Sitnalta by Alisse Goldenberg

I am privileged today to be the next stop on the blog tour for Alisse Goldenberg's novel Sitnalta.

Everyone in the land loves Princess Sitnalta of Colonodona. Everyone except her father, the monstrous King Supmylo, whose thirst for revenge and hideous cravings, have nearly destroyed the once peaceful kingdom. He cares only for power—the more the better—and he despises Sitnalta because she wasn’t born a boy. He wanted an heir, a prince, to grow his kingdom and fulfill his own father’s legacy. But now, his only choice is to join with a neighboring kingdom, and at the tender age of 15, Sitnalta is to be married to another king who is at least as old as her own father.

But Sitnalta has other ideas. Before her father can come for her, she sneaks out of her bedroom window, scales the castle walls, and enters the magical forest that surrounds her kingdom. There she meets Najort, a kind-hearted troll, who was tasked by a wizard decades earlier to protect a valuable secret—with his life, if necessary.

But King Supmylo has vowed that nothing will stop him from returning his daughter to Colonodona, and forcing her to go through with the royal wedding. With the help of friends from both kingdoms, Sitnalta and Najort flee ahead of the rabid king. For if they are captured, Supmylo will become so invincible, no one could stand against him

Christina's Review: This is not a genre I would normally pick up but I have to say I enjoyed reading it. It was interesting and intriguing. I continued on because I wanted to know how the story would end. . . to find out how everything would wrap up. The ending wasn't what I expected. The storyline was cute and full of fantasy like a magic coin and a troll. I liked that Sitnalta was a brave and headstrong girl. She stands up to her father and stands up for her friends. Also before you have your young ones read this there was some swearing in the book.

Alisse Lee Goldenberg is an author of Horror and Young Adult fantasy fiction having written The Strings of the Violin (Prizm Books) and Bath Salts a Zombie Novel (Severed Press). She has her Bachelors of Education and a Fine Arts degree, and has studied fantasy and folk lore since she was a child. Alisse lives in Toronto with her husband Brian, their triplets Joseph, Phillip, and Hailey, and their rambunctious Goldendoodle Sebastian.
You can follow her at www.alisseleegoldenberg.com
Website: www.alisseleegoldenberg.com
Blog: http://www.alisseleegoldenberg.com/ramblings.html
Facebook Author Page:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alisse-Lee-Goldenberg/254397934598975

 Link to Buy Book:

And My Beloved is Mine by Kate Nash

Kaycee, thinks she's got everything figured out. Graduate from high school, get out of the small town that she's from, get into Art School, and move to New York with her best friend. She has plans.

Logan didn't even want to move to the tiny town with his family. He has his own plans for his life, plans that don't include a brown eyed girl in a small town.

Can Kaycee come to understand and accept the kind of love that Logan offers? Will their different plans tear both of them apart? Will they find the kind of love that so many spend their entire lives searching for, and so few find?

Christina's Review: After reviewing Fight For You on amazon I was approached by this author to read and review her book, And My Beloved is Mine. I am not the type of reader/reviewer that looks at a book and critiques writing style or technique. I want to read a book that is entertaining and clean. If a book doesn't catch me from the first few pages then I don't want to keep reading. This book had me hooked from page one. I did not want to stop reading. In fact I read it in one day! There were some editing errors but my eyes just catch those. The errors did not deter from the story and the few errors didn't keep me from reading on. The love story was sweet and sappy and clean. . . reading it was just like watching a happy chick flick. I love books like that. A happy love story. An escape from the stresses we face in reality. The characters were good and the storyline was cute and entertaining. The Williams family was really sweet and loving. It would have been easier to endure high school with a sweet handsome boy like Logan. It is a good book and one that I would recommend. I look forward to reading more by Kate Nash!

Stolen Kiss by Cindy M Hogan

Episode #2 of Confessions of a 16-Year-Old Virgin Lips

With my VL card gone, my flickering light of hope lay with Ryker, someone else who'd caught my eye. Only he could erase the memory of Luke, the boy who lip-raped me. Unfortunately, Luke was determined to keep me, or at the very least, ruin me.

Christina's Review: Episode 2 was just as good and entertaining and the first one. I was stuck from page one. I couldn't stop. I wanted to continue Brooklyn's story. It ended too fast. I immediately went searching to see if #3 had been released yet. These are cute episodes. I hope Cindy M Hogan keeps them coming!

The Guardians of Elijah's Fire by Frank L. Cole

Just when they thought they were safe, Amber, Trendon and their classmates get yanked back into the action. With the Tebah Stick in enemy hands, Amber becomes a target and it seems even her closest allies can’t be trusted. Now the gang will have to travel through enemy territory to protect a deadly ancient weapon that could cause the earth’s utter destruction.

This thrilling tale ups the action and doubles the danger. Bestselling author, Frank L. Cole delivers an addicting read for adventurers of all ages.

I just finished Frank L. Cole's book The Guardians of Elijah's Fire.  You might remember that last week I reviewed his first book in the series, The Guardians of the Hidden Scepter and really enjoyed it.  Well, this second book is even better!

It starts out with Amber receiving a mysterious package for her birthday.  She assumes that it is from her friend and teacher Dorothy.  Then she gets a strange phone call in the middle of the night from her friend Joseph.  What follows, almost immediately, is a spell-binding, frantic, action-packed adventure that leaves you breathless!   The action is nearly non-stop throughout the book, which makes it a hard book to put down.  (On a totally unrelated side note, I was browsing the library today with my daughter and she asked for help finding a book.  I asked her what kind of books she liked to read and she said, "I want one that, when I get to the end of a chapter, I have to keep reading because I want to find out what happens next!"  That's exactly what this book is!)

I love the character development in this book, especially compared to the first in the series.  In the first book I felt like the characters were introduced, but in this book they were able to grow and change a bit and we were able to see different sides of them which was great!  And I especially loved the questions of loyalty and trust that were brought up throughout the book.  I was finding myself wondering, just like Amber, who were the good guys and who were bad.

I loved the ending of the book and, without giving anything away, it was exactly perfect.  I loved the characters Temel and Abelish.  They were wonderful men to learn about and very well developed, maybe even more so than Lisa, who is part of the group, but is usually on the sidelines.  And I loved the biblical themes that ran through the book, specifically with the story of Elijah. 

I can't wait to read more from Frank Cole!  His characters are delightful, his descriptions of setting and action are amazing.  And his books are genuinely fun to read!

I was given a digital copy of this book to read, but the opinions expressed are my own.