Time To Share The Love! || Mardan’s Mark Book Review

Hello Readers!

So I am finally back on track with my blogging as you can see and I am so excited to finally be back on track. ( Wooh!) Now, quickly before I jump into this review I want to mention my two, brand new linkups I have! One on Antagonists and the other on Story Worlds. You can check them out by clicking on the ‘Link Ups’ Page I have up 🙂 Now! On with this book review, because I am SUPER excited for this one!

Epic cover, am I right?

 

Srilani is second in line to the throne, and she’s always known what is expected of a princess — bring honor to her family and marry well. Aldan has been a pirate’s slave for as long as he can remember, and all he wants is to be free. The Twin Kingdoms have been sister nations for centuries, but now their unity and existence are threatened by enemies both inside and outside their borders.

After pirates abduct Srilani and her three siblings, they are stranded behind enemy lines and across the Great Gulf. As the eldest, Srilani is faced with the dangerous task of bringing her father’s heir home. She convinces Aldan and his two fellow slaves to share their journey to freedom. These unlikely allies — seven young captives — must defeat the web of lies, murder, and betrayal tearing the kingdoms apart.

 

I loved this book so much! It was a beautifully written and engaging book. At the beginning I felt a little lost because for some reason I didn’t make some sort of connection or something but that was quickly fixed because I simply realized a little mix up and confusion on my end. (Oopsie 😛 ) but anyways my own mistake aside I loved this book so much and you simply must go read it right now! I demand you do! Already I have probably talked a million peoples ears off about the amazing-ness of this book, and now its your turn! haha 🙂

The plot was amazing and beautiful and I loved it! Royal children kidnapped by pirates and they end up escaping by the help of three slaves aboard the ship and then the whole adventure begins! It was beautifully written and so well done! Eeep! Loved it so much!

Sorry not sorry… I just had to.

 

Lots of shipping happened on my end for this book (I love ship-able characters! Its my favorite!) and the characters! Oh the characters how I just loved them all! There may or may not have been a fictional crush or two developed in the readings of this novel…But when isn’t there? I mean really. This is me we are talking about. Anyways. I loved the characters. I don’t really know who was my favourite. I loved all the characters for so many reasons… The twins were just plain old adorable and I loved them very very much!  Srilani was an absolutely wonderful character. I really loved her character development. To start off she seemed very arrogant and very…well princess-y? But that didn’t last long. She proved that there was more to her that meets the eye. And as the story went on you came to realize more and more how much this tough cookie was hiding behind a mask and really it just broke my heart. The poor girl. I just wanted to give her a big teddy bear hug!

Rene was also such a great character. Very unlike her sister in way’s that she didn’t pick as many fights and was definitely more timid but boy, did she prove she could be just as protective and tough as her old sister too. Those moments were the best.

As for Aldan, Sam and Linus. I love them all! They were awesome. All three very different personalities (Yet they all shared a similar stubbornness trait XD ) I don’t even know where the begin I loved them all. Linus was a very quiet character and at points you would forget he was there. He was more of a listener than anything really. Often times Linus would use that to his advantage and sneak off to do something or whatever so I mean I guess that works too. As for Aldan, I loved him! ( I very much pictured Aidan Turner playing him in a movie adaptation) Definite fictional crush developing there…and oh my word! I ship him with another character so hard! (I’m not gonna say who. Heehee) the same goes with shipping Sam with another character! Sam was a great character too. He liked to pick fights with Srilani a fair bit but it was always amusing heehee.

Basically though, when it came to all the characters and all they went through and suffered (and all the shipping feels) this one GIF basically describes it. (I will warn you. GIF usage may or may not increase in the future)

So, what is my rating of this book? 5 stars…I don’t think I will ever be capable of doing a rating any lower than 4 stars…I fear that if I keep rating things 5 stars people will not trust my reviews…That does worry me, but its alright I suppose. If you don’t trust me and read these books then you are missing out 😉

Anyways! 5 shiny stars! I was thinking about 4.75 stars just because of the feels-y cliffhanger but I just decided on 5…

 

 

 

Meet the author!

Texas author, Kathrese McKee, writes epic adventures for young adults and anyone else who enjoys pirates and princesses combined with life’s difficult questions. She is committed to exciting stories, appropriate content, and quality craftsmanship.

Mardan’s Mark is the award-winning first book in the Mardan’s Mark series.

