Friday 26 February 2016

"Immurement" (The Undergrounders Series #1) by Norma Hinkens

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
The earth’s core overheats. The sovereign leader vanishes. A young girl is the survivors’ only hope …

What little land is habitable is patrolled by cutthroat gangs of escaped subversives, but that’s not the greatest threat facing sixteen-year-old Derry Connelly, her brother Owen, and a ragged band of Preppers holed up in a bunker in the Sawtooth Mountains. Mysterious hoverships operated by clones are targeting adolescents for extraction.

Owen, is one of the first to disappear. To save him, Derry must strike a deal with the murderous subversives, and risk a daring raid to infiltrate the heart of the extraction operation.

But will the rookie leader falter when forced to choose between her brother and a clone who ignites something inside her she didn’t know was possible?


My Review

***I received the eBook free as a review copy from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review*** 

This has definitely been an interesting book to read. I have read several dystopian and apocalyptic books; however, despite some concepts being repetitive, I didn't get bored reading this book.
Basically, Earth is overheating and natural disasters wipe almost the entire population off the face of the earth. There were some survivors and they set up an underground community and called themselves... you guessed it, Undergrounders.
There are several points I would like to address about this book.
First, the general plot line. I liked how everything was set up at the beginning. The reader was gently introduced to the characters and the catastrophic world they are currently living in. The reader also gets to know the characters more as they progress in the story. Therefore the world-building was definitely well done. It wasn't rushed in any way and all the information was conveyed in a way that made it really easy to remember. There wasn't any information dump throughout the entire book. However, there are more points to make regarding the plot line. A plot line needs to have conflicts along the way; otherwise the book would be rather dull to read. But still I thought that absolutely nothing worked according to the characters' plan. There was always a last minute twist that throws everything off. At first I thought that this was weirdly coincidental, but then I got used to it.
The characters are another important point to make. Derry is the main character of the story. She was an insecure girl at the start of book and relied on other people to do the job for her. However, she has a strong bond with her brother Owen and really cares about her friends. When the story progresses, the reader realizes just how much she has really developed. She is very selfless and would do anything to save an innocent person. Most of the characters were special in their own way and had their unique personality. However, I didn't really feel invested in them, I didn't root for the characters as much as I should, probably because I didn't really care that much about them. The special bond between the reader and the characters was missing for me. Still, I thought that Mason was a very interesting character. He was very mysterious and I really don't know  a lot about him. But I could see that there was a lot more to him than was let on.
I always talk about the writing style when reviewing a book because it is an important factor for me. I found that the book was written in a conversational way. Therefore it always interested the reader and I found that I could pick up the book at any point and continue reading as if nothing happened. I got sucked into the story, although it never really seemed to get that much of a grip on me.
Overall, I give this book 3 out of 5 stars!

Saturday 20 February 2016

Half Blood (the covenant #1) by Jenifer L.Armentrout

9680718Book Blurb (from goodreads)
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals--well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.
Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is.
If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck


My Review:
Jenifer L.Armentrout is my bookish hero. Not only did she write my second favourite series of all time Obsidian, she also wrote this. Bless this woman.
The plot of this book was never boring. It followed Alexandra, who's mother took her out of her school for reasons unknown at the beginning of the book. When her Mother dies she is taken back to school to be trained as a soldier, something that she very much wants to do, so she may avenge her mother. There is a serious plot twist in the middle of this book was not as much as a surprise as I was hoping to but that was only because I read the book blurb one too many times and accidently uncovered the plot twist by doing so. However that was not the only thing in this book. This book was very much a set up for the next one, a very long prologue if you will. But that didn't stop it from being great. The way the action was described in this book made it some of the best action scenes that I have ever read. I would highly recommend it just for that reason.
Alexandra is the kind of strong willed, sassy character which I think that we have all come to expect from Jennifer L. Armentrout, but I don't mind that she never species up her character's traits significantly, because she writes these kind of characters well. Alex make decisions based more on her emotions then on logic which more often then not gets her into very sticky situation but Aiden is always somehow there to get her out of them. She keeps all of her friends close and she protects them with everything she has which is a very admirable trait. She also has a bit of a mouth on her which she is going to need to tone down if she has any chance of staying in her school. But she does say a lot of funny things which lightens up the mood.
All in all I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Tuesday 16 February 2016

First Chapter Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday #8 - "The Pause" by John Larkin

Every Tuesday Diane @ Bibliophile By the Sea hosts a weekly meme called First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros. Basically, this is when you share the first and maybe the second paragraph of the book you are currently reading or want to read soon.


