Waiting on Wednesday #36 - The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa

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

Expected Publication: October 29, 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

In the real world, when you vanish into thin air for a week, people tend to notice. 

After his unexpected journey into the lands of the fey, Ethan Chase just wants to get back to normal. Well, as "normal" as you can be when you see faeries every day of your life. Suddenly the former loner with the bad reputation has someone to try for-his girlfriend, Kenzie. Never mind that he's forbidden to see her again. 

But when your name is Ethan Chase and your sister is one of the most powerful faeries in the Nevernever, "normal" simply isn't to be. For Ethan's nephew, Keirran, is missing, and may be on the verge of doing something unthinkable in the name of saving his own love. Something that will fracture the human and faery worlds forever, and give rise to the dangerous fey known as the Forgotten. As Ethan's and Keirran's fates entwine and Keirran slips further into darkness, Ethan's next choice may decide the fate of them all.

I loved The Lost Prince, the first book in the Call of the Forgotten, so I'm looking forward to reading more of Ethans story. 

What's your Waiting on Wednesday pick this week?

eARC Review: The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Eternity Cure

Author: Julie Kagawa

Series: The Blood Of Eden, Book #2

Publication Date: 30th April 2013

Publisher: Harlequinn Teen Australia

Genre: Young Adult, Vampires, Dystopia

Source: aARC from Publisher via Netgalley

Description

In Allison Sekemoto's world, there is one one rule left: Blood Calls to blood.
Cast out of Eden and separated from the boy she dared to love, Allie will follow the call of blood to save her creator, Kanin, from the psychotic vampire, Sarren. But when the trail leads to Allie's birthplace in New Covington, what she finds there will the change the world forever - and possibly end human and vampire existence.
There's a new plague on the rise, a strain of the Red Lung virus that wiped out most of humanity generations ago - deadly to humans and vampires alike. The only hope for a cure lies in the secrets Kanin carries. If Allie can get to him in time.

Review

Once again Julie Kagawa delivers another amazing, action packed, fast paced book. 

As in my previous review of The Immortal Rules, Kagawa again writes awesome characters with their own personalities. 

I love Allie, and even more so that she is still trying hard not to be like the other vampires, to not be a monster....... But..... oh, please don't change!! 

We see a return of Zeke (yay!), and Kanin (woohoo!) and even Jackal (yeah I know). Jackal was actually a really enjoyable character to read, including the time I thought "You bastard", to "oh, ok". I didn't expected to like him as much due to the last book but I just loved his sarcastic comments and humour.

I'm starting to think that Kagawa can't write a bad book. The world building in this was fantastic, it can recall it as if I was watching a movie - oooo, this would totally be a fantastic movie! - and her writing is completely enjoyable to read. You just get carried away. 

But that ending...... all those feels..... and how long is it that we have to wait for the next one....... 

At first I was like this.....

source

And then I was like this for at least 10mins after....

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Seriously if you haven't started this series, if you don't own the books. Run. Run to your nearest book store and buy them. If you own the first one and haven't read it, read it now, stop what you are doing and read it now.... Seriously.  Then you can all love this series with me.  =D

★★★★★

It Was Amazing

Book Trailer

Buy Links

The Immortal Rules

Book Depository

Amazon

The Eternity Cure

Book Depository

Amazon

Author Links

 Website

Blog

Goodreads

Facebook

Twitter

Waiting On Wednesday #13 - The Eternity Cure by J Kagawa & Level 2 by L Appelhans

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

I've cheated a bit this week as I've choosen two, but I have a good reason. =)

Expected publication: April 23, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Allison Sekemoto has vowed to rescue her creator, Kanin, who is being held hostage and tortured by the psychotic vampire Sarren. The call of blood leads her back to the beginning—New Covington and the Fringe, and a vampire prince who wants her dead yet may become her wary ally.

Even as Allie faces shocking revelations and heartbreak like she’s never known, a new strain of the Red Lung virus that decimated humanity is rising to threaten human and vampire alike. - Goodreads

I've been waiting on this sequel since I finished the first book The Immortal Rules some 6 months ago. The cover for this one was just recently released so I choose it for my WoW.  This is the new cover design for the series - yes that's right a new cover for The Immortal Rules too =(   

Expected publication: January 15th, 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

In this gripping exploration of a futuristic afterlife, a teen discovers that death is just the beginning.

Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved.

Then a girl in a neighbouring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: If she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again.

Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.  - Goodreads

I'm cheating a bit putting Level 2 here because I've just recently got an ARC for it, so in a way I'm not really "waiting" on it any more, but since I haven't started to read it yet I wanted to feature it as my WoW this week as well I'm really excited about it! 

What's your Waiting on Wednesday book this week?  

