giovedì 29 novembre 2012

Cover Reveal: Fanged Princess by Elisabeth Wheatley

I'm so excited about the future release of Fanged Princess,
a novel by Elisabeth Wheathley, a great follower of my blog
and a very young author.. Congratulations! Fanged Princess 
will be released the 22nd January 2012. Hope some of you
will want to purchase it! Here are the info:

Fanged Princess

I will not let my brother suffer the same loss…

Hadassah’s father, the Vampire King, punished her for her choice to love a human. Now her brother, the only person in the world who still matters to her, has fallen for a human girl. Determined to keep the girl safe, the three of them flee from their home in New England and find themselves cornered with their father’s minions closing in. If they want to escape, their only hope may be to join forces with the mortal enemies of their kind…
Be ensnared in this dark tale of enduring love, loyalty, and revenge from teenage author, Elisabeth Wheatley.

*drum rolls*


Rating: 4.50/5

Links

Cover Reveal: Just for Fun by Rosalind James + Excerpt


Hey beautiful! Today we're going to see for the first time the
cover of Just for Fun, a contemporary romance by author 
Rosalind James. Her romance will be released the 8th December
2012, so what are you waiting for? Here are the info:

Just for Fun
 What if the person who broke your heart turned out to be the only one who could mend it?
 Nic Wilkinson is a responsible, organized, disciplined rugby player at the top of his game. Emma Martens is a sometimes-scattered, often-emotional, and always-broke would-be designer with a big chip on her shoulder where Nic’s concerned.
 They have no history together, except one perfect week. Nothing in common anymore, except the most important thing of all.
 Getting together again would be messy. Complicated. Scary. And, just maybe, worth every risk.

The cover! *drum rolls*


Impressions: Well, with one word: RELAX. This cover really makes me think about the sun, the beach and a really pleasant and hot summer spent in an awesome little island. I really like the detail of the two characters, from the waist down.


The excerpt

“Mum!” Zack burst in through the front door. “It was brilliant!” He kicked his shoes off impatiently, dropped his rugby boots next to them before struggling out of his jacket. Nic followed him in, grabbed the jacket and hung it on the brightly painted rack next to the door when Zack would have dropped it on the floor.
Emma reached out for a hug that, Nic saw, the boy was still willing to give his mother, at least here at home. Her eyes met Nic’s as she looked over her son’s head. How did she always look so soft? So . . . pettable? She was wearing another sweater, that was all, he told his troublesome libido. Another light, lacy one, prettily trimmed once again. A pale pink cardigan with pearly shell buttons, edged in cream, over a long stretchy top and leggings. She looked like an invitation to cuddle. Like the best blankie ever.
“Can Nic stay for dinner, Mum?” Zack asked excitedly, offering a welcome distraction from his wayward train of thought. “He could help me tell you all the things we did. We’re having spaghetti!” he told Nic. “It’s really good.”
“Can’t, mate. Sorry,” Nic put in hastily at Emma’s instinctive shake of the head. “But I’ll have a glass of water, if one’s on offer.”
“Sit down,” Emma told him. “Please.”
Nic slipped off his own shoes before heading to the couch with Zack. “Cheers,” he said as she came back from the kitchen to hand each of them a glass, then took her own seat in a small armchair next to the couch, the only other option the little room offered.
“You look tired,” she said abruptly. “And bruised. Are you OK?”
“Just a bit confused on the sleep schedule, still,” Nic admitted. “I took a wee pill on the flight home, but it never works that well.”
“It’s a long way, Mum,” Zack put in. “South Africa’s really far.”
Nic took a long drink of the cold water, looked around for something to set the glass on. “Coaster?”
“Just put it down,” Emma told him.
“Don’t want to spoil this,” he said, looking more closely at the coffee table. The simple rectangle had been transformed into a forest of ferns, with native birds peeping out from underneath fronds, perched in trees. The parson-throated tui making a meal of red fruit, the colorful, stumpy takahe on the forest floor, tiny fantails darting overhead.
“You can’t,” Emma assured him. “It’s all enamels. Everything in this house is pretty indestructible.”
“Did you find the ruru yet?” Zack asked him, leaning forward.
“Don’t tell me,” Nic said. “Let me look.” Zack watched him eagerly as he searched and finally pointed triumphantly to a notch in a tree where the owl blended into the bark. “There.”
“You did this too, eh,” he asked Emma. “Nice.”
“I did everything. That’s my decorating theme. Things I made.”
“I like it,” he assured her. The warm colors of the lounge seemed to cocoon them. Two walls were a rich caramel, the others a warm yellow. She didn’t even paint every wall in a room the same color, he realized. Well, at least in the kitchen it was all the same. Purple. He wondered what color her bedroom was. How it looked. And found himself wishing, against every better impulse, that he could see it.


