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?

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
Fantasy, YA, Standalone
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb:
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.
Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.
As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

I actually love this book! A library full of magical, sentient grimoires guarded by sword-wielding librarians. Evil sorcerers making pacts with demons, and an MC who was “raised by booklice”. I love the world, and the magic and the characters, I just had so much fun with this book, and the story is pretty epic.

“There is always more than one way to see the world. Those who claim otherwise would have you dwell forever in the dark.”

Twilight Seeker by Pippa Dacosta

Twilight Seeker (Daybreaker #1) by Pippa Dacosta
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Stay in the light, avoid locked doors, and resist silver whispers.

Meet Lynher Aris. Hostess extraordinaire. By night, she entertains the Dark Ones passing through the Night Station: vampires, demons, shifters, and worse. By day, she undermines them all, working with the resistance to unravel their enslavement of the human race.

But Lynher has a dark secret of her own, and with the imminent arrival of Ghost—a vampire overlord few have seen but all fear—she must play her role as the queen of the Night Station to perfection, keeping the resistance and her secret safe, or risk losing everything, including the powerful Night Station itself.

Amazon US | Amazon AU | Book Depository

Thank you so much to Pippa Dacosta for providing me with a copy of Twilight Seeker in exchange for an honest review!

I've been meaning to read a Dacosta book for some time, and when this shiny new gothic urban fatasy came along, I couldn't resist jumping right in! It's been a while since I read a good vampire book, and this one really hit the spot! It initially reminded me a bit of the Innkeeper Chronicles, but the Night Station is darker and more dangerous.

"I’d been the Night Station’s hostess for almost two years, and every night I learned I’d never be ready. All anyone could do was hope dawn came quickly."

TTT: Prettiest Book Covers on My Shelf

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. If you are interested in joining in on the fun go to That Artsy Reader Girl to see upcoming prompts for Top Ten Tuesday!


This weeks prompt for TTT is Book Cover Freebie, so I had to pick something to do with book covers. I love love love pretty book covers, but there are just so many good ones that I had to limit it somehow. To that end, I made it only book covers that are on my shelf, in paperback, otherwise there would just be too many to pick from. Some of these are older books I've had for years and still just love. So here you go, my prettiest book covers, in no particular order, enjoy.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
I actually got this book signed by the author 😄I read it years ago and I loved it so much, I read it multiple times, and I could stare at the cover for ages, there is so much beautiful detail in it. I love the magic of this world.

Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier
Clearly I'm a fan of Juliet Marillier. She writes absolutely stunning Historical Fantasies with fae and fairy tale elements. This series is on my TBR for 2020, I just love the style of all her covers, but I think this is one of the best.

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

For two years Lou has been living in hiding, stealing to survive and avoiding the use of her magic at all costs. Should the Huntsmen, the Chasseurs, catch her, she would be burned at the stake without trial, but they are not the only ones she needs to hide from.

Reid Diggory, Captain of the Chasseurs, has lived his whole life believing witches are evil, and it is his sworn duty to protect the Kingdom from their foul magic. When a witch escapes him, with the help of a thief, he is determined to catch the one who thwarted him. But when Lou tricks him into a public scandal, they are forced into an impossible situation - marriage. 

Hiding in plain sight among the Huntsmen could be just the protection Lou needs, as long as she can keep her identity a secret. As her feelings for her husband grow, and enemies close in around them, Lou must make a terrible choice. Can she trust Reid to protect her, or will he tie her to the stake himself? 

Amazon US | Amazon AU | Book Depository

I really loved reading this! It’s just such a beautiful debut novel with rich characters, a wonderfully constructed historical world and a perfectly written enemies to lovers romance. This story explores the nature of evil and belief, and shows us the world is never just black and white.

The descriptions in this book are so beautifully crafted that I felt like I was there in this world of obsessive religion and dangerous magic. The characters are really brought to life and the split POV between Lou and Reid was brilliantly done.

When Reid meets Lou, she is dressed as a man, because any single woman may be accused of the crime of witchcraft in this misogynistic world. He finds her offensive, rude and shockingly inappropriate. She thinks he is stiff and boring, “the most pompous ass in an entire tower of pompous asses”. Not to mention he would kill her if he found out who she really was. Over time they come to care for each other, and through each one’s perspective we see the little misunderstandings and mistakes they make as their affections grow. I absolutely love these two as a couple.

“Every aspect of Reid was precise, certain, every color in its proper place. Undiluted by indecision, he saw the world in black and white, suffering none of the messy, charcoal colors in between. The colors of ash and smoke. Of fear and doubt. The colors of me.”