FRIDAY STARS – Your Weekly Must Knows 02/19/16

FRIDAY STARS – Your Weekly Must Knows 02/19/16

Happy Friday! Below you will find:
What we just finished and loved!  We had an amazing last week with four 5 Star books!
What we are planning to read next.
Upcoming releases, in the next week, that we are extremely excited about!
And of course the latest sales and freebies, which we have either read or have on our to-read lists.

♥ Enjoy!

Just Finished and Loved:

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson5 Stars! This is, my friends – without any doubt – the most unexpected and remarkable book I’ve read this year (and the year before, if I’m being honest), soothing and yet poignant at the same time.  Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button.  Only he isn’t sure he wants to.  After all, life hasn’t been great for Henry. His mom is a struggling waitress held together by a thin layer of cigarette smoke. His brother is a jobless dropout who just knocked someone up. His grandmother is slowly losing herself to Alzheimer’s. And Henry is still dealing with the grief of his boyfriend’s suicide last year.  Wiping the slate clean sounds like a pretty good choice to him.  But Henry is a scientist first, and facing the question thoroughly and logically, he begins to look for pros and cons: in the bully who is his perpetual one-night stand, in the best friend who betrayed him, in the brilliant and mysterious boy who walked into the wrong class. Weighing the pain and the joy that surrounds him, Henry is left with the ultimate choice: push the button and save the planet and everyone on it…or let the world—and his pain—be destroyed forever.  Anna’s Review

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Morning Star (Red Rising Trilogy #3) by Pierce Brown 5 Stars!  Very few series keep my attention from beginning to end. Very few series are good enough for me to say, ‘I wouldn’t change a thing’. But this is probably one of the first and only series where I said just that.  The final book in the trilogy! In the first book, Red Rising, Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.   But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.   Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power.  He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.  Chelsea’s Review

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Glass Sword (Red Queen #2) by Victoria Aveyard 5 Stars! I did really love the first, and it might even be my favorite, even if my ratings don’t reflect it, but there was just something special about this book that took my breath away. I don’t know. I’m a sucker for a forbidden and tortured romance…but what does everyone else think???  In the first book, Red Queen, Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.  To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.  Chelsea’s Review

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The Power (Titan #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout 5 Stars! The Power captured my heart all over again. It was hilarious, heartwarming, sexy and extremely addicting. Seth and Josie’s story is a must read for all paranormal lovers out there!  In the first book, The Return, The Fates are cackling their bony asses off…  It’s been a year since Seth made the deal with the gods that pledged his life to them. And so far, the jobs they’ve given him have been violent and bloody–which is kind of all right with him. But now Apollo has something else in mind for Seth. He’s got to play protector while keeping his hands and fingers off, and for someone who really has a problem with restraint, this new assignment might be the most challenging yet.  Josie has no idea what this crazy hot guy’s deal might be, but it’s a good bet that his arrival means the new life she started after leaving home is about to be thrown into an Olympian-sized blender turned up to puree. Either Josie is going insane or a nightmare straight out of ancient myth is gunning for her.  But it might be the unlikely attraction simmering between her and the golden-eyed, secret-keeping Seth that may prove to be the most dangerous thing of all.  Because history has once again been flipped to repeat. Jen’s Review

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Our Other Reviews:

4 Stars:
Lion Heart (Scarlet #3) by A.C. Gaughen Jen’s Review

We also had a Top Ten Tuesday post about Theme Songs for Books We Love! If you missed it, check it out here.

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Reading Next:

Calamity (Reckoners #3) by Brandon Sanderson – In the first book, Steelheart, How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father?  If someone destroyed your city?  If everything you ever loved was taken from you?  David Charleston will go to any lengths to stop Steelheart. But to exact revenge in Steelheart’s world, David will need the Reckoners—a shadowy group of rebels bent on maintaining justice.  And it turns out that the Reckoners might just need David too.  Look for book two in the Reckoners series, Firefight, available now.

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The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury – When Aladdin discovers Zahra’s jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn’t seen in hundreds of years — a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra’s very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes. 

  But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart?   As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of Aladdin from acclaimed author Jessica Khoury.