mercoledì 28 novembre 2012

Wishlist Wednesday #5



So what do you need to do to join in?
  • Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it's on your wishlist.
  • Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of this post.
  • Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

The Iron Daughter
Iron Fey #2


Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.
Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

Well, I've read The Iron King about a month and a half ago and, even if a lot of you have really liked it, I was a bit disappointed by how it didn't caught me at all; I mean it was not that bad but I had way too high expectations for it, maybe. Nevertheless, I've heard that the story gets better in the sequel so I'm really curious about what will happen! I really hope the Iron Daughter will surpise me more than the first book in the series.
Have you already read The Iron Daughter? Do you think it was better than the first?

domenica 25 novembre 2012

Blog Tour: Ember by Jessica Sorensen [Review]

Ember
Death Collectors #1
Author: Jessica Sorensen
Published: August 29th 2012
Publisher: Borrowed Hearts Publishing
Number of  Pages: 223
Format: eBook
Source: Received from the author.
Purchase: Amazon, B&N
Cover Rating: A-

For seventeen-year-old Ember, life is death. With a simple touch, she knows when someone will die. It’s her curse and the reason she secludes herself from the world. The only person who knows her secret is her best friend Raven. 
Then she meets Asher Morgan. He’s gorgeous, mysterious, and is the only person Ember can't sense death from. So when he pushes into her life, she doesn’t mind.
But when unexplained deaths start to haunt her town, Ember starts questioning why she can’t sense Asher's death and what he may be hiding.



Review

Pro/con
Ember was a real dark, creepy novel with a strong and original protagonist and a plot full packed with angels' miths and legends. I really liked the whole creepy context in which the story took place; it started with Ember in a cemetery and it ended up almost in a cemetery as well! I think one of the best ability of the author is the one to make the reader clearly imagine what she's talking about: for the whole time I perfectly imagined the places and the atmospheres that surrounded Ember. The most interesting particular of the book is Ember's curse: she can see with a simple touch everyone's death. This detail is introduced from the very beginning of the book and the author didn't revealed what it was all about until the ending, creating a pleasant sense of suspense and curiosity that kept me reading all night long. Moreover I think the legends about angels were really intriguing and were one of the reason for which I was so enthralled by the story. There were Grim Reapers, who had the priority on collecting the evil souls and the Angels of Death, who collected good ones; then there were Grim Angels, the ones who had the aim to mantain peace between Reapers and Angels, since they had been both collecting souls that weren't theirs.  The idea of a war between two different kind of angels was really interesting, and finding out why Ember was involved in all of it was even better! Also, I found myself a little amazed by how different angels can be from the ones we've always imagined of; I mean they don't necessarily have to be good, have they?

Protagonist
I love Ember! I think she's really one of a kind! She was mysterious, indipendent, strong and shy at the same time. I think the author has done a great job in inventing a tough familiar situation because it made the character more strong and it helped us understand better her personality. I found myself really attached to her character and sincerely, I became very protective of her because I can't imagine what could mean living in a family like hers and being constantly teased by everyone, sometimes also by her bestfriend; and the worst of it, she was daily blamed for her father's death, how terrible is that? But what I liked most about her was how deep and poetic she was: she had her bedroom's walls completely written with her own poems or Edgar Allan Poe's! I wish I could do that too!

