Owl Recommend (17)

Owl Recommend is a feature at Owl Read It where we try to help you find your next great read :)

 When I think of Faery books, these are always the two I immediately think of!  Both are awesome in their own right and have amazing characters.  I own both of these series and I am so glad I do.

T.G.I.F. (16)

Thank Great Illustrators Fridays is a book meme created and hosted by Owl Read It.

They say don't judge a book by it's cover, but a lot of the time the cover is what draws you to the book in the first place. This meme is to show appreciation to the artists who put their time and effort into creating the great book covers of our beloved series.

To Participate:

• Pick a book cover you love (any book will do - released or not)
• Post the picture of the book along with the author & publisher 
• Post a brief summary of why you like the cover. 
• Take the pic above and link back to us :)

This week's TGIF cover:

Dust

Author: Devon Ashley

Publication Date: September 18, 2012

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Genre: Fantasy

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Synopsis:

4. The number of times my delicate wings have been broken and clamped behind my back.

68. The number inked upon my skin, marking me the sixty-eighth pixie to be stolen.

87. The number of days I’ve been wrongfully imprisoned.

88. The first day the faeries will regret stealing me.

Healthy. Cheery. Vivacious. All traits Rosalie has before becoming enslaved by the faeries to make an endless supply of pixie dust. Now that Rosalie has been traumatized by slave labor, extreme desolate conditions and multiple deaths, this hardened pixie is anything but. When this rebellious teenager attempts an escape, she’s isolated in cramped quarters until she learns her place. Just as she begins to let go of all that hope, she finds an unlikely friend in Jack, the faerie assigned to guard her. Interspecies dating is forbidden in the fae world, so their growing attraction is unacceptable. And even if Jack can find a way to free her, they know the prison is the only place they can truly be together.

What a beautiful cover! I think it really captures fairies/pixies and the title is pretty awesome too. I picked this one on a whim and I am glad that I did, because I really want to read it based on the cover and description.

What are your favourite book covers? Leave us a link to your own T.G.I.F! :)

Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Iron King

Author: Julie Kagawa

Publication Date: February 1st, 2010

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Genre: YA/Fantasy/Romance

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Synopsis:

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined. Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home. When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change. But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

My Thoughts: After finished The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, I was really craving some more of her writing. I had this one sitting on my shelf waiting for me so it was a no-brainer what my next read would be. And now after reading this book, I have added Julie to my list of must-read authors. I gotta get more of her books and keep my eyes out for new ones.

There is no boring introduction, or slow start in this book. We start off right away getting emotionally punched in the gut by events that happened to the main character Meghan. And may I just say, doesn't she just have the coolest, best, name ever?! Ha, I was seriously excited when I seen we shared the same name. I see lots of Meghan's, but usually they don't have the "h".  Anyway, moving on. I was immediately drawn to Meghan. Right away I just wanted to be her friend, to comfort her, and to hug her. She has a sad family history, with the loss of her father at a young age. When her mom re-marries, the new guy is nice enough. But it seems like he forgets Meghan even exists half the time. If being invisible at home isn't enough, at school she is rejected and picked on brutally. Luckily, she isn't completely alone. She has a best friend named Robbie who I also liked right away. He is so jovial, optimistic, funny, and very supportive and kind to Meghan.  He also carries this mysterious quality. I could tell there was more we didn't know about him and I couldn't wait to find out what it was.

It wasn't long until all the fun began, and we found out just what Robbie was hiding from Meghan. From then on it's a non-stop roller-coaster of fairy tale adventure and we're riding front seat right along side Meghan. The story was written in such a way that it really felt like you were right there experiencing everything with her, it was incredibly exciting and scary at times to say the least. Mostly the latter. Due to a certain event, Meghan must travel into the faery world. Known as Nevernever. What a perfect name eh? The Nevernever is a wonderfully beautiful and terrifying place. Part of me would die to go there, but at the same time I probably would die if I did. So I guess I'm content to just read about it for now. During the fantastical adventure we came across so many beings; Ogres, Trolls, Giant Hounds, Talking Cats, Goblins, Sirens, Elves, Faerys, Phoukas, and even more! It was like so many awesome fantasy stories combined, making the ultimate Faery story to rival them all. There was definite obvious inspiration from Shakespeare. Some of the stories it reminded me of were Narnia, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and if you've ever seen the movie Labrynthe  with David Bowie in it, it reminded me a lot of that as well. While I did find likenesses from these other awesome stories, this story was still unique and sits in a league of it's own.

