Image borrowed from LiyJoy Crate Twitter

Hi all

I want to post a review on the three special edition Muse of Nightmares boxes I have purchased from subscription box companies: Behind the Pages, Illumicrate and LitJoy. I was planning on doing one post including all reviews, but due to delays I have decided to separate them.

I will post links to other box reviews on the posts once they have gone up.

This review is for the Dreams & Nightmares box from LiyJoy Crates. This review contains spoilers. All reviews will be an honest review. Reviews include comments on content, price and postage.

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Image borrowed from Illumicrate Twitter

Hi all

I want to post a review on the three special edition Muse of Nightmares boxes I have purchased from subscription box companies: Behind the Pages, Illumicrate and LitJoy. I was planning on doing one post including all reviews, but due to delays I have decided to separate them.

I will post links to other box reviews on the posts once they have gone up.

This review is for the special edition of Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares from Illumicrate. This review contains spoilers. All reviews will be an honest review. Reviews include comments on content, price and postage.

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Image borrowed from Behind the Pages Twitter

Hi all

I want to post a review on the three special edition Muse of Nightmares boxes I have purchased from subscription box companies: Behind the Pages, Illumicrate and LitJoy. I was planning on doing one post including all reviews, but due to delays I have decided to separate them.

I will post links to other box reviews on the posts once they have gone up.

My first review is for the Monsters & Muses box from Behind the Pages. This review contains spoilers. All reviews will be an honest review. Reviews include comments on content, price and postage.

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Image borrowed from google

I have decided to write this post as I started to mention it in a future post, but it started to turn into a rant, so I thought I would make it a separate post specifically to address the issue of spoilers when it comes to subscription boxes.

This post is for everyone who has ever had to say (either to themselves or to another person) “I haven’t received mine yet, please don’t post spoilers”. And I know there have been many.

This post is also for those who would like to not be the person to be on the receiving end of this comment.

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Release Date: October 2nd 2018

Published By: Hodder & Stoughton / Little Brown

Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis: Sarai has lived and breathed nightmares since she was six years old.
She believed she knew every horror, and was beyond surprise.
She was wrong.

In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice-save the woman he loves, or everyone else?-while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she’s capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel’s near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Timesbestseller, Strange the Dreamer.

Review: To be honest, I don’t even know where to start with the perfection that is Muse of Nightmares. I could never do this book justice, so I am not even going to try to be comprehensible; I am just going to fangirl over it.

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Release Date: May 3rd 2018

Published By: Penguin

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Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Synopsis: A princess, a traitor, a soldier, a hunter and a thief.

Five teenagers with the fate of the world in their hands.

Five nations destined for conflict.

In Brigant, Princess Catherine prepares for a political marriage arranged by her brutal and ambitious father, while her true love, Ambrose, faces the executioner’s block.

In Calidor, downtrodden servant March seeks revenge on the prince who betrayed his people. In Pitoria, feckless Edyon steals cheap baubles for cheaper thrills as he drifts from town to town.

And in the barren northern territories, thirteen-year-old Tash is running for her life as she plays bait for the gruff demon hunter Gravell.

As alliances shift and shatter, and old certainties are overturned, our five heroes find their past lives transformed and their futures inextricably linked by the unpredictable tides of magic and war.

Who will rise and who will fall? And who will claim the ultimate prize?

Review: This was my first venture into a Sally Green world, and I have to admit, I was left with some mixed feelings.

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Release Date: April 24th 2018

Published By: Pan Australia

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Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis: Princess. Prisoner. Orphan. Rebel.

Theodosia was six when her country was invaded and her mother, the Fire Queen, was murdered. On that day, the Kaiser took Theodosia’s land and her name. Theo was crowned Ash Princess - a title of shame to bear in her new life as a prisoner.

For ten years Theo has been a captive in her own palace. She’s endured the relentless abuse and ridicule of the Kaiser and his court. She is powerless, surviving in her new world only by burying the girl she was deep inside.

Then, one night, the Kaiser forces her to do the unthinkable. With blood on her hands and all hope of reclaiming her throne lost, she realizes that surviving is no longer enough. But she does have a weapon: her mind is sharper than any sword.

And power isn’t always won on the battlefield.

Review: Ash Princess is the first of a dark, heavy and intriguing fantasy, that will leave most readers loving this engrossing and treacherous world.

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Release Date: April 24th 2018

Published By: Hot Key Books

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Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis: Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?

Review: This title peaked my interest – why? Well, because I don’t like mermaids. Well that isn’t entirely true – I just generally don’t like mermaid stories. I don’t know why. But, I do love dark stories, so this one certainly had me interested.

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Release Date: April 1st 2018

Published By: Walker Books Australia

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Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis: We don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.

Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing.

As disturbing memories resurface, Tash starts to see Sparrow again. And she realises Mallory is the key to unlocking the truth about a dark secret connecting them. Does Sparrow exist after all? Or is Tash more dangerous to others than she thinks?

Review: A small coastal town. A nearly decade old year mystery of what happened to a missing girl. A girl haunted by her past imaginary friend. A decade of falsehoods and lies, therapy and wondering. Now it will all come crashing back into Tash Carmody’s life.

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Image borrowed from Sarah’s website

Hello! Welcome to a Q&A with Sarah Epstein, the author of debut Aussie thriller Small Spaces

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Release Date: March 8th 2018

Published By: Macmillan Children’s Books

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Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis: Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zelie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now, Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for the enemy.

Review: Children of Blood and Bone was one of the most promoted and highly anticipated books of 2018 - and I can totally see why. Debut author Tomi Adeyemi has crafted a fascinating story to submerge yourself in with the first in what I am sure will be an amazing trilogy.

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Release Date: February 1st 2018

Published By: Walker Books

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Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis: Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Review: Oh I do love a story that challenges moral ethics! A little bit of killing never goes astray either :)

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Release Date: March 8th 2018

Published By: HarperVoyager

Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the strange bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate - the Hazel Wood - Alice learns how bad her luck can really get. Her mother is stolen away - by a figure who claims to come from the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: STAY AWAY FROM THE HAZEL WOOD.

To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began . . .

Review: City of Brass was one of my most anticipated 2018 releases. I had heard so much about it from those over the pond (the US got it earlier), and this fantasy debut had me all excited. So did it live up to my expectations? Absolutely!!!

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Release Date: February 8th 2018

Published By: Penguin

Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the strange bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate - the Hazel Wood - Alice learns how bad her luck can really get. Her mother is stolen away - by a figure who claims to come from the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: STAY AWAY FROM THE HAZEL WOOD.

To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began . . .

Review: A type of fairytale retelling, a creepy one at that, is right up my ally. I was very much looking forward to The Hazel Wood, and while I did really enjoy it, I didn’t completely love it.

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Release Date: January 2nd 2018

Published By: Hot Key Books

Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Purchase: Booktopia The Book Depository

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Synopsis: Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

Review: I was very excited for The Cruel Prince, I mean, who does fae better than Holly Black? Black’s fae are dark, mysterious, ruthless, devious, cruel and alluring. And while I did see all these appealing traits in this book, the fae were not quite as dark or underhanded as I had imagined they would be.

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