Magic Waking ( Legends Reborn book1) by Eva Chase

Hello to all!


        Today , i'm sharing with you an early review of Magic Waking. This one i had mixed feeling about but it's too good not to shared so  perhaps one of you will love it right at the beginning, in any case i'm more than tempted to continue the series.

 Happy reading

Publisher: Ink Spark Press

Publication: 2017

Genre: paranormal, fantasy, romance, fae
Violence: mild
Language: normal
sex: none
Public: 16+

Source: earc

Description from goodreads :

  Die, reincarnate, repeat. It's been a long fifteen hundred years...

Reborn wizard Emma Hale has three goals in life, or rather lives: Track down the present incarnation of the legendary King Arthur, fend off the shadow creatures that hound him for as long as she can, and break the spell that binds their souls in this morbid cycle.

If only she had a better idea how she'd cast that spell in the first place. And if only Arthur’s current host wasn't so cocky yet distractingly good-looking. Because Emma is falling even harder for the man she can't have.

When a fae mercenary with power to rival Emma's puts her king in his sights, Emma burns through all her tricks just to stay one step ahead. Now her only chance is to find some way to destroy the mercenary before he and his army of dark forces destroy Arthur.

No human Emma's ever known has managed to kill a fae. But if she can't, and quickly, this death might be their last.

Looking for a story full of sarcastic wizardry, cruel fae, and a star-crossed love centuries in the making? Scroll up and grab this Arthurian-flavored urban fantasy today!

My opinion:

           This could be very promising. I loved the plot idea , Arthur reincarnated, and the world building.  The rhythm is fast and  we are immediately in the centre of what is happening. It's really good and to give us more insight of what happened to put them in the present troubles we travel among Merlin and Arthur memories at the same time they rediscover them.

Emma is very dedicated, after so many centuries of failure it's amazing that she doesn't plan to give up....also a bit sad she doesn't learn from her mistake either. The fact she is determined to do it alone is frustrating even if we can partly understand it.  She is attracted to Darton  because in reality he is Arthur  and she will do anything to protect him . Trying at first to do it in secret wasn't the most subtle way though.

Darton is intrigued by Emma and not happy with his life but he doesn't really understand why as he is always the last of the two to remember their past lives. Even without knowing it though he is still the same: determined, loyal, protective.

We see and learn a bit about the fae in this first book but i really warmed to Sunki , she is young but more open minded and curious than some others.

Darton 's friends Keevan and Izzy i loved them a lot less.... they want to protect him and doesn't understand or trust Emma that i can understand but sometimes they reaction were really too stupid for me.

In fact, the only thing i didn't like was  Merlin and Arthur relation.....at first i enjoyed it seeing how they met , what they did etc but the fact it started to hint they were more than friendship feeling between them broke the magic. I mean why couldn't two boy be best friend trust each other above everything else without them being or becoming gay. Why should Merlin had love feeling for Arthur at the time: friendship, admiration , respect all that i could easily envision.. love definitively a NO. The fact he often reincarnate in a female form help but i mean the love feeling could have started at those time  no need to say it was there before....that's the only detail that really bothered me in this book but it did bothers me a lot.

If that point isn't a matter for you then it's a perfectly good retelling of Arthur legend.

Score:  3,5/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and i voluntary reviewed this book.

Free Agent ( Grimm Agency 1) by J. C. Nelson

Hi!

            i'm coming today between the numerous storms to share with you my opinion on Free Agent by J. C. Nelson, book that i was lucky to receive as a birthday gift this year and that i've read during my april reading challenge.
I do hope all of you have ( or had) a good day!

Happy reading!

Publisher: Ace

Publication: 2014

ISBN:  0425272672

Genre: urban fantasy, fae
Violence: mild
Language: normal
sex: none
Public: 18+

Source: gifted
 

Description from goodreads :

 When it comes to crafting happily-ever-afters, the Agency is the best in the land of Kingdom. The Fairy Godfather Grimm can solve any problem—from eliminating imps to finding prince charming—as long as you can pay the price…

Working for Grimm isn’t Marissa Locks’s dream job. But when your parents trade you to a Fairy Godfather for a miracle, you don’t have many career options. To pay off her parents’ debt and earn her freedom, Marissa must do whatever Grimm asks, no matter what fairy-tale fiasco she’s called on to deal with.

