Book Review - The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy

"To understand what it meant to be a Hathaway, you'd first have to see Aurelia."

For generations, Aurelia was the crowning glory of more than three thousand acres of Iowa farmland and golden cornfields. The estate was a monument to matriarch Lavinia Hathaway's dream to elevate the family name - no matter what relative or stranger she had to destroy in the process. It was a desperation that wrought the downfall of the Hathaways - and the once prosperous farm.

Now the last inhabitant of the decaying old home has died - alone. None of the surviving members of the Hathaway family want anything to do with the farm, the land, or the memories.

Especially Meredith Pincetti. Now living in New York City, for seventeen years Lavinia's youngest grandchild has tried to forget everything about her family and her past. But with the receipt of a pleading letter, Meredith is again thrust into conflict with the legacy that destroyed her family's once-great name. Back at Aurelia, Meredith must confront the rise and fall of the Hathaway family... and her own part in their mottled history.

"Our farm was like the world when people still thought it was flat. And when you left it, it was as if you had simply sailed too far and fallen off the surface into the void."

You can find the Goodreads page here.

My Review (if you would like to see the video review, please see end of post)


A very interesting read.  Right from the word go, I knew that something BIG had happened at Aurelia farm and I knew that I had to find out what was going on.   What happened on this farm so make all but one the family members leave?  

This story splits into two.  First you have Meredith who had been contacted by the family's lawyer saying that her cousin had died, left the farm in ruin and are looking for a family member who is willing to sort out the debts (of which there are quite a few) and the family's personal belongings.  Up until now, not one of the family members have been either contactable or willing to take on this task.  Through a struggle of will, Meredith decides that she has to go back to Aurelia to sort this out.  The second half of this story is set in the past, right when Lavinia was married to the doctor in the village where Aurelia is set.  We follow Lavinia's story as she meets her new future husband and moves to Aurelia.  


I have to admit there were times in the story where the split between the past and the present was not very clear and it did take me a few minutes when that switch happened to figure out what time period I was in. 

Although it appeared from the start that the main character of this story could have been Meredith Pincetti, to me the main character was Lavinia Hathaway.  A very strong character who knows what she wants and knows how to get it, irrespective of who she hurts on her way.  

A very enjoyable read, a bit confusing with the story split but a great family drama...

Best wishes


Debs :-)

Waiting on Wednesday - Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

 

Expected Release Date:   4th September 2012
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)


Goodreads link is here.

Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant -- until Celia meets Lo.

Lo doesn't know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea -- a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid -- all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she's becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she's tempted to embrace her dark immortality.

When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude's affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there's only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul

Best wishes 

Debs :-)

Book Review - The Charm Bracelet by Melissa Hill

Every charm bracelet tells a story and Holly O'Neill knows this better than most. Years ago, at a difficult time in her life, a silver bracelet in a pretty wrapped box was delivered anonymously to her, a single charm attached. Some time later, another mysterious charm appeared, and the same thing happened many times over the years. Each charm proved to be significant in her life, as if her unnamed benefactor understood she needed some kind of talisman to help her through challenging times. 

Since then, she has added her own charms - special reminders of the most important events in her life. Her bracelet makes memories tangible - spelling out the nuances of cherished moments through the shorthand of each tiny charm. For this reason, Holly's charm bracelet is her most prized possession. 

So when one day, she stumbles across a bracelet that somebody else has lost, she recognises a lifetime spelt out through the very different charms, and knows she must try to reunite it with its owner. In order to try and track this person down, she uses each charm to help discover more about them. But as Holly gradually begins to piece together the details of this person's life, her quest leads her somewhere she never expected.

Check out the Goodreads page here. 

10/10

My Review

(video review at the end of the post)

Wow, Melissa Hill has done it again.  This was an absolutely fantastically amazing book!  The writing was beautiful, the story was beautiful, the cover was beautiful.....  I could go on....   Although this story is based around Christmas time, it is a story that could be read any time of the year...

There are some really great relationships in this story.  There is the relationship between Holly and her son (the father not really being in the picture very much).  Its obvious right from the start that they have a very strong relationship and when Holly sets out to try and find a home for the charm bracelet she finds, her son is right there wanting to help and supporting her.   There are a couple of other really amazingly beautiful relationships in this story that I will not talk about here as I don't want to spoil the story....