The other two characters I loved were Grimalkin and Ash. Grimalkin is  a cat, and the definition of cats at their finest. He is proud, reserved, clever, and really only speaks when he sees the need to input his two cents. Yeah, of course he talks! He's the most epic cat companion anyone could ask for, and Meghan is lucky enough to cross paths with him inside Nevernever. Although his motives and goals are never really clear, he tags along and helps because he doesn't want to miss out on all the adventure and action. If I could be any one in the story, I would be Grimalkin. Then there's Ash, he's the prince of a rival Fey group. He is incredibly gorgeous, strong, smart, and loyal. Unfortunately he's also severely deadly and Meghan is on his list of enemies. Of course this complicates things the love story comes into play, since Ash is the one Meghan has feelings for, oh dear. Despite how complicated that relationship is and could be, I am still rooting for them! I'm a little of a hopeless romantic, and their story has so much romantic potential!

Again, I'm leaving you hanging with story line. I just really don't like to give anything away. But this story covered so many emotions. I laughed out loud at parts, I was on the verge of tears in others. Sometimes I was holding my breath with fear, and some parts even made me feel a bit queasy. There are some gory parts, but I do enjoy a little bit of gore in my stories! I definitely recommend this book! I am kicking myself so hard now for not buying the rest of the series at the same time. I know what my next purchase will be when I make it to the book store next! I'm so glad I came across Julie's books, I'm eager to read more of her work and I wish I had discovered her sooner! Great things have come form her and I'm sure we can expect even more greatness in the future!

Review: The Pixitres by Basil Sprig

The Pixitres

Author: Basil Sprig

Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012

Publisher: Createspace

Genre: Middle-Grade/Fantasy

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Synopsis:

As the fairies of Camp Fae investigate the disappearance of one of Alley Willowwood’s closest friends, they discover that the entire magical world is on the brink of war. Someone is stirring up Pixies tribes not only against one another, but against the Fairies. Join Alley as she tries to find her friend and uncover the true villain behind it all in an adventure that takes her across several continents, deep under the sea, and to the other end of our solar system. Alley confronts kidnapping pixie tribes, dragons, a demonic beast from the underworld and more importantly her own fears as she tries to solve the mystery. Who are these mysterious new strangers that have appeared at Camp Fae and what are their intentions? Who has kidnapped her friend and why? And worst of all, what is she going to do now that she's inadvertently made an oath of allegiance to one of the pixie queens and quite possibly given her the ultimate magical weapon?

My Thoughts: The Pixitres is a pretty good magical adventure, full of tons of exciting events and fantastical experiences. If you like fairies, pixies, any of that good stuff, you'll definitely like this book. It seems to me that is kind of inbetween YA and Middlegrade, so I think you'll like it regardless of your age, or genre preference.

The thing that struck me most about this book were the similarities to Harry Potter. Don't get me wrong here though. Harry Potter is one of the ultimate stories ever told and I'm not comparing their greatness but certain points in the plot just had me thinking this was almost Harry Potter but with Fairies instead of Wizards. Alley is the main character, she's a young girl that discovers she is a fairy in her pre-teens, she goes to a camp every summer that is pretty much like a fairy school, and of course only fairies know it exists. Alley herself lives in the human world though, where no one knows what she is or that fairies even exist. While the rest of her friends, with one exception, live in fairy houses with fairy families and such. Alley and her close friends are part of a special group that essentially fights bad and evil. The main bad guy in this story just had me thinking Voldemort, except he was nearly as amazingly evil. But he had the same aspirations ultimately. He wanted fairies to rule, to dominate over piddly humans and he was prepared to conquer all those in his bath, and he had his own little band of fairies to back him up. Am I crazy to see the correlation here? I don't know haha, maybe I am, but the likeness really seemed to jump out at me.

But apart from all that, it was a good story and was very unique it lots of ways. It was fun reading about fairies and how they use their powers and what kinds of things they are capable of. It seemed to me the Author put a lot of work into his story, as it contained lots of information behind his characters and beings and that is always an awesome thing in a story. Especially one about magical or fantastical creatures. Everyone tends to put their own spin on things, so it's nice when the Author gives you lots of information on their own unique twist. The story also carried a pretty detailed plot line that you actually had to pay a bit of attention to if you wanted to keep up. I also like that in a story. The only thing that bothered me was that I didn't really develop a connection with the main character or any of them really. It didn't really seem like there was time to with every thing that was constantly going on. But maybe that's because I didn't get to read the first book in this series. I'm sure if I had things might have been different.

But in the end, it was a pretty good story, and I did enjoy it. I would probably recommend it, but I feel like I should go back and read the first one so I can get to know some more about Alley and the other characters :). Thanks to Basil Sprigs publisher for offering me this book, I enjoyed the read!