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Hey guys, some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted on the blog in a while? Well, I've decided that for the time being, I'm going to give it up. I want to read what I want to read, when I want, and review only if I want to, and not feel under pressure to be getting certain books read and reviewed. So, obviously, I'll also be giving up requesting titles.
But I'll still be around. I'll be on Goodreads of course. And I've made a new Facebook page where I plan to write reviews (if I feel like it), and post other bookish stuff, so if you want to stop by and like the page it's called Paranormal Pages. And I'm still on Twitter :)
Look forward to seeing you guys around elsewhere.
Take care :D
Read more...
It's finally here......
I got a copy in my hands today and I'm up to chapter 20 and loving it!!
And because I want to spread the word about these books, I'm going to give away a copy. The winner can choose any book from the series, Beg for Mercy, Waiting for Mercy or if you're up to date with them, then a copy of Angel of Mercy. The giveaway is international so long as you can receive an ebook from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
All I ask, is that if you enjoy the book, you post a review, even just a few lines, to Amazon and B&N.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Breathless by Brigid Kemmerer
Published: 30th April 2013
By: Kensington Teen
Source: Netgalley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Nick is the quiet, sensible, intelligent one of the twins. A likeable guy, although we haven't got to know a lot about him so far.
Nick's story here is really sweet. While he's never had really strong feelings or emotions for a girl, I don't think he had thought he could have them for a guy. I loved seeing his reactions to Adam. Something so new and yet, seemingly, so strong.
I don't honestly remember too much about Quinn at this point, or how I felt about her in previous books. And even with seeing all her problems now, when I should have felt sorry for her, she really didn't appeal to me. Though I am interested in seeing how things go with them and their planned secret, which I just discovered is the name of book four and I can't wait for it.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how Nick's family will deal with this, and I'm hoping it won't be as bad as Nick thinks it will. Also, Adam is a cute guy that I'd like to get to know better. I'm also wondering if Matt, the guy from the beach, is going to make a reappearance.
Published: 8th April 2013
By: Self Published
Source: Purchased
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Back on the beach at Cancun, the same place they were both taken from months ago, Sofia and Ben aren't ready to go home yet. And having missed it for so long, they find themselves trying to soak up as much sun as they can. Having been left with a large quantity of money, they book themselves into the villa they had been staying in previously. After a few days, they feel the time has come to call Ben's parents. When they arrive, they don't tell them where they were and when questioned by the police, they say they just ran away. They say nothing about where Ben got the scars all over his body from his torture at the hands of Claudia, and at Sofia's request, there's no mention of the vampires or The Shade.
Ben has a name and number for the hunters, given to him by a hunter who tried to save him on the island, but ended up being killed herself when they were caught. Knowing that his life will never be the same again, and having the need for vengeance and retribution, he plans to contact them. He tells Sofia that he'll give her some time, but that then, with or without her, he'll be making that call. He needs to take his revenge on the vampires, especially Claudia.
But Sofia can't seem to forget Derek and The Shade, and when Ben wants to become more than friends, something that she herself had wanted for a long time, she finds that she can't give herself wholly to him. Part of her still belongs to Derek.
And without Sofia there, the darkness is overtaking Derek. He's a completely different character than the Derek we met in A Shade of Vampire, and it was interesting seeing this other side to him. But it was also nice to see the effect that Sofia had on him when she returned, to find him in a compromising position with Ashley.
Lucas is not in this book too much, though we do get his POV a couple of times. He's on the run from Derek who will kill him for what he did to Sofia. But if he wasn't obsessed with her before, having tasted her blood, he can't stop thinking about her, and won't rest until she is his.
Things are getting tough in the Shade. Derek is struggling to keep everyone under control and try to keep Sofia happy at the same time. The vampires are not happy that Sofia, a human slave, is being put before them. But Sofia is not happy with the way things are currently done. She wants the humans who live in the Shade to be treated better and not treated like slaves or food which is exactly how the vampires see them. Sofia has learned a lot about how things are run in the Shade and has read it's history, and it doesn't sit well with her. There are going to be tough times ahead, and revelations throughout this books make for what should be a really interesting third book in this series.
I'm also looking forward to learning more about the prophecy made by Cora, the witch, over four hundred years ago, and what it means to Derek and Sofia, and to the Shade. Derek seems to be going to have quite the fight on his hands if he's going to manage to hold onto Sofia.
Published: 4th June 2013
By: Strange Chemistry
Source: Netgalley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this second instalment in the The Assassin's Curse duology. I'd really liked Ananna and Naji in the first book, and I was hoping things were going to turn out a certain way.
Adding a manticore into the mix here surprised me somewhat but worked quite well, and I really liked her. She added something to this book for me and I was slightly disappointed when they dropped her off. I enjoyed the relationship that was built between her and Ananna.
Part of me felt though, and this could just have been my bad memory, but that Naji and Ananna's characters had changed somewhat from the first book. While in The Assasin's Curse I enjoyed the dangerous, mysterious and broody guy that was Naji, I felt he acted more 'little boy lost' in this book and seemed to sulk or something. When he doesn't return Ananna's feelings towards him, she's just really mean to him all the time, so he just tries to stay out of her way. I found this annoying on both of their parts. And I never would have guessed his feelings for her, he gave absolutely nothing away.
