BOOK THOUGHTS || Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

*** please note, this review may contain spoilers***

Summed up in a sentence? "Strong friendship, witchery, and an overwhelming sense of togetherness!”

SYNOPSIS

In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate in their hands.

Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch

MY OPINIONS

I was a little apprehensive going into this novel as I had heard mixed things, but I had no reason to be concerned. This book really surpassed my expectations and blew me away! I absolutely loved the friendship between Safi and Iseult, and the way they were portrayed through the writing in this novel hit the spot. I felt myself getting frustrated, upset, happy, angry and at one point I even cried over their actions. If an author can make me feel this way, they have definitely done their job.

The storlyline kept me hooked and wanting more, I'm so excited to read the second in the sereies when I can get my hands on it.

MY RATING

Overall I am giving this book an amazing four out of five stars. The friendship, world building and storyline had me hooked, and I'm really looking forward to the next adventure!

BOOK THOUGHTS || Vicious by V E Schwab

*** please note, this review may contain spoilers***

Summed up in a sentence? "I wish I'd picked this up sooner!”

SYNOPSIS

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. 

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

MY OPINIONS

This is my first read from the much-loved author V E Schwab. After following Victor and Eli, and actually loving them both (not even sorry), I now know why everyone enjoys her writing so much. The novel has you hooked from pretty much page one, leaving you constantly wanting more. I found myself reading this quite quickly, and completed this within a week on my commutes to work.

I absolutely adored both Victor and Eli, even though they went from being inseperable, to wanting to kill eachother. The difference between them being that Eli will go out of his way to find super-powered humans to kill, whereas Victor wants to find them to ally.

The scenes unfolded quickly, with detail and a storyline that kept me wanting more. Naturally, when the book finished, I was devastated, and just wanted more.

MY RATING

Overall, I am giving this book an amazing five out of five stars. I am definitely going to re-read this in the near future, and hopefully the rest of the novels I read by Schwab will follow suit,

BOOK REVIEW || On The Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher

*** please note, this review may contain spoilers***

Summed up in a sentence? " A heartwarming tale of love, friendship and secrecy" 

SYNOPSIS

Your soul is too heavy to pass through this door, Leave the weight of the world in the world from before.

Evie Snow is eighty-two when she quietly passes away in her sleep, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. It's the way most people wish to leave the world but when Evie reaches the door of her own private heaven, she finds that she's become her twenty-seven-year-old self and the door won't open.

Evie's soul must be light enough to pass through so she needs to get rid of whatever is making her soul heavy. For Evie, this means unburdening herself of the three secrets that have weighed her down for over fifty years, so she must find a way to reveal them before it's too late.

As Evie begins the journey of a lifetime, she learns more about life and love than she ever thought possible, and somehow, some way, she may also find her way back to the only man she ever truly loved ...

MY OPINIONS

After following Carrie's YouTube, Twitter and Instagram feeds for some time, I knew I wanted to read her first fiction novel. She's previously published a non-fiction work called All I Know Now, which was almost auto-biographical in providing advice for teens growing up. When she released the news that she was going to be releasing fiction novels, I knew I needed to get in on that. And I am so pleased I did.

Evie is such a loveable character, who we find at the beginning of the novel struggling to understand why she, a dead woman, cannot get into her 27 year old self's apartment. We learn at this point that she has a couple of things weighing her down, which are preventing her getting to her 'happy place', or her heaven, which is behind the door of her old flat.

Carrie has managed to create a story that warms the heart, and makes you wish you could just squeeze her characters until everything is better for them. I followed Evie as she relived her youth, and went through each of the three secrets to try and reveal them before it was too late. I laughed with her, cried with her and most of all, felt relieved when things went her way.

MY RATING

Overall, I am rating this book 4.5 out of five stars. I absolutely adored this book, and cannot wait to get my hands on her second novel! Definitely a must-read for fans of YA romance, or possibly even contemporary fans!