Blog Tour - Review: A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

Title: A Golden Fury

Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction/Fantasy

Author: Samantha Cohoe

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publication: October 13th 2020

Cover Rating: 5/5

Reading Format: Provided eARC + Finished Copy

Goodreads | Purchase

Thea Hope longs to be an alchemist out of the shadow of her famous mother. The two of them are close to creating the legendary Philosopher’s Stone—whose properties include immortality and can turn any metal into gold—but just when the promise of the Stone’s riches is in their grasp, Thea’s mother destroys the Stone in a sudden fit of violent madness.

While combing through her mother’s notes, Thea learns that there’s a curse on the Stone that causes anyone who tries to make it to lose their sanity. With the threat of the French Revolution looming, Thea is sent to Oxford for her safety, to live with the father who doesn’t know she exists.

But in Oxford, there are alchemists after the Stone who don’t believe Thea’s warning about the curse—instead, they’ll stop at nothing to steal Thea’s knowledge of how to create the Stone. But Thea can only run for so long, and soon she will have to choose: create the Stone and sacrifice her sanity, or let the people she loves die.

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe is the story of Thea Hope and her journey to create the Philosopher's Stone, the mythical object that can turn things to gold and also heal ailments and make a person immortal.

Thea’s mother has been allowing her to train under her as an alchemist but all of a sudden her mother bans her from the lab and starts to show signs of sickness, a sickness that soon turns into a madness and her mother ends up destroying the thing both of them have been working so hard to achieve... the Philospher’s Stone.

After this event, Thea is sent to live with her Father, a man who doesn’t know she exists, who also happens to be an alchemist trying to achieve the same thing Thea and her mother almost succeeded at. And thus begins a dangerous journey full of people trying to create the Philosopher’s Stone but still needing the one vital thing to make it work, the one vital thing that Thea happens to have. But what happens when no one believes Thea when she says creating the stone will cause a sickness?

I truly enjoyed this story. I loved the characters, the plot, the timeline, literally everything. The authors writing flowed together very well and that made this story such a quick and wonderful read.

Thea is a strong main character but she is a little too trusting, too hopeful, and that comes back to bite her in the butt. She does learn from her mistakes and figures out that her mother might have been harsh but she was right about the guy she chose to give her heart to being not exactly who he appeared to be. Because of this, Thea finds herself in many sticky situations.

In the end, I believe Thea made the right choices for herself and the people she cares about. This story was beautifully written and I am so glad this book was on my radar. I can’t wait to see what the author writes in the future. Oh, and most men are scoundrels, that is all.

Overall, I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.

Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and Samantha Cohoe for the promotional copies of this book and for inviting me to be on this tour. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own and are not in any way altered by the fact that the book was sent to me for free.

Samantha’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/smcohoe

Samantha’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samanthacohoe/

Wednesday Books Twitter: https://twitter.com/wednesdaybooks

Wednesday Books Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wednesdaybooks/

Buy link for A GOLDEN FURY: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/a-golden-fury/

REVEW: Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards

Title: Five Total Strangers

Genre: Young Adult Thriller

Author: Natalie D. Richards

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication: October 6th 2020

Cover Rating: 5/5

Reading Format: Provided ARC

Goodreads | Amazon

A hitched ride home in a snow storm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster.

When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight.

As the drive progresses and weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the four other passengers she's stuck in the car with don't actually know one another.

Soon, they're not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but the fact that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster.

Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards is the story of Mira and her quest to get home to her mother on Christmas so she doesn't have to spend it alone with terrible, haunting memories.

Mira hops on a plane to head home for Christmas to be with her mother but we soon learn that there is a massive blizzard about to hit. Her plane lands but she cannot catch her next one because all flights have been canceled. Great, now how does she get home? She can't imagine leaving her mother alone at a time like this when just last year on Christmas day she and her mother lost someone very precious to them. But what else can she do? Oh, that's right, her awesome seatmate on the plane invited her on a car ride across Pennsylvania, she should probably take her up on that offer, right?

WRONG....

