Book Review: A Shifting of Stars by Kathy Kimbray

I am so privileged to be a Coffee Bean at Caffeine Book Tours by Shut Up, Shealea so I took my chances and signed up for an adventure to discover new worlds and read yet an amazing story. Today’s post is about A SHIFTING OF STARS by KATHY KIMBRAY. Want to know more about this book? Then continue reading this spoiler free review.

check out the blog tour launch post here

About the Book

Title: A Shifting of Stars

Author: Kathy Kimbray

Publisher: Self-published

Publication date: 28 May 2019

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

Synopsis:

A squandering emperor. A handsome stranger. A reluctant heroine. And the ancient magic that will capsize a kingdom.

Seventeen-year-old Meadow Sircha watched her mother die from the wilting sickness. Tormented by the knowledge that the emperor failed to import the medicine that would have saved her, she speaks out at a gathering of villagers, inciting them to boycott his prized gladiator tournament.

But doing so comes at a steep cost.

Arrested as punishment for her impulsive tongue, Meadow finds herself caught up in the kind of danger she’s always tried to avoid. After a chance meeting with an enigmatic boy, she’s propelled on a perilous trek across the outer lands. But she soon unearths a staggering secret: one that will shift her world—and the kingdom—forever.

Filled with longing and heart, surprise and wonder, A SHIFTING OF STARS is perfect for fans of AN EMBER IN THE ASHES, RED QUEEN and SHADOW AND BONE.

Book links: Goodreads Amazon

My Review:

Reading this book is very timely for me because I am currently watching a series with the same story, a corrupt government. A shifting of stars is about a young girl who experienced the cruelty and injustice of those in power.

Well, some might think that this is a cliche story just how I did before but the turn of events told me why authors keep on writing these kind of stories. For one, not all stories are the same that’s why they all need to be heard.

I commend the writing style of the author for being so catchy that she got me right on the bat. I love the main character Meadow and how she is a cautious girl. I think I can relate to her in that aspect. She is also a brave and strong girl that will do anything for her love ones.

I don’t know how else I’m gonna tell my thoughts without completely spoiling everything so I am leaving my favorite quotes as well as my two cents in this story.

A. I was hooked at the story just by reading the first sentence. I know that it’s gonna be one great adventure.

B. I was shocked by how the story turned out. Definitely got me gone crazy towards the end.

“I should have run.”

Chapter four. Yes girl. This is the story of my life.

“…mashing the humiliation into the ground until nothing is left.”

Chapter fourteen. I guess this takes a lot of courage.

“Sometimes important people come into your life and you need to pay attention!”

Rating 4/5 stars.

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About the author

Kathy Kimbray is a YA author from Australia.

After graduating from the University of Technology, Sydney, with a degree in Media Arts and Production, she went on to complete postgraduate studies in education and spent many years as a primary school teacher.

Now a full-time novelist, Kathy is lucky to be able to tell stories every day.

Aside from writing, Kathy is an avid reader, dancer, language learner, musical theater enthusiast and fan of terrible reality TV. She lives with her husband in Sydney, and dreams of one day owning that elusive chateau in France.

Author links:

Author website Goodreads Instagram Facebook Twitter

A Queen who needs no King

In celebration of the Fierce Female Reads for the month of February, I decided to join Ashley’s (falling down the book hole) tour in blogs, instagram, and twitter. Basically, these posts showcase Fierce Females whether they are from books, movies, or even in real life.

Make sure to read until the end for more information about Fierce Female reads and a chance to win awesome prizes.

Fierce Female for me is someone who stands up for herself and is not afraid to speak her mind. She is someone who has courage to be herself and to be a good example to everyone around her. She is someone who has her own battles but does not need anyone fighting it for herself.

I have actually quite a few characters in mind but I decided to chose this one person who best suit the description. At first, I thought of Annabeth Chase from Percy Jackson Series, although I am not a fan of their relationship, I can’t deny that she’s a real badass. She has a brain and she uses it right. There is also Hermione, a great witch and a great friend. I also thought of Paige from The problem with Forever, though she may be a side character, I did not fail to see how tough she is. She stood up for herself and takes good care of her sister. I also thought of Feyre from ACOTAR and how she fend for her family. They’re all awesome in their own ways but I decided to go for REYNA AVILA RAMIREZ-ARELLANO.

  Reyna is indeed a QUEEN (literally haha) WHO NEEDS NO KING.

Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano or simply Reyna, is a Roman demigod daughter of Bellona and one of the Praetors of Camp Jupiter. Her mother is a Roman war goddess , and like her mother, she is a strong, dedicated military leader.
As befits her position, she wears a purple toga decorated with medals over Imperial gold armor and carries an Imperial gold knife. Her arm tattoo displays four slash marks for the four years she has lived at the camp, the initials SPQR, and a sword crossed with a torch, the symbols of her mother. She has two automaton dogs: Aurum, who is made of gold, and Argentum, who is made of silver. Both dogs can tell if someone is lying, an ability Reyna finds quite helpful.

https://www.readriordan.com/character/reyna/

Tho at first I perceived her a a strict and cautious type of person, she never failed to showcase her prowess. She has piercing black eyes that added more angst to her aura. She is a leader and a protector of Camp Jupiter. When she was young, she experienced being captured by the pirates together with her sister Hylla and that’s how they learned to protect themselves. As they part ways, Hylla became an Amazon and she became a Praetor. She is a leader and a warrior. She can sometimes be over-empowering but she has a soft side. She will do everything for the ones she loves specially her family. She stands up for what is right and she does things for a great cause.

Now, why did I say that she is a Queen who needs no king? Well besides for the fact that Reyna literally means queen in Filipino and Spanish, it is hinted in the book that maybe Reyna and Jason had a little something going on before Jason lose his memory and became Piper’s boyfriend.

Now caught up with all that happened between Greeks and Romans, Reyna somewhat lost intimacy with Jason so that ended their budding relationship, if there’s any. There are also fans that connects her to Percy and Nico (other characters from the story), but she didn’t really had a partner in the books.

Despite all that she stood her ground and still be the amazing person she is. tho she has no love interest in the book, she is definitely someone you can look up to and be proud of.

For more information about this whole tour, please visit:

https://fallingdownthebookhole.com/fierce-female-reads-february-announcement/

Meet The Blogger: Ellie From A Book Devourer

Get to know more about me 😉

Review Policy

I have been accepting every book review copies offered to me since it is my way to discover new stories and new authors but I learned that not every story is meant for me. That is why I decided to have my own review policy.

First, I am Ellie and the platforms that I use for reviewing are:

a) My Blog site which is Abookdevourer

b) Goodreads

c) Instagram and Twitter

I accept the following genres:

YA, Children’s fiction, Contemporary, Sci-Fi, Teen Fiction, and Mystery/Thriller

I love physical copies and I appreciate them so much but since I live in the Philippines and not all authors are capable of sending me a copy, so I also accept digital format specially epub since that works for me well.

I don’t write much about the story itself (I only post the summary) because I post spoiler free reviews. I definitely point out the things I liked and I didn’t like. But I also have other creative posts like Author Interview, Fave Quotes or anything related to the book.

One thing I can guarantee is that I’ll be reviewing your book honestly.

If you are willing to let me read your masterpiece then contact me through my email at ellethedreamer@gmail.com or my
Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Book Review: Heavenward by Olga Gibbs

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I am back again with another book review. It has been always an honor to find blog tour hosts and discover new books that I will eventually enjoy. So if you want to discover yet another great book, then keep on reading.

So this book is Heavenward written by Olga Gibbs and this is the first book for the Celestial Creatures Series. What can be a better way to know more about the book? It is to know first about the author.

Author Bio
Olga Gibbs lives in a leafy-green town, nestled amongst the green fields of West Sussex, England. She was writing from the age of fifteen, mainly short stories and novellas and was a guest columnist for a local newspaper. When she is not dreaming up new adventures for her imaginary friends, she does outreach work with teenagers.

She is currently writing a second book in the “Celestial creatures” series and another stand-alone psychological crime thriller book.

Author links

Website: https://olgagibbs.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgagibbsauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgagibbsauthor/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorOlgaGibbs/

About the book

Synopsis
With the power to end the world, would you protect humanity when it broke you or would you take revenge?
Meet Ariel: a quiet, unnoticeable girl with an incredible gift…
Ariel never had an easy or pleasant life, but the arrival of three gorgeous strangers meant her measured life is turned upside down, as she discovers that angels exist.
Now against her will, she’s drawn into an ancient celestial conflict, where her powers will decide the fate of humanity.
Deceived, threatened, hunted and now on the run, who can she trust?

Purchase Links:
Available to buy from (multi link)
Amazon US
Book Depository

My Review:

I discovered this book through Melanie, our lovely blog tour host and honestly this is my first time reading a book with this kind of characters, angels.

Since I’ve been reading so much fantasy lately, I have high expectations for this book and while reading it, I am somewhat disappointed in some aspects but also intrigued with how the events unfolds.

