Esther's Ever After

The Cruel Prince Author: Holly Black Series:The Folk of the Air #1 Genre: Fantasy Young Adult Published: January 2, 2018 Source: Hardcover My Rating: 4/5 Stars  Purchase:   Kindle   I   Amazon Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever. And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe. Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her...

The Darkest Part of the Forest Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for. Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once. At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointy as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking. Until one day, he does… As the world turns upside down and a hero is needed to save them all, Hazel tries to remember her years spent pretending to be a k...

Firelight by Sophie Jordan Harper Teen, 2010 This book is smoldering hot! Jacinda is a fire-breathing draki, which means that she can manifest from her human form into a flame throwing fairy whenever she wants. When Jacinda takes a chance to go flying at night with her best friend, things turn to terror as draki hunters track them and try to kill them both. Jacinda hides in a cave and a handsome young man finds her, but does not give her away. In fear, Jacinda's mother decides to move away so that she and her sister Tamra can start a new life. As if you couldn't guess, Jacinda runs into the boy that saved her life and falls deeply and madly in love with him. This of course causes her great torment and pain because she knows that he and his family are draki hunters. Jordan does a fantastic job painting a colorful description of Jacinda's transformation into draki form and the smokin hot chemistry between her the adorable Will.

Since it's summertime I thought I would focus each week on different types of genres that are near and dear to my heart. The first genre I always seem to be drawn to is fantasy . As far back as I can remember I have loved to dive into fantasy books and immerse myself in made up lands and fairy tale characters. The greatest thing of all about fantasy is that it can be entirely made up and the writer's imagination can create so many twists and turns and there are so many different possibilities. My love for fantasy almost never breaks my heart, except for last week when I watching the HBO series Game of Thrones and one of my beloved favorite characters was executed. Well, that almost never happens in YA fantasy novels and you can usually be sure that your hero or heroine will survive even the most heinous villain or death and eventually make a come back from any horrible devastation. This week I will focus on YA fantasy novels that feature one of my favorite elements and th...