Daisy Chain Book Reviews

Book Review: The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman.

2012-02-17T18:00:00.000Z

Product details:
Publisher: Atom.
Release date: January 19th 2012.
Paperback, 434 pages.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: 12+
Source: Received from publisher for review.

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

Complex, cryptic and captivating, Robin Wasserman’s The Book of Blood and Shadow is an intelligent and intriguing work, rich in historical detail and brimming with the kind of page-turning plot twists that demand reading late into the night. Fans of The Secret History will love this tale of blood and alchemy, secrets and death, all set against the mystical backdrop of Prague.

Life can change in the blink of an eye. High school student and Latin scholar, Nora Kane, knows this better than most. With her home life in ruins following a family tragedy, Nora finds her solace in study, undertaking a Latin translation project along with best friend Chris and soon-to-be love interest, Max. But what begins as a safe haven soon turns into a nightmare, leaving Chris dead, Max on the run, and Nora in fear of her life. With time running out, and a shady secret society hot on her heels, Nora must solve the mystery of the seven hundred year old Book of Blood and Shadow and clear the name of the boy she loves.

The Book of Blood and Shadow starts with a bang – we know from page one that there has been a murder - but after this the pace slows as we learn of the long hidden secrets contained in the letters and manuscript that the teens have been working on. Nora soon learns that these secrets are bigger than anything she could have imagined, and that there are people in the world who will kill for them. As her search for the truth leads her to Prague, it turns out too that everyone in Nora’s world from, from Chris’s girlfriend Adriane to his cousin Eli, have secrets, and its up to Nora to figure out, who, if anyone, she can trust. And the answers aren’t always as clear-cut as you might think. This is a clever book that will demand your attention from start to finish with its intricately constructed plot, intelligent prose and myriad of plot twists that are both complex and genius.

If there’s one qualm I have in regards to The Book of Blood and Shadow, it’s that the characters and their voices are not entirely relatable. Nora stands alone in her world, her parents don’t have a big part to play in her life and her voice, for me, was not realistically teen. This is, explained by circumstances in her background, but in places I had trouble thinking of this as an entirely YA book. With its complex plot and sophisticated prose, The Book of Blood and Shadow has major crossover appeal, although I think it is perhaps suited more to the older teen than the younger set.

You might also like to read: Author Robin Wasserman on the strange-but-true historical background of The Book of Blood and Shadow.

Oliver Twisted Blog Tour: Author J.D. Sharpe on how to write a mash up!

2012-02-16T16:00:00.001Z

Please welcome author J.D. Sharpe to the blog today as part of the Oliver Twisted blog tour. J.D. has written a great guest post on how to write a mash up!

Oliver Twisted is out now, and Jen will be reviewing it soon on the blog. Can't wait to see what she thinks. Until then, over to J.D...

Oliver Twisted by J.D. Sharpe
Publisher: Egmont
Release date: February 6th 2012.

“FLESH, the woe-begotten moaned at Oliver, baring teeth which were ragged and black.

“FLESH,” came another moan, and he turned to see two more woe-begottens behind. They began to shuffle towards him, barefoot – toes blue from cold, arms outstretched.

The world according to Oliver Twisted is simple. Vampyres feed on the defenceless. Orphans are sacrificed to hungry gods. And if a woe-begotten catches your scent it will hunt you for ever. When a talking corpse reveals that Oliver will find his destiny in London, he sets out to seek the truth. Even if it means losing his soul.

Guest Post: Author J.D. Sharpe on how to write a mash up.

Hi and welcome to my blog post about how to write a mash up.

I’ll say straight away that I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to do this – it is matter of feeling things out and experimenting.

However, there are some things you might want to think about before starting your own mash up adventure and in the true tradition of mash up, I am going to try and compose my advice from various pieces of useful material that I have found and blend with my own words!

First off what is a mash up?

According to mashup.com a mash up is recombinant art, derived art. Some may call it type of plagiarism resulting from the impulse to create paired with a lack of imagination. Others will contend that this process of remixing source materials, whether they be "found sounds", literature or pop music has great artistic merit.

I think I prefer the second the part of this definition [obviously] because it recognizes that there is some skill in trying to blend your vision with somebody else’s! For whole chapters of Oliver Twisted I create brand new text and plot points that deviate massively from the original narrative. Yet, in other sections, I keep Dickens’s words – especially his descriptions of London which in my opinion are just sublime.

What remains and what changes is part of the creative process of writing a mash up and indeed any kind of reinterpretation of a classic. It is all part of the craft and I suppose appeals to the editor in me which is what I do as my day job!

Oliver Twisted was not easy to write but it was wonderful to write. I feel like I really got beneath the skin of Oliver Twist and because Dickens’s characters are so well known it really threw down the gauntlet in terms of trying to find ways to surprise and, hopefully, delight.

The New York Times provides some food for thought before tackling a mash up:

• What do you think of using somebody else’s ideas, words or images as an inspiration for art?

• What, if anything, are the differences between a remake and a reinvention (including a mash-up)?

• What is your goal in recombining elements from your chosen work?

• How will you go beyond imitation?

• How will you play with conventions of the genre?

• What tone are you trying to achieve? Is it serious or playful? Do you want your audience to think, laugh or do both? What other emotions or reactions might your work evoke?

This is a great list of questions because it is getting you to challenge your own thoughts on mash ups and to think about what it is you really want to say if you do decide to write one.

Right, so you’ve thought about why you are writing a mash up and what tone you want your mash up to be, so how do you actually write one?

Sherrie Brown Erwin who has written a mash up called Jane Slayre based on Jane Erye shares how she wrote her mash up.

First, choose a classic in the public domain. Public Domain means the work in question is no longer protected by copyright, and free to be mashed. Anything copyrighted prior to 1923 is in the public domain. If a novel is available to download for free at a site like Project Gutenberg, it’s probably in the public domain.

Next, get to know the classic work extremely well, with several readings so that you identify with the scenes and the mechanics as if you’d actually written them. This gives you a feel for the original author’s voice and tone, as well as helping you figure out what you would like to change and where you would change it.

Finally, start making changes.

My process? I copy the original work into a file, and start layering the changes into the original manuscript. I delete sentences, rewrite sentences, and add new ones of my own creation. I go over the manuscript four to six times or more, saving several different versions as I go along so that I can retrace my steps if I go too far. Though, can you ever go far enough?

Feel free to go wild! Add new scenes, new characters. Once you have been through it a few times, you find that changes feel more organic, and more like your own.

Key to remember, though, that classics beloved and well-read through time are very familiar to readers, and dear to hearts. Not all changes are well-received. Readers have an expectation of their favorite books that they still crave in mashups, if they are adventurous enough to give one a try.

I didn’t write Oliver Twisted like this – I highlighted words and lines I wanted to keep from Dickens’s Oliver Twist but only once I knew what the spine of my story was going to be and the journey I was taking Oliver on. However, like I said at the top of the piece, I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to create a mash up or reimagine a story, and Sherrie’s method may be more helpful to you. Get stuck in.

Thanks for reading and good luck writing your own mash up!

J.D Sharpe's Website

Valentine's Day Giveaway: Win The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith +++ Competition Winners!

2012-02-14T08:00:00.001Z

Happy Valentine's Day lovely readers!

To be in with a chance to win a copy of The Statistical Probabilty of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith, just fill in the form below telling me your favourite literary couple of all time!

This competition is International & closes February 28th 2012.

Following the blog is not necessary to enter, but is always appreciated.

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+++++Competition Winners+++++

Here are the winners of my 'Hello 2012' Mega Giveaway!

Winner #1 Milly won copies of Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James, Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson & Tempest by Julie Cross.

Winner #2 Jade won copies of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith & Delirium by Lauren Oliver.

Winner #3 Marcie won a copy of Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon.

Congratulations to all! The books have been sent out today, and should be with you soon!

Book Review: Fated by Sarah Alderson.

2012-02-13T16:00:00.000Z

Product details:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK.
Release date: January 5th 2012.
Paperback, 320 pages.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Ages: YA
Source: Received from publisher for review.

What happens when you discover you aren't who you thought you were? And that the person you love is the person who will betray you? If your fate is already determined, can you fight it?

When Evie Tremain discovers that she’s the last in a long line of Demon slayers and that she’s being hunted by an elite band of assassins –Shapeshifters, Vampires and Mixen demons amongst them – she knows she can’t run. They’ll find her wherever she goes. Instead she must learn to stand and fight.

But when the half-human, half-Shadow Warrior Lucas Gray - is sent to spy on Evie and then ordered to kill her before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy, their fates become inextricably linked. The war that has raged for one thousand years between humans and demons is about to reach a devastating and inevitable conclusion. Either one or both of them will die before this war ends.

If your life becomes bound to another’s, what will it take to sever it?

Fated, the page-turning second novel from Hunting Lila author Sarah Alderson, introduces us to Evie Tremaine, a small town girl who dreams of escaping her boring life and her cheating ex-boyfriend. It’s a case of be careful what you wish for though, when Evie is set upon by a band of dangerous demons, amongst them Lucas Grey, a guy who makes her forget all about her ex, but who is also on a mission to kill Evie, who we soon find out is no ordinary girl, but the last in a long line of purebred demon hunters. Evie says goodbye to her mundane lifestyle as she finds herself at the center of an age old battle between demons and hunters, where every day is a fight to the death.

As in Hunting Lila, Alderson’s writing is fast-paced, addictive and intense here. Fated is a roller-coaster ride of a book, and while it was all good fun, sometimes I wanted things to slow down. I wanted more from this book, especially in terms of world building a characterization. A lot of the time I felt like I was playing catch-up here, meeting characters that I never really got to know, in a world that was alien to me. I need to be able to connect with characters, and while Evie is pretty much a kick-ass protagonist, and Lucas is the ultimate hottie (Alderson writes great book boys!), I felt like I just got to know them on the surface, so I didn’t entirely buy into the fact that they were willing to die for each other after one hot make-out session. It was all a little bit too like insta-love for me.

