Series: Monsters of Verity, #1

There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

Series: Charley Davidson, #10

As a Part-time PI and fulltime grim reaper, Charley Davidson has asked a lot of questions throughout her life: Why can I see dead people? Who is the hot supernatural entity following me? How do I get gum out of my sister’s hair before she wakes up? But, “How do I trap not one malevolent god, but three?” was never among them. Until now. And since those gods are on earth to kill her daughter, she has little choice but to track them down, trap them, and cast them from this dimension.

There’s just one problem. One of the three stole her heart a very long time ago. Can the Razer, a god of absolute death and destruction, change his omniscient spots, or will his allegiances lie with his brothers?

Those are just a few of the questions Charley must answer, and quick. Add to that a homeless girl running for her life, an innocent man who’s been charged with murder, and a pendant made from god glass that has the entire supernatural world in an uproar, and Charley has her hands full. If she can manage to take care of the whole world-destroying-gods thing, we’re saved. If not, well… 

Author: Veronica Rossi
Series: Riders, #1
Released: February 16th 2016
Publisher: Tor Teen
Length: 384 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Nothing but death can keep eighteen-year-old Gideon Blake from achieving his goal of becoming a U.S. Army Ranger. As it turns out, it does.

While recovering from the accident that most definitely killed him, Gideon finds himself with strange new powers and a bizarre cuff he can’t remove. His death has brought to life his real destiny. He has become War, one of the legendary four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Over the coming weeks, he and the other horsemen—Conquest, Famine, and Death—are brought together by a beautiful but frustratingly secretive girl to help save humanity from an ancient evil on the emergence.

They fail.

Now—bound, bloodied, and drugged—Gideon is interrogated by the authorities about his role in a battle that has become an international incident. If he stands any chance of saving his friends and the girl he’s fallen for—not to mention all of humankind—he needs to convince the skeptical government officials the world is in imminent danger.

But will anyone believe him? 

Author: Melissa Marr
Series: Untitled, #1
Released: March 1st 2016
Publisher: HarperCollins
Length: 400 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Lilywhite Abernathy is a criminal. Her father’s “unconventional” business has meant a life of tightly held secrets, concealed weaponry, and a strict code. But Lily’s crime isn’t being the daughter of a powerful mob boss. Her guilt lies in the other half of her DNA—the part that can coax ancient rumors from stones and summon fire with a thought. Lily is part fae, which is a crime in her world.

From the time before she was born, a war has been raging between humanity and fae. The Queen of Blood and Rage, ruler of both the Seelie and Unseelie courts, wants to avenge the tragic death of her heir—a death that was the fault of reckless humans.

Lily’s father has shielded her from the repercussions of her ancestry…until she is sent to the prestigious St. Columba’s school, straight into the arms of the Black Diamonds.

Mysterious, glamorous, and bound together in their mission but constantly at odds, Zephyr, Creed, Will, Roan, Violet, and Alkamy are a Sleeper cell of fae, planted in the human world to help destroy it from within. With covers as rock stars and celebrity children, the Black Diamonds carry out the queen’s war against humanity. And unbeknownst to Lilywhite, she’s been chosen to join them.

Now more than ever, Lily’s heritage puts her in peril, and even the romantic attention of the fae singer Creed Morrison isn’t enough to keep Lily from wanting to run back to the safer world of organized crime.

Melissa Marr returns to faery in a dramatic story of the precarious space between two worlds and the people who must thrive there. 

Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Goddess War, #3
Released: September 22nd 2015
Publisher: Tor Teen
Length: 368 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

As ancient immortals are left reeling, a modern Athena and Hermes search the world for answers in the final Goddess War novel by the acclaimed author of Anna Dressed in Blood

For the Goddess of Wisdom, what Athena didn’t know could fill a book. That’s what Ares said.

So she was wrong about some things. So the assault on Olympus left them beaten and scattered and possibly dead. So they have to fight the Fates themselves, who, it turns out, are the source of the gods’ illness. And sure, Athena is stuck in the underworld, holding the body of the only hero she has ever loved.

