For fun, I created a mini trailer for Sky Heart.
Folk of Air series by Holly Black
Published on YouTube on 1st September 2024.
I read these books for free. Let me tell you how. 😍
A few Christmases ago, I got a Kindle. We have a Prime account and with Prime you can borrow books to read for free (and then return to borrow more). In the Prime library was Cruel Prince.
Book two, The Wicked King, was not available on Prime. I checked to see if I could borrow it with my library card and found I could! It was available on the Libby app. Using my library card, I borrowed the ebook, and they had Queen of Nothing, so I borrowed that straight after.
I also used my library card on Borrow Box (audio books to borrow using my library card) to listen to The King of Elfhame, which is a prequel to this series.
I loved these books so much I wanted them for my shelves. I requested them as gifts for my birthday, Christmas and Mother’s Day. They only cost £10 for the paperback boxset from The Works, but alas, I did not get them.
My kids often get book tokens as gifts but I always forget to have them with me and end up using my own money to buy their books. So, I decided it was time to pay myself back and get the hardback editions from Bookshop.org an online shop that gives back to high street shops. As I had the book tokens, it cost me less than £5 for all three books.
I love my new books. They look beautiful next to my stunning Hunger Games hardbacks, which I got from Dial Lane Bookshop, Ipswich, as a gift from my hubby for my birthday.
Follow my bookshop affiliate link to get your hardback copies of:
📕The Cruel Prince: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/1425/9781471406454
📗The Wicked King: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/1425/9781471407352
📘 The Queen of Nothing: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/1425/9781471407581
Sky Heart Editing Update
Published on YouTube 13th July 2024.
Sky Heart – Coming Soon
Sky Heart – Coming Soon
Published on YouTube on 10th April 2024.
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins Collectors Edition Box Set
Published on YouTube on 23rd December 2023
Book Review: The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
This is an adorable cute graphic novel about coming of age and coming out.
Morgan is going through a lot at home. She has a close-knit group of friends she tends to hang out with.
Then she meets Keltie. Keltie isn’t any ordinary girl, she’s a Selkie. After sharing a kiss with Morgan, she can now walk on land.
Morgan isn’t ready to come out to her friends and family about having a girlfriend. Morgan tries to keep Keltie separate from them.
Keltie becomes Morgan’s secret, but we soon discover she’s not the only one with a secret. Katie needs her help and it involves her best friend.
This story had tons of ups and downs. There’s a great twist at the end I didn’t see coming. The story has a feel good vibe and will leave you feeling happy.
Read it for the beauty of a graphic novel, the sweet story of first love, and Selkie magic.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ocean Heart by Ally Aldridge
Book Review: Our Crooked Heart by Melissa Albert
This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.
About the book
My thoughts
This story is told from two POVs. One is Ivy. Most of her story is in the present. The other is Dana. Her story flicks back and forth between the now (where she is mum to Ivy) and the past (when she was a teen discovering magic with her sister Fee, and a friend).
She is a teen that doesn’t get on with her mum. She sees strange things like a weird girl, a dead rabbit left in-front of their house, and her mum burying a box. Ivy uncovers secrets and is angry when she remembers that her mum and aunty used magic on her. Not only that, but a terrible dark secret from their (mum & aunty) past.
I didn’t connect as much to Dana’s story. It might have been the jumping back and forth or that I didn’t like her as much. Dana in the now seems over protective of Ivy, and they clash. Dana and Fee are keeping secrets from Ivy about their past. Teenage Dana was more fun to read. She, Fee, and friend Marion get into magic. Things go wrong and they banish Marion away for safety. Of course she’s trying to get back.
I listened to this as an audio book. There were parts I raced through as I was excited, and other parts where I took long breaks because I got frustrated by all the secrets and how long it was taking. Most of the magic is in flashbacks. As I didn’t like one of the POVs as much it meant I struggled through half the chapters. There was some great descriptions and I wonder if I’d enjoyed this more if I’d physically read it instead of listened.
Read it for the secrets and dark twisted witchcraft.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
You can buy this book from:
Amazon: Our Crooked Hearts https://amzn.eu/d/cGcUaq6
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If you enjoyed this, check out this:
[Kofi]
Book Review: The Toll by Neal Shusterman
This post contains affiliate links. Please check out my affiliate disclosure page for more information.
About the book
My thoughts
This was an incredible read. I’d no idea what to expect but it was better than anything I could imagine. It is violent and bloody, but the story explores our morals.
Set in the future, death is no longer a problem. If you were to become deadish, you can be revived. To restore the balance a group called Scythes take on the sacred duty of gleaming (killing) life. They have quotas and rules to follow.
Teenagers Roman and Citra both (on seperate occasions) meet Scythe Faraday on a gleaming job. Their interactions with him stand out and he makes them his apprentice. Never before has a Scythe taken on two apprentices and there’s no rule against it. Still, it causes uproar and an edict is agreed that when one of them passes their apprenticeship, their first task will be to kill the other.
Scythe Faraday blames himself for putting Citra & Rowan in this position. He gleams himself to free them from the apprenticeship, but instead two other Scythes step forward to train them.
Rowan is taken on by Scythe Goddard who has a reputation for his blood lust, enjoying massacres to hit his quotas.
Citra is taken on by the famous Grande Madam of Death, Scythe Curie. She shows compassion to the family members of those gleamed.
Now the pair have very different apprenticeship experiences. Citra doesn’t believe Scythe Faraday’s death was an accident, and her inquisitive mind gets her in trouble.
Meanwhile, Rowan’s training involves parties and mass killings as Scythe Goddard tries to encourage him to find joy in kill craft. Goddard’s cruel methods push Rowan too far and he is no longer the boy he started out as.
The story continues to move toward the final conclave where they’ll both have to pass their last test. Passing the test will means one of them gets ordained and must kill the other. Despite all that has happened since Faraday, they still care deeply about each other. Both are plotting for a loop hole in the edict.
This was a brilliant story. There is a lot of death as they are Scythes, but the twists and surprises in the story is what makes you gasp and need to read another chapter!
Read it for a story full of twists and surprises, and to explore ideas of mortality and morals. Don’t read it if you don’t like blood, gore, or sensitive about death.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
You can buy this book from:
Amazon: The Toll (Arc of a Scythe) https://amzn.eu/d/eMwAIU2
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[Kofi]