Just Mira and her seatmate, Harper, ends up turning into Mira, Harper, and 3 total strangers. They are all college kids though so Mira thinks she's pretty safe; plus she can't leave her mom alone. She just can't. So five total strangers rent an SUV and set off from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in hopes of making it home for the holidays.

I'll be home for the holidays...? Not if you are dead, you won't.

I really enjoyed this book. I LOVE snow but driving in it scares the crap out of me. Oh, and guess what? I am VERY familiar with the route these kids take in the book so you better believe I was yelling at them when they decided to switch routes. YOU DON'T TAKE THAT DANG HIGHWAY, GUYS!!!! But did they listen to me? Noooo, of course not. So they end up pretty much stranded in a blizzard in the middle of fricken Pennsyltucky. You might think things couldn't get worse but oh they most certainly do! Things start to go missing, one of the strangers might be a drug addict, one might be a felon and one might be Mira's stalker, the stalker Mira doesn't know she has.

In the end, this story really freaked me out. The snow, the location, and me being very well acquainted with it and just the overall atmosphere of the book is the perfect recipe for thrills and chills. And at the end of the book, the only advice I can give anyone is TRUST YOUR GUT!

Overall, I gave the book 4.5/5 stars.

Bookoutlet Recommendations #1 - Random Books

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Weekly Wrap-Up + Mini Reviews #6

Today, we are wrapping up for 4/20-4/46(my birthday!). This week was definitely not as good as last week but I still managed to read 8 things, 4 being novels and 4 being graphic novels.

Date Read: 4/20

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

These little skits are so entertaining. I love the relationship dynamics between all the organs. The brain is always trying to make the heart think rationally and the heart is always trying to get the brain to live a little. There is a lot of junk food and even more coffee and all along the different organs share their opinions on everything.

Date Read: 4/20

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

Same as above. I need to somehow get my hands on the first set of these comics. Sadly, my library only has these 2. If you like witty, cute and funny little comics then give these a try.

Date Read: 4/21

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

Oh man, this graphic novel was so good but SOOO long. almost 500 pages. I downloaded this and a few others from Edelweiss thinking, sure let's pad my Goodreads goal with a few little graphic novels. Nope, very wrong. All 3 of the graphic novels I downloaded were over 300 pages. So, I felt like I read an actual full length book with this one. I really loved hard dark it was yet still slightly innocent. There were some typos but I'm hoping they get caught and cleared up in the final printing.

Date Read: 4/21

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

I both liked and disliked this book. It gave us a lot of side information like how Magnus and Alec became parents, which was really awesome, but I just didn't really enjoy the students, aside from Simon but even he was kind of iffy for me in this book. He was very sulky and WHOA IS ME. 

Date Read: 4/22

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review:
I decided to pick this up in the middle of reading Lady Midnight because 1) I left Lady Midnight in my car and was too lazy to go get it and 2) I feel like I burnt myself out on the Shadowhunters books since I have been rereading them ALL since February. This was a really quick read and not exactly what I was expecting from the cover. It is an adult Mystery/Thriller with a lot of family drama.

Date Read: 4/22

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Review: 

This was a reread for me, number 3 actually, so not much to say. This is my 2nd favorite series inside the Shadowhunter world.

Date Read: 4/23

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

This was my least favorite read this week. Some of the ideas/comics were pretty straight forward and beautifully done and I could connect with them while others I had to struggle to even remotely understand.

Date Read: 4/26

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Review: 

I decided to celebrate my birthday by rereading a review copy that I was slightly depressed when I read it the first time so I didn't make any notes. Demetra Brodsky is definitely becoming one of my favorite authors. I can always count on her to give me a twisty story with a lot of emotion beautifully written characters. This book comes out May 5th so be sure to pick it up!!

Weekly Wrap-Up + Mini Reviews #5

Today, we are wrapping up for 4/13-4/19. This past week was my best week so far. I managed to read 23 items, 9 novels, 4 books of poetry and 10 graphic novels ranging from 40-400 pages.

Date Read: 4/13

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

I connect with a lot of Amanda Lovelace's poetry so very much. I am always suggesting her books to my friends. This first book is definitely my favorite of all her books. There are some stories in her other books that I definitely connect to but they don't hit me like these ones.