Once upon a time, Kathrese worked as a systems engineer for EDS and various oil and gas companies. Then, she taught Reading and ESL at the middle school level. These days, she edits fiction, home schools her children, and turns a blind eye to the feral dust bunnies lurking beneath her desk.

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Descending by Holly Kelly

Hello Readers!

I am FINALLY back on track here and got a book review for you…It was supposed to be a review by the Maze Runner….but this book was sitting there in my Kindle too and I wanted to read it again so yeah…that happened. Forget Harry Potter and the Maze runner haha. Sorry, but in my book ANYTHING to do with mermaids or the like I’m sold and that may or may not take higher priority so…yeah. Let’s get this review started. Though I will say that I finished this book on the 5 hours car trip this weekend to my final destination but I did start Maze Runner on the trip home…but This one is still higher priority…Juuuuuuust sayin!

 

So a while ago, I did a review of the fist book in this series called ‘Rising’ (Which you can get on Kindle for FREE) and you can check out my review of the first book HERE. So, with that said lets get started on this review. *bounces up and down in excitement*

 

Isn’t the cover so pretty?!

 

 

When Xanthus cashes in a long-standing favor, Kyros is faced with doing two things he thought he’d never do—protect a mermaid and live on land. Dagonians loathe mermaids and Sara, Xanthus’s wife, is no exception. Also, a Dagonian standing on human legs? It’s just not natural!

As if being around the vile creatures responsible for polluting his home and killing his sister wasn’t horrible enough, Kyros has to deal with Sara’s troublesome human friend, Gretchen. This spunky human tries his patience and makes him feel things he shouldn’t be feeling—least of all for a land-walker! When Gretchen’s life is threatened, he is forced to become her protector. But there are two problems. First, how can he fight his attraction to her when he must keep her close? And second, when a mermaid wants you dead, no one can be trusted. Not even the ones you love.

 

Plot: So, this is my second time reading this book. (I read it right after I read the first one but I just didn’t review it when it was fresh in my mind..) You all know the reason why I read it again over the other two I planned to read this weekend but I really didn’t care. This book is beautiful. Anyways. Plot. Loved it! With both books the plot has been very unique, engaging and absolutely amazing! Holly Kelly did I great job with it and avoiding cliches (which can easily happen in books including mermaids or more common fantasy creatures.) But this was brilliantly done and unique! Absolutely loved it!

So much action, adventure and romance *giggles like a little school girl*

 

Genre: Most definitely Fantasy and Romance…Even better the best part about it is that the romance is clean too! *resists urge to happy dance* It is so hard to find things that are clean in fiction over all but especially when it comes to romance 😛 So yeah…

 

Characters: Wooh! This is my favourite part of the review! We once again see Sara and Xanthus in this novel but on top of those two characters (who I LOVE) We have a cast of new, main characters, who are absolutely amazing…and can we talk about these amazingly awesome guys in this book….First I loved Xanthus and now Kyros? Oh my goodness… *dies* why are they so amazing? How can one fall so hard for book characters? Like what…? (I still don’t understand the fangirl life I live sometimes…) Anyways, Besides that, I was also so glad to see Gretchen playing a more main role in this novel too!

 

Gretchen: So, as I just said, I was so excited to have her in more of a main role in this novel 🙂 I loved her character in Rising so seeing her take a main role in this one. Super exciting! I love Gretchen. She’s got quite a temper, she’s sassy, sarcastic, driven and rather stubborn. Her stubborness makes things a little difficult at points but that, my friends, is the fun of it! Gretchen is definitely awesome and one of my favourites thats for sure 🙂

 

Aella: Meet the mermaid baddie of the novel. (and unlike with Rising I actually remembered the antagonists name…) She’s cruel, violent, a murderer and just all around evil…Oh! Did I mention she’s got a few thousand years of killing people under her belt.. So yeah, all around evil and a psychopath, y’all. A psychopath who is out to kill Gretchen *dramatic music*

 

Kyros: Kyros is Xanthus’s Dagonian friend who, along with 3 others, is assigned with the task of protecting Gretchen…On land. Kyros started out as very cold, standoffish and just plain old grumpy to be honest. I loved his character (and the relationship between he and Gretchen *squeals* ) and even though he started off really grumpy and a little harsh, his grouchy protectiveness kinda grows on ya. Like a lot…Don’t say I didn’t warn you that you may (its very likely) get a fictional crush on this guy!

