Ashlords by Scott Reintgen

    I love horses and the idea of horse racing.  This cover caught my attention and between that and the "Ride or Die" tag line,  I just had to try it.

This book follows the story of three phoenix riders as they engage in a race for cultural dominance.  Phoenixes, in this case, are horses that are born each morning and die each night.  Their riders use alchemy to add to the ashes to improve their mounts. 

The story was a bit or a mixture between Hildago/The Black Stallion Returns/ and The Hunger Games.  If you know anything about the Ocean of Fire, the endurance races run in Saudi Arabia, this book will probably be of interest. 

I thought the story would have been better told from a single aspect - either the Alchemist or the daughter of former champions.  I think changing perspectives so often can cause a lose of depth to the character development and I think that is what happened in this case.  Also the story rushes through to the end but lacked what I thought was a satisfying finish.  In other words, I wanted to love it more than I actually did.  Three stars.

Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas and Allison Layland

  This was another cute book that I picked up on Kindle Unlimited.  Not free, but not expensive either.  (Just one of a million reasons to love my kindle).

At any rate, this is the story of Johnathan, a man who is going through the motions but isn't really living.  That is, until he finds a filofax in a bag mysteriously left on the handlebars of his bicycle.   He goes about finding the person that the filofax belongs to, and ends up on a journey of self discovery.

I love the way that the author took the two main story lines and wove them together.  At times the book seemed a little slow.  At others, I favored on story line over the other and was irritated to move away from one to the other and thus lose momentum.  In the end though, I was well worth it.

Cleverly contrived.  Three stars.

The Kiss Thief by LJ Shen

   I have to say that I was taken in by the title and the cover.  It was appealing.  I'm writing this so you won't get fooled. 

This is the story of a young mafia princess essentially.  She is being groomed by her family, not to advance herself, take over the business or otherwise contribute anything of use to society but simply to marry well.  Strike one.   She spends the entire first three or more chapters whining about a boy who, frankly isn't worthy of her, which isn't saying much.  Strike 2.  And finally,  although this is nearly impossible to believe - she smokes.  Nearly constantly.  I nearly choked on the fumes just reading this crap.  Nothing to see here of any worth.  Move along.

1 star and that it being generous. 

The Holdout by Graham Moore

   Maya, a young idealist, became a member of the jury.  A man has been accused of killing a young girl.  In spite of salacious circumstantial evidence, no body was ever found.  The jury, with Maya at the head, chose not to convict.  What if they got it wrong?

It seems that none of the jurors have been able to return to "real life".  Now 10 years after the events of the trial, it appears new evidence has come to light.   I loved Graham Moore's The Last Days of Night so I was really excited about this book.  It did not disappoint.

So many twists and turns that you never see coming. I enjoyed it from start to finish.  If you like court room thrillers and murder mysteries, this one is for you.  Definitely check it out!  Five stars.

Ember Queen by Laura Sebastian

This is the third book in the series - The Ash Princess.   I loved everything about the first two books and have been waiting anxiously for the third to come out.  Finally, just a few weeks ago -Huzzah the day I have been waiting for!?

It has been a really long time since a book tying up a series has disappointed me so greatly.  Usually, in a series like this one the pacing of events builds and builds until culminating in the final battle between our hero and her nemesis. 

This book was SO slow it was actually painful.  I nearly didn't finish it.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Seriously, by the end, I honestly didn't give  a shit if Theo earned her crown and became Queen of Astrea. Frankly, the character that had the most depth was Cress.

If I could go back and give my past self advice, I'd tell me to stop after book one and just accept where that book ends and conjecture my own ending.  It would be for the best.  Three stars because I loved books one and two so much.  This one was, in a word, AWFUL.

Finding Cinderella and Finding Perfect by Colleen Hoover

These books were written as novella's and  contain some of the characters from past novels of Colleen's that readers have come to know and love.  I read them for that reason.  Plus, I love Colleen Hoover though I have found that sometimes her books can be hit or miss. A list of my favorites include:  It Ends With Us, Verity, Regretting You, and Hopeless.  Some of those I'd pass on:  Without Merit,  Ugly Love and Maybe Not. 

Back to these novella's though.  Initial though is that they could have been combined to be their own novel, and the second one - Finding Perfect  - could have been fleshed out more to not feel so rushed.

I thought the concept in Finding Cinderella was ridiculous.  It is hard to imagine a teenage girl who would be willing to have intercourse in a broom closet with a boy she doesn't know and she's never seen his face.   But maybe that's just me and I don't know as much about teenage girls as I think I do.  That said the absurdity just goes on from there.

Further, it didn't live up to her writing style. Really it was only a two out of five stars.  Don't waste your time - especially if you're a fan.

When Wishes Bleed by Casey L. Bond

   So I was browsing kindle books and I came across this cover and title.  I know they say you should never judge a book by it's cover, but to be honest, I am much more likely to pick up the book and read the cover blurb if I find the cover/ title intriguing and this one just caught my attention.

This is the story of Sable, a witch from the House of Fate, who is outcast among her peers. When she reads the fate of an unexpected young man, her whole life changes.  This book was a cross between The Selection, Throne of Glass and the Bachelor.  At times, it was completely predictable, but the ride was still so enjoyable, I didn't even mind being right.  I wanted to be right.

Also, every once in a while, it is so nice to read a book that reaches a satisfying conclusion all by itself.  This one does.  No, it isn't award winning for dealing with thought provoking issues of the day, but really, does every book need to do that?  Sometimes it's fine just to escape and enjoy.