Review: Heartless

Author: Marissa Meyer
Started reading: February 1st 2020
Finished the book: February 19th 2020
Pages: 453
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Retelling
Published: November 8th 2016
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.05
My score:

Synopsis

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.


Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

Review: Spinning Silver

Author: Naomi Novik
Started reading: August 13th 2019
Finished the book: September 14th 2019
Pages: 466
Genres: Fantasy, Retelling
Published: July 12th 2018
Source: Received as a gift
Goodreads score: 4.25
My score:

Synopsis

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders... but her father isn't a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife's dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers' pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed--and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it's worth--especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.

Review: Stars Above (The Lunar Chronicles 0.5, 0.6, 3.1, 4.5)

Author: Marissa Meyer
Started reading: August 8th 2019
Finished the book: August 8th 2019
Pages: 369
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Retelling
Published: February 2nd 2016
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.23
My score:

Synopsis

The enchantment continues....


The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories—and secrets—that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?

With nine stories—five of which have never before been published—and an exclusive never-before-seen excerpt from Marissa Meyer’s upcoming novel, Heartless, about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Stars Above is essential for fans of the bestselling and beloved Lunar Chronicles.

Review: Romanov

Author: Nadine Brandes
Started reading: March 23rdh 2019
Finished the book: March 29th 2019
Pages: 352
Genres: Historical, Fiction, Fantasy, Retelling
To be published: May 7th 2019
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads score: 3.93
My score:

Synopsis
Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.
Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never dabbled in magic before, but it doesn’t frighten her as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .
That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.

Review: The Digital Storm

Author: Benjamin Gorman
Started reading: May 16th 2018
Finished the book: May 25th 2018
Pages: 244
Published: May 23rd 2017
Source: Got a physical copy from the publisher
Goodreads score: Not enough ratings
My score:

Synopsis
The Digital Storm is an ingenious science fiction retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest set in the near future inside a bank’s intranet. Prosper, the analogue to Shakespeare’s Prospero, is an artificial intelligence program who has been banished to a quarantined area in the bank’s system, and there he’s created an amazing virtual island home for himself, his daughter Memoranda, and the monstrous virus Caliban. Now, with the help of Ariel and the other programs he’s invented on the island, he’s conjured a massive digital attack on the bank’s system to entice the members of the board, the very humans who exiled him, to enter the system so he can seek his revenge and escape to the Internet. But just how far does his revenge plan go?

Review: Veins of Magic (The Otherworld #2)

Author: Emma Hamm
Started reading: April 6th 2018
Finished the book: April 28th 2018
Pages: 350
Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Retelling
Published: December 19th 2017
Source: Got a digital copy from the author
Goodreads score: 4.14
My score:

Synopsis
Once upon a time…

Heartache dogs the steps of Sorcha of Ui Neill. Although she is home with her family, she is unable to shake the memories of her time in Hy-brasil. She heals with a heavy heart, tells stories with melancholy words, and cannot forget the magic of the Otherworld. When an opportunity arises to return to her beloved Fae Prince, she makes a questionable deal. Dark magic, druidic curses, and a witch open a portal and send her tumbling into the middle of a war she must end for the sake of all who dwell in the Otherworld.

Review: The Drosselmeier Chronicles: The Solstice Tales

Author: Wolfen M.
Started reading: January 18th 2018
Finished the book: January 29th 2018
Pages: 122
Genres: Fantasy, Novella, Retelling
Published: December 8th 2015
Source: Got a digital copy from the author
Goodreads score: Not enough reviews
My score:

Synopsis
Two classic holiday tales retold as part of the Gaiankind storyverse. In "Nussknacker", an heirloom turns out to have a magical history -- but will its current owner, a young lady, want anything to do with it after her strange uncle, Drosselmeier, tells its tale?
In "A Conspiracy of Spirits: The Love Story of Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge", we learn why Marley did what he did for Scrooge -- with a little help from Drosselmeier....

Review: Heart of the Fae (The Otherworld #1)

Author: Emma Hamm
Started reading: January 3rd 2018
Finished the book: January 17th 2018
Pages: 368
Genres: Fantasy, Retelling
Published: November 26th 2017
Source: Got a digital copy from the author
Goodreads score: 4.05
My score:

Synopsis

A plague sweeps across the emerald hills of Uí Néill, leaving a young midwife’s father with months to live. To save her people, Sorcha makes a deal with a dangerous Fae. She must travel across the sea, through merrow and kelpie lands, to find a forgotten king on a crumbling throne.

With the help of brownies, pixies, and will-o’-the-wisps, Sorcha battles to break through his crystalline shell and persuade him to take back his stolen throne.

Review: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)

Author: Marissa Meyer
Started reading: December 21st 2017
Finished the book: January 3rd 2018
Pages: 827
Published: November 10th 2015
Source: Bought the book
Goodreads score: 4.49
My score:

Synopsis
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mark her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.

Review: Shattered Roses: A Beauty and the Beast retelling

Author: E.L. Parfitt
Started reading: December 22nd 2017
Finished the book: December 25th 2017
Pages: 79
Genres: Fiction, Retelling
Published: April 24th 2017
Source: Got a digital copy from the author
Goodreads score: Not enough ratings
My score:

Synopsis
A book for all Beauty and the Beast fans! A contemporary retelling viewed through the eyes of a teenager. Sixteen year old Megan wants to be a doctor. When Megan volunteers at a residential home she meets Lady. Lady tells a fragmented and confusing story of a duke who never aged; his fate tied to the roses that grew in his garden. As Megan hears more of Lady’s tale she is intrigued to know whether the duke existed or if he is a figment of Lady’s imagination. As Megan embarks on unravelling the mystery of the beast a hidden family secret emerges... will it shatter her life forever?