Mageborn by Jessica Thorne

Mageborn by Jessica Thorne
The Hollow King #1
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A dark and addictive fantasy read for fans of Graceling and Sarah J. Maas. The life of an orphan soldier becomes entwined with that of the mysterious heir to the throne, whose very presence draws out the secret magic living inside her: a magic that breaks every law she is duty-bound to uphold…

Sold to the Crown in the aftermath of the Last Great War, Grace Marchant has never known her parents. Now, she trains as an elite soldier tracking down mageborn  – and destroying them if they don’t surrender their power to the Crown.

The mageborn who submit are collared, then handed over to the King’s cousin and heir: the elusive Bastien Larelwynn, Lord of Thorns, locked away in his shadowy workshop deep inside the castle. What becomes of them is hard to say – the Lord of Thorns keeps his secrets close.

As raging fire melts blackest ice, passion and desire quickly quiet her fear and suspicion. But with her golden mageborn light growing stronger every day, Grace must ask herself if she can really trust her former enemy… and with betrayal at every turn, will they save the mageborn and get out alive?

Thankyou to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by the synopsis for this book and I was pleasantly surprised by how engrossed I got in this story, as I had never read anything by this author before. I love the main characters and the slow burn, enemies to lovers romance. There were some good side characters too, but the bad guys were pretty obvious. The magical system is cool, but also gets quite dark and gritty at times, unlike a lot of historical fantasies I’ve read.  The plot starts out as a murder mystery but it turns into so much more and I did not see it coming.

Daughter of Souls and Silence by Annie Anderson

Daughter of Souls and Silence by Annie Anderson
Rogue Ethereal #2
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

A Council full of Ethereal Elders wants me dead. Yep, it’s a regular Tuesday.
When you kill a demon there are consequences.

Centuries-old witch, tattoo artist, half-demon… none of those titles are going to save me this time. The only way I’m going to get out of my death sentence is to take down the biggest, baddest demon there is… My father.
And I thought being burned at the stake was bad...

Read my review for book 1 in this series here.

I really didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first book, which was pretty disappointing. In a lot of ways it was very similar to the first book, with lots of action, but basically the same bad guy. The main character is still really cool and if anything she gets more badass. The world development is good, with more info about different ethereals, and we learn about the magical council. I thought all of that was really cool, apart from the demons being super OP compared to witches, but if they weren’t then our MC wouldn’t be so kickass I suppose. We get to learn more about her parents’ story as well, which was kinda cool.

Woman of Blood & Bone by Annie Anderson

Woman of Blood & Bone by Annie Anderson
Rogue Ethereal #1
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was burned at the stake when I was fourteen...
I was drowned in a lake when I was twenty-four...
At twenty-seven, I was stoned in a public square...

Maxima Alcado has died a hundred times in a hundred different ways, usually at the hands of the humans she tries to save. But when this centuries-old Witch helps the wrong person, things go horribly wrong.

Max might just die in a way that sticks.

I decided to give this one a try after reading good reviews for the series from Shirley Cuypers, and the premise sounded cool. A 400 year old witch who always comes back to life when she dies. I really enjoyed reading it, especially the main character. The world seems like a fairly standard urban fantasy with a bunch of different supernaturals, called Ethereals. The story is good, and works well as an introduction to Max and a couple of her friends, although there is obviously a lot of back story we don’t know. There is occasionally POVs other than Max’s, which is kinda cool and gives you a little more info about the side characters. The book did lack a proper final proof-read though, which bothered me, but I’m quite picky with that sort of thing.

"My mother thought I was cursed or a necromancer when I woke from being burned at the stake. She didn’t even ask me. She just cast me out without a second glance. As if I was dead to her—as if I meant nothing."

TTT: Books I Enjoyed But Rarely Talk About

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly prompt post hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Thanks to Jana for organising!



When I saw this weeks prompt, books I enjoyed but rarely talk about, I immediately thought of all the smutty books I've read that I'm too embarrassed to tell anyone about. Get ready! Haha, here we go:

1. Cold Mark by Scarlett Dawn: Alien menage romance. 

2. Mated to the Beast by Grace Goodwin: Alien match-making spankfest 😅.

March Update / April Challenge

IT'S UPDATE TIME

So I haven't actually done a proper update post since I started this blog in November last year. I have done a total of 16 posts (including this one), which is much less than what I had planned to do. hmmm 🤨 I guess I'm not as organised as I thought I was. Stupid life, always getting in the way. Actually, I've been reasonably busy when I think about it; there were changes at work over summer, my partner quit his job to study so he's been home a lot more than I'm used to, we went on holiday for 3 weeks in February and when we got home the world exploded! Last month was pretty interesting and crazy, and the craziness continues. I hope everyone is doing OK during this hectic situation, and finding some time to read during your lockdown/isolation/whatever they're calling it now.

I haven't been reading much at all, which sucks! I don't think I even finished any books during March, since I have found the whole situation a bit stressful and distracting. Initially I was checking updates super regularly and not doing much of anything except for work. In the last week or so I've managed to back off from that and chill a bit more, so I did get a couple of overdue reviews written and posted on the blog for Twilight Seeker and Sorcery of Thorns. BUT - panic stations - my Goodreads challenge is telling me that I'm now 4 books behind schedule! 😫 So I really need a kick in the backside to get me into gear to sit on the couch and read more!

Enter the OWLs Magical Readathon. 

Reading Habits Book Tag

Hi everyone!

I found this book tag on Holly's blog hollylovesbooks who I follow, and I thought it looked like fun. Thanks Holly for the open tag. I've seen other book tags around the place on other blogs, but I haven't actually done one myself yet, and I hope you enjoy reading about my book habits.

So, let's get started answering some questions...

1. Do you have a special place at home for reading?

Not particularly, just on my couch with all my cushions, preferably alone so there's no distractions.

2. Bookmark or random piece of paper?

Yes. I have a few random old bookmarks around the place, but acceptable alternatives include, but are not limited to: receipts, old shopping lists, the slip that comes in the book from the library, random post-it notes from work etc. Really just anything that's within reach when I need to pause.

3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop at a chapter/ or a certain amount of pages?