As a bad-ass gal myself (teacher, journalist and all-around wife and cat mom), I have developed a taste for amazingly strong female-led books and something truly cool to curl up with. Recently, I feel like author Jay Kristoff embodies all of what a kick ass author should embody, especially with his depiction of strong female characters that we as bold women can relate to and find solace in.
Inspired by recently finishing Godsgrave (Mia Corvere, anyone?) and excited for DEVIAT3 to release this week, I decided to countdown the top 3 Jay Kristoff books you all need to pick up ASAP and add to your TBR.
Just an FYI though…you might want to wait to read Godsgrave, since Darkdawn releases in September, and this gal is reviewing it and might just add one thing…the book hangover is real!
Nevernight: Mia Corvere
Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.
Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.
Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?
You guys, my husband was wondering what was wrong with me when I binged this book this weekend. Let’s just say, it’s solid gold and Mia is the book gal of your dreams.
Aurora Rising: Aurora Jie-Lin O’MalleyÂ
The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…
A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm, a sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates, a smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder, an alien warrior with anger management issues, a tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering
And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.
Aurora might be the best trouble ever, and this book will leave you itching for the sequel and it’s a co-written dream with author Aime Kaufman.
LIFEl1KE3: Eve
On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.
Eve isn’t looking for secrets, she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.
But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.
Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.
This book is an amazing action-packed ride and Eve makes it all the better. Stay tuned for the sequel, DEVIAT3, releasing this week on June 25th!
What Jay Kristoff books have broken your heart and left you with an author crush? Did your character make the list? Let us know!
