The Unfailing Light Blog Tour Kick Off: Review + Giveaway

Read (September 23, 2012)

Book: The Unfailing Light (The Katerina Trilogy #2) by Robin Bridges

Publishing Date: October 9, 2012

Publisher: Delacorte BFYR

Number of Pages: 320

Genre/s: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Historical Fiction

Lush and opulent, romantic and sinister, "The Unfailing Light, " Volume II in The Katerina Trilogy, reimagines the lives of Russia's aristocracy in a fabulously intoxicating and page-turning fantasy.

Having had no choice but to use her power has a necromancer to save Russia from dark forces, Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, now wants to forget that she ever used her special powers. She's about to set off to pursue her lifelong dream of attending medical school when she discovers that Russia's arch nemesis--who she thought she'd destroyed--is still alive. So on imperial orders, Katerina remains at her old finishing school. She'll be safe there, because the empress has cast a potent spell to protect it against the vampires and revenants who are bent on toppling the tsar and using Katerina for their own gains. But to Katerina's horror, the spell unleashes a vengeful ghost within the school, a ghost more dangerous than any creature trying to get in. - (source)

“I believe you can create the life you want, Katiya. You are strong enough to make all of your dreams come true.” - taken from an uncorrected ARC 

I've always admired Katerina. She is strong-willed and compassionate. Her dream of becoming a doctor to help and heal others is all the more inspiring because it's very uncommon in her time and for someone of nobility. Other girls her age think of nothing but balls, gowns and only ambitions to marry someone rich and powerful. But Katerina also has a dark gift and despite her efforts not to be involved with the continuously rising dispute in the St. Petersburg's royal courts, she always finds herself dragged in the middle of it all. Everybody just wants to use her. Amidst all of this, Katerina struggles to remain untouched by darkness and this just made her truly endearing. 

One of the many positive qualities of The Unfailing Light is its ability to enthrall its readers with its atmosphere. Imperial Russia is depicted as regal and majestic but it is also sinister and foreboding and boasts quite a number of paranormal creatures that would scare the living wit out of an unknowing, oblivious ordinary person. It's still hard to keep track of the lineages and who's who but the mystery that was sustain all throughout the book just made The Unfailing Light such a thrilling read.

Katerina's time back in Smolny Institute was definitely one of my favorite parts. I kept trying to guess what's really happening, who to trust, who's behind it all as Katerina attempts to appease the uncontrollable, vehement presence to protect her friends.

We also get to see more of Katerina's power. It's getting stronger and with it Katerina seems to be evolving, too. She's still the same stubborn yet kindhearted girl but she's growing to become someone formidable. Her relationship with George progresses as well. Their secret meetings and stolen kisses were surprisingly enough to make me giddy and lighthearted.

In The Gathering Storm, Bridges introduced us to Imperial Russia in all its glory but we quickly learned that behind all the glamour and curtsies, power struggles exist. In this second installment, the conspiracy and deceit was as palpable as ever. But like in the first book, the ending left me a little frustrated and somewhat disgruntled. Bridges really has a knack to end her books in a way that will left her readers wanting more. 

Overall, The Unfailing Light is a strong, compelling read. Full of intrigue and magic, The Unfailing Light is as enchanting as its predecessor.

Cupid's Verdict:

4 Cupids

A copy was provided by the publisher at no cost via Netgalley
in exchange for an honest review.

***

I am very honored to be kicking off this blog tour and I'm offering a copy to one lucky reader courtesy of the wonderful people from Random House Kids. This giveaway is open to US only. Sorry international peeps! To enter, just fill out the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

By day, Robin Bridges is a mild-mannered writer of fantasy and paranormal fiction for young adults. By night, she is a pediatric nurse. Robin lives on the Gulf Coast with her husband, one soon-to-be teenager, and two slobbery mastiffs. She likes playing video games and watching Jane Austen movies. (If only there was a Jane Austen video game!) The Katerina Trilogy began with the The Gathering Storm and continues with The Unfailing Light.

