The Wizard's Promise by Cassandra Rose Clarke [ARC REVIEW]

TITLE: The Wizard's Promise
(The Hanna Duology #1)
AUTHOR: Cassandra Rose Clarke
PUB DATE: May 6 2014

All Hanna Euli wants is to become a proper witch – but unfortunately, she’s stuck as an apprentice to a grumpy fisherman. When their boat gets caught up in a mysterious storm and blown wildly off course, Hanna finds herself further away from home than she’s ever been before.

As she tries to get back, she learns there may be more to her apprentice master than she realized, especially when a mysterious, beautiful, and very non-human boy begins following her through the ocean, claiming that he needs Hanna’s help.

- Source: Goodreads

Rating:

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Welcome back to the world where a once great tale of a stubborn pirate, Ananna, and her assassin, Naji, came about. An adventure filled with wonders and dangers of a world so vast and breathtaking for two unlikely allies, who eventually turned into star crossed lovers; a story that had fan girls like me swooning and sighing over a simple, sweet ending.

Now, enter this world again to meet a new protagonist, Hanna, a simple apprentice to a secretive said-to-be fisherman. She gets a taste of an adventure she didn’t sign up for, with a mysterious boy trying to help her out, and with danger lurking in air, and eventually… NOTHING HAPPENS.

Wait… – WTF?!

I know. It was kind of annoying to reach the end of the book, and yet I have learned nothing of what was going on other than the basics.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That Made Me Swoon

Top Ten Books That Made Me Swoon

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a new Top Ten list  that bloggers are welcome to join in and answer. 

I absolutely love this topic!

I had my fair share of swoon moments over books in a variety of genres. I gushed, I squealed, I giggled and had my heart race over the sweet nothing exchanges of book couples I have learned to love over the course of their journeys and stories. So expect to see me cheat (a lot!) on this top ten.

I'm probably not going to make much sense if I divulge details so I'll add up some of my favorite quotes from the books instead.

Book Haul [30]

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My "Weekly Book Haul" is pretty much just like In My Mailbox by the Story Siren, This Week In Books by Pop Culture Junkie, and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews and all the other titles with the similar concept here and there. This is a weekly post showcasing the books you received for the given week, either bought online or from a physical bookstore, borrowed from the library or from a friend, received for review or won from a giveaway, etc.

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Hello there! How have you been?

Let's jump straight to the haul, shall we? :D

TITLES (in random order):

(bought from National Bookstore)
ARCHIE 1000 PAGE COMICS DIGEST by Archie Superstars
THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER by Megan Shepherd (read)

(arrived from the Book Depository)
SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman (read)
THE PIRATE'S WISH by Cassandra Rose Clarke (read and reviewed)
TIGER LILY by Jodi Lynn Anderson
LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins
SHUTDOWN by Heather Anastasiu (read and reviewed)

I sense a color palette thing going on with my haul this week... notice the reds, yellows, and oranges? Just saying. Not exactly important, pardon me. LOL.

I'm a little saddened by the cover of my copy of Lola and the Boy Next Door, the cover on my order was the former design it's the main reason I bought it from TBD (the ones sold locally in bookstores around my area only have the new cover design) but alas... this is what came in. :( I'm still excited to read it though.

How about you? What did you get this week?

Happy reading! And have a great weekend! ;)

The Pirate's Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke [ARC REVIEW]

TITLE: The Pirate's Wish
           (The Assassin's Curse #2)
AUTHOR: Cassandra Rose Clarke
PUBLISHER: Strange Chemistry
PUB DATE: Jun 4 2013

Summary from Goodreads:

"After setting out to break the curse that binds them together, the pirate Ananna and the assassin Naji find themselves stranded on an enchanted island in the north with nothing but a sword, their wits, and the secret to breaking the curse: complete three impossible tasks. With the help of their friend Marjani and a rather unusual ally, Ananna and Naji make their way south again, seeking what seems to be beyond their reach.

Unfortunately, Naji has enemies from the shadowy world known as the Mists, and Ananna must still face the repercussions of going up against the Pirate Confederation. Together, Naji and Ananna must break the curse, escape their enemies — and come to terms with their growing romantic attraction."

Rating:

Ananna and Naji just couldn’t catch a break, can they? It seems the curse brought upon Ananna saving Naji’s life during the events of The Assassin’s Curse has just made things more complicated than it already was...

In The Pirate’s Wish, we find our protagonists trapped on an island where no man dares to venture into. While waiting for help to arrive, Ananna and Naji are living off in a small shack not far from the wizard they visited recently who told them about the secrets to breaking the curse. As if Naji’s enemies from the Mists, and the Pirate Confederation on Ananna’s tail isn’t enough trouble for them, they come across a creature – a deadly, vicious, yet graceful manticore named Ongraygeeomryn (And no, I did not randomly press letters on my keyboard, nor did I just make that up, I swear that’s a name) to top it all off.

And if that wasn’t too much to handle already, we have Ananna and Naji’s relationship to add up to all the complications involved to breaking this damn curse. And have I mentioned how infuriating the personalities of these two are? And yet, I couldn’t deny how much fun it was to watch them tick off one another – Wow! What is wrong with me? Haha!

Book Haul [24]

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My "Weekly Book Haul" is pretty much just like In My Mailbox by the Story Siren, This Week In Books by Pop Culture Junkie, and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews and all the other titles with the similar concept here and there. This is a weekly post showcasing the books you received for the given week, either bought online or from a physical bookstore, borrowed from the library or from a friend, received for review or won from a giveaway, etc.