Setting up a second-rate princess with a first-class prince is just another day at the office. But when the matchmaking goes wrong, Marissa and Grimm find themselves in a bigger magical muddle than ever before. Not only has the prince gone missing, but the Fae are gearing up to attack Kingdom, and a new Fairy Godmother is sniffing around Grimm’s turf, threatening Marissa with the one thing she can’t resist: her heart’s wishes.


Now Marissa will have to take on Fairies, Fae, dragons, and princesses to save the realm—or give up any hope of ever getting her happy ending…

My opinion:

          I’m becoming more and more interested in the fae since I’ve discovered the October Daye series so when I learned of this book I had  to read it , even more after receiving recommendations from friends and bloggers alike telling me how much ( and fast) I should read this. Let me tell you I haven’t been disappointed at all.

I really enjoyed this book greatly with the original  fae and faeries universe J. C. Nelson created. It was funny and captivating, the suspense was well built, the intrigue keeping its interest until the end. I have read more about the fae than about the faeries ( for the little difference those terms include in this universe) so for me it was really interesting and will perhaps makes me try more retelling as well.

Remember your childhood stories about princes and princesses locked in towers? In this universes princes, princesses and a lot of others are not only statuts it become nature, the core of the character’s identity… strange? A little but you get easily into the mechanics of the world… the same poison won’t work the same depending on the receiver being, human, faeries, or a specific class of characters like a princess for example… some have immunity or particular results and consequences… it was funny to discover those or try to guess other.

Marissa’s job is to make wish come true since she works for a godfather….she did not choose that job but she must do it to earn her freedom… we discover how it happened along the story but more importantly…we learn bits of a bigger secret hiding…and I do wonder the real identity of Marissa and would be really curious to find more info along the series.  Her relation with Grimm seems more complex that it appears at first read/ glance.

I do love her personality as well, she is loyal, determined and at the same time she is hurt deep inside and try to hide it…without loosing her compassion. She is also prone to disaster from those we are told about and those we can see…being her friend is not something you are for the quiet and peace^^;;

Grimm we still don’t know a lot about him but he does seems to care for his agent in its own way.  I like his humour and his way of thinking isn’t always too twisted on contrary it does make sense more often than not.

 The secondary character like Ari and Liam are also terribly interesting and we do learn more about them than about Marissa in my opinion.. others like Evangeline can be unsettling ^^;; ( and I’m happy she isn’t my driver;) )

I don’t want to tell you too much about the story itself as each detail is important and the mystery a big part of it but I can tell you that it is quite fast paced, the action is catching you in its web, the humour, sometimes quite sarcastic is delightful and you get some closure with this book even if you will want more nevertheless.

Score:  4,5/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges:

Wolfborn by Sue Bursztynski

Good evening!

The story of how i come across this book is one that i remember fondly so i will share it with you before my opinion on the book.  I discovered the other during a blog hop and I found her really kind, she is a teacher and love to promote reading to the children and it’s something I really appreciate so I decided to follow her.

Later to answer some reader’s inquiry about book translation she gave us a little excerpt with its translation in several languages, French included. However since it’s my native language I immediately saw it wasn’t a proper translation at all (it didn’t made sense) I wanted to tell her, explain and translate it properly but at the same time I was terrified to hurt her feelings or something… still trying to be the most polite about it possible I explained what didn’t work and offered my translation….she answered me and she wasn’t angry at all quite the opposite, relieved I was even more interested in her book after that. I had entered a contest to win it without success when months later, there was a new one. Determined I tried again and I won! Fabulous, no? But what is even better is that …she remembered me!!! She really did and I got a really personalised email that made jump everywhere with joy.

I received my book from Australia later and I was exalted however I couldn’t read it then…. You see I wanted to be objective about it and since I was so happy about how I got it and the kindness of the author Sue I was afraid I would be biased if I read it immediately or worse I could be disappointed after too high expectations so I put it on my night table looking at it longing… then I decided the best way to be right and still promote it at the best of my abilities was to review it during a challenge so I could get others interested….so here we are during the shifter month ( I waited all year for it;) ) and I’m so happy  to share this with you -I will more than probably do a post in French too but this one being long already it will stay unilingual for now-

Happy Reading

Publisher: Woolshed Press

Publication: 2010

ISBN:  1864718250

Genre: YA, fantasy, romance, werewolves
Violence: mild
Language: normal
sex: none
Public: 12+

Source: won

Short description from goodreads :

 Break the curse or howl forever.

