Source: NetGalley

Jun 12

Roar by Cora Carmack: Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Current Giveaways, Reviews 19 ★★★★★

This book is fantastic! Just plain fantastic. I’ve been meaning to try something by Cora Carmack for years because so many people rave about her New Adult books, but I just never quite got around to it. When I heard that she had a YA Fantasy coming out, I was immediately in. And I am SO glad I jumped onboard because this book was incredibly unique—lots of fantasy uses storm magic, but Carmack managed to come up with something fresh and new with this book. The storms are semi-sentient. And they are vicious. The only thing that keeps humanity alive is the existence of the Stormlings, who have magic themselves and are able fight back, sometimes dispersing the storms and sometimes capturing a stormheart and absorbing some of the storm’s magic. I adored Aurora (AKA Rora, AKA Roar), a princess who is desperate to hold onto her kingdom even though… Read more »

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Jun 05

Violet Grenade by Victoria Scott: Review, Giveaway & Scott’s Top 5 Writing Snack Attack Addictions

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Author Top Ten Lists, Current Giveaways, Reviews 26 ★★★★

Okay, here’s the deal: This book is seriously messed up! It kind of reminds me of a train wreck you can’t look away from—not because it’s bad, by any means, but because the characters and the situation are so incredibly, intensely broken and dark. What Fed My Addiction: Surreal contemporary? The book is interesting because I was never quite sure what I was reading. I assumed from the beginning that it was sort of a dark fantasy/paranormal story, but after a while I determined there weren’t really any fantastical or paranormal elements, with the possible exception of Wilson—who I couldn’t quite figure out. Yet, the book didn’t read like a contemporary exactly either. The story involves human trafficking, but the “houses” with their systems of pay and the way you would reach the next house—it all felt incredibly surreal, like a contemporary on crack or something. And I couldn’t tell if… Read more »

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May 30

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Names They Gave Us, The Crown’s Fate, Tell Me Three Things and We Were Liars

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 24

Today I’ve got bite-sized reviews of a few of my recent reads. This was a great batch of books, so I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book gave me all the feels and it was just what I needed right now. I’ve heard amazing things about Emery Lord, but I’ve never read her, and I have to confess that I was hesitant about this book because of the religious themes. Not because I don’t like religion in my books exactly, but because I’m always very nervous that Christianity is going to end up being slammed—it feels to me like contemporary books from non-Christian publishers tend to be skewed toward the idea that Christians are generally judgmental and possibly a little evil, so…. But I LOVED the progressive view of Christianity that was given in this book. It reminds us that Christians are not… Read more »

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May 19

The Truth About Happily Ever After by Karole Cozzo: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 14 ★★★★

Once again, Cozzo gives us a realistically romantic story of fairy tale proportions. A little note about the genre: The book is officially billed as YA, but the characters are all in college, so I think of it more as NA. I think it’s YA because there are no actual sex scenes (a few implied fade to black scenes) and it’s overall a sweet romance, appropriate for high schoolers, even younger ones (there is a bit of drinking with a fake ID, but nothing else that would be seen as particularly questionable). New Adult readers who want books that cover the college-aged experience and don’t focus on sex would find this to be a perfect match! What Fed My Addiction: Fairy tale setting. The book takes place at a Disneyesque theme park and it was really fun to read about the job and how the people who work there as characters feel about it… Read more »

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May 18

The Best Kind of Magic by Crystal Cestari: Review, Giveaway & Cestari’s Top Ten Addictions

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Author Top Ten Lists, Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 31 ★★★★½

I needed this book in my life right now. I was sort of feeling like I was in a reading slump, partially because I’ve just been busy and tired, and I really needed the sort of book that hooked me in and didn’t let go. This book kept me guessing about where exactly it was going and how things were going to work out, and that was perfect. I was wrapped up in Amber’s life and I loved every minute of it! What Fed My Addiction: Expectations. Amber feels like a disappointment to her mom and the rest of the magical community because she’s just a matchmaker—she feels like she constantly has to compensate for her lack of “real” magic and she struggles to prove herself to the magical community. Her mom holds coven meetings at their family magic shop, and while everyone is welcoming to her, she’s not allowed in on any… Read more »