Secondary Characters
I don't know why I really couldn't stand Raven, from the beginning. She may seem like a selfish girl but also for her, the author underlined her disastrous family situation, which probably led her to adopt a defensive attitude. Still, she was insipid and sometimes also selfish; I know that most of the time she was compelled by whatever the Reaper was doing to her but sometimes I felt like she knew all of Ember's fragilities and yet she tried to use them against her, conscious or unconscious. 
Asher, I was definitely fangirling for him! I liked the feeling between him and Ember from the first moment, they just irradiated electricity. It was evident from the beginning that whatever difference there was between him and Cameron he was the good one, without doubts, even if the author sometimes kept his character a little mysterious, maybe to let us doubt a little more about him. Anyway I really wish the author has something in program for him in the next book!!
Cameron was at first the one I prefered; he was sexy, absolutely attractive and also a little bit arrogant. I think his character was one of the most dramatic after Ember because he's hopelessly in love with Ember, to the point that he would sacrifice her life for staying with her for the eternity. I think he was also the character that surprised me most because even if I understood he was creepy and involved in something a little evil, I would have never imagined he would occupy a role so important in the end.

Writing
I really liked Jessica's writing skills and the form in which the book is written is really compelling and engaging, certainly not hard or boring to read. Moreover I loved how she frequently quoted Poe, who's one of my favourite poets of all time! The only reprimand I need to do is that sometimes the story became a little confusing, maybe because there were too many information all at a time; especially the ending, personally I think I've missed some details here and there.

Rated 4.35


sabato 24 novembre 2012

Showcase Sunday #15

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Book, Biscuits and Tea
               The aim of Showcase Sunday is to highlight our newest books or book related swag
                and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought
            in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders each week.


This time I will be doing a two weeks worth Showcase! ^^
Last week I was so busy studying that I had posted nothing. Sorry peeps!

Bought




Review





My friends also borrowed me the first three books in a famous
Italian fantasy series by Licia Troisi, have u ever heard of her?

What did you get this week? Leave a comment with your link! 



venerdì 23 novembre 2012

Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent
Divergent #2
Author: Veronica Roth
Published: 1st May 2012
Publisher: Harper Teen
Number of Pages: 525
Format: Hardback
Source: Bought
Purchase: Amazon, TBD, B&N

From Goodreads:

One choice can transform you--or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.


Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable--and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.



My review

Pro/Con
Insurgent is the second installment in Veronica Roth's series, Divergent. Even if it doesn't exceed the first book, Divergent, Insurgent was so far one of the best book I've read this year! As there are many pro/con in common with the review of the first book, if you want, you can find my review here. Well, let's begin with the detail I loved most about the book: the cruelty. Veronica Roth is certainly an author who is not frightened to sacrifice some of her characters, sometimes even protagonists. I found it awesome when principal characters or also secondary ones die, because it always makes the book more emotional and dreadful. Let me explain, I know it's a gamble because it's something that involves the readers deeply (nobody wants to see her/his hero/heroine dead!) but nowadays happy endings are highly overrated and banal, so something which is totally unexpected here and there is necessary. Then, the final! It's really difficult to explain why I loved it so much without spoilering but I'll do my best: the author has created a whole new incredible situation, which is even more stunning than the inceptive situation. If you were thinking about how incredible was the invention of a society based on factions, then you'll be amazed (just as much as I was!) by the last invention of Veronica! As always, the whole framework was awesome and perfect and absolutely original; and the twists, God there were so many! You always have to expect anything from this author because she's always ready to upset the course of events!

Protagonist
For those who've read my review of Divergent, they know how much I loved Tris, from the first moment. Even if her character is still one of my favourites in this book there were moments in which I hated her behaviour: she intentionally tried more than once to lose her life, without a serious reason; this is certainly not a proof of that braveness I thought she had. At the same time I couldn't really blame her because that was obviously a consequence of her desperation, her desire to be reunited with her family and to escape a delusional life.

