The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

A princess must find her place in a reborn world.

She flees on her wedding day.

She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.

She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.

She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.

The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.

Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.


Rating: 1/5 stars


"Well, if you were to kiss him, what do you think it would be like?”


   “Oh, I think it would taste sweeter than honey.…” She fanned herself as if a memory was making her light-headed. “Yes, I think it would be very, very good, that is, if I were to kiss him."

Welcome to The Kiss of Deception which deceived me into thinking it would be the story of a strong-willed princess, instead of a spoiled, delusional girl wondering about which boy she’d like to kiss the better.

I read up to 32% of the book ,at which point I got annoyed with everything, so I skimmed read until something better happened. I got to the end of the book with nothing remarkable, because I had already predicted everything that would happen (hey, I’m a First Daughter after all! Wink wink) and that kids, is the boring story of how I finished this book.

Bored.

Bored out of my mind.

 

The Kiss of deception starts with this beautiful prose:

"Today was the day a thousand dreams would die and a single dream would be born.

   The wind knew. It was the first of June, but cold gusts bit at the hilltop citadelle as fiercely as deepest winter, shaking the windows with curses and winding through drafty halls with warning whispers. There was no escaping what was to come."

And I’ll admit, if well I was annoyed as hell during my entire read, it is clear that Mary E. Pearson has a remarkable way with words. They make you flow through the pages without even realizing it. Unfortunately, that is the only redeemable characteristic of this book.

Princess Lia of House Morringham is a First daughter, which in this fantasy world means she should have “The Gift” (it always kills me how authors put such little thought in names. Things here were “The gift”, “The ancient language”, “The ruins” which ancient language? Latin?? Which ruins?? Even if all knowledge were lost there were still different languages from different periods, which ancient shit are you referring to??) but it appears that she doesn’t have that prized ability, even though her mother and countless women before her had.

As a First Daughter, she is more desirable for a marriage alliance since her "gift" would also bring her new husband (and therefore kingdom) political advantages. It was clear then, based on the predictability of Young Adult novels, that by Lia not having a gift meant that she would be the most special/powerful perfect First daughter to have ever lived on this earth, unlike the kinds had ever seen before.

At least, that was the most obvious and dumbest prediction, and I was sadly proven to be right.

The introduction of Lia’s character left a lot to be desired, because I already disliked her from page one.

“But, Mila!” You must think. “That’s a bit too much, isn’t it?”

Well no my dear reader, not when Lia proved to be a spoiled brat from the get-go. We get from her point of view that she doesn’t want this marriage to happen, though honestly, who could blame her?

Women being used as pawns in political alliances was awful, we were considered a piece of property rather than actual people. Right now, Lia’s marriage to some stranger would ensure peace not only between those two kingdoms but also against the enemy’s attack, a force that has been growing strong with each passing decade.

My problem with Lia was that, although I could sympathize with her desire for freedom, she paid no care to her role as a princess.

Yes, being sold off as property is awful but her marriage could ensure peace. Lia can only think about herself, how unfair this is, how her parents don’t care for her, so she’s doing this out of spite, too.

It sucks to put a burden so heavy as the peace of two nations on a seventeen year old girl, but the burden is still hers and by running away she’s not just making her parents angry she is also condemning her kingdom and the one of her future husband to a certain downfall at the hands of their common enemy.

Those are thousands of soldiers being killed at war, thousands to even millions of people being starved to death, countless women and children being raped and murdered.

Yet Lia doesn’t care, all she can think off is on how unfair this is for her, even though she has always known that this was the life she was born into. Lia doesn’t care and never even thinks of her people when she makes her selfish decisions, she’s just a spoiled brat rebelling against her parents rules.

Even though she only thought of escaping the night before, Lia is more than happy to bring her maid and best friend with her without considering how, if caught, Pauline would be executed for treason.

The escape from the palace was vague and dumb, like the rest of the book. Despite them having never gone out of the castle by themselves and the place being heavily armed with guards from both Kingdoms (since it’s the heist of the celebration), the two young girls just escape to the barns, hope on a horse and ride off, with Lia still on her wedding gown.

 I bet nooobody could have seen her.

Once they are safely away, meaning they rode for a few hours, they stop and cover their tracks. Lia’s brothers taught her one day how to hide her tracks while hunting, so of course she can hide her trail from highly experienced trackers from all of the two kingdoms.

