Beautiful Nightmare: Some Dreams Become Your Reality by Ashley Marie Nestler

Long ago, the world suffered a terrible war, leaving behind only a select few hundred people. Believing that strong emotions fueled the war, those who survived created a town named Lunamoon, where each new human would be altered to be unable to feel emotion. 

They decide to choose only one man in each generation to be named the dream maker, and he would create dreams for everyone to tell them what their jobs and life outcomes would be.

The dream maker is able to live in solitude for the duration of his life, but the moment that the current dream maker is born, everything changes. Shawneleigh, a premature child was born with narcolepsy on the same day as the dream maker, lives on her own in the hospital. Through her sporadic sleeping spells and the connection they made at birth, she and the dream maker are able to connect through her dreams. They become friends, and then, fall in love.

Beautiful Nightmare is a tale of love and faith, showing how we can stand up for ourselves, while standing against those who want others to fail. For through it all, in the end, there is love.

First-time author, Ashley Marie Nestler, grew up in Westminster, Colorado. "I have lived right by the mountains all of my live, and the beauty really inspired me with this novel. 

Publisher's website: http://sbpra.com/AshleyMarieNestler

Review: 

I have to point this out before  I say anything about the book. I found this out shortly before I started reading it. This is the author's debut novel, and she wrote it during her senior year of high school. Let that sink in for a minute. Think about what you were doing during high school. In my case, I was a super boring honor's student, scared about graduating high school and going to college. I have always loved to read and have, on occasion, fantasized about writing a book someday. However, I couldn't imagine my 17 year old self sitting down, putting pen to paper and finishing a whole novel, much less having the courage to publish it myself. Needless to say, I was super impressed before I even read the first sentence.

Now on to the book: the story has an interesting and unique premise - the people of Lunamoon's brains are altered when they are born, removing their emotions. While this is a great concept, I think the follow through could have been better. It seemed like there were too many inconsistencies and contradictions, and things that didn't make much sense. For example, for people that are supposed to be devoid of emotions, they sure are prone to experiencing some pretty strong emotions, like jealousy, rage, and for some, love.

Also, I don't understand at all why a sex scene was included in this book. The world as they know it is turned upside down, and they sneak into an empty hospital-ish room for a quickie, when she wasn't even aware what kissing was earlier in the book? I thought that this was kind of tasteless and am not sure what the point was. This could be just me, though.

The ending of this book totally threw me for a loop. There were some aspects thrown in there that I didn't think really fit in with the rest of the story. I don't want to give away an spoilers, but the ending seemed like a completely different book. To me, it seems like too many different plot lines were popping up that didn't mesh with the rest of the story.

However, overall, I definitely respect the author for writing this book and putting it out there. If this is what she accomplished during her senior year in high school, I would definitely like to see what she can do later in life. Although this book wasn't my favorite, I would definitely read another book that she writes!

I received a copy of this book for free, in exchange for an honest review.

Numers Game by Rebecca Rode

Treena is nervous for Rating Day. A single number will brand her forever - a valuable citizen, or a pathetic waste of space. Her top-Rated boyfriend is confident their scores will coincide so they can attend academy together. But when the big day arrives, her true number shocks everyone. 

To get her life and boyfriend, she must go undercover and expose a military spy. Doesn't sound too hard, except that someone wants her dead. And then there's Vance, the mysterious soldier with a haunted past and beautiful brown eyes. Together, they discover a dark numbers conspiracy, one that shatters the nation's future. Treena must join up with Vance if she is to survive the dangerous game of numbers - and the terrible war that rages within her heart.

About the Author:

Rebecca Rode is the international bestselling author of the Numbers Game trilogy and Love Right, a sweet romance. Her published works also include the inspirational book for mothers, How to Have Peace When You're Falling to Pieces, and various freelance articles in the Deseret News, Provo Daily Herald, KSL.com, Family Share, and Schooled Magazine. She loves cheesy martial arts movies, chocolate-banana shakes, and good old fashioned romance. Rebecca lives with her husband and four children.

Check her out on Twitter and Facebook!

Review:

This book was excellent! I wasn't quite sure what to expect, with this being my first book from The Review Chain, and not being familiar with the author. I was super impressed! I'm dying to read the sequel! 

Although there was a bit of a love triangle included in the story, I was happy with how the author incorporated it. Although she did have the all too common, two completely opposite love interests, the main character remained strong and independent, and most importantly, did not turn into a mush-brained idiot that could only focus on her love interests and competing feelings for them. If you've read any of my other reviews, you probably realized that this is my pet peeve.

I really think that this author was able to find a perfect balance of romance. It is rare to find a YA fantasy book without some type of romantic interest, and too many authors just tend to take the cliche love triangle and insert it into the middle of the book, impacting everything else. I think the author found a great way to incorporate the love triangle aspect, without making that the main aspect and taking over the whole story, which is done way too often. 

