Hi hello and welcome to a very exciting post! Today, I have the pleasure of helping to share the cover reveal of The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall. This cover is so incredibly beautiful and really gives off magical witchy vibes and I’m so happy to have the opportunity to share it today! If you’re a fan of Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls, then this is the book for you. I’ll also be sharing some fun things related to the book and some pre-order information for those that are interested. Let’s get started!
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Kill Code Exclusive Excerpt!

From Goodreads: "Emory Fae has abandoned everything she thought she knew about her previous life on Earth. Stepping up to her role as Queen of Kiero she makes a startling sacrifice- feigning her allegiances to Adair Stratton, the man who murdered her parents and casted Kiero into ruin. Emory’s memories slowly piece together, and she soon realizes the Mad King may not be all he seems— and the man who was once best friend, may be fighting beneath the surface. With the King’s attention on her, can she buy Black Dawn Rebellion enough time to recuperate their forces? And when the times comes, will she be able to kill Adair, ending his tyranny and rising herself as the rightful Queen? Fighting to hide her secret, Emory navigates the brutal trials of the Mad King, trying not to lose herself in the process. Sequel to Black Dawn, now a bestselling series, the sparks are ignited, as Emory learns the cost of freedom, and her title. Will the rebels unite in time? A sinister force has spread across the land, stripping everyone bare- their betrayals, their secrets, their intentions. But above all, what will their decisions cost? By refusing to give in to the darkness, will Emory rise as Queen?"

From Goodreads: "Six years before the Black Dawn Rebellion, Adair Stratton and Emory Fae are following in their parent’s footsteps and living at The Academy, a home for those who are gifted. The pressure to uphold the future of their parent’s dream falls on them. An outcast and feared by most, Adair longs to break away from the expectations dictating his future. Even if Emory tries to make him see differently. An unexpected group of friends keep him there, but as whispers of unexplained disappearances start reaching from the capital, Adair starts to doubt The Academy is all it seems. An unexpected visit ignites new tensions as the roguish king from across the Black Sea, Tadeas Maher of the Shattered Isles, and his heir, Marquis Maher sail to Kiero. Notorious for their pirating and wrath- for the first time in years, they demand the Fae’s listen to their proposition for a new treaty, holding the news of Nei’s father’s abrupt death over them. Caught in the middle of politics- Adair and Emory, with the help of their best friends Brokk and Memphis search for the one thing that matters most- finding out the truth. In this gripping prequel to Black Dawn, their world is tipped upside down as unlikely alliances are made. War ravages through Kiero and is torn apart by acclaimed Kings. Through the throes of betrayal, lies, hidden magic and love, Adair is faced with a life changing decision- to fight or to bow to the darkness within him."

Giveaway!

About True Storm:

If you can't beat them, change them...

Want to read more? Pre-order your copy of True Storm (True Born Trilogy, #3) by L.E. Sterling today!

Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Entangled Publishing

Earlier Books in the True Born Trilogy:

From Goodreads: "Zera is a Heartless—the immortal, unaging soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger ever since she saved her from the bandits who murdered her family, Zera longs for freedom from the woods they hide in. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly. Until Nightsinger asks Zera for a prince’s heart in exchange for her own, with one addendum: if she’s discovered infiltrating the court, Nightsinger will destroy Zera’s heart rather than see her tortured by the witch-hating nobles. Crown Prince Lucien d’Malvane hates the royal court as much as it loves him—every tutor too afraid to correct him and every girl jockeying for a place at his darkly handsome side. No one can challenge him—until the arrival of Lady Zera. She’s inelegant, smart-mouthed, carefree, and out for his blood. The prince’s honor has him quickly aiming for her throat. So begins a game of cat and mouse between a girl with nothing to lose and a boy who has it all. Winner takes the loser’s heart. Literally."

About the Author:

Hi hello and happy new year! Welcome to the cover reveal for the final installment in the Chronicle of the Three trilogy by the wonderful Tabitha Caplinger. I am so excited to be able to share this beautiful cover with everyone and talk about this incredible trilogy. Isn't that cover absolutely stunning?! Let's jump right in with a little bit about the series and its author and be sure to stay tuned to the end of this post for a giveaway!