 

Okay. Pausing the Character section of the review for a moment…well kind of. Before I move on to the last couple characters, I wanna point out something I found amusing. There were multiple times Gretchen and/or Sara would go out, escorted by multiple Dagonians and the author showed how basically everyone kind of just stared at these girls beings escorted by these giant men…and while reading this, in my head I’m just going: #mylife (okay maybe take away the hashtag but you get what I mean) *cough cough* My Dad is 6’4″, My Uncle is 6’8″ and my two cousins are both really tall dudes…(about 6’4″ to 6’5″ ish..) and my other uncle is like 6’5″ ish so you get my point… Some of my friends are even scared/intimidated by my Dad and Uncle (The one who is 6’8″) and I’m totally cool with it. But yeah…reading those scenes made me giggle just a bit 😛 (I mean the author never specified how tall these guys were in the novel so they could be taller than Six foot something but yeah… anyways. Back to the review of the characters!

 

Okay so, these last two characters we don’t see much of. (one of them is just a little child) but I am hoping that in the next novel (which I am almost dying waiting for) they will make a return and maybe be mentioned more.

First is Thane: Son of Thanatos (who is Death himself)** and a very important character of significance to this story! What is said significance? Well….

I tried to resist the urge of using a GIF but I couldn’t!

If you want to find out this characters significance, go read this book 😉 All I’m saying is that I hope to see more of this character later!

 

Donovan: Now this is the character who is just a baby…I mean it literally. But I feel like SOOOOOO many things could happen here with this little character thrown into the cast here. You hardly see any of this character except in the last couple chapters but I’m guessing here that this character could be significant later! (If not, whatever.. but still! I’m just so excited and making assumptions and guesses all over the place here!)

 

Now that that is done its time for my overall thoughts and rating of this book!

*drumroll*

…….

 

…….

 

…….

 

 

And 5 stars for me! I absolutely loved this novel to itty bitty little pieces! Such a well done book and an amazing read! Absolutely love it and cannot wait for the next book! ( I also REALLY want a movie series made of this book series. Like, you have NO idea how badly I want it!)

 

And that is it for my review of this wonderful book! Have you read this novel before? or Rising? Do you plan on reading them? (if you don’t I suggest you change your mind 😉 ) Is there any other novels you find amazing that have to do with mermaids and/or other fantasy creatures? 

Talk to me below my lovely readers! I love hearing from you! (and I reply to all comment 😉 )

Until Next Time!

Adriana Gabrielle

** like mentioned above these novels are linked with Greek Gods and many others hence Thane being the son of Death so…yeah 😛

 

Book Review- Rising by Holly Kelly

Hello Fellow Readers,

Do you know what time it is?

More book review time!!!! YAY!!!!

This is so far one of my new favourite series of books. LOVE it so much…as you will see as the post goes on.

That said…ON WITH THE POST!

In a war between the humans and the inhabitants of the sea—humans will lose. Xanthus Dimitriou—the most lethal Dagonian to rise from the ocean—is on a mission to save mankind from annihilation. But first there’s one small thing he needs to do… kill a beautiful young woman in a wheelchair.

Killing her doesn’t start out as part of his plan. He entrenches himself deep in the human world. Aligning himself with his enemies, he prepares to send them to Triton to face their punishment. Then Sara Taylor rolls onto the scene. Xanthus knows at once she’s a criminal. And her crime? Being born. She’s a human/Dagonian half-breed, an abomination. Killing her should be an easy job. All he has to do is break into her apartment, slit her throat, and feed her body to the sharks. Simple, right? Wrong. If only she weren’t so beautiful, so innocent, so sweet…

Saving the world may have to wait. It appears Xanthus has a woman to save. But protecting her may cost him his own life.

Plot: Oh my gosh. Where do I start?? I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOVED this whole novel and the plot was REALLY well written. Tons of plot twists and its own uniqueness. You’re probably thinking something like:

‘As if. It’s a mermaid story. So overdone.’

I was thinking the same thing when I looked at the synopsis on amazon but I got it for these 3 reasons.

1.) I LOVE Mermaids. End of story. So I automatically decided that even if it was the usual, cliche, mermaid story I was gonna read it.

2.) It was free on Amazon. Why not?

