Book Spotlight: Reliquary by Sarah Fine!

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Reliquary

Reliquary #1
Author: Sarah Fine

Reading Level: Adult

Genre: Fantasy

Released: June 14th 2016

 

The magic she carries can save the man she loves—or the man she can’t resist. Will she use her hidden magic to save the man she loves—or the one she can’t resist? The magic she carries can save the man she loves. Or destroy them both.  

Mattie Carver’s engagement party should have marked the start of her own personal fairy tale. But when her fiancé, Ben, is violently abducted the next morning, her desperate quest to find him rips her away from small-town life and reveals a shattering truth: magic is real—and Ben is hooked. It’s not the stuff of storybooks. It’s wildly addictive, capable of producing everything from hellish anguish to sensual ecstasy almost beyond human endurance.

Determined to find out who took Ben and why, Mattie immerses herself in a shadowy underworld and comes face-to-face with the darkly alluring Asa Ward, a rogue magic dealer, infamous hustler . . . and her missing fiancé’s estranged brother. Asa has the power to sense magic, and he realizes Mattie is a reliquary, someone with the rare ability to carry magic within her own body, undetected. Asa agrees to help find Ben on one condition: Mattie must use her uncommon talent to assist his smuggling operations. Now, from magic-laced Vegas casinos to the netherworld clubs of Bangkok, Mattie is on a rescue mission. With Asa by her side, she’ll face not only the supernatural forces arrayed against her but the all-too-human temptation that she fears she can’t resist.

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Sarah Fine is a clinical psychologist and the author of the Servants of Fate and Guards of the Shadowlands series. She was born on the West Coast, raised in the Midwest, and is now firmly entrenched on the East Coast.

Book Review: Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine

Of Metal and Wishes
Of Metal and Wishes #1
Author: Sarah Fine
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Released: August 5th 2014
Review Source: Margaret K. McElderry Books

There are whispers of a ghost in the slaughterhouse where sixteen-year-old Wen assists her father in his medical clinic—a ghost who grants wishes to those who need them most. When one of the Noor, men hired as cheap factory labor, humiliates Wen, she makes an impulsive wish of her own, and the Ghost grants it. Brutally.

Guilt-ridden, Wen befriends the Noor, including their outspoken leader, a young man named Melik. At the same time, she is lured by the mystery of the Ghost and learns he has been watching her … for a very long time.

As deadly accidents fuel tensions within the factory, Wen must confront her growing feelings for Melik, who is enraged at the sadistic factory bosses and the prejudice faced by his people at the hand of Wen’s, and her need to appease the Ghost, who is determined to protect her against any threat—real or imagined. She must decide whom she can trust, because as her heart is torn, the factory is exploding around her … and she might go down with it.

Of Metal and Wishes was such a conflicted read for me. We meet 16 year-old Wen, whom mother just recently passed away. Her father is a doctor at a slaughterhouse (yes, creepy) and now Wen is struggling with her social life.  As someone tries to humiliate Wen, she makes a wish to this rumored ghost living in this slaughterhouse... And you know the saying, be careful of what you wish for. The ghost actually exists and her wish is granted, his existence is proven.

Although the reading was entertaining, I struggle to connect with Wen. At the beginning of the story, I thought she was a total brat but as you continue the story you somehow warm up to her. Yet, I still couldn’t connect with her. I guess part of it is that you really do not get to know her? And another part was that this book is not for me.

None the less, I truly enjoyed the writing, which is the only reason why I kept reading this book. Of Metal and Wishes is a retelling of Phantom of the Opera and the ghost was the entertainment of this book. I really liked his “character”. Overall, I do see myself reading the sequel to know more. I would say people should give it a try and see if this story is the potential to their liking.