Secondary Characters

I don't know how to explain this properly, but in Insurgent Tobias hasn't really caught my attention that much. Even if I don't have any certitude for saying it, I feel like there's something wrong with him, like if he's betraying Tris. All the whispering and plotting with her mother, that until a few minutes before was the most hateful person in the planet for him, really made me suspicious. 
As a consequence I really don't like Evelyn, Tobias mother; it's evident that her intention is to dominate the other factions, anyway I don't know how Tris seems to be the only one who have this figured out. Isn't it that evident? Speaking of which, this is exactly why I bet Tobias is involved in something bigger.

Christina certainly redeemed herself in the second part of the book. Even if her behaviour was totally understandable, I hated her for blaming Tris everyday for what she did to Peter. Despite this, her sweetness and bravery finally resurfaced when she's finally ready to forgive Tris and have a fresh start.
Caleb didn't caught my attention until the betrayal, that's why I would have never suspected of him! The role that he plays in the whole story in the end, is totally unexpected because the author appearently didn't focus that much on his character before. 
I started to love Peter in this book! Even if I still have to understand his personality completely, I feel like I'm more close to him than before; I think he's greatly changed from the first book though his philosophy of life stays the same: survival above all. That's why he always choose to side with the strongest ( Erudites in this case), not because he shares their goals. Still, I think he cares for Tris and for her life, maybe because she has shown him that she can love and forgive even after all that's been through between the two of them.



Point of view

Since Tris is one of my favorite characters I love to hear facts from her point of view, but I would also love to hear what Tobias is thinking as he's still a bit mysterious to me. Moreover, being Tris the one who has suffered more losses during both books, it's touching to see her reactions to a pain so great.

Rated 4.85


Favourite quotes (God, there are so many this time LOL)
"I will never let someone else inject me again, not after letting Eric inject me with attack simulation serum after my final test. I can't change the contents of the syringe just by doing it myself, but at least this way, I am the instrument of my own destruction."

"I love Tris the Divergent, who makes decisions apart from faction loyalty, who isn't some faction archetype. But the Tris who's trying as hard as she can to destroy herself... I can't love her."

"By the time the fight dies down, my clothes are more paint-colored than black. I decide to keep the shirt to remind me why I chose Dauntless in the first place: not because they are perfect, but because they are alive. Because they are free."

"What did you do?" I scream.
"You die, I die too." Tobias looks over his shoulder at me. " I asked you not to do this. You made your decision. These are the repercussions."

"Insurgent," he says. "Noun. A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily regarded as belligerent."

"People, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them.

Best one!
"I read somewhere , once, that crying defies scientific explanation. Tears are only meant to lubricate the eyes. There is no real reason for tear glands to overproduce tears at the behest of emotion.
I think we cry to release the animal parts of us without losing our humanity. Because inside me is a beast that snarls, and growls, and strains toward freedom, toward Tobias, and, above all, toward life. And as hard as I try, I cannot kill it.
So I sob into my hands instead."

Feature and Follow #5 Blogger friends!



Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.



The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs! 


How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you! 

Today's question:

What blog are you thankful for?

It's insane thinking that I had no idea there were so many book blogs before checking Amanda's Blog, Book Love 101! I remember that she had a contest in which she offered a complete set of the Mortal Instruments books so that was the reason why I found her blog and undertood that there was a whole new (amazing!) world out there, full of bloggers who like to share their opinions about books and films and a lot more. A few months later I decided to try and I really need to thank my virtual friend Aliaa @ Mademoiselle Le Sphinx, who supported me and helped me figure some things out at first; so THANK YOU, to both of you! For Amanda, who has no clue who I am and who unconsciously convinced me to have my own blog and to Aliaa who was and still is one of the best person I've known on the Internet!






venerdì 16 novembre 2012

Feature and Follow #4



Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.


The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs! 

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you! 

