Seraphina (Seraphina, #1 ) by Rachel Hartman

Due to the upcoming release of Seraphina, I decided to re-post my review. But before you go ahead and read my thoughts on this amazing book, you can first read the small prequel that was released a few days ago. I just found it and I loved it. I missed reading about Seraphina.

Prequel: http://www.scribd.com/doc/97577759/Seraphina-Prequel-WEB


Review
Woooowwwww!

That's the only thing coming out of my mouth right now, although my head is filled with thoughts. This book was simply...wow! I loved it. It's like it took an empty part of me and filled it with so many emotions.

But let's stop talking nonsence and get straight into business. At the beginning I was a bit confused about what was going on, and honestly I thought it might not be as good as I hoped. See, I love dragons and desperately wanted to read a book about them. Fortunatelly I kept reading and after I got through the first couple of chapters the story started drawing me in. I was hooked.

This is the story of Seraphina, a talented sixteen-year-old girl working at the palace as a music assistand. But Seraphina has a big secret, one that is starting to be imposible to keep to herself, and everything is about to fall apart at the most important day of all is closing in. The treaty's anniversary, between humans and dragon, has everyone in the palace going crazy, especially after the prince is murdered in a suspicious draconian way. But who is the real enemy and will Seraphina be able to hold her secret to herself while finding out who wants to destroy the peace?

I loved the characters of the book, especially the two main ones, Seraphina and Lucian Kiggs. They are both smart, logical and loyal. Both brave and ashamed of what they are. You know when you read a book and you wander why the main character can't realize what's going on while it's so obvious to you? Well, this never happened in this book. The characters where true to themselves and refreshingly smart and witty. 

Finally the world that Rachel Hartman created is so beautifully described that it came to life. I especially loved all the Saints and religion, the Quighole and every other detail that made the world more real.

Definetely something you want to keep your eye on! I can't wait for the next one.

★★★★★

Gifted: A Donovan Circus Novel by Liz Long

Lucy is gifted, like so many others in the world with a special power, hers is fire. Lucy is a firestarter, someone who can create and control fire. Soon after the death of both her parents she decides it's time to return to the place she spent part of her childhood, the Donovan Circus. There gifted people, mixed with a few actual humans, put on an amazing show to entertain the masses. Lucy will make new friends and start to feel like she belongs again, but before the good feeling can sink in someone turns up dead. Burned to death. And the new firestarter is the number one suspect. Now Lucy has to clear her name and find out who the real killer is before more people she cares about end up dead.

Gifted had all the thinks I love reading about. A circus, someone with firepower and people popping up dead. I really enjoyed the circus life and all the different characters we were introduced to. So many amazing gifted people. I wasn't the hugest fan of Lucy in the beginning cause she just couldn't realise the obvious, that her gifted was so much better than anyones else, that she was truly special, but she finally saw that. Her two love interests on the other hand (yes this has a love triangle in it) were both swoon worthy. I found myself more attracted to Keegan though, although it's pretty obvious she won't end up with him and I felt sorry for him cause Lucy was kind of leading him on.

There was a lot of action in the beginning of the book and a pretty awesome fight at the end of it, but in the middle the book got a little slow. Lucy was not hanging out with her friends that much, instead she was always with her two love interests, talking on and on. That was the downfall of it. It was a bit frustrating after the great beginning, but fortunately the ending was action packed too. Hence the 4 stars. 

All in all, this is a great book. Especially if like me you are a huge fan of circus novels and firestarters.

★★★★☆

book 29             book 29

book 5
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Unpack This [July 2 - July 8]

Unpack This is a meme I started instead of my usual IMM. It was inspired by my love to open boxes, yes I love doing that.

I am back in my own apartment, which I adore so much. I never want to leave it again, well maybe for some vacations...Anyways, this week, I only got one book. But it's a book I've been dying to get. It just got published and I just finished reading the previous one.

City of Swords by Mary Hoffman is the sixth book in the Stravaganza series, hopefully not the last one, but there is no word of a next book. I will read it and then probably figure out if it's the last one. If you haven't read the series you might want to give them a try. I mean look at these covers.

What did you get to Unpack this week?