First off, let me explain my brief understanding about this book. Ariel, the main character is a normal teenage girl who suffers from schizophrenia. She has these dreams that felt so real but she can’t understand them. One day, there are three new students in their school and somewhat tried to involve themselves to her. As the story unfolds, she learnt that she has the essence of an assassinated angel and that made her so important. That’s where things get complicated.

Some of my main sentiments for this books are, first, I didn’t expect this book to be like a full on teenage romance. I mean, it is clearly highlighted in the story that Ariel is developing feelings for Sam and is also confusing her subconscious feelings for Rafe. Well, I get it that it is part of a bigger story but since it is only the first book in the series, I figured that it will be more of explaining and narration rather than talking about love immediately.

Secondly, I can’t really figure out the pace of this book. It fast and slow for me at the same time. It was fast in the sense of how everything is unfolding. First, she was attempted to be murdered, then she found an alliance which eventually turned out to be an adversary. The book is slow in terms of how things are explained. It actually took me time before grasping everything. I know there is a scene where Rafe is explaining to Ariel but it isn’t enough for me. Well, I hope that things will be explained further in the next book.

Thirdly, I hope there can be more build-up with the character like how they feel and think. I wish the author could establish a stronger point with the character’s every move. Maybe because it has only twenty chapters that’s why I feel like the story is kinda squished.

Lastly, I can’t quite grasp on how many opposing forces are there. I mean, why can they easily infiltrate one’s bases/camps? And if they’re seeking vengeance, does it really have to be so cruel? I hope everything will be explained in the following books. I definitely need more.

Of course, I wouldn’t only talk about the things that I didn’t quite like. I will also talk about the strong points. This book is actually new to me. As I’ve said earlier, this is my first time reading with angels as the main characters so it really caught my attention. There’s also something about how the author writes that even when I wanted to put it down and not continue, I still read it. It is also easy to pick up where you left off. There is a strong imagery used in this book. You must actually pay attention into details so that you can get a clue of the bigger story behind it.  Overall, I just hope it gets better on the next book and I hope it reaches a lot of reader’s heart.

Ratings: 3.5/5 stars

If you want to have a chance to read Heavenward the just click the link below and sign up to the Celestial Club and receive an e-copy of the book for free. Click here.

 

Check out the other stops of this blog tour too.

Abookdevourer: Getting to know me

Hello! Welcome to my blog! I have been posting for a while now but I haven’t really had a proper introduction.

So I decided that this is the perfect time to do one.

I started this blog around November 2016 along with my bookstagram account. Being new to the community made it hard to navigate my site. It actually took some time to be familiarized on what was going on.

Bellay and books is original blog site name or domain name. My mother gave me the nickname Bellay and at that time I don’t want to use my real name so I decided to go with my nickname instead.

A little while later, that blog name wasn’t a very good choice and it’s not enough to capture anyone’s interest so I thought of another name. I remembered how much a book consumes me that I think about it so much even before I sleep. I even day dream about it. Hence, the birth of abookdevourer.

I am Ellie the owner of this blog. I am a nineteen year old girl from the Philippines who loves to read books and who loves to write what she feels.

Growing up, I have been always the shy type. I have no confidence and I like to be left alone. I can’t even interact with my cousins that much because I think one huge factor to that is, they’re much older than me and at that time, I am the youngest in our clan.

That is why I wrote letters. I always write letters to my parents to let them know what happened in my day at school. I also write letters whenever there is an occasion like birthdays, Christmas, valentines, etc. It has been my outlet and a compensation for my shyness.

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  This is my lolo (grandpa) teaching me how to write.

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  These are some of the letters I wrote. Some are written way back 2009.

Thinking back about those times, I think that is why my dream of being a writer blossomed. Do I write now? The answer is no. Writing actually takes time and talent and I currently have nothing. What a better way to pursue writing without having much self-pity for my poor skills? It’s no other than blogging. I can pour my emotions as much as I want to. I can post whenever and whatever.

This blog is also brought to life because of my love for reading. My very first novel is Traces Series by Malcolm Rose. I read it when I was eleven years old. My cousin bought it from a thrift store and he lent it to me. I remember loving Luke’s and Jade’s characters so much that I immediately finished four books in the series. Too bad my cousin only has the first four books. I would love to have the rest of the books and read them. With that said, the first genre I fell in love with is, SCI-FI.

Being a broke elementary student stopped me from buying and reading books. Years passed and when I am a junior in high school, that’s when I met my bookworm classmate. Bless her good soul for lending me here books until we graduate from high school.

When I entered college and got a scholarship, I bought my first series which is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I love Rick Riordan and his humor. It is the best! That’s the start of my bookstagram and blogging career. Now here I am posting whatever interests me.

Got more questions about me? Talk to me on my twitter account @abookdevourer