About The Chronicle of the Three: Bloodline:

Zoe thought the loss of her parents would be the most difficult thing she’d ever have to endure. When she began seeing things she couldn’t explain in her new home of Torchcreek, Virginia, she was sure the grief was driving her mad. Instead, Zoe discovers she is part of an ancient bloodline, one destined to defeat the powers of darkness from condemning the world. But Zoe, the daughter of the three, isn’t just another descendant, but the key to humanity’s salvation. In this first installment of the paranormal fantasy trilogy The Chronicle of the Three, Zoe Andrews learns that not all shadows are harmless interceptions of light. Some are a more sinister darkness that wants to torment the soul.

About The Chronicle of the Three: Armor-Bearer:

About The Chronicle of the Three: Eden Sword:

About Tabitha Caplinger:

Title: The Dragons of Nova (Loom Saga #2)
Author: Elise Kova
Pub. Date: July 11, 2017
Publisher: Keymaster Press
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook
Pages: 488
Find it: Amazon | B&N | TBD | Goodreads

Cvareh returns home to his sky world of Nova with the genius crafter Arianna as his temperamental guest. The mercurial inventor possesses all the Xin family needs to turn the tides of a centuries-old power struggle, but the secrets she harbors must be earned with trust — hard to come by for Ari, especially when it comes to Dragons. On Nova, Ari finds herself closer to exacting vengeance against the traitor who killed everything — and everyone – she once loved. But before Ari can complete her campaign of revenge, the Crimson Court exposes her shadowed past and reveals something even more dangerous sparking between her and Cvareh.
While Nova is embroiled in blood sport and political games, the rebels on Loom prepare for an all-out assault on their Dragon oppressors. Florence unexpectedly finds herself at the forefront of change, as her unique blend of skills — and quick-shooting accuracy — makes her a force to be reckoned with. For the future of her world, she vows vengeance against the Dragons.
Before the rebellion can rise, though, the Guilds must fall.

Excerpt from The Dragons of Nova:

“They’re coming from the front!” Nora screamed over the crescendo of the engine gaining speed. On cue, the train lurched as an endwig was splattered to a bloody mess on the point of the engine’s pilot.

“Bloody cogs,” Florence cursed. The Vicar Alchemist had sent her to protect the mission as the Revolver, but one of her wasn’t going to be enough. “I’m going to the engine.”

“What are we going to do?” The usually self-sure Nora had the face of a cornered hare.

“You’re going to fight.” Florence passed her a weapon.

“I’ve never shot a gun before.”

“Now is a great time to learn.”

“I’m an Alchemist!”

Seriously, Florence was a breath away from shooting the woman herself. “You’re dead if you don’t adapt! There’s three more bombs exactly like the ones you just used, right there. Just fend them off until the train gets up to speed. But don’t use any other disks.”

Florence had no more time to waste as the train lurched again. They just had to survive until the train reached full speed. For all the endwig were, they certainly couldn’t keep up with a locomotive.

She hoped.

The wind whipped her hair around her face as she stuck her head from the train car. Florence reached out for the ladder to the right of the door, scaling up before another endwig could emerge. She swung up just in time as an explosion nearly blew her foot clean off.

“By the five guilds, you two only had three bombs!” she screamed over the wind, not knowing if they could hear. “Ration them a bit!”

Standing, Florence looked in horror at the tracks ahead. Dozens of endwig lined the path, running eagerly to meet the train. She loaded six canisters at once.

Jumping to the tender, Florence lost her footing atop the moving train car. A nail snapped clean off as she sought a grip that would prevent her from being thrown to certain death. If she fell now, she would never get back on the vessel. She’d be torn limb from limb.

Gritting her teeth, Florence rose to her knees, shooting two endwig in the process. She wedged herself between two grooves on the top of the tender. Blood pooled around her shins as she dug them into the metal for a grip where there was none, but she was stable enough to take aim, and that meant she could open fire.

Five shots down, and Florence reloaded her gun. Endwig came relentlessly like a never-ending nightmare. But the train didn’t gain any more speed. She repeated the process, waiting for the vessel to be like her bullets, whizzing through the night at deadly speeds.

“Anders, now would be a great time to open her up!” she screamed.