There are two main characters in this story.  On the one hand you have Holly (described above) and on the other hand you have Greg who we see at the start as a stock broker coming to the end of his tether.  He quits suddenly as he realises that there is more to life and wants to take up photography, which is a hobby that he has loved since he was a kid.  His girlfriend is not so supportive.

And OH MY GOSH the ending was so beautiful I cried...  Twice.... and a third time with the completely unexpected ending...   I love love loved this story ......

 

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Book Review - The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble

A bestseller in the UK, THE READING GROUP is about a group of women who meet regularly to read and discuss books, and how their lives become intertwined, both with the books they read and with each other's lives.

What starts out as a good idea born from a glass of wine and the need to socialize, turns into much more. Over the span of a year, Clare, Harriet, Nicole, Polly and Susan -- five women of different ages, backgrounds and contrasting dilemmas -- transform themselves through the shared community of a book group.

Their reading group becomes a forum for each of the women's views, expressed initially by the book they're reading and increasingly openly as the bonds of friendship cement. As the months pass, these women's lives become more and more intertwined.

In the THE READING GROUP, Nobel reveals the many complicated paths in life we all face as well as the power and importance of friendship.

Chck out the Goodreads page here

My Review

(video review at the bottom of the post)

If you were looking for a book to sit by the beach and read, something relaxing and not too complicated, this is the perfect read for you.  I absolutely loved this story.  Despite the fact that there were quite a few characters to keep on top of, it was not too demanding on concentration.  I have to admit that I read this periodically throughout the period of a month so it did take me a few minutes to catch up with what the characters were doing.

Instead of chapters for this book, it is split up into months, January to December, and list what book they are reading each month (for more details on what book and what month, please see the video below).  I would have to say that there were a couple of books in that reading list that was on my wish list to read but the conversations in the story did spoil what was going to happen so I will put those to the back burner for a little bit until I forget!  I would recommend that if there were any books in the list of books they read in the Reading Group that you are going to read soon or want to read, you read those first and then read this one so as the plots are not spoiled.  

Even though this story is headed The Reading Group, I would have to say that this story is more about the characters who attend the Reading Group and their lives outside the group and it is when they all come together that they kind of take stock of what is happening in their lives.  Following each of the characters stories is really like a roller coaster of emotion including not being able to have children, affairs, children, pregnancy, Alzheimers etc... 

I loved this story and would recommend it to all those of you who like a bit of dramatic chick lit to read.

10 out of 10

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Book Review - The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

You can find the Goodreads page here

My Review   
(for a more detailed review, please see the video at the bottom of this blog)


Well, this book surprised me so much.  Here I was thinking that this was going to be some kind of supernatural/paranormal YA school romance story and even though I was maybe right about the romance but the story took a very unexpected turn and I loved it!


This story is split into several different points of view but not like every other chapter is another character, the view point change seems to happen at certain points of the story.  For example, Charliana has gone to a club with a friend and meets a character called Xander.  Once Charliana has left, the viewpoint changes to Xander to see what he made of the evening.

What a fantastic book....   

Best wishes

Debs :-)


 

Book Haul/IMM - 26th May 2012

Hiya!  Here are the books I received this time....

Best wishes

Debs :-)

BooK Review - Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti

A romantic and empowering book about bullying

Noelle's life is all about survival. Even her best friend doesn't know how much she gets bullied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle's kept so much about her life a secret for so long that when her longtime crush Julian Porter starts paying attention to her, she's terrified. Surely it's safer to stay hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But when the antagonism of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle realizes it's time to stand up for herself--and for the love that keeps her holding on.

Check it out on Goodreads here. 

Release Date - 31st May 2012

7/10

This story was completely not what I expected it to be.  Just looking at the cover alone, it looks like a nice YA romance that I could relax to.  Putting the cover aside, this was a very emotional book to read.