They even go as far as cutting off some of the gems of her wedding cloak (ruining a relic like a good spoiled teenager) and then tying it on a branch and dumping it on the river so that people assumed that she had drown… because she tied the cloak, tieeeed it.

After that and even though there are “barbarians” and rebels everywhere, the two girls start a very noticeable fire and yell at the barbarians to come and get them.

" I shaded my eyes with my hand as if I were peering into the dark woods searching for them. “I’d welcome the diversion of a savage right now. Barbarians, show yourselves!” I shouted. There was no answer. “I do believe we frighten them."

I kid you not. Why not just do like Celaena Sardothien and choke down a bag of poisoned candies while you’re at it? Save us both the trouble of keeping up with this story.

But no, they sleep safely and then the two girls arrive to Pauline’s old home. Because when a teenager runs away, her parents would never try and look for her first at her best friend’s house.

After they are both settled there, Lia starts the life she always wanted and becomes a waitress doing “real” work like making the beds and pouring beer, instead of running a kingdom.

I just don’t get it, Lia seemed to think that doing hardwork was the only good thing anybody could do. Forget intelectuals and science, Lia despises all of that. In more than one occasion we have to sit and hear her complain about how much they made her study (even though most of the population was probably illiterate, she complained about her super pricy and excellent education) but then she would act all mighty and smart when she knew things that other people didn’t.

That didn’t mean she was smart, it meant she had a better education, and she spits on that because it was just another thing that mommy and daddy forced on her.

And it is at this point when the Assassin and the Prince arrive.

The author does a pretty ingenious trick and hides the identity of the killer sent to stop the alliance from happening and the prince sent to… emmm… well, it’s still pretty unclear why the Prince went to find her besides to get the love triangle started, but the thing is when they both arrive and find Lia, the reader doesn’t know who is who.

The idea was fantastic but, unfortunately, it didn’t work for me because:

• A.  We know little of the Prince, the Assassin and Lia for us to care who is who.
• B.      I couldn’t care less whether Lia is betrayed. I was actually looking forward to it.
• C.      The two idiots fall in love the second they see the Princess, so there is no real treat to her.
• D.      Both the prince and the assassin had the same personality and voice, I think their only difference was that one was blond and the other dark-haired. Why would I care who she would end up with if they were both the same?
• E.       The love triangle starts too soon and with no development for us to care about it, and it takes up to 80% of the book.

The author tries to give the love interests some semblance of personality by having Lia say that one is an asshole and the other one is nice (guess who she falls for…) but as the narration continues, they are both described as ill-tempered, mysterious and hawt and that made the reading complicated.

When you are writing different POV’s you have to make sure each character has their own voice, that doesn’t happen here. There were times when I was reading a chapter and thought it was one of the boys, and then it turned out to be Lia, and viceversa.

So at the thirty percent mark,  I got to the point where it was either throw my phone out the window or skim read. So I started to go through the pages until something exciting happened…

I got to the end with nothing, and the end itself did not redeem the book. The only reason I was happy was because this was finally over and I wouldn’t have to read another page of “berry picking with handsome strangers.”

I can’t say anything redeeming about The Kiss of Deception apart from the writing. This is not fantasy, considering how there are only vague mentions of powers and kingdoms.

I would recommend this for hardcore romance fans who don’t mind love triangles or plot-holes. If you are looking for real fantasy and engaging characters, come by my side and we’ll search together, my friend.

Storm Siren by Mary Weber

“I raise my chin as the buyers stare. Yes. Look. You don’t want me. Because, eventually, accidentally, I will destroy you.”

In a world at war, a slave girl’s lethal curse could become one kingdom’s weapon of salvation. If the curse—and the girl—can be controlled.

As a slave in the war-weary kingdom of Faelen, seventeen-year-old Nym isn’t merely devoid of rights, her Elemental kind are only born male and always killed at birth — meaning, she shouldn’t even exist.

Standing on the auction block beneath smoke-drenched mountains, Nym faces her fifteenth sell. But when her hood is removed and her storm-summoning killing curse revealed, Nym is snatched up by a court advisor and given a choice: be trained as the weapon Faelen needs to win the war, or be killed.

Choosing the former, Nym is unleashed into a world of politics, bizarre parties, and rumors of an evil more sinister than she’s being prepared to fight . . . not to mention the handsome trainer whose dark secrets lie behind a mysterious ability to calm every lightning strike she summons.