Today's question:

Books are turned into movies all the time! Turn it around. What movie would make a great book?


Well, that is difficult. I actually know a little about movies and all the movies I've seen have been inspired by books, not the way around. Even if this is not exactly a movie, but a TV series, I would love to read a book inspired by "American Horror Story" in particular, season one. I really loved the first season and I become very fond of the characters; reading Tate's point of view or Violet's would be a dream come true! (Yes, probably those who haven't seen the series didn't understand a word of what I've said). Here  is the pic of the two characters I've mentioned *lovelovelove*


 By the way, if you haven't seen AHS yet, you definitely should :')

lunedì 12 novembre 2012

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent
Divergent #1
Author: Veronica Roth
Published: 28th February 2012
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Number of Pages: 487
Format: Paperback
Source: Won
Purchase: Amazon, TBD, B&N


In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. 
But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Review

*This review may contain spoilers*

Pro/Con
Divergent was an amazingly good dystopian book, I loved it from the first page! The author created this whole new world,  from which it is impossible not to be enchanted.  I really liked how she organised the society, with all the factions and serums and aptitude tests stories; it was interesting to see people classified, according to an "Aptitude test", that established for which faction the subject had more affinity for.  It was attractive, but at the same time incredibly crude to see that everyone needed to have a place in this strange society, even those who were too weak to pass the initiation tests, that were then classified as "factionless". But what I liked most was the initiation phase! I was enthralled by the different phases of initiation and by  what the initiates had to do to pass them; sometimes they were horrible! Seriously, I could have never imagined a serum that can show me my worst fears and force me to face them! Another thing that I really liked infact, it's the invention of the serums: an essence that has the power to control your mind, to take your worst fears and use them against you, to make you believe those you love are your enemies, to make you do what it wants you to.. terrific and extremely brilliant! Also the idea of the Divergents was GREAT! One of the best moments of the book is when every Dauntless is controlled by the simulation, everyone but the Divergents, who realize that they are immune to the simulation, that their brain can not be controlled.

Another important aspect of the book is certainly the love between Tobias and Tris, that I personally loved how the author described. It was a love born among desperation, suffering, between two person who thought they were so different, while they're so similar. The situation in which is born contributes to make it feel strong, invincible.
In general, I think the detail that made me love the book so much ( I haven't mentioned even a small negative detail this time!) is that Veronica Roth is always full of surprises: her books are full of twists, betrayals, revenges and everything a good book should have, in the right measure. 

Protagonist
Tris has become one of my favourite heroine ever! I think she has great in common with Katniss, from The Hunger Games: they are both brave, intelligent, smart, clever, with a huge spirit of survival; at the same time, as every 16 normal girl she is incredibly emotional, even if she doesn't have time to bask in her pain so she's always forced to keep her grief inside and move on.  As Katniss, she's forced by the course of events to grow up and her change is evident if we consider the Tris who was afraid to tell her parents she doesn't want to be an Abnegation, to the Tris who is one of the leader of the war against the Erudites.

Secondary characters
I really liked Tobias character, he's certainly one of my favourites of this book! I think Tobias and Tris are complementaries, they support each other, one would be incomplete without the other. In my opinion what is more intriguing about Tobias character is that veil of mystery that covers him: he's the strong and beautiful initiates' trainer but apart from this wi don't really know much of him. For this reason I REALLY liked the use of the "Fear Landscape" as a tool to reveal Tobias' past and personality: it completely opens a gash into the past of the character that has helped us to understand him better. 
Christina and Will are simply adorable! I don't really know why I've grown so fond of them (Maybe because they were always in the middle of the spotlight, always near Tris in every moment)  but it is so ;it's useless to say what shot to the heart was the scene in the driveway, the death of Will. BOOM.
After that accident I was really curious to know Christina's reaction in front of the truth but the author eventually reserved this details for the sequel.
Al really surprised me; he was initially in Tris' group, together with Christina and Will and I was very fond of him,too. He seemed sweet, delicate and genuinely in love with Tris. What he had done to try to pass initiation really shocked me in the beginning but then I realise I couldn't be mad at him: in a society in which you're completely forgotten if you can't pass initiation, fear wins over any other feeling.
Least but not last Peter; since I'm writing this review along with the Insurgent review, I can't separate the feelings I have felt for him in the two books. What I feel like saying is that in book one he's certainly the antagonist and I hated him.. but not for too long! He's the most difficult character to understand and I really like his sophistication!

