Transitive Verve

Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) Summary: Vika and Nikolai are two enchanters living in Imperial Russia. Vika is a powerhouse who can wield fire, ice, and other natural elements to her liking, while Nikolai is good with mechanics and building things with his magic. As is the custom in this fantasy world, only one of them can be the Imperial Enchanter (working for the tsar), so they must compete in the Crown's Game - one of them will win, and the other will die. However things are complicated by the fact that they are inexplicably drawn to each other, despite the fact that they are competing to the death, and things get even more messy as Pasha - the Crown Prince - starts falling in love with Vika as well.

It's that time again! This month's Owlcrate theme was steampunk, which is one of my favorite genres/aesthetics ever, so I was VERY excited for this box. Let's get to it.

Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) Summary: Laia's life is changed forever when a group of the Empire's brutal soldiers - the Masks, so named for the eerie and off-putting silver masks they wear, which meld to their faces - raid her family home one night. After her grandparents are slaughtered and her brother taken away to endure god knows what, she seeks out the Resistance fighters to help her get him back, becoming a slave in the household of the cruel and violent Commandant of Blackcliff Academy. Elias' life is changed forever when, instead of graduating from Blackcliff and then deserting his future as a Mask (as he had planned), he becomes one of the four Aspirants fulfilling a prophecy to vie for the title of Emperor. Now instead of being free of Blackcliff, the Empire, and especially the Commandant (who also happens to be his mother), he finds himself committing the unspeakable acts he never wanted to commit in the first place, for a chance at a great...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary:  Maya has been cursed by the stars, fated to be married to death and destruction, which makes her an outcast among the members of her father's harem and an undesirable match for, well, anyone. And actually, that's fine with Maya, who prefers reading and star-gazing over marriage anyway. Until Amar, Raja of Akaran, shows up asking for her hand. She has never heard of him or his land, but given no other choice, she accepts, and quickly learns that his land is no ordinary land, but a magical one, and Amar is the king who holds the balance of the universe in his hands. Promised equality and power, Maya also quickly learns that Amar's world, and Amar himself, is full of secrets, some of them dangerous. There are strange sounds in the night, and strange doors that must never be unlocked. As she begins to unravel some of the mysteries of her new home, she also begins to question her trust in her new husband, and a fat...

On a recent trip to SoCal for a Disney race, I decided that I HAD to visit the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter that just opened at Universal Studios. Because how can I NOT, right? HOGWARTS! It's a small "land" within the theme park, with two rides, lots of shops, and of course, FOOD. My general plan was to take lots of pictures and to eat lots of things, because while I can read the books and watch the movies at home anytime I want, what I can't  do anytime I want is have official butterbeer. So basically, this is going to be a pic-heavy post, just to warn you.

Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) Summary:  This book is the sequel to A Court of Thorns and Roses . For my review of ACOTAR, go ahead and click here . Everything from this point on contains spoilers for that book. It has been months since Feyre freed herself, Tamlin, and everyone in Prythian from the curse set by the evil Amarantha. Everyone is trying to return to normal. Feyre and Tamlin are preparing to marry. Except it's not that easy - Feyre is still haunted by the events of Under the Mountain, from the lives she had to take, to the fact that her own human life had been taken. She wakes up from her nightmares, vomiting. She can no longer bring herself to paint. She feels herself being suffocated by the pressures and duties that come with her position as the soon-to-be Lady of the Spring Court. And there's also the bargain that she made with Rhysand while she was Under the Mountain, and the fact strange things have been happening ever since she was broug...

Last week was kind of a fantastic week for bookish fangirling: First, on Tuesday, I got to see/talk to Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff for the second time, and also got to meet Stacey Lee, whose book Under the Painted Sky  has been on my TBR list for a while. Second, on Wednesday, I got to meet MY QUEEN. (More on that in a sec.) And then on Saturday, I WENT TO WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER. (I'll post on that soon.) So yeah, it's been a pretty major week for me, in terms of books!

Okay, so, while this is Book Riot's 5th YA Quarterly box, it's actually just my first one. I waffled about subscribing to this one for a while, because it's more than other subscriptions, and I already have plenty. However, this one only ships once every three months, and you get two books, so I decided to suck it up and try it - if I didn't like it, I had plenty of time to decide whether or not I wanted to continue. Alas... I LOVE IT. Let me show you what I got.