Noelle is bullied at school and at home.  The most emotional part for me to read was the relationship Noelle has with her mother.  As a result of her mother getting pregnant straight after leaving High School, her mother believes that Noelle has ruined her life and doesn't let Noelle forget that fact.  What was every more shocking was that to be able to have money for her future, Noelle decides to get a job and put savings in the bank and, unfortunately, as she was not yet an adult, she had to get her mother to co-sign to open the bank account.  When Noelle went to check her bank account, she found out that her mother had taken all the funds in there  and was not even sorry for doing it.  

Its obvious that Noelle wants to get out of the situation she was in and I liked how the chapters counted down the number of days she had left until she could leave.  There are a couple of potential love interests, including Julian but I felt the power of the story was more on Noelle's day to day life trying to stay under the radar, both at home and at school.  

This story is a very powerful story more about focusing on the journey Noelle has to take while being bullied.  Although there is a bit of romance in the story, the main focus was on the bullying.  This one was a tough one for me to read because the content was quite heavy but it is definately a story that makes you stop and take notice.

Best wishes

Debs

Book Review - Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore

Once you’ve seen, you can’t unsee. Everything changes when you’ve looked at the world through . . .

ANGEL EYES

Brielle’s a ballerina who went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She’s come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can’t seem to shake.

Jake’s the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.

Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what’s going to happen. And a beauty brighter than Jake or Brielle has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.

A realm that only angels and demons—and Brielle—can perceive.

Check out the Goodreads page here.

Release Date:  29th May 2012 

9/10

My Review 

There are two types of YA paranormal stories that I always love; witch stories and angel stories and the minute I saw the title and read the blurb, I knew I had to read this one!

We start off seeing Brielle returning to her home town after being in the city.  It is obvious that something bad had happened and that is why she left the city and that is something we find out all about later on in the story.   We then have Jake, the new guy at school, who seems to take a shine to Brielle but there's something about him that's different.  I really enjoyed the romantic element of the story between Brielle and Jake.

This story is slow paced and the change in view points in this story from the various characters made this story very enjoyable and addictive to keep reading.  It also has some really great action scenes nearer the end.  I definitely could not put it down.  I must also mention that near the end, this story does deal with some hard hitting issues that were a bit shocking and unexpected). 

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Book Review - Hanging by a Thread by Sophie Littlefield

Summer is the best part of the year in Winston, California, and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the season. But the perfect town Clare remembers has changed, and everyone is praying that this summer will be different from the last two—that this year's Fourth of July festival won't see one of their own vanish without a trace, leaving no leads and no suspects. The media are in a frenzy predicting a third disappearance, but the town depends on tourist dollars, so the residents of Winston are trying desperately to pretend nothing's wrong.

And they're not the only ones hiding something.

Clare, a seamstress who redesigns vintage clothing, has been blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a gift: she can see people's pasts when she touches their clothes. When she stumbles across a denim jacket that once belonged to Amanda Stavros, last year's Fourth of July victim, Clare sees her perfect town begin to come apart at the seams.

In a town where appearance means everything, how deep beneath the surface will Clare dig to uncover a murderer?

Check it out on Goodreads here.

My Review

OK, so I have to admit that when I first read the blurb for this book I thought it could go one of two ways; either it is going to be a detective mystery type story that is taken seriously or it could be comedic.  I am so that that it ended up being more the detective mystery type of story. 

The idea of having premonitions through the touch of clothes is something that I had not come across before so this story was new for me.  A very interesting idea that all the clothes you wear can tell a story of what was happening at the time you were wearing it.  Oh dear, if my clothes could talk lol!!

What I enjoyed about this story the most was the mystery surrounding the two girls who went missing/murdered.  When Clare stumbles across the denim jacket that could tell her all about what happened to one girl, it scares her so much that she hides the jacket in the closet.  I did find it a little frustrating that she knew that the jacket could tell her more about a missing girl but kept it hidden in the closet for so long.  

Things are definitely more than what they seem in this story.  There is a little bit of romance in this story but not a huge amount.  For me, this story was predictable but the journey of the story was very enjoyable.

6 out of 10

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Waiting on Wednesday - Erasing Time by C J Hill

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

 

Expected Release Date:   28th August 2012
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)


Goodreads link is here.

In this high-action and romantic futuristic adventure, there is no escape from the future for two contemporary girls pulled out of their own time.

