Hello, everyone, and welcome to Day Four of the Five Fall Favorites event, hosted by Katja Labonte. This is an absolutely massive event, so you don’t want to miss all of the goings-on. Visit Katja’s blog, linked above, to find the full list of participating bloggers, and don’t miss the other bloggers in Team Hedgehog, of whom are listed at the end of this post.
There is also a giveaway and a daily opportunity to grab some free books provided by some of the bloggers. Learn more about the giveaway here and visit Katja’s blog, linked above, to learn which books are free today.
Today’s category is books featuring animals. Read on to see my recommendations. Have you read any of these or are any on your TBR?
A NOBLE PURPOSE by LAURIE LUCKING
Review Snippet: A Noble Purpose is a wonderful start to the Cornerstone Series.
Blurb:
To help her miserable sister, Princess Liesel must survive the elements, danger…and her grumpy guard.
Princess Liesel’s older sister, Verena, hasn’t smiled in years. Desperate to improve her low spirits, the king declares that the man who can make Verena laugh will earn her hand in marriage.
But his plan seems doomed to failure from the start. Each unsuccessful attempt only makes Verena more despondent, and a set of mysterious masked suitors raises suspicions about a plot by an enemy prince. When Liesel discovers her sister still harbors feelings for a guard who was sent away years before, she embarks on a desperate quest to find him, both for the sake of Verena’s future happiness and their kingdom’s safety.
As increasingly dangerous challenges hinder Liesel’s journey, she begins to wonder if they’re more than coincidence. Will she and her travel companions even make it to Verena’s former guard, let alone convince him to return with them?
With each impediment drawing her closer to her own surly knight, more than just her sister’s happily-ever-after may be hanging in the balance.
LEAVES OF GOLD AND SILVER by MADISYN CARLIN
Nota Bene: I don’t know if we’re technically allowed to include one of our own books, but I couldn’t resist including Leaves. One character has an owl for a pet, another has a raven, and I’m considering giving a third a rescued puppy.
Blurb:
A thief-turned-spy who should be dead. A noblewoman with a secret. A second chance at love.
Mae Zavien lost her betrothed six months ago to the war that almost destroyed her land. Determined to avenge his death and ensure no one else suffers such a loss, she works under the cover of night to gather secrets, spy on the enemies trying to infiltrate her home, and foil their schemes. What she doesn’t anticipate is how those enemies always seem one step ahead.
Bren Tallich should be dead in the dungeon of an enemy stronghold. Unfortunately, being alive doesn’t grant him the chance to tell the love of his life that he survived. The fighting may have ended, but the war still rages, and the thief-turned-reformed spy is needed to uncover secrets and discover who is behind the attempt to take over all six lands. If Mae learns he survived, her life could be in even greater danger.
The shadows around Zavien Estate don’t just hide secrets–they hide enemies who seek to destroy everyone who opposes them, Mae and Bren included. Only a former thief, a quiet noblewoman, and a menagerie of chaotic siblings and pets stand between their land and those who wish to destroy it.
Leaves of Gold and Silver is a nonmagical Christian romantasy retelling The Twelve Dancing Princesses and includes the tropes second chance romance, found family, arranged marriage, protective hero, nobility x commoner, and concealed identity.
EMBERGOLD by RACHELLE NELSON
Review Snippet: I am not YA’s biggest fan, but when I read the blurb for Embergold, I knew I needed to read this book, and I’m happy I did.
Blurb:
Fire dreamed of water, but the first sip would be its last.
Gilde has spent her life isolated in the wild marshlands, a place too wet for the dragon to go. She’s safe there, according to her father. So why is he asking her to leave with him now that she has come of age? There is more to Gilde’s family than she knows, and debts need to be paid.
Betrayed and shattered, she wakes in a crumbling mountain castle with the beast of her nightmares. Except this dragon speaks like a man and reads books. His kindness confuses her and opens a forgotten longing in her heart, all while Gilde plans her escape from a mountain full of secrets.
This place can unveil her past and why she was sacrificed to the beast—truths that may put both their lives in danger if they can’t learn to trust each other. But how can Gilde ever trust again? Especially after she discovers what dragons truly are.
THE DRAGONS OF CHIRIL by DONITA K PAUL
Review Snippet: Wizard Fenworth and Librettowit are, undoubtedly, my favorite characters.
Blurb:
Tipper has been caring for her family’s estate for years now, ever since her father disappeared, making a living by selling off his famous artwork. Then she learns that three statues she sold were carved from an ancient foundation stone, and the fabric of her reality is crumbling.
She must free her father and save the world.
But she can’t do it alone.
Her ragtag band of adventurers includes Beccaroon, a giant parrot; Bealomondore, an aristocratic young artist; a handsome dragonkeeper prince; the Wizard Fenworth; and the tumanhofer librarian, Librettowit. Together they travel through valleys and kingdoms and consort with purveyors of good and agents of evil to find and reunite the missing statues. Will they learn to rely on Wulder’s grace and guidance along the way?
A CAST OF STONES by PATRICK W. CARR
Blurb:
The Fate of the Kingdom Awaits the Cast of Stones
In the backwater village of Callowford, roustabout Errol Stone is enlisted by a church messenger arriving with urgent missives for the hermit priest in the hills. Eager for coin, Errol agrees to what he thinks will be an easy task, but soon finds himself hunted by deadly assassins. Forced to flee with the priest and a small band of travelers, Errol soon learns he’s joined a quest that could change the fate of his kingdom.
Protected for millennia by the heirs of the first king, the kingdom’s dynasty nears its end and the selection of the new king begins–but in secret and shadow. As danger mounts, Errol must leave behind the stains and griefs of the past, learn to fight, and discover who is hunting him and his companions and how far they will go to stop the reading of the stones.
Team Hedgehog
Myself at Madi’s Musings
