Wednesday, February 12, 2014

BOOKS ON MY WISHLIST FOR 2014!




Title: Saving Lucas Biggs
Authors: Marisa de los Santos & David Teague
Expected Publication Date: April 29, 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins

SUMMARY

Perfect for fans of Margaret Peterson Haddix, When You Reach Me, andSavvy, this charming time-travel story from husband-and-wife team Marisa de los Santos and David Teague follows one girl's race to change the past in order to save her father's future.

Thirteen-year-old Margaret knows her father is innocent, but that doesn't stop the cruel Judge Biggs from sentencing him to death. Margaret is determined to save her dad, even if it means using her family's secret—and forbidden—ability to time travel. With the help of her best friend, Charlie, and his grandpa Josh, Margaret goes back to a time when Judge Biggs was a young boy and tries to prevent the chain of events that transformed him into a corrupt, jaded man. But with the forces of history working against her, will Margaret be able to change the past? Or will she be pushed back to a present in which her father is still doomed?

Told in alternating voices between Margaret and Josh, this heartwarming story shows that sometimes the forces of good need a little extra help to triumph over the forces of evil.
  







Title: The Last Changeling
Series: Faerie Revolutions, #1
Author: Chelsea Pitcher
Expected Publication Date: November 8, 2014
Publisher: Flux

SUMMARY

Seventeen-year-old Taylor’s given up on happiness. He’s just trying to survive. Haunted by his brother’s death and pushed around at school, he spends his days searching for a quiet moment of peace, until he meets Elora. The enigmatic runaway gives him a hope he’s never had—the hope of truly connecting with another human being. 

But the daughter of the Unseelie Queen has different plans for Taylor. Born into a world of corruption and war, Elora is determined to free her people from her mother’s tyranny. If she can gain the allegiance of the Seelie Queen, her mother’s loathed enemy, she and her rebels can crush the Dark Court and bring equality to Faerie. But to do that, she’ll need a proper offering . . . 

A human.

To steal a mortal, Elora must become a mortal—at least, by all appearances. And infiltrating Taylor’s high school is surprisingly easy. But as she becomes entangled in his world, Elora realizes something startling: inequality in the human world isn’t so different from inequality in Faerie. Students are bullied, ostracized and attacked for being different. And just like she did in Faerie, she begins gathering up the outcasts, encouraging them to take back the school. Now Elora has two rebellions on her hands: a quickly mounting mutiny in Faerie, and a mortal uprising inspired by the boy she’s destined to betray.








Title: They All Fall Down
Author: Roxanne St. Claire
Expected Publication Date: October 14, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press

SUMMARY

Pretty Little Liars meets Final Destination in this YA psychological thriller that will have readers' hearts racing right till the very end!

Every year, the lives of ten girls at Vienna High are transformed.

All because of the list.

Kenzie Summerall can't imagine how she's been voted onto a list of the hottest girls in school, but when she lands at number five, her average life becomes dazzling. Doors open to the best parties, new friends surround her, the cutest jock in school is after her.

This is the power of the list. If you're on it, your life changes.

If you're on it this year? Your life ends.







Title: Very Bad Things
Author: Susan McBride
Expected Publication Date: October 14, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press

SUMMARY

Katie never thought she'd be the girl with the popular boyfriend. She also never thought he would cheat on her-but the proof is in the photo that people at their boarding school can't stop talking about. Mark swears he doesn't remember anything. But Rose, the girl in the photo, is missing, and Mark is in big trouble. Because it looks like Rose isn't just gone…she's dead.

Maybe Mark was stupid, but that doesn't mean he's a killer.

Katie needs to find out what really happened, and her digging turns up more than she bargained for, not just about Mark but about someone she loves like a sister: Tessa, her best friend. At Whitney Prep, it's easy to keep secrets…especially the cold-blooded kind.





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GUEST REVIEW: ENFORCER (Hayle Coven, #18) by Patti Larsen




Title: Enforcer
Series: Hayle Coven, #18
Author: Patti Larsen
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: June 2013
Genres: YA, Paranormal
Reviewed by: Ellen Fritz
Source: From author for review
Ellen’s rating: 5/5

SUMMARY

Conclave approaches, a full two months after Syd’s twenty-first birthday. With no husband decision in sight, she instead focuses on the gathering of witches come from the four corners of the globe to debate and create law. Her plan to scour all of witchdom for Brotherhood influence encourages Miriam to open the proceedings to every magical race. But, in doing so, she leaves the door gaping for the enemy to come knocking...




REVIEW

With a witch conclave, open to other magical races this time to organize, the council is adamant that Syd should get her marriage over and done with. The problem is which of her suitors to choose? In the mean time the conclave presents the perfect opportunity for the Brotherhood to strike.

Enforcer is yet another Hayle Coven novel that I simply couldn't put down. Although Syd is between a rock and a hard place where her impending marriage is concerned, the author doesn't spend too much time describing Syd's anxiety. Apart from a nightmare or two, a few thoroughly poignant moments with Quaid, and the odd stray thought about who to choose as her life partner, Syd gets on with her never-a-dull-moment existence. Fortunately the drama surrounding the conclave distinguishes the men from the boys for Syd.

The snarky, often hilariously funny teen Syd used to be, has become a more serious, sometimes irritable, no-nonsense adult with a strong sense of responsibility. In this book she is forced to betray an old friend, has to join forces with an enemy, and must make the very difficult choice of future husband. 

With Liander Belaisle's influence penetrating every magical race like a really nasty computer virus, Syd and those close to her must be extra vigilant to spot and eradicate such influence immediately. Although she has her friends and family to support her, as well as the vampire, sidhe and demon parts of her soul giving their input, Syd must make her own decisions while not being driven crazy by said input and support.

In Enforcer battles are fought, lives are lost, and here and there people are released from Belaisle's insidious influence. This however seems to be just the beginning of what must become the ultimate fight between the Brotherhood and all those who will perish should the Brotherhood prevail.

Anybody who likes paranormal fiction with a touch of the romantic and lots of action will love this book. I would, however, advise readers to read the first seventeen books in the Hayle Coven series first before reading Enforcer.




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ABOUT the AUTHOR


My official bio reads like this: Patti Larsen is an award-winning middle grade and young adult author with a passion for the paranormal. But that sounds so freaking formal, doesn't it? I'm a storyteller who hears teenager's voices so loud I have to write them down. I love sports even though they don't love me. I've dabbled in everything from improv theater to film making and writing TV shows, singing in an all girl band to running my own hair salon.
But always, always, writing books calls me home.
I've had my sights set on world literary domination for a while now. Which means getting my books out there, to you, my darling readers. It's the coolest thing ever, this job of mine, being able to tell stories I love, only to see them all shiny and happy in your hands... thank you for reading.
As for the rest of it, I'm short (permanent), slightly round (changeable) and blonde (for ever and ever). I love to talk one on one about the deepest topics and can't seem to stop seeing the big picture. I happily live on Prince Edward Island, Canada, home to Anne of Green Gables and the most beautiful red beaches in the world, with my very patient husband and four massive cats.



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Monday, February 10, 2014

REVIEW: THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by Neil Gaiman




Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Horror
Reviewed by: Angie Edwards
My rating: 4/5

SUMMARY

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.




REVIEW

“Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren’t.”

I almost gave up on this book, but luckily for me once I got to 25% the story started drawing me in. As much as I enjoyed it, I have to admit that I didn’t grasp the message I’m positive is buried in there somewhere. Yet I can’t argue that this was an unforgettable read that thrilled me and simultaneously sent shivers down my spine.

I was a seven-year-old boy, and my feet were scratched and bleeding. I had just wet myself. And the thing that floated above me was huge and greedy, and it wanted to take me to the attic, and when it tired of me it would make my daddy kill me.

I honestly don’t have much to say about this novel. I was, again, utterly impressed with Gaiman’s imaginative writing and the mesmerizing, yet darkly terrifying, world to which he transports the reader. Sadly, I couldn’t get a hold on any of the characters, but I was just as terrified by Ursula Monkton as our seven-year-old protagonist was of her.

Ursula Monkton smiled and the lightnings wreathed and writhed about her. She was power incarnate, standing in the crackling air. She was the storm, she was the lightning, she was the adult world with all its power and all its secrets and all its foolish casual cruelty.

I haven’t yet read Gaiman’s Coraline, but I have seen Tim Burton’s interpretation of it, and thus I can safely say that, bar the adult content, this book has the same feel to it that Coraline has. This is something Gaiman does particularly well. Scaring the heck out of the reader. I wanted to be away from the monster, and like the MC, I felt safe with Lettie Hempstock and her mother, Ginnie, and Lettie’s grandmother. Now any author who can continuously, chapter after chapter, make me feel the same fear the main character feels, is an author worth his salt. And let me tell you, Ursula Monkton is not the only monster to fear in this book.

Ursula Monkton was an adult. It did not matter, at that moment, that she was every monster, every witch, every nightmare made flesh. She was also an adult, and when adults fight children, adults always win.

Though the eighties and nineties are closer to what I remember of my childhood, Gaiman also manages to take me down memory lane to my own childhood. Of course, my childhood experiences doesn’t include anything as remotely frightening as what the narrator briefly experienced as a seven-year-old, but still I could identify with some of his daily rituals.

I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.

All in all, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was less impressive than I thought it would be and the characters didn’t invoke any of the feels I was looking for. Still, it was a unique experience and lived up to my expectations of infinite creativity and incongruity which I’ve grown accustomed to finding in a Neil Gaiman book. I would recommend this exceptional book to anyone looking for a mind-tingling read!




PURCHASE LINKS



ABOUT the AUTHOR


Neil Gaiman has written highly acclaimed books for both children and adults. He has won many major awards, including the Hugo and the Nebula, and his novel The Graveyard Book is the only work to ever win both the Newbery (US) and Carnegie (UK) Medals. His books for readers of all ages include the bestselling Coraline, also an Academy Award-nominated film; Odd and the Frost Giants; and The Wolfs in the Walls. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.



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Sunday, February 9, 2014

FEBRUARY KINDLE FIRE HDX GIVEAWAY!


February Kindle Fire



Win a Kindle Fire HDX, Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash ($229 value)


This is a joint AUTHOR & BLOGGER GIVEAWAY EVENT!

Bloggers & Authors have joined together and each chipped in a little money towards a Kindle Fire HDX 7".





The winner will have the option of receiving a 7" Kindle Fire HDX (US Only - $229 Value)




Or $229 Amazon.com Gift Card (International)




Or $229 in Paypal Cash (International)





February Sponsors
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Giveaway Details

One winner will receive their choice of an all new Kindle Fire 7" HDX (US Only - $229 value), $229 Amazon Gift Card or $229 in Paypal Cash (International).

There is a second separate giveaway for bloggers who post this giveaway on their blog. See details in the rafflecopter on how to enter to win the 2nd Kindle Fire HDX 7".

Ends 2/28/14

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and sponsored by the participating authors & bloggers. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.



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Saturday, February 8, 2014

REVIEW: WANT TO PLAY? (Monkeewrench, #1) by P.J. Tracy




Title: Want to Play?
Series: Monkeewrench, #1
Authors: P.J. Tracy
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Publication Date: August 7, 2003
Genres: Suspense, Murder Mystery
Reviewed by: Angie Edwards
My rating: 5/5

SUMMARY

In this electrifying debut, the slaying of an old couple in small town America looks like one-off act of brutal retribution. But at the same time, in Minneapolis, teams of detectives scramble to stop a sickeningly inventive serial killer striking again in a city paralysed by fear.

When the two separate investigations converge on an isolated catholic boarding school, decades old secrets begin to fall away. It seems an old killer has resurfaced. Yet still the killer's real identity remains dangerously out of reach ...




REVIEW

Forget whatever book you’re planning on reading next. Want to Play by P.J. Tracy is what you should be reading next. If it was a movie, it would’ve been a blockbuster for sure. At the risk of sounding like my mother, I’m just going to straight out declare that this is what I miss about books from them “good ol’ days”. Remember those books we read in the eighties and nineties where authors, publishers, and their editorial teams actually still took the time to create exceptional characters and intricately woven plot twists that leave you shocked and surprised with the outcome? You do? Well, this is one of those books where the reader is smack-dab in the centre of old-school gritty detective work that goes into solving a crime. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then add this to your to-read list right this minute.

Each and every character, no matter how big or small, has a significantly tangible personality; so much so, I couldn’t help but get emotionally invested and wrapped-up in the lives of just about all of them. A good example of one such a character is the nine-year-old black foster kid, Jackson, who unknowingly is a saving a grace by offering salvation with childlike sincerity. Like many of the other characters – and there are more than a handful of them to keep track of – he found a spot in my heart in the first five minutes I got to know him. But the one character who rises above the rest is without a doubt Grace’s dog, Charlie, who has a pathological fear of everything that breathes, but who all together is a genuinely adorable bundle of doggy-love! Even if you enjoy nothing else about this book, he will be the one thing you’ll remember fondly.

He was a mess of a dog, a concoction slapped together by a blind Frankenstein. The size and bulk of a shepherd, the wiry coat of a terrier, the long, floppy ears of a hound, and a totally hairless stump of a tail that something had chewed off long before she’d met him. Charlie was a survivor, too.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this story is about one lone detective on a solo mission to solve a serial murder case. No, this is a whole bunch of detectives and their crews, whom you’ll indisputably come to adore, from two different states working together to find a serial killer. The plot was constructed brilliantly and I was super impressed by how everything came together so smoothly. No leaps in logic, no expecting the reader to fill in the blanks. Just a straightforward murder mystery / thriller. And up until the end where it is revealed who murdered all those people, I’ve suspected so many characters of being the villain, and still I was wrong.

The dialogue is saturated with enough humor to give the reader a moment’s reprieve from the relentless heart stopping suspense. Yet the strangest thing is that there is hardly any romance to be found in this murder mystery. Now that’s not so strange, but what is, is that I WANTED there to be romance. I wanted Grace and Detective Magozzi, the two most unlikely characters to fall in love, to hit it off romantically. Now why is that so strange? Because I don’t care for romance in books and in the one book in which there’s only a tiny bit of romance, I actually wanted there to be more. Much more. That alone should be a clear indicator of what to expect regarding character development in this amazingly magnificent novel!

Here’s a little something to pique your curiosity. The theory Detective Magozzi shares with Grace about martyrs and dead lovers being the most powerful people in the world? Very interesting. I never thought about it that way. Some good stuff right there, people.

Want to Play might mislead potential readers with its unremarkable book cover and non-descript book summary, but I assure you it is an entertaining thrill ride in every way imaginable! Who will enjoy it? Anyone who’s into murder mysteries, detective- and suspense novels, and the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson. Fans of Karen Rose might also want to check this out.




PURCHASE LINKS



ABOUT the AUTHORS


PJ Tracy is the pseudonym of mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. Their first three novels, MONKEEWRENCH, LIVE BAIT and DEAD RUN, have become national and international bestsellers.

P.J. Lambrecht is a college dropout with one of the largest collections of sweatpants in the world. She was raised in an upper-middle class family of very nice people, and turned to writing to escape the hardships of such a life. She had her first short story published in The Saturday Evening Post when Traci was eight, still mercifully oblivious to her mother’s plans to eventually trick her into joining the family business. She has been a moderately successfully free-lance writer ever since, although she has absolutely no qualifications for such a profession, except a penchant for lying. 

Traci Lambrecht spent most of her childhood riding and showing horses. She graduated with a Russian Studies major from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she also studied voice. Her aspirations of becoming a spy were dashed when the Cold War ended, so she instead attempted briefly and unsuccessfully to import Eastern European folk art. She began writing to finance her annoying habits of travel and singing in rock bands, and much to her mother’s relief, finally realized that the written word was her true calling. They have been writing together ever since. Traci now lives in Southern California and divides her time between there, Minneapolis and Aspen.



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Friday, February 7, 2014

GUEST REVIEW: THUNDER DOG by Michael Hingson




Title: Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero
Author: Michael Hingson
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers
Publication Date: August 2, 2011
Genres: Biography, Memoir
Reviewed by: Ellen Fritz
Ellen’s rating: 5/5

SUMMARY

Blind since birth, Michael couldn't see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and his guide dog, Roselle. However, Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle's judgment and not to panic. They are a team.

"Thunder Dog" allows you entry into the isolated, fume-filled chamber of stairwell B to experience survival through the eyes of a blind man and his beloved guide dog. Live each moment from the second a Boeing 767 hits the north tower, to the harrowing stairwell escape, to dodging death a second time as both towers fold into the earth.

It's the 9/11 story that will forever change your spirit and your perspective. "Thunder Dog "illumiates Hingson's lifelong determination to achieve parity in a sighted world, and how the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire an unshakable faith in each one of us.





ELLEN'S REVIEW



Reading Thunder Dog was a suspenseful, frightening and yet deeply spiritual experience. Starting with a thunder storm in the early hours of 11 September 2001, Michael Hingson and his guide dog, Roselle, takes the reader through the horrifying events at the World Trade Center. From the moment the first plane crashes into the north tower, down 1,463 steps and out into the chaos of the streets that surround the WTC, to the collapse of the towers and the author's perilous journey home; this is a reading experience nobody should miss.

Having owned and trained numerous dogs and having had guide dogs of my own, I'm going to start my rave about this book with Roselle. Although a guide dog must be able to keep calm and continue working under most circumstances, it is still remarkable that Roselle, who is afraid of thunder, kept her head during the noise and stressful atmosphere of 9/11. More than that, she found time to touch the hearts of a woman who started panicking as well as a fire fighter on his way to the inferno higher up in the building.

"He gives Roselle one last pat. She kisses his hand and then he is gone. I would realize later that this touch was probably the last unconditional love he ever got."

Each chapter starts with a relevant quote that ties into the contents of that chapter. While the author tells about his experiences, he frequently flashes back to his youth and his life as a blind person. Although this is highly informative, it also serves to crank up the suspense of how, and in what state, he will eventually emerge from this disaster. Thunder Dog is called a page-turner in the foreword with good reason. The information about blindness and guide dogs in this book is presented in a positive, even fascinating way. Part of one chapter, told from Michael's wife's point of view, emphasizes the concern and fear felt by the loved ones of those caught up in the events of 9/11.

The descriptions of what Michael experiences through hearing, touch and smell while exiting the building and leaving the area, is so vivid that it creates a realistic feeling of menace and fear for the reader. Add to this the scenes of chaos, seen through the eyes of a business associate, David Frank, and Thunder Dog becomes a book that truly lets one experience that day in history.

Apart from all the descriptions and recollections in this book, there is also a profound spirituality to it. The question of faith and trust in God is addressed in a touching manner that definitely made an impact on me. 

"We have to get out of the dust or we are going to die. But even in the dust cloud, with my guide dog now blind, too, I feel God’s presence. He is with me. I am not alone. I am running with Roselle."

Thunder Dog is not without its fair share of humor. The author has a fine sense of humor which is liberally distributed throughout the book. While walking down the 1,463 steps, isolated from what is happening outside, he makes the following suggestion:

“I have an idea. On our first day back in the tower, let’s all meet on the 78th floor at 8:45 a.m. and walk down the stairs as a way to lose weight.”

For a reading experience that will have you alternating between nail-biting suspense, the occasional laugh, and definitely a few tears, I recommend this unforgettable book as an absolute must read. Join Michael and Roselle on their walk to safety and share in their fear, uncertainty, mutual trust and eventual victory.








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