Flame Kissed (Seeking The Dragon - Book One) by Alexis Radcliff: Book Review

On a romantic night at a ski lodge, 17 year-old Ella Denton has the perfect opportunity to finally confess her feelings to her long-time crush, Nick Gauss, before she goes off to college. But before she has the chance, everything goes horribly wrong: Ella is kidnapped by a mysterious grinning monster-man to the heart of the Ether-Realm, a magical land with a strange red sky at the nexus of all possible worlds. She is placed in chains and taken to a golden city ruled by the dark and brooding dragon prince, Kaden Kolrath, and told that she is now his slave. 

It seems her fate is now to be lost forever in a strange land far from home, never to return to Nick or her family back home in Havery Falls. That is, until Ella discovers she carries a mysterious spark of power… a spark that could change everything, forever. 

Flame Kissed is the first book in Alexis Radcliff’s exciting new fantasy romance serial, Seeking the Dragon. It’s a short, 15,000-word novella perfect to knock out in a single, quiet evening, and one of five total episodes.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

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I was pretty blown away when I ended up reading this all at once within an hour and felt almost compelled to read the next instalment. I don't usually get offers to read novellas as short as this but I was super pumped to have an opportunity to try something new, but it turned out to be a blissfully short experience and a great way to shove anyone out of a reading slump with a super relatable character and a beautifully crafted world filled with magic, golden cities, and brooding dragon princes.

"The golden city covered by an ethereal, translucent dome stretched out below us, with an enormous, sparkling castle at the center. The castle had seven towers, each taller than the next, and the largest of them rose up in the middle. Delicate bridges with intricate designs connected them in a spiral pattern, and the light shimmered across the surface of it all."

Ella Denton (another reason I thought the main character was absolutely awesome - I never come across people or characters who have the same name as me) is like any other teenage girl who is about to go off to college but first decides that confessing her love to her crush, Nick Gauss, is more than a good idea. She seems to be quite close to her adopted sister, Katie, as she once was with her real sister, Fiona, before her whole family was killed in the flames of a house fire. Ella miraculously survived and was thrusted into the care of another family where she took awhile to accept the truth of her real family's fate. Flames have always intimidated Ella and despite her constant attempts to avoid it, they come surging for her when she least expects them too.

The whole layout of the story was perfectly done, along with the story of how she came to be where she is and why she is such an introverted person who would rather stay home and play the piano than go out to a party with her adopted sister. The pace gave enough to catch on to important details and was fast enough that you don't get bored while waiting for the good bits - this is me saying that basically everything is the good bits, even before she is whisked away to a world of enslavement and magical dragon princes with bad attitudes and responsibility issues.

"I can still remember the terror I felt when I wondered what she meant by “whatever happens,” but before I could give her an answer, she’d slipped through the doorway and closed it behind her. That was the last time I ever saw my sister."

I have given this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars because I loved it enough to really want to read the next instalment, Flame Bound, but it just fell slightly flat of an amazing read. I feel that continuing on with the series will help me raise that impression to a full 5 stars. I also hope that the series will be printed one day so that I can put them all on my shelf - it's always awesome to imagine what could be of a series with such potential!

*I received a free electronic copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you Alexis Radcliff for the review copy!

Go add Flame Kissed to your Goodreads list HERE

Go buy it on Amazon HERE

Check out the sequel Flame Bound on Goodreads HERE and Amazon HERE
Check out Alexis' debut novel A Vanishing Glow on Goodreads HERE and Amazon HERE

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Unrivalled by Alyson Noel: Book Review

Everyone wants to be someone.

Layla Harrison wants to leave her beach-bum days for digs behind a reporter’s desk. Aster Amirpour wants to scream at the next casting director who tells her “we need ethnic but not your kind of ethnic.” Tommy Phillips dreams of buying a twelve-string guitar and using it to shred his way back into his famous absentee dad’s life.

But Madison Brooks took destiny and made it her bitch a long time ago.