There was no reply.

“Anders, Rotus, we need speed, get us out of here faster!”

Five long claws curled around the door of the engine in answer. Florence watched in horror as the white silhouette of an endwig, dotted in the black blood of a Chimera, pulled itself from the engine room. Florence swallowed hard.

They were without Rivet and Raven, stumbling through the darkness, enemies at all sides. She raised her gun slowly, looking fearlessly at the face of death itself. Her revolver was steady over the rocking of the train.

“You think I’m not used to this?” Her mouth curled into a mad grin. “I’ve been fighting my way out of the darkness my whole life. And you’re not going to stop me now.”

Gunshots echoed through the forest.

About Elise Kova:

Elise Kova has always had a profound love of fantastical worlds. Somehow, she managed to focus on the real world long enough to graduate with a Master’s in Business Administration before crawling back under her favorite writing blanket to conceptualize her next magic system. She currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and when she is not writing can be found playing video games, watching anime, or talking with readers on social media. She is the USA Today bestselling author of the Air Awakens Series as well as the Loom Saga (Keymaster, 2017).

Giveaway!

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Suddenly thrust into a world where handsome warriors command the power of nature and people’s thoughts and actions can be manipulated at will, Mia and Dino struggle to navigate their own allegiances and do what they know to be right when everything around them seems beyond their control."

Thank you to OfTomes Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review! All opinions are my own.

Stay tuned after my review for a special cover reveal for both The Witches of the Glass Castle and the sequel, The Witches of the Dark Power!

The Witches of the Glass Castle starts off with a bang, sort of. I've recently been looking for a new YA fantasy to read and when the opportunity to read one about witches came up with OfTomes Publishing, I pounced. While this wasn't the uber fantastic story I was hoping for, it was definitely entertaining and got me interested enough to read the sequel.

Plot:
Mia and Dino have just discovered the family secret- they're witches. When they get sent away by their mother and aunt to study their powers, their lives begin to change forever. Dropped into a world where dangerous warriors can control the elements and the actions and thoughts of others can be manipulated, Mia and Dino struggle to find where their allegiances lie and to do what's right despite everything around them falling apart.

This book was...okay. It wasn't a super wonderful 5 star read, but it wasn't terrible. It begins with a fire that happens when Mia reads these random words on a wall in their basement that apparently "activate" the powers of both her and her brother, Dino. It's actually never explained where the words came from and that was definitely something that I was curious about, but never got an answer for. But instead of freaking out, their mother is basically like, "Yeah you're witches surprise also I'm sending you away for the summer to work on your powers okay bye." It all just feels very rushed for the beginning of a book. Once the siblings get to the Glass Castle, the book kind of plateaus from there. There's not a lot going on until maybe the last 25% of the book, which is where you get a somewhat predictable plot twist and a bit of action that has a lot of build up and not a lot of delivery, sadly. I didn't find this book hard to read, it just fell kind of flat for me. You get a pretty cool opening (albeit with a few questionable actions and unanswered questions) and there's potential for a cool story, but it never really feels like anything happens for a large chunk of the book. The siblings try to explore their powers (kinda) and they make friends and kind of futz around the castle, getting into things they really probably shouldn't. The whole time I just felt like I was waiting for something big to happen and it never really did. But like I said above, the last 25% of the book had some action, a teensy bit of magic, more about the confusing romance-that's-not-a-romance-but-kind-of-is-a-romance, and some family love. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't bad.

Characters:
I can't be the only one that wanted to absolutely shake some sense into Mia and Dino, right? They were both so stubborn and made some pretty questionable choices throughout and I just couldn't fathom why they did some of the things they did. It was almost like they weren't listening to anyone when they told them the rules of the Glass Castle and just kind of did what they wanted. Don't go into the woods! What does Mia do? Go into the woods. A lot. Don't talk to strangers. What does Dino do? Talks to a stranger. Don't mess with the hunters. What does Mia do? MESSES WITH THE HUNTERS. Also, I understand that Dino's power was probably difficult to deal with, but lordy lordy child please get it together. Dino was very rude and sullen throughout 99% of the book and he was such an off-putting character that I just got to the point where I would roll my eyes and tell him (mentally because I definitely don't talk to my Kindle...not at all) to suck it up and treat his sister better. Mia was slightly better, but I don't think I liked her very much. She just wouldn't listen and was very impulsive at times, which caused her to get in trouble...a lot. Also, her powers were described as being very strong, but we got very little evidence of that, unfortunately. I understand this is the first book and that her powers may not be very developed, (or that may be because their supposed teacher was NEVER AROUND TO HELP THEM LEARN but I'll get to that momentarily) but I was really looking forward to seeing what she could do. I think end of the book Mia and Dino were much better than beginning/middle of the book Mia and Dino, and I'd like to see where their story goes in the sequel. Hopefully they can magic themselves some ears so they can listen to the things that people tell them next time.