I am super excited to read more by Rebecca Rode and can't wait to see what happens next in the Numbers Game series!

I received a copy of this book for free, in exchange for an honest review. 

The Keeper and the Rulership (The Systems in the Rulership #1) by Emily Martha Sorensen

In a world where both magic and mathematics are forbidden, Raneh is growing magic, and she can't seem to stop. She'll face the death penalty if anybody ever catches her, so she hides it in the weeds of her family's land, pretending to be a typical eighteen-year-old heir. And it works.

Until the Ruler comes to visit.

An Excerpt from The Keeper and the Rulership:

"And the worst part is," Jontan went on, piling up a stack of carefully extracted slipgrass behind him, "you can't even get your magicians to help remove them! They absorb any magic that comes near."

"Uh... yeah." I pushed my magic far into the groverweed, which sucked it up eagerly. "I think I've heard that."

"I've heard, in the really bad infestations," Jontan said in a lowered voice, "they actually burn the ground to get rid of everything. Filias, roots, seeds, everything. Can you believe that?"

"Well, if the groverweed has taken over..." I began absently. The plant in front of me flourished and unfurled several buds. Blackedned lumps blossomed and spurted me with grey pollen dust that reeked faintly like ash. Argh!

Fortunately, Jontan still had his back turned. "I mean, it wouldn't be so bad if groverweed was actually useful for something. But you can't eat it, you can't make clothing out of it, and the flowers are the ugliest things I've ever seen. Have you ever seen one in full bloom?"

"Uhhh..." I stared at several in front of me in dismay. "Nope. Never."

About the Author:

Emily Martha Sorensen writes clean fantasy for every age level, particularly young adult, middle grade, and clean new adult. (Yes, there is such a thing, thank you very much! College students can have fun, clean fantasy adventures, too!)

She also draws comics: A Magical Roomate is about a wizard-in-training who's forced to go to college in our world, and To Prevent World Peace is a magical girl series from the point of view of the villains.

You can read more about her, or join her mailing list, by clicking here: http://www.emilymarthasorensen.com

Review:

I read this book in one day... really in a few hours. It was a great, easy read! It was also really well thought out. The world building was excellent, and while trying not to give much away, the positive aspects and faults of the world were highlighted nicely.

I really liked the main character. While pressure was put on her to find a husband, not only did she stick to her morals and standards, but she also didn't get dumb and goofy over any guy that gave her attention and she thought she might be attracted to. Although occasionally, I got a little annoyed at the way Renah reacted to some of the things some characters did, I couldn't get mad at it. It really fit in well with the story and portrayed the society she was raised in. 

This book was very unique in many ways, and I found it quite refreshing. It had romantic aspects, but it didn't fuss over them or dwell on them too much. 

This book was AWESOME, and I can't really find anything that I didn't like. I can say that I think it could have been longer and added a little more detail toward the beginning about Renah's world and the significance of the flowers. 

Overall, this was a great story! I was only upset with the ending, because I can't wait to find out what happens next! I just looked it up, and sequel, The Fires of the Rulership, was released in November! I can't wait to get a copy and learn what happens next with Renah and her family!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. 

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

I was born for killing - the gods made me to ruin.

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In a few, the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don't truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent, her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin, if she is to survive...

If you read any of my other reviews, you might notice a trend... I have so many books on my TBR list, and there may be a good bit of time between when I request a book and when I actually get to read it. So, I have a tendency to request books after reading their description or reading good reviews, then not exactly remembering what they're about or why I requested them when it comes time to read them. 

This was was the case with Red Sister. I didn't remember what it was about, and the short description I read on NetGalley before downloading it only talked about the author's previous best-selling series and how this is the start to his new series. So, that's all I had to go on when I started reading the first line:

It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent and Lano Tacsis brought 200 men.

I've found that going into books you know you requested but don't know what they are about can be pretty exciting. It's not like just picking up any book at random and starting to read. That could spell disaster. Imagine instead, going through a bunch of books and reading descriptions and reviews, picking out 20 or so that you think you will like, then forgetting about them for six months. Then, randomly picking up one of those books and start reading, without looking at anything else about it.

I doubt the description said anything about armies killing nuns, but starting out a book with that first sentence, gave me an awesome first impression, and the rest of the book followed suit.

I absolutely loved everything about this book! The main character is strong and independent, and the author never takes away from that at all by adding a cliche love interest. The story doesn't call for it, and trying to add it in there would have ruined the story IMHO. The heroine is perfectly capable of rescuing her self, and she does (sometimes with a little help from her friends)!

After reading this book, I did a little more research and found out that it isn't going to be released until April, meaning that I could be waiting a long time for a sequel. :( While I might not be waiting patiently, I will be waiting anxiously awaiting more about Nona the nun! 

I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.