She’s Hollywood’s hottest starlet, and the things she did to become the name on everyone’s lips are merely a stain on the pavement, ground beneath her Louboutin heel.

That is, until Layla, Aster, and Tommy find themselves with a VIP invite to the glamorous and gritty world of Los Angeles’s nightlife and lured into a high-stakes competition where Madison Brooks is the target. Just as their hopes begin to gleam like stars through the California smog, Madison Brooks goes missing. . . . And all of their hopes are blacked out in the haze of their lies.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

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I went into this novel thinking it would be another type of Gossip Girl novel and that's the main reason I was aching to read it so bad. However, that did not prepare me for how gripping and entertaining the characters and plot line would be! This was completely it's own story and it didn't replicate GG in the slightest! New scene (Los Angeles), diverse characters, and a whole new way of seeing the rich and famous will have you pining to read more and more and MORE! I haven't read much of Alyson Noel but I can tell you now that I definitely plan on it!

The story starts off with pretty, little, innocent, Madison Brooks who is currently living it up in her dream life with a perfect acting job, a perfect-ish boyfriend and a perfect cover for her past. It isn't until three little nobodies by the names of Layla Harrison, Aster Amipour and Tommy Phillips who start to make things go terribly wrong for Madison, and it's all because of a competition where she's the golden trophy that everyone wants. Her boyfriend, Ryan Hawthorne obviously manages to get himself caught up in this mess which is where things get pretty interesting and steamy. The multiple point of views give you a 360 angle of everyone's lives so that you get to know each and every one of these fame suckers and their reasons for intertwining themselves in a dodgy LA nightclub promotional competition with the infamous Ira Redman. Unfortunately, no one trusts this guy but everyone is desperate for something and this gig seems to be the only way out for most of the contestants. Every character in this novel has a distinct reason for needing this competition which makes it so much more of a riveting read. Something about all the gossip, lies and greed seems to weave its way into your mind and tug at it so much that you just don't want to put it down! To be fully honest, I was a little confused at the end about how it had ended. Although this was the case, I thought about it a little more after I had finished and then I finally put all the pieces together as if I were a character myself trying to realise the culprit. This novel will definitely send you on a journey through the planning and scheming just so that one person can be on top - whether it be for money, fame or ego.

Things I LOVED about Unrivalled!:

* Being a blogger, I absolutely craved the idea of Layla Harrison being a gossip-junkie! She starts her own blog called, Beautiful Idols where she posts latest news about celebrity downfalls so that she can try use the revenue to live off in New York where she hopes to study. Having grown up admiring the anonymous bloggers in movies writing about gossip or just their basic everyday lives to give guidance to others, this part definitely hit me in the feels!

* In my mind, I pictured Madison as Blair Waldorf, Layla as Serena Van Der Woodsen, Aster as Vanessa Abrams and Tommy as Dan Humphrey. Disagree? Well it doesn't make it any less of a read. It just excites me because I'm currently marathoning GG on Netflix and I just can't seem to get it out of my head.

* Could the drama have gotten any more heated? I couldn't bear to put the book down at certain points! And the ending! God help me if I have to wait another whole year for the sequel! More GG on Netflix? I think so!

* The nightclub promoting competition was more than lit and I want to know if this happens in real life! If anything could get more catty than two girls and a guy trying to win a competition by using the hottest stars in LA to beat each other, it would be a high school or college with pretty similar personas in New York. Don't tell me you aren't itching to read another contemporary novel like this one.

* Like I haven't been able to stop mentioning (probably because I'm obsessed all over again), it's bringing the Gossip Girl world back with more heat and game so you better get out your glitter headbands and pick a spot on the Walk of Fame to sit because it's about to bring the hate-game to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL!

So if you just need that new type of gossip based drama novel or you just want a good read in general that you won't put down (unless you have to of course) then pick up Unrivalled and I promise you that you will not be disappointed! I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars!

