When I started reading this book, I forgot that I had already read it a few months ago. I remembered it was on my list of NetGalley books to review, so I started reading it late one night. I kept getting a since of man this book sounds just like another one I read, checked Goodreads, and yup I read this over the summer. I guess that kind of sums up what I thought about the book. Reading it was enjoyable (even though it had a bunch of info dumping), but it didn't make a lasting impression.

I enjoyed the Russian myths that were woven throughout the story. I love YA Fantasy, but this is a series I won't be finishing.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

WHAT AN ADVENTURE!

Such a fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I mean, I was THERE for it! I love fairy tales. I love how authors an twist and turn them. I love new takes on an old concept. I mean, who doesn't? I also love fantasy. I love a good adventure story, and this was definitely a good adventure story. Not to mention the characters were pretty darn amazing. I think that Valia did a wonderful job.

The only thing that I felt was a little lacking was the romance. I thought it was awkward and a little forced. Believe me, I wanted to love all of it, every little piece but I couldn't fall in love with the romance, which is super unfortunate.

Definitely worth the read though!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book.

By the time I got around to reading this book I had completely forgotten what it was about. Which didn’t end up mattering in the end because I quit it about 20% of the way through.

Remembering Majyk was definitely not the book for me. I started to dislike it right off the bat when the main character, Calista goes on the whole “I’m boring and plain, woe is me. Here’s my best friend whose a flawless goddess and likes to party. I don’t like to party, woe is me.” I just can’t stand characters like, plus I find it completely cliche. If you know of a book where the main female character does enjoy going to parties, please recommend it to me!

The whole thing then got more cliche! She meets a boy and has the whole “I feel as though I’ve known him forever” going on, and it only gets worse from there. The writing wasn’t my favorite either. In the end I didn’t give it much of a chance because I was busy and I just couldn’t get into the story. I gave it 1 star on Goodreads.

This book needs to be heavily edited. I gave it a shot after noticing the misuse of grammar on the very first page. Grammar is terribly wrong throughout and include words like "reseeds" instead of "recedes." The story itself is good despite being 40% through and the character still has no idea who she is. That is incredibly frustrating even despite flashbacks etc. It quickly lost my interest at that point. After a heavy edit, I could recommend this book to other readers.

Firstly I'd like to thank netgalley for providing me with an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really hoping I'd like this book! The start, although a little confusing, was promising and I was excited to delve into it. Unfortunately I had to DNF it at around 83% complete. Therefore I can't comment on the whole book but I do feel comfortable speaking about the section I did read.

This was so promising and I think it's a very unique premise, but just execution was lacking. At the start I did like it, but as I went on it was becoming more of a chore to read which sucks as it tends to put us readers into a slump. The main problem for me was pacing and the main character. At times it seemed like the action or fight scenes were rushed while the rest was dragged out, which made for some boring reading at times. Also, the main character was flat out irritating in my opinion at times. She came across quite rude which I know fits with her former life but made it difficult to connect with her.

One of the redeeming features was the two boys our main character hangs out with. Brendan had a sweet side to him which I enjoyed and I think more focus on fleshing out his character would have helped.

Overall a promising idea but it fell short for me.

*thank you to Netgalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

4 stars.

Ohh wow this book! It was so so good! It was exactly what I was in the mood for. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this. With such a fantasic cover, that is what first attracted my attention but the story itself held strong. It is a perfect blend of YA, Russian folklore, Once Upon a Time and along with The Mortal Instruments. Seriously it huts all the boxes with huge ticks. Definitely a series im going to keep a lookout for.

I have to say that I am very pleased to see this diversity in cultures and histories that are now emerging in the Young Adult genre! There’s nothing better than being immersed in new realms and worlds and fairytales! This book had me from the minute I read the blurb and seen the lovely cover! Too bad the storyline wasn’t quite as wonderful as I had hoped it would be.
Overall the book was not horrible, but I didn’t fall madly in love with it. I read some of the reviews before I requested it and they said it was for fans of Supernatural, the Mortal Instruments, and other acclaimed storylines. I found it to be quite the opposite and monotonous I can see where they would get the references from with the Shadowland monsters and the retelling of Russian fairytales come to life; however, the characters were nowhere near as strong or the quality of Sam and Dean or even Clary and Jace, a pairing I didn’t particularly care for either.
I understand that Cal had some memory loss and I liked the concept, but I found her character to be shrill and dull. Then as she starts to remember things it’s clear that Brendan has feelings for her and that they’ve had some kind of relationship in the past, but nothing ever happens. It’s like the whole romance was a diversion to the story and was put there to add words thus making it a novel instead of a novella. All of the angst, the longing looks that he casts her way just made me roll my eyes. Additionally, I didn’t like how the characters were portrayed with their descriptions being pretty cliché. It seems like every heroine is unremarkable with purple eyes these days and every book boy interest has dreamy blue eyes with golden flicks to boot. I’m totally over all the romantic aspects of the young adult genre these days and hope someone decides to get more creative in the future.
Perhaps I will read the next installment of this series, but that depends on the premise of the next book and how the story seems to go. I’m not sure that I would recommend this book because the only good aspects of it was the research put into it and the premise. Thank you for allowing me to read and review this title! I look forward to working with Netgalley and the publisher again in the future.

Calista has no memory of her magical life and no idea where she hid the relic. As her memories begin to resurface with bone crushing agony, Calista must face the facts: she is a Volshebnitsya of the High Realm of Skazka and it is her duty to stop the Glava, the masters of Shadowlands.

YA book with Russian folklore, monsters, and magic! Plus, I love romance on the forbidden side! I will admit I typically don't care for amnesia tropes or cliffhanger endings. So be prepared.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Calista is one bad ass chick! I enjoyed this quick read. It reminded me of The Iron Fey Series which is one of my favorite series. Magical creatures, kingdom under attack, and a forbidden love are the words that best desribe this book. I hope the author continues with this series. I will be looking forward to the second.

I went into this book because I loved the cover, and I have to say that the story was absolutely fantastic! I couldn't get enough, especially with the characters - they were really quite fun and it made the whole story a sweeping, beautiful read.

I did not hate or love this book. I think it was just not quite my style. It has an urban fantasy feel which i normally don't go for. I did quite enjoy that the folklore/magic system is based on Russian mythology. I also like the angsty will they/won't they romance aspect. Bit ultimately I didn't care about the world or any of the characters really.

I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this title!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

Well I WAS hoping to make the first month of the year without any one star books, but alas, it is not to be. I first started getting worried when she described herself as 'ordinary' but with purplish eyes. Alarm bells starting ringing. Give it a chance! she says her hair is a color in between mud and chocolate.....until it starts going purple and red. -sigh- Aaaaaand we have a super speshul main character. I should add the love interest has ocean blue eyes with gold flecks...so yeah.

As we scream, faint, shriek and spasm our way through the story(?) we soon learn that Calista is special, hiding secrets and we spend chapter after chapter of getting very little information. The stuff we get is either unimportant, or not explained to add ~mystery~. No, it was just tedious.

Brendan who is generally a bit of an ass to Cal is the love interest, and is just about the least interesting character going. He's the forbidden fruit, although we don't know why, and we probably see forty scenes of intense stares and flashing eyes but nothing can happen (and nothing does, basically haha)

If you can't tell from my entirely negative review, no, I didn't enjoy this one. I hate that with Netgalley books. Anyway, better luck next time.

I received an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) from NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op., in exchange for an honest review, so all the feelings and thoughts you're gonna read later on are entirely my own.

So, first things first... The fact that this cover combines so many of my favourite colours, along with the mystical vibes it radiates, as well as the fact that the story includes Eastern Europe's folk tales mixed up with everyday, normal, mundane settings, made me have really high expectations for this novel.

Alas! Once again it was proved that hope and great expectations bring eternal misery.

Though there were some really cure metaphors and allegories throughout the whole book, as well as three to four EPIC quotes, the rest of the plot seemed flat to me. Too much telling, rather than showing, plain, 2-D characters focusing on style over substance,  some really cheesy dialogues and, above all, too much frustration because of the instant trust and sexual tension between the protagonist and the mysterious, dark and moody man that seems to be her love interest.

And I will elaborate a bit more on that... Since Calista is claiming throughout the whole novel that she doesn't remember Brendan, it was irritating the least the fact that she kept trusting him, simply because of a gut feeling. Repeating over and over again that you trust a person doesn't necessarily prove it to the reader. It's as if I kept telling you in every post that I'm a Kung Fu master, but never actually proved it to you. Saying isn't as strong as showing! It's as simple as that.

Another thing that turned this book from "wow" to "meh" to me was the repetition of the scenes. Not only it made the unfolding of the plot extremely slow-paced, and the novel in general quite boring, but it also kept me from gaining actual, helpful information that could and would give me some answers. And I'm not referring simply to the plot...

As the scenes kept repeating themselves, without anything useful to show, the characters kept repeating themselves as well. Personally, I think that all the reader get to know about them is that Calista acts like an infuriating, little brat, Brendan like the cliché, save-the-day, moody hero, and as for the rest of the characters in this novel... I've got no idea what they truly represent. I didn't get to actually know them because of this whole "I need to get some answers" thingie and, frankly, I couldn't care less of what's going to happen to them in the sequel. Sorry...

To me, it was Calista's memories and flashbacks that saved the day and kept me a bit interested in Remembering Majyk. At least in those memories, the reader is able to get fragments of glimpses of Calista's life and eventually get to know what Calista had forgotten, somewhere towards the end of the book.

Overall, Remembering Majyk misled me, because of it's fantastic blurb and beautiful cover. 

I was expecting to read an eerie, Russian fairytale, with a strong female lead, action, passion and plot twists, an all I got was an average urban fantasy tale, similar to the dozens that have been published already.

2.5 stars for Remembering Majyk simply for the memories! Because...

"Memory is personal; it’s the pieces of my life that make up who I am, and someone took that away from me."
~Remembering Majyk, by Valia Lind.

3 Chapters in and I'm DNFing this book. It may just be the lay out of the story, or maybe the story itself but it is not keeping me committed to it long enough to finish it. There is nothing about the characters that endear them to me or make me interested in their story and the overuse of the same word in many paragraphs becomes frustrating. No one needs to say "people" seven times in a single paragraph.

The book seems to have a slow start, but just as thought so it picked up. I quickly became enthralled in the characters and their world.
Calista was a normal girl, now in college. Having survived her freshman year, she decide to heed her friend and go to a party. Her life changed forever at that party. All the sudden she is thrown between worlds and memories she doesnt recognize. Can Brendan pull her out in time? Can they find the relic she's now forgotten?
It was such a rush, and I want to hear more about her, Brendan, and the world they belong to!! Have to read this January 18, 2018!!

3.5/5

I enjoyed this book, the story was definitely interesting however, there were a lot of things that were unclear and not explained. Which is probably due to Calista not being able to remember everything so we didn't get to understand everything. I am looking forward to seeing the world of Skazka in the upcoming books because we really haven't seen much besides some meadows and balls.

Being able to see the flashbacks that Calista saw when she was remembering who she was was interesting although like I mentioned above you weren't able to understand everything because the MC didn't understand. That was kind of annoying.

I am really not a huge fan of the whole forbidden romance trope so I HOPE a certain someone dies in the second book so we can see some actual romance happen.

Calista is infuriating, shes a snotty brat and has that I'm better than you attitude. She seems to be always yelling at Brendan and Maxwell for not telling her everything when she isn't even telling them half of what she has remembered. A bit hypocritical.

I will be continuing on with the series because I find the plot pretty cool but I hope the main character improves.

Remembering Majyk is the first book in The Skazka Chronicles and when I read the plot I found it very interesting, so I started it with great expectations. Alas, it didn't live up to them. The story had the potential but in the end it was poorly developed. We have flat characters, repetitive scenes and patterns, the use of the same idioms (like 7/8 of them in only 100 pages, c'mon!). I also hoped in more elements of Russian folklore and fairytales, but they were rarely mentioned. Plus, the story dragged on like forever, we have some informations only towards the end.
I'm sorry but it's a big NO for me.

This was definitely different. There was alot of information to take in about a magical world that didn't have enough of an explanation for one book. I am hoping this is a series because I want to see where it goes.

I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review. I enjoyed the flashbacks while Calista was trying to remember who she was with the memory flashes. I loved the way that part was written. Why couldn’t the rest of the book have been written with as much passion. I found myself wanting to feel more as I read about the relationship between Cal and Brendan. How he was trying to care for her so that Majyk wouldn’t destroy her while she was coming to the realization of who she was. I just wanted more.

Cal left so willingly with Brendan without letting the readers know why. She just seemed so willing to leave everything behind because some kid she’s known for a few months. She isn’t as strong as I would have liked for what her character should be. She was a general and the Protector. Maxwell and Brendan were constantly telling her that she was the Cal they knew due to her remarks and responses to situations, but as a reader, I didn’t feel that. She was not a strong enough character for me to continue reading the series. I was intrigued by the story and really wanted to enjoy it.