But Hermes is still topside, trying to power up Andie and Henry before he runs out of time and dies, or the Fates arrive to eat their faces.

And Cassandra is up there somewhere too. On a quest for death. With the god of death.

Just because things haven’t gone exactly according to plan, it doesn't mean they’ve lost. They’ve only mostly lost. And there’s a big difference. 

Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Goddess War, #2
Released: October 14th 2014
Publisher: Tor Teen
Length: 341 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Ares, God of War, is leading the other dying gods into battle. Which is just fine with Athena. She's ready to wage a war of her own, and she's never liked him anyway. If Athena is lucky, the winning gods will have their immortality restored. If not, at least she'll have killed the bloody lot of them, and she and Hermes can die in peace.

Cassandra Weaver is a weapon of fate. The girl who kills gods. But all she wants is for the god she loved and lost to return to life. If she can't have that, then the other gods will burn, starting with his murderer, Aphrodite.

The alliance between Cassandra and Athena is fragile. Cassandra suspects Athena lacks the will to truly kill her own family. And Athena fears that Cassandra's hate will get them ALL killed.

The war takes them across the globe, searching for lost gods, old enemies, and Achilles, the greatest warrior the world has ever seen. As the struggle escalates, Athena and Cassandra must find a way to work together. Because if they can't, fates far worse than death await.

Author: Richelle Mead
Narrator: Emily Shaffer
Published: May 29th 2014
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Lenght: 13 hrs and 54 mins
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Audible

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Vampire Academy and Bloodline series returns with the second installment in her acclaimed Age of X series. 

Gameboard of the Gods introduced religious investigator Justin March and Mae Koskinen, the beautiful supersoldier assigned to protect him. Together they have been charged with investigating reports of the supernatural and the return of the gods, both inside the Republic of United North America and out. With this highly classified knowledge comes a shocking revelation: Not only are the gods vying for human control, but the elect—special humans marked by the divine—are turning against one another in bloody fashion. 

Their mission takes a new twist when they are assigned to a diplomatic delegation headed by Lucian Darling, Justin’s old friend and rival, going into Arcadia, the RUNA’s dangerous neighboring country. 

Here, in a society where women are commodities and religion is intertwined with government, Justin discovers powerful forces at work, even as he struggles to come to terms with his own reluctantly acquired deity. 

Meanwhile, Mae—grudgingly posing as Justin’s concubine—has a secret mission of her own: finding the illegitimate niece her family smuggled away years ago. But with Justin and Mae resisting the resurgence of the gods in Arcadia, a reporter’s connection with someone close to Justin back home threatens to expose their mission—and with it the divine forces the government is determined to keep secret.

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Covenant, #5
Released: November 2nd 2013
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Paperback, 360 pages
Buy: The Book Depository

It's a beautiful day for a war.

As the mortal world slowly slips into chaos of the godly kind, Alexandria Andros must overcome a stunning defeat that has left her shaken and in doubt of their ability to end this war once and for all.

And with all the obstacles between Alex and her happily-ever-after with the swoonworthy Aiden St. Delphi, they must now trust a deadly foe as they travel deep into the Underworld to release one of the most dangerous gods of all time.

In the stunning, action-packed climax to the bestselling Covenant series, Alex must face a terrible choice: the destruction of everything and everyone she holds dear… or the end of herself.

And make no mistake, my feelings for the characters are exactly what kept me reading through all the rough patches, plagiarism, occasional inconsistencies and the intolerable love triangle in those first few books. There were some horrible moments, yes, but if Armentrout knows anything, it’s how to keep her readers happy. Fan service is always at the very top of her list, and there was never any chance of her repeating the Veronica Roth fiasco.

In Sentinel, all of her qualities are even more enhanced. There are a lot of great moments fans will appreciate greatly, a lot of quality time spent with the characters, some truly magnificent action scenes (though not as many as one would expect), and of course, the romance is as swoon-worthy as ever, if not more.

Once you remove the emotional factor, however, and look at Sentinel objectively, all the flaws become painfully obvious. For a final installment, Sentinel was pretty uneventful around the middle. In fact, not much happened until that very last part, and while I admit that those last few pages made me reach for my tissues, the emotional impact wasn’t as strong as it could have been.

