Review - Conquette by A. A Davies

 

Title: Conquette
Author: A. A Davies
Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #7
Pages: 78
Release Date: July 6^th 2020
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: The lights flickered. The crowd turned silent. Then all eyes were on me.

They watched me every night. Captivated by each layer of clothing I removed.
They salivated at the sight, but only one lucky man would get the chance to have me.

I’d been trapped in the confines of slavery for as long as I could remember. My body hadn’t been my own, not until I came here.

This freakshow was my home.
The only place I felt safe.
And the only way I could regain my control.

I’d served men for years, but now it was my turn.

With a flick of my hair and a purse of my lips, I caught them in my web.
I let them have my body because I needed their souls.

My beauty knew no bounds, and neither did I. 
 
My Review: This was the final book in the series and I have to say I had been wondering how Alina fitted into a Carnaval for freaks as in the other stories it didn’t really give any information as to why she was there, she was just referred to as the Circassian Beauty.
 
Alina performs her act using her beauty at the Carnaval while trying to supress her haunted past, and one day Xero joins and Carnaval and changes her life for the better.
 
Alina is determined to get revenge on the people who hurt her but she ends up finding a new friend who is happy to do anything she wants including combining their act.
 
Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Read in 2020: 35/35

Review - Pins and Needles by Ashleigh Giannoccaro

 

Title: Pins and Needles
Author: Ashleigh Giannoccaro
Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #6
Pages: 59
Release Date: June 29^th 2020
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: It’s that perfect tingling feeling just beneath your skin, the one you can do nothing to fix. She’s the needles to my pins, she gives me that feeling. When I saw her I felt it and I knew — mine.

Needles, my quiet packrat, my sweet seamstress, she thinks I have a heart inside this hollow chest. I stick a knife through it everyday just to show her I don’t. Still she won’t believe me, leaving me notes sewn into my clothes, and touching me when no one is looking.

No matter what I stab into myself, it doesn’t take away that feeling, the skin crawling, needle pricks that scuttle just below the surface whenever she’s too close. I love it — it’s mine.

I will be her pincushion, she pins the pieces of me together so softly with her quiet smile and shimmering eyes. I don’t need her words, I have her and I’ll never let her go.

My Review: Pin’s the Human Pincushion spends his time at the Carnaval inflicting pain upon himself but he heals up quickly and Needles fixes him back up, she is the Carnaval’s seamstress, she makes costumes for all the other freaks but she never speaks.

This story was nice and romantic, Pins is mean to Needles and she speaks to him by sewing words into his pillow. They both have trauma in their lives but they manage to find comfort in each other

Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Read in 2020: 35/35

Review - Inhuman Behavior by Faith Ryan

 

Title: Inhuman Behavior
Author: Faith Ryan
Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #4
Pages: 136
Release Date: June 15^th 2020
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: Animal. Pet. Dog. Freak.

Entertainment.

That’s all I’ll ever be to those outside of Carnaval des Ténèbres.
So I perform for them.
I fetch, roll over, and stay.
I fulfill their demented need to see me as an animal, as something beneath them. But underneath the hair, I’m just a man.
A human being with human needs and emotions.

Now I’m trapped in a cage.
He’s taken me away from the only family I’ve ever known and if I ever want to see them again, I need to play the part.

I’ll be his pet.
I’ll play his games.
I’ll be the best damn show dog in the world.
I just pray I still have my humanity when it’s all over.
 
My Review: Inhuman Behavior is the forth book in the Carnaval des Ténèbres, this story is about Wren the Dog Boy and Uri.
 
Uri sees Wren perform at the Carnaval and wants him as a gift for his wife so he kidnaps Wren and treats him just like a dog, he is kept in a cage and made to drink and eat from a dog bowl and then made to play fetch.

Uri has every intension of giving Wren to his wife but he wants to train Wren first and now Wren is in a strange world and is made to play along with Uri’s requests in the hopes that he will eventually be able to escape.
 
However Wren discovers the truth about Uri’s wife and everything changes and Wren likes his new life with Uri, he likes it so much that he returns to the Carnaval with Uri.
 
Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Read in 2020: 35/35

Review - Mutatus by Ally Vance

 

Title: Mutatus
Author: Ally Vance
Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #3
Release Date: June 8^th 2020
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: Family. Friends. Freaks.

I'm a little person, but more than that I'm a fairy. It’s not by birth, or by choice. These people who surround me every day accept me for who I am, and what I was transformed into. Yet, none of them truly understand the weight I'm carrying on my breaking body.
I'm running from a past that's riddled with pain. It haunts me. Every single day, every time I look in the mirror, it feels like he's there too, looking over my shoulder.
I was born a freak. He turned me into a monster.
 
My Review: I was so excited to read Maia’s story from the get go. Maia had spent her life in pain in one way or another and I felt sorry for her. Maia was born a little person and her parents gave her to an evil man.
 
Maia put her trust into the wrong person, he ended up causing her so much pain by turning her into his own little Thumbelina, luckily for Maia she managed to run away and found a place at the Carnaval de Ténèbres for several years amongst other freaks until her nightmare came true and the evil man who turned her into his own little fairy found her and took her hostage.
 
Maia was so kind for someone who had been through what she had been through. Each and every time she performed she was in pain and she used this pain to overcome what happened to her and to help the other freaks.
 
