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NEVERNIGHT By JAY KRISTOFF

(Picture taken by Louise I)

I was suuuuper lucky to pick up the very last copy of Nevernight by Jay Kristoff at the Harper Collins stall at YALC 2016! This book doesn't come out until the 9th of August and so I wasn't expecting to see it! So as soon as I did I snagged it quick! I also have a signed and numbered first edition pre-ordered, so when that comes I may be doing a giveaway!

I absolutely loved Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, it was fantastically written and such a unique book. Hearing that Jay was coming out with a new book that was about murder, assassins, female lead and fantasy, instantly I needed it. 

I'm only a little way into it so there's not much I want to talk about yet! But expect a review as soon as I have finished it!

Goodreads synopsis: 

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

THE GIRLS By EMMA CLINE 

(Picture taken by Louise I)

Now, this one was recommended to me by my manager, and whilst it's not the type of book I would normally pick up, I'm actually really enjoying the writing. Evie's story is one of obsession, a young girl who was dazzled by the footloose and free. She is taken down paths a 14 year old girl shouldn't. I'm 58% done with this book, expect a review soon! 

Goodreads synopsis: 

Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence, and to that moment in a girl’s life when everything can go horribly wrong.

RED RISING By PIERCE BROWN

(Picture taken by http://readthebloodybook.tumblr.com/)

Red Rising. Well, for me this book stared off really well. I could see all the similarities with The Hungers Games, the unique language is really interesting and the characters were well done. However, at 43% I am struggling to pick the book back up again. I feel like I've been in the same place for a while. I really like the savagery and rawness, and I like how there are so many walls to break through and all the anticipation, but I would have preferred it to be a bit more fast-paced. I don't know, maybe it's just me, maybe I'm impatient. I do plan on finishing this because I've heard from so many people that this is one of their favourite series. I want to know if the first in the series is going to set the scene for me and then I'll be taken over by book two; Golden Son. Here's hoping!

Goodreads synopsis: 

The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity's last hope.

Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.

Break the chains. Live for more.

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