Sass

3.5 Stars for this wonderfully written piece of futuristic steampunk that gives you the feeling of reading something from a time long gone through certain elements while at the same time retaining its feeling of novelty.

I received a free ARC from Skyscape via Netgalley 

Come visit my blog for more rambling about books www.strawberrygeek-reads.blogspot.de

The expectations I had for this book hadn't been that high and the book didn't disappoint but it also didn't impress me very much. The plot itself was interesting though there were certain aspects I found rather stereotypical, which doesn't always have to be a bad thing but in this case it was. Mainly because you get a heroin that got too much power. Fair enough, she can't control it or it would become boring, but more than once I got the feeling that the authors decision was a bit overkill.



The cliche powers of the sisters our heroins own, untrained one as well as a lot of moments were I wanted to bang my head against something and scream at the sisters father for not training his youngest daughter are the main reasons why there are not even four stars. Because I really loved the writing and the plot. It kept surprising me and this is something that gets a huge fucking plus point from me, cause let's be honest: there are way too many books where you can predict exactly what will happen next. 

Every time her ridiculous powers get mentioned it's like another punch to an already bruised area of my body and I wanna cry.

Before I start repeating my heartache over and over again let me tell you something about the story.

Penn, actually Penelope, and her four sister are part of The Show, a circus that was invented by their father Magnus Roma to hide Penn in plain sight and between much more attention-grabbing tricks and performances. Her sisters have the ability to make use of the four elements, fire, water, air and earth. They should be enough to ensure that nobody looks at her twice, because if people do it'll mean they found out that she is the fifth girl in the family. And then people would start wondering what her ability is. Penn can bring down the stars, but her father only thought her methods to calm herself when her emotions are running high. It's too easy to accidentally hurt someone she cares for with her ability.

When one day a warden shows up and looks at her much more often than just twice. Their home is shattered, Penn's sisters taken and the rest of her family on the run from the Commission. Illusions shatter, thruths unvailed and Penn is determined to to whatever it takes to get her family back.

This is the story about a scared boy on the run from his fearsome and terrible past. This is a story about doing everything you can to be able to hold onto your dream. Of stopping to run and starting to fight. Of devotion and endurance. This is a story about broken things that aren't broken. This is a story about slowly building, fragile friendships in places where you least expected to find them. About raising above your circumstances and risking everything for a little bit of happiness.

This is the story about Neil Josten and at the same time it's not.

We never learn his real name in the first book of an amazin trilogy. Neil is a very private person, guarding every little detail that could give away his true identity. Coloured hair, contact lenses. He is doing everything he can to let his past life remain as far away as possible.

Until one night.

The one thing he couldn't keep away from is the stone that sets everything in motion. Exy - a cross between Hockey and Lacrosse - is the one love Neil can't leave and the only reason why he goes against his better judgement. The coach of the Palmetto State University Foxe, a team of teenagers with more than enough problems to lasst two lifetimes, shows up one evening and asks Neil to join his Exy team. The coach didn't come alone though and the person he brought with him almost stopps Neil's heart and ends the story before it really started, because it's someone Neil didn't ever want to see again. But, as luck goes combined with many past years and a changed appearance Neil's faked persona isn't exposed. Torn between all consuming fear and a small shimmer of hope and the wish the play more Exy Neil makes a decision that'll turn his life upside down.

This book was breathtakingly amazing and I devoured it in one go. I have to add that I'm not a person for storys that have a strong focus on sports, but even so I enjoyed it in this one and I always love it when an author manages to make me like something I normally don't.

The Foxhole Court was available as a free read on Amazon and I'm eternally grateful for that because I probably wouldn't have read it otherwise and missed out on one of the best books I've ever read. I'd pretty much give anything to be able to have a hard copy of this awesomeness. Alas, as it often goes with things you want badly this story only exists as an ebook.

The characters all have their fair share of scares and only add to the dark theme of the story. That shouldn't keep you from reading this story though. The character development you can witness throughout the three books as well as the slowly blossoming and growing friendships between the characters, their strive and struggles for getting and keeping what they desire is worth every minute where you're not sure if there is a light waiting at the end of the tunnel.

What still bothers me is the police inspectors description of Hannibal as a monster. Does it make you a monster when you want to kill the people that ate his sister or for the way he behaves after seeing his family die and the people he cares about? Not that I think he's a good person either, but he doesn't enjoy torturing people or anything like that.
All in all my expectations for this book weren't especially high after having read the previous ones, but I still can't say that I enjoyed reading it. If it weren't for the fact that I wanted to read the complete quadrology I wouldn't have bothered myself with it.

3,5 Stars

I received this as a freebie in exchange for an honest review. The review can be found on my blog as well

The story is about Nate and Jamie, two best friends. Nathan is a cop and straight as they come - or so they all think. Jay is gay and nurses his unrequited love for Nate by sleeping with as many guys as possible.

One night Jay tries to drown his problems in alcohol, because the man who abused his sister got out of jail. He calls Nate after almost doing something extremely stupid because of the alcohol and they end up at Nate's place.

As you probably all guessed correctly this is a gay for you, best friends turned lovers story (altough at the samee time it really is nit, but I'll come to that later). So -how else could it be?- they end up kissing and Nate comes to the conclusion that he might not be as straight as he claims to be and feelings resurface which he long thought dealt with.

But, of course they can't be happily together that easy.

The next morning, Jay doesn't remember a thing about the kiss and when Nate confesses his long and well buried feelings for Jay, his best friend claims in a moment of panic that he doesn't share that attraction, afraid of losing their precious friendship.

The reconciliation has to wait quite a while because Nate gets attacked by some psycho while investigating a serial murder case.

The wounds, the physical ad psychological ones are severe.

As soon as Jay hears what happened he hurries to the hospital, but Nate refuses to see him.

Shell shocked, Jay has to wait months before Nate suddenly shows up at his doorstep.


My feelings about this book are mixed. It is not your typical gay for you story. There's a good dash of psychological problems and addiction as well as some crime thrown in for good measure. I liked the deep understanding the two had for each other and the smexy times were really sexy. The change of POV was sometimes kind of irritating,without a bigger paragraph to warn me, leaving me confused until I realised that I saw the story from a different POV. But maybe that was just my kindle app being a pain in the ass again because the page numeration was all over the place as well which made it kind of unpleasant to read at times.

The crime part kind of dissatisfied me. The end seemed a bit rushed and not entirely comprehensible.Besides that I thought that it was a bit too dramatic at times. Or should I rather say too many dramatic things going on at the same time?

At the beginning I thought the sorry would be too sweet and sappy for me, but I soon realised that sweetness was more of an underlying thing in the book when the author gave you a break from the misery of Jay's patients and all their other problems (I don't want to say too much because that would take the surprise effect of the book away).


It was a nice read and I can especially recommend it if you're also interested in psychological stuff.