Book review: Spellslinger (Spellslinger, #1) by Sebastien de Castell

Book review: Spellslinger (Spellslinger, #1) by Sebastien de Castell

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Cover art illustrated by: Dale Halvorsen
Interior card art illustrated by Sam Hadley

 

Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Spellslinger (Book #1 of 6)

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult Fantasy

Pages: 416 pages (Hardcover edition)

Published: 4th May 2017 by Hot Key Books

Spellslinger is a highly entertaining and engrossing start to this hexalogy.

Normally when I see a promising sounding book and notice that it is YA, I immediately lower my expectations for it as I have not always had the best experience with the genre. That has steadily changed over the last few years though, as more and more YA books have surprised me. When Spellslinger quietly showed up on my radar, though, I had no such reservations. I love Sebastien de Castell’s writing that much and will give him the benefit of the doubt any day of the week, and I am thrilled to say that it did not betray my trust in the least.

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Cover Reveal: Unbound (Songs of Chaos #2) by Michael R. Miller

Cover Reveal: Unbound (Songs of Chaos #2) by Michael R. Miller

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Hi everyone! Petrik and Eon from Novel Notions here.

We’re honored to once again welcome Michael Miller to our blog. When Michael was last here, it was for the cover reveal of his Dragon’s Blade Trilogy. This time around it’s for the cover reveal of Unbound, the sequel to his best selling Ascendant. If you are unfamiliar with this series, The Songs of Chaos is a dragon rider epic that takes inspiration from such celebrated works as Eragon and Pern. In Michael’s own words “It’s about a serving boy who defies society to save a blind dragon from death and rises to become a dragon rider. A bit of cultivation/progression magic is sprinkled into this one.” Sounds bloody awesome if you ask us!

Right, no more tarrying, behold the cover!

Cover art by Randy Vargas

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Book Review: Blacklight Born (The Combat Codes Saga, #3) by Alexander Darwin

Book Review: Blacklight Born (The Combat Codes Saga, #3) by Alexander Darwin

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ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Cover art illustrated by: Felix Ortiz

Cover art designed by: STK.Kreations

Blacklight Born by Alexander Darwin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: The Combat Codes Saga (Book #3 of 3)

Genre: Science fiction, Dystopia, Martial Arts

Pages: 379 pages (Kindle edition)

Published: 14th July 2021 by Insight Forge Press (Self-published)

To my own bafflement, I finally finished reading a series for the first time this year. …

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Book Review: The Pagan Lord (The Last Kingdom, #7) by Bernard Cornwell

Book Review: The Pagan Lord (The Last Kingdom, #7) by Bernard Cornwell

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The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: The Last Kingdom (Book #7 of 13)

Genre: Historical fiction

Pages: 321 pages (Kindle edition)

Published: 26th September 2013 by HarperCollins

For the first time ever in the series, I actually think The Pagan Lord felt almost completely like a filler book. …

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Petrik’s Top 10 Books of the Year So Far (1st January-30th June 2021)

Petrik’s Top 10 Books of the Year So Far (1st January-30th June 2021)

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Click here if you want to see the list of all the books I’ve read so far this year: Petrik’s Year in Books (2021)

Between 1st January 2021 until 30th June 2021, I’ve read and reviewed 51 books (25k pages).

Please read this first. There will be three rules I set in this list in order for me to give appreciation to more authors rather than having only a few authors hoarding this list. These rules allow me to highlight more authors, and at the same time, I’ll also be able to include both new and older books (many of them still need attention) that I read within this year.

  • Rereads aren’t included.
  • One book per author.
  • The books listed here are not all exclusively published this year; the list consists of the top books I read for the first time within this year. Non-2021 published books on this list will have their first date of publication included.

Do note that although there’s a rank to this list, I HIGHLY recommend every book/series listed below because I loved all of them immensely, and they received a rating of 4.5 or 5 out of 5 stars from me. Without further ado, here are the top 10 books I’ve read this year so far! (All full reviews of the books listed can be found on Novel Notions and my Goodreads page.) …

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Cover Reveal: Assassin (Darkblade, #1) by Andy Peloquin

Cover Reveal: Assassin (Darkblade, #1) by Andy Peloquin

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Hi everyone! Petrik from Novel Notions here.

Today, we’re here to bring you a gorgeous cover reveal of Assassin by Andy Peloquin. I honestly haven’t read any books by Peloquin yet, but from being active on bookish social media, I know that he’s one of the most prolific authors out there! I’m honored that Andy Peloquin chose Novel Notions to be the one to do the cover reveal of Assassin. To make things even better, the author gave us his reason to republish his series with a new cover art, his inspiration behind the series, and also a detailed cover art process! This is something that interests me so much, but I know that it’s not for everyone; if you just want to see the cover art, feel free to scroll to the bottom of this blog post. Let me know what you think of the cover art and whether this series interests you or not! Without further ado, here’s my interview with Andy Peloquin, and the cover reveal to Assassin!

Cover art illustrated by: Luciano Fleitas …

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Read-a-long for Joe Abercrombie’s The Age of Madness Trilogy (A Little Hatred, Chapters 10-18)

Read-a-long for Joe Abercrombie’s The Age of Madness Trilogy (A Little Hatred, Chapters 10-18)

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Hi everyone,

Petrik and Eon here, we’ll keep this introduction brief. We’re so excited that we get to be the second-in-line to host the read-along event for A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie. It’s truly an honor for both of us to be given this opportunity, especially because Joe Abercrombie’s books are some of our favorite books of all time. Today, we’ll be discussing Chapter 10-18 of A Little Hatred. There will be heavy spoilers for these chapters, so if you haven’t read the book, please go read them first! …

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Book Review: Smoke and Iron (The Great Library, #4) by Rachel Caine

Book Review: Smoke and Iron (The Great Library, #4) by Rachel Caine

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Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Series: The Great Library (Book 4 of 5)

Genre:  Young adult, alternate history, historical fantasy, fantasy

Published: July 2018 by Berkley Books (US) and Allison & Busby (UK)

The best book in the series so far, Smoke and Iron gave me more than a consistently fantastic continuation in The Great Library.

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Book Review: The Dragon’s Path (The Dagger and the Coin, #1) by Daniel Abraham

Book Review: The Dragon’s Path (The Dagger and the Coin, #1) by Daniel Abraham

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The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Dagger and the Coin (Book #1 of 5)

Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy

Pages: 577 pages (Kindle edition)

Published: 7th April 2011 by Orbit

There’s a charm in Abraham’s writing and the stories he tells that just keeps me coming back for more. And the same can be said for The Dragon’s Path. …

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