Overall, Fated is a fun paranormal read with full on action, and exciting plot twists, but it was missing that extra special something that I needed to fall in love with it.

Guest Blogging at Fluttering Butterflies!

2012-02-10T16:15:00.000Z

It's been a while, but I've been guest blogging again, this time over at Fluttering Butterfiles as part of Clover's Love Month - a month full of fabulous guest post as romantic reads. Love Month is definitely worth checking out if you haven't done so already! As part of my contribution to Love Month I'm talking about YA romances that break the Love Triangle/Insta Love mold of YA fiction. Stop by the post to read about some of my favourite YA romances. I'd love to hear your top YA romance recommendations too!

You can read my guest post here: http://www.flutteringbutterflies.com/2012/02/tired-of-love-triangles-so-over-insta.html

Thanks for having me, Clover! :)

Next week I'll be celebrating Valentine's Day on the blog with a special romantic giveaway! Stay tuned!

Blog Tour: Author Elizabeth Wein on the real-life people who inspired Code Name Verity.

2012-02-09T08:00:00.002Z

Please welcome Elizabeth Wein to the blog today as part of the blog tour for her new book Code Name Verity. Set during World War II Code Name Verity is a story of friendship against the odds and the struggle to survive during war time. I'll be reviewing the book soon, but until then, read on for Elizabeth's post on the real-life inspirations for Code Name Verity.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Publisher: Egmont.
Release date: February 6th 2012.

I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine - and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France - and Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Guest Post: Elizabeth Wein on the real-life inspirations for Code Name Verity

The problem I have in listing ‘real people who have inspired me’ is narrowing it down.

I think that the two most obvious inspirations for Code Name Verity are Annette Berman and John Moffat. In civilian life, Madame Berman was my French teacher throughout high school, and John Moffat was a fellow pilot and board member when I was on Scottish Aero Club’s Executive Committee. During the war, as a teen, Mme Berman (we just called her Madame most of the time) worked for the French Resistance. Her Jewish family lived in Paris as the war began and were later hidden by friends in a country village where they pretended to be Roman Catholics. The young Annette was pretty quickly discovered to be a natural translator - she was fluent in French, German, Polish and English; the local Resistance cell also used her as a courier. Her tales of delivering dynamite in her bicycle basket were the stuff of legend during my school days. Although we lived 4000 miles away from each other in later years, I remained in contact with Mme Berman until her death in 2008 - long before I ever thought about writing Code Name Verity - and I even made sure my children got to meet her. She was a hugely talented, generous, unassuming, funny, and inspiring person. Nothing in Code Name Verity is directly based on her life; I felt that would be intrusive. But her influence on me is a lasting one.

John Moffat was never a personal friend in the way Mme Berman was to me, but he was certainly an inspiration as a pilot. He has become quietly legendary as ‘The Man Who Sank the Bismarck’. While it is true that he makes occasional media appearances (such as the BBC’s National Treasures Live and Shipwreck Ark Royal) and co-authored the book I Sank the Bismarck, I first knew him as a modest and venerable member of the Scottish Aero Club. My personal encounters with John were limited to committee meetings, aero club events, and evenings in the pub, and it always bewildered me a little trying to reconcile in my head the young Swordfish pilot who delivered the crippling blow to a German warship with the witty octogenarian who was occasionally flamboyant when performing a suggestive song in the pub or at the annual club dinner. Well into his eighties John was still flying a humble little Piper Colt incorporating the word ‘ARK’ in the registration after the Ark Royal, the aircraft carrier he flew from during the war. To my certain knowledge, John’s career as a pilot spanned more than 60 years.

Annette Berman and John Moffat are people I knew personally - indirect influences on the plot of Code Name Verity. The direct influences are all people I know through reading their amazing life stories: the real men and women of the Air Transport Auxiliary and the Special Operations Executive. I’m not sure I can make a comprehensive list because there is always someone else.

So here’s an idea: Mapping the two main characters from Code Name Verity to a few of the many people whose lives inspired me to create their fictional representatives.

‘Verity’ has her origins in a number of Special Operations Executive agents. The ones whose stories hit me hardest were Noor Inayat Khan, Alix D’Unienville, Violette Szabo, and Odette Sansom. Two of these women survived the war; all four of them were captured, tortured, refused to give up any information and were eventually deported to concentration camps. The stories of Noor Inayat Khan and Violette Szabo are the most gut-wrenching because of the truly horrendous circumstances of their deaths (both were executed in captivity). None of them were over thirty. Violette Szabo, a young mother, was captured in a furious gunfight; Noor Inayat Khan, a gentle, lovely, determined daughter of an Indian and an American, author of children’s books, was betrayed and unwittingly gave away most of the rest of her circuit because she didn’t know she was being watched. Alix D’Unienville and Odette Sansom’s stories are inspiring because of the horrors they endured and yet managed to survive. Alix D’Unienville went on to become a writer herself - her 1949 book En Vol (‘In Flight’) is a moving, perceptive and gently mocking travelogue which to my mind rivals St. Exupery for its honest and appreciative experience of the wonders of flight in the first part of the twentieth century. Violette Szabo and Odette Sansom both had films made of their wartime experiences: Carve Her Name With Pride (starring Virginia McKenna of Born Free fame etc.) and Odette, which features a curious cameo of Maurice Buckmaster, head of the French section of the Special Operations Executive, played by himself.

My own character Maddie Brodatt of the Air Transport Auxiliary has several different roots as well. As well as being based on stories of ATA women, some of Maddie’s experiences are also based on those of Hugh Verity (no relation! The name is a coincidence - I didn’t discover this fellow till halfway through writing the novel). Hugh Verity was an actual Moon Squadron pilot, who successfully flew over 30 landing missions into occupied France (possibly more than any other pilot). Fortunately for me, he wrote about it, meticulously documenting his and his squadron’s wartime scrapes and successes in the book We Landed by Moonlight (1978).

Some of Maddie’s flying adventures are based on Hugh Verity’s, and some are based on those of other female ATA pilots, such as Betty Lussier and Diana Barnato Walker. Betty Lussier was an American university student of British ancestry who was determined to make a contribution to the war effort, and her tales of training with the ATA and begging flights with bomber crews would sound very familiar to anyone who’s read Code Name Verity. Lussier herself left the ATA in 1944 to become an agent with the newly formed OSS - she was disappointed that ATA women weren’t being allowed to fly in continental Europe! She often remarks that she’d like to be a combat pilot in her autobiography, Intrepid Woman (William Stephenson, British spy famously codenamed ‘Intrepid’, was her godfather).

My experience is that most women ATA pilots didn’t feel they needed to be in combat, but they were disappointed at not being able to ferry aircraft in Europe. The first woman ATA pilot to fly to France after the Allied invasion of Normandy did so in September 1944. This was Diana Barnato Walker, and her flight was not-quite-above-board, so an awful lot was resting on its success. She got lost in fog on her way back to England, hit a clear patch in the right place at the right time, and got VERY LUCKY. (Later in life she became the first British woman to break the sound barrier.)

If I tried to make a complete list of the amazing real-life stories that went into my head and came out as Code Name Verity, it would be about a mile long. Many of the minor characters have their basis in real historical figures also. Like me, they are inspired by real people. But, also like me, my fictional characters are their own individuals leading their own lives. Ultimately, I made them up.

More about Annette Berman

http://www.pennlive.com/news/dday/stories/foolingoccupation.html

http://articles.herald-mail.com/1997-11-07/news/25143539_1_berman-nazis-french-family

More about John Moffat

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moffat_(Royal_Navy_officer)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/4931310.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00k96ln

His book:

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/I_Sank_the_Bismarck.html?id=YPcMAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

More about the SOE Agents

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_SOE_agents

The following blog entry includes portraits and bios of most of the SOE women I mentioned, except Alix d’Unienville:

http://seducedbyhistory.blogspot.com/2009/08/world-war-ii-women-of-soe.html

For a brief bio of Alix d’Unienville:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alix_D'Unienville

Her book:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10127085-en-vol

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Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is out now from Egmont , £7.99

Book Review: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand.

2012-02-08T08:00:00.001Z

Product details:
Publisher:
Paperback, 403 pages.
Release date: January 2nd 2012.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: 12+
Series: Unearthly #2.
Other Books in Series: Unearthly.
Source: Received from publisher for review.

For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

Please note: This is a review of a second-in-a-series book. There may be spoiler for the previous book in the series in this review.

In Unearthly angel-blood Clara Gardner had to choose between her heart or her destiny. Now in Hallowed, the highly anticipated second installment in Cynthia Hand’s captivating angel trilogy, Clara not only has to deal with the consequences of her choice and the impact it has on the lives of those around her, she also has to deal with something much worse when her visions show that she’s going to lose someone she loves, and soon.

If Unearthly made you swoon, then Hallowed may just make you cry. Don’t worry, there are still lots of swoony moments, Tucker fangirls, but essentially Hallowed is an emotional read that sees Clara dealing with a whole lot of heartbreak as her vision plays out. She’s conflicted in matters of the heart too, and drawn towards Christian, who in this book understands her better than anybody. He’s the one that there for her through all her hardships, the one who never leaves her side. In Unearthly Clara couldn’t deny that her heart belonged to Tucker, but she’s known all along that her purpose and her destiny lies with Christian, and this makes for some very interesting reading when it becomes clear that Christian isn’t going to give up on her without a fight.

I think a lot of people wrote Christian off in Unearthly as being ‘just another perfectly pretty YA boy’ but I knew he was so much more than that, and now I feel totally vindicated. So, has anyone else joined Team Christian now, or are you all still on the side of the hot cowboy? Clara has a difficult choice to make. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. Actually, maybe I would…!

