Review: Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios

Title: Exquisite Captive (Dark Caravan Cycle #1)
Author: Heather Demetrios
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Release Date: October 7, 2014
Jinni. Empress. Warrior. Slave.

Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved. Stuffed into a bottle and sold by a slave trader, she's now in hiding on the dark caravan, the lucrative jinni slave trade between Arjinna and Earth, where jinn are forced to grant wishes and obey their human masters' every command. She'd give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to Malek, her cruel master, and his lavish Hollywood lifestyle.

Enter Raif, the enigmatic leader of Arjinna's revolution and Nalia's sworn enemy. He promises to release Nalia from her master so that she can return to her ravaged homeland and free her imprisoned brother—all for an unbearably high price. Nalia's not sure she can trust him, but Raif's her only hope of escape. With her enemies on the hunt, Earth has become more perilous than ever for Nalia. There's just one catch: for Raif's unbinding magic to work, Nalia must gain possession of her bottle—and keep the dangerously persuasive Malek from trapping her inside it.

Battling a dark past and harboring a terrible secret, Nalia soon realizes her freedom may come at too terrible a cost...

In this gorgeous fantasy, Heather Demetrios brings to life a deliciously seductive world where a wish can be a curse and shadows are sometimes safer than the light.

My Review

Please excuse me while I gather my thoughts.

What? I was supposed to do this before writing the review? *sigh* Very well...

*leaves*

Top Ten Tuesday: Underrated Books

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Top Ten Underrated Books
Urban Fantasy



1. Arcadia Bell series by Jenn Bennett
This is one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series, but I haven't really seen a lot of buzz about it. If you like witches in your Urban Fantasy, you should definitely check this one out.



2. Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter
Another one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series that hasn't generated a lot of buzz that I've seen. I really like that this one is set in New Orleans and involves a vampire hunter. The Native American mythology is also a pretty great touch.

Blog Tour (Review): Inglorious Royal Marriages by Leslie Carroll

Title: Inglorious Royal Marriages: A Demi-Millennium of Unholy Mismatrimony
Author: Leslie Carroll
Publisher: NAL Trade (Penguin)
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Acquired Via: Historical Fiction Blog Tours
It’s no secret that the marriages of monarchs are often made in hell. Here are some of the most spectacular mismatches in five hundred years of royal history...

In a world where many kings, queens, and princes lacked nothing but true love, marital mismatches could bring out the baddest, boldest behavior in the bluest of bloodlines. Margaret Tudor, her niece Mary I, and Catherine of Braganza were desperately in love with chronically unfaithful husbands, but at least they weren’t murdered by them, as were two of the Medici princesses were. King Charles II’s beautiful, high-spirited sister “Minette” wed Louis XIV’s younger brother, who wore more makeup and perfume than she did. Forced to wed her boring, jug-eared cousin Ferdinand, Marie of Roumania—a granddaughter of Queen Victoria—proved herself one of the heroines of World War I by using her prodigious personal charm to regain massive amounts of land during the peace talks at Versailles.

Brimming with outrageous real-life stories of royal marriages gone wrong, this is an entertaining, unforgettable book of dubious matches doomed from the start.

Praise for Leslie Carroll’s Royal Books

An irresistible combination of People magazine and the History Channel.” —Chicago Tribune (5 Stars)

“Thoroughly enjoyable.” —Booklist

“For those who tackled Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and can’t get enough of the scandal surrounding Henry VIII’s wives, [Notorious Royal Marriages is] the perfect companion book.” —NewYorker.com

My Review

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - I love history. I don't even mind non-fiction when I'm not in school. That being said, Inglorious Royal Marriages: A Demi-Millennium of Unholy Mismatrimony is probably my favorite non-fiction read in a long time because when royals mix with history, I'm like a moth being drawn to fire.

Review: Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini #Giveaway @FierceReads

Title: Trial by Fire (The Worldwalker Trilogy #1)
Author: Josephine Angelini
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Acquired Via: Publisher
This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying many of the experiences that other teenagers take for granted...which is why she is determined to enjoy her first (and perhaps only) high-school party. But Lily's life never goes according to plan, and after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class Lily wishes she could just disappear.

Suddenly Lily is in a different Salem - one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruellest of all the Crucibles is Lillian . . . Lily's identical other self in this alternate universe. This new version of her world is terrifyingly sensual, and Lily is soon overwhelmed by new experiences.

Lily realizes that what makes her weak at home is exactly what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. It also puts her life in danger. Thrown into a world she doesn't understand, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can't hope to shoulder alone, and a love she never expected.

But how can Lily be the saviour of this world when she is literally her own worst enemy?