Armentrout’s writing is nothing to write home about, it never was, but in Sentinel, she made quite a few errors, more so than usual. I resent sloppiness – call it a personal flaw, if you will – and sloppiness towards language is the absolute worst in my eyes. When a Titan who’s been asleep and imprisoned for millennia wakes up and starts talking in modern colloquialisms, I consider it to be the result of sloppiness on the author’s side. How he managed to learn expressions like ‘all the rage’ while sleeping in the Underworld is beyond me, but he certainly started uttering them the second he opened his eyes. That is the kind of thing that can ruin a book in a heartbeat, an author not caring enough or not having enough skill to ensure appropriate language for his or her characters.

Looking back, there are so many things I could say about this series, and I did, in fact, express them all in my reviews. I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to recommend Covenant to someone since there are so many other series out there that for which I don’t have to make excuses, but I still had a lot of fun reading these five books. It is a fact that cannot, and should not, be ignored.

Author: Kendare Blake
Series: The Goddess War, #1
Released: September 10th 2013
Publisher: Orhcard Books
Paperback, 384 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

The acclaimed author of ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD returns with an incredible story about ancient gods, modern love and an epic fight for survival

He was Apollo, the sun, and he'd burn down anything that tried to hurt her... Cassandra and Aidan are just your average high-school couple. Or so Cassandra believes. Blissfully unaware that she was once a powerful prophetess, Cassandra doesn't even know thats god exist... Until now.

Because the gods are dying - and Cassandra could hold the answer to their survival. But Aidan has a secret of his own. He is really Apollo, god of the sun, and he will do anything to protect the girl he loves from the danger that's coming for her. Even if it means war against his immortal family...

Sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; relentless action and suspense - ANTIGODDESS is the YA novel you've been waiting for.

Very little, as it turns out. Blake’s version of the Greek gods is very modern. Olympus is no more and they’ve been living among us for so long that they resemble us in every way. But Blake still found a way to give a touch of the ancient to her novel by incorporating well known stories from the Greek mythology, mostly through Athena’s reminiscence. . While I found some of these stories wholly unnecessary, and even slightly burdensome, others like The Judgement of Paris were told in such a way that helped me understand these ageless characters just a little better.

There is a war brewing between the gods. They are dying, every single one of them, and in their fear and their panic, they’re doing what they do best, turning on one another, going up against each other for the last remnants of power. Poseidon, Aphrodite and Hera, crazed and diseased, plot against the others. Athena and Hermes on the other side are weak and practically powerless, with nothing but their wisdom and several reluctant allies to help them through the war.

While his brothers and sisters are fighting amongst themselves, Apollo is busy atoning for his past sins. He has his own priorities and his own obsessions, and he wishes not to be found, as impossible as that may be.

Those of you who are familiar with Kendare Blake’s previous work know how talented she is in creating vivid imagery that is equal parts fascinating and disgusting. While Antigoddess cannot be compared to Anna Dressed in Blood in that regard (nothing really can), it still left me with some images I’m not likely to forget.

The red warning on the cover that Antigoddess isn’t for younger readers drew my attention right away, and while I’m not quite ready to agree with that limitation (it sounds very patronizing), I have to agree that the amount of violence Blake describes is pretty unusual for YA, as is her matter-of-fact approach to it. But Kendare Blake isn’t one to allow her intended audience to limit her in any way, and I’m generally fond of authors who don’t treat teens with kid gloves.

Antigoddess isn’t without problems, that much is clear, but it is still a well-rounded, skillfully told novel, and undoubtedly worthy of your time.

Author: L.J. Adlington
Release date: September 5th 2013
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Paperback, 336 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

A supernatural thriller-romance set in an all-girl teenage bomber-pilot regiment, combining witchcraft and legend.

TWO NATIONS AT WAR. ONE GIRL CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE.

Rain Aranoza is a teenage bomber-pilot from Rodina, a nation of science and fact ruled by the all knowing Aura, where the belief in witches or any type of superstition is outlawed. Rain's regiment is made up of only teenage girls and their role is vital to the war effort against the Crux, a nation of faith and belief, where nature and God are celebrated and worshipped.

