As I was randomly browsing the reading challenges on the internet, I stumbled upon this one. And I thought, "I MUST join this one!" And so here I am, making a post about it. :)

The thing about me is that when it's time for me to choose which book to read next on my TBR pile, I usually pick the new releases. Because everyone will be talking about it and I don't want to be that person who'll be left behind. I always have that desire to join in the discussion so whenever it's time to choose, I always select the latest ones. And those old releases get neglected and sometimes forgotten. I feel guilty about it and I'm slowly remedying that now and hence why I decided to join this reading challenge. It's the perfect opportunity to knock off the titles that have been in my TBR pile for so long.

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To see the other participating blogs in the hop, click HERE.

Downton Abbey meets Cassandra Clare in this lush, romantic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.

Enthralling, that’s the most appropriate word to describe Illusions of Fate. The play of the words, the setting and the focal point of this book—the characters. All these factors will lure you—if the book cover didn’t do that already—in devouring this book in one go. I’ve only read one work by Kiersten White and that was The Chaos of Stars. That book left a sour taste in my mouth so I stayed away from her books after that. Then, I had a sudden affixation towards reading fantasy book (I blame Air Awakens series for that) and I had an ARC of this book just lying on the bottom part of my shelf waiting to be pick up so I gave it a go and I got the biggest surprise of my life.

The people need Justice, but she's not listening.

One hundred years before, the Great Sickness reduced the world to three dystopian cities. Now the community of Asphodel is trapped underground, waiting for the prophesied maiden of Justice to rescue them.

Sixteen-year-old Astrea is supposed to be this savior - too bad for them she isn't a believer. Astrea fights her fate until discovering a power she never knew she had, and a handsome ally she never expected. With her life in danger, Astrea must choose between saving her city or herself.

This thrilling young adult adventure is the first in the richly-imagined Starbright series, which is laced with mystery, mythology, romance, and magic. Justice Buried will have you questioning fate versus free will along with Astrea's strong female lead, and wondering who can be trusted when everyone is keeping secrets.

Justice Buried was a book that almost made me hurl my phone (because I was reading on my kindle app) across the wall. This book was so frustrating and had the most annoying and dense main character.

Astrea—the main protagonist in this book—was so whiny and annoying. I absolutely disliked her. She always complains about how she doesn’t have a choice in her fate but she doesn’t do a thing to remedy it. Also, I hate how she’s so dense and so blind to the fact that Lexan was the one meant for her and not that freaking outsider. Ugh. If I could slap her in the face to make her see that Lexan’s feelings for her was genuine, I would do it already. It’s just so frustrating to see Lexan (my poor baby) sad.

Speaking of Lexan, he’s the only character that I loved in this book. He’s charming, genuine and handsome. I can tell that he’s just putting on a mask so that people can’t see how lonely he is. He just wants someone who will love him for him. He somehow reminds me of Warner in the Shatter Me trilogy. I hope he’ll get his happy ending at the end of this series. And that he and Astrea (no matter how much I hated her, I still want her to be with him) will end up together in the end.

The world building for this book was still confusing and disorganized to me. I tried to understand how the world in this book works but I failed at that. I don’t know if it’s me or if it’s how the author explained and described the world in this book.

Justice Buried has a good concept but I think the author failed at executing it. I had high hopes that I would love this book but sadly, that’s not the case. I am still interested to read the following books in this series though. Not because of my love for it but because I want to know if Lexan (my precious favorite character) will have his happy ending. I’ll be reading the sequel of this book some time in the near future.