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Apr 24

Letters to the Lost Review (AKA My Admiration for Brigid Kemmerer)

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 26 ★★★★½

I have read every single one of Brigid Kemmerer’s books, and I have not been disappointed yet. When I first read the description of this one, I was a little surprised to see that it’s a straight-up contemporary (considering that her Elementals Series is paranormal and she wrote so many of those). But as I read, I started to realize that I was falling in love with it for the same reasons that I fell in love with the Elementals books: her characters. Kemmerer writes characters that I can’t help but connect to, and whether she’s telling a contemporary story or a paranormal one, her books focus on the characters and what drives them—and, often, the pain behind their stories. Letters to the Lost is a beautiful example of this. What Fed My Addiction: Heartbreak. Honestly, if Declan and Juliet’s stories don’t tear you to pieces, you have to be made of… Read more »

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Apr 19

Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray: 5 Soaring Stars

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction All-Time Favorites, Reviews 34 ★★★★★

Defy the Stars is sci-fi at its very best—it’s exhilarating! What Fed My Addiction: Complex characters you’ll love! Noemi is the type of person you can’t help but root for. She’s a bit of an underdog—doomed from the start of the book to die, she’s accepted her fate. After all, she doesn’t feel like her life is worth much anyway. Her story is sad but compelling, and the first person to truly convince her of her intrinsic value is an android (with a soul, of course). Speaking of that android, Abel is fantastically complex. As the book progresses he realizes that he just might be “broken.” After all, he has thoughts and feelings outside of his programming. Ironically, Abel is one of the funniest characters in the book—his sarcasm and his sometimes misguided understanding of human emotions make him a fascinating character. I loved every minute of him! Action, pacing and worldbuilding. This… Read more »

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Apr 05

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Pain Eater, Just Another Girl and Toward a Secret Sky

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 12

Today I’ve got bite-sized reviews of two YA contemps and a YA paranormal I’ve recently received for review. Hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book is an incredibly painful read because of the traumatic events that Maddy has lived through (and continues to relive). Maddy has become a shell of herself ever since she was raped—she barely speaks, never makes eye contact, and causes herself physical pain in order to block out the emotional turmoil she’s constantly experiencing. She’s tried so hard to forget—but she can’t. The book follows Maddy’s emotional journey and healing, and her story is paired with a class project: a short story that the the class is writing together (each student writes a chapter) about a girl who is forced to “eat” (basically, endure) the pain of the people of her village. The parallels are obvious, and the story… Read more »

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Apr 03

The Dead Inside by Cyndy Etler: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 14 ★★★

I’m doing a bite-sized review of this book because it’s a hard book to review without feeling like I’m judging someone’s life or personal experiences. I had a bit of a hard time with the writing style at first, and there were parts of the book that were a little bit confusing (the timeline, for one—I thought it took place earlier than it did). This held me back from connecting to Cyndy early on. Still, I will say that it was hard to put this book down once I did connect with her a bit more—I felt like I needed to see that Cyndi survived her horrific circumstances. Simply because of Cyndy’s terrible experiences, this book was difficult to read and very disturbing (unfortunately, true stories often are). I actually think that some of the things that happened to Cyndy before she ever got to Straight were harder for me… Read more »

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Mar 29

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: Review

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 18 ★★★½

I really enjoyed this book, and it was beautifully written, but there were a few things that kept me from absolutely adoring it. I almost wrote a bite-sized review for this one, but then I decided I just couldn’t talk about it concisely enough for that because there were a lot of points that I wanted to talk about. My feelings about this book are complicated! What Fed My Addiction: Gorgeous writing. Sáenz has a way of putting emotion on paper (or, you know, digital screen) that that is utterly captivating and beautiful. If I were rating this book on writing alone, it would easily get five stars. I’m not great about highlighting quotes when I read, but for this book I just had to share a couple, so I headed over to Goodreads to find you a couple of examples of how Sáenz captures emotion so beautifully: “… one ordinary… Read more »

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