But Rain is struggling with another battle. She's always had a sense that her nature is different from everyone else's, and that a dormant power threatens to burst out of her.

When she encounters a young Scrutiner she falls in love with him, but is torn between what she has been taught is right, and what feels right. As her understanding of her latent power grows, the enemy threatens both her friends and her love. She can no longer ignore the power but she must choose how she uses it ...

But what will she lose in the process?

Can I end my review here?

Because really, those three words should be enough to make any living soul desperate to read Night Witches. Teenagers are flying planes and fighting wars, people, facing enemies both human and supernatural. For those of you who don’t know, night witches were Soviet female military aviators in World War II. L.J. Adlington, inspired by their story, created a whole new world in which teenage girls fly military airplanes against a dangerous enemy.

Rodina is a nation willingly lead by an artificial intelligence, Aura. It is the source of all knowledge and the only real decision maker in the country. Not connected, the citizens are lost since they rely on Aura for everything. They are proud of themselves for shedding the confines of religious beliefs and turning entirely to technology. But at night, when no one is listening, there are whispers of witches just beyond Rodina’s borders. There, the Crux reside, a far more primitive, superstitious nation, and the war between the two is brewing.

Rain Aranoza is a girl who is constantly underestimated – by her parents, her cousin and everyone else who matters – until she is invited to take part in a new fighter pilot program. Suddenly, Rain is flying Crux airplanes and discovering new and shocking truths about herself. During this time, she meets Reef, a silent and competent Scrutiner (kind of a law enforcement) and even though he’s dangerous for her on many levels, she finds herself unable to stay away.

It’s easy enough to draw a parallel between Rodinians and their connection to Aura and our own dependence on the internet. The world Adlington created is a great analogy for our world, and the advantages and flaws she skillfully pointed out can easily be applied to us. The paranormal element, which I won’t go into for fear of spoiling things, is just as fascinating.

Night Witches is elegantly written and gorgeously atmospheric. Adlington’s descriptions are minimal, yet vivid and strong and beautiful. She is prone to stringing very short sentences that give her narrative a staccato rhythm, which, instead of making her prose seem choppy, makes it fluid, distinctive and unique.

I strongly recommend this for those of you who occasionally like to step away from tropes and expectations. Night Witches is a gorgeous story and one I’m sure you won’t regret reading.
L.J. Adlington will stop by The Nocturnal Library in October to talk about the dark Russian mythology she researched for her novel.

Author: Kiersten White
Release date: September 10th 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Hardcover, 352 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up.

Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal.

Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all.

Okay, moving on to more important matters now.

When I first learned what The Chaos of Stars was about, I was afraid the pitiful sum of my knowledge on Egyptian mythology would cause me to do this book injustice. But instead of making me feel uneducated and foolish, Kiersten White elegantly took care of that problem by including small mythology lessons with a humorous undertone at the beginning of each chapter. It is through them that I learned who is who and what is what, which helped me feel less lost and enjoy the story more. And what a story it was…

When your mother is a goddess and you an insecure teen, a healthy mother-daughter relationship is simply not in the cards. Isidora is the daughter of Isis and Osiris, but she is not a goddess herself. As a mere mortal, she knows her life will one day end, and she knows her parents could stop it, if only they cared enough to actually try. Feeling hurt and unloved, she decides to leave Egypt, convinced she'll never return.

While in San Diego with her favorite brother Sirus and his wife Deena, Isadora finds her first friend and meets a boy she really, really likes. Trouble is, Isadora has long ago sworn off love and she’s determined not to allow romance to enter her life. But Ry refuses to be dissuaded. If friendship is what Isadora wants, he’s ready to be her friend. If it’s a living, breathing restaurant guide she needs, he can become one in a heartbeat. Their friendship and romance were rather enjoyable because I always knew Isadora would come around eventually – that certainty made me smile even when she was being extremely difficult and frustrating. Besides, even though her logic was seriously thwarted, I understood where she was coming from, which is all that really counts.

