Review: The Union by S. Usher Evans

Title: The Union

Series: The Madion War Trilogy #3

Author: S. Usher Evans

Publisher: Sun's Golden Ray Publishing

Publication Date: February 14, 2017

Source: Author

The Madion War Trilogy has come to an end.  The third book, The Union, is out in the world...and I have read it.

It is a little hard to discuss a third book in a series without giving any sort of spoiler for the books that proceed it, so consider yourselves warned.

In The Union, we are still dealing with the world as we knew it from the last two books.  Two major countries are at war and our love birds are from opposing sides.  In this book they are currently working together to try to bring down the King of one country and to reunite the warring factions.

And just like before...it isn't working out very well.

And the love birds are finding themselves stuck in the middle of it.  Either they can't find any time to be with each other or someone is trying to exploit their relationship.

But before I get to the relationship and my feelings towards that with this book, I should probably discuss Theo.  See, Theo had been my favorite character for the majority of the series.  I thought she was strong willed and knew how to get what she wanted.  Then the Theo in The Union happened.  And she is not the Theo we knew.  She is weak.  She is whiny.  And she is kind of annoying.

I understand that some of this is because she has some what lost who she is due to things that have happened in the story line, but some of it was because of a boy.  Her insecurity in her relationship was really just...ugh.  We had a strong willed female crumbling at the idea that her relationship is doomed from them never getting to see one another.  It wasn't always because of that, but when it was...I really didn't feel like it felt like the Theo I had known.

Then our Princeling.  He did show some growth, and in a more positive way.  He wasn't as arrogant (he was still a little arrogant) as he had originally been and he had started to grow a pair of balls.  So that was nice.

Too bad Princeling and Theo together in The Union more or less just annoyed me (mostly Theo).   But really, there were points when they were together where I just had enough of them wanting each other.  There is more in this thought, but I can't really get into it without giving some major spoilers away.

Other things happened in the story.  One of the characters really made me think of another character from the Hunger Games and that connection I made, made it very difficult for me to imagine the character as who she should be and not who she isn't.  I wonder if I am the only one who kind of saw this?  Can you guess who I am talking about and who I thought they were?

All in all though, I enjoyed the series.  I mean, I devoured the first two books, and really liked them.  There was just something about this final book.  It just didn't reach that same level as the other books did (especially the The Island).

My Rating

3 Stars

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This review is based on an ARC provided to me by the author.  All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone.

Reading is Better With Cupcakes Year End Wrap Up *2016*

Oh geez!  The year is finally over!  FINALLY!

Personally, this year wasn't too eventful, which is a good thing I guess.  I mean things happened...I lost some friends, I gained some friends.  I lost myself a little, I found myself a little...  Really it was probably a fairly middle ground sort of year, which I guess is okay.  I mean...it could have been worse, but it also could have been better...

In regards to blogging, I actually think I had a good calendar year!  My blog is right around 1.5 years old and I think it is going strong.  I have started to build some relationships with publishers and authors - which I am super thankful for.  I mean, as you know, I really like spreading the love of books to those around me, and these relationships are definitely helping me to accomplish this.  I don't think I posted as often as I did originally every month, but I am still posting multiple times a month...the child likes to make me not be on the computer as often now so I get things done when I can.

And then, when it comes to spreading book love in my more immediate community, I have been trying to be more active there as well.  Obviously this was easier when I had been a bookseller, but I have found a way.  A small way, but still a way.  There is a subgroup of people in my town that have been pushing for Little Free Libraries, and while I cannot have one myself (association and hubby are my roadblocks) I have been donating my books to the ones that do exist.  I have managed to donate to two different libraries so far...very very large boxes of books!  Hopefully I can get two more of these nice sizable book donations done in this coming year to 2 more LFLs!  I am always accepting donations to give to these libraries...please feel free to contact me if you would like to donate to them.  Our community really needs young adult and middle grade books!  The libraries go through the ones they do get super quick!

Finally...my last years goals...yeah...I sucked at most of them.  But I tried!