So there’s relationship drama, but there’s a lot of serious stuff in this book too, with dark themes and family drama that will leave your heart feeling a little heavy at times. You will feel for Clara in this book, and for what she has to suffer through. There are still plenty of light-hearted moments, and Clara’s snark and witty dialogue are ever-present, but this is a book with sadness at its heart, and not everything or everyone has a happy ending.

As always Hand’s beautiful prose is a joy to read, and with plenty of unexpected plot twists and surprising revelations here she successfully avoids the dreaded second book slump which so many YA series seem to suffer from. Hallowed is a wonderful follow up to Unearthly and I can’t wait to see how things turn out for Clara and her love triangle situation, her brother Jeremy who has all sorts of stuff going on, and her friend Angela, who I still don’t trust 100%, when the third and final book in the series releases next year.

Reviewed by Jen: Pure by Julianna Baggott

2012-02-07T00:00:00.000Z

Product details:
Publisher: Headline.
Release date: February 2nd 2012.
Hardcover, 448 pages.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: 13+
Source: Received from publisher for review.
Reviewed by: Jen

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters. We will, one day, emerge from the Dome to join you in peace. For now, we watch from afar.

Pressia Belze has lived outside of the Dome ever since the detonations. Struggling for survival she dreams of life inside the safety of the Dome with the 'Pure'.

Partridge, himself a Pure, knows that life inside the Dome, under the strict control of the leaders' regime, isn't as perfect as others think.

Bound by a history that neither can clearly remember, Pressia and Partridge are destined to forge a new world.

Julianna Baggott’s dystopian novel Pure is a bleak and depressing look at the consequences of nuclear warfare. Set in a stark world that has been decimated by radiation Pure grotesquely portrays the effects of human arrogance. In a twist on the normal dystopian fare Baggott adds an element of utopia in her story that left me wondering which society is really the lesser of two evils.

The story revolves around the lives of four characters. Two of the characters, Pressia and El Capitan had the unfortunate luck to have been outside the Dome when the detonations hit the United States nine years earlier. As a result both are horrifically deformed and trying to survive in a world where animal, earth, and human have melded into one. Partridge and Lyda were part of the elite society chosen to live in the Dome. Their parents are members of the medical and scientific community who make up the leaders of Dome society. Although Pure is told from these four points of view Pressia is truly the main character and it is through her story where the worlds of the Pures and the wretcheds finally collide.

Pure was a very intense and exhausting read. This was not a book that I could get through in a day, or even a week, and I found myself needing breaks from the doom and gloom of the story. I know that dystopian fiction is not supposed to be bright and sunny, but the melancholy tone of Pure left me disturbed. I felt that maybe the world Juliana Baggott created is too anchored in the truth. What would happen if humans survived a nuclear attack? Would we be able to emerge from our bomb shelters whole and as we were? Or would we meld together with whatever objects we were closest to at the time of attack? What would happen to the earth? Would it be so destroyed that it would take centuries to heal itself? I found myself asking these questions throughout the book and becoming more frightened by the realism of the situation. As Pressia described the children born after the detonations I was distracted by the notion of anyone wanting to bring a new life into a world so void of hope. I think it was all of these things that made it difficult for me to connect with this book. Pressia’s life was so different from mine that I was unable to relate to her. One major obstacle for me was the fact that Pressia had the head of a doll melded to her hand where her fist should be. The doll head is constantly referred to and for some reason really bothered me. The character I felt the most connection to was Lyda. After Partridge uses her to escape from the Dome she is left to face the consequences of his actions. It was easier to connect to Lyda because she was a normal teenager who did something stupid for the boy she had a major crush on. That I can relate to.

Pure is a book that should be taken seriously. It is a warning about what can happen if we allow science and technology to rule our lives. As the field of DNA technology becomes more advanced it could only be a matter of time before our world leaders attempt to create their own twisted version of Utopia. The world has already survived one Holocaust, from which we are still healing, the end result of another may only be total destruction.

Pinterest!

2012-02-05T20:41:00.002Z

So. As if I needed another online distraction, I signed up to Pinterest a couple days ago. If you don't already know, Pinterest is an online pin board where you can share and organise the things you love. From books, to food (OMG! The food pics!) and everything else, all you have to do is Pin It! Facebook was not for me, and I never could navigate Tumblr, but I admit it, I fell in love with Pinterest at first sight. I have a ton of pictures of pretty things languishing in folders on my laptop where nobody but me ever sees them, and now I can share them with the world. Fun, huh!

Are you on Pinterest? Leave me your link so I can go see what you've been Pinning!

You can find me here:

I'll be Pinning book stuff for sure, but other stuff too! Below is a selection of some of my latest Pins!

Click to Enlarge

p.s: If you'd like an invite, leave your email address in comments and I'll send you one!

Book Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton.

2012-02-03T18:00:00.006Z

Product details:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK.
Release date: February 2nd 2012.
Paperback, 384 pages.
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Ages: 14+
Source: Received from publisher for review.

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen. As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...

Inspired by mythology and driven by love, Brodi Ashton’s Everneath is a powerful read that perfectly captures the raw emotions of loss and grief. With a plotline that is as imaginative as it is intense, and a romance that will tug at your heartstrings, this is an outstanding debut, and a must read for YA fans everywhere.

Six months ago, Nikki Beckett succumbed to a moment of weakness, and now her life will never be the same again. With her home life a mess and her relationship in jeopardy, her new friend Cole offered her a quick fix solution, and in accepting his too-good-to-be-true offer, Nikki made the biggest mistake of her life. Soon realizing that Cole is no ordinary guy, but an Everling, an immortal who feeds on the emotions of others, sucking their souls dry, Nikki wants out. But it’s too late. She’s danced with the devil, and is sucked into an underworld where she lives in darkness for one hundred years, Cole feeding on soul, leaving her empty, broken and alone.

But now Nikki’s back in the mortal world, and though she’s been gone for what seems like forever, in reality just six months have passed. Nikki is shattered, broken into pieces, a shadow of the girl she used to be. But she has a chance to say goodbye, to her dad, to her brother Tommy, to her best friend Jules and to Jack, the boy who never stopped looking for her, who never stopped loving her. Nikki has six months in this realm before the underworld reclaims her, this time for good.

I had heard A LOT about Everneath before its release. From its beautiful cover art, to the enormous amount of publisher and blogger buzz surrounding Ashton’s debut, this book had a lot of hype to live up to. And I often find, that for me at least, ever the picky reader that I am, books just don’t live up to that hype. But this one did. Everneath lives up to the hype, and then some. I haven’t been really excited about a book in a while, I haven’t swooned over a book boy in months and I haven’t stayed up all night to finish a book in forever, but I did with this one. I adored Everneath.

For anyone who has ever lost a loved one, who knows the pain of an aching heart and raw gut-churning grief, this book will touch your soul, and make you cry your eyes out. It’s this powerful depiction of loss and of grief that makes this book stand apart from the pack. The pain of Nikki’s loss in Everneath is so raw. She’s lost everything. She has nothing, but there’s Jack, that one light at the end of the tunnel, he gave her hope when all hope was lost. And sometimes that’s all anyone needs, that little chink of light, of hope. Brodi Ashton writes from the heart, never skimming the surface of raw emotion. Her words are full of conviction and of knowing, and will melt the hardest of hearts.

In terms of originality, pacing and plotting, this book is flawless from its sweet little plot twists to the increased sense of urgency we feel as Nikki’s time on earth runs out, and I could talk about all of this at length, but I want to move on the characters, and yeah, the hot boys. The characters in Everneath, are not perfect, but flawed, conflicted, hurting, messed up beyond belief, and oh, so real. These were characters I could connect with, and from Nikki to Jack, and hell, even Cole, I understood them all. I connected.

Nikki has made this huge mistake that impacts on the lives of everyone around her, and it would be easy to write her off because of this, but you never will. She may be shattered to pieces, but she’s also strong, she’s a survivor, and she never gives up hope. Then there’s Jack, the boy who gives her that hope, the one she left behind, breaking his heart and leaving him in ruins. I have a major crush on Jack, how him and Nikki were first friends, how he fell in love with her, and how he’s not afraid to ever tell her that, how he never gives up on her, how he’s always there for her, no matter what. So much love for Jack. As for Cole, that bad boy is trouble; you don’t want to get too close to him, because you might get burned. And yet, you’ll find yourself intrigued by him, his secrets and his conflicted ways…

Everneath gets ALL THE STARS from me. Thanks, Brodi Ashton, you ripped my heart right out with this book, and that ending left me in tears. If I could rate this book ten out of five, I would. It’s perfect.

Book News: Maggie Stiefvater announces The Raven Cycle.

2012-02-03T08:00:00.004Z

Launching with The Raven Boys in September 2012, The Raven Cycle is a new four book series from the uber-talented Maggie Stiefvater. One of my very first blog posts was about Maggie and her at-that-time new book deal. Back then I was new to YA and Maggie's book Shiver was one of the very few YA books I had read, along with some Stephenie Meyer, Alyson Noel and Becca Fitzpatrick - that was it. How times have changed!

I'm excited for this one - it sounds pretty great, and a little different too. And check out the great cover. Do you love it?

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Release date: September 2012.

Filled with mystery, romance, and the supernatural, The Raven Boys introduces readers to Richard “Dick” Campbell Gansey, III and Blue Sargent. Gansey has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on the hunt to find Glendower, a vanished Welsh king. Legend has it that the first person to find him will be granted a wish—either by seeing him open his eyes, or by cutting out his heart.

Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. Her policy is to stay away from the rich boys at the prestigious Aglionby Academy. The boys there—known as Raven Boys—can only mean trouble. When Gansey and his Raven Boy friends come into her life, Blue realizes how true this is. She never thought her fortune would be a problem. But she was wrong.

Delightful Debutantes #27: Katie Dale & Someone Else's Life.

