Can’t Wait Wednesday – Spotlight on A CURSE SO DARK AND LONELY by Brigid Kemmerer
/34 Comments/by Suzanne
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll just be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.
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My selection for this week is A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer. This book went on my TBR before I even read the synopsis because I loved Kemmerer’s More Than We Can Tell so much. But then I realized it’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling and it fully cemented its status as a must-read book for me. I have a long while to wait before this book comes out, but I think this will be one that’s worth the wait!
A CURSE SO DARK AND LONELY by Brigid Kemmerer
Publication Date: January 29, 2019
From Goodreads:
It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.
Nothing has ever been easy for Harper Lacy. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.
Break the curse, save the kingdom.
A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.
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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂
Top Ten Tuesday – Top 10 Books People Keep Telling Me to Read…But I Still Haven’t (Yet!)
/56 Comments/by SuzanneTop Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is a FREEBIE, so I thought it would be fun to share some books that everyone keeps telling me to read because they know I’d love them, but somehow I just haven’t quite gotten myself to read them yet. I swear that I will get to them all eventually because these books are all recommended by trusted blogger friends, but it’s just taking me longer than I thought it would to actually get around to them. Some of them I really have no excuse though because I’ve even read other books by the authors and loved them, Laini Taylor and V.E. Schwab, for example, so I don’t even know what I’m waiting for.
So many books, so little time!
Top 10 Books People Keep Telling Me to Read…But I Still Haven’t (Yet!)
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1. LETTERS TO THE LOST by Brigid Kemmerer
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2. THE RAVEN BOYS by Maggie Stiefvater
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3. IN A DARK, DARK WOOD by Ruth Ware
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4. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor
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5. THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Maas
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6. ALEX, APPROXIMATELY by Jenn Bennett
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7. VICIOUS by V. E. Schwab
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8. RED WINTER by Annette Marie
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9. A MAN CALLED OVE by Fredrik Backman
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10. REBEL OF THE SANDS by Alwyn Hamilton
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Question: What books are people telling you that you need to read?
Review: SCHOOL FOR PSYCHICS
/28 Comments/by SuzanneSeries: School for Psychics #1
on April 3, 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 368
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
K.C. Archer’s School for Psychics is the first novel in a new urban fantasy series of the same name. I was initially drawn to this book because I have a thing for books that are set in boarding schools for young people with special abilities or skills and when I read the synopsis for this book, I immediately got vibes of the Harry Potter series and Nevernight. Those are two of my favorites so the idea of a similar book but that focuses on training psychics instead of wizards or assassins had me totally on board.
School for Psychics follows twenty-something Teddy Cannon, a bright and resourceful young woman who has an uncanny ability to read people. Even though Teddy is smart, however, she has apparently made some questionable decisions in her life and is currently living in her parents’ garage in a make-shift apartment. When the story opens, we learn that Teddy has also been banned from nearly every casino in the Las Vegas area. She has been using her ability to read people to win money in the casinos and also gotten into some trouble with some unsavory individuals that she now owes a lot of money to. We meet Teddy as she is dressed incognito trying to sneak into a casino with money she has “borrowed” from her parents in hopes of turning it into major winnings so that she can pay back her gambling debt. Teddy’s plan goes awry, however, and she tries unsuccessfully to make a fast getaway. A stranger intervenes and gets her out of trouble, only to then tell her that he has been watching her. He informs her that she can read people the way she can because she is actually psychic. He then invites her to come to the School of Psychics where she can train with others like her in areas such as telepathy, telekinesis, investigative skills, and SWAT tactics. Upon graduation, she would go on to serve the U.S. government, using her skills to protect America, and the world.
Teddy is of course skeptical but ultimately agrees to come to the school. In her mind, she has been a screw up for most of her life and would love to finally be able to do something to make her adoptive parents proud of her. At first the school is pretty much what Teddy expected it to be. She slowly begins to settle in, get used to her classes, and for the first time, actually make real friends. But then strange things start happening – there are break-ins, students go missing, and more. It leads Teddy to become part of a dangerous mission, one that will ultimately cause her to question everything she thought she knew – her teachers, her friends, her family, and even herself.
Teddy was definitely a big draw for me. I liked her character from the first moment I met her, trying to scam her way into that casino. She was the ultimate underdog so I immediately found myself in her corner. She’s also one of those complicated, messy characters that I so adore. I saw that right away when she demonstrated street smarts and tremendous confidence with just a hint of guilt about what she had done to her parents. I liked how conflicted she was and wanted to not only learn more about her, but I also wanted her to succeed, not only in the short term when it came to getting herself out of trouble but also in her desire to finally do something to make her parents proud.