That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the antagonistic relationship between the two of them, I did. But I'd been hoping that they would get together, knowing Ananna had feelings for Naji and just hoping they would be reciprocated. But when they did eventually get together, there was nothing. No sparks, no swooning. It just didn't fulfil my expectations at all which was slightly disappointing.
And something that only came to mind sometime after finishing this book, was that, for three apparently, impossible tasks, they weren't that hard to accomplish.
So, to reiterate, as this seems quite negative lol. I did really enjoy The Pirate's Wish and I would recommend this series. The plot is decent and I enjoyed the characters.
Dare You To by Katie McGarry
Published: 28th May 2013
By: Harlequin Teen/Mira Ink
Source: Netgalley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Unfortunately, Dare you To, for me, was just like any other contemporary romance out there. Great for those who favour this genre, but it just didn't wow me. Pushing the Limits had that something extra special that gave it that extra oomph that I just didn't feel with Dare You To.
I didn't like Beth in Pushing the Limits, and maybe that should have been enough to make me lose interest in this before I even started, but because I enjoyed Pushing the Limits so much, I wanted to give this one a go too, and having read the first chapter, I was quite intrigued about Ryan. They were so completely different that I was interested in seeing how they were going to be brought together. Beth did grow on me a little through the course of the book, but I know she won't be memorable, not like Echo and Noah. And Ryan, while he was a likeable guy, was just a similar mould to every other hot, jock guy I read about.
We're already aware that Beth has had a hard life. She was staying in her aunts basement with Noah and Isaiah, but we learn a lot more about her problems, and the ugly truth that has made Beth the person we know now. And I did pity her, it'd be hard not to. She feels unloveable and finds it hard to trust. But for someone who was so messed up, I felt that Ryan got through her barriers a little too quickly.
She is taken in by her uncle Scott, who moves her about a half hour away from Louisville, to Grovetown, where she lived until she was eight years old. He forbids her to see her alcoholic mother, and also tells her to cut ties with her old friends and her old life. But she really struggles with this and feels a need to protect her mother from her violent and abusive boyfriend. But her mother doesn't want to be saved, and it hurts Beth more everytime she tries to do something good for her.
Scott is one of the only commendable adults in this book. While Ryan appears to come from a good family, they are really just small minded, small town snobs. I especially disliked Ryan's dad, who I felt wanted to live his life through Ryan, trying to force him to do what he wanted with no regard for Ryan's feelings, and who had abandoned, and forced his family to abandon, his older son Mark, because he was gay.
In all honesty, by halfway through I was quite bored and just wanted to be done with it. Contemporary romance has to have that extra something for me to enjoy it, and Dare You To just wasn't it for me. I'm not sure I'll read Isaiah's story. He wasn't a character I was overfond of either. Though I did feel sorry for him in this one so it's nice to know he gets his happy ending too.
Published: 11th June 2011
By: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Netgalley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I don't quite know how to review this book. I went into it expecting something completely different than what I actually got, so I'd recommend going into this book blind. Don't read the blurb, and definitely don't pay any attention to the tags on Goodreads.
It took me a while to figure out that I wasn't going to get what I thought with this one, which made me feel that it was quite weird in the beginning, and I was wondering when we were going to get to the pinnacle of the story, the werewolves, as was my understanding. And I was close to the home run before things finally clicked into place for me.
This book is written from the perspective of Andrew, the ten year old boy of 'before', and Win, 'after', who's now sixteen. In the past, we learn about his relationship with his family. His older brother Keith, who does his best to protect and care for Andrew, even though he's only four years older than him. His younger sister Siobhan, who's three years younger, and who he adores. He's remembering one summer when he went to stay with his grandparents, and his three cousins were there. Andrew doesn't seem to have much relationship with anyone other than his siblings. He's quite odd, and everyone was just generally mean to him. And all the while, his mother is at home in bed apparently suffering from depression.
Win, has many problems. He thinks there's a wolf inside of him, just waiting to be released. When things finally come to a head one night, and Win eventually cracks, thankfully, he has friends with him who are looking out for him. They immediately get him the help he needs.
This is not the type of book I regularly read. That's not to say I haven't read this type of book, but I like to be prepared if I'm going to. When I finished this book I just cried. And the horrible feelings that this book brought out in me, stayed with me over the next couple of days. I'm aware of the animals that live alongside us. I have my own children, it's something I'm constantly vigilant of. But in reading, I like escapism. If I'm going to be left with lingering feelings over a book, I like them to be happy, giddy ones.
On the whole though, when I looked back on this book after realising what was actually going on, it was an exceptionally well written book. Had I actually known what I was going to be reading and was clued in from the start, this would have had a higher rating, as I'm not sure I've ever read a book with such a complex way of telling it's story. Stephanie Kuehn is an extremely talented author and deserves a lot of praise for her execution of Charm & Strange. And while I wouldn't have read it had I known it's content, I'm glad I did, just to experience this authors work. I will be interested in reading more of her work in the future.
