First Year (The Black Mage#1) by by Rachel E. Carter

I was given the book free of charge in exchange of an honest review (Lovers of Paranormal). The following review might contain spoilers.

Rating 9 of 10

4am, not even 24 hours after I recieved the book and 9 hours after I started it - I am done. After a busy day at work, spending the whole night reading wasn't really what I had in mind, but.... I just couldn't leave that book down.What could I say more? It's captivating, dynamic, a real page turner, something I absolutely didn't expect when I signed up for it. Nice characters, should I say - mostly believable, even thought it's a fantasy book and you might often expect perfect heroes and perfect villains. Not that there isn't heroes in the book, they are just not perfect and I liked it. After all we all have our flaws and doubts.

Ryiah made it to my personal top 10 of main heroines. She strong-willed, passionate, stubborn, smart, friendly, loyal and altogether very likable. And as I already said - not perfect. Which makes her even more likable. She struggles, she fights, she fails, she stumbles, she falls ... but she doesn't give up and keeps going. I am definitely Ryiah fan.

Darren... the dark, mysterious prince. Friend or foe? Well made character and I would love see more of him. Extremely curious to learn more about his past, his relationship with his brother and why he decided to get betrothed....

Ella is sweet. The kind of friend we all wish about - kind, thoughtful, helping. Alec grew on me too. And I think I might like Ruth too if I see more of her.

What I would have liked to see more thought is world building. We get thrown  in directly into the story and we get bits and pieces of how Ryiah's world functions, but at then end of the book I still had no clear idea about it.

Overall, great read. I am already eager to see what happens next and can recommend it to everyone who likes fantasy books. 

Reckless by Jessica Miller (Wanderers #4)

I was given the book free of charge in exchange of an honest review (Lovers of Paranormal). The following review may contain spoilers.

Rating 6 of 10

I will admit I struggled reading the book. So... 5 stars for the plot, because I really liked the main idea in the book and 1 star for Josie - she sooo made my day. Let's start with what I liked in the book first.

The plot - demon possessions, power-hungry witches, old lovers, nothing sounds too original but somehow it all worked for me and made me wonder "what happens next?". And that's what kept me reading even thought there were times when I wanted to trow it out and say "I am done".And for that same reason I will most probably be reading the next book too. Come to think of it... I already can't wait for it.

I also liked how the book started. Ella was struggling with the fact she had killed someone and that was okay. If we had seen more of that by the end of the book - things would have been nice. And Josie telling Ella that she is selfish? I soooo wanted to read that from book 1. Absolutely made my day.

Josie and Billy's love story... sweet. I really like seeing these two together. They have a dynamic in them that I still haven't seen in any other couple in the series.

And we are to a point where things went down.... Ella, who at book 3 finally acted her age, went back to the hormonal teenager from book 1 - she couldn't make up her mind on anything, got moody and selfish and everyone was pitting her for having so much to deal with. Yeah, right, she wasn't dealing with anything - the only thing she did for 90% of the book was making out and have sex with Tristan(or thinking for Tristan). Which sort of was my biggest problem with the book, because the entire time it was like the real big problems were secondary to Ella's sexual life. A bit annoying for me. And we practically saw close to nothing from Roman. He was the one possessed but they didn't even kept an eye on him. Oh, and have I mentioned how much I dislike Tristan? He is annoying, self-obsessed, believes sex is the answer in every situation and he has the ability to bring out the worst of Ella. No idea what she sees in him but good looks.

Overall, bad balance in between a good plot and Ella's emotional struggles.  I hope that next books will be better on that part because I really want to know what will happen next.