But what if she doesn’t want to be the weapon they’ve all been waiting for?


Rating: 2/5 Stars

Cover:

I’m not the biggest fan of having people in the covers, to be honest. It’s just a personal preference of mine.

For one, they don’t really say much besides having a hot girl/guy in some pose and the title. I’m more of an abstract cover girl but in this case, and although I’m still not totally sold out on it because I’m annoyingly stubborn, the cover of Siren Storm does get the point across. We have Nym with her silver-blonde hair, a storm and an ominous forest in the background.

If anything the problem with the cover is that tells us about a strong and powerful girl that controls lightning… and that was something that was missing.

Story:

I picked up Storm Siren because the premise sounded a lot like Shadow and Bone, and in some ways it did… just not like I would have wanted.

Nym is a slave and an Elemental (siren) but her kind are only born males and so they are killed at birth, identified by their white hair. Nym shouldn’t even exist.

Her control of the weather is a gift among her kind, at least when they got to be old enough to have it, but she doesn’t have an actual control over it. The storms and lightening come without a warning, and she can kill anybody without her being able to do anything to stop it.

At a slave auction, when a storm she causes kills her new owner and a little slave girl, Nym is presented with a choice by a strange woman; be delivered to the authorities and executed or train to become a weapon to be used in the ongoing war against the enemy kingdom.

Storm Siren was just “meh” for me. There is nothing about the book that can set it apart from the other thousands of YA novels on the market.

Nym was a frustrating character to read about. She reminded me a lot of Alina from Shadow and Bone, and she was an annoying narrator for me too. Nym doesn’t want to train to become a weapon because she doesn’t want to kill anyone else after the accidental deaths she has caused in her life. Although I could understand her point of view, she took it to an extreme; Nym doesn’t want to kill a few people even though by doing so she could save thousands, millions of lives!

Her reticence became annoying and dumb. Refusing to train and embrace her power was just a plot device to make the book last longer, and that annoyed me to no end. She wants to help, but she doesn’t want to help!! She wants to embrace her power, but the lives she took!!!

Enough already, just settle into a decision and follow through with it.

Besides that, Nym didn’t have any particular characteristic or defining personality trait. Who is this elemental girl that shouldn’t exist? The book kept reminding us just how special Nym was simply because of her status as an Elemental, but that’s all that there is in her character. She’s special because she was “born shuper-speciul” not because she has earned it.

As the plot moved forward (at a snail pace I may add) so did the love story.

Or should I say… love triangle?

Yes, we have the nice guy and the super-hot asshole here.

I didn’t really care for the romance, because I didn’t care about the characters. Despite having my hopes up, there is no Darkling here. The love interests are dull and predictable; one is a super asshole for no reason, and the other is super nice for no reason (Seriously, I wanted to slap Nym a few times and the guy made her sound as if she were perfect)

The world building… was nowhere to be seen. Why were the two kingdoms at war? Why did the people with special abilities were separated geographically? Why did they have special abilities to begin with?

Nothing is ever explained and everything is taken for granted. That’s just not my cup of tea in fantasy; if you are creating a new world, please tell me how it works.

Overall, I would say Storm Siren was average at best, when it wasn’t pissing me off. Romance fans will probably enjoy it, but if you are looking for a good fantasy story this might not be your pick.

Tarnished by Kate Jarvik Birch (Perfected 2)

Freedom comes at a cost...

Ella was genetically engineered to be the perfect pet—graceful, demure...and kept. In a daring move, she escaped her captivity and took refuge in Canada. But while she can think and act as she pleases, the life of a liberated pet is just as confining as the Congressman’s gilded cage. Her escape triggered a backlash, and now no one's safe, least 
of all the other pets. But she's trapped, unable to get back 
to Penn—the boy she loves—or help the girls who need her. 

Back in the United States, pets are turning up dead. With help from a very unexpected source, Ella slips deep into the dangerous black market, posing as a tarnished pet available to buy or sell. If she's lucky, she'll be able to rescue Penn and expose the truth about the breeding program. If she fails, Ella will pay not only with her life, but the lives 
of everyone she's tried to save...

Rating: 3/5 Stars

I was kindly provided with an ARC of this book via Netgalley in Exchange for an honest review.

I can definitely say that Tarnished was much better than its predecessor, Perfected, in both character development and pacing.

