Review: Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes #1) by Sara Raasch

Title : Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes #1)

Author: Sara Raasch

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Pages: 416

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own. (More from Goodreads)

Since the sequel is coming out this month, I figured it would be a good time to review this book! This is the first book in a trilogy, the third of which is slated for release in 2016.

Review: The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Title: The Magicians (The Magicians #1)
Author: Lev Grossman
Genre: Fantasy, Adult
Publisher: Plume
Pages: 516

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery... But his childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price. (More from Goodreads)

Warning: Unless the summary isn't clear, this is NOT children's book. I repeat, this is NOT A CHILDREN'S BOOK. It has been marketed as 'Harry Potter for grown-ups', 'Harry Potter goes to Narnia', and other things along those lines; and perhaps some elements are so reminiscent of these books that they may seem plagiarised (gasp) but no. Comparing The Magicians to Harry Potter is like comparing tomatoes to carrots. They both belong in a salad, but that's about as much as they have in common.

If I had to summarize the book in one sentence, it would be thus: an R-rated parody of Harry Potter and Narnia with 30 times the angst and misery.

Which doesn't necessarily mean it's not a good book.

Review: The Cry of the Icemark (The Icemark Chronicles #1) by Stuart Hill

Title: The Cry of the Icemark (The Icemark Chronicles #1)
Author: Stuart Hill
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, War
Publisher: Chicken House
Pages: 494

When her father dies in battle, 14-year-old Thirrin becomes Queen of the Icemark. Not only must she win the respect of her people, but also raise an army to protect them from the most formidable threat of invasion her nation has ever known - and do so before the end of the winter snows. (More from Goodreads)

The Cry of the Icemark is perhaps one of the most unknown books in my bookshelves. It is also one of the books that took me the longest time to finish (apart from OSC's Pathfinder probably, which is still in the pipes) and while that speaks volumes, it is a surprisingly good book- if you can get through certain elements. The Icemark Chronicles is a completed trilogy.

Review: This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl

Title: This Star Won't Go Out

Author: Esther Earl

Genre: Non Fiction, Memoir

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 431

This is a collection of the journals, fiction, letters, and sketches of the late Esther Grace Earl, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 16. Photographs and essays by family and friends help to tell Esther's story, along with an introduction by award-winning author John Green who dedicated his number 1 bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars to her. (More from Goodreads)

Perhaps known best as the inspiration behind the famous TFIOS, Esther Earl has become a common name among teen readers everywhere. This is a memoir, and I, for one, am not a huge fan of those. Knowing that, you probably expect me to have a lot of difficulty with the book. And to that I say:

Review: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Title: Seraphina

Author: Rachel Hartman

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, DRAGONS!

Publisher: Random House Books

Pages: 499

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life. (More from Goodreads)

I have wanted to read this book since I was a little child.

Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. But I have wanted to read it since 2012 and only got around to it this year- which is fine and dandy, because back in 2012 it didn't have a purple cover. For those uninitiated (perhaps all of you), purple is my favourite colour- the colour that held my favourite colour title for the longest time yet, and possibly will remain my favourite for a good long while.

Now that I have done yakking away, here we go to my humble series of opinions and final rating of the book that we all call a review ;)

Review: DIAgnosis2 by Dr. Anwar Fazal & Others [Malay]

Title: DIAgnosis2

Authors: Dr. Anwar Fazal, Dr Aizzat, Dr. Azah, Dr. Mafeitz, Dr. Mahyuddin, Dr. Fatin Liyana & Dr. Beni Rusani

Genre: Malay, Short Stories, Medical

Publisher: White Coat Enterprise

Pages: 356

Kerjaya ini memaksa kamu untuk melihat nilai nyawa dari pelbagai dimensi. Ia menjadikan kamu penonton setia drama tragis dan gembira yang berselang seli saban hari.Kamu menjadi watak transisi hidup mati.Protagonis atau antagonis,bergantung pada mata penilai manusiatetapi hakikatnya hanya Penilai Mutlak lebih tahu semua yang bersarang di hati.Kerjaya ini, jika benar untuk Illahi, pasti akan menundukkan hati dan buat rasa rendah diri.

