Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Title:  The Rose Society Author:  Marie Lu Genre: Fantasy, young adult My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all. Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she flees Kenettra with her sister to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her. But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can s...

Title:  Winter Author:  Marissa Meyer Genre: Science fiction, retelling, young adult My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana. Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long. Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? One of the best series endings ever :) I will always have a soft spot for fairy tale retellings, but I don't think anything e...

DiverSFFy is a feature hosted by yours truly! The goal is to get the word out about books in science fiction and fantasy that do a good job of portraying people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives - be it race, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic levels, etc.  I'd love it if you joined in - just link me to your posts in the comments or on twitter (@spidersilksnow)! This week's pick:  Karen Memory  by Elizabeth Bear The Rundown Title: Karen Memory Author: Elizabeth Bear Genre: Steampunk, fantasy Goodreads Summary : "You ain't gonna like what I have to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It's French, so Beatrice tells me." Set in the late 19th century—when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and sti...

Fantasy vs. Science Fiction Worlds There's this age old tradition of fantasy novels taking place in the time of lords and ladies, princesses, dragons, knights, and young village boys who set out to make their fortune. There's also a tradition in science fiction, in which books are either set in the future or in parallel universes in order to make the technology landscape viable. But who says that magic and technology can't co-exist? The line blurs a little bit in steampunk novels, since they're set in the past, usually around the Victorian era, but feature steam-powered automatons and scientific contraptions. Still, this seems like a very small niche for science fiction and fantasy to overlap. I am an engineer, so I am such a nerd when it comes to cool technology, but a little magic here and there would be cool too! How can technology and magic co-exist? I think one of my favorite series as a kid is a great example of how magic and technology can ...

I've decided to try something new instead of just traditional reviews where I ramble forever. I'll still do some longer reviews, but this way I don't feel bad when I just want to write down a few thoughts and who I'd recommend it for. I've made an S&S Sci-fi and Fantasy Card that I'll use to rate different aspects of SFF books that are important to me: characters, worldbuilding, and that extra "oomph" factor that I'm calling originality because it sounds more official than "oomph" :) So here goes! Title:  The Autumn Republic Author:  Brian McClellan Genre: Fantasy My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : The capital has fallen... Field Marshal Tamas returns to his beloved country to find that for the first time in history, the capital city of Adro lies in the hands of a foreign invader. His son is missing, his allies are indistinguishable from his foes, and reinforcements are several weeks away. An army divided......

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme:  Top Ten 2015 releases I didn't get to                 I missed the boat on these books lasts year, but which ones should I be dying to read this year? Let me know in the comments!

Happy New Year! I'm a little over a week late, but better late than never :) While I was away from the blogging world, I was a lot more relaxed and it was nice to be able to breathe and not feel like I had to be writing reviews and coming up with cool posts. It was also conveniently winter break so I had a nice break from classes and research and all the rest of the craziness of being a college student. After a few weeks I really did miss writing reviews and interacting with all the bloggers in this awesome community. It's a new year, I'm a year older (my birthday is very close to New Year's :) ), and I'm ready to get back into the swing of things! I spent forever making this graphic that summarizes some reading stats from last year. It's from December 15, so my total number of pages went up by about a thousand pages, but the rest of it is pretty accurate! I wasn't surprised to see that my most-read genres were fantasy and science fiction, but I ...