Book Trailer


Audio Clip


My Review

Paranormal romances generally aren't my thing, and I tend to group anything with witches as that or urban fantasy. Josephine Angelini's Trial by Fire really isn't either of those, but I can assure you that it is all good. There is magic, alternate realities, hot guys, and powerful girls - the perfect combination to keep you burning through the pages. There are also moral dilemmas within that really makes you think about what is right, and what kind of sacrifice is too much.

Blog Tour (Audiobook Review): Camp Utopia and the Forgiveness Diet by Jenny Ruden

Title: Camp Utopia and the Forgiveness Diet
Author: Jenny Ruden
Narrator: Shannon McManus
Publisher: Koehler Books
Release Date: July 1, 2014
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
Sixteen-year-old Baltimore teen Bethany Stern knows the only way out of spending her summer at Camp Utopia, a fat camp in Northern California, is weight-loss. Desperate, she tries The Forgiveness Diet, the latest fad whose infomercial promises that all she has to do is forgive her deadbeat dad, her scandalous sister, and the teenage magician next door and (unrequited) love of her life. But when the diet fails and her camp nemesis delivers the ultimate blow, Bee bids sayonara to Camp-not-Utopian-at-all to begin what she believes will be her “real” summer adventure, only to learn that running away isn’t as easy—or as healing—as it seems.

Her wry and honest voice bring humor and poignancy for anyone, fat or thin, tired of hearing “you’d be so pretty if…[insert unwelcome judgment about your appearance from loved one or perfect stranger].”

Praise for Camp Utopia and the Forgiveness Diet

“A funny, poignant, emotionally intelligent and beautifully written novel that takes the reader on a journey that is by turns heartbreaking and inspiring. I highly recommend it.” -Alisa Valdes, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author

“Ruden’s debut novel is more than merely funny. It skewers our cultural obsession with the superficial, lampooning everything from fad diets to reality television and self-help gurus. And Bethany’s inner journey from bitterness to forgiveness is one that will resonate with all readers. Read it for the laughs, reread it for Ruden’s profound insight into the transformative power of forgiveness.” -Mike Mullin, author of Ashfall

My Review

I'm going to be that person. I'm the last one to show up at the party (the last stop on the tour), and I'm going to be a drag. Camp Utopia and the Forgiveness Diet was not for me, but I can see the appeal and necessity of it being out there. The book is not about just being overweight but also examining our lives and the relationships around us. In fact, it was the relationship between Bethany and her sister, Jackie, was what made me finally give up on the book.

Blog Tour (Review): Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott

Title: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
Author: Karen Abbott
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
Belle Boyd
Emma Edmonds
Rose O'Neal Greenhow
Elizabeth Van Lew

In Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, bestselling author Karen Abbott tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything—their homes, their families, and their very lives—during the Civil War.

Seventeen-year-old Belle Boyd, an avowed rebel with a dangerous temper, shot a Union soldier in her home and became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her considerable charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union private named Frank Thompson, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the war and infiltrating enemy lines, all the while fearing that her past would catch up with her. The beautiful widow Rose O'Neal Greenhow engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians, used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals, and sailed abroad to lobby for the Confederacy, a journey that cost her more than she ever imagined. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring—even placing a former slave inside the Confederate White House—right under the noses of increasingly suspicious rebel detectives.

Abbott's pulse-quickening narrative weaves the adventures of these four forgotten daredevils into the tumultuous landscape of a broken America, evoking a secret world that will surprise even the most avid enthusiasts of Civil War–era history. With a cast of real-life characters, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, Detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoléon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy shines a dramatic new light on these daring—and, until now, unsung—heroines.

My Review

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War is the story of four women during the American Civil War. I chose to review this because reading about women's actions during the Civil War was completely intriguing to me. Two of those women are for the Confederate army and two are for the Union army. Belle Boyd is a young rebel determined to make a name for herself by becoming a spy for the Confederate Army. Emma Edmonds enlists in the Union army as Frank Thompson. Rose O'Neale becomes a rebel spy in Union territory, while Elizabeth Van Lew becomes a vital part of the Union spy network while under the watchful and hateful eyes of her rebel neighbors.

Blog Tour (Spotlight): To Live Forever by Andra Watkins

Title: To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis
Author: Andra Watkins
Publisher: World Hermit Press
Release Date: March 1, 2014
Is remembrance immortality? Nobody wants to be forgotten, least of all the famous.

