiobook & Ebook
Title : Trouble the Saints Author : Alaya Dawn Johnson Genre : Historical Fantasy Pages : 345 Audiobook & Ebook
Title : The Unhoneymooners Author : Christina Lauren Genre : RomCom Pages : 434 Audiobook

My thoughts : Now let me start this by saying I really don’t care for romance at all. This book had me laughing and enjoying every minute. This is an enemies to lovers romance. There’s food poisoning at the wedding the entire reception party except the bridesmaid and best man are sick. This book takes you on a wildly funny ride. I rated this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.

Title : Grown Author : Tiffany D. Jackson Genre : YA Contemporary, Mystery Thriller Pages : 384 Audiobook

My thoughts : Grown was a random pick up at 3am while I was working. This book can be a difficult read for some because it’s frustrating but it happens everyday. There’s a ton of trigger warnings to go along with Grown, definitely check them out. At about the 50% mark my boyfriend decided he wanted to listen as well. After we finished he couldn’t stop talking about Grown. This book though the topic is difficult it’s written so well, and the plot twists holy crap. Just wow I was shocked at how this book ended. We definitely enjoyed it and still talk about, we rated it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.

Title : Warbreaker Author : Brandon Sanderson Genre : Adult Fantasy Pages : 688 Audiobook

I have a full review of Warbreaker coming soon on my blog. I really enjoyed this and rated it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Title : Where Dreams Descend (Kingdom of Cards #1) Author : Janella Angeles Genre : YA Fantasy Pages : 451 Audiobook & Ebook
Title : The Conductors (Murder and Magic #1) Author : Nicole Glover Genre : Adult Historical Fantasy Pages : 422 Audiobook & Ebook
Title : From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash #1) Author : Jennifer L. Armentrout Genre : Fantasy Romance Pages : 634 Audiobook & Ebook

I hope you all enjoyed this weeks WWW Wednesday post. Stay safe and keep reading and dreaming 🌸✨🦋.

Black Sun Rebecca Roanhorse ARC Review

Black Sun Rebecca Roanhorse ARC Review

by BlackLotusReadss ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
Title : Black Sun Author : Rebecca Roanhorse Genre : Adult SFF Published : October 31, 2020 Pages : 461

“I emerged from Black Sun bleary-eyed, tongue-tied, heart-swollen. This is a brilliant world that shows the full panoply of human grace and depravity. Rebecca Roanhorse is the epic voice of our continent and time.”

-Ken Liu, award-winning author of The Grace of Kings, and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories.

Synopsis:

A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

Crafted with unforgettable characters, Rebecca Roanhorse has created an epic adventure exploring the decadence of power amidst the weight of history and the struggle of individuals swimming against the confines of society and their broken pasts in the most original series debut of the decade.

“Absolutely tremendous. Roanhorse knocks it out of the park again with an epic tale about duty and destiny that will sweep readers away and broaden the horizons of an entire genre.”

-S.A. Chakraborty, nationally bestselling author of The City of Brass.

My thoughts…

I received the ARC copy of this last year from Netgalley and never got to it. I picked up this book via audiobook a few weeks ago and haven’t able to stop thinking about it. Which is part of the reason I feel it necessary to write this review! I think if you love epic fantasy with violence, intriguing world building and interesting characters this is the book for you. There are definitely trigger warnings for this so please check them out if you feel necessary.

When I picked this book up in a few minutes of the first chapter, I was on the edge of my seat. The characters in this book are the some of the most unique I’ve ever read. Serapio is my favorite character POV as well as Xiala. I do feel as though there’s unnecessary romance created between certain characters. I don’t love romance so it’s not crucial for it to be in books I read. I felt as though the relationships were done well besides that.

I enjoyed the world building and plot of this story a lot. I found myself not wanting the book to end the closer it got to being over. After getting to know Serapio’s history and background this story had me wanting to know more. I definitely see myself rereading this book very soon. I can’t wait for the second installment to release I will be picking it up for sure. I rated Black Sun ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.