2012-02-02T08:00:00.004Z

Please give a warm welcome to my latest Delightful Debutante, Katie Dale who is here today to talk about her novel, Someone Else's Life.

Someone Else's Life is released today in the UK. Happy book birthday, Katie!

What were your inspirations and influences for writing Someone Else’s Life?

I am a huge Jodi Picoult fan – I love stories about family secrets and moral dilemmas, and knew that was the sort of story I wanted to write. Then one day an item about two babies that had been swapped at birth came up on the news and it just stuck in my head. What would you do if you found out you were swapped at birth? How would you cope with that? What would you do with the information, knowing that your whole life had been a lie…?

From that moment that was the story I just had to write.

Someone Else’s Life deals with the issue of Huntington’s disease and how it affects families. How did you research this part of the book and can you discuss the importance of highlighting such issues in YA literature?

When I started writing Someone Else’s Life I had never even heard of Huntington’s disease. I had my swapped-at-birth scenario planned out, but needed a compelling reason why Rosie would find she’d been swapped. I decided the reason could be genetic – that if Rosie’s mother had a genetic disease and Rosie took a blood test she would discover that they were not related. So I started researching genetic diseases and stumbled upon Huntington’s disease, a late-onset hereditary condition with symptoms including jerky, uncontrollable movements, mood-swings, weight loss and dementia. There’s a predictive blood test for over-eighteens, but there’s currently no cure.

This got me thinking – would Rosie take the test, knowing there’s no cure? What would I do, if I were at risk? What would you do? Knowing that you could never change the results – that there are only two possible outcomes:
a-Negative – a normal, healthy life.
b.Positive – a life knowing you’ll get HD, filled with tough choices:
Would you have children, knowing they’d be at risk? Would it be fair to get married, knowing your partner will probably become your full-time carer?

I read a lot about the disease, emailed people affected by HD and heard their personal stories, and met people affected by HD at meetings of the Huntington’s Disease Association, and that’s when it became more than just an illness to me. It affects every member of a family, whether they have the gene or not – and while there are around 6,000 reported cases in the UK, it’s thought that there may actually be up to twice as many cases, because people often hide their condition, are mis-diagnosed, or even decide not to be tested.

This is partly to do with a stigma that has become attached to HD (it is the only genetic illness for which insurance companies load those at risk), partly because there’s no cure, and partly because there is so little awareness and understanding of the disease.

Cath Stanley, head of care services at the HDA commented, ‘HD is always thought of as a very rare illness and there's little support for people.’

Consequently, as well as donating part of the proceeds to the Huntington’s Disease Association and the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, I hope that a Someone Else’s Life will not only be a good read, but will also help to broaden public knowledge and understanding of this too often hidden and stigmatised disease.

UK Cover

What are your top tips for aspiring authors?

READ. A lot. You can learn so much from reading good (and bad!) writing – and it’s great fun!

Write, write write! When I was doing a writing course, my teacher made us all write an observation in our notebooks every day. It could be about anything, but it was a really good habit to get into, finding new ways to describe things and express ideas.

Don’t get it right, get it written! It’s so easy to stew over how you’re writing something as you’re writing it, but just get it down first, because…

Writing is Re-writing. Nobody’s first draft makes it to print – I’m certainly glad mine didn’t!

Enter competitions! Not only is the feedback really useful for your future writing, but you never know what doors it’ll open – the Undiscovered Voices competition run by the SCBWI and Working Partners played a huge part in kick-starting my career.

What books made your favourites list in 2011 and what are you looking forward to reading most in 2012?

I loved The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which I just read, and can’t wait to read the sequels! And Dark Parties by Sara Grant – a wonderful dystopian thriller.
I’m really looking forward to reading the just-published Fifteen Days Without A Head by Dave Cousins – it’s had rave reviews, and the amazing-sounding Angel’s Fury by Bryony Pearce, and I just can’t get enough Sarah Dessen and Jodi Picoult.

US Cover

Can you name three other books that readers of Someone Else’s Life might also enjoy?

The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Holding Me Here by Pam Conrad
The Face on The Milk Carton & Whatever Happened To Janie? by Caroline B. Cooney

What are you working on next?

Another YA, but this time it’s more of a thriller – here’s the blurb:

Tall, dark, and handsome, the first time Sasha meets mysterious Christian she knows he is The One. But Christian is hiding a terrible secret. Why does he clam up every time Sasha asks about his past? Why does he have the initials L.N. engraved on his watch? Why doesn’t he have any family – and why does he dye his blond hair black?

Then one day Christian’s house goes up in flames, his tyres are slashed, he flees for his life, and Sasha insists on going with him.

But as Christian’s secret is unveiled in front of the whole world, it seems everything he’s ever told Sasha is a lie. Even his name. Her loyalties torn, her emotions in tatters, Sasha must decide whether to stand by the man she loves, or turn him over to his pursuers. Can what they’re saying about him really be true? Should she trust him? Or is she in terrible danger…?

But Christian isn’t the only one keeping secrets.
For what if their accidental meeting was no accident at all…

I love the sound of this YA Thriller. Can't wait to read it! Thanks to Katie for the great interview!

Katie's Blog

Katie on Twitter

Waiting on Wednesday #39 - Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson.

2012-02-01T13:00:00.003Z

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine that spotlights eagerly awaited upcoming releases.

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release date: June 2012

Taylor's family might not be the closest-knit – everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled – but for the most part, they get along fine. Then Taylor's dad gets devastating news that changes everything. Her parents decide that the family will spend the summer together at their old vacation home in the Pocono Mountains.

Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former summer best friend is still around, as is her first boyfriend. . . and he's much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve.

As the summer progresses, the Edwards become more of a family, and closer than they’ve ever been before. But all of them are very aware that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance – with family, with friends, and with love.

Morgan Matson's debut novel Amy & Roger's Epic Detour was one of my top summer reads of 2011 and I was very eager to hear what her next book would be all about. When I read the synopsis of Second Chance Summer, I pretty much fell in love! This is definitely right at the top of my summer 2012 reading list!

The publishers have gone for very different US & UK looks for this one. I love how the UK cover matches Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, and I also love the perfect summer setting of the US cover. Which is your fave?

As always let me know what you think, and leave your WoW links in comments.

Book Review: Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale.

2012-01-31T00:00:00.008Z

Product details:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK.
Release date: February 2nd 2012.
Paperback, 478 pages.
Rating: 3½ out of 5.
Ages: 14+
Source:Received from publisher for review.

When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother after all... Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles. But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all...

Described as Jodi Picoult for teens, Someone Else’s Life is an emotional rollercoaster ride of a novel brimming with family ties, secrets and lies. Dramatic plot twists await at every turn in this page-turning debut from Katie Dale.

For seventeen year old Rosie Kenning, life can’t get much worse. She’s just lost her mother to Huntington’s disease, a crippling debilitating illness which saw fun-loving, vibrant Trudie waste away to nothing over a number of heartbreaking years. Now, with a fifty per cent chance of inheriting the Huntington’s gene, Rosie’s facing the very real possibility that the same fate awaits her. Then an emotional meeting with her neighbour turns Rosie’s world upside down as she learns that Trudie wasn’t her biological mother after all. Determined to find out the truth about herself and her family, Rosie joins her ex-boyfriend Andy on his gap year travels as she embarks on a transatlantic journey to find out the truth.

Someone Else’s Life gets off to a flying start. The hard-hitting emotional issues that Rosie has to deal with endear her to us as do her feelings for Andy, the boy she lost when her mother became ill, leaving Rosie with not much time for school or boyfriends. Along with her strong characterization, Dale’s writing style is consistently fast-paced and engaging. Before I knew it, I was one hundred pages into the book and completely engrossed in Rosie’s story. At this point, I was thinking that all those ‘Picoult for Teen’s’ commendations were so spot on, but then my interest in this one started to wane a little. I’m a big fan of realistic fiction, but the thing about realistic fiction is that it has to be believable. Dale gets it right at the start but as her plot twists start to spiral out of control, Someone Else Life becomes more of a melodramatic guilty pleasure than the heart-wrenching piece of realistic fiction it seemingly sets out to be.

To fully enjoy this book, you’ll have to prepare for dramatic plot twists and lots of them, with a storyline that contains not only life-threatening hereditary illnesses, but switched at birth stories, teen pregnancies, break-ups, make ups and a multitude of other relationship dramas – the whole shebang really. Reading Someone Else’s Life is like watching a Soap Opera or a Lifetime Movie. You know it’s all going to get a bit overblown in the end, and yet, you can’t stop watching. I love Lifetime Movies, by the way. I can appreciate dramatic plotlines, but I have to say, with how things started, I was expecting something more from this book. In the end it was a case of one convenient plot twist too far for me.

With major crossover appeal, and despite my personal quibbles, Someone Else’s Life is a strong debut, and its one that will garner many fans for Katie Dale. While I felt that it lost some of its initial poignancy with one too many plot twists, overall I found Someone Else’s Life to be an engaging, compelling page-turner with a lot to say and I look forward to reading more from Katie Dale in the future.

Hello 2012 Mega Giveaway - more books added +++ Competition Winners!

2012-01-29T11:00:00.003Z

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!


2012 Mega Giveaway - Closing Soon!!

With just a few days left to go in my 2012 Mega Giveaway, I've decided to add a couple more books to the prize pack! If you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for? Get those entries in now! The competition is international and ends January 31st.

Find out more about the giveaway and fill in the entry form: here.

So, in addition to these books:

Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James (Signed)
Captivate by Carrie Jones
Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon
Crossed by Ally Condie
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Divergent by Veronica Roth (ARC)
Entice by Carrie Jones
Everneath by Brodi Ashton (ARC)
Forgotten by Cat Patrick (ARC)
Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan (ARC)
Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson (ARC)
Need by Carrie Jones
The Opposite of Amber by Gillian Philip (ARC)
Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick
Sister, Missing by Sophie McKenzie (ARC)
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (ARC)
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini (ARC)
Tempest by Julie Cross (ARC)
The Truth about Celia Frost by Paula Rawsthorne (ARC)

Winners can now also choose from:

Angel's Fury by Bryony Pearce (Signed ARC)
Fated by Sarah Alderson
The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
Pretty Twisted by Gina Blaxill
Vixen by Jillian Larkin (ARC)

All original entries still count - you don't have to enter again!!

Anyone who hasn't entered yet: ENTER HERE!

+++++COMPETITION WINNERS+++++

Yeah, I know I said I wasn't announcing comp winners on the blog anymore, but since I'm here talking about competitions anyway, here's a quick round up!

Kitchen Witch of the West won A Witch in Winter by Ruth Warburton in the 2012 YA Debut Giveaway.

Maidenveil won a copy of Unleashed by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie.

Kara S won an audiobook of Tempest by Julie Cross with thanks to Macmillan Audio.

Kate V won a copy of Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan with thanks to Hodder & Stoughton.

I hope you all enjoy your prizes and that you've received them by now. If you haven't, email me!

Reviewed by Liz: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker.

2012-01-27T14:00:00.004Z

Product details:
Publisher: Usborne.
Release date: February 1st 2012
Paperback, 320 pages.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: 13+
Source: Received from publisher for review.
Reviewed by: Liz

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world

Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.

When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.

But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

Susanne Winnacker’s The Other Life is a promising start to a dark new series that really encompasses what it means to fight for your survival. Sherry and her family have been living in the same bunker for three years. After a breakout of a deadly virus, families were forced to stockpile rations and stay underground until it was safe to come out. But three years have gone by, and all communication from the outside world has stopped. No-one knows what’s happening or how many people are still alive. But the worst thing is that Sherry’s family have run out of food. So she and her father venture out and breathe fresh air for the first time in what seems like forever. Fresh air, however, isn’t the only thing they take in. What Sherry and her father see is beyond what they’d ever imagined. After a deadly encounter with Weepers (those affected by the virus), Sherry is left running for life. With the help of Joshua, the boy who saved her, and the only other survivors in the area, Sherry must make it back to her family – and her father – before she loses them forever.

The Other Life was a great survival story that made me really think about what life would be like if there ever were such a breakout of a virus. What would the government do? How would we all survive? I don’t think I could have been as strong as Sherry was. After she and her father were separated, she was determined to find him and bring him back safely, no matter the cost. I really liked that she had a close bond with her family; a lot of the time in YA, families are mysteriously absent or not important to the storyline, but in The Other Life, family played a vital role, and I loved the dynamic between Sherry, her parents and her siblings. She was a good older sister, and very protective over her younger brother, Bobby, and sister, Mia. I admired her courage and her ability to focus on what she wanted to do. Being thrown into such a chaotic situation would have been too much for most people, but Sherry just took it all on and tried her best.

Joshua was also another intriguing character. His whole life revolved around hunting the Weepers that had taken so much away from him. His past was full of horrors and pain, and I really felt for him the whole way through. He’d taken on this task of killing Weepers, but he was too emotionally involved and didn’t always act sensibly when it came to them (even though he was a skilled fighter). I think he was suffering a lot, and finding Sherry and being able to talk to her about it seemed to help a little. I really liked all his scenes with Sherry. It was great to read about the two together, because their lives had both been so drastically affected by this virus that having the time for a relationship seemed sort of odd and strange for the both of them. The romance was sweet and slow, and sort of like a ray of hope in the miserable world they were all forced to live in.

One thing I really enjoyed about The Other Life was the little flashback pages included before every chapter. They were events that happened before the virus broke out - just random things like a day at school, or a conversation with a friend, but it showed just how much things had changed in just three years. When you compared Sherry’s life now - killing Weepers, living on rations, hiding away – to her life before, which consisted mainly of her worrying about a crush and her enemy at school, you could see how serious things were really were, and how things could never go back to the way they were before. These flashbacks really helped give perspective on the brutal place the world had turned into.

The pacing was perfect for me, and the story flowed really well, making it easy to read. There were a few revelations at the end that set the stage for the sequel, but there wasn’t a cliffhanger (for which I was very grateful), so the wait for book two won’t be too painful. I’m really looking forward to finding out more about the government’s involvement in the virus, and what’s going on in the other parts of the world.

Overall, The Other Life was an engaging dystopian story that’s already got me excited for the sequel, The Life Beyond. Definitely recommended to fans of the genre!

Guest Post: Kiss, Date, Love, Hate author Luisa Plaja talks Film & Filmmaking in YA.

2012-01-26T09:00:00.005Z

Please welcome Luisa Plaja to the blog today! Luisa stopped by today to talk a little bit about her new novel Kiss, Date, Love, Hate (released February 2nd) and has also written a fun guest post on YA books featuring films and filmmaking. I picked up some great rec's from this post!

Note to Luisa: You need to read Anna and the French Kiss right now! :)

I'll be reviewing Kiss, Date, Love, Hate in February, but for now, over to Luisa...

Kiss, Date, Love, Hate by Luisa Plaja
Publisher: Corgi
Release date: Feb 2nd 2012

What if you could change your friends' lives and loves through the settings of a computer game...?

Lex Murphy's group of friends have all dated, hated, ignored and lusted after each other for the last few years. If only there was a way of matching people perfectly to avoid all the unrequited love, dumping and drama! Then Lex's friend George is given a mysterious Sims-like game by his software-testing dad which involves building character profiles in the categories of Life, Looks and Love. Lex and George populate the game with avatars for all their mates, making a few 'wishful thinking' adjustments to the settings - and find that the next day these tinkerings have come true! But how long can this new calm, loved-up atmosphere continue?

Guest Post: Luisa Plaja on YA books featuring films and filmmaking:

Kiss Date Love Hate is mostly set during a film course in the October half-term holiday. The main character, Lex, spends the week altering her friends’ lives and loves, but when she’s not busy creating havoc she’s quietly making a short film with her course partner.

Like Lex, I love film and cinemas, and I’ve been on very enjoyable (though FAR less eventful) filmmaking courses. I also love reading about film-loving characters. So I wanted to list a few other YA books that touch on movies and filmmaking.

1) Notes From aTeenage Underground by Simmone Howell

I absolutely loved this book about movie-lover Gem and the underground film she sets out to make, with her friends Lo and Mira as producer and star. Gem’s summer shapes up very differently from how she expected, and she hits friendship and family traumas on the way to discovering a lot more about life and herself. Simmone Howell is one of my favourite Australian authors and this book is inspiring and brilliant.

2) Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

Adriana Trigiani is a bestselling author of adult fiction, and her debut teen novel is a sweet story for younger teenagers. It’s set in a boarding school, with a heroine who loves to shoot films. There’s a mystical element to Viola’s filmmaking and her Indiana surroundings are beautifully described.

3) Anna and theFrench Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Can you believe I haven’t read this one? I know from what everyone has said that I really should. When I asked Twitter for help with this post, this book came up because Anna is a movie buff. It probably needs no introduction, but just in case: it features an American girl in Paris, a hot boy and loads of what I’m told is totally swoonworthy romance.

4) Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma

I haven’t read this one either but it’s now on my wishlist. I’ve heard lots of great things about this author, and the book sounds amazing. It’s the story of Dani, a girl from a small town who loves watching noir films in an arty cinema, and one day stumbles upon her very own cinematic mystery.

5) Just Henry by Michelle Magorian

The product description says: “When Henry develops an old camera film he uncovers a mystery and events spiral until his life resembles the drama of the big screen.” Film, drama, mystery – it sounds fantastic!

I’d love to hear other recommendations if anyone knows of any more.

Thank you very much for having me at Daisy Chain Reviews, and thanks to all the Twitter friends who helped with this post!

-------------------------------

Kiss, Date, Love, Hate by Luisa Plaja is published by Corgi on February 2nd 2012, £5.99.

Luisa's Website

Luisa on Twitter

Bite-Sized Book Review: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges.

2012-01-25T19:00:00.006Z

Product details:
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Hardcover, 389 pages.
Release date: January 10th 2012.
Rating: DNF/1½ out of 5 for my partial read.
Ages:12+
Source: Netgalley

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.

The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

The Gathering Storm, the first in a trilogy from debut author Robin Bridges promised so much but failed to deliver on a number of counts. Unfortunately this one with which combines what should have been a glorious historical setting with what should have been an intoxicating paranormal twist, just fell flat for me. The story of Katerina, a Russian Duchess with a deadly secret, was slow moving and convoluted with clunky dialogue, a confusing amount of characters, many with similar names, and a plot and setting which fell completely flat. The Tsarist Russian setting of the book, which is what initially piqued my interest in relation to The Gathering Storm, just didn’t come to life for me on its pages, although I appreciated the inclusion of a number of actual figures from the history of the time, and the research that went into reimagining them for this story.

With its Imperial Russian setting and myriad of paranormal elements, The Gathering Storm sounded like just my kind of book. The historical and paranormal aspects of the story though, don’t complement each other in this complex debut that I had to give up on.

Disclaimer: I read to approx. page 200 of this book and then skipped to the final chapters to see how things wrapped up.

Bite-Sized Book Reviews: A review in approx 200 words for when I need to play catch up on reviews!

Read All About It #4 - Recent Exciting Book News & Deals!

2012-01-24T19:00:00.003Z

I just took a look at my 'Book Deals etc.' folder and saw that it was bursting at the seams, so I reckon it's high time I did another 'Read All About It' post. So much book news to get through!

You can see previous Read All About It posts: here.

Strange Chemistry Reveals First Acquisitions!

Strange Chemistry the new YA imprint from Angry Robot books, launches in September 2012 and has just announced two exciting additions to its launch list!

Shift by Kim Curran

About the book:

When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he’s not quite so average after all. He’s a ‘Shifter’. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he’s ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world quickly starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.