Ada tikanya bila kamu berjaya menyelamatkan nyawa dengan izinNya,bila pesakit mula membuka mata dan melakarkan senyuman manisnya, bila ahli keluarganya merangkul atau menjabat erat tangan kamu dengan mata berkaca, saat itu kamu tahu inilah kerjaya yang paling 'kaya' dan kamu rela bersengkang mata, mengerah tenaga hingga ke sisa-sisa akhir yang ada kerana kamu tahu 'rasa itu' rasa yang tak mampu dibeli biar dengan segunung harta materi di dunia. Ya, ini kerjaya kami selamanya. (More from Goodreads)

Inspiring, entertaining stuff!

Sadly it's mostly in Bahasa, so I can't really recommend it to everyone.

Review: Apprentice (The Black Mage #2) by Rachel E. Carter

Title: Apprentice (The Black Mage #2)
Author: Rachel E. Carter
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Astraea Press
Pages: 316

She survived a trial year at the Academy, but that was just the easy part…

Now sixteen-year-old Ryiah is an apprentice in Combat, her school’s most notorious faction of magic. When she finishes she will be a mage, but in order to do so she has to survive four years with a training master she hates and her old nemesis, Priscilla. To make matters worse the unwanted attraction Ry feels for her sometimes-friend-sometimes-rival Prince Darren is at an all time high –even though he is betrothed to the very girl she can’t stand.

Really, the only bright spot to Ryiah’s new life is the time she spends with her friends, including an older apprentice named Ian, who she finds herself thinking about quite often.

Just when things start to get comfortable they take a turn for the worse. An apprentice is killed in a rebel attack and several mages end up dead. Unwittingly, the apprentices find themselves in the midst of a budding unrest between Jerar and its northern neighbor, Caltoth. For Ryiah the impending conflict means many things, but as her apprenticeship draws to a close she finds her biggest problem at home.

Unfortunately for her, Darren’s not going anywhere. (More from Goodreads).

Here's my review the instant I finished this book on Goodreads.

Apprentice by Rachel E. Carter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh this book is positively evil.

I'm still palpitating and my adrenaline rush is nowhere near over, but let me just say this: This book has improved on every aspect from the first book, and is more. Way more.

I didn't expect this, but I am absolutely head-over-heels in love with this book.

Ugh.

SO EVIL.

View all my reviews

Now for a proper, more (ahem) professional review.

Review: Fever (The Chemical Garden #2) by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Fever (The Chemical Garden #2)

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Genre: Dystopian, Young Adult

Publisher: HarperVoyager

Pages: 320

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago―surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous―and in a world where young woman only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion… by any means necessary.

In this sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price―now that she has more to lose than ever. (More from Goodreads)

RE-SUMMARIZE

So this book continues where the last left off. 

In a world where crazy science somehow capped the age for females at twenty and males at twenty-five, Rhine finally escaped from her crazy father-in-law's estate with her butler to pursue their freedom outside, leaving behind her husband and remaining sister-wife as well as the comfortable, sheltered life within their beautiful prison. Not long after tasting their breath of fresh air, however, Rhine and Butler Boy somehow wound up in a Red District of sorts, featuring a still-working ferris wheel, which is run by an equally-crazy lady with a penchant for fake, dead accents.

And so begins their life in imprisonment again, and their struggle to escape it.

Yes, that would be the best blurb ever.

Review: First Year (The Black Mage #1) by Rachel E. Carter

Title: First Year (The Black Mage #1)

Author: Rachel E. Carter

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic

Publisher: Astraea Press

Pages: 276

Before the age of seventeen the young men and women of Jerar are given a choice -follow tradition, or pursue a trial year in one of the realm's three war schools to study as a soldier, knight or mage...

For 15-year-old Ryiah the choice has always been easy. Become a warrior and leave the boring confines of her lowborn life behind. Set to enroll in the School of Knighthood on the eve of her next birthday, plans suddenly shift when her twin brother discovers powers. Hoping that hers will soon follow, she enrolls with Alex at the Academy instead -the realm's most notorious war school for those with magic.

Yet when she arrives Ry finds herself competing against friend and foe for one of the exalted apprenticeships. Every "first-year" is given a trial year to prove their worth -and no amount of hard work and drive will guarantee them a spot. It seems like everyone is rooting for her to fail -and first and foremost among them Prince Darren, the school prodigy who has done nothing but make life miserable since she arrived.