Where to buy…

https://bookshop.org/books/black-sun-9781508283089/9781534437685

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B084G9YRK3/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1619673597&sr=8-1

Chat with me…

Have you guys picked up Black Sun if so what did you think of it? I hope you enjoyed my review of Black Sun. I linked my Readerly Gist below as well if you want to check it out. Stay safe and Keep reading and dreaming 🌸✨🦋

Readerly Gist – The Black Sun

April-May Book Haul

April-May Book Haul

by BlackLotusReadss ♥ 3 Comments
I just wanted to share with you guys some books I recently hauled from Book Outlet, Amazon, and Books-a-Million! Some of these books I have read, some I haven’t. I can’t wait to get to the ones I haven’t read and re-read the ones I love!
Half a King Joe Abercrombie:

“I swore an oath to avenge the death of my father. I may be half a man, but I swore a whole oath.”

Prince Yarvi has vowed to regain a throne he never wanted. But first he must survive cruelty, chains, and the bitter waters of the Shattered Sea. And he must do it all with only one good hand.

The deceived will become the deceiver.

The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo:

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers – especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, whom her family can never know about.

With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Clap When you Land Elizabeth Acevedo

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people….
In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance – and Papi’s secrets – the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.
And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

Internment Samira Ahmed

Set in a horrifying near-future United States, 17-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.

With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp’s director and his guards.

Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges listeners to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.

Six of Crows #1 & Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) Leigh Bardugo

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price – and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone.

A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction – if they don’t kill each other first.

Lair of Dreams Libba Bray (the Diviners #2)

The longing of dreams draws the dead, and this city holds many dreams.
After a supernatural show down with a serial killer, Evie O’Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people’s secrets, she’s become a media darling and earned the title “America’s Sweetheart Seer.” Everyone’s in love with the city’s newest It Girl… everyone except the other Diviners.

Piano-playing Henry Dubois and Chinatown resident Ling Chan are two Diviners struggling to keep their powers a secret–for they can walk in dreams. And while Evie is living the high life, victims of a mysterious sleeping sickness are turning up across New York City.

As Henry searches for a lost love and Ling strives to succeed in a world that shuns her, a malevolent force infects their dreams. And at the edges of it all lurks a man in a stovepipe hat who has plans that extend farther than anyone can guess… As the sickness spreads, can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld to save the city?

Furyborn Claire Legrand (#1)

Two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, hold the power to save their world…or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing herself as one of a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light, and a queen of blood. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven elemental magic trials. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.
One thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a fairy tale to Eliana Ferracora. A bounty hunter for the Undying Empire, Eliana believes herself untouchable—until her mother vanishes. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain and discovers that the evil at the empire’s heart is more terrible than she ever imagined.
As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world—and of each other.

War Girls Tochi Onyebuchi

The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky.

In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life.

Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together.

And they’re willing to fight an entire war to get there.

Acclaimed author, Tochi Onyebuchi, has written an immersive, action-packed, deeply personal novel perfect for fans of Nnedi Okorafor, Marie Lu, and Paolo Bacigalupi.
Caraval & Legendary Stephanie Garber (#1 & #2)

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful – and cruel – father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the faraway once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

But this year Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.

The Girl from Everywhere (#1) & The Ship Beyond Time (#2) Heidi Heilig

Nix’s life began in Honolulu in 1868. Since then she has traveled to mythic Scandinavia, a land from the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, modern-day New York City, and many more places both real and imagined. As long as he has a map, Nix’s father can sail his ship, the Temptation, to any place, any time. But now he’s uncovered the one map he’s always sought – 1868 Honolulu, before Nix’s mother died in childbirth.

Nix’s life – her entire existence – is at stake. No one knows what will happen if her father changes the past. It could erase Nix’s future, her dreams, her adventures…her connection with the charming Persian thief, Kash, who’s been part of their crew for two years. If Nix helps her father reunite with the love of his life, it will cost her her own.

The Fifth Season N.K. Jemisin (Broken Earth Trilogy #1)

This is the way the world ends…for the last time.
It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world’s sole content, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.

This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.

Crescent City House of Earth and Blood (#1) Sarah J. Mass

Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night-until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.

Girls of Paper and Fire Natasha Ngan

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it’s Lei they’re after — the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king’s interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king’s consort. There, she does the unthinkable: she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world’s entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.

The Arsonist Stephanie Oakes

Molly Mavity is not a normal teenage girl. For one thing, her father is a convicted murderer, and his execution date is fast approaching. For another, Molly refuses to believe that her mother is dead, and she waits for the day when they’ll be reunited . . . despite all evidence that this will never happen.

Pepper Al-Yusef is not your average teenage boy. A Kuwaiti immigrant with epilepsy, serious girl problems, and the most useless seizure dog in existence, he has to write a series of essays over the summer . . . or fail out of school.