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Upcoming Releases:

The Power (Titan #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Releases 2/23) – In the first book, The Return, The Fates are cackling their bony asses off…  It’s been a year since Seth made the deal with the gods that pledged his life to them. And so far, the jobs they’ve given him have been violent and bloody–which is kind of all right with him. But now Apollo has something else in mind for Seth. He’s got to play protector while keeping his hands and fingers off, and for someone who really has a problem with restraint, this new assignment might be the most challenging yet.  Josie has no idea what this crazy hot guy’s deal might be, but it’s a good bet that his arrival means the new life she started after leaving home is about to be thrown into an Olympian-sized blender turned up to puree. Either Josie is going insane or a nightmare straight out of ancient myth is gunning for her.  But it might be the unlikely attraction simmering between her and the golden-eyed, secret-keeping Seth that may prove to be the most dangerous thing of all.  Because history has once again been flipped to repeat. Jen’s 5 Star Review

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A Gathering of Shadows (A Darker Shade of Magic #2) by V.E. Schwab (Releases 2/23) – In the first book, A Darker Shade of Magic, Kell is one of the last Travelers—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes—as such, he can choose where he lands.  There’s Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, ruled by a mad King George. Then there’s Red London, where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne—a place where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London…but no one speaks of that now.Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see—a dangerous hobby, and one that has set him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations, first robs him, then saves him from a dangerous enemy, and then forces him to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.  But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive—and that is proving trickier than they hoped.

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The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire #1) by C.J. Redwine (Releases 2/23) – Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.  In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic of his own—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman—and bring her Lorelai’s heart.  But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.

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Titans by Victoria Scott (Releases 2/23) – Ever since the Titans appeared in her Detroit neighborhood, Astrid Sullivan’s world has revolved around the mechanical horses. It’s not just the thrill of the race. It’s the engineering of the horses themselves and the way they’re programmed to seem so lifelike. The Titans are everything that fascinates Astrid, and nothing she’ll ever touch.  She hates them a little, too. Her dad lost everything betting on the Titans. And the races are a reminder of the gap between the rich jockeys who can afford the expensive machines and the working class friends and neighbors of Astrid’s who wager on them.  But when Astrid’s offered a chance to enter an early model Titan in this year’s derby, well, she decides to risk it all. Because for a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, it’s more than a chance at fame or money. Betting on herself is the only way she can see to hang on to everyone in the world she cares about.

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The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury (Releases 2/23) – When Aladdin discovers Zahra’s jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn’t seen in hundreds of years — a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra’s very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes. 

  But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart?   As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of Aladdin from acclaimed author Jessica Khoury.


Check out our list of upcoming releases that we can’t wait for → Click Here

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Sales:

$0.99


5 Stars!
Jen’s Review
Chelsea’s Review

5 Stars!
Jen’s Review
Chelsea’s Review

4 Stars!
Laura’s Review

$1.99


New Sale   5 Stars!
Jen’s Review

New Sale

4.5 Stars!
Jen’s Review

4.5 Stars!
Jen’s Review

4.5 Stars!
Jen’s Review

4 Stars!
Chelsea’s Review

4.5 Stars!
Jen’s Review
Chelsea’s Review

5 Stars
Jen’s Review
Chelsea’s Review

5 Stars
Jen’s Review

5 Stars!
Chelsea’s Review

4.5 Stars!
Anna’s Review

4.5 Stars!
Chelsea’s Review

Chelsea’s Review

$2.99


4.5 Stars!
Chelsea’s Review

5 Stars!
Anna’s Review
Jen’s Review
Chelsea’s Review

4.5 Stars!
Chelsea’s Review
 
$3.99+

4.5 Stars!
Chelsea’s Review

5 Stars!
Chelsea’s Review
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Freebies

4 Stars!
Anna’s Review

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2 Comments

  1. Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

    Wow! Lots of 5 star reads for you guys! I can’t wait to read Glass Sword!
    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction recently posted…Can Book Blogging Lead to a Job? Let’s Discuss!My Profile

    • Jen

      It was such a great week! I still need to read the 1st book and meet Mare and Cal in Red Queen. But have fun when you do have time to pickup Glass Sword!

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