Just a little note, I have a few giveaways going on at the moment so don't forget to check out the giveaway tab at the top. =)

Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic discusses what Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012

This is actually kind of hard as nearly every book I've read this year was a new author to me and there were very few books out of those that I didn't like. 

This is the first ten that come to mind, though I know there are others that I loved.

Honourable mentions: Suzanne Young, Hannah Harrington, Kat Zhang, Sarah J. Mass, Lissa Price, Rebecca Lim and Meagan Spooner.

What is your top ten this week? Leave me a comment so I can visit yours. =) 


** All book covers link to their goodreads page if you would like more information on them**

Review: The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher:  Harlequin Teen
Published: 23 October 2012
Series: The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten #1
Genre: Young Adult - Fantasy, Fey
Obtained From: Harlequin Teen via Netgalley


Read from October 20 to November 1, 2012

Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.

That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’d dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myth and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten. - Goodreads

This is a little hard for me to review, not so much due to the book, more so that I was in the middle of assessments and then exams when I was reading this. As I wasn't able to read this 'in peace' so to speak so it's a little hard to comment on a few things about it including how I found the pacing. 

I saw this on Netgalley and some how didn't realise its a spin off series from Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series. I saw it was book #1 and being a new Julie Kagawa book I just had to read it. I haven't read the Iron Fey series, and for those of you that haven't, you will be relieved to know that you don't need to have to read this book. There is enough backstory and explanation to read this without trouble. 

The story is told by Ethan. Despite his defensiveness and anger, which is for good reason, he gets concerned about a half-breed and finds that exiled fey and half-breeds in the mortal world are disappearing.

Kenzie, who is Ethan's love interest, wasn't someone I liked to begin with. She irritated me for the first half of the book. When their relationship started developing I started to dislike her less. Things moved slowly between them.

I didn't like that Ethan was constantly thinking about her, such as "Soft, feathery strands of her hair brushed my arm, making my skin prickle and my heart pound"; "I felt my heartbeat stutter"; and other I just want to hold her moments. I'm sorry but I have never heard a guy speak like this, and it was throughout the book. I also didn't like Kenzie's over use of "tough guy" either. 

There was also a lack of action with the fey. Ethan was always saying how you can't trust them, how awful they were, but there wasn't really much of it going on. The only danger was from the new fey, and even those moments were rare. I would have liked to have a few more action moments overall. 

That being said they were the only things I didn't like, the rest of the book was great. This is clearly going to have a sequel and I'm looking forward to what will be happening. 

★★★★

Really Liked It

Thank you to Harlequin Teen and netgalley for the eARC.

The Iron King Paperback Giveaway

For those of you that read my Stacking The Shelves post yesterday you would have seen that I recently won the box set of the Iron Fey series. 

Here is where you, my lovely readers, get to benefit from my win - I purchased The Iron King a little while ago so I have a paperback copy that I haven't read and is still in brand new condition sitting here and it deserves a new home. 

This is only open to Australian residents (due to post costs. Sorry!). 

Rules and Regulations

• Ends on Saturday, 17 November, 2012 at 12:01AM (EST)
• Australian residents only. Sorry internationals but postage is coming out of my pocket. =(
• The prize will be posted through Australia post. I will not be responsible for lost or damaged packages.
• The winner will be contacted by email and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected.
• All details will be checked and incorrect/invalid entries will be deleted.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Genre: Young Adult - Post Apocalyptic, Action/Adventure

★★★★★

Read from June 10 to 13, 2012

In a dystopian future where most of the human population were killed by the Red Lung disease, vampires rule and humans are just pets. Those that are not are left to survive in the outer circle of the city, scavenging for food and living in poverty. Then there are the rabids, some gone-bad-vampires/zombie type creatures.

Allison Sekemoto is our protagonist, and she was awesome. Allie hates vampires and has to face death or becoming what she hates. When Allie flees her city, New Covington, she runs into a group of humans and has to hide her true nature from them, as they search for Eden – a city free from vampires.

The characters were well rounded. There were characters I loved and ones I hated – they had personality. Zeke was great, caring, loyal, and able to see behind the monster that Allie became.

Ruth was the mean girl who thinks Allie is after Zeke, who she loves, but also believes Allie is hiding something.

Jed is the leader of the human group looking for Eden. He’s the kind of character that you love to hate, especially in his dealings with Zeke. He is a bit of a surprise at the end but over all I just simply disliked him.

The vampires are real in this book – not the sparkly animal drinking ones. These ones are not human friendly.

Some people have commented that this book was slow in parts but I didn’t find that. I was hooked from the start and felt it was well paced.

Julie Kagawa has a nice writing style. I haven’t read her Iron Fey series but it’s definitely on my reading list now.

This is one of my favourites for the year and I look forward to the next in the series.