Spotlight On: A Prequel- Poison Dance

Hello and Happy New Year!!! 

I decided to start a new series for These Stardust Words! Every month, I will choose a different thing to spotlight. Whether it be a genre, a series, a book, a cover, anything I want. This month, the spotlight is on an amazing prequel that I recently read.

Poison Dance


Livia Blackburne



A prequel novella to the 2014 release "Midnight Thief" 


☆☆☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆

So, a few weeks ago, I found Midnight Thief on goodreads, and I was really excited to add it to my TBR pile, as well as my "I seriously can't wait for these releases" list in my head. So when the author, Livia Blackburne, offered to send a copy of the previously unheard of (to me) prequel, I jumped at the chance to start to get to know this world. And I was not disappointed.

Basically, in Midnight Thief, James is the leader of an assassins guild, and this is his backstory. Poison Dance takes place in a high-fantasy world, somewhat reminiscent of the Graceling world or the Eragon world, and in Poison Dance, James and his two friends- Bacchus and Rand- are lowly teenage assassins, hanging out in the lowest social rung of the guild.

The premise of the story is that the leader of the guild has just died, and so someone else must take initiative and kill their way to the top. Meanwhile, James has stumbled into the acquaintance of a lovely and mysterious girl names Thalia, who has a strange request for him- help her kill a nobleman.

I was highly satisfied with this prequel. It only took me an hour or so to get through, as it is only 50 printed pages, but I loved the glimpse into the character of James, and the opportunity to see the world that Midnight Thief will take place in. I give it 4.5 stars, only because I wanted more!

Find the Book on Goodreads 

xx

Sunny

Look at Her Go; Reviewin' Reviewin': The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown



Holly Black 



☆☆☆☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆

I don't normally read a lot of vampire books, mostly because Twilight kind of ruined that whole venture for me. I just tend to shy away from them because either they're done very right or they're done very very wrong. But I'd heard oodles about Holly Black's The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, especially from Katytastic on youtube and Violet, so I knew I had to try it. 

And I wasn't disappionted. Holly Black crafts an amazingly well-developed world in the space of 400 pages, and I was hooked on the way she presented vampirism; as something glamorous but also something so utterly unpredictable. The book is disturbing in the best way, and I found myself equally repulsed and attracted by the world.

Basically, Tana is a normal girl living in a normal, present-day United States. Except that in her normal United States, the whole world knows that vampires exist, and the creatures and those who have been infected by vampires are quarantined within walled cities called Coldtowns. Coldtowns are places that, once you go in, you don't come out. One morning, Tana wakes up after a party to find that every other partygoer is dead. Except for two other people. One: her charming, infuriating ex-boyfriend and one mysterious, unknown vampire. Both of which are chained up in a bedroom. Tana must decide what to do with this vampire and her infected ex, all the while dealing with memories of vampirism from her past. The only way she can save all three of them is by heading directly into the nearest Coldtown- where a whole host of other dangers await.

If you like vampires,  or if you don't usually like vampires, but enjoy thrillers and some spook factor- I would definitely recommend this book to you.

Full, spoilery review under the cut!

Find this book on Goodreads

TBR Pile Reading Challenge 2014

Hi all!

Exciting news today! Thesestardustwords has decided to join in the fun and insanity that is the 2014 TBR Pile Challenge! I don't know why thesestardustwords is referring to herself in the third person, but yeah this is happening.

This challenge is hosted over on Bookish (visit them here) and basically its this big book party where everyone tries to finish the books they've bought or looked at or coveted but never got to. The rules are simple: you have to read books that are from 2013 or earlier, then review them. This is a way for us to weed out our ever-growing TBR piles, that will keep on growing from all the 2014 releases, and also to read books that we've always wanted to but never got the chance to. I'm so excited to be a part of this challenge, as I have a TON of books that I've bought, either in e-book or real book form, over the last two years that I've just never gotten to.

I'm going to start at the level of "A Friendly Hug," which is 11-20 reviews. I want to start low just to make sure I can meet it, because while you can move up levels, you can't move down. So that means that, over the course of the next year, you'll get 11-20 book reviews that you can easily pick up, seeing as how they're from 2013 or before. The other good news: you don't have to have a blog to participate in this challenge! As long as you post a review somewhere (goodreads, amazon, wherever) you're good to go. There's also going to be challenges, giveaways, and a place to link up your reviews each month. I think that its a great way to get everyone reading together.