Find out more about about Kim on her website

Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings

About the Book:

Julie is an apprentice witch – or so she believes. When a dark power comes stalking out of the past to haunt her and her mother, Julie learns that she is far more than just a witch. With the help of her best friend Marcus and a rather unusual Great Dane, Julie has to race against time to ensure she can defeat the bad guy, save her mother and avoid being grounded – again!

Find out more about Sean on his website

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

A contemporary fantasy described as Paranormalcy meet Hex Hall this is one book I can't wait to get my hands on. The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett releases Winter 2013

About the book:

16-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare. Literally. Dusty is a magical being who feeds on human dreams.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder. The setting is Arkwell.

And then it comes true.

Now the Dusty has to follow the clues--both within Eli’s dreams and out of them--to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

Find out more about Mindee:

Blog: Musingly Mindee

Twitter: @Mindeearnett

Add The Nightmare Affair on Goodreads

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

About the book:

Headline Review has acquired a new title by the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

Headline senior commissioning editor Hannah Sheppard bought This is What Happy Looks Like, the fifth novel by YA author Jennifer E Smith, for publication in spring 2013.

The title begins with a misdirected email which sparks an "unlikely and irresistible romance" between two 17-year-olds on opposite sides of the US.

What the publishers are saying:

"It has been fantastic to watch the love pour in from readers of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight so I'm thrilled that Jennifer is writing another gorgeous contemporary romance. Jennifer's skill at developing the romantic relationship through dialogue and banter make her books an absolute joy and a luxury to read. I know her fans will love This is What Happy Looks Like." - Hannah Sheppard, Senior Commissioning Editor, Headline.

Dead Blue by Elle Cosimano

About the book:

DEAD BLUE is a rollercoaster ride of a novel, guaranteed to keep readers on the edge of their seat, and stars a wonderful protagonist called Nearly Boswell, a math-genius from a suburban Washington DC trailer park. With the body count rising, Nearly realizes that she is the only student able to decipher the complex clues left for her by a serial killer who has every intention of framing her for murder. With mysterious blue-inked symbols turning up on every body, can Nearly find the real perp in time to save her own life?

Publishing Fall 2013 from Dial, an imprint of Penguin USA.

Find out more about Elle:

Blog: Elle Cosimano

Facebook: ellecosimano

Add Dead Blue on Goodreads

Grotesque by Page Morgan

OK, so there's not a whole lot of info about this one yet, but guys!! A gothic thriller...set in PARIS!! Sign me up for that! We have a wait though. Grotesque, the first in a trilogy isn't out until Spring 2013 (Delacorte). I want it NOW!!!!

OK, so....

About the book:

Page Morgan’s GROTESQUE, a new gothic thriller series set in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century, about two sisters on a search for their missing brother and the deadly and otherworldly truths that they discover.

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Additional info & quotes:

booktrade.info, The Bookseller, Publishers Lunch

Please note: Release dates and book titles may not be final and may be subject to change.

Book News: Faber Launches YA online community 'THE SPARK'.

2012-01-24T08:00:00.003Z

FABER AND FABER LAUNCHES THE SPARK - A PLACE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO SHOWCASE THEIR CREATIVE SKILLS

Faber and Faber has launched THE SPARK

www.facebook.com/thesparkpage, a place for 13 - 16 year olds who have an interest in creativity and reading. During 2012 THE SPARK, hosted on Facebook, will invite young people to take part in some exciting projects around acting, film-making, writing and music, each linked to and inspired by a Faber Young Adult title. Whilst students aren’t obliged to read the books to take part, we hope that they will not only be inspired to produce some creative work, but will also be encouraged to engage with the related books, and develop a greater interest in reading generally. Our aim is that THE SPARK will become a vibrant community where young people who love reading and creating can meet, talk and share. We have been extremely impressed by the entries for our recent project, run in association with the GUARDIAN, to find a talented young artist to create a new, iconic cover image for William Golding’s LORD OF THE FLIES and we hope that we can discover a similar level of creativity in each of the new projects to be launched this year.

Launch Project

ACTING – THE GLIMPSE by Claire Merle publishing June 2012

Launching in January 2012, we’re looking to find a young actor to play one of the characters in Claire Merle’s debut YA novel, THE GLIMPSE, in a series of web films. Entrants are invited to film themselves performing one of two audition scripts available at www.facebook.com/theglimpse and all entries will be showcased on THE GLIMPSE You Tube Channel.

The competition is open to anyone aged 13-18 years old
(see terms and conditions) and the winner will be announced in March 2012

Coming soon…

Over the next few months we’ll be launching further projects for musicians/composers, film-makers and writers.

Music – THE CREWEL by Gennifer Albin publishing October 2012

We’re calling on musicans, band-members and singer-songwriters to produce an original music track inspired by Gennifer Albin’s novel CREWEL, to feature in the official book trailer. Launches February

2012

Writers – THE THINGS WE DID FOR LOVE by Natasha Farrant

To coincide with publication of Natasha Farrant’sTHE THINGS WE DID FOR LOVE, we are looking for aspiring writers to submit stories, poems or articles inspired by the themes of love or war. Launches March 2012

Filmmaking – THE FURY by Alexander Gordon Smith publishing April 2012

Alexander Gordon Smith's terrifying new book THE FURY is sure to keep readers awake at night. We’re looking for a young filmmaker to make a trailer for it. Launches April 2012

We hope THE SPARK will inspire creativity and conversation around books and plan to continue with further book-related creative projects in the future.

Find out more at www.facebook.com/thesparkpage. Follow THE SPARK @thesparkfeed

Book Review: Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan.

2012-01-23T14:00:00.003Z

Product details:
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton.
Hardcover, 400 pages.
Release date: January 5th 2012.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: 14+
Series: Immortal Beloved #2
Other Books in Series: Immortal Beloved.
Source: Received from publisher for review.

Nastasya has lived for hundreds of years, but for some reason, life never seems to get any better. She left her spoiled, rich girl life to find peace at River's Edge, a safe haven for wayward immortals. There, she learned to embrace River's Edge, despite some drama involving the sexy Reyn, who she wants but won't allow herself to have. But just as she's getting comfortable, her family's ties to dark magick force her to leave.

She falls back into her old, hard partying ways, but will her decision lead her into the hands of a dark immortal? Or will it be her first step to embracing the darkness within her?

Immortal Beloved saw party girl Nastasya turn her back on bad habits and dangerous friends as she said goodbye to hundreds of years of crazy behaviour, wild nights out, fine food and designer clothes. Leaving behind her best friend, Innocencio, Nastasya found herself at River’s Edge ‘home for wayward Immortals’ where she learned life lessons from wise Immortal River and fell for the sexy Reyn. Now in Darkness Falls, Nastasya has to decide if she can live with the darkness that lies within Reyn’s past while all the while trying to fight the darkness within her that is manifesting itself in dangerous ways. And then there’s Incy, who won’t stop looking for Nastasya until he finds her and brings her back to the life they once shared. Can Nastasya resist the lure of her old life and prove that she has changed, or will her dark ways win out?

When I read Immortal Beloved, I thought it was a good read, if a little slow paced, and while I was intrigued by the character of Nasty, loved her snarky dialogue, and wanted to know her secrets, I can’t say that I much liked her. I also found reading about her new life at River’s Edge a little boring. I know that Nasty wants to be a better person, and she is a better and more likeable character in this book, but let’s face it, her life of mucking out stables and peeling potatoes is not exactly entertaining. I wanted to see more of party girl Nas. I wanted to read about her fabulous wardrobe and her wild nights out with Incy. Thankfully, in Darkness Falls, we get the best of both worlds. This book has action, it has character development, it has steamy kisses, and it has Incy.

I probably shouldn’t like Incy as much as I do, bit I can’t help myself. He’s the character I’m most drawn to in these books, and if you’ve read them, you’re probably asking yourself right now what the hell I’m thinking! I admit it; I sometimes take the bad boy thing too far! Even in Immortal Beloved where we pretty much get to see Incy in flashback form only, he was the character I wanted more of. Sure, Reyn may be sexy, but he’s not a big talker, and I’ve never found his character very appealing. So, I’m all about Incy, and it seems that Nastasya is too, for she finds it difficult to resist the lure of her old privileged party lifestyle once her old friend finds his way into her life again.

Darkness Falls, a book about magick, Immortals, mystery and love where Nastasya confronts both her inner demons and the dangers that haunt her every day life, is an addictive read, and I can’t wait for more when the third and final installment in this series, Immortal Light releases next year. I’m also very interested to find out more about the mysterious Miss Edna who is briefly mentioned in the pages of Darkness Falls, but who I think is going to have a much larger role to play in Nastasya’s life as this series concludes. I can’t wait to find out more!

Busting the Newbie Blues in 2012!

2012-01-21T20:00:00.009Z

Busting the Newbie Blues a great event organized by one of my favourite bloggers Small Review is back, and I'm taking part again! I love this event because not only does it offer bloggers helpful advice and encouragement, it also enables me to find great blogs which for some reason or another might not be on my radar.

You can see my 2011 Busting the Newbie Blues post here if you want to check it out.

You can find out more about the event here.

When did you start your blog?

March 2010

Do you ever still feel like a newbie?

Yes and No. At this point I feel pretty comfortable in my blogging skin, but then there are some days too when I feel totally out of the loop. I guess the thing is with the internet and with blogging is that it's a very fast moving medium, constantly evolving and changing. Sometimes I keep up, sometimes I fall behind. I don't think I'll ever stop learning.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? Did you make any mistakes new bloggers can learn from?

When I answered this last year I said my biggest challenge was dealing with HTML and fixing up my layout. That's still true, by the way. It's a constant struggle. These days I try not to mess with the HTML.

