Island Of Misfit Toys

Scaretober Day Five: Spooky Stack

Scaretober Day Four: Candyman

So the description on this one was “books that kept you smiling”. Say what you will, but the books in the PJO and HOO series are my feel good reads. Can’t help but smirk-smile when I read them.

Scaretober Photo Challenge Day 3: fierce females

“You'll be a rumor. A whisper. The thought that wakes the bastards of this world sweating in the nevernight. The last thing you will ever be, girl, is someone's hero.”

Scaretober Photo Challenge Day 2: “We would gladly feast on those who would subdue us.” - fave families.

I just recently started re-reading the Illuminae Files series via audiobook and fell in love with it all over again. Kady, Hanna, and the rest of their group of rebels become their own type of fearsome family. Arguments and teasing included. Let’s be real, AIDAN is that weird cousin we all dread seeing during the holidays. The series is full of thrills, suspense, and space battles with plenty of squeeeee moments in between. If you haven’t read this series please try it!!

Scaretober Photo Challenge Day 1: Tome Life TBR

4/5

Twelve years ago, Ethan Chase was held hostage in the Iron Realm by King Machina. Shortly after his rescue, his sister Meghan Chase became the Iron Queen and more or less cut ties with her human family. Ethan holds a lot of resentment toward his sister. Ethan’s Sight means that his life is constantly plagued by faeries, so he has made himself into an outcast to avoid dragging anyone else into his problems. This year, Ethan has started at a new school after an unfortunate redcap encounter got him expelled from his last one. Though he is set on being alone, half-phouka Todd and human Kenzie force their friendship upon him. Against his better judgment, Ethan finds himself in Nevernever in search of the missing fey exiles and half-breeds (Todd included) with Kenzie by his side. Ethan is thrust back into a world that he has done everything in his power to avoid in order to complete his rescue mission and to battle a new breed of fey. He just hopes he hasn’t led Kenzie to her doom.

5/5

Darrow has made the difficult decision to fight Atlantia and the Society rebels instead of going after Pax and Electra. Sevro has left the battle to join Victra in the search for the children, and he and Darrow have left things on uneasy ground. However, Virginia (aka Mustang) understands and supports Darrow’s decision, and turns her attention to finding the children while her husband fights for the stability of the Republic. Darrow knows that Atlantia has planned an Iron Rain for Mercury and he concocts a Reaper-esque scheme to defeat her and take the planet. As with all of Darrow’s battle plans, there are many moving pieces and many people will die. What he could not have foreseen was how wrong his plans would go.

3/5

As Meg laid dying in his arms, Ash swore to find a way for them to be together if she survived. Now, Meghan Chase is the Iron Queen, the ruler of a realm that Ash cannot survive in. Ash is determined to find a way to beat the odds and Puck joins him for an adventure to the End of the World.

3.5/5

It has been a year since Meghan Chase first went to Nevernever to rescue her brother Ethan from the Iron King. After killing King Machina, Meg discovered that she has power over both Summer and Iron glamours. The journey to defeat Machina almost cost Meg and Ash their lives and their heroics are repaid with exile. Now, a new Iron King is on the rise and the old fey are losing the battle for Nevernever. The situation is so dire that Oberon and Mab have joined forces, but both courts know that Meg is the real key to stopping the iron fey. If Meg succeeds then she and Ash may return to Nevernever, but if they fail then all of the old fey will fade to nothing.

3.5/5

Meghan, obeying her contract with Ash, has arrived in the Unseelie Court. Not quite a prisoner and not quite a guest, Meghan spends most of her time away from the fey gentry, but that doesn’t keep her from the torment of Ash’s brother Rowan. Ash himself has been distant and outright cruel to her since arriving in Unseelie territory. His ruse of indifference is tossed out once the iron fey infiltrate the Unseelie Court. In an attempt to steal the scepter of the seasons, Ash’s look-a-like Tertius kills Ash’s brother Sage and Rowan is revealed as a traitor. Mab refuses to acknowledge the reality of the iron fey and blames the Summer Court for Sage’s death and the scepter’s disappearance. Ash and Meg must find the scepter and return it to Mab before Summer and Winter go to war.

4/5

The only thing Meghan Chase wants for her sixteenth birthday is for her mom to take her to get her driving permit. Instead, Meghan gets a long-lost faerie father, a kidnapped little brother, a brooding Unseelie prince, and the title of Summer princess. Meghan’s little brother Ethan gets replaced with a changeling and Meghan must travel to the faerie lands of Nevernever to get the real Ethan back. Her guide to all things fey is the infamous Puck, who has been disguising himself as Meghan’s best friend Robbie in order to keep an eye on her in the human world. Meghan is being hunted by those loyal to the Unseelie Queen, so she strikes a deal with Prince Ash. In exchange for his help in finding her brother, Meghan will go to the Unseelie court with Ash once Ethan is home safe. Their rag-tag rescue party is rounded out with the addition of Grimalkin, a cait sith reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat.

Ethan is being held at the court of the Iron Fey, a group of faeries unheard of until now. Faeries were born from the dreams of mortals, and the Iron Fey have come to exist as a result of the technological advancement of humans. All faeries, except for the Iron Fey, are injured and weakened by iron, so the expansion of the Iron Court will bring the end of Nevernever. Meghan and her group’s treacherous journey into the unknown are made all the more harrowing by Ash and Puck’s constant attempts at dueling to the death, and by the looming Unseelie threat. Ethan’s life and the fate of Nevernever rest on the shoulders of a half-blood fey princess who may just be out of her depths.