No more parading around in dresses and admiring the beautiful place around her for Ella. No insta-love (although I still don’t see why these two kids love is so epic) either. Instead we find ourselves in a more action packed story, with enemies at every corner and with the stakes being so much higher, considering how now many pet girls are being found dead.

Tarnished picks up were Perfected ended, with Ella being kept in a safe house in Canada with other pets. Desperate to escape and save her boyfriend from his father’s claws, she will team up with an old “friend” to get back to the United States and help the other pets kept as slaves around the world.

It was an entertaining read, although it didn’t bring much into the plot or the world building. Ella did grew as a character, something that was missing in the first instalment, but it still felt forced; the change wasn’t smooth or natural but rather she became this freedom fighter overnight. It wasn’t very believable.

I still have problems connecting with the characters and the story, their feelings are just not in here and that makes it hard for me to be invested in them.

I won’t say much else because Tarnished will be published in December and I want to avoid spoilers, but I’m sure that fans of the first book will absolutely love this sequel.

Vessel by Lissa Cresswell

The sun exploded on April 18, 2112. It exploded in a Class X solar storm the likes of which humankind had never seen. 

They had nineteen minutes. 

Nineteen minutes until the geomagnetic wave washed over the Earth, frying every electrical device created by humans, blacking out entire continents, every satellite in their sky. 

Nineteen minutes to say goodbye to the world they knew, forever, and to prepare for a new Earth, a new Sun.

Generations after solar storms have destroyed nearly all human technology on Earth and humans have reverted to a middle ages like existence, all knowledge of the remaining technology is kept hidden by a privileged few called the Reticents and books are burned as heresy. 

Alana, a disfigured slave girl, and Recks, a traveling minstrel and sometimes-thief, join forces to bring knowledge and books back to the human race. But when Alana is chosen against her will to be the Vessel, the living repository for all human knowledge, she must find the strength to be what the world needs.

Rating: 2/5 Stars

I was kindly provided with a copy of this book through Netgalley in Exchange for an honest review.

I’ll stick to Goodreads rating system this time and give it two “it was ok” stars.  Because Vessel really was ok; it wasn’t spectacular or horrible, but rather fell into the average range of Young Adult novels.

The story is about a slave girl, Alana, who lives in an unspecified post-apocalyptic world typical in Young Adult. After a solar explosion destroyed all machines, life reverts itself to the dark ages with no technology and great fear of any knowledge of the world before.

As with many other YA stories before, the world-building is not really there. We get solar storms, lots of people dead, “technology is to blame!!!! so we’ll just get rid of it including all the good stuff like vaccines and shit” mentality, and “the world before” kind of stuff. Because people were so ignorant of their own history, it is never really explained how the world came to be and why some people still know some places names such as “Asia” but at the same time they had no idea of where they were.

The characters are all right, really, they were ok. The writing was weird though, I’ll admit it. Sometimes Alana (it’s first person POV) would think with lots of grammatical errors and with a limited vocabulary, after all she was a slave and her masters didn’t care for her, but there were other times when she’d come up with overly complicated metaphors or descriptions with rich vocabulary that had me confused. Was it one thing or the other?

But I didn’t really mind all that as much as I minded how rape was handled here.

Yes, there is rape in Vessel and it’s not dealt with well. I seem to be having problems with books lately, because everytime I pick one up it contains rape, and if you have read some of my reviews you’ll know that I have little tolerance for rape as a plot device. As a matter of fact, I hate it.

Rape it’s not something you put in your book to add some spice like a love triangle or a quest, it’s something horrible and disgusting, and playing it as if it were no big deal is also horrible and disgusting.

In this case, rape is used to show just how cruel this world is. Alana is constantly raped by her master. In fact, she is forced to wear a Billa, which is a sort of black blanket that covers her entire body and face to hide the disfiguration that his master’s wives did to her.

Sometime ago, as a result of the constant sexual assault, Alana got pregnant. But only first wives can carry the Master’s children, so they all teamed up together to pour hot oil over Alana’s face and body, scarring her for life and killing her unborn baby.

Yes, it’s that awful.

But it doesn’t stop there, after that attack she’s forced to wear the Billa so that nobody else can see her ugliness, and so she is also punished for “tempting” her master.

Again, yes. It’s that awful.