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Hello! It's been weeks since my last book haul post. I've been incredibly busy with work that I haven't bought anything recently. But here are the books that I had a few days ago:

TITLES:
REQUIEM by Lauren Oliver (Read and Reviewed)
CLOCKWORK PRINCESS by Cassandra Clare
THINGS I CAN'T FORGET by Miranda Kenneally (Read)
INK by Amanda Sun
THE COLLECTOR by Victoria Scott
THE PIRATE'S WISH by Cassandra Rose Clarke (Read)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? [2]

It's Monday! What are you reading? Is a meme by Sheila @ Book Journey. And I quote her: "This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!"

Hi! How have you all been? Wow, it has been such a busy week for me that I have a lot of pending reviews to write. I also wasn't able to post my Book Haul over the weekend so I'll probably do that this coming Saturday. Another thing, I haven't had time to go through my emails yet so if you've sent me something and I haven't responded, I am so sorry about that. I'll get to them as soon as I can. The good thing about this week though is that I was able to get a lot of reading time, or maybe I'm just in one of my moods that enabled me to finish a number of books recently. Either way - yehey! 

RECENT READ

              

TITLES:
THE PIRATE'S WISH by Cassandra Rose Clarke
WINGS by Aprilynne Pike
THE RULES by Stacey Kade
THINGS I CAN'T FORGET by Miranda Kenneally

Aside from those lovely books, I've also managed to finally finish the Splintered by A.G. Howard and Dualed by Elsie Chapman that I have long since passed my expected date of finishing them. Thank goodness! 

CURRENT READ

      

TITLES:

SIEGE AND STORM by Leigh Bardugo

THE DARKEST MINDS by Alexandra Bracken

8 Shades of Blue: Fall Giveaway [WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT]

Hello everyone!

It is November 8th and it is time to announce the winner for the 8 Shades of Blue: Fall Giveaway.

Before I do, I would like to thank everyone who participated, for the comments, for sharing. You guys made me so happy. *shows you a big smile*

Alright, I know you're all waiting to see who won so without further ado, here it is:

And the winner is...

Book Haul [15]

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My "Weekly Book Haul" is pretty much just like In My Mailbox by the Story Siren, This Week In Books by Pop Culture Junkie, and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews and all the other titles with the similar concept here and there. This is a weekly post showcasing the books you received for the given week, either bought online or from a physical bookstore, borrowed from the library or from a friend, received for review or won from a giveaway, etc.

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Hi, everyone! I got great books this week and I'm really excited to show them to you. So here we go:

Some stellar books arrived from the Book Depository this week. Weeee!

STEALING PARKER by Miranda Kenneally
THE ASSASSIN'S CURSE by Cassandra Rose Clarke (read and reviewed)
 ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND by Gena Showalter (currently reading)

8 Shades of Blue: Fall Giveaway

Hello everyone!

I'm here to host another giveaway here on The Blair Book Project. It's called the 8 Shades of Blue Fall Giveaway. Nope, this has nothing to do with Fifty Shades of Grey. Just putting it out there. LOL. But I have to admit the book did inspire me on the title.

Anyway, I'm giving you eight (8) books to choose from that are released/being released this fall, and following the theme of my last giveaway (2012 Debuts Red Giveaway), I decided to choose those with a shade of blue on the cover. Hence the name 8 Shades of Blue.

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke [ARC REVIEW]

The Assassin's Curse
(The Assassin's Curse #1)
by Cassandra Rose Clarke

 
Summary from Goodreads:

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her.

And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be."

Rating:

Protagonist Ananna of Tanarau is being tracked down by an assassin, sent by the scorned pirate clan of the her almost-husband, after jumping on a camel and running off, breaking the marriage agreement her parents have made for her without her consent.

Determined to become the captain of her own ship, this runaway bride tries her best to hide until she finds a way to live free and make her own decisions. But no one escapes the assassins...

Once Naju, the hired assassin finally catches up to her, Ananna accidentally releases a curse forcing them to stay together. As they struggle to find a way to break this curse, they come across life threatening events that compel them to work with each other even though they’d rather not...

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books on Your Fall TBR

Top Ten Books on your Fall TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a new Top Ten list  that bloggers are welcome to join in and answer. 

Hi there! How are you all? Hope you're having a good day today. Although the Philippines doesn't have an autumn season, I still packed with books to read for the coming months (that cover the season, I guess).

So here's what I plan to read for the given span of time:

(Arranged in the order of which I plan to read first 'til the last)

Book Haul [9]

I haven't thought of a name for a weekly meme of book hauls so let's just go with what's posted above.

For now, I'll call this the "Whatever it's called" Book Haul. It's only temporary, I swear. I just haven't thought of a clever name for it. So this is pretty much just like In My Mailbox by the Story Siren, This Week In Books by Pop Culture Junkie, and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews and all the other titles with the similar concept here and there. This is a weekly post showcasing the books you received for the given week, either bought online or from a physical bookstore, borrowed from the library or from a friend, received for review or won from a giveaway, etc.

Hello there! Nice to see you again.

Well, you know what this is about so let's get to it! I'm very excited about the books I have this week. Here they are:

BOUGHT:

(Arrived from the Book Depository)

ONCE by Anna Carey (Paperback)
GLOW by Amy Kathleen Ryan (Paperback)