Completed Goodreads Challenge GIVEAWAY!

That's right, it's time to host my first giveaway.  I have a few planned for the rest of the year and I can't wait to start doing these because giveaways are so much fun!

Basically, the reason I'm hosting a giveaway is because I completed my Goodreads challenge.  My goal was to read 89 books, which at the beginning of the year I thought was a little lofty.  Well, there are still a few months left in the year and I've actually (as of today) read 93 books so far.

For this giveaway I can't ship internationally.  I'm sorry about that.  I'm fairly certain my next few giveaways will be international, though, so if you've missed out on this one, I promise you won't miss the others.

Top Ten Tuesday: Epic Fantasy 101

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.  Click here to join in on the fun!

This week was something along the lines of "complete a syllabus as if you taught (insert genre) 101" and so that's exactly what I've done.  View this post as a guide map if you're new to epic fantasy or looking for something new.  I hope you enjoy!

Book Review: The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1)

Author| Megan Whalen Turner

Edition| Kindle eBook

Genre| YA Fantasy

I would actually be surprised if you hadn't heard of this book.  It's been around for a bit and I've seen it on several author's blogs exclaiming their love for it.  The one that made me particularly want to read it was Sarah J Maas, author of the Throne of Glass series.

The premise is rather basic- Gen is a thief locked away in the king's prison.  He's released by the king's magus (an adviser) under one condition- he needs to steal something.  Thus begins the adventure.

This book is short but has racked up lots of positive reviews.  Many people who have read it fawn over it.  But when I started reading it I had wondered if I picked up the wrong book.  It was good, but it wasn't the best thing I had ever read (especially coming off of The Lumatere Chronicles).  So I double checked the reviews and many of them said that you would have to wait at least a hundred pages before realizing how magnificent it really was.  Normally I wouldn't wait that long for a book, but the story was good and the mythology was stellar (it's a world roughly based of ancient Greece/Rome and the mythology is reminiscent of it as well, in all the best ways) so I didn't mind.

It's worth the wait.  I think it's more than a hundred pages I had to wait, but as soon as it hit, I couldn't put it down.  I was up until one o'clock reading it and when I was finished I couldn't stop saying "I need the next one" and rocking back and forth in withdrawal.

While I haven't picked up the next one yet (I'm trying to conserve the amount of money I spend on books going into the new year) I will be as a special New Years present to myself.  And then, chances are high, I'll pick up book three and book four.

I wish I could tell you more, but it's best going into this book blind.  Really, give it a try.  It's short, it won't take up too much time, and it's a surprisingly amazing YA fantasy.  I give it a solid five stars.