Writing
Well, Veronica's writing is amazing. I think her style is similar to Lauren DeStefano and Stephenye Meyer in The Host: direct, concise, raw. She often uses short sentences and a lot of punctuation to to increase the focus on that particular sentence and all these little details make Divergent one of the best book I've read this year. Beautifully, amazingly written.

Overall, the book is AMAZING! Definitely a must-read.


Rated


Favourite quotes:
"It's a cruel joke, but it's hard for me to fight off a smile. That is, until Four's eyes shift to my arm around Will's and the humour drains from them. His expression sends a chill through me. Is he... jealous?"

"Eric called Al's suicide brave, and he was wrong. My mother's death was brave. I remember how calm she was, how determined. It isn't just brave that she died for me; it is brave that she did it without announcing it, without hesitation, and without appearing to consider another option."

"Somewhere inside me is a merciful, forgiving person. Somewhere there is a girl who tries to understand what people are going through, who accepts that people do evil things and that desperation leads them to darker places than they ever imagined. I swear she exists, but if I saw her, I wouldn't recognize her."




sabato 10 novembre 2012

Showcase Sunday #14


Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Book, Biscuits and Tea
               The aim of Showcase Sunday is to highlight our newest books or book related swag
                and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought

Blog Tour: Flash by Barbara Morgenroth [Review]

Flash
Published: September 29th 2011
Publisher: DashingBook
Number of Pages: 175 more or less.
Format: eBook
Source: Author
Purchase: Amazon, B&N

When Kip “I lied about being 18 for so long, it seemed like the truth” Chanin, arrives in Los Angeles with her mother who wants to work in Hollywood, it doesn’t take her long to understand that this is a factory town and the product is an illusion. To help support her two-person family, Kip grits her teeth, puts aside being a news photographer and becomes a paparazzi.


Kip’s first photo is of Alex Milne, the handsome and volatile young actor. That one photo changes both their lives. An evening being detained in the Beverly Hills Police Station expands Kip’s world and opportunities both wanted and unwanted confront her. To lasting shock and pain, Kip learns the identity of her father and she sets out to solve a murder that’s been gossiped about in Hollywood for the last 80 years, tainting the Milne family to the present day.



One thing Kip learns to her core is that life is real even in a city dedicated to creating illusions.

My Review

Pro/Con
Well, let's begin with the fact that I LOVE books that are set in American big cities: they just make me dream! Moreover I think that Flash well-described the reality of life for famous people, but also for those who are too concerned in getting fame. I think the author created an original story, but also very risky because nowadays it is difficult to become recognized authors, unless you write on the paranormal / fantasy genre. I think Flash was a great read but still, I think there were some aspects of the book that needed to be deepened. First, I think it was necessary to give a little more space to Kip, the protagonist; of course, her personality emerges during the book, especially by the way she reacts to the luxury of life in LA, but sometimes I couldn't understand her and above all I can't picture an imagine of her, because I can't recall a part of the book where she was physically described. Second, the ancient mystery of the murder (that sees the Milne family involved), even if this is a minor problem because I'm sure that the author will develop this story in the sequels of Flash. Still, I was very interested in this mystery, and even if I knew the solution couldn't be given in the first book, I hoped the author would have focused a little more on it. In general I think that the book needed a little more twists, well distributed throughout the whole book; infact, the last part was the most interesting, because it was more enticing and engaging - speaking the true, the ending was really good, it really makes me want to read the sequel!

