Fan Art Friday

Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I wanted to highlight my literary crush, and one of my favorite book couples. Honestly they are some of my favorite book characters period. 

Valek 💖 Yelena

The Study Series by Maria V. Snyder

This beautiful piece of art can be found at ArtStation. The artist is Hillary Bardin. I love this piece because it is lovely and captures one of my favorite scenes from Poison Study.

This picture was done by Noukette on Deviant Art. I like how Valek and Yelena are looking at each other. I think it captures their personalities perfectly.

My favorite part of a kiss, is the moment right before the lips meet. The moment of anticipation is delicious. This gorgeous drawing used to be on Deviant Art, but I could only find it on Pinterest. I think the author had it on her blog once as well. Sadly, I don't know who the artist is.

This drawing was done by DR4eva on Deviant Art. I love how deadly Valek and Yelena look.

Again, I couldn't find the artist for this one. I found it on Pinterest, but I couldn't find a source. I love how Valek and Yelena are holding personal items, and this is pretty close to how I picture the characters in my head.

If you know who my missing artists are, please leave me a link in the comments. Thank you for stopping by and happy reading! 

Fan Art Friday

Showcasing

Since it's Valentine's Day, I thought I'd feature one of my literature heartthrobs.

Although, none of these pictures portray Valek the way I see him.

Which is your favorite?

p.s.

Happy Valentine's Day

June Book Club

For June, we read

 

SPOILER ALERT!  DON'T CONTINUE READING UNLESS YOU'VE READ THE BOOK OR DON'T CARE IF YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The snackage I provided was Butterfly's Dust and Criollo

(aka Pina Colada and Cakebites).  Convincing huh?

I thought it was clever :)

We had a grand ol' time, and covered many topics of conversation, including:  Hugh Grant, Les Miserables, Chick Flicks, Child Birth, Circumcisions, Strippers, Miscarriages, Brave, food, and much more.  Yes, we did talk about the book too.

Things we discussed from the Poison Study:

The whole commander is a female and a male was a bit confusing.  We decided that he was born a woman, but was a man trapped in a woman's body, and some magic was involved in changing him.

Erin and Emma thought Yelena was going to end up with Ari cause they had some banter and closeness between them.  Later they could accept Valek as the love interest.  The rest of us are swooning over Valek.

Rand's character was questionable.  We talked about how we didn't trust him or want to like him, but he did some likeable things.  Everyone knew there was something off about him from the get go.  He had some weird mood swings.

We felt like some of the sexual abuse wasn't really needed.  We could understand that Yelena was raped and she killed Reyad, but some of the other stuff was cringe worthy (like the naked gymnastics).

Everyone didn't really want to prolong the next 2 books cause we all just want to DEVOUR them, so we decided to read Magic Study and Fire Study for next month.

Poison Study

Goodreads Synopsis:    About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear…

My Thoughts:

-    The story captured me from the very beginning, and it never slows down.  Each chapter is full of awesomeness!!  The plot is intense!!

-    A lot of chapters ended with a little cliffhanger, so I kept telling myself "just one more chapter," but then I couldn't stop.  I read this in 2 sittings.

-    There is some sexual abuse in this book.  Nothing extremely graphic, but it made me cringe a little inside.  This book is probably more for adults.

-    I LOVE LOVE LOVE the banter and bond with Ari and Janco!!!  They crack me up!  Yelena couldn't ask for better friends.  Their loyalty is priceless.  They remind me of how my older brothers protect me.

-    Valek...*sigh*...he is my literature heart throb.  The little flirtations between him and Yelena just make me swoon!!  I haven't swooned this bad over a guy from a book since Gilbert Blythe.

-    Every character is AMAZING!  I really liked how complex some of the people were, like Rand.  I also LOVED seeing Yelena grow so much from beginning to end.  I really connected and fell in love with a lot of the characters, and I just want to read more about them!!

-    Snyder's writing style is perfect.  Everything flows so well, and I can picture everything so clearly and easily.  She is one of my favorite authors.

-    This book gives me such a thrill.  The emotions I go through while reading are crazy!  I feel sad, happy, hopeful, gushy, angry, suspicious, excited, etc.  I love books that let me experience so many things!  

-    I just can't say enough about how great this book is.  It is one of those books where you can't stop turning pages to see what happens, but you are sorry it is over cause you never want it to end.