You can find Robin Bridges here: Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Here are the rest of the stops. Don't forget to drop by! ;)

~September 25th: Casey’s Crew

~September 26th: Much Ado About Books

~September 26th: The Streetlight Reader

~September 27th: Infinite Reads

~September 28th: The Hiding Spot

~September 29th: Girls *Heart* Books

~October 1st: Mom Reads My Books

~October 2nd: Magical Urban Fantasy Reads

~October 2nd: The Book Review Club

~October 3rd: The Book Review Club

~October 4th: Kimba Caffeinated

~October 4th: My Life is a Notebook

~October 5th: My Life is a Notebook

~October 6th: Candace’s Book Blog

~October 7th: Reader Girls

~October 8th: Bookish

~October 8th: Peace, Love, Books

~October 9th: YA Bibliophile

~October 9th: Reader Girls

~October 10th: Wastepaper Prose

~October 10th: Imaginary Reads

~October 11th: Imaginary Reads

~October 12th: Well Read Wife

~October 15th: Libby Blog

~October 16th: Cracking the Cover

~October 17th: A Bookish Libraria

~October 18th: A Novel Review

~October 19th: In the Best Worlds

~October 20th: Tripping Over Books

Review: Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Read from August 28, 2012
to September 18. 2012

Book: Stormdancer (The Lotus War #1) by Jay Kristoff

Publication Date: September 18, 2012

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Number of Pages: 336

Genre/s: Young Adult, Steampunk

A DYING LAND 

The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever. 

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST

The hunters of Shima’s imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger—a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.

A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL

Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her. 

But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire. - From Goodreads 

Let me take a moment to wipe my tears. 

Stormdancer has all the merits, the grace, the freaking epicness. I AM IN AWE. I AM STUNNED. I AM AMAZED. My jaw is somewhere in the floor of my dormitory struggling to close itself and to recover from the awesomeness of it all. There are no words to express how much Stormdancer touched me. There are no words. No words.

Oh come on guys. Do I really need to spell it all out why Stormdancer rock so hard, it made the ant hills tremble in fear for their existence. It made thunderstorms cool. It made you anticipate for an arashitora. It made you want to have a Kenning. This book is so good, I have to stop for a while, wide eyed and slack jawed, look at my surroundings and remind myself that I'm not Yukiko. It's a shame really because I want my own Buruu. I want my own arashitora!

I swear to you, I was grinning, smirking, giggling all by myself in class with my professor in the middle of her lecture about peritoneal dialysis and epidural anesthesia. Nothing else mattered at those times. NOTHING ELSE. I was thoroughly sucked in and I could care less with anyone. Anything is nothing compared to this. SHALL I CONVINCE YOU MORE? Because I can, I could go on and on about how freakingtastic Stormdancer is.

Honestly, I was well-prepared for anything. Those early reviews of those lucky reviewers about Kristoff's writing being so...overwhelming. Indeed it is, in a good way. I loved it.  Every word is chosen carefully to add more conviction, to provide more weight in a situation. I appreciated how he string words together, how the words become lifelike, how it showcased his creativity, how it become an art, a written painting. Everything was so vividly described and characterized, even the slightest details were beautifully crafted. Kristoff's writing made my senses alive. 

For those of you who might've problem with that kind of writing, do not give up. The last thing you would ever want to do is give up. I swear it will grow on you and you will love it. If not, then something's really wrong with you. Nah, I'm just kidding. Or am I? But seriously, you wouldn't meet Buruu. The glorious arashitora whom everybody loves right now. Just do it for Buruu. ALL HAIL BURUU!

Yukiko, the bearer of the kick-ass sash and the winner of the badass trophy. You just have to hand it to her. She's fierce yet compassionate. She's just a young girl task to start a revolution, to change everything, to inspire people to see through the haze of corruption, the heat of oppression, to save what there's left to be save. She was an enigma to behold.

The romance. Oh how I giggled. Buruu can be such a tease sometimes. I think it effectively added another side to Yukiko. There was also Yukiko's relationship with her father. She hated him for all the thing she thought she lost because of him. Only to find out that he gave it all up just for her. In his father he learned forgiveness and sacrifice. Her father once said to her, "One day you will see that we must sometimes sacrifice for the sake of something greater". And her father do held to this until the very end.

Kristoff's Stormdancer is my first steampunk. It reminded me why I love reading in the first place. It's because I want to feel so much, I'm going to be so close to exploding. It's because I want to be mindblown and I want to be transported into a completely different world that only amazingness awaits me.  GAWD. JAY KRISTOFF remember this, if I see you someday I will...cry. YOU ARE JUST...My heart just bursts with admiration for you.