Teaser Tuesdays is a meme hosted by MizB @ A Daily Rhythm, where I need to open a book to a random page and pick two spoiler-free sentences.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My book club decided to read this book, so I started to read it yesterday.

Five Hours Before
My name is Declan O'Malley. I'm seventeen years old. I come from a loving and supportive family. i go to a top-notch selective high school. I have the sweetest, most gorgeous and intelligent girlfriend in the world. And in five hours' time, I will kill myself.
I'd like to report that my death actually meant something.That I'd stepped in front of a bus to save a little girl who'd chased a much-loved pet onto a busy road. Or that I'd saved an old lady from thugs on a train, despatching them with a potntially lethal combination of kung-fu, karate and UFC - only the gang regrouped and stabbed me in retaliation.

TEASER
'Hang in there, Dec,' she says. 'The sun will smile on you again. I promise.'
~pg. 18

What do you think? Would you read it?

Saturday 13 February 2016

Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes #1) by Sara Raasch

17399160
Book Blurb (From Goodreads)
A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.
Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.
Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.
So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.




My Review:
Snow like ashes was a long overdue read for me. It has been sitting on my shelf for little over a year now and I have lended it out to others to read but have never read it myself.
The blurb of this book was very misleading and did not quite deliver what it was promising. I was expecting a adventure where you don't know where any thing that you need to complete the journey is, but instead I found that this book circled more around political issues then anything else. It was so fast passes and the beginning that the rest of the book couldn't quite live up to my suddenly high expectations. I think that it is safe to say that the begging is the best part. The middle flopped but the ending came back up again. It's was a bit like a rubber ball, you drop it from a height (the good bit), it hits the ground (the bad bit) and it bounces back up but not quite as high as before (the decent bit). It defiantly has so plot twists to stir the mix which kept it interesting and you always second guessing your predictions.
The book is about a girl named Meira who is desperately trying to prove her worth to her broken home Winter. In doing so she puts her life and many others in danger and does not always make the wisest of decisions, like main characters do. Her decisions are almost always logic based and she never really does anything for herself. If it doesn't help Winter, she ain't doing it. 
If you are going to read this book I recommend that you keep an open mind. The book isn't quite what the blurb says it is but it is defiantly worth your time. I give this book four out of five stars. 

Friday 12 February 2016

Book Blitz - "Thirst: Blood of my Blood" by R P Channing



240+ Pages

WITH BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHS

Young Adult Romance
Paranormal Romance
High School
Vampires, Demons, Witches
Dark Fantasy
Horror
 Book Blurb:
~ Kira Sutherland ~

After a near fatal accident (and getting cheated on by her 'boyfriend'), and beating up the lead cheerleader (with whom the boyfriend cheated...), and being labeled as having 'issues' in her school because she, uhm, sees ghosts, Kira is left with two choices:

1. Continue her 'therapy' (where she's told the ghost is a hallucination and also gets her legs ogled too often...)

Or

2. Go to Starkfield Academy, a boarding school for "Crazies and Convicts" (as the social media sites call them.)

She chooses the latter...

~ Cory Rand ~

Cory Rand has not had an easy life. His mother died in a car accident when he was twelve, and so did his mother's best friend...sort of. You see, Janice made a promise to take care of Cory just before she died, and so she lingers. Undead. A ghost that watches out for him.

Brought up in an abusive home, Cory quickly falls into a life of disreputable behavior. After his third offense (which was prompted by a girl, as usual - he has a weakness) he's left with two choices:

1. Be tried as an adult and share a cell with a guy named Bubba (he thinks...)

Or

2. Go to Starkfield Academy, which Cory is pretty sure is run by vampires. But, hey, at least he'll get an education.

He chooses the latter...

It's at Starkfield that Kira meets Cory Rand, a boy with an insatiable Rage who sees ghosts, too. As well as other things, other things from his past, things that confuse him, things like fire and witches and demons.

Things he's always ignored.

Until now. 

Buy Links

Amazon US
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018M5GTLI
Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018M5GTLI
Kindle Unlimited

$20 Amazon Gift Voucher Giveaway

At the back of the book there is a giveaway link. Once the book hits fifty reviews on Amazon, one of those reviewers will win a $20 (US Dollars) Amazon Gift Voucher! 

Author Bio

R P Channing started writing three years ago, but never published anything even after churning out over a million words of fiction. Thirst: Blood of my Blood is the first book he dared to publish. When asked why, he said, “Because it’s the first thing I wrote that my wife actually enjoyed reading.” When not hammering away (most literally) at his keyboard, he can be found buried in a book, reading anything from romance to horror to young adult to non-fiction to comedy.

Website
http://blog.rpchanning.com
https://twitter.com/RPChanning
http://amazon.com/author/rpchanning

Tuesday 9 February 2016

First Chapter Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday #7 - "A World Without Heroes" (Beyonders #1) by Brandon Mull

Every Tuesday Diane @ Bibliophile By the Sea hosts a weekly meme called First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros. Basically, this is when you share the first and maybe the second paragraph of the book you are currently reading or want to read soon.


Teaser Tuesdays is a meme hosted by MizB @ A Daily Rhythm, where I need to open a book to a random page and pick two spoiler-free sentences.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I just recently got this book from the library. I have always wanted to read a book by Brandon Mull!

 PROLOGUE
The prince dangled in the darkness, shoulders aching, ancient manacles digging into his wrists as he tried to sleep. The chains prevented him from lying down. Whether it was truly light or dark he could not say, for his enemies had stolen his sight. In the distance he heard screaming—the unrestrained wails of a man trying and failing to escape the deepest agony. The unnerving cries echoed from higher corridors, dampened by intervening barriers. After untold weeks in the dungeons of Felrook the prince could guess what the man might be feeling. Never had the prince imagined anguish so diverse and exquisite as he had experienced here. He stood up straight, taking some of the pressure off of his wrists. If they kept him chained here much longer, he felt certain his arms would detach. Then again he preferred his current accommodations to the previous room, where the floor bristled with sharp, rusty spikes, and lying or sitting required bloodshed.

TEASER
“Hello!” he called out, knowing it was pointless. “I want to go home! Hello! Hello?” He blinked back his tears, trying to get his emotions under control. None of this made any sense, but he had to calm down; he had to figure this out if he ever wanted to see his friends again, his parents, his family.
~ pg. 39

What do you think? Would you read it?

Thursday 4 February 2016

Blog Tour- "Cogling" by Jordan Elizabeth



COGLING
Young Adult Steampunk-Fantasy
The beautiful cover is thanks to Mandie Manzano.  

When fifteen-year-old Edna Mather tears an expensive and unfamiliar pocket watch off her little brother's neck, he crumbles into a pile of cogs right before her eyes. Horrified, Edna flees for help, but encounters Ike, a thief who attempts to steal the watch before he realizes what it is: a device to power Coglings—clockwork changelings left in place of stolen children who have been forced to work in factories.

Desperate to rescue her brother, Edna sets off across the kingdom to the hags' swamp, with Ike in tow. There, they learn Coglings are also replacing nobility so the hags can stage a rebellion and rule over humanity. Edna and Ike must stop the revolt, but the populace believes hags are helpful godmothers and healers. No one wants to believe a lowly servant and a thief, especially when Ike has secrets that label them both as traitors. 

Together, Edna and Ike must make the kingdom trust them or stop the hags themselves, even if Ike is forced to embrace his dark heritage and Edna must surrender her family.

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Excerpt:
Green smoke snaked up the side of the tenement and drifted over the sill of an open window. A breeze blew the vapor into a column before it solidified into the shape of a stout, young hag. She shook her crimson curls away from her face and straightened the hood of her cloak to keep her kohl-lined, silver eyes shadowed.
The scent of lavender clung to her robes, washing over the small room. Two brass-framed beds crowded the floor. Blankets covered sleeping children. A little boy wheezed against the head of his stuffed bear, drool dripping onto the wool.
The hag squinted to see the goldenrod dream cloud above his head—a dream about seeing his father again. She frowned at the other bed, where a sleeping teenager lay with a threadbare blanket tugged around her chin. Even squinting, the hag couldn’t make out a dream cloud. The girl was too old to be of any use.
The hag slithered to the boy’s bed and, from the folds of her cloak, drew out a rectangular box four inches long, with a circular indentation on one side. She set it on the floor to remove a vial and rag from her skirt pocket, the rough wool of the rag irritating her fingertips.
“Do it, Simone,” the hag muttered to herself as she willed her hands not to tremble. “Make the Dark Mother happy.” She couldn’t fail at her first mission.
Holding her breath, Simone dribbled three drops onto the rag, yanked the teddy bear away, and shoved the drugged cloth against the boy’s mouth. His eyes opened, his gasp muffled, and his body jerked. Simone stiffened.
The girl moaned. Her mattress rustled as she rolled over to face the wall, brown curls shifting over her pillow.
Simone’s heart thudded. By the seven Saints, she should’ve cast a sleeping spell over the girl. The Dark Mother preferred humans to think hags were harmless healers, not thieves who kidnapped children.
The boy writhed, squeaks emerging from behind the rag. Simone pressed harder. She needed his breath in the wool to disguise and fuel the machine.
The potion took hold and the boy collapsed. Simone’s thick lips curved over her broken teeth. She lifted a pocket watch from around her neck and positioned it into the crevice in the metal box. As the two pieces connected, a chime rang out. She set the box beside the limp little boy and draped the rag over it. Even though she should wait to make sure his breath stuck in the machine, she couldn’t risk waking the girl.
The metal stretched to become his replica as if it were made of putty. With a second chime, the metal shimmered and dulled into the pale peach of his flesh, becoming an exact duplicate of the child.
“Mine.” Simone hefted the little boy into her arms, leaving the duplication on the bed, and transformed to smoke before the chimes awoke the girl.
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Check out COGLING on Goodreads and Amazon.

***We received the eBook free as a review copy from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review***

Angelina's Review:
This book definitely didn't disappoint. 
I was really excited to start reading this book for multiple reasons. First, the book cover is gorgeous, it looks amazing with the different colour hues. The book blurb also intrigued me and when there is magic in a book, I am almost definitely going to read it. 
Cogling follows the adventures of a fifteen year old girl called  Edna Mather. She lives in a poor family along with her brother Harrison. When she wakes up the next day, everything seems normal except for Harrison's suddenly peculiar behaviour. Soon Edna finds out that  this Harrison is a cogling and that her real brother has been kidnapped by hags. So she sets out on a journey to save her brother before it's too late. 
This book had a very interesting concept. It is almost like the changeling children in some myths, just that this book also has a steampunk theme. I found that the story line was a bit slow at the beginning and that some parts of the plot took up too much time; however, most of the book had very enjoyable fast-paced action which I personally really like.
Sometimes I felt like Edna was very, very stubborn at times, which also dragged the plot in the book at the beginning for quite a long time. She just stuck to her beliefs so strongly, that everything seemed to drag for a bit. I also found it kind of odd how she was too superstitious because she always seems to play to the Seven Saints and she keeps on believing that there is something evil inside of her. 
I thought that he evil also needed more explanation. It is only cleared up close to the end but still I wanted to know more information. Most  of the time I also thought that Edna's deep hatred for the hags was quite irrational. Although I did like the concept of Edna having a mysterious secret in her. 
I also appreciated the immense character development all of the characters went through. You could gradually see how Edna learned more about the world and accepted who she was. Ike was also a good character and we can see how he also became more trusting. 
The writing was also pleasant to read. There was something about it that makes it very interesting to read. Having read several books from this author already,  I have an idea what her writing style is like but I thought that this book is definitely one of her best pieces of work. 
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars! 

Jessica's Review:
Cogling took me a while to get to. I blame my epic procrastination skills which are kind of getting out of hand. But I've read it now so all is good with the world.
The book begins with a girl called Edna and her little brother going to work one day. It was here that Edna realised that her brother, Harrison, wasn't quite acting like himself. A couple more chapters in, when Harrison falls apart in front of her very eyes and all that was left was some cogs and bolts, we discover that her 'brother' is a cogling thanks to the knowledge of Ike, a thief. Her real brother has been stolen by the Hags in the night to work in a factory. Determined to save her brother she takes all of the money that she can get her hands on and sets of with Ike to save her brother. The book started off with a more or less fairly basic concept but it developed into so much more than that. The characters that were introduced really drove the story along and the amount of thought that went into some of the details in this book was incredible. It was at the point that when one of the larger plot twists occurred, I was able to look back and spot all of the little hints that went towards it. Too small to put too much thought into, but they were there. It was things like this that made the plot so rich and interesting.
Edna is very dedicated to her family, to the point where she would have probably sacrificed herself if it meant that her brother could go free. She has in her, what she refers to, as the evil. She always says that she can’t let it out and that horrible things will happen if she does. However, my point is that if she had even used it once, it would have made the journey 100Xs easier. I wish that she could have been brave enough to use it more than that one measly time at the end and I'm not even sure if that counts.
There is only one thing that really annoyed me with this book and I'm sad to say that that was the dialog of some of the characters. Unfortunately some of it was so cheesy that I had to put the book down and roll my eyes. It really made some scenes stick out like sore thumbs.

However, despite its faults, I still enjoyed this book a lot. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

 
 
About the Author
Jordan Elizabeth, formally Jordan Elizabeth Mierek, writes down her nightmares in order to live her dreams. She is the author of ESCAPE FROM WITCHWOOD HOLLOW, TREASURE DARKLY, and BORN OF TREASURE. Check out her website, JordanElizabethMierek.com, for more information on her books, contests, and bonus short stories.
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