O P E N I N G H O O K:
She had been an agent of anarchy for years, operating under various organized crime syndicates (whoever had the deepest pockets at any given moment) with little concern and even less remorse for her actions. She'd worked until her fingertips were calloused from typing, her eyes were bloodshot, and her throat was raw from energy drinks. Jo had given her life to her craft, quite literally when she'd been gunned down by the Rangers of the Lone Star Republic.YOU LIKE TO BUY a crystal, young master?" The girl pressing the magical pebbleinto my hand smiles coquettishly. She wears the drab red clothing of the Children of the Goddess disciples, and she couldn't have chosen a worse mark than me if she'd tried.
(Page 12, CIRCLE OF ASHES US e-ARC edition)
“That's what we do, isn't it? Save people?
How were they supposed to do that when their hands were shackled by wishes that weren't even their own?"
~CIRCLE OF ASHES
The Wish Quartet is a "new-adult, urban fantasy, that takes place in an alternate near-future reality." The magic runs outside of what readers may be used to and creates a compelling, adrenaline-filled world.
There is a secret Society of Wishes that will grant wishes...but the cost is high. In 2057, Josephina Espinosa was a hacker living in the Lone State Republic working for the yakuza of East Japan. Her and her friend Yuusuke are trying to hack into the Black Bank and make the payout of their lives. When the Rangers surround them and open fire, Josephina knows this is the end. Scrambling for some way, any way to survive, she remembers an old fable her Abuelita used to tell her about making a wish if she was ever in need. Josephina doesn't expect anything to actually happen, so when time freezes and a man appears before her, offering to grant her wish, she accepts. The cost of her wish is higher than she could have imagined, and Josephina is erased out of existence. History is altered and never included her in its threads. She now lives outside time, the newest member of the Society of Wishes.
The first two books in the quartet, SOCIETY OF WISHES and CIRCLE OF ASHES are already out, with the third book set to release in July and the final book this coming fall. In SOCIETY OF WISHES, Josephina must come to terms with her new life and learn about her new reality. Wishes alter history. There are always multiple paths life might take us. If we choose to go to law school like our parents wanted, we become lawyers. If we choose to follow our hearts and become a penniless artist instead, our lives wind up completely differently. When a wish is requested, there is a Severity of Exchange that requires a price. One of the two timelines is burned in order to make the wish possible, and the current timeline fades out of existence. The timeline can be small, such as changing the course of one's study. It can save a loved one from death. It can alter the outcome of war and change the course of history. Much of the first book in the quartet builds the world and sets up the types of missions the Society encountered on a daily basis.
The second book, CIRCLE OF ASHES, just came out this week and the stakes are significantly higher. There is a catastrophic natural disaster that kills millions, and the cost to save as many people as possible is higher than the Society can pay. They work frantically to make the world believe danger is coming in every way they can. Josephina learns a lot more about the members of the Society and their backgrounds and magical abilities in this book, as well as discovers more about her own magic.
I really enjoyed the concept of a world where magic is implemented differently from how we normally see it and blew through both books in what felt like no time at all. The Society members felt very visual to me--and I'm not often a visual reader. Maybe I watched too much anime or read too much manga growing up, but the group has a very anime feel to them--there's even an elf from the Age of Magic before a wish severed that reality. The members are so diverse and unique and stand out very visually in the mind's eye; this really would be the perfect basis for a TV series!
I was originally going to make two separate reviews so I could talk in more depth about each book separately, because it's so hard to discuss either without spoilers, even when talking about characters! I really enjoyed this world, however, and found myself constantly challenged by new information that made me question more as a reader. Josephina and I both want answers, and we both want to learn so much more about this secretive Society. I'm already eager to get my hands on BIRTH OF CHAOS, the third book in the line and am glad that July isn't that far off. It's a really fantastic, satisfactory feeling to know that all four books in a series will be out in one calendar year and to not be stressed with curiosity over the course of four years. The longer the gap between books, the less connected I become as a reader, which is why I love re-reading. To be able to stay connected over such a short period of time really soothes my soul!
