#NOWREADING Karina Cooper St. Croix #5 Engraved (SPOILERS)

Summary:

Cherry St. Croix returns to the fog-ridden streets of Victorian London, where the balance of power threatens all that she loves.

I will not wither without laudanum. Sober and determined, I have chosen another way—alchemy, and the pursuit of wellness it embodies. My name is Cherry St. Croix, and though freedom is finally at my fingertips, I return to the blackened streets intent on righting the wrongs I'd left behind.

All is not well in London low. Caught in a war between gangs, men are torn limb from limb, and I am called on to ascertain how. The immoral Karakash Veil is no doubt involved, and Micajah Hawke, a prisoner in his own Menagerie, cannot soften the danger this time.

Armed with the alchemical arts I have learned, my ever present guardian, and what few friends are left to me, I embark on a campaign to rescue the ringmaster I cannot abandon, save the Brick Street Bakers from annihilation, and finally face that which frightens me the most—my own heart.

Thoughts:

So, we left Cherry in the last book heading off to London with Maddie Ruth and her guardian/tutor Ashmore. Sobered up and armed with alchemy, she's headed off to save Hawke. 

The book was fast paced and full of action and creepy people. 

Though I'm intrigued by Hawke and Cherry, I'm not really sure I want them to be together, primarily because Hawke's a headcase and asshole extraordinaire. I'm not saying that he's incapable of love or sacrificing himself but damn, dude, REALLY? If you read this book and the last one, you'd get why I would think so. 

And btw, I'm still hard up on Cherry just realizing that Hawke had been protecting her all this time. Maybe it's the opium, maybe it's her own prejudice, maybe it's her denial on how she feels for Hawke but still, girl. 

The book doesn't really give you time to breathe and process, and Cherry gives one hell of an impression of the energizer bunny. She was SERIOUSLY determined to save Hawke. 

Ashmore was awesome, supportive and practically the white knight to Hawke's sort-of-villain.

I seriously want to burn the Menagerie into the ground. Glad people beat me to it. That place was creepy in the first place but at least not evil, it was a place where rules were scarce and darkness lurked around the corner but when Hawke was no longer the ringmaster, that place went to the pits. 

And I want to smack the Veil upside the head. 

I'm now really eager for the sixth book because now Ashmore and Hawke would exist in the same scene. Man, that would be so FUN. 

#NowReading Sherry Thomas' The Elemental Mage Trilogy (ARCs)

It all began with a ruined elixir and an accidental bolt of lightning…

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.

Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.

But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life

After spending the summer away from each other, Titus and Iolanthe (still disguised as Archer Fairfax) are eager to return to Eton College to resume their training to fight the Bane. Although no longer bound to Titus by a blood oath, Iolanthe is more committed than ever to fulfilling her destiny—especially with the agents of Atlantis quickly closing in.

Soon after arriving at school, though, Titus makes a shocking discovery, one that makes him question everything he previously believed about their mission. Faced with this devastating realization, Iolanthe is forced to come to terms with her new role, while Titus must choose between following his mother's prophecies—and forging a divergent path to an unknowable future

Publishing News #Oathbreaker1

Signed a contract with Wayang Force to publish Oathbreaker 1. 

Camp NaNoWriMo July 2014

So, Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up and I hope to God that it won't be a failure on my part like last month. Ugh. I was torn between finishing a book or a starting a book on Camp NaNoWriMo but voted into starting a book. It's the one I've talked about a couple of days ago, the one that came to me in a dream (but then again all my books came from a dream). 

This is the book where the main character will be a boy (fingers crossed!). His name is Seth Matthews and he has two siblings, Jonah and Lesley and they live with their uncle James Warner (uncle from their mother's side). All three teenagers will have superpowers mostly something to do with ghosts while their uncle is as ordinary as everyone else in the world. 

Poor uncle James will have his hands full. 

As I said before, this will be the first time that I'll be writing a story with a boy MC so...wish me luck. Oh, and I haven't figured out a title yet. I'm going for my fall back title for now: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Summary

Seth Matthews and his two siblings has a knack for finding trouble, or as they often protested, trouble has a way of finding them. 

Having three teenagers in one house you expect a certain amount of trouble, but their Uncle James Warner, was so not prepared for their kind of trouble. 

When other parents have to worry about drugs, curfew, alcohol, and safe sex, James has to worry about noises in the night, things moving on their own and exorcism.

When other parents have to buy frozen pizza and soda in bulk, James is buying salt, occult books and fashioning iron bits into jewelry.

When other parents go to PTA meetings, James has a network of respected and dubious occult experts. 

It's hard to take care of three teenagers, it's even harder to take care of three teenagers with supernatural powers.

Excerpt:

If he was any other kind of guy, Seth would probably be delighted waking up to see two girls fighting over who would have his body.

If he was any other kind of guy, Seth would probably be screaming his lungs out when he figured out that he could actually see through both girls.

But he wasn't any other kind of guy, he was Seth, so when he saw the two girl-ghosts smacking the hell out of each other, he reacted like Seth would do: he blinked, yawn, scratched and thought about breakfast.