When an accidental encounter leads Ryiah and Darren to an unlikely friendship she is convinced nothing good will come of it. But the lines become blurred when she begins to improve -and soon she is a key competitor for the faction of Combat... Still, nothing is ever as it seems -and when the world comes crashing down around her, Ry is forced to place faith in the one thing she can believe in -herself. Will it be enough? (More from Goodreads)

[This is my first encounter with new authors. Although the author added me as a friend on Goodreads, my review is not influenced in any way by that fact. Well, maybe a little- I wouldn't have bought the book if I wasn't aware of the author, and if it wasn't on sale for 99 cents in digital format to promote the second book in the series, Apprentice- which was released on my birthday, which I took as a sign. Phew. I wouldn't be reviewing this book if things didn't happen in that order so there is that!]

First of all, and I really have to get this off my chest first because it's a huge deal to me, is that this book is not perfectly edited. Or at least, the version I got wasn't. There were quite a few spelling errors and weird sentences that made me flinch a little. These little things are my book kryptonite. So... There is that: This book is in need of further editing. Now that I have gotten that out of the way, let's go to all the other nice stuff!

Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1) by Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1)
Author: Laini Taylor
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Pages: 418 pages

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. (More from Goodreads)

First Impression

It's easy to get lost in this book. I have heard so many good things about it, and I was afraid I would be disappointed with the first few chapters. Everything overwhelmed me, but not necessarily in a bad way; no, I was assaulted by the visions of a setting entirely new to me because I wasn't brought up in art school in the middle of one of the most historical cities in Europe. 

But more than that, the characters that opened the books did so with gusto. 

They weren't slowly introduced to the reader by means of tedious monologues; rather, witty banter and daily happenings abound, and just like that you are easily introduced to Karou and her seemingly odd world, with its quirky occupants and musings.

Review: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Title: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Abacus
Pages: 243

A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over -- and see everything anew. (More from Goodreads)

I may have been spoiled by my short and limited life span within Contemporary territory, because I seem to think that the lot I've met are all dapper creatures. More likely, this is the result of some very heavy nit-picking and more than the usual amount of cajoling required for me to even consider purchasing a contemporary novel. This book came highly recommended by a booktuber (apparently that's what you call youtubers who mainly do videos and the usual assortment of youtube stuff on books) with whom I share the most similar selections of books in, and I was not wrong to trust her judgment. 

Review: The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

Title: The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1)

Author: Soman Chainani

Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Children, Young Adult, Fairy Tale, Adventure

Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books

Pages: 488

“The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.”

 This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…? (More from Goodreads)

This book is an unexpectedly enjoyable read- and I don't say that a lot about middle grade books which are so blatantly, well, middle-grade. The cover alone is very childish- or well out of my age range, at least- and I can't help but love it.

Review: The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson

Title: The Dragonfly Pool
Author: Eva Ibbotson
Genre: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Adventure
Publisher: MacMillan Children's Books
Pages: 416

Tally Hamilton is furious to hear she is being sent from London to a horrid, stuffy boarding school in the countryside. And all because of the stupid war. But Delderton Hall is a far more" "unusual and " interesting" place than Tally ever imagined, and she soon falls in love with its eccentric staff and pupils. Now she's even organizing an exciting school trip to the kingdom of Bergania . . . although Tally never expected to meet the "prince."

Prince Karil hates his life at the palace and he is only truly happy when he escapes to the dragonfly pool, a remote spot in the forests of Bergania. Then Karil meets a feisty English girl who brings the promise of adventure. But his country is under threat, and the prince soon looks to his new friend Tally for survival as well as friendship... (More from Goodreads)

I had this book for a while, and never got around to it until I realized it would be perfect for one of the 2015 Reading Challenge categories. It just gave me more of an excuse to read it. The first Eva Ibbotson book I read, almost a decade ago, was The Star of Kazan, and I really liked it. I think I should re-read it because I can't remember anything that happened within! That said, I was also planning on getting Journey to the River Sea as this is her book which garnered most fame, but it's all a matter of time. Onward to the review!