And Ava Dreyman—the brave and beautiful East German resistance fighter whose murder at seventeen led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall—is unlike anyone you’ve met before.

When Molly gets a package leading her to Pepper, they’re tasked with solving a decades-old mystery: find out who killed Ava, back in 1989. Using Ava’s diary for clues, Molly and Pepper realize there’s more to her life—and death—than meets the eye. Someone is lying to them. And someone out there is guiding them along, desperate for answers.

At turns heart-racing, hilarious, and heartbreaking, The Arsonist is an intricate tapestry—of love, loss, and the mysterious connections between us all.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince J.K. Rowling #6:

When Dumbledore arrives at Privet Drive one summer night to collect Harry Potter, his wand hand is blackened and shrivelled, but he does not reveal why. Secrets and suspicion are spreading through the wizarding world, and Hogwarts itself is not safe. Harry is convinced that Malfoy bears the Dark Mark: there is a Death Eater amongst them. Harry will need powerful magic and true friends as he explores Voldemort’s darkest secrets, and Dumbledore prepares him to face his destiny…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling #7:

As he climbs into the sidecar of Hagrid’s motorbike and takes to the skies, leaving Privet Drive for the last time, Harry Potter knows that Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters are not far behind. The protective charm that has kept Harry safe until now is broken, but he cannot keep hiding. The Dark Lord is breathing fear into everything Harry loves and to stop him Harry will have to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes. The final battle must begin – Harry must stand and face his enemy…

This Savage Song Victoria Schwab (Monsters of Verity #1)

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music.

When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

Our Dark Duet Victoria Schwab (Monsters of Verity #2)

Nearly six months after Kate and August were first thrown together, the war between the monsters and the humans is a terrifying reality. In Verity, August has become the leader he never wished to be, and in Prosperity, Kate has become the ruthless hunter she knew she could be. When a new monster emerges from the shadows—one who feeds on chaos and brings out its victim’s inner demons—it lures Kate home, where she finds more than she bargained for. She’ll face a monster she thought she killed, a boy she thought she knew, and a demon all her own.

This Mortal Coil Emily Suvada (#1)

Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.

That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.

When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.

Now Cat must decide who she can trust: The soldier with secrets of his own? The father who made her promise to hide from Cartaxus at all costs? In a world where nature itself can be rewritten, how much can she even trust herself?

This Cruel Design Emily Suvada (#2)

Exhausted, wounded, and reeling from revelations that have shaken her to her core, Cat is at a breaking point. Camped in the woods with Cole and Leoben, she’s working day and night, desperate to find a way to stop Lachlan’s plan to reprogram humanity. But she’s failing—Cat can’t even control her newly regrown panel, and try as she might to ignore them, she keeps seeing glitching visions from her past everywhere she turns.

When news arrives that the Hydra virus might not be as dead as they’d thought, the group is pushed into an uneasy alliance with Cartaxus to hunt down Lachlan and fix the vaccine. Their search takes them to Entropia, a city of gene-hackers hidden deep in the desert that could also hold the answers about Cat’s past that she’s been searching for.

But when confronted with lies and betrayals, Cat is forced to question everything she knows and everyone she trusts. And while Lachlan is always two steps ahead, the biggest threat to Cat may be the secrets buried in her own mind.

Torch Against the Night Sabaa Tahir (An Ember in the Ashes #2)

After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.

A Reaper at the Gates Sabaa Tahir (An Amber in the Ashes #3)

Helene Aquilla, the Blood Shrike, is desperate to protect her sister’s life and the lives of everyone in the Empire. But she knows that danger lurks on all sides: Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable and violent, while Keris Veturia, the ruthless Commandant, capitalizes on the Emperor’s volatility to grow her own power–regardless of the carnage she leaves in her path.

Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. But in the hunt to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would help her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she’d have to fight.

And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that demands his complete surrender–even if that means abandoning the woman he loves.

Muse of Nightmares Laini Taylor (Strange the Dreamer #2)

Sarai has lived and breathed nightmares since she was six years old.She believed she knew every horror, and was beyond surprise.She was wrong.
In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice–save the woman he loves, or everyone else?–while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she’s capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel’s near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Queenie Candice Carey-Williams

Queenie Jenkins is a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.

As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
A Darker Shade of Magic V.E Schwab (Shades of Magic Trilogy #1):

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.
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I was gifted this by one of my favorite Booktubers Simone from ChasingPages 🙂