~*~
C O N T E N T R A T I N G S
Content Ratings: highlight between ( ) for details
Romance: PG15+ ( Kissing; sexual encounters )
Language: PG13 ( Cursing, including the F bomb; sexual innuendo )
Violence: PG13 ( A character is gunned down at the beginning of SOCIETY OF WISHES; non-graphic )
Violence: PG13 ( A character is gunned down at the beginning of SOCIETY OF WISHES; non-graphic )
Other: --
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C O V E R D E S I G N:
I love the colors of both books, especially for CIRCLE OF ASHES, and like that you can practically see the magic coming off the cover and being brought to life. You can't always "see" or "feel" magic, but I feel you can feel that raw energy with these covers!
~*~
O F F I C I A L I N F O:
Title: SOCIETY OF MAGIC
Author: Elise Kova, Lynn Larsh
Release Date: January 29, 2018
Publisher: Silver Wing Press
Received: For Review
Received: For Review
SUMMARY:
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.
Josephina Espinosa makes her living as a hacker-for-hire in the Lone Star Republic, a remnant of the fractured U.S.A. That is, until the day she and her best friend are gunned down in a government raid.
With her dying breath, Jo uses magical lore passed down from her grandmother to summon a wish-granter. Her wish? To save her friend’s life. Except wishes have costs, and for Jo, the price is the erasure of her entire mortal existence.
Now, as the most recent addition to the mysterious Society of Wishes, Jo must form a new “life” alongside the seven other members, one of which being her savior himself. Living as an occupant of the Society’s lavish mansion should be quite the perk, but while it is furnished with everything its inhabitants could possibly need, it lacks one thing—freedom.
Her otherworldly identity crisis takes a backseat, however, when Jo learns that the friend she sacrificed everything for is headed down the same path to ruin. Jumping in head-first, Jo uses her newfound magical abilities to protect him, only to realize that the ripples of her actions have far-reaching consequences. When the Society’s aloof leader Snow decides to give her a taste of his own ancient magic, Jo discovers that there are threads woven into the tapestry of her new reality that reach far beyond the wishes she is now required to grant. Ones that, if tugged on, could mean the unraveling of the world itself.
Title: CIRCLE OF ASHES
Author: Elise Kova, Lynn Larsh
Release Date: April 9, 2018
Publisher: Silver Wing Press
Received: For Review
Received: For Review
SUMMARY:
EVERY WISH HAS A COST BUT WILL THE SOCIETY BE WILLING TO PAY IT?
Once a hacker-for-hire living in the shadows, Josephina “Jo” Espinosa is the newest member of a magical Society. Their mandate? To grant the wishes of mortals. A simple enough task until Jo is faced with an impossible wish – and her inability to grant it might spell disaster for her entire team, if not the Society itself.
Jo is used to high-pressure situations, but after a string of disasters, the last thing she needs is stakes of this magnitude. Especially given that neither she nor the Society know quite what the consequences of failing to grant a wish might be.
The only person with answers is the Society’s aloof and cryptic leader, Snow. Yet while Jo is enigmatically drawn to the man, all their clandestine encounters leave her with only more questions about the true nature of the Society, her magic, and her own history.
Time is running out for the Society, and an executioner will rise from among them to exact the price of failure.
~*~
About the Authors
Elise Kova is the USA Today bestselling author of the Air Awakens series, Loom Saga, and Wish Quartet.
In her past lives, she has graduated from an MBA program, lived in Japan for a bit, and worked for a Fortune 500 technology company. However, she finds herself much happier in her current reincarnation as full-time author. When not writing, she can usually be found playing video games, drawing, watching anime, or talking with readers on social media. She’s happy to call Saint Petersburg, Florida, her home, but is always looking forward to her next trip.
Lynn Larsh considers herself to be a serial hobby-dabbler. She got a bachelors degree in music (which she used for all of four months), studied aerial acrobatics and classical piano for many years, worked briefly as a stunt woman in a Wild West stunt show (it’s a long story), and eventually settled down into the bar tending business in St. Petersberg, FL. When she’s not acting as a purveyor of fine libations, you can find her diving head first into her newest venture as a New Adult author, or simply writing Voltron fan fiction on Archive of Our Own.
~*~
****Giveaway*****
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A SIGNED paperback copy of SOCIETY OF WISHES!
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