Besides those memories, the book is plagued by rape. It’s a treat that’s constantly over Alana’s head. Barely five pages went by without someone trying to rape her, or threatening to have his way with her. It was awful and it infuriated me how little importance this was given. Sure, some people were mad about it but it was more like “Oh this is so bad! Ok moving on.”

So my question is, would the author have used the same plot to show this world cruelty had Alana been a boy? Would she have written a teenage boy constantly threatened with being raped to show us just how awful the new world was?

Considering what I saw of the book, no. I don’t think so. Never is a man in danger from this, it’s only Alana. It’s likely the author would have settled with having the boy being starved and beaten senseless, as it also happens to Alana.

It’s alarming really, to see violence against women being so carelessly dismissed at books directed toward young girls.

The ending was left open, either to interpretation or a sequel we’ll have to wait and see. I for one, don’t think I’ll be sticking around.

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

MACKENZIE AND AMY WERE BEST FRIENDS.

UNTIL AMY WAS BRUTALLY MURDERED.

Since then, Mac's life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac's hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy's killer:

A white werewolf.

Lupine syndrome - also known as the werewolf vius - is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.

Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy's murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy's boyfriend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.

Rating: 2/5

Don’t pay too much attention to those two stars. This wasn’t a terrible book, it just wasn’t for me.

Ok so, the first thing that I’ll talk about (and just because I obsessively fixate on little details and can’t let go until I discuss them) is the cover.

This is a paranormal book about werewolves, or people with “lupine syndrome” living amongst humans. When people in town start dying shortly after another wave of werewolves attack, Mackenzie and her friends worry that it might be the same killer that took their best friend’s life, Amy.

So why the heck is there a girl on a dress resting her head on her knee with vines at the top? Seriously, a cover should reflect the content inside. What does that cover tell us? A hide and seek in a cemetery that went wrong? Dunno.

Anyways, now that that’s over I’ll get on to the book itself.

As I said before, I had problems connecting with Hemlock but that was just on my part. You see, I was looking forward to a more paranormal-heavy read, that with the werewolves and all, but it ended up being mostly a love story with little to no werewolf mythology.

I’ve seen a lot of people saying that this book has a “CW vibe” and I couldn’t agree more. The story is targeted mostly at people who enjoy these kinds of romantic dramas. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people.

The writing was great, it was easy to follow and it pulled you in quickly. So if you are looking for a quick and entertaining read (and don’t mind the heavy doses of romance) I’d absolutely recommend it.

The characters were alright, nothing that stands out but nothing too bad either. They are the same faceless characters you find in 80% of Young Adult novels:

Mac is the typical “plain looking girl” that has two super-hot guys falling at her feet, for no real reason. Amy was her best friend, a funny, intelligent, beautiful, outgoing, popular, rich and pretty much amazing girl. I don’t know why is it that the main character has to be a girl with no personality, dreams or goals and the best friend (who usually gets killed) is a person much more fun to read about. Don’t present me an awesome and brave character when you make your MC a cardboard! Not that Mac was a horrible person or anything, there was no slut-shaming or girl-on-girl hate, but she just had no voice. And it was a little weird how quickly she forgot about Amy and her feelings when she started crushing over Jason, Amy’s boyfriend.

Really, for someone who kept saying how she didn’t see her friends as “dates”, that she loved them as siblings but there was nothing romantic going on, she sure as hell had a lot of romantic thoughts towards them.

Jason is a super handsome, rich and popular dude. He was also Amy’s boyfriend and ever since her death he has been spiralling down, taking drugs and getting into fights. At first I was sympathetic towards him, I understood the guilt he had (they all felt guilty that they hadn’t been with Amy when she died), of all the three he had been the only one to see Amy’s corpse, and that’s horrible! But the second he started crushing on Mac, no. It made his character, all he was going through not matter.

He just forgets about Amy very soon. Sure the subject is still brought up a few times but you never really see her there. You don’t see the guilt or sorrow anymore. Jason is too concerned on Mac and on how much time she spends with their other friend, Kyle, for me to develop any emotional attachment towards him.

Kyle, he was alright too. Nothing too outstanding at first but I liked seeing the three of them interact. It’s so rare to find a YA book were the girl is not completely friendless until she finds a guy to be emotionally dependant on. I liked this group of friends and how they dealt with Amy’s loss, each their own way.