Review: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Title: Revolution
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Genre: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Supernatural
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 496

Andi lives in New York and is dealing with the emotional turmoil of her younger brother's accidental death. Alex lives in Paris and is a maid to the royal family as the French Revolution rages. They're both struggling with their responsibilities and their places in the world. (More from Goodreads)

I picked this book up because the cover caught my eye. I found it gorgeous, and as you can see at the bottom of the cover, it touts the author as having written a best-selling novel. I looked at the back cover and it talks about a curious girl in a very vague, single sentence paragraph. The first thing that crossed my mind was romance. Probably historical, by the looks of the book. Revolution? Only one historical time period, in one particular region, came to mind.

Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Title: Room
Author: Emma Donoghue
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, Adult
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 321

Jack is five, and excited about his birthday. He lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures eleven feet by eleven feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real - only him, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits that there's a world outside...

Told in Jack's voice, Room is the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible. Unsentimental and sometimes funny, devastating yet uplifting, Room is a novel like no other. (More from Goodreads)

Room is a book that keeps popping up everywhere and remained within the periphery of my vision, untouched and unwanted- at least by me, and at least at that time. This is because (as I have probably mentioned before) I am kind of a book snob and would rarely indulge in buying contemporary fiction in place of a good young adult and/or fantasy title. That is until one fine day, I find someone raving about how good it was and decided, 'Why not? It has been available in the bargain bookstore for a while.'

Review: Lirael (Abhorsen #2) by Garth Nix

Title: Lirael (Abhorsen #2)
Author: Garth Nix
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 705

Lirael has never felt like a true daughter of the Clayr. Now, two years past the time when she should have received the Sight that is the Clayr’s birthright, she feels alone, abandoned, unsure of who she is. Nevertheless, the fate of the Old Kingdom lies in her hands. With only her faithful companion, the Disreputable Dog, Lirael must undertake a desperate mission under the growing shadow of an ancient evil.

In this sequel to SABRIEL, winner of the Aurealis Award for Excellence in Australian Science Fiction, Garth Nix weaves a spellbinding tale of discovery, destiny, and danger. (More from Goodreads)

As should be apparent, this is the second book in the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix- perhaps the best series of books ever written by him, and the very series that made me start reading his work. I started re-reading Sabriel a while back when Rinn was doing re-reads sometime last year, and I figured I should continue to finish the trilogy again- because at the time, the new prequel Clariel was coming out soon. At the time of writing, Clariel has been out for a few months now and I still haven't got it yet because I'm... waiting for the right time (and price).

Review: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Title: A Tale for the Time Being
Author: Ruth Ozeki
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Cultural, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 422

"A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”

In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. (More from Goodreads)

I saw this book in my then-housemate's possession, in the alternate paperback cover- nowhere near as colorful or interesting-looking. She expressed her enjoyment of the book and allowed me a look to get a feel of the writing, and before I knew it I was well into the first chapter. Unfortunately, I was supposed to be engaging in our weekly study group at the time and she, noticing my obvious inattention, snatched the book away from me again and tucked it safely into her satchel, away from my prying hands.

Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Title: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 352

Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place - he's the only living resident of a graveyard.

Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their timely ghostly teachings-like the ability to Fade.

Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are things like ghouls that aren't really one thing or the other. (More from Goodreads)

I've read several books by Neil Gaiman, all of which were targeted for the adult audience. I started picking them up because of the movie adaptation of Stardust, which I adored. That being said, I've been looking for this book at the bookstores for a while after having read the collection of short stories 'Wizards', in which an excerpt from The Graveyard Book was included- and I loved it (it might have been Chapter Four; I can't find the book anymore).

Review: Wither (The Chemical Garden #1) by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither (The Chemical Garden #1)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Genre: YA, Dystopian
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 358

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom? (More from Goodreads)

"What if you knew exactly when you would die?"

This statement, and the rather attractive book cover, was probably enough for me to snap this book up, brand new, for less than $2.

Review: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

What a better way to kick-off this year (and blog) by reviewing a fantasy classic! 

Title: The Last Unicorn

Author: Peter S. Beagle
Genre: Fantasy, Classics
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 294

The unicorn wants to find other unicorns. Mage Schmendrick, whose magic seldom works, never as he intends, rescues unicorn from Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival. Only some mythical beasts displayed are illusions. Molly Grue believes in legends despite Robin Hood wannabe and his unmerry men. King Haggard and his Bull banish unicorns into sea. (More from Goodreads)

Let me start off by saying this is my first time reading this book, even though it's a certified classic in the fantasy genre.