books and bouquets

  Rating :  ★ ★ ★ ★ Cawpile : 7.00 / 10 Release Date : 25th May 2021 Genre(s) : YA Urban Fantasy Anthology Happy Release Day! Massive thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.  I just want to start off by saying this anthology was great! It contained some really unique and incredibly diverse vampire stories (a lot of own voices authors also!) which took a fresh perspective on the genre, and was a true delight to read. Each short story is accompanied by a short ‘discussion’ by the editors, briefly talking about an issue related to the story about vampirism (such as mirrors, coffins, bats). Seven Nights For Dying by Tessa Gratton   ⭐️⭐️⭐️  This first story follows our main character who is an overweight bisexual teenager looking to be transformed into a vampire. It follows her week long journey of transition, giving her plenty of time to fully think about her decision. There was also trans representat...

  Rating :  ★ ★ ★ ★ Release Date : 18th May 2021 Genre(s) : Adult Urban Fantasy Massive thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Lights of Prague follows Domek Myska, a lamplighter, whose job secretly involves keeping the city of Prague safe from pijavice (vampires) and Lady Ora Fischerová, an aristocratic, bisexual widow, who just happens to also be a pijavica. It follows their relationship, and their intertwining storylines as they both attempt to save Prague, before the pijavice, who have recently discovered a cure, take over the city. I love these characters and the dual perspective the story followed. Domek is such an unlikely gentlemen, which was refreshing considering the majority of modern male love interests seem to be the alpha male type, and Domek was quite the opposite. Whilst, Ora was definitely a badass (with an emotional side). The romance between them is definitely not the focus of the book, b...

  Rating:  ★★ ★★ Release Date: 4th May 2021 Genre(s): Graphic Novel (YA/Middle Grade) Massive thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Sprite and the Gardener follows Wisteria, a sprite, who wishes she could be like her ancestors and use her magical talents to help take care of gardens and nature. This graphic novel fills me with pure happiness - it's just  so magical and whimsical.  First of all, the illustrations are  gorgeous.  The colour palette is absolute perfection - I wouldn't change a single thing - all of the delicate pastel colours compliment each other and the storyline. The character's faces have manga-style artwork, which I thought actually worked really well with the character's personalities. My favourite thing has to be the little sketches at the end of the book, and original WIPs from the draft stage. It shows the development of the story and how it went from being one sing...

Rating :  ★★★ ★ ½ Release Date : 13th April 2021 Genres(s) : YA Fantasy  Massive thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Go and read this right now, it’s so hard to put into words the connection I have formed with this book, but just trust me. The prison healer follows Kiva, a prisoner in the ruthless prison Zalindov and the challenges she faces once the notorious Rebel Queen is captured - she must fight to keep the Rebel Queen alive, and do so at whatever cost, including facing the lethal Trial by Ordeal. Can Kiva survive the four elemental tasks, that no other inmate has ever succeeded in doing?  I adored  all  of the characters in this book, and that isn’t even an exaggeration. Kiva is far from your typical YA female lead, she is so  strong and fierce , whilst also being sensitive and caring. Tipp, a young boy with a stutter, was so lovable. It truly makes you reflect on how cru...

Rating :  ★ ★ ★ ★ Release Date : 15th April 2021 Genre(s) : Young Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy Massive thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. I  adored  this book - it had everything you could truly need from a YA sci-fi/fantasy novel. And isn’t the cover just  stunning?  Pastel pink follows Harlow, a reincarnated Pastel Zeek living on Zadok, who was previously murdered on Earth as Ruby, a human. It follows her life in both of these locations - and how they intertwine. The book starts straight into the action - with a graphic depiction of Ruby's murder in the human world, which hooks you into the story straight away. First of all, I  loved  the reincarnation aspect, I'm fairly sure I've never read a book which has quite done it justice? But this certainly did! It was so easy to tell between Harlow's chapters and Ruby's chapters, as they had such different storylines and 'personalities' (even ...

Rating :  ★★ ★★ Release Date : 5th April 2021 Genre(s) : Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Paranormal Romance Massive thank you to BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. I was initially torn whether to rate this 4 or 5 stars, but since reading this book I haven't been able to stop thinking about it! So I've decided to settle on an unofficial 4.5. Violet City is an alien-invasion sci-fi, which follows Penelope Simmins, your average teenager, and 'Rowan', her alien captor, a Volkranian who eerily resembles a human. The first chapter jumps straight into the action and I was hooked straight away, I binged the entire book in less than 24 hours, because I just needed to know what happened next! It was fast-paced, action-packed and all-round fantastic!  My favourite thing about this book was definitely the romance, especially the chemistry and tension built between the 2 main characters. I think it happened very naturally (even thoug...

Rating :  ★★ Release Date : 6th April 2021 Genre(s) : Horror Graphic Novel Massive thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Vain is a horror comic which follows 4 vampires: Lost, Fanny, North, and Marquis - collectively known as 'The Vain' - across several decades. They are constantly evading the capture of Felix Frankin, an FBI agent who is investigating the suspicious burglaries which only seem to steal blood (he begins to wonder whether this is a war offence... or perhaps something more sinister). It reads much like a typical American style crime TV show. My favourite part of this was, without-a-doubt, the comic style illustrations (I thought this was a graphic novel going into it, but I was soon proven wrong) and I  LOVE  the cover, how stunning! But, please be aware this is an  adult horror comic,  therefore, there are some extremely gruesome scenes, with lots of gore and violent scenes. I a...

Rating:  ★★★ Release Date: 5th April 2021 Genre(s) : Sci-Fi Massive thank you to Interstellar Flight Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Local star is a polyamorous space opera which follows Triz, a guttergirl (spaceship handywoman), her friend Casne and her ex Kalo. When Casne is accused of war crimes, Triz with the help of her ex, Kalo, must do everything she can in an attempt to save her, whilst also saving their Hab which comes under attack from the notorious Cyberbionautic Alliance (ceebees). I picked this book up because it had  polyamorous rep  -which honestly is not something you see in books often. I loved how it normalised triads and quadfamilies (a family unit based around a four-person platonic, romantic and/or sexual relationship) as the norm, and it was super refreshing to see how poly relationships can also work in a platonic sense! Further, I adored how non-binary and neopronouns were normalised. For examp...

Rating:  ★★★ Release Date: 30th March 2021 Genre(s) : Fantasy Romance/Paranormal Romance Massive thank you to Victory Editing and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Supernatural lesbian enemies to lovers . Honesty that was the only reason I needed to pick up this book up and I’m really glad I did! It follows Silvia, a vampire hunter, and Keir, the heir to the vampire throne.  I want to start off by saying I absolutely adore the character of Keir, they ooze confidence, sass and sex appeal. Now getting into the actual book... I was hooked from the very first page of this book and could not put it down, it's fairly long and I read it in 24 hours. I will admit the start of the book is kind of rocky - there are a fair few grammatical errors (which is to be expected with an arc, however, it does still impact on the reading experience), but once you're past the first 100 pages - god does it pick up! I'd say the plot is predominantly roman...