"He's a show-off, that's what he is. I don't give a mummified cat whether or not he can speak Arabic. I add show-off to my list of reasons why I will never like Ry in a way that would be dangerous. And then I'm mad that I even feel like I need to have a list, which is another thing to put on the list I wish I didn't have to have."

Even with the strong paranormal (umm, mythological?) element, the first half of The Chaos of Stars reads very much like a contemporary. Isadora has to learn about the modern world and discover things she’d never had access to, which is especially fun. The second half is a bit more exciting, as Isadora finds herself in the middle of a power play as old as time itself.

The truly brilliant thing about Kiersten White is that she somehow changes her writing style for each new book and/or series. She truly is a writing chameleon, and each time her ideas are unusual and richly imaginative. The Chaos of Stars is by no means free of flaws, but I thoroughly enjoyed it nevertheless. It’s been a long time since I’d felt compelled to finish a book in one sitting so that alone is enough to make me grateful for this reading experience.

Author: Tessa Gratton
Series:The United States of Asgard,#1
Release date: June 24th 2013
Publisher: Random House
Hardcover, 368 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Fans of Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Holly Black's The Curse Workers will embrace this richly drawn, Norse-mythology-infused alternate world: the United States of Asgard.

Seventeen-year-old Soren Bearskin is trying to escape the past. His father, a famed warrior, lost himself to the battle-frenzy and killed thirteen innocent people. Soren cannot deny that berserking is in his blood--the fevers, insomnia, and occasional feelings of uncontrollable rage haunt him. So he tries to remain calm and detached from everyone at Sanctus Sigurd's Academy. But that's hard to do when a popular, beautiful girl like Astrid Glyn tells Soren she dreams of him. That's not all Astrid dreams of--the daughter of a renowned prophetess, Astrid is coming into her own inherited abilities.

When Baldur, son of Odin and one of the most popular gods in the country, goes missing, Astrid sees where he is and convinces Soren to join her on a road trip that will take them to find not only a lost god, but also who they are beyond the legacy of their parents and everything they've been told they have to be.

Every person in the United States of Asgard is a devotee of some Norse god, depending on their talents, convictions and just general attitude towards life. They pray to their gods knowing that the deities are real and involved in state affairs. There is no need for faith, although they often proclaim it, there is only absolute certainty.

However, knowing the gods are real doesn’t necessarily mean that one has to love them. That is the case with Soren. He has nothing but contempt for Odin the Alfather and refuses to worship him or wear his insignia. Soren is unwilling to accept his destiny and become a full berserker. His whole life is focused on avoiding the fate of his father who murdered numerous people in a berserker rage.

When winter ends and Baldur the Beautiful fails to rise from the ashes, the world is in an uproar. Talk of Ragnarok terrifies people all over the USA so Odin offers a boon to the person who finds his son and brings him back. Soren, desperate to be free of his legacy and his friend Astrid who wants to find her missing mother, leave school with the intention of finding Baldur. With her seer abilities and his berserker strength, they might just stand a chance.

In her distinctive writing style, Tessa Gratton created a remarkable, fascinating and memorable story. Her worldbuilding is imaginative and bold and her sentences a beauty to behold. That’s not to say, however, that her book is without faults. While I appreciate Gratton’s somewhat subdued writing style, I wish she’d approached characterization a bit more openly and freely. As it was, Soren’s voice left a lot to be desired. As hard as I tried, he always remained just out of grasp and I haven’t quite managed to figure him out.

By law, Soren is required to have a spear tattoo on his left cheek that marks him as a berserker. He is not allowed to conceal it in any way so when people see it, they respond with open hostility. I admire Gratton for using Soren to explore the position of someone permanently marked as something that is perceived as unwanted and dangerous to society. We have a great many examples of this in our history, be it the scarlet A or the Star of David.

Like everything else, the romance in The Lost Sun is beautiful, but subtle. Soren and Astrid are an odd pair, one that would certainly benefit from a lengthy conversation or two, but that is not Tessa Gratton’s style. By the end, I grew attached to both of them and I can’t wait to see how their story will unfold in future installments.