3.) I LOVE MERMAIDS…..Okay I already said that but seriously…and I guess the main characters aren’t ‘mermaids’ per say… They’re actually a relative of the mermaids called ‘Dagonians’ but either way.

Anyways. The plot was amazing, really unique, well written, and overall just awesome

Genre: Fantasy.

Well, as you all know by now I LOVE all things Fantasy and Sci-Fi. I really do. LOVE IT to itty-bitty pieces.

I also love the whole mythical creature aspect to Fantasy novels. My top 3 favourite fantasy creatures are:

1.) Mermaids/Sirens
2.) Centaurs
and 3.)Fauns/Saytrs

If the fantasy story has either one of these fantasy creatures I’m sold.

I would also maybe put it down as a Romance too?? Maybe…Okay, yeah. Probably XD Well….I don’t know. Lets just go with this:

It’s a Fantasy novel with Romance.

Done. Okay.

Moving on. 😛

Characters: Oh my goshness. We could be here a REALLY long time if I fangirl too much. So, I will try to keep it short.
Sara: Sara is the FMC of the story. Part of the story is told from her POV. (The other half from Xanthus’s) Sara is a tough cookie and I like her a lot. She keeps to herself most of the time and tends to stay home, doing her work from there. I mean, getting around in a wheelchair, by yourself is rather hard….and dangerous considering the area where she lives. She lives in the poor area of town where there are a lot of bad people hiding around every corner waiting to hurt you in some way. Anyways. Sara is one of my favourites. She has is a tough cookie when the situation calls for it (Hello, she used pepper spray on Xanthus XD ) but yet she’s not one of those leading female rolls that are always like: ‘I’m so awesome I don’t need anyones help’

Sara is a little like that at one point, though. She keeps claiming she doesn’t need help where, in quite a few ways, she does. No matter how much she denys it, she needs some help.

Anyways. I like her because she is a strong lead character but not one of those strong ‘I don’t need anyones help because I’m better than all of you’ characters.

Xanthus: Tee-hee-hee. Extreme fangirl time. *GRIN* I LOVE LOVE LOVED Xanthus as a character. He’s smart, caring, and very protective of Sara. (Like REALLY protective)

Xanthus is a Dragonian who was given the ability to turn human, by the sea god Triton, when on land so he could complete the mission given to him…Stop the humans, in any way possible, from polluting the water which is resulting in the death of millions of Dagonians.

Anyways….I LOVE Xanthus! One of my favourites. (I have a few new favourite charries in the second book too but yeah…)
Gretchen: Gretchen is Sara’s best friend. (who is playing a more major role in the second book of the series) She cares for her friend and tries to help her where she can. Gretchen is the kind of person you don’t want to tick off cause she can get quite angry and a little loud. I just loved her character a lot. She was one of my favourites. She is quite sassy and sarcastic and I love it!
Other Dagonian Dude Who’s Name I Currently Forget: Okay, okay. I know. Not helpful and terribly unprofessional. At all. But I can’t remember his name and he has made no appearance in the second novel (so far) so I am not reminded of it.

Anyways. this guy. (We’re just gonna call him ‘Guy’) is the antagonist of the story….and I hate him. Total stick in the mud, creepy and yeah..don’t like him.

Yucky.

Setting: Most of the story took place in Hawaii (where I have never been) and in the ocean, obviously… XD Anyways. I LOVED how well the setting was described. Everything was described so well that it felt like I was everywhere the characters were. It was awesome and really well done.

Other: This story is heavily influenced by Greek mythology (obviously) so if you don’t like the whole Greek God’s and Goddesses and stuff then I wouldn’t really suggest it.

Also, Some of the Dragonians say ‘Hades’ quite a bit. Considering that Hades is the God of the Underworld I think it is supposed to be used instead of ‘Hell’ (though there is a slight chance I’m wrong.)

Overall: Overall I LOVED this book. Both this book and ‘Decsending’ (book 2) were AMAZING and I was totally sucked into these stories. (Trust me. I was so into these novels that, multiple times, it would take my mom a couple minutes to get my attention 😛 )

Anyways. Overall I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. It was exactly what I expected and even more so. AMAZING book. LOVED it.

So thats it for this book review. I’ll post the link again HERE (in case you missed it above) where you can get the first book FREE.

Until Next Time!

Adriana Gabrielle