REVIEW: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (#1) - Laini Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (#1)
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Format: Paperback
Pages: 418 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that colour. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

REVIEW: After (#1) - Anna Todd

Title: After (#1)
Author: Anna Todd
Series: After
Publisher: Gallery Books
Format: E-Book
Pages: 593 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She’s got direction, ambition, and a mother who’s intent on keeping her that way. 

But she’s barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, tattoos, and lip ring, Hardin is cute and different from what she’s used to. 

But he’s also rude—to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin. And she does—until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss it ignites within her a passion she’s never known before. 

He’ll call her beautiful, then insist he isn't the one for her and disappears again and again. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper. 

Tessa already has the perfect boyfriend. So why is she trying so hard to overcome her own hurt pride and Hardin’s prejudice about nice girls like her? 

Unless…could this be love?

REVIEW: Sweet Torment - Georgia Cates

Title: Sweet Torment
Author: Georgia Cates
Publisher: Georgia Cates Books LLC
Format: E-Book
Pages: 130 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

Bram—
My best friend’s little sister—that’s all Claudia Bliss is to me.
My head keeps trying to convince my heart, but both know it’s a damn lie. 

It’s her face I see every time I close my eyes.
It’s her lips I long to kiss.
It’s her touch I crave in the dark.
She’s the one I love … but wanting Claudia is wrong. 

She’s been like a little sister to me since the day she was born. Now, everything between us is changing—including the special bond we’ve always shared. It’s stronger than ever … and becoming something so different. Something so hot. Something so forbidden.

My little dove is growing up.
Doesn’t matter how wrong it is, I can’t stop wanting her.
I will have her.

Claudia—
Bram Windsor. I have loved him my entire life.

For years, I was nothing more than one of the boys to him. Owen’s little sister. The pest who tagged along everywhere the boys went. But now, everything has changed.

I’ve grown up and it’s time Bram sees me for what I am. A woman. A sexual being who wants him. A virgin more than ready to give herself to him.

I don’t care what our friends or family say. I love him and everything about being together feels right.
I will have him.

REVIEW: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Moby Dick (#2) - Gideon Defoe

Title: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Moby Dick (#2)
Author: Gideon Defoe
Series: The Pirates!
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Format: Paperback
Pages: 220 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

They’re back!!! The Pirate Captain and his irascible crew of scoundrels return in their soggiest saga yet. 

Fresh from their mishaps with Charles Darwin and the evil Bishop of Oxford, the Pirates set sail in a bouncy new vessel——purchased on credit. 

In order to repay his debts, the Pirate Captain is determined to capture the enigmatic White Whale, hunted by the notoriously moody Ahab, who has promised a reward. 

Chaos ensues, featuring the lascivious Cutlass Liz, the world’s most dangerous mosquito, an excerpt from the Pirate Captain’s novel in progress (a bodice ripper, of course), whale ventriloquism, practical lessons in whale painting, a shanty-singing contest in a Las Vegas casino, and a dramatic climax in which the Pirate Captain’s prize ham saves the day! Move over, Herman Melville.