It’s time for this week’s blog tour!

This blog tour is being hosted by Xpresso Book Tours and as always I would just like to say how thankful I am to have this opportunity to be host. Follow the rest of the tour here.

If you like young adult fantasy books with sassy female protagonists, murder, magic, and so much more then I definitely suggest you check out The Fading Dusk by Melissa Giorgio!

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 The Fading Dusk by Melissa Giorgio
(Smoke and Mirrors, #1)
Publication date: July 19th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

 

In the gritty city of Dusk, seventeen-year-old Irina makes her living as the street magician Bantheir’s assistant. The job isn’t glamorous, but she loves the crowds, the shows, and most of all, the illusion of magic. But Irina’s world is shattered the night she is arrested and charged as Bantheir’s accomplice to murder—murder by magic.

Real magic, the kind that’s been forbidden since the old wars.

Irina finds the idea of flashy showman Bantheir using actual magic to kill someone laughable, but she’s the only one who sees how ridiculous the claim is. But how can she convince everyone Bantheir is innocent when they’ve already made up their minds? Desperate, Irina must decide who she can trust to help her win her freedom. Is the surly, handsome Captain Leonid telling the truth when he says he believes Irina is innocent, or is he just using her to get to Bantheir?

What about Aden, the sweet soldier and longtime fan of Irina’s who claims he’s on her side?

Irina said she wanted to know the truth, but when she stumbles across a dark secret that changes everything, will she be strong enough to survive?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25954617-the-fading-dusk

Purchase:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0125KV45W/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fading-dusk-melissa-giorgio/1122399040?ean=9781515150589

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Author Spotlight

Melissa Giorgio is a native New Yorker who graduated from Queens College with a degree in English. She’s always dreamed of being a writer and has been creating stories (mostly in her head) since she was a little girl. Also an avid reader, Melissa loves to devour thick YA novels. When not reading or writing, she enjoys watching animated films, listening to music by her favorite Japanese boy band, or exploring Manhattan. She is also the author of the Silver Moon Saga.

Author links:

Home

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7133276.Melissa_Giorgio
https://www.facebook.com/melissagiorgiofan
https://twitter.com/melissa_giorgio

Giveaway

Tour Wide Giveaway:

One signed paperback of THE FADING DUSK and one signed paperback of THE SIGHT SEER

Enter into the giveaway by clicking below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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 Review

What if you were told that the person you trust the most, the person who raised you after your mother died, is a cold blooded killer? Would you believe the person who told this horrible thing or would you deny it profusely vowing to prove their innocence to the authorities who believe they are guilty and will strike again?  This is the predicament that Irina finds herself in when she is detained and then imprisonedby the authorities who believe that her master, Bantheir, the street magician is murdering people. Things don’t look very good for her especially when a surly and very serious captain Leonid believes she may have some part in the murders leading them to butt heads with one another. It can be very hard to turn your back on the person you trust the most but Irina soon learns that her allies become the very people that imprisoned as the truth is revealed even though she does not like what she learns.

The characters are definitely an aspect of this novel that I liked because they each had their own personas that were not entirely set in stone and what I mean by that is you believed a character to be one thing and then later on you learn that they are something entirely different. This was refreshing because it added an element of surprise while I was reading and definitely kept me on my toes a little bit. Irina is a spitfire, which is fitting because of her fiery red hair, but from the moment she is captured, detained, and then later imprisoned she holds her ground and her convictions that they have the wrong man that their is no way Bantheir could have killed all those people. Despite being absolutely terrified of the captain and their methods of trying to get her to talk in the beginning, she still goes head to head with Captain Leonid which was very entertaining as it allowed for their relationship with one another develop. I think the only aspect of Irina that annoyed me a little bit was her insecurity towards her appearance and how she compared herself to other girls like Elyse and Coreen commenting on how her curly red hair and pale skin made her look awful in comparison to them. My only wish is that she was confident enough about those things that she didn’t need to be told she was remarkably beautiful by someone like Leonid later on in the story.

Irina and Leonid’s relationship was another aspect of the novel that I very much enjoyed because of how it progressed. There is just something so amusing and intriguing when a relationship between two people starts at a place where both individuals feel absolute animosity for one another and therefore bicker and butt heads any chance they get. When Irina and the reader first meet Leonid you think he is this stingy, by the book captain who doesn’t care how Irina is feeling when she is first brought in because he only wants to find out where Bantheir is so he can stop the killings. But as the story progresses you find out his true motives for wanting to find the killer and see him slowly start to care for Irina as the investigation reaches its climax. My assumptions for who Leonid was as a person changed and I couldn’t help but root for them throughout the rest of the story even if they did continue to get on each other’s nerves sometimes.

In addition to Irina and Leonid, I also loved Vernen, Leonid’s best friend, because he was just so lovable and caring towards Irina even during times of peril when she was frightened she would be imprisoned for the rest of her life per the councilor’s orders (Leonid’s superior). But, the one thing that I really enjoyed and appreciated is when it is revealed that Vernen is gay (spoilers, sorry!) because like I said earlier it was an aspect of his character I did not see coming and therefore I was very surprised. I had him pinned as the funny best friend to Leonid who provides some comic relief and becomes good friends with Irina but revealing that he is gay was just a wonderful addition to his character that made him even more lovable.

Overall, I liked this book. The characters were definitely the driving force for me because, how the story developed in regards to the murders and the magical element that was involved was a little slow for me. You get bits and pieces of it but they are still shrouded in an air of mystery which is good because it keeps you guessing but after a while I just wanted something to happened or be revealed so that that part of the story would move forward a little bit more especially since it is a fantasy novel. Despite that, I think that this novel is engaging, action packed, suspenseful, and very entertaining thanks to Irina and Leonid’s bickering. I am very much interested to see what will happen in the second book of this series.

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Intrigued by what you have read above? Want to experience the bickerings of Irina and Leonid for yourself? Wondering if they will stop the killer in time?

Then why not pick up The Fading Dusk by Melissa Giorgio? You know you want to lol.