Meriwether Lewis lived a memorable life. He and William Clark were the first white men to reach the Pacific in their failed attempt to discover a Northwest Passage. Much celebrated upon their return, Lewis was appointed governor of the vast Upper Louisiana Territory and began preparing his eagerly-anticipated journals for publication. But his re-entry into society proved as challenging as his journey. Battling financial and psychological demons and faced with mounting pressure from Washington, Lewis set out on a pivotal trip to the nation’s capital in September 1809. His mission: to publish his journals and salvage his political career. He never made it. He died in a roadside inn on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee from one gunshot to the head and another to the abdomen.

Was it suicide or murder? His mysterious death tainted his legacy and his fame quickly faded. Merry’s own memory of his death is fuzzy at best. All he knows is he’s fallen into Nowhere, where his only shot at redemption lies in the fate of rescuing another. An ill-suited “guardian angel,” Merry comes to in the same New Orleans bar after twelve straight failures. Now, with one drink and a two-dollar bill he is sent on his last assignment, his final shot at escape from the purgatory in which he’s been dwelling for almost 200 years. Merry still believes he can reverse his forgotten fortunes.

Nine-year-old Emmaline Cagney is the daughter of French Quarter madam and a Dixieland bass player. When her mother wins custody in a bitter divorce, Emmaline carves out her childhood among the ladies of Bourbon Street. Bounced between innocence and immorality, she struggles to find her safe haven, even while her mother makes her open her dress and serve tea to grown men.

It isn’t until Emmaline finds the strange cards hidden in her mother’s desk that she realizes why these men are visiting: her mother has offered to sell her to the highest bidder. To escape a life of prostitution, she slips away during a police raid on her mother’s bordello, desperate to find her father in Nashville.

Merry’s fateful two-dollar bill leads him to Emmaline as she is being chased by the winner of her mother’s sick card game: The Judge. A dangerous Nowhere Man convinced that Emmaline is the reincarnation of his long dead wife, Judge Wilkinson is determined to possess her, to tease out his wife’s spirit and marry her when she is ready. That Emmaline is now guarded by Meriwether Lewis, his bitter rival in life, further stokes his obsessive rage.

To elude the Judge, Em and Merry navigate the Mississippi River to Natchez. They set off on an adventure along the storied Natchez Trace, where they meet Cajun bird watchers, Elvis-crooning Siamese twins, War of 1812 re-enactors, Spanish wild boar hunters and ancient mound dwellers. Are these people their allies? Or pawns of the perverted, powerful Judge?

After a bloody confrontation with the Judge at Lewis’s grave, Merry and Em limp into Nashville and discover her father at the Parthenon. Just as Merry wrestles with the specter of success in his mission to deliver Em, The Judge intercedes with renewed determination to win Emmaline, waging a final battle for her soul. Merry vanquishes the Judge and earns his redemption. As his spirit fuses with the body of Em’s living father, Merry discovers that immortality lives within the salvation of another, not the remembrance of the multitude.

Buy Links
Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Paperback) | Barnes & Noble


About the Author

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): Dark Aemilia by Sally O'Reilly

Title: Dark Aemilia: A Novel of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady
Author: Sally O'Reilly
Publisher: Picador (Macmillan)
Release Date: May 27, 2014
Acquired Via: Historical Fiction Blog Tours
A TALE OF SORCERY AND PASSION IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON—WHERE WITCHES HAUNT WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND HIS DARK LADY, THE PLAYWRIGHT'S MUSE AND ONE TRUE LOVE

The daughter of a Venetian musician, Aemilia Bassano came of age in Queen Elizabeth’s royal court. The Queen’s favorite, she develops a love of poetry and learning, maturing into a young woman known not only for her beauty but also her sharp mind and quick tongue. Aemilia becomes the mistress of Lord Hunsdon, but her position is precarious. Then she crosses paths with an impetuous playwright named William Shakespeare and begins an impassioned but ill-fated affair.

A decade later, the Queen is dead, and Aemilia Bassano is now Aemilia Lanyer, fallen from favor and married to a fool. Like the rest of London, she fears the plague. And when her young son Henry takes ill, Aemilia resolves to do anything to save him, even if it means seeking help from her estranged lover, Will—or worse, making a pact with the Devil himself.

In rich, vivid detail, Sally O’Reilly breathes life into England’s first female poet, a mysterious woman nearly forgotten by history. Full of passion and devilish schemes, Dark Aemilia is a tale worthy of the Bard.

Selected by O, The Oprah Magazine as one of 17 Books You Won’t Be Able To Put Down!
My Review

I have never read anything by Aemilia Lanyer that I can recall, but I was interested in Sally O'Reilly's Dark Aemilia because of the Elizabethan setting. While I enjoyed the setting and Aemilia as a character, I must warn you that the book had some fairly graphic scenes that I found difficult to read.