Book Trailer: King's Cage - Victoria Aveyard

I love Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen series and can't wait for the King's Cage to release in February. This trailer has made me even more excited so I had to share it on here for anyone who hasn't seen it yet!

The highly anticipated new novel from New York Times Number One bestselling author of RED QUEEN.

Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal.

Now a king, Maven continues weaving his web in an attempt to maintain control over his country - and his prisoner.

As Mare remains trapped in the palace, the remnants of the Red Rebellion continue organizing and expanding. As they prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows, Cal - the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart - will stop at nothing to bring her back.

In this breathless new novel from the bestselling author of the Red Queen series, blood will turn on blood and allegiances will be tested on every side. If the Lightning Girl's spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?

Red Queen Series:
(Links will take you to my reviews)
Cruel Crown (Anthology containing 2 prequel novellas)
Red Queen
Glass Sword
King's Cage

Who else loves this series as much as I do?

Review: Glass Sword - Victoria Aveyard

If there's one thing Mare Barrow knows, it's that she's different.

Mare's blood is red - the colour of common folk - but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from the prince and friend who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by the Silver king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red and Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Red Queen Series:
Cruel Crown (Anthology containing 2 prequel novellas)
Red Queen
Glass Sword
King's Cage (2017)

Visit Victoria Aveyard's website for more information

Review:
Glass Sword picks up Mare's story just after the ending of Red Queen. She was rescued by the Scarlet Guard along with Cal after they were both betrayed by Maven and now they've got to try and make some sense out of everything that has happened. Maven has the world convinced that Cal killed the old king and he's now claimed the throne for himself, completely stealing Cal's birthright. Mare and Cal are going to have to learn to trust each other if they want to stand a chance against Maven but he's not an enemy who will be easy to beat no matter how many people they have on their side.

It's not helping that the Scarlet Guard don't trust them either, the Colonel isn't willing to listen to their ideas and it looks like he's taking his army in a very dangerous direction. Mare knows they need to focus on finding the other New Bloods (people like her with red blood but silver abilities) and recruiting them to their side before Maven can have them all murdered but the Colonel isn't listening so she may have to take matters into her own hands.

Glass Sword was another brilliant instalment to this series, once again it's a book with really mixed reviews from a lot of my friends but I went into it feeling hopeful and am happy to say I loved it. I really enjoyed getting to meet so many different New Blood characters, they have such a range of different abilities and this book was a bit like a fantasy version of the X-Men. I love that Mare isn't perfect, she makes mistakes like any young girl in her situation would but she always tries to do the right thing and when she messes up she's smart enough to own it and do her best to make things right. I think she's a pretty great character but I also love so many of the side characters like Cal, Kilorn, Shade and Farley, they're all such well built characters with their own motivations and goals and it's nice to have so many well rounded characters to root for.

There were a couple of shocking events towards the end of the book, one that broke my heart and one that left me in a panic, so I'm desperate to get my hands on a copy of King's Cage to find out what happens next. This series is going from strength to strength and I can't wait to see where Victoria Aveyard takes us next.

Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Paperback / Kindle:

Review: Cruel Crown - Victoria Aveyard

In a world divided by blood - Red or Silver - two women tell the stories no one else knows.

For Coriane of House Jacos, love comes at a terrible cost. In a secret diary, she recounts her heady courtship with the heir to the Silver throne, Prince Tiberias, and the dangers that lurk at the heart of the royal court.

Captain Farley is at the forefront of the Red rebellion. As she plans an attack on the Silver capital, she discovers a secret that could sway the balance of power for ever.

Two gripping stories. One fight for justice.

Red vs Silver.

Red Queen Series:
Cruel Crown (Anthology containing 2 prequel novellas)
Red Queen
Glass Sword
King's Cage (2017)

Visit Victoria Aveyard's website for more information

Review:
Cruel Crown is an anthology containing 2 prequel novellas in Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen series: Queen Song and Steel Scars. Technically these stories are both set before Red Queen (Steel Scars actually has a little bit of crossover time wise but Queen Song is set well before the start of the series) I would actually recommend waiting until after you've read the first book before picking this up.

I'm going to talk about each story separately but I wanted to warn you that just over 50 pages of this 200 page book are an extract for the second book Glass Sword so this book is even shorter than it looks. Luckily this does seem to be reflected in the price but I was shocked when the stories came to an end only three-quarters of the way into the book so it's worth mentioning! Although I thought this anthology was okay I don't think it added a huge amount to the series and I don't think you'd be missing out on much if you decided to skip it.

Please note that when I'm writing the rest of this review I'll be doing it assuming that you've already read Red Queen so if you haven't look away now or you'll end up seeing spoilers.

Queen Song:
This story is set years before the main series starts and gives us the chance to see how Cal's parents first met and fell in love. There were a lot of rumours flying around in the first book that Coriane had used her abilities as a kind of mind control to make Prince Tiberias fall in love with her but this gives us the chance to see what really happened. It also gives us a glimpse of a younger Julian and shows quite how far Elara was prepared to go to get what she wanted. I don't think this actually gave us any information that we didn't find out in Red Queen anyway but it was nice to see things through Coriane's eyes and we get to meet baby Cal which was cute.

Steel Scars:
The second story is told from the point of view of Captain Farley and starts just before Red Queen with some overlap in the timeline which the main reason I think you should read the full length book first. I was really excited about this story and getting more of an inside track on the Scarlet Guard but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. We get to see a few familiar faces but nothing much actually happens so I found myself getting bored during this one.