Here is what they were:

1. 150 books - Well I managed to reach 135...which is not bad at all really.  I almost got there!  
2. Do atleast 1 reread a month - I got through 9 (thanks to audiobooks) which is actually a lot better than I have done in the past with rereads, but it is still 3 books short :(
3. Read at least 1 indy/self published book a month - This one I did pretty bad with.  I think I only read about 5 or 6 of these...definitely no where near the 12 that were my goal.
4. Read 1 back list title a month - This one I surprisingly didn't do that poorly on (depending on your definition of what makes a backlist title!) and read about 15ish or so of these!
5. Read 1 classic - I think I got one of these in.  I am counting The Hatchet as a classic dangit!
6. Read 1 biography/memoir - I kind of sort of read 1 of these.  It was technically a fictional story based off of his real life.  They played fast and loose with some bits for reasons explained after the story ended.
7. Up my Netgalley percentage to at least 50% - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I don't know if it went up at all.  It might have gone down!
8. To keep up the love of reading and to share my book love with others. - This one is a constant work in progress.  Hopefully in this next year I can think up a few more ways to spread the love.  Maybe I just need to randomly give books to more people than I did this year!  But please, if you have ideas on how I can do more of this please let me know them!

So I guess that leads me to what my bookish goals for 2017 are going to be....  So here they are:

1. 75 books read
2. At least 1 reread a month (audio or actual reading)
3. 1 classic
4. 1 biography/memoir
5. 1 discussiony post at least on the blog a month
6. To read more diversely - more books by POC, books with POC main characters, more Own Voices titles, more books with LGBTQIA main characters, etc etc etc
7. Post more bookish photos onto IG more regularly
8. To continue to spread the bookish love with people around me and people far away

I am sure over time I will come up with more specific things I want to accomplish as far as reading and spreading the love of books goes.  Maybe I will try to do more specific challenges as they pop up - for example, I know I will be participating in ARCAugust if it happens again next year.

And now that we have gotten my goals out of the way I want to share with you some of my favorite books that I read from this past year!  And some how I didn't really read any romance this past year, and what I did read was just okay...so that is why there is no YA romance category!

Picture Book

Middle Grade

Young Adult Science Fiction

Young Adult Fantasy

Young Adult Fiction

Adult

Cookbook/Craft/Hobby

Adult Coloring Book

The Chasm by S. Usher Evans

Title: The Chasm

Author: S. Usher Evans

Series: The Madion War Trilogy #2

Publisher: Sun's Golden Ray Publishing

Publication Date: July 12, 2016

Source: Author

For those who don't know this about me, I normally do not read books in a series back to back.  I like to spread them out, sometimes almost indefinitely, because I don't want the world to end.  I like to take my time with the world in question and savor it.  That way, when I do return it is more like I am visiting old friends and not like I am rushing through the story.

There are exceptions to this rule of course and I don't make them often, but I did make it for this The Madion War Trilogy.  I went directly from book 1 in the series - The Island (find my review HERE) to the second - The Chasm.

That being said, this is a review for a second book in a series...so there may be some spoilers for book one.  If you haven't read book one, I suggest you stop reading this review and either go check out my review for that one or go and buy it and read it for yourself.  Then come back to this review (or just go get a copy!).

Consider yourself warned.

The Chasm starts almost where The Island ends give or a take a month or two.  Galian is working at the hospital in Kylae and doing everything he can to avoid his father while Theo is making appearances and being a public figure in Rave.  Each is trying to make the changes that they promised the other in their countries so that they can be together once again, but neither one of them is making any head way.

For the first half of the book, I felt like I was mostly reading about how Galian and/or Theo was missing the other one and pining away.  It just felt like the book was stuck on how much our two main characters were missing each other.  And, honestly, I found it to get a bit old and a little boring.  It definitely took me longer to get through the first half of the book than it took me to get through the second.

However, when I got to the second half, and all that "I'm so sad" stuff seemed to taper off, the story got quite a bit more interesting and a lot more started to happen.  It definitely picked up the pace and got very interesting!  There were some twists and turns in the story, and events that I did not expect at all!

So of course now I need book 3, The Union, and it isn't out yet.  I guess that is what I get for devouring what is available of the series now...

The Chasm had a bit of a 2nd book in a series feel to it, and that is okay! It is a 2nd book after all!  I am glad that I stuck with it and I cannot wait to see how things finally turn out in The Union!

