Reviewlets: The Beta's Test by Dessa Lux & A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews

The Beta’s Test by Dessa Lux

The Beta’s Test by Dessa Lux ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

The third book in the Protection of the Pack series, like The Omega’s Pack, focuses on Nick and how he is coping. This book also introduces Brody, who Sam meets at work during Brody’s job interview. Like the previous two books in this series, there is a lot of sex in this book but it is also more plot focused. The Omega’s Pack got Nick to a place where he could start to heal and function, in The Beta’s Test Nick starts to learn how to be himself again. I really enjoyed following both Nick and Brody’s journeys through this book. Brody seems like a really awesome person, and I enjoyed the appearance of another geek. My copy of The Beta’s Test also included The Omega Learns a Lesson which is the fourth instalment of the series. I really enjoyed the return of focus to Sam and Rusty. The story is short, with just thirty-two pages but it packs a punch. I liked the fact that Lux shows in this story that even when things are going well that that little voice in your head can be real loud. I really enjoyed the fact that I got these two instalments together as they flowed well.

A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews
(Illumicrate edition)

A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)

Before I go into any kind of review I just want to warn you that this book contains domestic violence that is both mental and physical, as well as self-harm ideation. If either of those topics has the potential to trigger you, then this is almost certainly not the book for you. That being said, I do think that Drews writes a really good debut novel. At its heart, A Thousand Perfect Notes is about obsession, love, and music. Beck is an interesting main character, and the premise of the book is well thought out. Though this book very definitely falls into the three star category for me: I liked it, but that was it. I would have liked there to be more of this book, as I think a lot of things were glossed over but then A Thousand Perfect Notes is in many ways just a snapshot of Beck’s life.

Review: Relativity by Antonia Hayes (Blog Tour)

This review is part of the Relativity Blog Tour.

Relativity by Antonia Hayes (UK edition)

Relativity by Antonia Hayes (UK edition)

Title: Relativity
Author: Antonia Hayes
Genre: Contemporary, Family
Source: The publisher
Publisher: CORSAIR (19th January 2017)
Blurb:

Ethan is an exceptionally gifted young boy, obsessed with physics and astronomy.

His single mother, Claire, is fiercly protective of her brilliant, vulnerable son. But she can’t shield him for ever from learning the truth about what happened to him when he was a baby; why Mark had to leave them all those years ago.

Now aged twelve, Ethan is increasingly curious about his past, especially his father’s absence in his life. When he intercepts a letter to Claire from Mark, he opens a lifetime of feelings that, like gravity, will pull the three of them together again.

Relativity is a tender and triumphant story about unbreakable bonds, irreversible acts and testing the limits of love and forgiveness.

Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)
Review:

RELATIVITY by Antonia Hayes is a beautiful, poignant read. That is not to say it is a sad read, because it is not. RELATIVITY is full of life and hope. It tells the story of a twelve year-old boy who is obsessed with physics and astronomy, and of his parents. On the cusp of being a teenager, Ethan still views the world with a child’s wonder and curiosity. His mother Claire has brought him up on her own since he was small, and is fiercely protective of him. She has never told Ethan the truth of his father Mark, and why he’s no longer in their lives.

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Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (UK hardback) (pic via Penguin website)

Title: The Bear and the Nightingale
Authors: Katherine Arden
Genre: Historical Novel, Fantasy
Source: The publisher via NetGalley
Publisher:  Del Rey (12th January 2017)
Blurb:

A magical debut novel for readers of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman’s myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

(Blurb taken from Goodreads)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)
Review:

THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by Katherine Arden is a beautiful book. It has a gorgeous front cover, and the story inside is delightfully magical. This debut novel tells the story of a young girl, Vasilisa Petrovna – Vasya to her family: the youngest child of Pytor Vladimirovich and Marina Ivanovna. THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE follows Vasya, as she grows up, the daughter of a lord in a small Russian village. Vasya isn’t quite like the other girls, not even her elder sister. Her life changes with the arrival of her father’s second wife, Anna Ivanovna, and Father Konstantin Nikonovich.

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