Author: Kate Mascarenhas

Edition: Head of Zeus Netgalley e-ARC

Releasing: 12th November 2020

Series: n/a (standalone)

Pages: 400 approx.

Links: Goodreads | Author's Website | Buy the book!

**Huge thank you to the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC (Netgalley) of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

The Kendrick family have been making world-famous dolls since the early 1800s. But their dolls aren't coveted for the craftmanship alone. Each one has a specific emotion laid on it by its creator. A magic that can make you feel bucolic bliss or consuming paranoia at a single touch. Though founded by sisters, now only men may know the secrets of the workshop. 

Persephone Kendrick longs to break tradition and learn the family craft, and when a handsome stranger arrives claiming doll-making talent and a blood tie to the Kendricks, she sees a chance to grasp all she desires. 

But then, one night, the family's most valuable doll is stolen. Only someone with knowledge of magic could have taken her. Only a Kendrick could have committed this crime...

The Thief on the Winged Horse intrigued me pretty quickly on reading the synopsis. How could I not be drawn in by a magical doll making family?! It seemed unlike anything I'd ever read before and as someone who's always on the hunt for something completely different in the fantasy world, it was pretty much all I needed for it to reel me in. Although a quick, agreeable read, it ended up not being my kind of book. 

ARC Review: A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

Author: Samantha Cohoe

Edition: Wednesday Books e-ARC

Releasing: 13th October 2020

Series: n/a (standalone!!)

Pages: 352 approx.

Links: Author's Website | Goodreads | Buy the book!

**Huge thank you to the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC (Netgalley) of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

Wow, this was one exhilarating and fun book. Right from the go, Thea's story intrigued me and hooked me in - I flew through this book. The premise was so interesting and the mystery and desire surrounding the Philosopher's Stone was so enthralling. I really enjoyed the plot line of this novel and the way themes of desire and power were explored. I also loved the lighter themes of womanhood - particularly because of the time the book is set in; 1792. It brings up discussion surrounding the nature of a woman's 'role' at the time and where women stood in relation to science. Although not extensively explored, I still enjoyed the theme's presence in the different women characters we meet in this novel.

ARC Review: A Deadly Education

Author: Naomi Novik
Edition: Del Rey e-ARC
Releasing: 29th September 2020
Series: Scholomance #1
Pages: 336 pages approx.
Links: Author's Website | Goodreads | Pre-order the book now!

**Huge thank you to the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC (Netgalley) of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

In the start of an all-new series, the bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver introduces you to a dangerous school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death – until one girl begins to rewrite its rules.

Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered.

There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal.

Once you’re inside, there are only two ways out: you graduate or you die.

El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school’s many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions – never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school.

Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too. So El is trying her hardest not to use it... that is, unless she has no other choice.

I LOVED this book. Whole-heartedly and completely, every minute of it. I can't even begin to describe my excitement when I first started reading this novel. I'd previously read and loved Novik's other books, Uprooted and Spinning Silver but, honestly, nothing prepared me for the blast I was going to have reading this book. I think this is my new favourite book of hers now and, sure enough, she has now become one of my staple authors.

Adventures on the High Seas and Pirate Politics... ARC Review: Fable

Author: Adrienne Young

Edition: St Martin's Press Netgalley e-ARC

Releasing: 1st September 2020

Series: Fable #1 (Duology)

Pages: 368 approx.

Links: Goodreads | Buy the book!

**Huge thank you to the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC (Netgalley) of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home seventeen-year-old Fable has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.

But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him and Fable soon finds that West isn't who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they're going to stay alive.

Welcome to a world made dangerous by the sea and by those who wish to profit from it. Where a young girl must find her place and her family while trying to survive in a world built for men.

I adored this book. I should start this review by saying I'm pretty obsessed with the sea and pirate-esque stories. I don't know where this obsession comes from but ever since I was little, I've just loved the water. One of my favourite memories is from when I was on holiday and I was just swimming and floating about in crystal blue water so clear, I could see all the way down to the white sand below on the sea floor (we were out at sea on a boat trip for the day). I just loved the feeling of how boundless the sea felt around me, water stretching out below and away on either side of me. So pretty much from Fable's first dive, this book hooked me in. 

Book Review: Foundryside

Author: Robert Jackson Bennett
Edition: Jo Fletcher Books Paperback
Released: 21st August 2018
Series: The Founders Trilogy #1
Pages: 503 approx.
Links: Goodreads | Author's Website | Buy the book!

In the city of Tevanne, you either have everything, or nothing. For escaped slave Sancia Grado, eking out a precarious living in the hellhole known as the Commons, nothing is just one misstep away.

So when she is offered a lucrative job to steal an ancient artefact from a heavily guarded warehouse, she leaps at the chance.

But instead of a way out of Tevanne, she finds herself the target of a murderous conspiracy. Someone powerful wants the artefact, and Sancia dead.

To survive, Sancia will need every ally and every ounce of wits at her disposal – because if her unknown enemy unlocks the artefact’s secrets, the world – and reality – will never be the same.

I first came to hear about this book through Regan's booktube channel, PeruseProject. You've probably heard of her, she's pretty popular in the booktubing community, and also a pretty big fantasy nerd like myself. Out of all the booktube channels I watch, I've always found my taste in books to be the most aligned with Regan's so whenever she raves about a book and the blurb catches my attention, I tend to want to pick it up pretty quickly. Bennett's Foundryside was one of those books.