Etienne, son of a lord in the kingdom of Armorique, goes to train as a knight with Geraint of Lucanne. Geraint is brave and kind, a good teacher and master - but he has a secret that he has kept from his family. He is bisclavret, a born werewolf. When Geraint is betrayed, Etienne must ally with the local wise-woman and her daughter, themselves bisclavret, to save his lord. But time is running out. If Geraint's enemies have their way, Geraint will soon be trapped in his wolf form.

And Etienne has his own secret. The decisions he makes will change his life forever . . .


Inspired by a medieval romance, this engaging novel forces us to question everything we thought we knew about werewolves.

My opinion:

          Oh why I didn’t read this before?!  Yes I wanted to read this when shifters were the topic to help it promote better but It’s so good I can’t wait I managed to wait so long.  Really one started I couldn’t put it done and a few hours later I was babbling about it to my mother, explaining with such enthusiasm she made me sit…. Now I must write what I felt and thought and it’s more difficult because I do want to do justice to the story without any spoiler if I can manage.

First, I must precise it’s a retelling of a really old tale with of course the author‘s ideas original and wonderfully written. In fact, if you just pick the book without any prior research you don’t even feel it’s a retelling since Sue offer us a complex universe she made her own. Now after thinking about it, after learning how she came to write this and some info on the “original” tale she was inspired by, I think writing a retelling must be even harder than writing a book.  Why? Because when you create your own universe you are free to set the rules you want, you want magic or not, speaking werewolves or not it’s nearly complete liberty. If you are doing a retelling, you got some free license of course, to make it entertaining you must capture the feel of the story and make it your own all the while staying true and not betraying the original tales…. That’s a hard work to find that balance, in my opinion. Really in this case the result is splendid.

They are werewolves like the title and cover let you guess but here there is some specificity I enjoyed a lot.  You get 2 or even 3 kind of shifters to be precise. You have the “Bisclavret”, who are the true werewolves, those who are born like and are considered like the children of Kernun, a male God of the hunt and other things. The history said they were wolves who won the right or gift to shift in human form and lives between normal people. They can shift when they want, the moon has nothing to do with that (by the way they got 3 moons in that universe^^) but they must do it regularly because it’s something they enjoy.( in a sense they revert to their original form which must feel good).  To shift back to human form they must have their own clothes.

Bisclavret have become rare, only a few of them is left.

Now I guess I should precise that werewolves there isn’t something bad in itself, lot of countries in this world accept them as long as they behave, only some part hunt them but only because of fear and religious beliefs. Why religion? Because of the second kind of werewolves those who are called werewolves…they became like that for making a pact with black magic, bad deities thus are a little see as demons and those religious ones don’t make the difference. For them all man becoming a wolf is a bad one. However in the part were the pagan beliefs stay strong it’s not the same because they know there is also a third kind…if a werewolf has children they will be like him even if they never made any pact with the devil and thus they judge on the acts not on the fact they change into a wolf…..sadly if one misbehave he is killed.

It’s a world a little like our medieval one, but with magic really alive. Fae are wondering among people sometimes, the traditional celebrations are still alive while the religious ( the Nozrians) would like to see it gone but it survived, in a lighter version that they were perhaps but people still believe. It was really easy to get immersed in it and the way the paranormal, fantasy is used to convey message is something I really enjoy , if a younger one could read this book and understand how you must accept other not judge them on their looks or on what he was told he would be fabulous.

In this story we discover a knight Sir Geraint, a well loved one, respected by his people; the only detail is that he is a bisclavret and kept that secret even from his wife. Etienne is a young boy and like it’s was the use in medieval time young lads from nobility were sent away to complete their education as a knight….Etienne is terrified to become a wolf after his mother told him some of his ancestor was one. He gets fostered at Geraint household start as a page. It doesn’t take him long to see the strange behaviour of his master and how is wife is attracted to another visiting noble however when he learns the truth he won’t fear it and he is attracted to Jeanne, another bisclavret even before knowing who and what she is. When Geraint is lost, prisoner of his wolf form, Etienne stays loyal to him and he will do all he can to help saving him. This is a story of acceptance and courage, how Etienne discovers more about himself and the world, with a sweet romance and a lot of magic and adventure. We see how fear can lead to disastrous decision, how envy and greed can destroy more than it looks…. And so much more

 It’s definitively I book I recommend and as soon as it gets translated in French I would definitively ask teacher to use it because it really a fabulous story and still instil some moral and teenagers often learn more in indirect ways^^. You love fantasy, fae, legend action and romance TRY THIS BOOK! You won’t regret it

Score:  5/5

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and no compensation was received in exchange for this review

Challenges: