miércoles, 24 de agosto de 2011

A Kingdom's Cost, J.R. Tomlin






Name: A Kingdom's Cost
Author: J.R. Tomlin
Series: The Douglas Trilogy
Publisher: Create Space
Format: Pdf.
Pages: 389 pages.
Website: http://jeannetomlin.blogspot.com
About the author: 
Born in the US to a Scottish father and American mother, J. R. grew up in both the US and Scotland, attended university at the University of Texas at Austin and now lives in the US Pacific North West.
She writes both Scottish historical fiction and (non-Scottish) fantasy. 

Where can you buy it:
Amazon
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
What goodreads says:
Eighteen-year-old James Douglas can only watch, helpless, as the Scottish freedom fighter, William Wallace, is hanged, drawn, and quartered. Even under the heel of a brutal English conqueror, James's blood-drenched homeland may still have one hope for freedom, the rightful king of the Scots, Robert the Bruce. James swears fealty to the man he believes can lead the fight against English tyranny. The Bruce is soon a fugitive, king in name and nothing more. Scotland is occupied, the Scottish resistance crushed. The woman James loves is captured and imprisoned. Yet James believes their cause is not lost. With driving determination, he blazes a path in blood and violence, in cunning and ruthlessness as he wages a guerrilla war to restore Scotland's freedom. James knows he risks sharing Wallace's fate, but what he truly fears is that he has become as merciless as the conqueror he fights.
My opinion:
My thanks to J.R. Tomlin for gifting me with this book :)Now this is the second book I read by this author and all I can say is I love the way she writes. Her characters are interesting and make you feel like you know them.
A Kingdom's Cost shares alot of features with Freedom's sword, as they are both biased on the same timeline, with different characters.
Here we meet James Douglas, who was also mentioned before, a young boy who's father is killed by the King of England.
We also meet the Bishop of ST. Andrews William de Lamberton who took in James as his squire after his father's death.
Allthough at the begining the book was a bit fast and there wasn't much time to get to know the characters, but once past those first chapters it gets better.
Overall the book was a really good historical, full of action, battles and blood. She pays alot of attention to the different details and that makes you feel like your actually in the book rather than reading it.
If you like Historical books you totally have to check hers out.
I give it 4 out of 5.


Fallen, Lauren Kate






Name: Fallen
Author: Lauren Kate
Series: Fallen book 1.
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 452 pages.
Website: http://laurenkatebooks.net/
About the author: Lauren Kate grew up in Dallas, went to school in Atlanta, and started writing in New York.
She is the author of Fallen and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove. She lives in Laurel Canyon with her husband and hopes to work in a restaurant kitchen, get a dog, and learn how to surf.

Where can you buy it:
Amazon
Book depository
Barnes and Noble

What goodreads says:
Seventeen-Year-Old Luce is a new student at Sword & Cross, an unwelcoming boarding/reform school in Savannah, Georgia. Luce’s boyfriend died under suspicious circumstances, and now she carries the guilt over his death with her as she navigates the unfriendly halls at Sword & Cross, where every student seems to have an unpleasant—even evil—history.
It’s only when she sees Daniel, a gorgeous fellow student, that Luce feels there’s a reason to be here—though she doesn’t know what it is. And Daniel’s frosty cold demeanor toward her? It’s really a protective device that he’s used again . . . and again.

My opinion:
Honestly I was a little hesitant to pick this book up, I had heard really good things about it but also really bad things. But in the end I decided to pick it up the other day to take it with me to the beach.
I for one really liked this book I think it's original sure it has somethings in common with other books, but really someone show me a book that has absolutely nothing to do with another one.
Luce is a pretty seventeen year old who is sent to Sword and Cross, a school for problematic children. She's not especially happy at giving away her mobile or the fact that "the reds are watching her" but she lives with it in a very mature way (me? I would be kicking and screaming and trying to hide things to keep^^)
There she meets Cam a good looking boy who catches her attention by being nice to her, until Daniel Grigori appears, he seems like the perfect boy, until he flips her of and Luce has a feeling they've met before.
I enjoyed the different characters and Arriane is the best!!! I also felt incredibly sorry for Penn (no spoilers)
I can't wait to read Torment and Passion.
See you all next time :)
Nathiel

The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills, Joanna Pearson


Name: The rites and wrongs of Janice Wills.
Author: Joanna Pearson
Series: None
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Format: ARC (yes the book has already come out but I won the ARC copy)
Pages:  224 pages.
Website: http://www.joannapearson.com/
About the author:
Joanna grew up in North Carolina. She went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar and did graduate work in Ireland as a George J. Mitchell Scholar.   She later earned an MFA in poetry as well as an MD at The Johns Hopkins University.  She's received grants/residency fellowships in poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Corporation of Yaddo, along with a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize and Pushcart Prize nominations.  Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets, Bellevue Literary Review, Blackbird, Gulf Coast, The New Criterion, River Styx, and elsewhere.  These days Joanna lives with her husband in Baltimore.
The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills is her first novel.
Where can you buy it:
Amazon
Book depository
Barnes and noble
What goodreads says:
For anyone who's ever survived a rite of passage or performed a mating dance at Prom . . .
The Japanese hold a Mogi ceremony for young women coming of age. Latina teenagers get quinceaneras. And Janice Wills of Melva, NC ... has to compete in the Miss Livermush pageant.
Janice loves anthropology--the study of human cultures--and her observations help her identify useful rules in the chaotic world of high school. For instance: Dancing is an effective mating ritual--but only if you're good at it; Hot Theatre Guys will never speak to Unremarkable Smart Girls like Janice and her best friend, Margo; and a Beautiful Rich Girl will always win Melva's annual Miss Livermush pageant.
But when a Hot Theatre Guy named Jimmy Denton takes an interest in Janice, all her scientific certainties explode. For the first time, she has to be part of the culture that she's always observed; and all the charts in the world can't prove how tough--and how sweet--real participation and a real romance can be


My opinion:
I won an ARC copy of this book when I participated in the contest of a fellow blogger Christina check out her site here: http://christinareadsya.blogspot.com/ so thank you Christina because I have loved 2 of the 3 books I received (I haven't read the third one yet^^)
This book was funny, charming and bittersweet at times, although sometimes I felt it was a typical teenager book, much like gossip girl and such.
The main character is Janice a young girl who is your typical awkward to intelligent for her own good- teenager. Janice wants to be an anthropologist and as so sees everything from a distance, until her mom tries to convince her to participate in Miss Livermush pageant (shudder) and in the end Janice agrees so that she can actually have some in site for a project she's making.
Then you have the best friend, who might not be exceptionally bright or beautiful, but tends to get in trouble with the popular girls, in this story she's called Margo.
You've also got the popular athletic guy, who seems all good, until he isn't, and his name is Jimmy.
And the male best friend who we all know has got hots for his best friend.
And the "queen of the school" who is of course tall, beautiful and  rich, and she has a group of girls who follow her around.


But after saying that this book does have some things that make it unique, such as the references to how people come to age in different cultures and the Pony dance (I totally want to learn it)
Overall an enjoyable book and a good light summer read.
I give it 3 of 5 stars.

martes, 23 de agosto de 2011

Pretty Bad Things, C.J. Skuse


Name: Pretty Bad Things
Author: C.J. Skuse
Series: None
Publisher:  Chicken House
Format: ARC (yes the book has already come out but I won the ARC copy)
Pages:  272 pages.
Website:
About the author:
C.J Skuse, author of Pretty Bad Things (2010) and Rockoholic (2011) was born in 1980 in Weston-super-Mare, England. She loves graphic novels, sitcoms, Gummy Bears and the music of My Chemical Romance. She hates: hard-boiled eggs, carnivals and coughing. The movies Titanic, My Best Friend's Wedding and Twilight were all based on her ideas, she just didn't get to write them down in time. Before she dies, she would like to go to Japan, try clay-pigeon shooting and own a malamute. C.J has First Class degrees in Creative Writing and Writing for Children and she is currently working on her third YA novel, for which she is researching lizards, mortuaries and 80s electro.
Where can you buy it:
Amazon
Book depository
Barnes and Noble

What goodreads says:
"Wonder Twins" on the run--and running amok--in Vegas. Road Trip!Paisley and Beau are boldface names again. Last time, paparazzi called them the "Wonder Twins," two kids found alone but alive in the woods of exotic New Jersey. Three days after their mom's death -- and before their dad's criminal misdeeds.
Flash-forward to now: Their so-called lives? Suck out loud: Hating on their cougarized, Botoxic grandma, they're totally clueless about the location of ex-con Daddy. Till they discover a stash of old letters. That's when they decide to jack the Pontiac and hit the road. Holding up donut shops in Sin City might seem extreme, but if they can just get their pretty bad faces back on TV -- or TMZ -- they might wrap up their whole gaga saga with an Oprah-worthy reunion already!

My opinion:
I won an ARC copy of this book when I participated in the contest of a fellow blogger Christina check out her site here: http://christinareadsya.blogspot.com/ so thank you Christina because I have loved 2 of the 3 books I received (I haven't read the third one yet^^)
This book was fantastic, it was about a set of twins Paisley and Beau.
Paisley is a total bad-ass she's got the attitude and the bad language and the devil may care looks, although internaly she's just a vulnerable teen. 
As for her twin Beau?? He's much more calm and willing to follow orders rather than bark them out, at first I found Beau a bit to pushover but he does surprise you and make you love him in the end. The grandmother is a B... with capital letters and you have to feel sorry for their dad.
The things Paisley and Beau do allthough wrong are hillarious as are their fans.
Although this book is funny at times and seems light when you start it, it also covers some serious themes and how people deal with it.
Also the book is settled in Las Vegas (I really wan't to go there!!) it's amazing the descriptions of the different buildings (realistic or not no idea as I said I've never been to Las Vegas)
Allthough I have to say one thing Paisley swears and a lot so if this bothers you, you might not enjoy the book that much.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

