All That Glows by Ryan Graudin

All That Glows
by Ryan Graudin
480 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 11th 2014
Rate: Enjoyed it+ (4,5 gorjuss dolls)

Synopsis:

Emrys—a fiery, red-headed Fae—always embraced her life in the Highlands, far from the city’s draining technology, until she’s sent to London to rejoin the Faery Guard. But this isn’t any normal assignment—she’s sent to guard Prince Richard: Britain’s notorious, partying bad boy and soon-to-be King. The prince’s careless ways and royal blood make him the irresistible for the dark spirits that feed on mortals. Sweet, disheveled, and alive with adventure—Richard is one charge who will put Emrys’s magic and heart to the test.

When an ancient force begins preying on the monarchy, Emrys must hunt through the London’s magical underworld, facing down Banshees, Black Dogs and Green Women to find the one who threatens Richard’s life. In this chaos of dark magic, palace murders and paparazzi, Emrys finds herself facing an impossible choice. For despite all her powers, Emrys has discovered a force that burns brighter than magic: love.

The first time I saw Ryan Graudin's debut novel, I was drawn to it. Not only by the incredible synopsis, but by the beautiful cover. 

The story is everything the cover and the synopsis promises: it's full of magic, romance, action, danger, faeries and magical creatures. And Graudin has the ability to bring all the old magic to our new and modern world, without missing the unique touch that only the faerie world can bring to a story.

The story starts with Emrys magical world. She's a fae that ends up being the guard of Prince Richard. Simple right? Well, Prince Richard is known to party hard and be careless and that makes every faerie guardian have quite a difficult job. Prince Richard doesn't want to grow up and much else take the responsibility of being King, since he has plenty of time before that happens. But one incident changes everything.

Emrys ends up revealing herself to Prince Richard and, to her surprise, she doesn't want the Prince to forget about her. They start a dangerous and strange relationship and when all the magical and dangerous creatures try to kill Richard, they start to search for the one ordering the murder.

But Emrys has another battle to solve. An interior battle: will she leave her life as a Fae to be with Richard or will she try to live as a Fae without Richard? Will love be enough?

First of all, I loved this "forbidden" love between Richard and Emrys. She's not supposed to show her presence to Richard, but she does. And they end up having a funny relationship, starting as friends and ending up as much more. However, they not only have against their relationship the fact that a fae cannot reveal herself to a human. Every time they kiss, Emrys magic hurts Richard and that's why Emrys needs to decide whether she wants to live almost forever as a fae or to live with Richard as a human. See the forbidden touch here? This is one of the very intense things in this story. And I completely adore it.

It was beyond magical to see these two fall in love, even when the story's only from Emry's point of view. It was super sweet to see Emry's change all her beliefs just to spent a little bit more time with Richard and him changing his rebel behavior to spend more time with the beautiful fae that only he could see. Their relationship starts as a curiosity friendship and a huge attraction to end up as true love. And this is something no one should miss!

Emrys is a strong, sweet fae that takes her "job" very seriously. That's until she meets Prince Richard. She has seen him when he was little, but Prince Richard's not little anymore. The future British King makes her want to forget about all the rules she firmly believes in.

The author describes the main character, Emrys, in a way that makes you see her as a heroine in this story. Girl saves boy! It was about time. 

Richard is simply a sweet teen boy with too much responsibility on his shoulders. Being the future heir to the British throne makes him want to scape all responsibility by living his "free" years partying hard and not caring about his behavior in front of paparazzi. In my opinion, he's a better person with Emrys. He's funny, sweet and tries to be more responsible. However, when tragedy strikes, Richard also becomes more serious, strong and determined. You can perfectly see this transition throughout the story. 

The plot starts a little bit slowly. It starts with Emry's work in the faerie court, how she meets Prince Richard (truly meeting him) and how they start their strange relationship. In the middle of the story, the plot start to fasten and that's when all the action starts. That's when I was truly unable to stop reading it until I knew how this story would end. 

There were a lot of unexpected scenes and revealed secrets that made the ending of this story mind-blowing and I wasn't expecting at all, since everyone looked guilty to me. I have to congratulate Ms. Graudin for this, since is very difficult to keep the reader clueless until the very end.

Ryan Graudin's faerie world is beautiful, magical, dangerous and simply amazing. She created an unforgettable world followed by a mind-blowing story, full of shocking revelations and constant danger. I loved Ryan's story and I think that you, Book Addicts, are going to love it, too. That's why I'm highly recommending you to read this book and making you a promise: you're gonna love Ryan's magical world and completely adore Emrys and Prince Richard. 

Holland Roden as Emrys

Francisco Lachowski as Prince Richard

Chloë Grace Moretz as Princess Anabelle

Karen Gillan as Emrys

Francisco Lachowski as Prince Richard

Blake Lively as Princess Anabelle

Benedict Cumberbatch as Herne the Hunter

Tilda Swinton as Mab

My name is Ryan and I've been writing ever since I grabbed one of my dad's old tax ledgers and created this masterpiece: see image.

My writing has since improved, though my obsession with wolves has remained relatively the same (I even own a wolf-hybrid pup.) My childhood was a happy, sunny thing. I grew up on a steady diet of fairytales, salt-marshes, music and brothers who would re-enact Redwall battles with me in the back yard. I went to an artsy sort of high-school that allowed cello recitals in the hallways and impromptu poetry slams in the cafeteria. It was there I decided that writing was what I wanted to do more than anything.

I'm officially a grownup now (I suppose one must admit that once they turn 26). My diet still includes fairytales, salt-marshes and art, but there are a few new loves thrown in. A big one is travel. Pieces of my heart are scattered like breadcrumbs all over the globe--I've bartered them off for writing inspiration, so I suppose it's a fair trade.

When I'm not cramming my earthly belongings into a backpack and waiting in airport security lines, I'm doing one of the following: Writing YA novels, Photographing weddings with my husband, Making our little white cottage more homey, Playing with my wolf pup, Trying out Korean récipes, Haunting local coffee shops with my friends.

• There will be TWO winner
• You must be 13 or older to enter this giveaway
• It's an US/CAN Only giveaway.
• Each day there will be available a #QOD (question of the day) in each participant blog. You can earn more points by answering the answers.
• For those who don't know how this works, the winners will be those who have participated the most. Meaning, the winners will be those who have more points. No Rafflecopter luck this time, Book Addicts. This is all on you now! If there's a draw, then the odds will decide and this time the Rafflecopter luck would be a major factor deciding if you win or not.

Ryan chose her favorite creature from All That Glows and the one she'd like to be. Let us know which creature you'd choose to be from All That Glows (if you have read the book) or which magical/mythological creature you'd like to be.


Win (1) of (2) autographed copies of All That Glows + one large tin of All That Glows custom blend Tea (US/CAN Only)


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