Mini-Review: Illusive, by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller, Young Adult

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This wonderful gem is like Ocean’s Eleven met the X-men and had a Young Adult book child. When a dangerous viral disease swept across Earth, a vaccine brought the cure. But it also brought side effects – superpowers. These people are called immune, and Ciere is one of them – she can change her appearance to whatever she wants, whenever she wants.

I highly recommend this book, this heist story is so much fun, with lots of action and a tiny bit of romance! I really enjoyed this and can’t wait to read the second book!

eARC Review: The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, by Lauren James

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

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I have received this book via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is a very unique book, I have never really read anything like it. It tells the story of Romy Silvers, the sole survivor in a spaceship that is on its way to Earth 2, and will be responsible for getting the new planet ready for other humans to live in it. She’s been completely alone for five years, but one day she gets exciting news: another ship has left Earth to meet with her in one year! But a war has erupted in Earth, and Romy starts receiving mysterious messages from a new power that has taken over the United States and other countries.

eARC Review: Free Chocolate, by Amber Royer

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera

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I have received this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This highly underrated book is among my favorite sci-fi reads this year! Free Chocolate is a space opera set around 150 years into the future, where Earth has chocolate as their main export and must protect its seeds from aliens at all costs, even if it means keeping your borders closed and animosity at high level. The story follows Bo as she plans to steal cocoa beans with the help of her boyfriend Brill, who is a Krom, the alien species who first invaded earth and stole coffee beans – and is now after the cocoa, too! 

Review: Neverworld Wake, by Marisha Pessl

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery

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I am not sure even how to start this review: how do I write about this book without just yelling to you all to just read it because it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year and I can’t get it out of my mind?

Neverworld Wake tells the story of five teenagers. Beatrice hasn’t seen her friends since the mysterious death of her boyfriend Jim a year before. They decide to see each other and go for a concert, and Beatrice hopes she can get answers out of them: they are all hiding secrets and know more about Jim than they tell. It all goes terribly wrong when they drive back and get into an accident – and enter the Neverworld Wake. A man knocks on the door, explaining they are all hanging between death and life, and must choose only one to survive.

Review: A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Genres: Classics, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

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So I read A Wrinkle in Time, which I wanted to do for a while now! This is such a beloved classic in children’s sci-fi and fantasy literature, I was very excited to read it and bought it in one of my trips to Brazil as a hardcover.

Synopsis: Meg’s father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?

ARC Review: The New Dark (The Dark Times Trilogy #1), by Lorraine Thomson

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Genres: Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult, Fantansy

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I have received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had to battle through this book to get it finished. It’s 221 pages long, but to me it felt like it would never be over. I wanted to give this book the fairest chance possible, but it didn’t work too well.

The New Dark tells the story of Sorrel, a girl living in a post-apocalyptic settlement of Amat, where there is no electrical energy, no currency, no internet. Those things are from the time Before. When she survives an attack by mutants and hides from them, a chain of events gets started – and she must be brave and face dangers if she wants to see her little brother Eli and her friend David ever again.

Review: The Power, by Naomi Alderman

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction, Thriller

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I first saw The Power on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, which I follow on Twitter and it had caught my attention before winning – and once it won, I bought the book almost immediately.

The Power is a speculative fiction which tells the story of what would happen if one day, women woke up to have the power to send electricity through their fingers, making them physically stronger than men. 

ARC Review: Our Dark Stars, by Audrey Grey and Krystal Wade

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Thriller, Romance

Goodreads  / Amazon

I have received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am still blown away by this book as I write this review. This was just phenomenal!

Our Dark Stars tells the story of Princess Talia Starchaser, who on her eighteenth’s birthday will confirm her position as the heir to the throne and to her Dynasty, but must also secure her betrothal to Prince Cassian, who she has never met. Cassian is a cruel person, and demands Talia kills her best friend, a companion mock named Ailat who she has known since birth, in front of an expecting crowd. In a fraction of second, Talia must decide what to do, with enormous consequences to her choice. A hundred years later, Mock Captain Will Perrault and his mock crew discover an object floating through space, and when Talia emerges from the container, she is now in their hands.

ARC Review: The Queen of All Crows (The Map of Unknown Things, #1), by Rod Duncan

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Steampunk, Science Fiction, Fantasy

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I have received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I literally gave squeak when I was accepted for this book! I love steampunk and I had read the series that precedes this one (The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, review to come!) and loved it so much! This author doesn’t get enough love in my opinion!

ARC Review: Artemis, by Andy Weir

EDIT [2018/09/19]:

Rating: ★★★☆☆

I’m deducting a star from my original rating because, upon reflection since I read the book, I realized that the things that bothered me about this book are more important than I initially thought.  I truly didn’t like how Jazz was written and, to quote from a few reviews, she’s more like a stereotypical thriller/sci-fi guy, but with breasts. She’s not written as a woman, really, and while I didn’t mind the lack of women in The Martian so much, it bothered me that Artemis seemed to try to make up for it in such a way.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller

Goodreads / Amazon 

I have received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jazz is a criminal – she makes deliveries and some of those are – well, less than legal. After a falling out with her father, she lives in an awful, tiny place in the only city in the Moon – Artemis. When she fails her EVA master test, she needs to start saving all over again to buy a new suit and be able to get a better job. But then, she’s offered a million for doing a dangerous job. It’s risky and she’s never done a heist before, but with that kind of money, all her problems would be gone. But her job is far more dangerous to her and the city than she knows.