Date Read: 4/13

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

This is the second book in the trilogy of poems and it just seems that as I go through the trilogy the ratings get lower and lower. This was a good book and as stated about I still connected with a good bit of the poems in this sequel but just not as many or as much as the first book.

Date Read: 4/14

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

I am kicking myself. Okay, I am too fat to actually kick myself BUT if I could I definitely would be. I started reading Gretchen McNeil with #murdertrending and found out I completely love her writing but for some reason, it still took me like 3 years to pick up any of her other books. Now I have to go in search of the Lifetime movie version of this book. Wish me luck!

Date Read: 4/14

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

I was BEYOND excited when I saw that volume 11 of Phoebe and her Unicorn has finally come out. I instantly checked this out from my library's app and read it in less than an hour. These might be aimed for a much lower age range than what I am but I adore them so very much.

Date Read: 4/14

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

This is the last book in the trilogy and it is my least favorite. I loved some of the poems and definitely connected with them but the majority were kind of blah and I also disliked the added poems authored by other people. They just took me out of the zone of the book.

Date Read: 4/15

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

I really enjoyed this little graphic novel. Some of the scenes were a bit confusing or just boring but most of the book was very interesting.

Date Read: 4/15

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review:
I completely adored this graphic novel. It is just so full of humor/dad type jokes. I kept annoying my husband saying omg read this scene or this scene. 

Date Read: 4/16

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

This was my 4th reread of this book and it was still just as good! I love the audiobooks for this series.

Date Read: 4/16

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

This was a reread for me. I enjoyed 90% of the poems and just slightly liked the other 10%. I highly suggest Amanda Lovelace if you are looking to start reading poetry.

Date Read: 4/16

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

This was a cute book with some recipes and ways to self-care.

Date Read: 4/16

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

It was kind of hard to read this book considering I was going through some stuff when I picked it up but I really connected with the girl who got her heart broken.

Date Read: 4/16

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

Ah, to think, this is where the series was supposed to end. I will always love the original trilogy best. <3warner p="">

Date Read: 4/16

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5

Review: 

This was a reread and sadly, I'm lowering my rating to 3.5 stars. The Warner novella is honestly the only part that added anything new to the story. Adams part was almost an entire regurgitation of the end of Unravel Me/beginning of Ignite Me and didn't really add anything and then Juliette's Journal didn't add anything either considering we got to read most of that in Warner's novella.

Date Read: 4/17

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

Last time I read these books this was as far as I got and I really forgot most of the stuff that happened in this book. I enjoyed the reread and this really made me love all my characters even more.

Date Read: 4/17

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

There was something in the back of my head the entire time I was reading this. How did the books turn into this? These were supposed to end at Ignite Me so where did the idea to flip everything even more upside down come from?! This is probably my least favorite of all the books, besides Unite Me. It took me a while to get into the 3 POV's but after I got used to it I really loved Kenji's perspective.

Date Read: 4/17

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

KENJI, KENJI, KENJI!!!

Date Read: 4/17

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Review: 

This was short and cute

Date Read: 4/17

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

This one wasn't as short and it definitely had a more serious tone but it was still very good.

Date Read: 4/17

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

I LOVED this book. I laughed so hard and I kept butting my husband saying OMG THIS IS ME!!

Date Read: 4/18

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

I adored this ending. I still can't believe we went from Ignite Me to THIS. Also, umm WARNER! UGH. This entire series will always be a favorite.

Date Read: 4/18

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

I say this and the comic below on Edelweiss so I decided to add a few shorter books to my goodreads goal. Shorter? Nope. I really enjoyed this book. I got to learn what Bog People/Bodies are and I always love when a book makes me research stuff.

Date Read: 4/18

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: 

Oh man, this book was so painful and emotional to read. It is a bunch of different ways people die and pass on and what happens after death. The one about the deer BROKE ME. Very sad but so very good.

Date Read: 4/19

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Review: 

I read this last year but I saw that my library had the audiobook so I decided to reread it. I still loved the story but the audiobook definitely added a little more depth to the emotions of the characters. <3 cion="" p="">