When twins Sheridan and Taylor wake up 400 years in the future, they find a changed world: domed cities, no animals, and a language that’s so different, it barely sounds like English. And the worst news: They can’t go back home.

The twenty-fifth-century government transported the girls to their city hoping to find a famous scientist to help perfect a devastating new weapon. The moblike Dakine fights against the government, and somehow Taylor and Sheridan find themselves in the middle. The only way to elude them all is to trust Echo, a guy with secrets of his own. The trio must put their faith in the unknown to make a harrowing escape into the wilds beyond the city.

Full of adrenaline-injected chases and heartbreaking confessions, Erasing Time explores the strength of the bonds between twins, the risks and rewards of trust, and the hard road to finding the courage to fight for what you believe in

Winners - The Camera Never Lies by Tess Daly

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS BELOW.....

Rebecca 'Beckie' Mills

Holly 'McFly' Page

YOU HAVE EACH WON A COPY OF THE ABOVE BOOK....

Thank you very much to all that have entered this competition....

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Waiting on Wednesday - The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

 

Expected Release Date:   16th August 2012
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)


Goodreads link is here.

A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.



Best wishes

Debs :-)

Book Review - The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall

Beth Lowe has been sent a parcel.

Inside is a letter informing her that her long-estranged mother has died, and a scrapbook Beth has never seen before. Entitled The Book of Summers, it's stuffed with photographs and mementos complied by her mother to record the seven glorious childhood summers Beth spent in rural Hungary.
It was a time when she trod the tightrope between separated parents and two very different countries; her bewitching but imperfect Hungarian mother and her gentle, reticent English father; the dazzling house of a Hungarian artist and an empty-feeling cottage in deepest Devon. And it was a time that came to the most brutal of ends the year Beth turned sixteen.

Since then, Beth hasn't allowed herself to think about those years of her childhood. But the arrival of The Book of Summers brings the past tumbling back into the present; as vivid, painful and vital as ever.

You can find the Goodreads page here.

My Review  (Video review at the bottom of the post)

Words really cannot describe how much I loved this book.  Even though when reading this book it was typical English weather outside (cloudy, rainy and cold), I felt warm and all summery on the inside.  Not only does the cover and title scream out summer but the story just sweeps you away into this summery dream.

The characters in this story were so rich with life and turmoil, I just had to follow the story to find out more.  At the beginning, we see Beth living far away from her father in Devon and her mother in Hungary.  Her father comes for a visit and you can see that something has gone on in the past as their relationship is trained.  He brings with him a package that had been delivered for Beth.  She immediately knows that it is from Hungary.  That is when she discovers the Book of Summers that record the childhood summers that she spent with her mother.  

From glancing through the pages, we are transported back to a time when Beth looked forward to spending her summers in Hungary with her mother, her mother's boyfriend and new friends and as the story unfolds we see a bigger picture of what happened in that last fateful summer that was the downfall of the entire family.  

I especially enjoyed the slow pace of the story, which meant that I could sit back, relax and enjoy the summer drama.  If you like family drama and emotional summer reads, this is definitely one to pick up.

10 out of 10 

Best wishes


Debs :-)

Book Review - Persephone the Phony by Joan Holab and Suzanne Williams (Goddess Girls 2)

Flower goddess Persephone has always just gone along with the crowd, instead of doing what she really wants.

But when she meets Hades, she finally feels she has found someone she can be herself with.  She likes hanging out with him, despite the fact that the other goddess girls think he's bad news.  Can she get her goddessgirl friends to accept her new godboy bud?

You can find the Goodreads page here

My Review

As I also said in my review of the first book in the series (review can be found here), although this book is aimed at Middle Grade readers,  I am 31 and thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It was so much fun to read.

One thing that is enjoyable about this series so far is that every book is from a different Goddess' perspective.  In the first book, we follow the story of Athena and in this second book we are following Athena's friend Persephone.  So we have the same world but from different perspectives.

This story is mainly a love story between Persephone and Hades.  Persephone who is a goddess who can make flowers come back to life and Hades who is from the underworld.  To Persephone's friends and her mother, Hades is a bad guy and they should protect their friend/daughter.  To Persephone, Hades is someone that she can be herself with.

