‘Chasing Neve: Snow White Reimagined’ (Happily Ever After Book 2) by K.A. Last

4 stars

Book Blurb:

“The people of Pomona are under threat from the evil Queen Merla, and until now, Princess Neve has been powerless to stop her. Locked away in a tower for the past year, she has watched her kingdom fall apart.

The Evil Queen wants to be rid of Neve once and for all, so she brings her before the magic mirror. Neve knows the glass will never name Queen Merla the fairest in the land, but despite what it says, her fate is already sealed.

With the help of her childhood friend, Chase, Neve escapes the castle and Queen Merla’s clutches. But Chase is now on the Queen’s Guard, and Neve is unsure if she can trust him.

Through a journey of loss, love, and betrayal, Neve learns that being the fairest isn’t easy, but that it’s better to fight and lose, than to not fight at all.

Chasing Neve is a love-filled action-packed reimagining of the classic Snow White tale.”

Review:

Fascinating spin on 'Snow White' with several new and magical characters brought to life by creative author K.A. Last.  I enjoyed how most of the traditional elements of 'Snow White' are present, but the circumstances are a little different in this tale, and the journey taken by Neve and her companions is 100% original.

‘Chasing Neve’ is the second enjoyable quick-read novella recommended for fairy-tale fans in Last’s ‘Happily Ever After’ series of stand-alones, both available as part of the Kindle Unlimited program:

‘Ella and Ash’

‘Chasing Neve’

I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book.  All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s.

‘If We Were Us’ by K.L. Walther

Five stars!

Book Blurb:

“Everyone at the prestigious Bexley School believes that Sage Morgan and Charlie Carmichael are meant to be....that it’s just a matter of time until they realize that they are actually in love.

When Luke Morrissey shows up on the Bexley campus his presence immediately shakes things up. Charlie and Luke are drawn to each other the moment they meet, giving Sage the opportunity to steal away to spend time with Charlie’s twin brother, Nick.

But Charlie is afraid of what others will think if he accepts that he has much more than a friendship with Luke. And Sage fears that things with Nick are getting too serious too quickly. The duo will need to rely on each other and their lifelong friendship to figure things out with the boys they love.”

Review:

It has been an absolute joy to get lost in this world with these relatable, easy-to-root-for characters. Though this seems like a stand-alone, I would love to follow these characters to see what lays next for them!

‘If We Were Us’ is part coming-out, part coming-of-age, and full of fun teenage antics which can only be found in an environment with minimal supervision, such as a boarding school.  Teenagers go through a lot between keeping up with grades, peer expectations, and trying to figure themselves out, both for right now and in terms of what they want to do for the rest of their lives.  It’s fantastic to see this play out in our characters without intrusive influence from parents and teachers.

This quartet gave me all the feels and I can’t recommend it highly enough.  Grab your copy on June 1, 2020!  

I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book.  All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s.

‘The Sin Soldiers’ and ‘The Crystal War’ (Fragments Trilogy) by Tracy Auerbach

Five stars!

Book Blurb:

“Red compound makes them angry. Yellow exhausts them. Blue drives them into a state of ravenous addiction. The thief Kai knows about the chemically controlled soldiers of the Eastern forces and their savage, deadly nature.  When a robbery attempt at Club Seven goes wrong, Kai is captured by a handler and his bestial soldier-boy. She wakes up inside the military base with no idea what happened to her twin brother, Dex.

Things go from bad to worse when Kai is started on a drug and training regimen, and forced to take injections of blue compound. The scientists in charge plan to make her into a working soldier who will mine the mysterious power crystals beneath the desert.  Kai becomes a victim of the bully Finn, a handsome but nasty soldier whose years on red compound seem to have erased his humanity. Still, she begins to pity the Seven Soldiers, including the monstrous boy who tried to rip her to shreds at the club. They appear to be nothing more than genetically enhanced, drug-controlled teenagers.

On the outside, Dex and his tech-savvy boyfriend try to crack the soldiers’ chemical code to find a weakness that will break the system. But Kai has already been drawn deep into her new world. Strong feelings for the soldiers she’s come to know have started to cloud her judgment. Can she escape and find Dex without becoming a monster herself?”

Review:

The 'Fragments' series captivated me from the beginning.  Though I found this to be a very dark science fiction dystopia, I found myself continuing to read because I became so invested in the characters, what they were going through, and kept wanting to find out what happened next.  Whereas 'The Sin Soldiers' follows 4 main narrating characters, Kai and the 3 soldiers she befriends, 'The Crystal War' includes these 4 and more narrators, allowing readers to become invested in even more of the main characters.  Author Tracy Auerbach is a skilled writer not only for her world building and character development, but also because it is easy to determine who is narrating, each and every time.  Glad to see some LGBT representation as well.

Looking forward to reading this trilogy's conclusion, hopefully the wait won't be too long!  Start reading ‘The Sin Soldiers’ now in preparation for ‘The Crystal War’ on April 17, 2020.

#TheCrystalWar #NetGalley - I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book.  All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s.