Book Haul [34]

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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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Woah! It's been 4 months since my last Book Haul post? Boy, have I been neglectful. Sheesh! Sorry about that.
It's been kind of hard to find time to blog during the past few months and I'm only recently trying to catch up on all my book review backlogs, I didn't have enough time to post book hauls.

So, I'm making up for lost time. I'll be posting all the books I got since my last post by batch. Without further ado, here is the first batch:

BOOK HAUL BATCH 1

NETGALLEY TITLES

DIGITAL ARCs [TO READ]:

DEEP BLUE by Jennifer Donnelly

THE KISS OF DECEPTION by Mary E. Pearson

THE WIZARD'S PROMISE by Cassandra Rose Clarke

THE BREAK-UP ARTIST by Philip Siegel

THE GIRL WITH THE WINDUP HEART by Kady Cross

GRIMM FAIRY TALES: OZ by Joe Brusha

NIL by Lynne Matson

ALPHA GODDESS by Amalie Howard

GRIM edited by Christine Johnson

THE HUNT by Stacey Kade

Knight Assassin by Rima Jean [ARC REVIEW]

TITLE: Knight Assassin
AUTHOR: Rima Jean
PUBLISHER: Entangled Publishing
PUB DATE: Mar 4 2014

Seventeen-year-old Zayn has special powers she cannot control—powers that others fear and covet. Powers that cause the Templar Knights to burn Zayn’s mother at the stake for witchcraft. When a mysterious stranger tempts Zayn to become the first female member of the heretical Assassins, the chance to seek her revenge lures her in. She trains to harness her supernatural strength and agility, and then enters the King of Jerusalem's court in disguise with the assignment to assassinate Guy de Molay, her mother’s condemner. But once there, she discovers Earic Goodwin, the childhood friend who still holds her heart, among the knights—and his ocean-blue eyes don’t miss a thing. Will vengeance be worth the life of the one love she has left?

- Source: Goodreads

Rating:

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“It was all very simple. Her loyalties were with those who saw beyond their personal prejudices, who rose above self-righteousness and intolerance.”

I was mostly interested in Knight Assassin after reading on Netgalley that it was a “thrilling Grave Mercy meets Throne of Glass adventure...” I loved both when I read them and loved the second books belonging to their respective series, Dark Triumph and Crown of Midnight, even more. To be honest, I was apprehensive at first over reading that statement. Either it was a marketing strategy to get readers to give this book a shot; which mostly turns out to be just deceiving, or worse, a rip off of those. It wasn’t, thank goodness! I was being judgemental, I’m sorry. It’s not uncommon to be sceptical over such statements; some tend to oversell the books that readers having high expectations and being left disappointed in the end. Fortunately, Knight Assassin was able to live up to that. It has all the elements I’ve come to love from Grave Mercy and Throne of Glass: a kick-ass heroine with an empathizing past, a well thought-of storyline, an intriguing setting, action-packed fight scenes – all that awesomeness.

I wasn’t familiar with the events of the Crusades-era, other than snippets I snagged while trying out the Assassin’s Creed video games. Yes, I haven’t played the full games at all, I’m a horrible gamer. For the record, working in game design and animation doesn’t give you much playing time; unless you’re a game tester or critic but other than that, you wish! Anyway, being unacquainted with the historical events that Knight Assassin was based on did not hinder me from understanding and being drawn to Zayn’s story.