Recent Reads: 13-19 January 2019

What books did you read this week?

Check out which FIVE YA books I was able to power through in this week’s reading blog!

Sunday (13th January)

Forgotten Violets (#1) by Martin Niewood

“At eighteen, Meadow Noone has endured more horror than most people witness in a lifetime. After escaping her captor’s cellar, she realizes that this was not the end of her problems; it was the beginning. Rescued from the lifeless tundra, she is arrested for a crime she didn’t commit. Feigning amnesia, she is determined to hide her secret, a secret too terrible to reveal.

In a place where nothing is as it appears, her trial in Thornbridge is unnerving, as the formidable interrogator, Quinn Cerpen, knows more than he is letting on. Pursued by real and legendary demons, Meadow’s enemies are closer than she could imagine for Aiden Rose, the monster of the tundra, is always watching.

With no one to turn to, she relies upon her friends, Parker and Elizabeth, to retain her sanity. Overwhelmed by anxiety she succumbs to Elsyn, a mysterious and addictive fruit. She wonders if the Elsyn is powerful enough to free her from the past that haunts her. Before long, she realizes that there is more to this sinister plot than her abduction and that the Elsyn is part of the puzzle.

Forgotten Violets is the story of Meadow’s journey through a psychological landscape of deceit and betrayal that causes her to question her relationships and beliefs. She knows that she is changing but changing into what?”

Published: 14 October 2017

Publisher: Self-Published

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Pages: 200

Click HERE to read all my thoughts!

The Wilted Flower District (#2) by Martin Niewood

“At sixteen Violet Noone is thrown into a world of deception and betrayal when her sister, Ophelia, missing and presumed dead for the last four years, suddenly reenters her life. Violet and her brother, Weylin, venture into in a desolate district of Fairhaven to meet Ophelia but instead of finding her, they discover the brutally murdered body of a young man, Claude Cole. Fleeing the scene, they become suspects, relentlessly pursued by Penny, the officer in charge of the investigation. They soon learn that this murder is no isolated incident as they unravel its mysterious connection to the forbidden fruit, Elsyn.
Things in the Domain are different than they were on Earth. For one thing, death there holds no promise of rebirth into another realm. Fairhaven is an energized and diverse city with many neighborhoods including the Wilted Flower District, where Violet lives with her adoptive family. Having lost her parents many years ago, Violet relies on her brother, Weylin, and her best friend, Deena, for support while concealing the truth from her adoptive mom, Ivy, whose help she needs the most.
Determined to solve the mystery and reunite her family, Violet confronts her own beliefs, the political order, and the physical world. The question is how far is she willing to go?“

Published: 1 November 2018

Publisher: Self-Published

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Pages: 158

Click HERE to read all my thoughts!

Monday (14th January)

Two Thousand Years (The Empire Saga #1) by M. Dalto

“Two thousand years ago, the Prophecy of Fire and Light foretold the coming of the Queen Empress who would lead the Empire into a time of peace and tranquility. But instead of the coming of a prosperous world, a forbidden love for the Empress waged a war that ravaged the land, creating a chasm between the factions, raising the death toll of innocent lives until the final, bloody battle.

Centuries later, Alexandra, a twenty-two-year-old barista living in Boston, is taken to an unfamiliar realm of mystery and magic where her life is threatened by Reylor, its banished Lord Steward. She crosses paths with Treyan, the arrogant and seductive Crown Prince of the Empire, and together they discover how their lives, and their love, are so intricately intertwined by a Prophecy set in motion so many years ago.

Alex, now the predestined Queen Empress Alexstrayna, whose arrival was foretold by the Annals of the Empire, controls the fate of her new home as war rages between the Crown Prince and Lord Steward. Either choice could tear her world apart as she attempts to keep the Empire’s torrid history from repeating itself. In a realm where betrayal and revenge will be as crucial to her survival as love and honor, Alex must discover whether it is her choice – or her fate – that determines how she survives the Empire’s rising conflicts.“

Published: 11 December 2018

Publisher: The Parliament House

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Pages: 357

Click HERE for the book review!

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

“Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep.

He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep.

Who are the Sawkill Girls?

Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.

Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is.

Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.

Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires.

Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.“

Published: 2 October 2018

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy / Horror

Pages: 450

Saturday (19th January)

The Disasters by M.K. England

“Hotshot pilot Nax Hall has a history of making poor life choices. So it’s not exactly a surprise when he’s kicked out of the elite Ellis Station Academy in less than twenty-four hours.

But Nax’s one-way trip back to Earth is cut short when a terrorist group attacks the Academy. Nax and three other washouts escape—barely—but they’re also the sole witnesses to the biggest crime in the history of space colonization. And the perfect scapegoats.

On the run and framed for atrocities they didn’t commit, Nax and his fellow failures execute a dangerous heist to spread the truth about what happened at the Academy.

They may not be “Academy material,” and they may not get along, but they’re the only ones left to step up and fight.“