Review: Ice Cream Castles (Hot in the City #1)

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:

When uptight Eli crosses paths with world-weary Naomi, culture clash ensues. After a strained encounter, the pair later discovers that what they share in common outweighs their differences. ICE CREAM CASTLES is a May-December romance that explores grief, understanding, and acceptance, with a passionate twist. It will leave you wanting more.

The two characters are total opposites, never meant to work together. But opposites attract, right? 

This Novella is a quick read in between books. You'll spend an hour or two with it. The novella brings two unlikely people together from different phases of lives. The other trying to live in the aftermath of a bad divorce and the other grieving a great loss and a recent betrayal. 

Opposites attract might be the key to this book. But most of the time they were too much different to work at all. Like, if you're that different to start with, how is it possible that you can find a common frequency together. Eli is a neat-freak, so to say. Order and cleanliness are the cornerstones in his life, staying on schedule and deep in the middle of his comfort-zone are what he strives for. Naomi lives in the middle of chaos, in her apartment and in her social life. How can they work together when their living styles are so far from each other.

Ice Cream Castles is a quick read with less than a hundred pages. It's a nice read. I just couldn't connect with the story at all.

Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3.1)

'' ''How do you keep creating, despite what you lost?'' ''

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

From Goodreads:
Hope warms the coldest night.

Feyre, Rhys, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve.

Yet even the festive atmosphere can't keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated--scars that will have far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

No one has survived the events of the war unscathed. Almost everyone lost someone or fought in the war themselves. The nightmares are an everyday occurrence and there's no running away when the monsters live inside your own head.

The Winter Solstice is just around the corner and the Night Court have their hands' full preparing for it. The memory of the war is still fresh in their minds. The preparations for the happiest festival of the year is the right distraction for the painful process that has begun; healing.

The novella doesn't bring any new twist into the series. It's just a bittersweet continuation for A Court of Wings and Ruin and the bridge between that and the next book. There are a few points where you get to know a bit more of the characters' backstories which give you a better understanding of their actions.

I don't know yet if A Court of Frost of Starlight is a must read before the next full book comes out since it's not out yet. But all fans of Maas' writing this is a must-read just for the feels only. This book really brings out the goosebumps, gives a glimpse of the dark, and most of all brings hope to the Void.

Review: Secrets of PEACE (Secrets of PEACE #1)

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
Nearly 30 years ago, the PEACE Project rose from the ruins of a global war to take power over a new America. Providing stability in exchange for absolute authority, the Project controls every aspect of citizens' lives through each of its five units:

Protect
Enforce
Advance
Control
Eliminate

Raised in the Project since infancy, eighteen-year-old Zira has been trained as an assassin under the stern guidance of unit E-2's Chairman Ryku. After she makes a careless mistake on an assignment, the chairman partners her with Jared, the best operative in her unit. Their partnership transforms into friendship as they work together and learn to rely on each other. But when misinformation causes a solo mission to backfire, Zira's deepest loyalties and strongest relationships are tested in a place where even a hint of doubt can be perceived as treason.

The life she knows is falling apart, and nothing will ever look the same again.

They are taught to follow the teachings and values of the PEACE Project blindly. Never question, only complete the tasks you are given. When you have never questioned anything in your life and are thrust into a situation where the only way to survive is to question everything.

Review: Chosen (The Last Guardian #1)

'' ''There was a war,'' Breahn said, ''a long bloody war between Dragons, Oluan, and humans.'' ''

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
Magic and Power... Dragons. These are the things of books and movies... of other worlds. They aren’t real. They can’t be real.

Mia wishes for the days when she truly believed that. Days when her biggest worry was whether or not she’d be accepted into the university of her choice. But that was before...

Before her reflection started playing tricks on her in store windows. Before she was unceremoniously ripped from her family and friends and dumped in a place she can’t escape from. A place where no one can reach her. Nethea,

Thrust into a world where Dragons exist and magic is Power, Mia must find a way to accept the role she’s been Chosen to fulfill. A role that seems more and more likely to claim her life as she uncovers the staggering odds stacked against her. If she can do it...if she can rise above the grief and anger that plague her heart and save Nethea from the dark fate waiting in the claws of a monster... Then maybe, just maybe she’ll get to go home again.

Can Mia find the will and the courage to defend and protect a world she doesn’t belong to? Will she take up the heavy mantle of the Guardians of Nethea?

She really didn't want to get pulled into this, but they didn't give her a choice. Now she must fight for them or the hope for the return becomes nigh.