Saturday, December 31, 2016

Crown Review #23 - The Blazing Star

The Blazing Star - Imani Josey


Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Series: Standalone
Length: 286 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Thank You Wise Ink Creative Publishing and NetGalley for giving an eARC for an honest review.

Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Portia White is used to being overlooked—after all, her twin sister Alex is a literal genius.

But when Portia holds an Egyptian scarab beetle during history class, she takes center stage in a way she never expected: she faints. Upon waking, she is stronger, faster, and braver than before. And when she accidentally touches the scarab again?

She wakes up in ancient Egypt—her sister and an unwitting freshman in tow.

Great.

Mysterious and beautiful, Egypt is more than they could have ever imagined from their days in the classroom. History comes alive as the three teens realize that getting back to the present will be the most difficult thing they’ve ever done. Stalked by vicious monsters called Scorpions, every step in the right direction means a step closer to danger.

As Portia and the girls discover that they’re linked to the past by more than just chance, they have to decide what it truly means to be yourself, to love your sister, and to find your way home.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

TheCrownofBook's Top 10 End of the Year Books!


Happy New Year everyone! With the year coming to an end, I figured to share my overall Top 10 Books I have read this year as a wrap-up out of an overall 41 books I have read this year. (I figured this would be a lot of more entertaining and better overall instead of just posting 40 books.)
*My Reviews and Ratings did not impact my choices of the Top 10.

2016 Top 10 Books

Click to Find Out What Book Made the Top Choice!

Saturday, December 24, 2016

From CoB to You, Happy Holidays!


We would like to wish everyone a wonderful and safe Holiday from wherever they are! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Also, don't fret! More reviews are coming soon! I am taking the rest of the year to do some free reading of books that I wanted to complete before the New Year! The new reviews will come in the New Year! 

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Crown Review #22 - False Memory

False Memory - Dan Krokos


Rating: 2/5 Stars
Series: False Memory, #1
Length: 336 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Miranda wakes up alone on a park bench with no memory. In her panic, she releases a mysterious energy that incites pure terror in everyone around her. Except Peter, a boy who isn’t at all surprised by Miranda’s shocking ability.

Left with no choice but to trust this stranger, Miranda discovers she was trained to be a weapon and is part of an elite force of genetically-altered teens who possess flawless combat skills and powers strong enough to destroy a city. But adjusting to her old life isn’t easy—especially with Noah, the boyfriend she can’t remember loving.

Then Miranda uncovers a dark truth that sets her team on the run. Suddenly her past doesn’t seem to matter... when there may not be a future.

Dan Krokos’ debut is a tour-de-force of non-stop action that will leave readers begging for the next book in this bold and powerful new series.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Crown Review #21 - Snow Like Ashes

Snow Like Ashes - Sara Raasch


Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Series: Snow Like Ashes, #1
Length: 416 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Crown Review #20 - Steelheart

Steelheart - Brandon Sanderson 


Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Series: Reckoners, #1
Length: 384 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
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.







Sunday, November 20, 2016

Crown Review #19 - Alien Hunting

Alien Hunting - Safa Shaqsy


Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Series: Alien Busters, Part One
Length: 55 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

A copy was given in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Sara Shaqsy.

Synopsis:
Nathalie is an Alien Buster, who kills aliens in the Arkad city with her team. Devastated by her parents’ death on the field, as Alien Busters, she goes to work in the Alien Busters institute to carry their legacy. One day she is on the field with her team, while searching for aliens, she finds a baby alien on the field with no parents and she had one mission to accomplish. To the kill all alien kind. That one alien, leads her to form a forbidden friendship and her life changes forever.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Crown Review #18 - The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken


Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: The Darkest Minds, #1
Length: 488 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something frightening enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that had killed most of America’s children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they could not control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. She is on the run, desperate to find the only safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who have escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at having a life worth living.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Crown Review #17 - Girl of Nightmares

Girl of Nightmares - Kendare Blake


Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Anna, #2
Length: 332 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on. 

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.


Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

Monday, October 31, 2016

Crown Review #16 - Three Dark Crowns

Three Dark Crowns - Kendare Blake


Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Series: Three Dark Crowns, #1
Length: 398 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
When kingdom come, there will be one.

In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born—three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.

But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins.

The last queen standing gets the crown.

Crown Review #15 - Going Wild

Going Wild - Lisa McMann


Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Series: Going Wild, #1
Length: 384 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Charlie Wilde knew her life would change forever when her family moved from the city of Chicago to the suburbs of Arizona…and that was before she found the bracelet. After putting it on, she notices odd things start to happen. Suddenly Charlie seems to have the speed of a cheetah and the strength of an elephant—and that’s just the beginning. She would be thrilled about her transformation if she had any idea how to use the device or control her amazing powers. So Charlie is forced to put her trust in new friends to help her uncover the surprising truth behind the mysterious bracelet.





Crown Review #14 - Labyrinth Lost

Labyrinth Lost - Zoraida Cordova


Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Brooklyn Brujas, #1
Length: 336 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange markings on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…



Crown Review #13 - Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake


Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Anna, #1
Length: 320 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.

