The Remnant Chronicles #1

Publisher: Henry Holt

Publication Date: July 8, 2014

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: Purchase

Pages: 492

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Summary (from Goodreads):

A princess must find her place in a reborn world.

She flees on her wedding day.

She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.

She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.

She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.

The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.

Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.

Ugh. Words fail me. This book was so so so so good! So I hope that this review turns out somewhat coherently so that you can understand my feels.

Lia is the princess and First Daughter of Morrighan. She is about to marry the prince of Dalbreck to secure and alliance between their two kingdoms. But Lia has other plans for her future and she takes off with her best friend Pauline right before the wedding. They go to the little village of Terravin to try and set up new lives for themselves. Things are going well for them when two handsome young men show up in the tavern they're working in. One being the prince Lia was meant to marry and the other being the assassin that was sent to kill her. So her budding relationships with them certainly make things interesting!

Where do I even start??

THAT PLOT TWIST MAN! I was positive I must have read something wrong. So I went back and flipped through the pages and it turns out that Mary Pearson totally got me. It completely floored me that I had everything wrong. But it was so awesome!

I really enjoyed the world that was created in this book! I loved getting all the history of the kingdoms and getting so much information on the religion of the kingdoms. It made everything feel so much more real to me. I liked seeing the differences between the Morrighese and the Vendans.

I liked Lia a lot. It seems like I spend a lot of time after reading books gushing about how much I love the main character. I'm just so easy to please and Lia pleases me a lot. She is smart. She is patient and fairly good at biding her time. She is stubborn. She is compassionate even for those who don't show her any compassion. She is loyal. She doesn't want to be a princess in an arranged marriage, but she eventually chooses her kingdom over herself. She is kinda mouthy, but uses that mouthiness for general good. She is just awesome.

Kaden and Rafe (the assassin and the prince) were pretty great too. This book has the feel and the makings of a love triangle, but I didn't feel like there was one. For which I am very grateful! I really liked Rafe. A lot more than I liked Kaden. Kaden just kept getting in the way of my Lia/Rafe time. Unacceptable. Both of them have feelings for Lia. For one of them, the feelings are unrequited. They both do everything they can to help Lia. While I can see where Rafe's help is infinitely more brave, I can see where Kaden is doing what he can to be helpful while also not getting himself into too much of a pickle.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book. It was kinda hot/cold at the beginning, but it was so sweet and turned out in a way that has deeply pleased me so far.

I usually am not such a fan of books told in too many points of view. But I liked this one with Lia's, Rafe's, and Kaden's points of view. I don't think this book would make quite the same impact without all the different points of view. But I didn't really see the purpose of the one random chapter in Pauline's point of view???

I am really wanting to know more about this mysterious gift that Lia has and that her mother has apparently tried so hard to hide from her! And I also want to know more about Lia's weird encounters with tigers. Maybe she's the tiger whisperer? I want to know more about the other kingdoms as well!

I really truly loved this book! I can't think of a single thing that I disliked about this book. This series will EASILY make my top five favorites. These is a sweet romance, lies, deception, betrayal, and ploT TWISTS!!! This book was so amazing, if you haven't read it, I don't know what you're waiting for, get on that immediately! I am personally very glad that I waited til I got The Heart of Betrayal to read this. 

Review: The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson

The Remnant Chronicles #2

Publisher: Henry Holt

Publication Date: July 7, 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: Purchase

Pages: 470

Summary (from the back of the book):

Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save Lia's life, her erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar's interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen.

Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward: There's Rafe, who lied to Lia but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom Lia always believed to be savages. Now that she lives among them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country...and her own destiny.

Ahhh! This series is so good! I really enjoyed this book! Not quite as much as the first one, but it was still really good.

Lia and Rafe are prisoners of the Komizar that come to live among the Vendans at least until they outlive their usefulness. They are both weaving lies to stay alive until Rafe's band of four soldiers can figure out a plan to break them out of Venda.

It really doesn't feel like a whole terrible lot actually happens in this book. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. You get to see a lot of Venda and their culture and hardships and you see that maybe they're not quite as barbaric as everyone had always thought they were. Lia builds unexpected relationships with some of the Vendans who see her as some kind of divine sign from the gods because of her gift. She really catches their interest. 

Something bad is brewing in Venda. All the patrols they have going out and slaughtering whole groups of soldiers from the other kingdoms are just the beginning of what the Komizar has planned for Morrighan.

I still just love Lia. She's smart and sassy and brave and just awesome! She tries to do everything she can to keep Rafe safe from the Komizar. She grows to care for some of the people of Venda even though she was always told such horrifying stories about them. She is forced to make some pretty tough choices, but she's really strong so she can handle it.

Rafe is still pretty much perfect.

I liked Kaden a little bit more in this one than the first one, but just a little bit. I feel like he gets kinda butt hurt that he can't make Lia feel about him what he feels about her. But he still does a lot to keep her safe so he's not all bad. You learn a lot more about his background and where he came from and how he ended up as Venda's Assassin.

The Komizar is pretty awful. All he cares about is his power and how he can get more of it. There were some parts where it seemed like he was trying to not be so awful, but no, he was just plain awful. When you learn about his past, he doesn't seem like he should be soooo bad, but all that power must have gone to his head.

The secondary characters that you meet in this book are pretty great as well.

The romance... For a little bit, I kinda felt like Kaden was being pushed at me more and maybe that love triangle was making a comeback, but that was not the case. Rafe is still the one. I hated that Lia and Rafe pretty much had to pretend to hate each other in front of everyone, but I liked that they both understood that it was all a show for the Komizar and the rest of the important Vendans. It kind of seemed to spark a bit of rage within them at first, but they knew they loved each other and and no matter what awful little lie they had to tell the Vendans that they would be fine. I hate when this happens in books and they take it all personally and get all offended when it's CLEARLY being done in the best interest of one of the characters, but they just can't see it. If that makes any sense? Anyways, I also liked the moments they manage to be alone together in the Sanctum. There better be a lot more Lia/Rafe love going on in the last book!

Overall, this book was wonderful. If you haven't read this series yet, what are you waiting for?! I will be slowly dying as I wait for the next book now. Because fit is going to hit. The. Shan. I don't see how anything really good can happen for Lia in the next book after the events of this one! It seems like everyone who was ever on her side in Morrighan is not going to be anymore and ugh, I just need to know how that all works out!!

Stacking the Shelves (#3)

Stacking the shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to highlight books received each week!

For the week of June 28th to July 4th, I got...

Brightly Woven ARC by Alexandra Bracken!!!

It looks so beautiful next to all of her other books on my shelf! :')

Thank you to @faeriexflash on Twitter for the trade!!!

The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons! 

Thanks to @flofloetic on Twitter for the trade!!

Mortal Heart ARC by Robin LaFevers!

Thanks to @yaperfectionist on Twitter for the trade!!

White Cat by Holly Black!!

Thanks to @pipersbooknook on Twitter for the trade!! This one is deep in my Amazon cart somewhere!

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson and Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes!!

I got these for myself off amazon!

What books did you get this week that you're most excited about? I'm most excited about the Brightly Woven ARC, but I'm most excited to read the ones I got off amazon!