Prior to last summer, I would have laughed if someone had told me how much I would come to love faeries. It actually sounds kind of dumb when I say it out loud. Now I don’t mean Tinker Bell-esque, sprite-like, Cinderella helping, cutesie fairies. I mean faeries. Fae/Fey. More similar to the faeries of mythology, the type of faeries that peak my interest are those just human enough to make you doubt their treachery. Faeries are tricky manipulators who generally care little for human life. They’re magical in a dark way, and they are more likely to stab you in the back than teach you how to fly.

My introduction to faeries came from the Fae Queen herself, Holly Black. Black’s Modern Faerie Tales series contain all of my favorite aspects of Faeries. Naturally, I also devoured her other fae-related books and then had to turn to other sources to get my fix. Cassandra Clare’s faeries do not dominate her books, but they are compelling creatures all the same. Sarah J. Mass’ A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass series show more humanity within the faerie characters, but evil is still lurking just below the surface. I have read countless other books about faeries, so while I am quick to enjoy a book simply because of its subject matter, I am also a harsh critic on how the fae characters are presented. My preference is definitely for those that are reminiscent of Black, Clare, and Mass’ characters. Hell, give me a brooding Lord of the Night Court and I’m sold. I didn’t name my cat Rhys for nothing.

Meghan Chase’s introduction to the fey is more of a crash-course than a gentle easing into the subject matter. Until now she has been ignorant of her fey heritage, but her sixteenth birthday is apparently important in her relationship with the world of faeries. Realizing that Ethan has been replaced with a changeling spurs Meghan to find her real brother, which means that Puck must reveal himself to her after who knows how long of keeping his real identity a secret. Kagawa doesn’t really get into any details as to why Meghan’s sixteenth birthday is so important or reveal just how long Puck has been posing as BFF Robbie. Little details like this are missing from various parts of the story, but do not manage to take away from the story. The missing pieces do more to prompt questions than to distract from the plot.

***SPOILERS***

Angelfall 3.25/5

“Who will guard against the guardians?”

The angels of the apocalypse have come and brought destruction upon the earth. Cities like NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco have been reduced to ghost towns where even the gangs are afraid to go out at night. Seventeen-year-old Penryn doesn’t have the luxury of being a teenager. Her dystopian reality involves managing her paranoid schizophrenic mother who no longer has access to medication, and keeping her 7 year-old wheelchair-bound sister Paige alive. Penryn witnesses a group of angel prey upon another and makes the mistake of trying to help. While she’s distracted one of the angels flies off with Paige, and their mother flees in an attempt to escape one of her many delusions. Now, Paige and the angel are on their own. Paige must work with the enemy and jump head first into the lion’s den in order to save Paige and keep her family together while the world falls apart.

4/5

Angel has been out of commission for three weeks while she healed from her accidental dismemberment. On her first day back at the morgue, a dead body comes alive and tries to attack her, Nick, and Allen. The trio scramble to hide evidence of pseudo-zombie from the other morgue staff, but soon shamblers start popping up all over town. Shambler Judd’s corpse was dumped into the bayou and led to the creation of zombie alligators. These alligators managed to infect several humans and those humans bred what the CDC would come to refer to as LZ-1. As with any other epidemic, panic spreads as more of the population becomes infected. Large groups of people are falling ill at the same time, and some victims die if their bodies can’t handle the infection.

4/5

Tucker’s Point has been taken over by Zombie Fest and Mardi Gras, creating a gold and purple rot-riddled spectacle. The cast of the zombie movie shot nearby has chosen to host a special screening of a new mockumentary, Zombies Are Among Us!, during the festivities. To the close observer, the film is much more than a spoof, it’s a lightly veiled compilation of real clips featuring actual zombies. Exposure has become a very real threat, and Pierce has already begun planning a mass exodus for the Tribe. Dr. Charish has escaped and is using her intelligence as a bartering tool in trying to make a deal with either the Tribe or Saberton. Marcus, Pierce, Brian, and the rest of the big players in the Tribe have gone to Portland to meet with Charish, leaving Angel on her own to handle the exposure risk.

4.5/5

It’s been a pretty good year for Angel Crawford. She’s passed her GED, made some great friends, held down her job at the coroner’s office, and has even started working part-time for Pietro and Dr. Nikas. But this doesn’t mean that life is perfect. Angel’s zombie baby Philip is still on the mend, Marcus is going away to law school, and the struggle between the Tribe and Saberton continues to escalate. The turmoil reaches a new level when Saberton operatives abduct crucial members of the Tribe. A ragtag rescue team made up of Angel, Philip, Naomi, and Kyle must travel to the big city and face a mission way outside of their league.

4/5

Angel Crawford, ex-pill popper convict and newly-minted upstanding citizen, has been a zombie for 10 months. She is thriving at her job in the coroner’s office, her relationship with her dad is on the mend, and she is finally getting her life together. The only hitch? Saberton Corporation has joined the zombie research race. Like the scientists in Pietro’s camp, Saberton is working on a faux brain substitute and other zombie research that would be dangerous in the wrong hands. Even worse? Angel’s zombie baby Philip is working for Saberton and seems to have a grudge to settle with Angel. When a zombie movie begins shooting in Tucker Point and Saberton uses the extras to conduct their research, things get complicated when real zombie are playing fake zombies and no one knows who’s on what side.