My Rating

4 Stars

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This review is based on a copy provided by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Island by S. Usher Evans

Title: The Island

Author: S. Usher Evans

Series: The Madion War Trilogy #1

Publisher: Sun's Golden Ray Publishing

Publication Date: April 26, 2016

Source: Author

Woah!  I started this book one day and then the next day it was finished.  I didn't want to put it down.  It made me sad when I had to take a break from it to eat or sleep or talk to someone.

It was horrible!  I wanted/needed to continue.  I was so involved with the characters/story and the need to know what was going to happen.

It also didn't hurt that the story just flowed and was easy to read.  It was quite fantastic!

The Island is about two individuals, orphan Theo from Rave and Prince Galian from Kylae.  Two opposing worlds at war with each other.  One day both Galian and Theo are up in the air shooting at one another...and then the next thing they know they are stranded on an island in the middle of no where.

Oh geez.  If that doesn't tell you that there is some built in angst between the characters, I don't know what else would.  But you can definitely feel it!

Something The Island does when telling us the story is that it rotates between the two characters points of views.  I won't lie, I was worried in the beginning that I wasn't going to be able to tell the difference between Galian and Theo personality wise.  I thought that they were going to end up sounding the same in my head as I read through the story.  Thankfully, my fear was taken care of rather early on.  Once I got used to the way the story was written, I was easily able to tell the difference between the two characters.  It is something that could have gone very wrong, but thankfully it went very right.

Over all, I enjoyed the world building.  However, I do wish it was painted a little bit more for me.  I am kind of unclear as to what kind of technology the world had.  If it was more futuristic or if it was a bit in the past (when compared to our world and our time).

All in all, I loved this book.  I wanted a little bit more from it, but not too much.  I look forward to reading the rest of the series!

My Rating

4.5 Stars

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This review is based on a copy provided by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Red August by H.L. Brooks

Title: Red August

Author: H. L. Brooks

Series: Red August #1

Publisher: Weatherhill

Publication Date: August 19, 2015

Source: Author

As I have stated before, I love reading retellings of fairytales.  However, some fairytales get retold more often than others.  Some over done.  So I was really excited to find one that is a retelling of the Little Red Ridinghood story.  I personally haven't come across too many of them, so I was ready to jump right in!

This is the story about August and her journey of discovery.  Throughout the course of the story she realizes that she really doesn't know much about herself or her family.

This story starts off with August and her mom packing up all of their belongings to move into August's grandmothers house.  August's father recently passed away and they had decided it would be a good idea to go live near her grandmother, where her father grew up, for awhile.

August has to start a new school.  She is a couple years more advanced, so she is the younger in her class and has never quite fit in.  It is no different at her new school.  Actually, it is even worse.  One of the most popular boys starts picking on her for no apparent reason and the situation escalates really quickly.

Eventually August meets her mysterious neighbor Faolan.  She is drawn to this super sexy stranger and cannot help but find herself thinking about him.  However, he is very hesitant to get close to her.  If only August knew what can of worms she was opening when she decided to pursue friendship (and hopefully more) with this man.

 In the beginning August is pretty much just an extremely horny 16 year old.  She has a few erotic dreams about a wolf man and needs to pleasure herself a little too often.  Now, I am not against steamy sexy scenes at all, but I do think there is a time and place for them in the story.  In the beginning I think a lot of this could have been left out.  I don't really think it helped with character or story development.  A good bit of it felt misplaced and/or unneeded.  This is especially the case when it would be mentioned that August would pleasure herself to sleep.

Thankfully, that all ended up calming down at a point and it became more about the story and not just some girls erotic dreams and unquenchable need for an intimate touch.  I really loved the story.  Though I thought the beginning was a bit rocky, at some point the story really smoothed out and found its groove.  I found myself really enjoying the characters.  I had no problem imagining a different voice for each of them in my head as I read along.  

As far as character development went, I thought it went about very nicely in the long run.  At first I was really annoyed with the character of August.  I thought she was a horn down who needed to have a man in her life and that she needed a lot of positive attention.  She was very insecure, always wondering if men found her attractive etc.  I was happy to see this start to ebb away.  It gives me a lot of hope for her in the future.

I also cannot wait to delve further into the other characters.  Each one of them has a pretty mysterious backstory that we only begin to touch upon in this story.  I am also looking forward to relationships growing and changing.

This is definitely a series that I will be impatiently waiting for the next book to come out. 

My Rating

4 of 5 stars!

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This review is based on a copy provided by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.