She’s also a very realistic character in the sense that she is in no way perfect and tends to make questionable choices quite often. One that immediately comes to mind happens almost as soon as she arrives at the school. She shows up late to one portion of her entrance exam because she got drunk and hooked up with a guy. I just sat there like “Whhhyyyyyyy? How are you supposed to turn things around and make your parents proud if you get kicked out before you even start?!” She frustrated me to no end with decisions like that, but it made her character growth as I moved through the story that much more satisfying. She’s still not perfect by any stretch by the end, but she has come so far.
On a slightly different note, I also found her psychic abilities quite fascinating. All of her classmates had interesting abilities as well, but Teddy’s abilities were quite rare and apparently were inherited from her birth parents who died in a car accident when she was very young. Her rare abilities make her of particular interest to those in change.
The setting also really appealed to me, both the Las Vegas setting where Teddy starts out and then the island off the California coast where the school is set. I was especially intrigued by that since at one point, it’s mentioned that some students can see Alcatraz prison from their windows. I just thought that was cool.
Finally, I liked the mystery that comes into play by about the halfway point of the book. It moves the story to a whole new level by having it be about more than just this group of young people attending classes and honing their skills. I don’t want to go into any details about what the mystery is about, other than to say it basically turns Teddy’s entire life and everything she has ever thought she knew about herself and her birth parents upside down and it also opens the door for this series to take an exciting and possibly darker turn as we have to consider what the government could be using people with Teddy’s abilities for. Is it all solely for the common good?
While I did end up enjoying School for Psychics overall, I do have to admit that my reaction to the early chapters was mixed. The opening scene with Teddy running her scam in the casino hooked me immediately but then surprisingly enough, once Teddy got to the school, I found myself less interested and actually more confused than anything else. Why? Mainly because Teddy and her new classmates are supposed to be young adults, with Teddy in particular being in her twenties, but most of them seem so immature. Teddy confused me the most in this respect because while she was running her scam at the casino, she came across as very street smart and worldly, but then as soon as she stepped onto the campus of the school for psychics, it’s like her personality changed and she became obsessed with every cute guy she came across. It was a little off-putting how immature she suddenly seemed and I thought about giving up on the book at that point, but thankfully Teddy quickly settled in and began to focus more on her classes and less on the guys.
One other issue I had, which was also early on in the book was what I considered to be a case of flawed logic. It made no sense to me why this school would recruit students, have them pack up all their belongings and fly to California, only to tell them once they arrive on campus that they have to pass a series of tests in order to determine whether or not they would be a good fit at the school. In Teddy’s case, she is recruited and told that if she gives them four years of her life, they’ll settle her gambling debts and make sure her parents are safe from the guys who were threatening Teddy when the novel opens. Why make a promise like that to her but then have her take these tests to see if she can stay at the school? Again, I was glad I persevered since I ended up enjoying the rest of the story, but for a few chapters there, it had me wondering what I was getting myself into.
Even though I got off to a slightly rocky start with School of Psychics, the story definitely got stronger and stronger as it went along. I think it’s a solid first book for this new series and I look forward to seeing what’s in store for Teddy and her classmates in the next installment. I’d recommend School of Psychics for anyone like me who enjoys books set in boarding schools, as well as for anyone who enjoys urban fantasy and/or mysteries and has any interest in psychic abilities.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
An entrancing new series starring a funny, impulsive, and sometimes self-congratulatory young woman who discovers she has psychic abilities—and then must decide whether she will use her skills for good or…not.
Teddy Cannon isn’t your typical twenty-something woman. She’s resourceful. She’s bright. She’s scrappy. She can also read people with uncanny precision. What she doesn’t realize: she’s actually psychic.
When a series of bad decisions leads Teddy to a run-in with the police, a mysterious stranger intervenes. He invites her to apply to the School for Psychics, a facility hidden off the coast of San Francisco where students are trained like Delta Force operatives: it’s competitive, cutthroat, and highly secretive. They’ll learn telepathy, telekinesis, investigative skills, and SWAT tactics. And if students survive their training, they go on to serve at the highest levels of government, using their skills to protect America, and the world.
In class, Teddy befriends Lucas, a rebel without a cause who can start and manipulate fire; Jillian, a hipster who can mediate communication between animals and humans; and Molly, a hacker who can apprehend the emotional state of another individual. But just as Teddy feels like she’s found where she might belong, strange things begin to happen: break-ins, missing students, and more. It leads Teddy to accept a dangerous mission that will ultimately cause her to question everything—her teachers, her friends, her family, and even herself.
Set in a world very much like our own, School for Psychics is the first book in a stay-up-all night series.
About K.C. Archer
K.C. Archer is a pseudonym. School for Psychics is the first book in a new series.