Until it was revealed that Kyle was in love with Mac and had always been, he just hadn’t said it because of reasons! But when it was clear that Jason had feelings for her too, he decided to just mess with her mind and heart, and confuse her even more than she already was. I hate the trope of “best friend who starts fighting for her the second another guy is interested” this is not a pissing contest, this is a person we are talking about. He sure as hell had no problems keeping Mac away and making her think he had little interesting for her, but when another penis comes along he suddenly gets so possessive?

The plot was alright, fast and intriguing, although I did discover who the killer was pretty early on. It was a little too obvious.

I’d recommend Hemlock to people who like romance or paranormal with a heavy dose of romance. If you don’t like love triangles and over the top drama then you might want to stay away from it.

Defy by Sara B. Larson

Alexa Hollen is a fighter. Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alex uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alex, who is virtually unbeatable, can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory.

The longer Alex is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets. And suddenly, after her own secret is revealed, Alex finds herself confronted with two men vying for her heart: the safe and steady Rylan, who has always cared for her, and the dark, intriguing Damian. With hidden foes lurking around every corner, is Alex strong enough to save herself and the kingdom she's sworn to protect?

Rating: 2/5 stars

Do you guys think it’s weird to start reading a book with no idea of what it is about?

Lately, whether it is with books, shows or movies I’ve found that reading the summary can kill the entire experience for me. Too much is revealed sometimes, things that should be a surprise we know them from the start thanks to that helping promotion tool.

Not to say it always work for me though. Sometimes I’ll pick up a book, start reading and be completely confused and lost on what the story is about.

This was one of those times when not reading the summary worked against me because, had I read the blurb of Defy before I picked it up, I might never have read it: The entire premise is a love triangle.

After a war with the neighbour Kingdom *insert generic fantasy name*, Alexa’s parents are killed and in order to keep his sister safe, her twin brother cuts off her hair and they both pass off as twin brothers, entering the King’s guard and trained to become the best warriors in the prince’s personal guard.

But as the war comes to a culming point, Alexa, her best friend Rylan and the prince are kidnapped by the enemy. As the two men discover Alexa’s secret they will both fight over her heart.

Yeah, you heard me. They were kidnapped by the enemy and their top priority is fighting over a girl. Way to go guys, veery smart.

To be fair, had it not been for the heavy romantic drama (and awful rape plot), Defy could have been great. The plot was fast and entertaining and I could see myself enjoying this book under other circumstances. I’m sure people who aren’t bothered by a heavy dose of romance will like Defy very much.

Unfortunately, I like more action and mystery in my Fantasy reads and in that aspect the book disappointed, as it spent every moment developing the love triangle. As a result, and despite having the premise of a girl taking matters into her own hands to save herself and follow her dreams, the narrative was quite sexist.

Alexa pretends to be a boy so she’ll be saved from the “breeding house” which is basically a place where little girls and teens are sent to be raped by soldiers and breed more soldiers for the war against the enemy Kingdom.

It’s no secret that I despise rape as a plot devise, and the fact that massive rape is used to have a flimsy excuse for the plot to begin (and to show us how good Alexa is by feeling sorry for those girls)  is not only disgusting but also dumb. Alexa says that the war has taken way longer than everybody expected; the Queen was murdered by the enemy which led to a heartbroken King to start a war against them. Although noble at first, the conflict was stretched for far too long and people started getting tired and resentful toward the monarchy.

Which begs the question, why create breeding houses when those soldiers would take over fifteen years to be ready? Ten if they were going with child soldiers.

Why if everybody thought the war wouldn’t last long, did they allow for their little girls to be taken away and raped repeatedly to breed new soldiers? This is never addressed. People are all “Ugh, the breeding house is so distasteful.” But nobody is horrified, no parent, family or I don’t know, rebel group tries to free these little girls from such torture.

Fuck that.

You can’t be so disrespectful towards something so horrible.

But the thing doesn’t end there. Despite Alexa being the main character and a “determined” woman, she’s completely useless to the narrative. She is in charge of taking care of the Prince (she is the best swordsman in the guard at the tender age of sixteen!!!!!!!) but he is the one who has to save her all the time.

Despite her keeping the secret that she is a girl, WITH NO MENTION OF HOW SHE DOES IT WHEN SHE’S ON HER PERIOD I might add, every single person in the effing kingdom knows the truth, because she just sucks at it. Really, Alexa had to keep reminding herself that she was pretending to be a boy.

