young adult

Bewitching Book Covers: Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White

Happy Friday everybody! Here we are again with a familiar post, but It’s slightly different than it was before. And before that. ‘Cause this post has had a few… evolutions, you could say.

I’ve decided to drop all pretenses – I’m clearly not gonna stick to a day of the week. This post is just gonna happen on whatever day of the week it happens on. So I’ve renamed it for the final time – Bewitching Book Covers!

For anyone who doesn’t know, Bewitching Book Covers (formerly Tasteful Tuesdays, and before that, Majestic Mondays), is a series where I highlight an awesome looking book cover and talk about what I like about it. That’s it, that’s pretty much the point of this post.

This week, the book cover I’m gushing about is Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao.

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao

SERIES: Song of the Last Kingdom #2

LENGTH: 348 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press

RELEASE DATE: 2 January 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic sequel to the book Song of Silver, Flame Like Night, is a fast-paced, riveting YA fantasy inspired by the mythology and folklore of ancient China.

The Demon Gods have risen. Skies’ End has fallen to the colonizers. And Lan and Zen have chosen sides.

But they will not fight together.

Though Lan inherited the power of the Silver Dragon, she understands the path she must take. She believes the Demon Gods to be the cause of war, conflict, and turmoil, and that the future of the Last Kingdom depends on their being eliminated forever. Worse, she knows that if the Elantians manage to bind one of the legendary beings, their army will be unstoppable. To save her kingdom and her people, Lan will need to find the only mythical weapon capable of destroying the Demon Gods: the Godslayer.

Zen is sure that the only way to free the Last Kingdom is to use the power of the Demon Gods. When he bound the Black Tortoise, he paid the ultimate price: to inherit its strength, he will forfeit his body, his mind, and his soul. Yet one Demon God is not enough against the might of the colonizers. In the ruins of the northern Mansorian lands slumbers a magical army of demonic practitioners capable of facing off against the Elantians—but Zen must find the Seal to awaken them to fight by his side.

At the center of both Lan’s and Zen’s journeys is one city: Shaklahira, a former stronghold of the Imperial Court that vanished without a trace when the Elantians invaded. Its location is a mystery, and both are sure that it holds the answers they need, but the past it hides might be more dangerous than anything they’ve faced yet.

The battle for the Last Kingdom rages on. But to win the war, Lan will have to decide: Can she face the boy she loves again? And when she does, can she kill him to free her people?

Book Cover Rating: 🪶🪶🪶🪶🪶 • 5 gorgeous plumes

Like its predecessor, Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White has an simply breathtaking cover. It’s absolutely beautiful honestly, and is one of my favorite new book covers from this year.

First off, I adore the colors. The way the shades of pink pair with the red and the orange is so pretty. I also like how the bits of blue, green and yellow complement the rest of the artwork. This novel’s cover also both contrasts and complements the cover of Song Like Silver, Flame Like Night because of this. I also like how this cover art depicts another one of the four great Demon Gods that are important to this series – this one depicts the phoenix, much like how book one is focused on the dragon.

I also loved the Chinese characters in the bottom left corner of the cover. They just add so much to the artwork just by being there – which is something even I can tell, as someone who can’t read it. The font used for the title and author for these books is awesome, and also complements the cover art very well. I just love this book cover!

So yeah, that’s another beautiful book cover. What do you think about this cover art? Have you read Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White or Song Like Silver, Flame Like Night? What did you think of it/them?

Anyway, as always, thank you to everyone who reads my posts. I hope that you enjoyed this one as well, and that you have a amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Girl With No Reflection

We’re still going strong with anticipated new releases guys. Like, there’s two more books coming out in the next couple weeks that I’m interested in.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.

This week’s book is:

The Girl With No Reflection by Keshe Chow! 🪞🧩

Ever since I discovered this a few months ago, I’ve been intrigued by the premise. Not to mention I love mirror magic – there’re so many cool things you can do with this trope.

The Girl With No Reflection by Keshe Chow

The Girl With No Reflection by Keshe Chow

LENGTH: 496 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press

RELEASE DATE: 6 August 2024

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A young woman chosen as the crown prince’s bride must travel to the royal palace to meet her new husband—but her world is shaken when she discovers the dark truth the royal family has been hiding for centuries—in this lush fantasy debut perfect for fans of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night and Violet Made of Thorns.

Princess Ying Yue believed in love… once upon a time.

Yet when she’s chosen to wed the crown prince, Ying’s dreams of a fairy tale marriage quickly fall apart. Her husband-to-be is cold and indifferent, confining Ying to her room for reasons he won’t explain. Worse still are the rumors that swirl around the imperial palace: whispers of seven other royal brides who, after their own weddings, mysteriously disappeared.

Left alone with only her own reflection for company, Ying begins to see things. Strange things. Movements in the corners of her mirror. Colorful lights upon its surface. And when, on the eve of her wedding, she unwittingly tears open a gateway, she is pulled into a mirror world.

This realm is full of sentient reflections, including the enigmatic Mirror Prince. Unlike his real-world counterpart, the Mirror Prince is kind and compassionate, and before long Ying falls in love—the kind of love she always dreamed of.

But there is darkness in this new world, too.

It turns out the two worlds have a long and blood-soaked history, and Ying has a part to play in the future of them both. And the brides who came before Ying? By the time they discovered what their role was, it was already too late.

Are you looking forward to The Girl With No Reflection? What other books are coming out in the next few weeks that you’re looking forward to?

As always, thank you all so much for reading and have a awesome day/night!

See ya ~Mar

First Line Friday: 7/13

It’s been a couple weeks since I last participated in this post. But here I am again!

Anyway, First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.

What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?

If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:

📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page
📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
📙 Finally… reveal the book!

Here’s the first line:

The police officer’s body goes blurry, then sharpens again.

Know what book it is? Here’s some more hints if you don’t know…

Still have no idea? Here’s some great pictures of books to look at while you consider it…

Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Legendborn by Tracy Deonn!!

(Didja guess it?)

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

SERIES: The Legendborn Cycle #1

LENGTH: 501 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Margaret K. McElderry Books

RELEASE DATE: 15 September 2020

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus. 

A flying demon feeding on human energies. 

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down. 

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw. 

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates. 

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an great day/night!

See ya ~Mar