Avery by Charlotte McConaghy ~ Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Avery Blog Tour hosted by CBB Book Promotions. Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule.

Title: Avery

Series: The Chronicles of Kaya #1

Author: Charlotte McConaghy

Publication date: July 1st 2013 

Genre: Adult/Mature YA Fantasy, Romance

Source: Copy for review

Purchase: Amazon  

The people of Kaya die in pairs. When one lover dies, the other does too. So it has been for thousands of years - until Ava. For although her bondmate, Avery, has been murdered and Ava's soul has been torn in two, she is the only one who has ever been strong enough to cling to life. Vowing revenge upon the barbarian queen of Pirenti, Ava's plan is interrupted when she is instead captured by the deadly prince of her enemies.

Prince Ambrose has been brought up to kill and hate. But when he takes charge of a strangely captivating Kayan prisoner and is forced to survive with her on a dangerous island, he must reconsider all he holds true...

In a violent country like Pirenti, where emotion is scorned as a weakness, can he find the strength to fight for the person he loves...even when she's his vengeful enemy? 

Avery is a sweeping, romantic fantasy novel about loss and identity, and finding love against all odds.

 Now also available: Thorne (The Chronicles of Kaya #2)

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The idea of dying in pairs immediately intrigued me, and I knew I had to read Avery. The very first line of the synopsis drew me in like a magnet in a powerful way. Not to mention the gorgeous cover. Not to mention I read Charlotte McConaghy's Fury and enjoyed it. She creates intriguing and original concepts for her novels, and I'm looking forward to what she comes up with in the future. 

Avery is told from four POVs - Ava, Ambrose, Thorne, and Rosalyn - but don't let that worry you. The characters are easy to follow, and you always know which character you're reading about because their name appears in bold before the paragraphs. Each character has his or her distinctive voice. 

Ava and Avery were engaged, and after Avery is killed, Ava was supposed to die as it's always been with their people. Except she doesn't. Her people shun her, calling her a monster, and even her fiance's family turn her away. Failing to kill the Barbarian Queen but instead is captured by Prince Ambrose. Ambrose and Ava end up stranded on an island, and if you think you know how this is going to play out, trust me when I say you're going to be refreshingly surprised. Their story is nothing like I thought it was going to be - it could have been very cliche; however, it was anything but. 

Ambrose's brother, Thorne, and Thorne's wife, Rosalyn, are weaved into the story as well. I strongly empathized with Rosalyn, who wishes Thorne would just love her. But emotions are seen as a weakness in Pirenti, and he doesn't know how to express them even if he thought it would be okay to do so. 

Ambrose grew on me - he's different than his people. There's something inside of him that's intriguing and waiting to be explored. I wasn't fond of Thorne, and especially not the way he treated his wife, Rosalyn. He was despicable to her. I loved Ava and her strength. She was broken after losing Avery and her home, but she was so brave. She felt she had nothing to lose, and her bravery came from that feeling. I loved Rosalyn, too. She might seem weak, but she just doesn't belong with the people of Pirenti. That was so clear to me. 

Overall, Avery was a fascinating read with fresh and original concepts. The pacing was a bit slow for me in the beginning but picked up not long afterward. This is a fantasy romance but is very different than anything I've read before, and I highly recommend you pick this one up.        

My Rating:

Charlotte started writing her children's fantasy series 'The Strangers of Paragor' as a teenager and has since gone on to publish five novels. After a Masters degree in Screenwriting she wrote 'Avery', the first in her adult fantasy series 'The Chronicles of Kaya', published by Random House. She now lives in Sydney, Australia, and has just released a new dystopian sci-fi novel called 'Fury - Book One of The Cure', published by Momentum. 

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Fury (Book One of The Cure) by Charlotte McConaghy ~ Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway

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Fury: Book 1 of The Cure 
by Charlotte McConaghy
348 pages 
Published March 25th, 2014 by Momentum Books, Pan Macmillan

In the tradition of Divergent comes a novel about a world where negative emotions are stolen ... and only those with fury can stand up and fight.

Eighteen-year-old Josephine Luquet wakes naked and covered in blood that is not hers on the same day every year—when the blood moon is full. Josi has not responded to the "Cure"—an immunization against anger mandated by the government—and believes herself to be a threat to others.

Then she meets Luke. Luke has had the Cure but seems different to the other "drones"—and he's dead set on helping Josi discover the truth about herself before the next blood moon.

But time is running out. Is Luke willing to risk his life to be near her? Does he truly understand what violence she is capable of?

Raw and full of passion, Fury is a story of love in a dystopian world, and how much we are willing to forgive in the struggle to remember our humanity.

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Fury has a premise that's really interesting because it makes me think about what society would be like if the government decided to start removing certain emotions from humanity. In this novel, the government has decided to "cure" anger, and sadness is possibly next. From there, where would they stop and what would be the unforeseen consequences?   

The mystery of Josephine and the blood moon kept me eagerly engaged in the story. There's an obvious possibility that I couldn't help but keep in mind throughout Fury. There's something different about Luke, because even though he has received "the cure" he still wants to help Josephine figure out what happens to her every year. I wanted to know what was different about him and why.     

The only issue I have with Fury is that anger is supposed to be the only emotion removed, yet there are still people attacking other people while onlookers don't do anything about it. For example, Josephine gets a job at a casino serving drinks and rebuffs one of the customer's advances. He corners her in the bathroom and attempts to rape her while a coworker of Josephine's walks in on them and walks away without a word. Where was her compassion? I get she doesn't get angry anymore, but surely she still has some compassion. 

Overall, Fury is a book I enjoyed and with the ending, I'm looking forward to reading the next book. I can tell there's a lot more story to unfold, and I'm ready for it! 

My Rating:

About the Author:

Charlotte started writing her children’s fantasy series ‘The Strangers of Paragor’ as a teenager and has since gone on to publish five novels. After a Masters degree in Screenwriting she wrote ‘Avery’, the first in her adult fantasy series ‘The Chronicles of Kaya’, published by Random House. She now lives in Sydney, Australia, and has just released a new dystopian sci-fi novel called ‘Fury – Book One of The Cure’, published by Momentum.

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