Scheduling post and blogging regularly is always a challenge too. I can appear to be very organized --people often say this to me in my real life and I have to laugh in their faces. :-p I am Miss Last Minute. If I can get away with not planning something, I will do it. I like being spontaneous. Trust me though, in blogging matters, scheduling is key. And it's something I'm still working on. At this point I know that scheduling posts for maybe three days is as much as I can hope for, though. Currently I don't have anything scheduled for next week. Hmmmm....

Oh, and reading slumps. We blog because we love to read. And then we are sent books for review that we might not necessarily read, but we read them, because it's a new publishing contact, or because we were sent it for review and now we feel obligated. I've done this, and my advice to new bloggers is don't fall into that trap. Read for fun, read because you love to read, review what you want to review. You don't have to review every book you read. You don't have to read every book you are sent. That said, the majority of review books I receive are 'surprise' review books. If you are requesting all those review books, you probably want to be reviewing most of them too!

What did you find most discouraging about being a new blogger? How did you deal with this?

Comments! The lack of comments! I used to really stress about this. And then I stopped stressing. I usually get a fair amount of comments on my posts nowadays, but if you look back to this time last year, I used to get more. Because I was obsessed with comment counts. I thought that comments equaled success in blogging terms, and I wanted more, more, more. But while comments are nice, they're not the be all and end all. If you want to receive comments on your blog, you have to give them. But then I decided that I didn't want to spend all of my free time commenting on blogs. So now I just comment when I can, and if people like my blog enough to comment, that's cool. If I notice you on my blog, I'll more than likely seek out yours and comment too. :)

It's also discouraging if you comment over and over again on certain blogs and they never visit you in return. I know, I've been there. But I've probably done that too, and it's not intentional. It's not because I don't like your blog. I'll get their eventually. Like I said, I'm completely disorganized. I have very poor time management skills, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they're flat out lying!

Also (I know, I know, I need to wrap this up--this is important, though!) This didn't apply to me as a new blogger, either because it wasn't happening, or maybe just because I wasn't aware of it, but I will say to new bloggers: don't be turned off blogging or reviewing because of recent events in the blogging/reviewing community. Just don't be. Write your honest reviews, and if anyone has a problem with that, then that's their problem, not yours. Honestly...

What do you find most encouraging?

The lovely community of bloggers I met when I first started blogging. A bunch of us started around the same time and now y'all are my book twins.

Comments, too. I don't stress about having a whole lot of comments on my post, but it's still nice to get them, especially on book reviews. I like hearing what people think about my reviews, if they've felt the same as me about a certain book, or if they feel totally differently. I like to hear that too.

If you could go back in time and speak with your newbie self, what five bits of wisdom would you tell yourself?

Don't stress the follower count and don't stress over comments either. Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. Stick with it and you'll get the followers and the comments.

ARC's are good, but they aren't the be all and end all of blogging. You don't need to get ARC's to be a blogger. Additionally, your blog won't suffer if you never get an ARC.

Remember: Quality not Quantity. One or two meme's once in a while is fine. A meme every other day, not so much. Concentrate on the reviews!

You don't need to post every day. You don't need to stay awake until 1a.m to write that review. Seriously. It doesn't have to go live tomorrow. The next day will do.

Remember why you started blogging and remember that blogging should always be fun. Don't ever take it too seriously. It's not a job.

What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?

I like blogs that have good quality, detailed and honest reviews. I don't want to read a blog that rates everything five stars, where every book is the best book ever, because that's just not true.

I like a little personality and bloggers that are innovative with the features they do.

I like clean and simple layouts.

I like nice people. Bloggers that whinge and moan. Not for me.

Yes, I've tried to replicate all of this in my blog. Have I succeeded? You tell me. :)

What do you dislike about blogs you’ve seen? Do you try to avoid this?

I dislike mean and bitchy reviews. I don't like writing negative reviews, but I do it, because I always want to be honest in my reviews. I never get personal, though.

Also, reviews that tell me nothing other than the synopsis I already read on Goodreads.

Meme filled blogs. I'm all good with memes, but I've seen blogs where everything is a meme.

Cluttered layouts. MUSIC on blogs. I love music. But not on blogs. Countdown widgets that autoplay. Ugh.

Oh, and complicated comment systems. I know they look fancy, but they are sometimes a waste of my time and I might just have to leave without commenting.

I think I've avoided all of this. None of that here.

How did you bring your blog to the attention of so many people?

Twitter - every blogger should utilize twitter. I'm very active on twitter & I get a lot of my traffic from there.

Submitting to Search Engines and Book Blogger Directories.

Commenting on other blogs, reaching out, saying hello.

Blog Tours (although I'm not sure on how much traffic they bring) and giveaways! (Lots of traffic. Traffic jams!)

When and how did you get your first ARC (or first few ARCs)?

I've looked back through my posts and it looks like my first review copy was Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James--one of my favourite books, so I got lucky! This came about via a Waiting on Wednesday post I did about a month after starting the blog which the UK publisher saw (probably after I had sent her the link on twitter!) and got in touch.

I contacted one or two UK publishers in the Summer of 2010 to inquire about blogger mailing lists, and I'm still working with those publishers today. (I think the first publishers I contacted were Bloomsbury & Simon & Schuster--lovely people!)

A lot of UK publishers offer review copies via twitter, and this is where I make most of my contacts/have gotten most of my review copies in the past.

I've never requested very many review copies. It's tempting, but I have to stop myself. If I requested everything I'd like to read I'd never get anything done, and then everything would go insane!

That's all! I hope you like this post! Feel free to ask questions and leave feedback, because as I said above, comments aren't the be all and end all, but I love them all the same! :)

Reviewed by Jen: Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck.

2012-01-19T08:00:00.002Z

Product details:
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton.
Paperback, 543 pages.
Release date: November 1st 2011.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: 12+
Series: The Tiger Saga #3.
Other books in series: Tiger's Curse, Tiger's Quest.
Source: Received from publisher for review.
Reviewed by: Jen

The third book in the gripping Tiger's Curse series!

With the head-to-head battle against the villainous Lokesh behind her, Kelsey confronts a new heartbreak: in the wake of his traumatic experience, her beloved Ren no longer remembers who she is. As the trio continues their quest by challenging five cunning and duplicitous dragons, Ren and Kishan once more vie for her affections--leaving Kelsey more confused than ever.

Fraught with danger, filled with magic, and packed with romance, TIger's Voyage brings Kelsey and her two tiger princes one step closer to breaking the curse.

Please Note: There may be spoilers for previous books in the Tiger Saga series in this review.

Colleen Houck’s Tigers’ Voyage is the third installment in her Tiger’s Curse series. Like the first two books before it Tiger’s Voyage is filled with romance and adventure interwoven with mythology and folklore. Kelsey once again risks everything to help Ren and Kishan break the curse as her quests become more dangerous and the stakes much higher.

As the story begins Ren still is unable to remember Kelsey and the feelings he once had for her. Although confused and heartbroken Kelsey is determined to continue on her quest to break the curse that has left Ren and Kishan living as tigers for the majority of their lives. The next adventure facing the group is to recover Druga’s pearl necklace. In order to find the necklace Kelsey and the brothers must find five Chinese dragons who will instruct them in how to recover the necklace. Each encounter is its own adventure encompassing death-defying risks. By far Tiger’s Voyage is the most thrilling of the series as the characters face endless challenges in order to recover Druga’s necklace. The incorporation of Chinese folklore also enhances the story’s mythology, which is one of my favorite aspects of this series.

The love triangle becomes more complicated in Tiger’s Voyage as Ren initially has no memory of Kelsey. While Kelsey still feels passionately about Ren she begins to consider the idea that Kishan may in fact be the better choice. Kishan’s love is steady and uncomplicated, even if the sparks are not as hot. One problem I had with this story was the idea that Ren would lose his memory and have no feelings towards Kelsey. In the first book he was immediately drawn to her and knew that there was something there. Although he does not remember her wouldn’t he again have those same feelings? Also, I have a feeling that this series will end with Kishan’s heart being torn apart. Kelsey will never be able to fully love Kishan as her feelings for Ren are still raging.

I did enjoy Tiger’s Voyage although again I felt as if some of the scenes could have been edited down. The quests dragged on and Kelsey’s anguish over which brother to choose took up much of the story. Yet, the vivid writing and endearing characters make Tiger’s Voyage a story you find yourself unable to put down.

Darkness Falls Blog Tour & Giveaway: Interview with Cate Tiernan.

2012-01-17T08:00:00.002Z

Today I'm welcoming Cate Tiernan to the blog as part of the Darkness Falls blog tour. If you didn't already know, Darkness Falls is the second installment in Cate's Immortal Beloved trilogy. I'll be reviewing Darkness Falls on here soon (I really enjoyed it!) but for now, read on to find out more (Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Incy - yes please!) and to possibly win a copy of the book too!

******************

Darkness Falls continues the story of Nastasya, an Immortal who has lived for over 450 years. For anyone who hasn’t yet met Nasty, how would you describe her?

Whew! Nastasya is quite a character! At the beginning of the trilogy, she’s, well, awful. Selfish, narcissistic, snide, unkind . . . but by the end of book three, I hope people find her quite different. My idea with Immortal Beloved was to take someone that seemed to have no redeeming qualities, and then show how even she can change, given a second chance.

Nasty is a character who’s really grown on me since I first met her in Immortal Beloved, and in this book we learn much more about the lives of the other Immortals in Nasty’s life. From Reyn to River, Lorenz and of course not forgetting Innocencio, everybody has a story to tell. Who is your favourite character to write about besides Nastasya, and why?

Well, I find them all interesting. They’ve all had life stories and experiences that I would love to explore. I could write whole books about many of them. But after Nastasya, I love writing Reyn, because he’s so unexpressive and guarded, but I still have to show enough to let the readers know what’s going on beneath his reserve. I love River. What a life she’s had! I think Brynne is so fun. I would love to show Asher’s centuries of being Jewish, all over the world. I always fall in love with my characters, and want to tell their stories.

In Immortal Beloved and Darkness Falls we get to journey through time with Nasty, revisiting her throughout history and finding out more about her particular blend of magick. What kind of research did you undertake while writing the series?

So. Much. Research. Though I know the copyeditor will check everything, I try to be as accurate as possible. I research so many minute details, and get so sucked into following different topics—clothes, food, weapons, architecture, geography, travel, boats, trains, horses, different cities at different times, wars . . . it’s all so interesting. I’m constantly torn with wanting to put much more detail in, just because I know it, and it’s a bummer when I have to admit that it might not add that much to the actual story.

Who would you love to see in the roles of Nasty and Incy if a movie of the series were ever made?

Gosh. I don’t know current young actors well enough to really say. They would have to be young but with an ability to seem really old and hint at centuries of experience. From my very limited knowledge of actors, I think maybe Dakota Fanning? Evan Rachel Wood? Mia Wasikowska? I’m just going on physical appearance here. I’m sure there are so many talented people I have no clue about. For Incy—Joseph Gordon-Levitt? I just don’t know. It’s fun when readers send in their suggested cast lists.

What can we expect for Nasty and Co. in the third and final book in the trilogy, Immortal Light, out next year?

It’s the culmination of what Nas has been working toward. In book two, she took a giant step backward. In book three, she takes two steps forward, one step back, then three steps forward. In book one, Nastasya was coming to terms with herself. In book two, she was coming to terms with her immediate community at River’s Edge. Book three pushes her out into the larger community, with somewhat mixed results. Things with Reyn progress (squee), but again it’s a bit forward, a bit backward, then a bit forward. But I hope readers will be happy about where Nas ends up.

Darkness Falls (Immortal Beloved #2) by Cate Tiernan is out now from Hodder & Soughton in hardback & ebook, priced £12.99.

Cate's Blog

Cate's Website

Follow Cate on Twitter

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton I have a copy of Darkness Falls to give away to one lucky winner!

Competition is open to: UK & ROI only.

Competition closes: January 24th 2012.

Just fill in the form below to enter.

Good luck!

COMPETITION CLOSED! WINNER ANNOUNCED SOON!

Hallowed Blog Tour: Cynthia Hand picks her Dream Movie Cast!

2012-01-16T08:00:00.001Z

Today I'm kicking off the blog tour for Cynthia Hand's Hallowed today with a very fun Dream Movie Cast guest post from the author herself. If you ever wanted to find out who Cynthia would pick to play Clara, Christian, Tucker and your other favourite characters from the books, now's your chance to find out!

I have to say that Rachel Hurd-Wood is exactly how I picture Clara! Zac Efron is pretty much a no-brainer as Christian, although saying that, I also picture Chace Crawford in the role. I've always pictured (Mean Girls era) Lizzie Caplan in the Angela role, although now I think Vanessa Hudgens is an even better choice!

What do you think?

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Unearthly is currently in development at the CW to be made into a television series, so I’ve actually given quite a lot of thought to how Unearthly might work on the big (and little) screen. I should be hearing pretty soon whether it’s been greenlighted to shoot a pilot, which is so exciting and surreal that I can hardly believe it. So, like I said, I’ve given a lot of thought to the kind of actors that I’d want to play my characters. Here are my top choices. (Please keep in mind that this is my dream/fantasy cast for a feature film, not what I think would be a realistic cast for my CW show. . .)

Clara.

#1 Anna Sophia Robb

There’s a real celestial quality to this actress, a sweet (and dare I say unearthly?) beauty to her, but also a feistiness and a sense of goofiness, which I think is key for Clara. My Clara has to be able to laugh at herself, and has to be strong, in both body and spirit, and has to have a soulful quality, in her eyes especially, and I think Miss Robb could pull that off. I have to giggle at choosing ASR though, because if you look up the dream cast of any author where her main character is a blond, she will inevitably pick Anna Sophia Robb, too. I bet that girl doesn’t have any trouble finding a job. So I guess it makes me feels less unique to pick her, but I truly think she would be a great cast for Clara.

#2. Rachel Hurd-Wood

It was the fans who turned me on to this fine actress as a potential Clara. All these Unearthly dream-cast videos kept popping up on the internet, and 90% of them suggested Miss Hurd-Wood for Clara. I had only seen her in Peter Pan, which is a big favorite of my son’s right now (he’s going through a serious pirate phase), but she was pretty young in that film. And British. :) But I can totally understand what the fans see in her. There’s a certain brightness to her, and she seems like a lovely combination of smart and beautiful and slightly awkward that I think fits Clara perfectly. And I love her voice, although I am not certain she’s quite sarcastic enough for Clara, but then I’ve never see her in a role where she played a sarcastic character. I am charmed by her, anyway, and would love to see her as Clara, although I think she’s 21 or 22 now, which I think makes her a bit too old. I’d like the actress who plays Clara to really be 16 or 17 years old.

#3 Elle Fanning

You know how I said Rachel Hurd-Wood was too old? Well, Elle Fanning may be a tad too young. In which case I’d go with Dakota, but there is a quiet humor to Elle that really says Clara to me, and an innocence that I find charming. Plus an occasional goofiness, which we’ve already established is a necessity. That and I just happen to think she’s angelically beautiful.

#4 Saoirse Ronan

Talk about soulful-eyed! You can’t get more expressive eyes than this girl, which is why I thought she was a perfect choice for the forthcoming movie adaptation of The Host. And I also think she’d be a fine Clara, especially after I saw her kick-buttingness in Hanna. I’m not sure about goofiness, though. . .

Now on to what you’re really waiting for, the boys.

Sigh. I wish I knew the names of more teenage boy actors. None of the ones I’ve stumbled over come close to either what Tucker or Christian look like in my head. But I will give it my best try.

Christian #1 Zac Efron

He’s too old now, definitely, but when I was first writing Unearthly, Zac Efron was the closest approximation to Christian I could come up with. Dark, slightly wavy hair, strong eyebrows, greenish eyes, slender build. Although I think the Christian in my head is a little darker and has a little different face shape. And I think Zac Efron is, again, far too old to play a 17 year old anymore. I did like 17 Again, and I really, really liked him in Me and Orson Wells. Is it a crime that I haven’t seen High School Musical?

Christian #2—Cameron Bright

Again with the slightly wavy hair, the strong eyebrows, the green eyes. Plus there’s kind of a mystery to him which I think suits Christian very well. The look of Cameron Bright is pretty darn close to the Christian in my head, and I think he’s around the right age. However, I haven’t seen this guy act since he was a child actor, and I don’t know what his more grown up voice sounds like, or if he could pull off Christian’s many layers.

Okay, okay, calm down. Here comes my Tucker picks, which were even harder!

Tucker #1—Kellan Lutz

Whew! This guy is hot! And brawny and tawny and blue-eyed AND dimpled. Here’s something I’ve never told anybody before, but back when I was selling the film rights to Unearthly, a company wanted to buy them, and tried to get Mr. Lutz to read the manuscript (this was before there was even an ARC!) of Unearthly and sign on to play Tucker. And when they told me this, I had no idea who Kellan Lutz even was. So I Googled, And I watched Twilight, in which they dye his hair and cover him in white face paint, so I just wasn’t seeing it. But then I came across this picture, and I was like, okay. I can see that. And I like that Kellan is mischievous, which is one of Tucker’s key personality traits. But let’s face it, he’s too old. I really think movies should cast 17 year olds as 17 year olds, and Mr. Lutz in mid-twenties and definitely looks it. Now if he had a younger brother. . .

(Part of me still can’t believe that this guy might have read Unearthly. This thing I made up. Sprung from my brain cells. And he read it. Maybe. It kills me.)

Which brings me to my next too-old Tucker pick: Tucker #2 Liam Hemsworth

Again, he’s too old! But he’s got the farm-boy vibe and the stormy blue eyes, so he’s my next best choice. Seriously, though. I don’t know of an actor who would make a perfect Tucker. I just have to have faith that he’s out there, in all his blue-eyed, dimpled glory.

Angela

For Angela I would choose someone dark-haired and sassy, Maybe Vanessa Hudgens or Vanessa Morano (she could get the know-it-all-edness of Angela down perfectly, I think), Lucy Hale would be a good pick, or maybe even Selena Gomez.

Wendy

For Wendy I’d choose someone wholesome and down-to-earth, with dimples like Tucker, if possible. Like Emma Roberts, see above, or Brigit Mendler.

Maggie

Okay, I have some possibilities for Maggie. She is a hugely important character in my mind, and I modeled her a bit after Lorelei from The Gilmore Girls, but I don’t really see Lauren Graham in this role. Not that I don’t heart Lauren Graham; she rocks.

But I have 2 other choices here.

#1 Charlize Theron

Okay, can’t pass up the pic of CT with Anna Sophia Robb. Now picture CT with long auburn hair and give both of them blue eyes. They’d make a pretty fine Maggie and Clara. Plus Charlene is sarcastic as all get-out, from what I gather, which would be great for Maggie.

#2—Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman is actually perfect for Maggie. She’s got the right coloring, red hair, blue eyes, and she’s funny and gorgeous. And she apparently loves butterflies. . .

I also like Naomi Watts or Elizabeth Banks or Gwyneth Paltrow, as they all have equal parts beauty and sass.

But here’s the thing:

Nobody is a perfect fit. All of my characters were very distinctive in my mind, and none of them were based on specific actors. And part of the fun and magic of seeing your work move from the page to the screen is being surprised and delighted by the new ways your characters are interpreted. If (fingers crossed) Unearthly does become a series on the CW, I hope that the actors can ACT, that’s the main thing. I don’t care whether they have the exact look that was in my mind when I was writing so much as I care about how they embody the spirit of that character.

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Hallowed (Unearthly #2) by Cynthia Hand is out now from Egmont, £6.99.

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