martes, 9 de agosto de 2011

The Endlands, Various Authors


Name: The Endlands
Authors: Patrick Greene, Cristin Martin, David Stubblefield, Vincent Hobbes, Janelle Garcia, Craig Wessel, Tamara Wilhite, Nathan Palmer, Jordan Benoit, Jarius Reddy, Jennifer Chapman and Christina Estabrook.
Series: Endlands
Publisher:  Hobbes End Publishing
Format: Kindle
Pages: Kindle doesn't say but the paperback version has 320 pages.
Website: http://www.theendlands.com/
Where can you buy it:
Smashwords
Amazon
What goodreads says:
Do you believe in a place outside human knowledge-a place where myth and legend collide-where the unthinkable is the mundane?There is a thin veil between reality and make believe. When you take a moment, and push the veil aside, perhaps you will see this place. It is not a place of the imagination, for everything you see here is real.
Nothing is what it seems. Noises are not what you think. Nothing is off limits. No place is safe.
In The Endlands, you might find yourself lost in the past, or trapped in the future. You might find yourself amidst vampires and werewolves, or in a most peculiar lost and found department.

My opinion:
Normally shorts stories aren't my favorite type as I feel like their missing something, but with horror stories it doesn't happen so much. Here's a mini summary about each story and an overall opinion at the end.
Room 422 (Patrick Greene)
A man in a hospital waiting to give birth to their baby, or perhaps not.
This story was great although short, when I read the last sentence I thought wow that would be a great book on it's own.
A Night in Polidoria (Cristin Martin)
Polidoria is a hunted town, the people who live there don't go out after dark, they eat a lot of garlic and meals were blessed by a priest. The nails in their walls are made of silver and hidden they have bottles of holly water and wooden stakes. This is the home of Diana, a seventeen year old girl who's world is about to turn upside down.
This story was interesting, although Diana is a bit to trusting, you would of thought that living where she does she would be less trusting.
Flying Fish (David Stubblefield)
Okay so flying wales in this one :)
It was interesting to read an intriguing as I wondered what would actually happen if Whales somehow started flying.
Limbo, Population 458 (Vincent Hobbes)
A husband and a wife travelling on the road. The wife needs to use the bathroom and they stumble upon a quiet old town. Maybe to quiet.
It was a really good story, I can't say much about it without giving anything away. But really creepy.
Finders Keepers (Janelle Garcia)
Beth works for the lost and found in Hotel Sunny Days.
Okay so I wont give anything more away, truthfully I didn't think much of this story. I mean it was gory and unsettling but I think it was missing a plot. Although it's well written.
Loose Ends (Craig Wessel)
A very short story about a man named Cain. Or not.
To Read or Not to Read (Vincent Hobbes)
Shelby is a young woman who enters a bookshop, but not everything is what it seems.
My favorite, I really wanted to be in that bookshop and I couldn't see why it was horror until I read the end that is.
Phases of Normal (Tamara Wilhite)
This one was a bit complicated to follow for a short story, as it's about genetics and how to make the perfect human.
Propaganda (Nathan Palmer)
At first this seemed like a paranormal story, as the author describes a young soldier on his way to kill some monsters. Or not?
King of the Jungle, (Jordan Benoit)
A hunter goes to the forest to find a man eating monster, only to find much more.
The Hour of the Time (Vincent Hobbes)
About a man who hates being late.
Thanksgiving (Jarius Reddy)
A feast for thanksgiving involving human clones? Spooky
Into the small hours (Patrick Greene)
This one was interesting, It was about a man staying in a hotel who has a night visitor.
The Dragon of Delinar (Vincent Hobbes)
The Kingdom of Delinar lives in peace for now.
The best BBQ in the Interstate (Jennifer Chapman)
Henry is a trucker and on a trip he picks up Steve who promises to show him the best barbecue in the interstate.
Now this one was very creepy and likely to give you nightmares next time you go to a barbecue.
Glass Prison (Christina Estabrook)
Sarah and Jack live in a old house. But soon Sarah starts seeing shadows.
A really good story.
They (Vincent Hobbes)
Mike, Brian, Kelly and Taylor are on the way to vacation, but a storm makes them get lost.

Overall I really enjoyed this book as it had fantastic authors and stories.
I give it 4 out of 5.
See you all next time.
Nathiel


viernes, 5 de agosto de 2011

Book Tour



I'm really excited to be participating in this blog hop as it's my first :)
Romancing your dark side has organized an amazing tour in which each stop you have the opportunity to win books, swag and more. Sounds great right?? Well there's more there's a grand prize giveaway for a brand new Kindle!!
This blog tour kicks of today (yes I'm a little late) and goes on until the 31 of October.
I'll be hosting 7 giveaways one for each author so keep tuned :)
For the kick of party you can visit here: http://www.vbtcafe.com/
You'll also find a complete schedule of where each author will be going and when.
Hope to see you all there!!
Nathiel