This is such a fun story fulled with romance and friendship.  Such a fun read...

9 out of 10

Best wishes

Debs :-) 

BooK Review - Flutter by Gina Linko

My breath came in fits and starts. And I was gone, in a flash, back to the loop. Back to my other…my other me… my other places. My other times.

All Emery Land wants is to be like any other seventeen year old—to go to school, hang out with her friends, and just be normal. But for as long as she can remember, she’s suffered from something akin to seizures. And in recent years they’ve consumed her life. To Emery they're much more than seizures, she calls them loops—moments when she travels through wormholes back and forth in time and to mysterious places. The loops are taking their toll on her physically. So she practically lives in the hospital where her scientist father and an ever-growing team of doctors monitor her every move. Although they don’t believe her claims of time travel, the doctors are extremely interested in the data they collect when Emery seizes – too interested. What is it they think she is capable of? Is she tapping into never-before-used parts of the brain? Is this clairvoyance of some sort? Telepathy? Or something else completely?

When Emery encounters a young boy—a guide of sorts who offers cryptic warnings—she intuitively knows she must decipher his clues to uncover what is really happening to her. Escaping from the hospital, she travels to Esperanza, the town from her loops in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where she meets a guarded and mysterious good Samaritan, Asher Clarke. A series of coincidences draw them together, and Emery quickly realizes that their individual mysteries – their singular secrets -- might not be so separate after all. With time running out for Emery, they must unravel their complicated connection before it's too late.

In her gorgeously crafted page-turning debut, Gina Linko offers readers a stunning blend of science fiction and romance.

You can find the Goodreads page here.

My Review

From the very start of this book, I really felt sorry for Emery, for many reasons.  One reason is that she suffers from seizures that she cannot control and I can't imagine what kind of toll that would take on her.  The other reason was that, because of these seizures, she has to stay at the hospital and it appears that her father would like to keep it that way. 


The story really begins when we see what happens when Emery has her seizures because they are not normal seizures.  Every time she blacks out, she is somewhere else completely.  Gradually, over time and many seizures later, it seems as though she is visting the same place time and time again and, to make it more interesting, she meets a boy who is giving her clues that she must figure out.


I liked the strength of Emery and the fact that she has the courage to stand up for what she wants to do and when she knows what that is, she goes in search of the truth.  


There was something different about this story and that was what drew me in and kept me reading until the very end.  Putting the pieces of the this story together and figuring out what was going on at the same time as Emery certainly kept me on my toes...


Please see below for my video review

Best wishes

Debs :-)



 

Waiting on Wednesday - The Thing about the Truth by Lauren Barnholdt

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

 

Expected Release Date:   10th July 2012
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)


Goodreads link is here.

In this humorous love story from the author of Two-Way Street, an unlikely romance is the best sort of surprise—but the wrong secret can ruin everything. Kelsey’s not going to let one mistake ruin her life. Sure, she got kicked out of prep school and all her old friends are shutting her out. But Kelsey’s focused on her future, and she’s determined to get back on track at Concordia High.

Isaac’s been kicked out of more schools than he can count. Since his father’s a state senator, Isaac’s life is under constant scrutiny—but Concordia High’s his last stop before boarding school, so Isaac’s hoping to fly under the radar and try to stay put for a change.

When Kelsey and Isaac meet, it’s anything but love at first sight. She thinks he’s an entitled brat, and he thinks she’s a stuck-up snob. So it surprises them both when they start to fall for each other. Kelsey’s happy for the first time in months, and Isaac’s never felt this way about anyone before...But nothing’s ever completely perfect. Everyone has secrets, and Isaac and Kelsey are no exceptions. These two may have fallen hard, but there’s one thing that can ruin it all: the truth.


Best wishes

Debs :-)

Book Haul/In My Mailbox - 1st May 2012

GIVEAWAY(NOW CLOSED) - The Camera Never Lies by Tess Daly

TO SEE RAFFLECOPTER FORM, PLEASE GO INTO POST BY CLICKING THE HEADING

So, a little while ago I did a review for The Camera Never Lies by Tess Day (review can be found here) and the Publisher has very kindly offered to give away two copies.  For your chance to enter, please fill in the below.  I am afraid I have to limit this giveaway to the UK only, sorry guys.

Britt Baxter is unaware of the effect she has on people. A big-hearted, no nonsense northern girl, she naturally looks for the best in everyone she meets, but in her attempts to make it as model she finds she struggles against being pinned down on the casting couch by the most unlikely people… 

So when a happy accident lands her a career as a presenter on breakfast television, it looks as if she has made it out of the modelling world of close-ups and cattle calls and into the big time – or at least daytime TV. But scarcely has Britt had time to wonder at how far she has come, when backstage machinations propel her with ever increasing speed through a series of trapdoors and she soon realises that the drama backstage far eclipses anything that happens in front of the camera. Tess Daly has written a fast-paced novel with perfect comic timing and as many twists and turns in the plot as her heroine has costume changes.

Book Review - Athena the Brain by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams (Goddess Girls 1)

Meet the girls of Mount Olympus Academy.

Brainy Athena has never fit in at Triton School, but who would've guessed that's because she's actually a goddess?  Zeus's daughter, to be exact.

So when she's summoned to Mount Olympus Academy, Athena thinks that she might fit in for the first time in her life.  But school on Mount Olympus is not that different from down on earth.  Will Athena be able to deal with Medusa, the baddest mean girl in history.

You can find the Goodreads page here

My Review

This was such a fun book to read.  Even though this book is aimed at Middle Grade readers, I thoroughly enjoyed it and especially loved the banter between the characters, especially when Athena gets to her new school at Mount Olympus. I have to admit that I wanted to join this school and attend some of the lessons such as spell-ology, beauty-ology, hero-ology and especially revenge-ology..... 

Athena is a normal girl in a world where the Gods are held up high on a pedestal and when she discovers that she is, in fact, a goddess, she cannot wait to travel to her new life even though that does mean she will have to leave her best friend behind.

This is such a fun book that I would recommend to not only to middle grade readers but to all.

8 out of 10

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Waiting on Wednesday - One Moment by Kristina McBride

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

 

Expected Release Date:   26th June 2012
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)


Goodreads link is here.

This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie’s life. Now it’s the one she’d do anything to forget.

Maggie Reynolds remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party the night before. She remembers climbing the trail hand in hand with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can’t she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below—dead?

As Maggie’s memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where did he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?

The latest novel from the author of The Tension of Opposites, One Moment is a mysterious, searing look at how an instant can change everything you believe about the world around you.

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Book Review - Yesterday by CK Kelly Martin

THEN: The formation of the UNA, the high threat of eco-terrorism, the mammoth rates of unemployment and subsequent escape into a world of virtual reality are things any student can read about in their 21st century textbooks and part of the normal background noise to Freya Kallas's life. Until that world starts to crumble.

NOW: It's 1985. Freya Kallas has just moved across the world and into a new life. On the outside, she fits in at her new high school, but Freya feels nothing but removed. Her mother blames it on the grief over her father's death, but how does that explain the headaches and why do her memories feel so foggy?

When Freya lays eyes on Garren Lowe, she can't get him out of her head. She's sure that she knows him, despite his insistence that they've never met. As Freya follows her instincts and pushes towards hidden truths, the two of them unveil a strange and dangerous world where their days may be numbered.

Unsure who to trust, Freya and Garren go on the run from powerful forces determined to tear them apart and keep them from discovering the truth about their shared pasts (and futures), her visions, and the time and place they really came from.

Goodreads Page is here.


My Review


5/10

The idea for this story is very interesting.  It's a mix of political/futuristic/ya that I had not read before.  I have to admit that this book was a little slow paced for me so it took me a little while to get into the story.  I would have to say that the first 1/3 of this book was lead up to the action that was going to take place later on in the story and although enjoyable to read, this was the part that was slow for me as I was waiting for all the action to take place.


This story was also based half in the future and half in the 80s.  Now, I was born in 1981 so a lot of the 80s is a bit of a blur for me as I was so young.  In the parts of this story that were in the 80s, there were lots of references to 80s people, music etc that I could not relate to and I think that is probably why it took me a while to get into the story.   


If I had to describe this story in a sentence, I would have to say that it is a puzzle that needs to be put back together.  Every step you take, you are given a little bit more information to fit into the puzzle and that is what I really enjoyed about this book.  It certainly kept me thinking all the way through trying to figure out what was going on.



For me, this was a mix of a very good storyline mixed with slow paced action.  I am glad that I stuck it out to finish it because this story had a good ending.

Best wishes

Debs :-)





 

Book Review - Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.

The Goodreads Page can be found here.

My Review  

OMG what a great YA fiction story.  I have to be honest and say, straight up, that the cover did draw me into this one.  There's just something about an innocent rose covered in what looks like blood that makes me think, what on earth is this story is about, I just had to find out what that was about.  I was so glad that I did.

This story is not like any story I have read before.  It has a great mix of various fairytales intertwined with various characters that Mirabelle meets when she ends up in her birthplace, Beau Rivage.  Mirabelle wants to find out more about her past and more about her parents who died when she was little so just before she turns sixteen she decides to go and find out.  Little does she know that there are far more secrets in Beau Rivage than she could have ever expected.

Not only does this story have a great spin on fairytales but it does have that classic love triangle with Mirabelle being smack bang in the middle of.  What will she choose.

I absolutely loved this story and for all those out there who love a bit of love triangle romance mixed with fairytale magic, this is the story for you....


My Video Review

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Waiting on Wednesday - All These lives by Sarah Wylie

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog.

 

Expected Release Date:   5th June 2012
(Release date obtained from Goodreads)


Goodreads link is here.

Sixteen-year-old Dani is convinced she has nine lives. As a child she twice walked away from situations where she should have died. But Dani’s twin, Jena, isn’t so lucky. She has cancer and might not even be able to keep her one life. Dani’s father is in denial. Her mother is trying to hold it together and prove everything’s normal. And Jena is wasting away.

To cope, Dani sets out to rid herself of all her extra lives. Maybe they’ll be released into the universe and someone who wants to live more than she does will get one. Someone like Jena. But just when Dani finds herself at the breaking point, she’s faced with a startling realization. Maybe she doesn’t have nine lives after all. Maybe she really only ever had one.

Book Review - The Camera Never Lies by Tess Daly

Britt Baxter is unaware of the effect she has on people. A big-hearted, no nonsense northern girl, she naturally looks for the best in everyone she meets, but in her attempts to make it as model she finds she struggles against being pinned down on the casting couch by the most unlikely people… 

So when a happy accident lands her a career as a presenter on breakfast television, it looks as if she has made it out of the modelling world of close-ups and cattle calls and into the big time – or at least daytime TV. But scarcely has Britt had time to wonder at how far she has come, when backstage machinations propel her with ever increasing speed through a series of trapdoors and she soon realises that the drama backstage far eclipses anything that happens in front of the camera. Tess Daly has written a fast-paced novel with perfect comic timing and as many twists and turns in the plot as her heroine has costume changes. 


Goodreads Page - click here
Tess Daly Wikipedia Page - click here





My Review   (video review at bottom of post)


10 out of 10


Right when I was feeling a bit overloaded with reading a lot of paranormal stories, here comes this utterly fantastic chicklit book that makes me laugh, cry, frown and cheer and sometimes all at once!  I really cannot tell you how much I loved this story, oh wait... yes I can.... I LOVED IT!


Britt Baxter is a character that stands up for what is right and not afraid to take chances.  We follow her at the start being a model and going for an absolutely shocking interview where it comes down to the fact that if she wants the job she will have to sleep with the interviewee.  I felt that Britt made absolutely the right decision.  She travels to Tokyo, on the advice of her agent, to try modelling out there but when something unexpected happens to a member of her family, she returns home.  

Aside from her career, Britt has a lot on her plate to deal with in the love department.  At the beginning of the story, she has a boyfriend although my feeling at the time was that it was a situation that was not working for either of them.  


Poor Britt in this story has a lot of ups and downs but this is one tough character and I was completely rooting for her all the way through.

What made this story even more intriguing to me is the fact that the author Tess Daly was a model and also a presenter so that made me think about how much of this story was actually based on real life.    I have popped a link to her Wikipedia page above if you want to learn more.

A great romance chicklit mixed with celebrity drama and mystery. 


Video Review   

Best wishes

Debs :-)

Book Review - Socialpunk by Monica Leonelle

Ima would give anything to escape The Dome and learn what’s beyond its barriers, but the Chicago government has kept all its citizens on lockdown ever since the Scorched Years left most of the world a desert wasteland. When a mysterious group of hooded figures enters the city unexpectedly, Ima uncovers a plot to destroy The Dome and is given the choice between escaping to a new, dangerous city or staying behind and fighting a battle she can never win.

Goodreads Page - click here.

My Review   

7 out of 10


I have to admit that at the start of this story I was thinking what on earth is going to happen in this story but when the hooded characters came onto the scene, things became very interesting indeed!  

I did find it confusing when halfway through the story, Ima decided to change her name to Cinder.  Although I completely understand why she did it in the story, because she was becoming a new person and wanted a new identity, it took me a while to catch up and try and remember that every time I read the name Cinder, it was Ima.. 


What I thought was really enjoyable about this book was the fact that Ima/Cinder definitely has quite a few chaps wanting her attention (if you know what I mean ;-) and watching her reaction to those advances.  

After Ima/Cinder learning that all may not be what she seems, she has to make some really tough decisions but I felt that she chose the right ones.   



Things are definitely not what they seem in this story and there are a lot of secrets to be uncovered and not a lot of time to uncover them.   


Without spoiling the ending, I will just say that there is a very surprising twist that I was completely not expecting... 





Best wishes


Debs :-)

BooK Review - Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as The Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

You can find the Goodreads page here.

My Review  

What a great futuristic story.  This is a post apolcaliptic story of people who live in domes who communicate with each other via 'realms' on something like an internet that is connected to your body via a eye piece.   This is definately a very interesting idea, with the thought that you could be sitting in your little dome room on the one hand but on the other you could be having drinks at a party in a medieval realm or something like that.  But as we know with a lot of futuristic stories, things are not always what they seem.  Who are the baddies and who are the heros?

Aria is the main character that we follow in this story.   Her mother works in medicine in another part of the dome.  One day she loses contact with her mother and desperate to find out what happens decides to take matters into her own hands.  Things get very out of control and Aria finds herself out of her depth and fighting for survival.  


This is such a great story with a great romance tucked in there as well.  I did have to chuckle at a few comments as well between some of the characters especially the moment where Aria finds out that she is having her first period and she is comparing it to death, thinking that she is dying.  Being a woman, I can completely relate to that lol!!!


My Video Review

Best wishes

Debs :-)

 

Book Review - Immortal City by Scott Speer

Jackson Godspeed is the hottest young Angel in a city filled with them.

He's days away from becoming a full Guardian, and people around the world are already competing for the chance to be watched over by him. Everyone's obsessed with the Angels and the lucky people they protect - everyone except for Madison Montgomery.

Maddy's the one girl in Angel City who doesn't breathlessly follow the Angels on TV and gossip blogs. When she meets Jackson, she doesn't recognize him. But Jackson is instantly captivated by her, and against all odds the two fall in love.

Maddy is swiftly caught up in Jackson's scene, a world of glamour, paparazzi - and murder. A serial killer is on the loose, leaving dead Angels' wings for the police to find on the Walk of Fame. Even the Guardians are powerless to protect themselves in the face of this threat & and this time it's up to Maddy to save Jackson.

 My Review


What a great combination for a story - angels and celebrities.  The thought of Angels being celebrities in the human world intrigued me so much I knew I had to read this story.  Basically, the Angels have 'come out' to human kind, revealling their existence.  Now people know they are there, they set about making money.  They set up a 'service' where for a very very high price, you can be 'protected by an angel'.  


We follow the story of Maddie who, after her parents died when she was very young, lives with her Uncle Kevin.  Kevin runs a diner where Maddie works after school to help out.  Things take a turn for Maddie when she meets Jackson Godspeed (who is the Justin Bieber of Angels) but does not really know who he is.  There is also something special about Maddie that she cannot put her finger on.


Even though I felt the romance between Jackson and Maddie did happen a bit quick, I really did enjoy this story, the concept of Angels being celebrities and the added murder mystery that weaves through the story. 


If you would like to see my video review, please see below

Best wishes

Debs :-)