One thing that I was concerned about was Wendolyn. The siblings were supposedly sent to this woman (who had previously taught their mother and aunt) to have her teach them more about their new and growing powers and how to use them properly, but she's almost never around. She'll call the occasional meeting and pop in for .5 seconds to tell the kids to go to sleep, but that's about it. How are the kids expected to learn about these powers that they have absolutely no idea about if the person who is supposed to be their teacher is basically non-existent? She does make an appearance at the end very briefly, but even then, her presence is very underwhelming and I guess I was just expecting more from someone who is supposed to be an elder witch.

Colt. Just...Colt. He was your very typical dark, sassy, mysterious YA male character who eventually to no one's surprise falls for Mia. They do spend quite a large portion of the book just making sassy comments back and forth to one another, and that was pretty entertaining, I must admit. But one thing that drove me bonkers about him was how he constantly harped about the fact that he was basically emotionless. Being a Hunter means he doesn't (supposedly) have any feelings or emotions, and while I did think the concept was cool, I think he hyper fixated on it too hard. Although at the end when he does (and this is just obvious, not a spoiler) admit he has feelings for Mia, he claims he's sick and has caught feelings and oh woe is him. I won't lie, that had me cracking up. I'm a sucker for the dark and sassy characters, so I did enjoy him at least a small bit. The romance between him and Mia did progress slowly (thank goodness for no love triangle or insta-love!!!!!!!) which I definitely appreciated, but I'm not entirely sure how I feel about them as a couple. It's an odd feeling, because obviously they end up together, but it just doesn't feel...right? I hope to see more of this in the sequel and maybe then my feelings about their relationship will change, but for now, it's something I'm really on the fence about.

Blue was probably my favorite character but he was around so infrequently that I never really got the full experience I was hoping for. He was precious and the kind of dopey side character that you can't help but love, and love him I did! His stutter just made me like him more, and I just really wish he had a much bigger part in the book. I did really like that Dino kind of took him under his wing and became his friend even after he was a jerk to him at the beginning. Also, I am dying to see his powers develop but I also adore the fact that he can only conjure buttons. For some reason, it's just really cute to me!

All of the characters together were pretty much the same as the plot for me- not fantastic, but not absolutely terrible either. Except Blue. He was amazing.

Writing:
I felt like the writing of The Witches of the Glass Castle was very easy to read. Like I talked about above, the plot kind of flat lined after the opening, so there wasn't a lot going on until the last 1/4th of the book, in my opinion. It wasn't overloaded with descriptions or action, so it made it pretty easy to just fly through, but I really wanted more from the writing. I wanted more magic and more fighting and more development of Mia and Dino's powers and maybe a bit less focus on the up and down romance between Mia and Colt. This book had a lot of potential to be really good, but I just didn't get as much out of it as I wanted. I liked that the writing made it very effortless to get through and I think the sequel has the possibility of taking the story of Mia and Dino (and I guess Colt) even further with their developing powers, so I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, but my expectations are certainly not through the roof as they were with this one. I did enjoy the writing and I feel like I'd probably pick up future books by Gabriella Lepore, especially the sequel, The Witches of the Dark Power, if only for pure entertainment purposes. And more Blue, because I really want to read more about Blue.

While I had a pretty 'meh' feeling about the book overall, it was enjoyable and I will plan on reading the sequel somewhere down the line. I definitely think this book would be great for readers looking for an easy, uncomplicated fantasy book that's a fairly solid start to a YA series!