"Damian lifted his hand, holding it in the air between us. I hesitated to put my hand in his, strangely nervous to touch him when my emotions were in such an upheaval. But when he silently lifted an eyebrow at me in question, I quickly reached up to shake it firmly. A wave of warmth flowed up my arm and into my belly from the feel of his strong hand clasped around mine. I cleared my throat and tightened my grip. Act like a boy, act like a boy."

I found it offensive how, when Alexa notices that the prince is flirting with her as she’s passing off as a boy, she never thinks “Hum, maybe the prince is into dudes?” nope, her first thought is “HE MUST KNOW I’M A GIRL!!!!” Why couldn’t he be gay? Seriously, it never crosses her mind when it’s the first thing anybody would think.

There is “fantasy” and “magic” in this story but I’ll use the term loosely considering how undeveloped those aspects were. We are never shown how magic works or why some people can wild it and others can’t. Magic is the number one treat to their Kingdom and nobody bothers to investigate how that thing works? I don’t buy it.

The end was a little anti-climatic, as it was filled with too much romance-drama nonsense.

I really think that Defy will be a great choice for people who like romance, but if you’re looking for something more fantasy oriented then you’ll probably won’t enjoy this one.

Alice Takes Back Wonderland by David D. Hammons

After ten years of being told she can't tell the difference between real life and a fairy tale, Alice finally stops believing in Wonderland. So when the White Rabbit shows up at her house, Alice thinks she's going crazy.

Only when the White Rabbit kicks her down the rabbit hole does Alice realize that the magical land she visited as a child is real.

But all is not well in Wonderland.

The Ace of Spades has taken over Wonderland and is systematically dismantling all that makes it wonderful. Plain is replacing wondrous, logical is replacing magical, and reason is destroying madness. Alice decides she must help the Mad Hatter and all those fighting to keep Wonderland wonderful. 

But how can she face such danger when she is just a girl?

Alice must journey across the stars to unite an army. She discovers that fairy tales are real in the magical world beyond the rabbit hole. But they are not the fairy tales she knows. 

Fairy tales have dangers and adventures of their own, and Alice must overcome the trials of these old stories if she wants to unite the lands against Ace.

With the help of Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and heroes old and new, Alice may have the strength to take back Wonderland.


Rating: 3/5 Stars

I was kindly provided with a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alice Takes Back Wonderland is a new book by author David D. Hammons and it’s about Alice (duh), who visited Wonderland when she was only nine years old, but as time went by she was convinced her adventure was nothing but her imagination playing games on her.

Now at seventeen years old, Alice discovers that her hallucinations were in fact very real, and she’ll be transported back to Wonderland to stop a new evil; everything that makes the magical place so especial is being destroyed, and wonderland is becoming more and more like the regular world Alice comes from. It will be up to her and the friends and foes she finds on the road to stop it before it’s too late.

I’ve got to say, I loved the idea of the “big evil” being loosing Wonderland’s magic. It was an interesting contrast for Alice, who had experienced both the real world and the fantasy one, and to see this magical and crazy place being turned into the sad reality we all know.

As far as characters go, Alice was a decent one, she was ready to do what was necessary to save Wonderland but for some reason, I couldn’t connect with her. As much as I tried, I never felt like I got to know her. Who was this girl? What did she like to do with her free time? What were her hopes and dreams? We never get to see her and that makes it difficult to follow the story because I wasn’t as invested as I should be; I should want for Alice to succeed, to win and free Wonderland but my heart wasn’t on it.

There were a few problems with the pacing too. At some point things would be really slow and then suddenly everything would pick up in an instant at full speed and then down again. It made it hard to follow.

There were some secondary characters who were nice and a fun addition. In that sense the book reminded me a lot to Once Open a Time, it combined different fairy tales like many from the Grimm brothers into the Wonderland setting in an easy and simple way. The author did a good job mashing those ideas together.

As far as the plot goes, I do wish the loss of magic and Alice’s insanity had been explored further. After Alice escapes Wonderland when she was a child, she has convinced herself that everything that happened there was a hallucination and when she comes back to that world I was expecting for her to question her sanity. To keep on wondering whether Wonderland was real or if she was going crazy again, but she accepts it rather quickly “Oh so wonderland is real? Ok!” it didn’t felt natural.

To sum up, Alice Takes Back Wonderland is a good fantasy read with a few issues of pacing that don’t keep you from enjoying a well-crafted story.