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This Crumbling Pageant
READER RECOMMENDATION: This Crumbling Pageant by Patricia Burroughs is 99c! This is a fantasy romance set in historical England. A reader sent us a glowing recommendation of the book:
One of the very best books I’ve read in a while is on sale for a ridiculous ninety-nine cents for Kindle. I can’t understand it because it is worth so very much more. It is volume one in a trilogy and I pray this silly price means volume two is on its way because I would pay full price for volume two because volume one was that good. I believe I gave it a four star review.
Persephone Fury is the Dark daughter, the one they hide.
England, 1811. Few are aware of a hidden magical England, a people not ruled by poor mad George, but by the dying King Pellinore of the House of Pendragon.
The Furys are known for their music, their magic, and their historic role as kingmakers. When Fury ambitions demand a political marriage, Persephone is drugged and presented to Society—
Only to be abducted from the man she loves by the man she loathes.
But devious and ruthless, Persephone must defy ancient prophecy and seize her own fate.
Get swept away into the first book of a dark fantasy series combining swashbuckling adventure, heart-pounding romance, and plot-twisting suspense.
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The Diviners
RECOMMENDED: The Diviners by Libba Bray is $2.99! This is YA fantasy set in 1920s New York, so you can bet there are plenty of amazing clothes and fancy speakeasies. I personally loved the cast of characters, especially the heroine, Evie, and Evie’s uncle, who happens to curate an occult museum. However, some people found Evie to border on the TSTL category. Any readers care to weigh in on what they thought?
Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City–and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult–also known as “The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies.”
When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer–if he doesn’t catch her first.
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Stolen Songbird
Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen is 99c! This is a fantasy young adult novel with (surprise!) a gorgeous cover, and it’s the first book in the Malediction Trilogy. There are curses and troll princes and prophecies. The book has also compared to Graceling and Seraphina, which are two other YA fantasy novels that I’ve really enjoyed. Readers praised a lot of things, from the heroine to the romance to the setting. However, with the book at nearly 500 pages, some readers complained it was a little too long and suffered from some pacing issues. It has a 4-star rating on GoodReads.
For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.
But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever.
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The Collectors’ Society
The Collectors’ Society by Heather Lyons is $3.99! Once again, fantasy books corner the market on gorgeous covers. This is a fairy tale retelling with Alice in Wonderland, and looks to be more new adult than young adult. Many readers found Alice to be a Badass (with a capital B), but there were a few who felt the romance aspect to the story to be a little underwhelming. I’m actually really curious about this title, and it has a 4.3-star rating on GoodReads.
After years in Wonderland, Alice has returned to England as an adult, desperate to reclaim sanity and control over her life. An enigmatic gentleman with an intriguing job offer too tempting to resist changes her plans for a calm existence, though. Soon, she’s whisked to New York and initiated into the Collectors’ Society, a secret organization whose members confirm that famous stories are anything but straightforward and that what she knows about the world is only a fraction of the truth.
It’s there she discovers villains are afoot—ones who want to shelve the lives of countless beings. Assigned to work with the mysterious and alluring Finn, Alice and the rest of the Collectors’ Society race against a doomsday clock in order to prevent further destruction . . . but will they make it before all their endings are erased?
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Read Collector’s Society. Seriously. Read it. I picked it up two months ago, and it’s probably one of the best books I’ve read in a while. Something about her language is just breathtaking, and it’s just so much fun to read all the little in-jokes and references to the classic works of literature we all had to read in school.
I have to reread it again, because it’s definitely on my favorite list now.
Book 2 of the Collector’s Society series, The Hidden Library, is also at $3.99 at Amazon.
Digression alert:
(Red)heads up! All 3 of Alice Clayton’s “Redhead” series titles are practically free (ok – $1.99 each) at BN.com right now. “The Unidentified Redhead”, “Redhead Revealed”, & “The Redhead Plays Her Hand” all for under $6 total? Dare I say it? Multiple squees! Admittedly, the first was a little harder for me to get into than her “Wallbanger” series, but I had faith & Clayton prevailed. The romance is not neat, but instead, up, down & zig-zaggy. And the “Hollywood’s/society’s obsession with female body ‘perfection’ ” plot thread is spot-on (sadly…). Definitely (pretend it’s not March & you are at a) beach-reading.
Ok – back to fantasy & gorgeous covers (Libba Bray rules!).
I loved THIS CRUMBLING PAGEANT! Yes, I know the author, but I loved the book regardless.
I’m sorry, but I just have to object to This Crumbling Pageant. It started off so well, such great world-building and characters, but then it committed the unforgivable (in my opinion) literary sin of torturing the main character by depriving her of that which makes life worth living. I can handle when the MC’s love interest dies; people can recover from such things, but when a character is deprived of their raison d’etre, what’s the point in continuing? For me, the inevitable result is, at best, a closed book, at worst, a dented wall. The sin is particularly egregious when the book is so otherwise wonderful, coming off akin to a sucker punch.
I just finished The Redhead Plays Her Hand and enjoyed it a lot. Her voice is fresh and down to earth, the romance and the bumps in the road seem realistic, though movie star is not a life I have much to do with. And the HEA was nice.
An FYI if any of you follow webcomics, there’s a really good one called Namesake (http://namesakecomic.com/comic/the-journey-begins/) with a premise similar to The Collector’s Society. It’s beautifully drawn and very engaging story.
@Betsy: I thoroughly second your Clayton reccie. I went into The Unidentified Redhead with pretty low expectations and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I immediately snatched up all the other Clayton books I could get my digital hands on. $1.99 is a great price; I don’t begrudge paying more even if I do love a sale.
Oooh, Stolen Songbird has a gorge cover! I recently read a fantasy romance with a super pretty cover..http://www.amazon.com/Priestess-Daughters-Prophecy-Novella-ebook/dp/B00RW1660I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426198762&sr=8-1&keywords=the+priestess. Loved the book and gotta say, the chick on the cover (Main character Gloriana) looks like she’s about to stomp out into the water and make those flames her bitch! Which, of course, she does, because I’ve never read an Ainsley Brooks heroine who didn’t (a) have a hot guy leading man I’d like to drag out behind the barn AND (b) kick some major ass.
I just want to take a moment to say thank you for also listing the books that are available right now on Scribd. I am putting my 3 month subscription to good use.
MOB, that’s one hell of a spoiler you lobbed in there!
@mkthor:
You are very very welcome! I’m so happy you’re finding it useful!
@Flora – sorry. It just totally ruined the book for me, so I wanted it ti serve as a warning for any other reader who shares my problem.
[…] yeah, and if you missed it–Smart Bitches thinks my cover is gorgeous. Well, it is. But still, they singled it out and I am feeling extra […]
I’m in the early stages of the Thie Crumbling Pageant. I had put off reading it because someone told me that while it started out as a romance, it didn’t end that way. She suggested that this was a long arc romance, maybe. But the early part is wonderful. It’s a long, long book so it’s going to be a while to get to the end.
Loved This Crumbling Pageant. I binge-read it in practically one sitting. I’ll pay full price for volume 2!
Finished it. It is not/not a romance, but it is a wonderful character study, with absolutely marvelous secondary characters and callous and cruel gods. Of course after all that drama, I’m here looking for something light, frothy, and romantic. Back to the March releases.
[…] last week I was thrilled when Smart Bitches Trashy Books shared a reader’s wonderful review of This Crumbling Pageant, along with news of the current .99 […]