I was surfing on Society6 and I saw amazing art/products from extremely talented artists. If you didn't know, Society6 is an online retailer (of sorts). It's more of a market for independent artists. Artists create pieces of art and they're sold as prints, home items and apparel through Society6, who produces it too. Hopefully the artists I share in this post appeal to you and you support them by buying their products. I'm not being sponsored in any way, as usual, I just want to showcase some artists. Apologies in advance for the lack of photos.
OASIS IN THE CLOUDS REVIEW
Oasis in the Clouds (When Worlds Collide #1)
by C. Esther
Self-Published | July 19, 2016
Status: Completed
Niri wakes up in a beautiful garden, and finds that she has no memories. She is sure she will spend the remainder of her days there, until an unknown friend comes to her aide and reveals the truth about her personal paradise. Discovering that she is Wicca, she embarks on a journey to learn about her powers, the extent of which surprises her at every turn. She must ultimately retrieve her memories and help the higher order of witches imprison the Wicca who stole her memories before she takes the kingdom for herself. A mighty task for a woman of only twenty.
THE SCORPION RULES
The Scorpion Rule (Prisoners of Peace #1)
by Erin Bow
McElderry | September 22, 2015
DNF @ somewhere around 50%
The world is at peace, said the Utterances. And really, if the odd princess has a hard day, is that too much to ask?
Greta is a duchess and crown princess-and a hostage to peace. This is how the game is played: if you want to rule, you must give one of your children as a hostage. Go to war and your hostage dies.
Greta will be free if she can survive until her eighteenth birthday. Until then she lives in the Precepture school with the daughters and sons of the world’s leaders. Like them, she is taught to obey the machines that control their lives. Like them, she is prepared to die with dignity, if she must. But everything changes when a new hostage arrives. Elián is a boy who refuses to play by the rules, a boy who defies everything Greta has ever been taught. And he opens Greta’s eyes to the brutality of the system they live under-and to her own power.
As Greta and Elián watch their nations tip closer to war, Greta becomes a target in a new kind of game. A game that will end up killing them both-unless she can find a way to break all the rules.
NO. JUST, NO | DAUGHTER'S OF RUIN
Daughters of Ruin
by K.D. Castner
McElderry Books | April 5, 2016
DNF @ 56%
Meet rumor with quiet, treason with cunning, and vicious with vicious.
Rhea, Cadis, Suki, and Iren have lived together since they were children. They are called sisters. They are not. They are called equals. They are not. They are princesses. And they are enemies.
A brutal war ravaged their kingdoms, and Rhea’s father was the victor. As a gesture of peace, King Declan brought the daughters of his rivals to live under his protection-and his ever-watchful eye.
For ten years they have trained together as diplomats and warriors, raised to accept their thrones and unite their kingdoms in peace. But there is no peace among sisters, and all plans shatter when the palace is attacked. As their intended future lies in ashes, Rhea, Cadis, Suki, and Iren must decide where their loyalties lie: to their nations, or to each other.
I wish I had less stars to give.
TRISTAN DE MONTIGNY TRASH | HIDDEN HUNTRESS REVIEW
Hidden Huntress (The Malediction Trilogy #2)
by Danielle L. Jensen
Angry Robot | June 2, 2015
Sometimes, one must accomplish the impossible.
Beneath the mountain, the king’s reign of tyranny is absolute; the one troll with the capacity to challenge him is imprisoned for treason. Cécile has escaped the darkness of Trollus, but she learns all too quickly that she is not beyond the reach of the king’s power. Or his manipulation.
Recovered from her injuries, she now lives with her mother in Trianon and graces the opera stage every night. But by day she searches for the witch who has eluded the trolls for five hundred years. Whether she succeeds or fails, the costs to those she cares about will be high.
To find Anushka, she must delve into magic that is both dark and deadly. But the witch is a clever creature. And Cécile might not just be the hunter. She might also be the hunted…
THE LAST OF IT | ALL IS SWELL
1Q84 (1Q84 #1-3)
by Haruki Murakami
Vintage International | January 22, 2013
Status: ALL 1,157 PAGES!
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - “Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s - 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.
THE UNNECESSARY PART II | 1Q84
1Q84 (1Q84 #1-3)
by Haruki Murakami
Vintage International | January 22, 2013
Status: Part 1+2 complete
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - “Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s - 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.
LET'S TALK ABOUT SHELVES, BABY
A bookshelf is the home to your precious little ones: your books. It is of the utmost importance to pick the right home for them. Let's explore your, many, options. (All pictures are from Google and belong to their respective owners, no copyright intended.)
RJ JONES' DEATH 2: THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL
It's a Wonderful Death
by Sarah J. Schmitt
Sky Pony Press | October 6, 2015
Seventeen-year-old RJ always gets what she wants. So when her soul is accidentally collected by a distracted Grim Reaper, somebody in the afterlife better figure out a way to send her back from the dead or heads will roll. But in her quest for mortality, she becomes a pawn in a power struggle between an overzealous archangel and Death Himself. The tribunal presents her with two options: she can remain in the lobby, where souls wait to be processed, until her original lifeline expires, or she can replay three moments in her life in an effort to make choices that will result in a future deemed worthy of being saved. It sounds like a no-brainer. She’ll take a walk down memory lane. How hard can changing her future be?
But with each changing moment, RJ’s life begins to unravel, until this self-proclaimed queen bee is a social pariah. She begins to wonder if walking among the living is worth it if she has to spend the next sixty years as an outcast. Too quickly, RJ finds herself back in limbo, her time on Earth once again up for debate.