Crown Review #12 - UnDivided

UnDivided - Neal Shusterman


Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Unwind, #4
Length: 372 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Proactive Citizenry, the company that created Cam from the parts of unwound teens, has a plan: to mass produce rewound teens like Cam for military purposes. And below the surface of that horror lies another shocking level of intrigue: Proactive Citizenry has been suppressing technology that could make unwinding completely unnecessary. As Conner, Risa, and Lev uncover these startling secrets, enraged teens begin to march on Washington to demand justice and a better future.

But more trouble is brewing. Starkey’s group of storked teens is growing more powerful and militant with each new recruit. And if they have their way, they’ll burn the harvest camps to the ground and put every adult in them before a firing squad—which could destroy any chance America has for a peaceful future.

Crown Review #11 - Magonia

Magonia - Maria Dahvana Headley


Rating: 2/5 Stars
Series: Magonia, #1
Length: 309 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

*SPOILER ALERT
This review may have some spoilers! If you don't want to be spoiled, do not continue!

Synopsis:
Aza Ray is drowning in thin air. 

Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. 

So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. 

Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

Crown Review #10 - Pawn

Pawn - Aimee Carter


Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: The Blackcoat Rebellion, #1
Length: 270 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
A single test determined her entire future…until she was given a way out   

Kitty Doe had one chance to prove she could be worthwhile to society. Instead, she walked out of her ranking test as a complete failure, with a permanent "III" tattooed on the back of her neck. At seventeen, she's facing a lifetime of cleaning sewers…and being separated from Benjy, the boy she's loved for as long as she can remember. 

So when Kitty is offered a chance to escape her fate, it seems like an easy choice. If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked—surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family—a VII—she will be famous. And for the first time, she will matter. 

There's only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered, the same one that got her killed…and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that's not her own, she must learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she's only just beginning to understand.

Crown Review #9 - UnSouled

Unsouled - Neal Shusterman


Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Unwind, #3
Length: 432 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Connor and Lev are on the run after the destruction of the Graveyard, the last safe haven for AWOL Unwinds. But for the first time, they’re not just running away from something. This time, they’re running towards answers, in the form of a woman Proactive Citizenry has tried to erase from history itself. If they can find her, and learn why the shadowy figures behind unwinding are so afraid of her, they may discover the key to ending the unwinding process forever.

Cam, the rewound boy, is plotting to take down the organization that created him. He knows that if he can bring Proactive Citizenry to its knees, it will show Risa how he truly feels about her. And without Risa, Cam is having trouble remembering what it feels like to be human.

With the Juvenile Authority and vindictive parts pirates hunting them, their paths will converge explosively—and everyone will be changed.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Crown Review #8 - Pulse

Pulse - Patrick Carman


Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: Pulse, #1
Length: 371 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
In the year 2051, who has a pulse?

With the help of her mysterious classmate Dylan Gilmore, Faith Daniels discovers that she can move objects with her mind. This telekinetic ability is called a “pulse,” and Dylan has the talent, too.

In riveting action scenes, Faith demonstrates her ability to use her pulse against a group of telekinesis masters who are so powerful they can flatten their enemies by uprooting streetlights, throwing boulders, and changing the course of a hurtling hammer so that it becomes a deadly weapon. But even with her unusual talent, the mind--and the heart--can be difficult to control. If Faith wants to join forces with Dylan and save the world, she’ll have to harness the power of both.

Patrick Carman’s Pulse trilogy is a stunning and epic triumph about the power of the mind--and of love.

Crown Review #7 - Uprooted

Uprooted - Naomi Novik


Rating: 3.75/5 Stars
Series: Standalone
Length: 438 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Crown Review #6 - UnWholly

UnWholly - Neal Shusterman


Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Series: Unwind, #2
Length: 432 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simltaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question.
However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.

Cam is a product of unwinding; made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds, he is a teen who does not technically exist. A futuristic Frankenstein, Cam struggles with a search for identity and meaning and wonders if a rewound being can have a soul. And when the actions of a sadistic bounty hunter cause Cam’s fate to become inextricably bound with the fates of Connor, Risa, and Lev, he’ll have to question humanity itself.

Rife with action and suspense, this riveting companion to the perennially popular Unwind challenges assumptions about where life begins and ends—and what it means to live.

Crown Review #5 - The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey


Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: The 5th Wave, #1
Length: 457 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother-or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Crown Review #4 - Cinder

Cinder - Marissa Meyer


Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Series: The Lunar Chronicles, #1
Length: 395 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
 



Crown Review #3 - TimeRiders

TimeRiders - Alex Scarrow


Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Series: TimeRiders Series
Length: 425 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912.
Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010.
Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026.

Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand ...’

But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose—to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world..




Saturday, October 29, 2016

Crown Review #2 - Unwind

Unwind - Neal Shusterman


Rating: 6/5 Stars
Series: Unwind, #1
Length: 335 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

Crown Review #1 - Wake

Wake by Lisa McMann


Rating: 3.7/5 Stars
Series: Wake Series, #1
Length: 210 Pages
Purchase: [Amazon] | [Barnes & Noble]

Synopsis:
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.
She can't tell anybody about what she does they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can’t control.
Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant.