Blog Tour: Relic by Renee Collins

This review was a book that I received as an ARC. This was a completely new author to me, but after reading this book I have truly come to love this book and its author Renee Collins.

About the Author:

Okay so because Renee Collins is such a new author there is not a ton of information out about her just yet. However, here is a little blurb about her. She is a young adult writer who loves historical settings, magic and semi-tragic romance. Relic is her first novel, set in the Old West, which is to be

 released in late August. With what little I know about Renee I have come to love and enjoy her little quirky sense of humor. I stole this from her latest blog post:

     "I've decided that "blurb" is one of the strangest words in the Writing World vernacular. Say it five times, and you'll see that I'm right. Sometimes it sounds like an expression of distaste. "Bluuuuuurb." And that's ironically appropriate. The process of procuring blurbs for your novel is universally agreed upon to be one of the least fun aspects of getting published. The whole situation feels a lot like asking the coolest guy in school to the Prom. The fear of rejection runs strong. Personal insecurities blossom. But then! Sometimes you hit the jackpot."

 This little tid bit of information about her just makes me want to befriend her and talk to her for like 10 minutes. I can tell now that stupidity would fly out of both of our mouths in the short time and we would just laugh so hard our sides would hurt.

Blurb:

After a raging fire consumes her town and kills her parents, Maggie Davis is on her own to protect her younger sister and survive the best she can in the Colorado town of Burning Mesa. In Maggie's

world, the bones of long-extinct magical creatures such as dragons and sirens are mined and traded for their residual magical elements, and harnessing these relics' powers allows the user to wild fire, turn invisible, or heal even the worst of injuries.

Working in a local saloon, Maggie befriends the spirited showgirl Adelaide and falls for the roguish cowboy Landon. But when she proves to have a particular skill at harnessing the relics' powers, Maggie is whisked away to the glamorous hacienda of Álvar Castilla, the wealthy young relic baron who runs Buring Mesa. Though his intentions aren't always clear, Álvar trains Maggie in the world of relic magic. But when the mysterious fires reappear in their neighboring towns, Maggie must discover who is channeling relic magic for evil before it's too late.

Relic is a thriving adventure set in a wholly unique world, and a spell-binding story of love, trust, and the power of good.


My Review:

My review for this book is not as detailed as I'd love to make it, but if I start down that road, I'll give away every awesome moment and for me that would be pretty much the whole book. This book captured my attention from the very beginning and held it until the very end and then even some. The beauty and magic that Renee write with reminds me of fairy tales I loved as a child. I'm so excited I received this as one of my first ARCs to review and cannot wait to see what the future holds for this amazing talented author. Now onto my review. 

When I first started this book I wasn’t sure what to expect and I’m not going to lie it took me a little bit to figure everything out. So I'm just going to throw this out there. Have you ever watched a T.V. show where you have no idea what's going on, but you're so intrigued that you have to know more so you watch it anyways. And it takes like 8 or 9 episodes of the 12 episode show to figure out what the heck is going on? And you are just so intrigued that you have to continue to find out and understand. Well this book was like that for me, but in a good way.

The book takes please out in the 1700-1800ish Wild West era. Maggie Davis is our wonderful main character and I love everything about her. Her wonderful way to attract the wrong attention, they way she stands out and up for herself and others. The protectiveness that she shows those closest to her, and her fierce undying fire to follow her dreams. After tragedy strikes Maggie’s home town, Maggie tries to start over in Burning Mesa with her little sister Ella. I have mixed emotions about Ella and her bratiness, on one hand I understand it, but on the other suck it up. So as Maggie earns her keep and money working at a local saloon she ends up making friends with the last person in the world Maggie ever though she would, Adelaid the show girl at the saloon. I should mention that Maggie is very conservative during this time frame and Adelaid is pretty much the exact opposite. So of course the become the best of friends. 

The richest man in the area is Á var Castilla and when he finds out about Maggie’s special talent with relics he immediately becomes interested in her. Eventually, he makes it so that Maggie and her sister Ella come live with him and have the best of everything. I was very very suspicious of this, but Maggie was trying to do right by her sister so you'll have to read to find out what happens with that situation. Álvar invests a lot into all different types of relics, especially rare ones. One of my favorite scenes involves, Fairy Relic Powder, and when I read about the vals vuelo de Espana I was so involved and taken with the story that it was all I could do to not imagine myself being there during that time. 

There is a lot that goes on in this book. We learn a lot about the Apaches, especially Maggie’s friend Yahn, and their rising revolts on the towns. We also get to learn about Landon. OMG I love Landon. He is the perfect mix of cowboy/western gentlemen/ladies man/sweet talking/smooth shooting/riding man of my dreams. If I could go back in time to be in this era, it would be worth it to just get a chance at being with Landon. 

So if you haven’t picked up yet relics are the main gist of this story. The way the history of relics and their uses are described just pull the reader in to want to know more. It’s pure magical and one of the greatest forms of imagination I’ve ever seen. Two things that get me more than anything else is any form of magic and love. Adding some awesome history to that and AMAZING writing only makes this book so much better. 

I loved that this book wasn’t cut short and fully explained everything it needed. Of course there are a lot of plot twists that keep the reader guessing until the end about what is going to happen. Although at one point Maggie got pretty mad (which doesn’t really happen) and all I kept envisioning in my head was that she was going to have flames shooting out of her arms and destroying everything in sight to get to her destination. I’ve never quite read a book like this and I’m so excited that as a new author I was able to get the chance to read this amazing book and help promote it. I can’t wait to see what will happen next for Maggie. 

So leave some comments with your thoughts and make sure to go get your copy.

Incinerate