City of Ships (Stravaganza, #5) by Mary Hoffman

After finding a velvet pouch in her school, Isabel travels to sixteenth century Italy, only she soon fond out it's not really Italy, but Talia, a country in another world. She is not the only one that had traveled from present London to Talia, the other Stravaganti, as they are called find her and explain that she is to play a certain role in her visits to Talia, but no one knows yet what it is. With an upcoming war at their doorstep, the people of Talia gather their warships and Isabel will find herself in the middle of it.

Let me first say that my rating is biased. There is no way I would ever give a Stravaganze book any other rating than 5 big stars. I am so much in love with the world of Talia, and the traveling from our world there, every time seeing another city, that I can't help myself. Mary Hoffman did for me in YA what Raymond E. Feist did in Epic Fantasy, I fell in love with the wolrd and the characters. Before I even pick up the book I know I will love it.

I don't want to give away anything, cause all the characters from the old books came back to the next ones, but in this one there were many things done differently which made it even more special. Like trips to Elizabethan England and of course there was the battle in the middle of the sea. 

The main character, Isabel, is like the the previous characters. In order for someone to be chosen for Talia they have to be miserable at their own life and Isabel is just that. Jealous of her totally perfect twin brother, trying her hardest to go by life unnoticed. But naturally, just like in the previous books, with every trip in Talia she changes. By the end of the book she was a more confident person. 

In this book the old Stravaganti show up as they did before and help Isabel, but this time there are more trips to Talia than usual. It's really good to see them all back in Talia. But I was expecting them to show up for the final battle which didn't happen.

All in all, I loved this book and the whole Stravaganza series. The next book, City of Swords, was just published and I already got it and it's waiting to be read. I think this might be the last book of the series and I can't wait to see how everyone will end up.

★★★★★

book 28              book 18

book 4

Teaser Tuesdays #7

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"All Isabel could think was, William Dethridge's house! And then, We're in Elizabethan England!"

~p.260, "City of Ships" by Mary Hoffman

This part was a big surprise for me. Never saw it coming, that's why I picked it as my Teaser. If you haven't read the series you need to check it out.

Leave the link to your Teaser Tuesday.

Your Pick July Giveaway

Welcome to another Your Pick Giveaway. July has finally come and I already feel that I am running out of summer time. Anyways, let's see what you voted for this giveaway.

One of you will win one of the following paperbacks.

And for those of you who haven't read the first in the series, you can pick one of the following paperbacks.

You can click the images to go to their goodreads pages.

Note: I think that oneor two of the above books have different covers in the paperback edition, so you will get those.

INTERNATIONAL

Open from July 1st till July 15th

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Unpack This [June 25 - July 1]

Unpack This is a meme I started instead of my usual IMM. It was inspired by my love to open boxes, yes I love doing that.

I know I haven't been active much this week, but I was puppysitting and let me tell you, it's killing me. I get hardly any sleep and I can't even study much, let alone read... I am dead set on a getaway. Hopefully I will manage to escape to my own perfect tiny apartment tomorrow. Otherwise I will go crazy!

Anyways, this week I got a lot of awesome books.

E-book:

This one was free when I got it. I love the cover so much. It's so much better than the old cover. The whole series got new covers and they look amazing. And even though this book is about angels, which I am not so sure if I like cause I don't think I've read a book about them, I couldn't help myself with this gorgeous cover.

Physical Books:

Let's begin from Trick or Treat. First let me tell you I love Halloween, but we don't celebrate it in Greece so I can only see about it in movies. It's one of the reason I would love to move to the US. I need to live a Halloween! So of course I wanted this book ever since I found it in the used books site I use.

Blood Feud is the second book in the Drake Chronicles. I have the first one but still haven't read it, although it's on my Summer Reading List. And judging by how much fun Stolen Away was and what I hear about this series I am going to enjoy them for sure.

Pretty Little Liars...where should I begin about this one. I love the series so much and I want to see how the books are, 'cause I am sure they are going to be a little (if not a lot) different, I hope I won't be disappointed.

Finally two JLA books, Obsidian and Half-Blood. I have to admit I already have these two in ebooks, but I felt that these were books someone needs to have in print. Although I haven't read them yet, my expectetions are very high from all the great things I hear about them. So I had to buy them. Maybe now I will get to them sooner.

What did you Unpack this week?