The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

Title: The Crown's Game

(The Crown's Game #1)
Author: Evelyn Skye
Length: 399 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic, Historical Fiction
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, Balzer + Bray!)

Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.
And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.
Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?
For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip-smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.
And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love…or be killed himself.
As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear—the Crown’s Game is not one to lose. 

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George

Title: Silver in the Blood
(Silver in the Blood #1)
Author: Jessica Day George
Length: 358 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Paranormal
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Bloomsbury!)

Society girls from New York City circa 1890, Dacia and Lou never desired to know more about their lineage, instead preferring to gossip about the mysterious Romanian family that they barely knew. But upon turning seventeen, the girls must return to their homeland to meet their relatives, find proper husbands, and—most terrifyingly—learn the deep family secrets of The Claw, The Wing, and The Smoke. The Florescus, after all, are shape-shifters, and it is time for Dacia and Lou to fulfill the prophecy that demands their acceptance of this fate... or fight against this cruel inheritance with all their might.
With a gorgeous Romanian setting, stunning Parisian gowns, and dark brooding young men, readers will be swept up by this epic adventure of two girls in a battle for their lives.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

Title: Vengeance Road
Author: Erin Bowman
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Western, Historical Fiction, Adventure
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, HMH!)
Read: August 2015

When Kate Thompson’s father is killed by the notorious Rose Riders for a mysterious journal that reveals the secret location of a gold mine, the eighteen-year-old disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers and justice. What she finds are devious strangers, dust storms, and a pair of brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, she gets closer to the truth about herself and must decide if there's room for love in a heart so full of hate.
In the spirit of True Grit, the cutthroat days of the Wild West come to life for a new generation.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Tangled Webs by Lee Bross

Title: Tangled Webs
(Tangled Webs #1)
Author: Lee Bross
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Classification: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Release Date: June 23, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Disney Hyperion!)

London, 1725. Everybody has a secret. Lady A will keep yours—for a price. This sumptuous, scandalous YA novel is wickedly addictive.
Lady A is the most notorious blackmailer in the city. With just a mask and a gown to disguise her, she sweeps into lavish balls and exclusive events collecting the most valuable currency in 1725 London—secrets.
But leading a double life isn't easy. By day Lady A is just a sixteen-year-old girl named Arista who lives in fear of her abusive master, Bones, and passes herself off as a boy to move safely through the squalor of London's slums. When Bones attempts to dispose of his pawn forever, Arista is rescued by the last person she expects: Jonathan Wild, the infamous Thief Taker General who moves seamlessly between the city's criminal underworld and its most elite upper circles. Arista partners with Wild on her own terms in the hopes of saving enough money to buy passage out of London.
Everything changes when she meets Graeden Sinclair, the son of a wealthy merchant. Grae has traveled the world, has seen the exotic lands Arista has longed to escape to her whole life, and he loves Arista for who she is—not for what she can do for him. Being with Grae gives something Arista something precious that she swore off long ago: hope. He has promised to help Arista escape the life of crime that has claimed her since she was a child. But can you ever truly escape the past?

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger

Title: Waistcoats & Weaponry
(Finishing School #3)
Author: Gail Carriger
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Steampunk
Release Date: November 4, 2014
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thanks Little Brown!)
Read: November 2014

Class is back in session...Sophronia continues her second year at finishing school in style--with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey stowaway on a train to return their classmate Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland. No one suspected what--or who--they would find aboard that suspiciously empty train. Sophronia uncovers a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos and she must decide where her loyalties lie, once and for all.  Gather your poison, steel tipped quill, and the rest of your school supplies and join Mademoiselle Geraldine's proper young killing machines in the third rousing installment in the New York Times bestselling Finishing School Series by steampunk author, Gail Carriger. 

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***I received an e-galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

***This is part of a series. There will be spoilers of things that happened in the other book(s) so if you haven't read it and don't want to know things that happened, please stop reading now.*** 

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Title: Curtsies & Conspiracies 
(Finishing School #2)
Author: Gail Carriger
Length: 310 pages
Publisher: Little Brown
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Steampunk
Release Date: November 2013
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you Little Brown!)
Read: October/November 2014

Does one need four fully grown foxgloves for decorating a dinner table for six guests? Or is it six foxgloves to kill four fully grown guests? Sophronia's first year at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality has certainly been rousing! For one thing, finishing school is training her to be a spy (won't Mumsy be surprised?). Furthermore, Sophronia got mixed up in an intrigue over a stolen device and had a cheese pie thrown at her in a most horrid display of poor manners. Now, as she sneaks around the dirigible school, eavesdropping on the teachers' quarters and making clandestine climbs to the ship's boiler room, she learns that there may be more to a field trip to London than is apparent at first. A conspiracy is afoot--one with dire implications for both supernaturals and humans. Sophronia must rely on her training to discover who is behind the dangerous plot-and survive the London Season with a full dance card. In this bestselling sequel to New York Times bestselling Etiquette & Espionage, class is back in session with more petticoats and poison, tea trays and treason. Gail's distinctive voice, signature humor, and lush steampunk setting are sure to be the height of fashion this season. (From NetGalley)

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***I received an e-galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*** 

***This book is part is part of a series, and so this review may include spoilers from previous books***

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Title: Etiquette & Espionage
(Finishing School #1)
Author: Gail Carriger
Length: 307 pages
Publisher: Little Brown Books For Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Steampunk, Paranormal, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Release Date: February 5, 2013
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you Little Brown!)
Read: October 2014

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea--and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right--but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school. 

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***I received an e-galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Title: Salt & Storm
Author: Kendall Kulper
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Witches, Magic, Historical
Release Date: September 23, 2014
Source: e-galley (I was approved for this ARC via NetGalley. Thank you Little Brown!)
Read: July 2014

A sweeping historical romance about a witch who foresees her own murder--and the one boy who can help change her future.
Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe at sea, but her mother has forced her into a magic-free world of proper manners and respectability. When Avery dreams she's to be murdered, she knows time is running out to unlock her magic and save herself.
Avery finds an unexpected ally in a tattooed harpoon boy named Tane--a sailor with magic of his own, who moves Avery in ways she never expected. Becoming a witch might stop her murder and save her island from ruin, but Avery discovers her magic requires a sacrifice she never prepared for. 

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***I received an e-galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Title: Grave Mercy 

(His Fair Assassin #1)

Author: Robin LaFevers

Length: 576 pages

Publisher: HMH Books For Young Readers

Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Release Date: April 3, 2012

Source: e-book (purchased)

Read: July 2014

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf? Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart? 

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The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Title: The Madman’s Daughter

Author: Megan Shepherd

Length: 437 pages

Publisher: Balzer + Bray 

Classification: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction

Release Date: January 29, 2013
Source: e-book

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.
Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.
Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

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