Anyways, I'm super excited to be able to participate in this challenge! If you want to join as well, there will be a link included at the end of this post. Happy reading!

Join the challenge!

xx
Sunny

Sunday Summations 12/14

Sorry for the lack of these weekly posts... I felt it was a bit pointless as I had nothing to show for the past couple of weeks. I did reread The Hunger Games trilogy, but mostly just to pull me out of my reading slump. This week, however, I got myself out! Just in time for finals. *smart Sunny is smart*

But yeah! This week I finished An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, and a prequel novella to upcoming release Midnight Thief called Poison Dance by Livia Blackburne.

Starting this week, I'm hoping to get through three or four books. The first four on my TBR pile are These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner (CAUSE I GOT AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY THANKS MALAPROPS BOOKSTORE ASHEVILLE, NC), Princess in the Opal Mask by Jenny Lundquist, The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White and The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

What are y'all reading this Christmas season?

xx
Sunny

Bookish Identity Tag

1) What dystopian/fantastical world would you live in?

V: Everyone says this during the tag, but I have to wonder- who would live in a dystopian world? I'm not ready to off into the Hunger Games. I'm a fantastical world fan to start with, it's taken me awhile to get into the whole dystopian world thing. (ok...I can actually see myself living in the Shatter Me world if I can be with Warner, but...) so for this answer I'm going with... The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. Sunny and I said no having the same answers, so you can have Harry Potter Sunny! Merry Christmas! I would love being a Shadowhunter, though. I could travel the world and go to different institutes, I'd be a badass Shadowhunter...yeah. Shadowhunter world. I'm goin' to Alicante, woo!

S: I agree with Vi on this one. Going to Panem? No, thanks. But there are plenty of fantasy worlds I'd be perfectly happy to go into. Harry Potter is an obvious choice, but I also really like the Graceling world... so I'm vacillating and then: DING. I'm going to Camp Half Blood. I want to pick strawberries and swim in the lake and scale the lava climbing wall! I want to be friends with Percy, Annabeth and Grover and be taught by Chiron. I even want to play Pinochle with Mr. D. As long as I'm not the child of a lame god. I'd be someone with super awesome powers and a pegasus. 

2) Who would your partner be?

S: I mean. What kind of a person would I be if I didn't choose my husband, the love of my life, hands-down best male protagonist in the history of the world? Will Herondale. We'd be living in London, happily running about, all badassery and bravado, killing demons and such, then return to hearth and home and hole up in the library reading everything in existence together. The feels. THE FEELS. 

V: If you guys haven't heard, Sunny over here has been reading The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black. I read this book sometime back in er...October? And I. FELL. IN. LOVE. WITH. GAVRIEL. Oh Gavriel my love, the mad poet who is secretly the most awesome person in the entire book and kicks butt and is so loyal and loving but also crazy and powerful and obsessive and poetic and freaking AWESOME. He freaking rocks! Gavriel is the singular most unpredictable, wild, fantastic guy I've read this year. I LOVED READING THIS BOOK BECAUSE OF HIM. Gavriel and I can be happily married and in love and just happily ever after. The end. 

3) Who would be your godly mother/father? [Percy Jackson]

INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR PERCY JACKSON

V: Ok, so I've only read Percy Jackson and the Olympians, not the Heroes of Olympus yet, but I'm going to have to go with Hades. Hades was always a mythological character that fascinated me. Plus, ask Sunny, I'm weird. But I could totally see myself being (SPOILER FOR PJO HERE) Bianca de Angelo and kicking butt. Except, you know (AGAIN A SPOILER I'M SORRY) actually living...but see Persephone is also a character that interested me a lot, so I don't want to have her dislike me like she does Nico, so can I be Hades and Persephone's daughter? Or like a demigod but their demigod? Because Persephone isn't a major god so I want this to work...HEADCANON.

S: This isn't one that's like majorly focused on in the book, but this is one I imagine to be really awesome. I'm going to say this is how I think of being a kid of this god to be, even if it wouldn't actually be like this in the books. So I think it'd be awesome to be the daughter of Apollo. He's archery, medicine, poetry, music AND THE SUN. THE SUN. If Percy can control water, Jason air, Leo fire, why can't a child of Apollo control light? I would be burning people to a crisp with THE POWER OF SUNLIGHT. Bam. And I'd be Katniss. And I'd be healing those bitches with my mind. And singing while I did it. I just really like Apollo ok. 