Protagonist
Speaking of the characters, I really liked Kip because she really was alternative (and a little cynical!)! 
 I mean, what kind of girl wouldn't have been haunted by LA? I would have been the first! Instead, she remains herself, and what I loved the most is that, even in front of Alex's flirting, she stays the same; he's an actor so it's easy to imagine what kind of girls he's used to hang with, nevertheless Kip, with her simple and genuine personality, succeeded in making him fall in love. (at least I hope!)  I also like how mature she's for her age, and the fact that she's practically the one who carries on her mother. 

Secondary characters
Alex was nothing special, except for the fact that it was interesting how the author focused on the negative aspects of his character: stubborn, impulsive, a little irascible sometimes. The character I liked most is Bay's: I imagine her as a strong, middle-aged handy-woman, that replaces the mother Kip never had. She has not an easy personality and she's not easy to deal with, that's why the relationship she shares with Kip is even more special, real. They become inseparable, especially because they share the same passion: photography. Bay will be the only one who will really understand Kip and comfort her when she needed her mother most.

Point of view

I really appreciated the author's choice to adopt Kip's point of view, because she was not originary from LA, so it's funny to see things from her POV. It's interesting because by reading her point of view, LA is not as it is described in movies (the city of my dreams! *sighs*), it's full of scandals and compromises.

Rated 3.35


Favourite quotes:
"She was a sweet girl, kind-hearted and operated in a delightful world that didn't exist but where impossible dreams came true and people always had redeeming qualities no matter how poorly they treated her. And there was something deeply sorrowful about her brightness." (Kip's mother)

"Does it steal your soul to be photographed?"
Well, maybe. "No, of course not. It's just that my place is behind the camera not in front of it."

"I think you're a stabilizing influence for him. You're very mature for your age. He's very serious and very talented and obviously very fond of you."

Find Barbara




mercoledì 7 novembre 2012

Cover Reveal: Incendiary by Amy Bartol


Hey guys! I bet a great part of you have already heard of The Premotion series
by Amy Bartol; Incendiary is the fourth book in the series, before we have 
Inescapable, Intuition and Indebted. Before seeing the cover, if you'd like to
support Amy, you can vote her in The Opening Round of the Goodreads Awards 2012
for Best Author or Young Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy!!

Incendiary


Cold, fine drops of rain fall softly on my cheeks as I emerge from the darkness of the ship’s interior to the gray, overcast sky of the main deck. Pulling my dark pea coat tighter to my body, the wind lifts red tendrils of my hair. I walk slowly to the railing overlooking the water.
I catch my first sight of the Irish coastline; its craggy landscape makes me shiver in dread. I find it difficult to imagine now how the Gancanagh had made this their home for so long without anyone realizing it. The cold, moss-covered edifices practically scream their presence. As I study the shadows between the falling-down stone, I imagine creeping shapes of undead Faeries grasping the rock, waiting for our ship to draw nearer to their position.
Tipping my face up, I let the rain wash over me. It bathes away the frigid sweat of fear that has broken on my brow. “You don’t know how fiercely beautiful you are, do you?” A quiet voice behind me asks, causing me to stiffen and fix my eyes on the rocks along the shoreline.

*drum rolls*




Impressions: I really like the cover, it looks a little like the others but that's what I like. I think that in a series it is important to have a theme that you can reuse in all the covers. I really like the choice of colors, too.


About the authors

I live in Michigan with my husband and our two sons. My family is very supportive of my writing. When I’m writing, they often bring me the take-out menu so that I can call and order them dinner. They listen patiently when I talk about my characters like they’re real. They rarely roll their eyes when I tell them I’ll only be a second while I finish writing a chapter…and then they take off their coats. They ask me how the story is going when I surface after living for hours in a world of my own making. They have learned to accept my “writing uniform” consisting of a slightly unflattering pink fleece jacket, t-shirt, and black yoga pants. And they smile at my nerdy bookishness whenever I try to explain urban fantasy to them. In short, they get me, so they are perfect and I am blessed.

Links



 
Images by Freepik