Thank you HarperCollins New Zealand for the review copy! Go like their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Harpercollinsnz

Go add Unrivalled to your Goodreads list HERE

Go buy it on MightyApe with 1 day delivery in New Zealand HERE

Buy it on Book Depository with free shipping world wide HERE

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Passenger by Alexandra Bracken Book Review

Passage, n.

i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.

ii. A journey by water; a voyage.

iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

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Knowing about the hype this book had, I went into reading it with utterly high expectations. I had requested it specifically because I had heard how much everyone loved it and were recommending it. Unfortunately it did not have the same effect for me and I think having those expectations too high at the start may have been the reason I expected too much from it. Aside from the fact, it was a good book and I did want to keep reading. Maybe reading Desolation prior to this put me in a reading slump so maybe that's why I didn't seem to enjoy this book as much as I wanted to.

The main character, Etta Spencer, seemed like a typical girl who had a passion for a musical instrument, just like anyone else would. I loved how all she wanted to do was be the best she could be and how she found the beauty in playing - the way she could lose herself in the music and forget about the audience. As lovely as it is to see a character enjoy a normal hobby, this was definitely short-lived due to the unfortunate event of her being thrust into this new world without knowledge and then finding out later that it was her instrument that kick-started the action. I felt like she didn't have an amazing character development and the fact that she let herself be distracted by her love interest when she is meant to be trying to save the world (a constant trope that seems to be never-ending) was a bit of an annoying thing while reading. Yeah, the romance was cute and might have kept the storyline alive a little bit more, but that was what bothered me. I was hoping to see more action left with way more dramatic cliff-hangers and deaths (Sarah J Maas has seemingly set my bar way too high). Nicholas seemed like a real person, the way he spoke, acted and made decisions. He was more focused on the idea of getting what he wanted in terms of being free and that seemed to enhance the plot thankfully. I had really high hopes for Sophia but she just ruined her chances of being a likeable character - however she could possibly redeem herself in the next book.

I really loved the way the plot was laid out and the idea of time-travel through portals. There aren't many books like this and that's what I did like out of everything. I feel like time-travel is a difficult thing to write about without being too unrealistic or illogical and Alexandra did a on-point job of making it feel like it could be something that would make sense in the real world. However I had a hard time picturing what certain objects looked like, maybe because I was skipping through the book due to my inability to focus or maybe because it just wasn't really described that well. I have to say that I did enjoy it to a point which helped me continue reading and left me feeling like I wanted to see how the story continues in the next instalment. Having different families being against each other and wanting revenge sort of reminded me of the Game of Thrones series (bear in mind I have only seen the TV show but am planning on reading the books at some point). I haven't read Alexandra's other series, The Darkest Minds but I do want to try it out at some point.

My overall opinion of Passenger is that I did like it, but not enough to consider it one of my favourites. I'm hoping the sequel is better because that might be the turning point of the series and determine whether or not I might actually feel like fully recommending the series. Etta wasn't the type of heroine I was really rooting for and for me that's a big thing when it comes to enjoying a book. I feel like everyone is different and personally I am quite fussy with what I read. A LOT of people did love it and I think that you should just pick up the book and see if it suits your personal preference of literature. I gave this book a 2.5 out of 5 stars!

Things I loved about Passenger!:

* The chemistry between Etta and Nicholas was really cute! However the fact that there was a major instalove trope made me feel a bit off about the whole relationship.

* The book is all about time-travel with the pro's and con's that come with it. The way it was explained was really well done and I think it could potentially have an amazing sequel if written well, if not better!

* Etta has a hobby of playing the violin which weaves in with the main plot which I absolutely love! It has a purpose and isn't left to be something that is put to the side because of the character's quest and responsibilities.

Thank you HarperCollins New Zealand for the review copy! Go like their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Harpercollinsnz?fref=ts

Go add Passenger to your Goodreads list HERE

Go buy it on MightyApe with 1 day delivery in New Zealand HERE

Buy it on Book Depository with free shipping world wide HERE

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http://ellafleming-christie.weebly.com

My YouTube Channel: FeathersandFaith