It's been a long time since I fell madly in love with a book, I'd sell my right kidney just to..I don't know..spread the love? It's packed-full of adventure with solid characters and important and relevant themes. It was about everlasting bond and friendship, unconditional love, sacrifice and reconciliation, and family. It was incredibly outstanding, marvelously superb and everything in between. It was love.

If I had a love jar, I would certainly be broke by now. But yeah, I still want my own Buruu. Dibs.

Cupid's Verdict:

5 Cupids

An advance copy was provided by the publisher at no cost via Netgalley.

Owl Post (2)

Meme created by Brodie of Eleusinian Mysteries.
Inspired by In My Mailbox by Kristi of The Story Siren.

It was last June since my first Owl Post. It was that long! Anyway, who of you guys love book sales? There is a lot of cheap, good books to buy in a book sale. I swear, especially to my Filipino friends and readers (winks), I knocked myself out 2 weeks ago. I was in Book Sale in SM North Edsa and me and a friend of mine was supposed to buy books in honor of the last day of the National Book Store sale but I ended up buying ONLY one book in NBS. Heh!

So here's my book haul:

All of those books minus Insurgent, I got from Book Sale. We went crazy. We swept the whole shop, literally. We restacked shelves, we rearranged them. We were there for about 4-5 hours. If you're wondering how much I spent, it's less than P1500 ($35) and yes, including Insurgent. ;)

~Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Started on this one. All I can say is I hope I could have the time to sit down and focus on this.

~Life As We Know It and The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Craving for an apocalyptic read?  Both of these books might satisfy you.

~Atonement by Ian McEwan. I actually watched the movie first and my heart was crushed and broken into pieces. Sigh. Even thinking about makes me sad. *sniffs* I am not big on movie tie-in covers but it's on sale and the movie was actually good so I made an exception.

~Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I've been pining for The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandana since forever. I've been stalkerish with all her interviews, too and she said Frankenstein was the inspiration of the novel. I was intrigued so I thought of reading it for myself.

~A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb. I've read this before. I liked it and the cover was so gorgeously haunting.

~Kokology by Tadahiko Nagao and Isami Saito. This one isn't novel. Click the link to find out more.

~On The Brightside, I'm Now The Girlfriend of A Sex God by Louise Rennison. Georgia Nicholson is a delight to read. If you haven't tried this series yet, you're in for a treat. Oh! That semi-rhymed!

~Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck. I squealed for this one. I'm not kidding, everybody in the shop looked at me like I'm on crack or something. I've been meaning to read this series and it's like a dream come true. My next mission is to find the first one in the series after that I can finally start.

~Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I've yet to read Divergent but I took advantage of the NBS Book Sale. So I'm all set to finally read the series before the next book comes out. Now to find the time to read them...

That's it for my Owl Post. My balloon owl is still recovering from all that. How about you guys? What books did you haul this weekend? I love to see them so don't forget to leave your links on the comment section below.

Under the Sea Giveaway Hop: 9/14-9/20

Welcome to Under the Sea giveaway hop featuring books with mermaids, sirens, or anything water-related. This is hosted by Kathy of  I Am A Reader Not A Writer and Amber of The Musings of ALMYBNENR. This will last from September 14 to September 20th, 2012.

Here are the books you can win. All of them are linked to Goodreads to help you choose. ;)

Monstrous Beauty | Breathless | Of Poseidon | Everblue | Lies Beneath

Vicious Deep | Between the Sea and Sky | Forgive My Fins | Lullaby

This giveaway is open internationally as long as The Book Depository ships to your country for free. There will be ONE winner. I will contact the winner via email and the winner must respond within 48 hours or another winner will be picked. To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck everyone and happy hopping! :)

"Waiting On" Wednesday (9): Gravity

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating. 

Book: Gravity (The Taking #1) by Melissa West

Publication Date: October 16, 2012

Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC

In the future, only one rule will matter: Don’t. Ever. Peek.

Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed--arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die. 

Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know--especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war. - Goodreads

Never been a fan of alien stuff but I am so excited to read this one! Alien spy, military legacy, war? Come on! 

What are you waiting on?

Leave your link down below so I can check yours out.