Author Archives: Sarah Ansari

About Sarah Ansari

A hardcore bibliophile with an old soul. Usually anti-social, unless you're up to talking about books, what's the latest fashion trend, or have a deep and thoughtful conversation (hates small talks). An enthusiastic traveler and foodie - especially if it's anything sweet - with a love for mysteries and everything fantasy — which is why 99% of the time, you will usually find her lost in her own world. Sarah has high-standard goals for her future and is in the process of achieving them.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

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A fantasy novel packed with magic,
elemental powers, prophecies, and two furiously headstrong, stubborn, badass female characters. The book alternates between the perspectives of Rielle and Eliana, who have been born with powers – power that could mean they are one of the prophesied Queens-
the Queen of light and salvation or the Queen of blood and destruction.
Rielle Dardenne has kept her power
hidden since she was a kid, but when an assassination attempt is made on Prince Audric – her best friend and her first and only love – she unleashes her power, in order to save him, revealing everything she has tried so hard to conceal. Hoping to prove her
allegiance to the kingdom, she has to go through various magic trials or be executed. She has to convince everyone, especially herself, that she is the ‘Sun Queen’. All while trying to keep Corien, an angel who has certain plans of his own, from poisoning
her mind.
Eliana Ferracora – an assassin for
the king – has a connection to Rielle, despite being born a thousand years later, when the story of Queen Rielle is nothing but an age-old legend. However, in a world where magic has long been eradicated, she possesses certain powers that she herself hasn’t
yet discovered fully. When females of all ages start vanishing from her kingdom, including her mother, Eliana teams up with her enemy, Simon (aka the Wolf), who seems to know a lot about who she is, and sets off on a journey to save her mother, and possibly
her empire, while discovering who she is and what she is capable of doing.
Furyborn is nothing short of an adventure,
especially the untangling of the connection between the two characters, that will have you hooked to the last page!

 

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Twelve Steps to Normal

After her father was sent to a rehab, Kira was sent to live with her aunt in Seattle, leaving behind everything and everyone she loves. Now she’s back to her old town and her father, wanting for everything – from her relationship with her dad to her bond with her friends – to go back to normal. But she soon realizes, despite her hopes, it’s not going to be easy to pick up where she left off.
Her dad invites three friends from the rehab – Nonnie, an old lady who, later on in the book, starts to almost fill the gap that Kira’s grandmother left after she died, Peach, who is a motherly type and cooks some delicious food, and Saylor who helps Kira with her homework and is working hard to become a yoga instructor – are living in her house when she gets home and are trying to put their lives back together as well. She is freaked out, for two reasons. First, she wants to be able to trust her father again and now three strangers are living with them, and second, if her social worker found out, Kira fears she would be sent away again.
Her three best friends are mad at her for not trying to stay in contact with them after she left, and totally neglecting their effort in trying to reach out for her (who can blame them), so there’s definitely a huge hole she needs to climb herself out of. Oh right, also, one of her best friends has started dating her ex-boyfriend, Jay, who Kira was madly in love with. This plot-twist definitely spices up the drama in the book. And of course, there’s sweet, caring Alex, who probably is the only normal person in her life, since her return, but her growing feelings for him, and her old feelings for Jay puts her, as well the readers, in a dilemma, though the answer becomes super obvious mid-way of the book.
As she starts to settle back into her life, and accept the changes around her. We see a development in Kira’s character as well as her relationship with the people in her life. The book also sheds light on the enormity of alcoholism, but rather than describing the darker aspects, it emphasizes on the lighter, more hopeful side of it, which brings the whole story to a bittersweet ending.