Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Grisha (#1)
Page Count: 358
Publication Date; June 5, 2012
Publisher: Henry Holt

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.
Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

New Blog Design and New Beginnings

Hi guys!

You might have noticed that Fictionally Obsessed has a new look (That's here to stay! At least for a while until I break my promise haha, I'll try not to make that happen. ) and I'm finally back, from what I wouldn't call a hiatus, but time taken to make a "permanent design" for the blog. I'm glad that I finally got that out of the way so I can catch up on writing posts, hopefully at least twice a week!

Aside from my blog designs, I've also been thinking about perhaps making some changes on the blog and the things I post. Currently, I post:

• Reviews
• Giveaways
• Cover Reveals
• Book Blitzes
• Author Interviews 
• Guest Posts
• Excerpts
• Blog Tours
• Book Memes (Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, Feature and Follow Friday, Stacking the Shelves, and Midnight Thoughts)

Reviews, Interviews, Blog Tours, Giveaways, and Midnight Thoughts and discussion posts are going to be features staying on the blog, but I'm not entirely sure about Cover Reveals, Blitzes, Guest Posts, Excerpts, and the other book memes. 

Review: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Title: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Series: The Ender Quartet (#1)

Page Count: 324

Publication Date: July 15th 1994
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.