This story would have been rated higher but Vance killed Maia off in the end, I really loved Maia and she was my favourite freak.
 
Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel
Read in 2020: 35/35

Review - Malus by Jason Hes

Title: Malus
Author: Jason Hes
Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #2
Pages: 224
Release Date: June 1st 2020
Format: Kindle
Buy it: Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: BEAU
I hate the Carnaval. The freaks and wide-eyed visitors make my flesh crawl. They are lower than my brother and I. We are gods amongst monsters. As they say, two heads are better than one. Everyone else is dirt. But Nox is all that matters. He’s not just an extension of myself. He is more than flesh and blood. To me, he’s all I need. The only man I’ve ever loved. And if anyone dares hurt my brother… I’ll make the whole world bleed.

NOX
The Carnaval is my home. These are my people. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than with the troupe and Beau right beside me. The two of us spent years aching to see the world, and now we live the dream every day. Almost. What will it take to truly win over a Beauty? And what lengths am I prepared to go to in order to make sure she stays by our side?

MINERVA
Elysium is in sight. So close I can almost taste it. The two-faced god is the gateway to our true home. He will take us there, that much I’ll make sure of. Even if it means spilling the blood of a thousand pathetic mortals, which I’ll do with a grin upon my face.

My Review: Malus is the second book in the Carnaval des Ténèbres series, it follows Beau and Nox who may share the same body but they are complete opposites, one is happy at the Carnaval the other hates being there and Minerva is just pure crazy and because Beau and Nox are complete opposites it helps with the stories conflict.

Minerva believes she has been told by unseen Gods that the twins are a God named Janus and they are key to helping her and the other Gods to open a portal so that they can return to Elysium.

While trying to get the twins Minerva has the twins kicked out of the carnaval for something that they never did so she can manipulate them to go with her.

Currently Reading: Dreamland by Alyson Noel

Read in 2020: 35/35

Review - Barren by Yolanda Olson

Title:  Barren

Author: Yolanda Olson

Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #1

Pages: 111

Release Date: May 25^th 2020

Format: Kindle

Buy it: Amazon

Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: I always wanted to find a place where I belonged.

A place where I wasn't looked at differently for being one in a million.

I left home when I was seventeen looking for this nirvana on Earth that I knew had to exist somewhere, and I finally found it in a small revival of traveling performers.

No one here looks at me any differently because of my illness. See, even though I look like the perfect picture of health, that couldn't be further from the truth.

I don't believe that my anomalies make me any less of a person than someone who has the ability to feel certain things.

My new family has welcomed me with open arms, and even made me a top billing because of what I can withstand—which to say is a lot.

Until him.

I never knew that I didn't care to feel anything until he joined us.

I want to feel him.

I need to feel him.

I’ve finally found the one thing I’m unable to withstand, and when I feel his eyes on me, I know that things will be alright eventually.

He wants to help me—I can see it in the way he looks at me. Whether he admits it or not, I know that he’s come here for me.

My Review: This is the first book that I have read by this author.

Barren is the first in the Carnaval des Ténèbres series and is about Yager a man who cannot feel, he cannot feel and cannot feel emotions which means he cannot tell when someone is happy, sad or angry but his little friend Maia helps him by explaining what a person’s facial expression means and how his face should look while he’s listening or communicating.

Each of the ‘freaks’ are introduced in this first instalment and you hear about all of their afflictions, they all have something unique and they protect each other like family so when a new guy Indogo arrives Yager seems to get a strange feeling nothing like he’s ever had before and fells like his family is being threatened so he arranges for everyone to ‘welcome’ him into the family to see if he’s worthy but it doesn’t go as planned and Indigo hurts the carnival members on their turn at hazing.

I am looking forward to reading the other stories in the series and getting to know each of the characters.

Currently Reading: Malus by Jason Hes

Read in 2020: 21/35

Saturday Review - Master by Alice La Roux

Title:  Master

Author: Alice La Roux

Series: Carnaval des Ténèbres #5

Pages: 125

Release Date: June 22^nd 2020

Format: Kindle

Buy it: Amazon

Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: Ezra

I am the Ringmaster.
A monster.
Not a knight in shining armour. She would do well to remember that.
Delilah was running from something, and I refused to save her. The Carnaval was not a place to hide when life was hard, it was a last resort. The thin line between life and death, when there were no other options. It was all we had.

Delilah

I like to play with fire.
A Runaway.
For five years I have waited for him. For the Carnaval.
He thinks I need saving, but I can save myself. The Carnaval calls to me, I feel it in my soul. I need the darkness to make me feel alive, so I can set the world on fire.

My Review: I beta read this one so I read it before I ready any of the other and I really enjoyed it and it would be enjoyable as a standalone with a tweaked ending. I do have to admit though that Maia was my favourite ‘freak’ but that’s just because I love fairies.

The story is great and very different from Alice’s normal, it was a lot darker and this one didn’t have as much violent’s in it.

Ezra runs the carnival for the freaks as well as trying to look after his sister who got damaged and cannot perform anymore and Delilah is a young girl who is trying to run away from her family but Ezra keeps trying to get her to go back home.

I would have loved more about Charlotte but I am more than happy with the ending.

Currently Reading: Malus by Jason Hes

Read in 2020: 21/35