- Would you be a downworlder or nephilim? [Shadowhunter world]

S: Nephilim. FO SHIZ. I mean, I'm not really digging being a werewolf or vampire, and I like the powers of a warlock but I don't really want to live forever. But being a whip-slinging, rune-drawing, black leather wearing badass of a Nephilim. That I could reconcile myself with. Like IMMEDIATELY. Also if I could live in the London institute and be married to a Herondale that would be much appreciated. 

V: NEPHILIM NEPHILIM NEPHILIM. I was already living in the Shadowhunter world as a Shadowhunter, so what else can I say? For more, see fangirling above in question one!

- Which house would you be in? [Harry Potter]

V: Pottermore sorted me into Slytherin, and I hadn't really thought of what house I'd be in. Then Sunny told me about a super legit Harry Potter house quiz- link it sister!- and I took it. SLYTHERIN! And I really like that about myself. So Slytherins are NOT all the terrible thugs people make us out to be. We're very loyal to each other (Slytherin is like a family, people, we don't step on each other in a competition we look out for each other), we can trust people, but trust is essential to a Slytherin. We're ambitious so we get what we need to done. But we can still have fun, enjoy music, all the ordinary things. I really love being Slytherin, and I'll wear my green and silver proudly. Also, we do get along with people of other houses. Promise. Also, mini rant aside, Draco Malfoy in a Very Potter Musical was awesome!!!

S: Ok so Pottermore sorted me into Gryffindor, which, tbh kind of surprised me. I had myself pegged for a Ravenclaw, but after I took a second quiz (LINK) and I still got Gryffindor, I could see it definitely. I do, in fact, tend to rush into situations without thinking, and while usually I can pull it off, sometimes it backfires in my face. I do tend to have very few fears, either out of stupidity or bravery (or both), and I'm very loyal to a small group of friends. Also, if Hermoine Granger can be a Gryffindor, so can I. (even though the ravenclaw common room is still the coolest thing at Hogwarts). So: I finally have my HOUSE PRIDE! And Vi and I get along pretty well, for a Slytherin and a Gryffindor. :) 

- Which faction would you be in? [Divergent]

V: Dauntless. Let's go jump out of a train guys. 

S: What she said. 

- We wanted to add a question that I really liked: What would your Grace be? [Graceling]

V: It has been FOREVER since I've read these books. But Sunny said I could pick anything. I want to say weaponsmaster like sword and bow because that would be practical in that world. But I'd want to be away from the influence of the king so I wouldn't be used like Katsa. So, a rogue weaponsmaster? That sounds like an interesting life... 

S: I really love the Graceling world. It is one of my favorite series, but if I was to live there I'd just have to be graced. I think I'd want to be graced with the ability to control the elements. Air, wind, fire, earth. That would be super awesome, and no one would be able to touch me. 

Hope you enjoyed! Comment your answers below!

xx

S (+V) 

Look at Her Go; Reviewin', Reviewin': An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines- John Green



☆☆☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆


I'm slowly working my way through all of Father Green's books. I'll pick them up when I'm feeling something contemporary, or when I feel myself slumping because I know that any of his books will snap me right out of it. This time, it was because of the latter. I'd already read Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars (obviously), Let It Snow, Paper Towns and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. So when I found this book on a bargain table in Boston, I knew it was time.

So, in case you aren't familiar, this book is about a child prodigy with an enormous affinity for anagrams; Colin Singleton. And, at the end of his senior year he's been dumped by nineteen- yeah- nineteen girls, all named Katherine. And at the end of the torrid breakup with Katherine XIX, his best friend, Hassan, drags him on a road trip to leave his troubles behind.

I really did enjoy this book, as expected with a John Green novel. It has its fair share of hilarious moments and the quotable quotes we've all come to love from his books ("That smile could end wars and cure cancer" p. 32 is one that pops to mind), and I just always find his books immensely readable. The characters are hopelessly flawed but hopelessly lovable, and this is just a quick, amazing read.

Full, spoilery review under the cut!

Find this book on Goodreads

Book Sacrifice Tag

Book Sacrifice Tag- Created by Ariel Bissett on youtube.com/arielbissett

COLLAB TAG! Violet and I did this whilst sitting in a mexican restaurant so... that was fun.