I also wasn't a fan on the format of the coded messages sent between Farley and her point of contact, not only were they hard to understand at times but the text used for these messages was VERY repetitive which got irritating really quickly. At one point you had the phrase "The following message has been decoded. Confidential, senior clearance required" repeated EIGHT times in the space of three pages! It's a shame because this story could have been great but there actually seemed to be very little point to it in the end.

Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Paperback / Kindle:

Review: Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard

This is a world divided by blood - Red or Silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to seventeen-year-old Mare, a Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

But Mare possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of her potential, the Silvers hide Mare in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess. Knowing that one false move will mean her death, Mare must use her new position to bring down the regime - from the inside.

Now Mare has entered a game of betrayal and lies.

This is Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart . . .

Red Queen Series:
Cruel Crown (Anthology containing 2 prequel novellas)
Red Queen
Glass Sword
King's Cage (2017)

Visit Victoria Aveyard's website for more information

Review:
I've seen such incredibly mixed reviews for Red Queen, most of my friends either loved it or hated it so I put off reading it for a long time because I wasn't sure which camp I'd end up falling into. It's great when you go into a book with fairly low expectations only to end up being pleasantly surprised isn't it? That's exactly what happened with me and Red Queen and now I'm kicking myself for not getting to it sooner. The good news for me is that book 2 is already available, along with 2 prequel novellas, and I already have them all in my greedy hands so I can dive straight in to find out what happens next!

I've seen a lot of people mention similarities to Red Rising in their reviews and I have to admit I was nervous about that after reading the blurb but I just want to clarify (as someone who is a HUGE Red Rising fangirl!) that these books are totally different, yes there are some minor similarities but no more than most dystopian stories have to either Hunger Games or Divergent. If you look hard enough you can find similarities between pretty much any story but Red Queen stands out on it's own merits and I don't think it's fair to compare it to a series like Red Rising.

Now that I've got that out of the way I suppose I should tell you more about this book. Red Queen is set in a fantasy world similar to our own, I'm not sure why people keep calling it dystopian because in my opinion it's definitely fantasy. In this world there are two types of people, the Reds who are basically normal humans, they are considered low caste and therefore get stuck doing all the horrible jobs that nobody else wants, in fact if they can't find a job of their own by the time they're 18 then they're automatically conscripted into the army and sent to fight on the frontlines of a war that has been going on for over 100 years. If the Reds are the dregs of society then the Silvers are the high class, they're the ones who are in charge and they have things pretty easy. The Silvers are in control because they're powerful and they all have some kind of superhuman ability that they can use to protect their position in society.

Mare is a Red and life for her family is pretty tough, she's already watched her older brothers being conscripted into the army and now that her 18th birthday is fast approaching she knows it's her turn next. Mare would do anything to avoid being sent to fight but due to a shocking twist of fate her whole life quickly spins out of control. Now Mare finds herself in an impossible situation with very little chance of escape, she's surrounded by enemies and caught up in a rebellion that could be the death of her.

I'm not going to say too much more about the plot other than to tell you that I was completely sucked into this story and I loved it. Yes, I did have a few issues with Mare - she has a couple of stupid moments where she makes some really silly decisions but I could always understand where she was coming from even when I didn't agree with her choices - and I did guess the Big Bad fairly early on but that honestly didn't bother me. I loved Victoria Aveyard's writing, I thought the story was compelling and I absolutely devoured this book. I may have guessed the betrayal at the end was coming but I enjoyed every minute of it and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Paperback / Kindle:

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 2015 Releases I Meant To Get To But Didn't

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week has a different theme & you can find all the details about how to join in HERE.

Today's topic is Top Ten 2015 Releases I meant to get to but didn't. There were actually a lot of 2015 books that I was really excited about but never got around to reading but here are the ones I REALLY want to try and get to soon!

My top ten releases I meant to get to in 2015 but didn't:

1. Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner - I absolutely loved the first two books in this trilogy so this book was at the top of my Christmas wish list. Thankfully Santa (in the form of my Dad!) left this wrapped up under the tree for me so I really need to get to it soon.
2. The Vanishing Throne by Elizabeth May - It has been a long 2 year wait for this book to be published so I'm really excited about this one, I did manage to reread The Falconer in December so I'm ready to dive into The Vanishing Throne.
3. Mind Games by Jana Oliver - I'm a huge fan of Jana Oliver and her Demon Trappers series is one of my favourites so I ordered a copy of Mind Games the minute I found out about it and I have absolutely no excuse for why I STILL haven't read it!
4. Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger - I finally managed to finish Gail's Parasol Protectorate series last year but I have this one last book in the Finishing School series.
5. A Whole New World by Liz Braswell - I was intrigued by the idea of this book from the moment I first heard about it, it's a retelling of Aladdin with one major difference. What would have happened if Jafar was the first one to find the lamp? Doesn't that sound brilliant? Yup, no excuses for why I've not read it yet!
6. Ink & Bone by Rachel Caine - I love Rachel Caine so this is another preorder that I've failed to get around to reading.
7. November 9 by Colleen Hoover - Colleen is another autobuy author for me, her stories never seem to go in the direction you expect them to but I always fall in love with her characters.
8. The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski - After loving The Winner's Curse this was high on my wish list for 2015 but now I've left it so long I think I'm going to wait for the release of The Winner's Kiss and read the whole trilogy in one go.
9. Soundless by Richelle Mead - I saw some amazing reviews of Soundless which made me really want to read it but since then I've seen some not so great reactions that have made me nervous. I will be brave and to try it soon though!
10. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard - I'm not sure why but the hype for this book pretty much passed by me unnoticed but I was recently sent a copy of Glass Sword for review and the blurb sounds great so I ordered a copy of Red Queen to read first.

So what books are on your list? Have you read any of the ones on mine? Which ones do you think I should read first?