tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15462214311023530372024-03-08T05:34:07.398-06:00A Journey Through PagesA Book Review blog focusing on Young Adult, Fantasy, Dystopia and Horror.Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.comBlogger240125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-30430721606803193172014-10-25T03:03:00.001-05:002014-10-25T03:04:23.288-05:00Blog Tour Review & Book/Swag Giveaway (INT): The Summer of Shambles by Ebony McKenna<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">The Summer of Shambles</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Ebony McKenna</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7241493-the-summer-of-shambles">Goodreads</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Shambles-Ondine-Book-ebook/dp/B00DMELH6M/">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://xpressobooktours.com/2014/08/11/tour-sign-up-the-summer-of-shambles-by-ebony-mckenna/">Tour </a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>April 5th 2010</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publisher:</b> Egmont<br /><br /><b>Pages:</b> 305 (2013 Ebook Edition)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Genre:</b> Comedy, Fantasy-esque, Young Adult</span><br />
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15-year-old Ondine is struggling to fit in at Psychic Summercamp and doubts she possesses any of her family’s magical abilities. She resolves to leave, determined to follow her own path and be a normal teenager. Whatever normal is in a place like Brugel.</div>
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On the way home Ondine is shocked when her pet ferret Shambles starts talking – in a cheeky Scottish accent no less! He is in fact a young man trapped in a witch’s curse. When he briefly transforms into his human self, Ondine is smitten. If only she can break the spell for good, Shambles can be handsomely human on a full-time basis.</div>
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During the summer, these two misfits uncover a plot to assassinate a member of the royal family and discover a secret treasure that has remained hidden for decades. This attracts the attention of the arrogant Lord Vincent, and Ondine can’t help being drawn in by his bad-boy charm.</div>
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With so many demands on Ondine’s attentions – and affections – normal has never seemed so far away.</div>
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The Summer of Shambles is the first in the four-part ONDINE series. Fans of The Princess Bride or the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series will love this delightfully quirky fairytale.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 14.9499998092651px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I can mention anything else, I have to say that this book has a very strong voice. It's strength was actually jarring for me when I first began to read, but it soon became one of my favourite things about the book.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 14.9499998092651px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Summer of Shambles</i> is a fantasy book in the guise of a contemporary novel (well sort of contemporary as it was written to take place in contemporary pre-internet) It takes place in an imaginary Eastern European country called Brugel. Never heard of it? That's okay, because there are footnotes to help keep you up to speed. This country boosts a high population of psychics and even has a psychic summer camp, which is where Ondine, our main character has been sent, despite the fact she has no psychic skills to think of and would really rather go home. Thus our story upons up with her doing just that, along with the ferret that had decided to befriend her while she was there.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 14.9499998092651px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then of course as she is heading home the ferret, in a very strong Scottish brogue, suddenly starts talking to her.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 14.9499998092651px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think that if I had read this book when I was younger (maybe around Middle School) it would have been one of my favourite books. It's got a quirkiness to it that I really like and the voice and style of the book would have really appealed to me at that age. There is a lot of suspension of reality that I sometimes had issue with as well that I think younger me would have had absolutely no trouble with. (Oh man, that makes me feel old suddenly).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 14.9499998092651px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The characters are very strong in their portrayals. You won't be mistaking one character for another. The plot is simple but interesting, none-the-less. And the ending does well to open it up for the rest of the books in the series, I believe.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 14.9499998092651px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most interesting and unique thing in <i>The Summer of Shambles</i> however, is how Ebony McKenna deals with exposition. Due to the voice of the book and the setting. This book could have been weighed down by pages of exposition. Instead, McKenna, footnotes the book with hilarious explanations or further tidbits about characters. I always looked forward to reading them at the end of each chapter and in a material copy of the book, I'm sure there are some readers constantly flipping back and forth to read them as they hit them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 14.9499998092651px; white-space: pre-wrap;">To sum it up, I really enjoyed reading this book, and will probably read it again (and the sequels). The world is unique, the portrayal simple, but enjoyable. The characters strong and the voice of the book is entertaining. Try not to let logic cloud your reading experience too much though.</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About
the Author</b></span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Ebony McKenna lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and son.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">She has worked as a journalist, market researcher, website editor, and company director. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">As a teenager, she lived in a family-run restaurant. This provided the inspiration for Ondine's family, as Ebony has also waitressed, prepared food and yep, she washed dishes. So many dishes.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Now she writes novels for a living, so her hands are dry. Except for when her characters are making her laugh too much and she has to wipe tears away so she can see the keyboard.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">She's always loved trivia nights and the Eurovision Song Contest, and wishes she'd put money on Conchita Wurst winning this year. </span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 100%;">Author
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-88738349267498059592014-10-25T02:25:00.002-05:002014-10-25T02:25:32.227-05:00UpdateFor about a month I was completely without internet, without any way to post reviews or really anything else. Today I finally was able to get it installed (all the paperwork and scheduling took way longer than expected here in the land of Japan.<br />
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You should be seeing the reviews that I am in need of posting, though due to the fact that NaNoWriMo is coming up, I'll be reading a lot less this upcoming month and instead writing :D<br />
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I'm also going to Tokyo for a once and a life time performance (Sayumi Michishige, from Morning Musume '14's Graduation Concert).<br />
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Happy to be back on the web.Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-55989000066238456072014-09-26T04:31:00.000-05:002014-09-26T04:32:35.016-05:00Blog Tour Book Review & Amazon/E-book Giveaway: Part-Time Princess by Pamela DuMond<div style="text-align: center;">
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<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Part-time Princess</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Pamela DuMond</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22730727-part-time-princess">Goodreads</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Part-time-Princess-Ladies---Waiting-1-ebook/dp/B00M8LVW10/ref=la_B0049J16NS_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410790419&sr=1-8">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://xpressobooktours.com/2014/07/15/tour-sign-up-part-time-princess-by-pamela-dumond/">Tour </a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>July 28th 2014</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Genre:</b> Comedy, Romance, New Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Lucy Trabbicio’s a down-on-her-luck, young, American, former biker-bar cocktail waitress desperate to find a job. Lady Elizabeth Billingsley hires Lucy to travel to Fredonia, the tiny jewel of a country in the Alps, for ten days ‘tops’ to impersonate her.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Say what? How the heck is that going to happen?</i><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">In the mother of all makeovers, Elizabeth’s people teach Lucy how to dress, walk, talk, eat, be coiffed and even get naked like a European Lady.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The goal?</i><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">To keep Crown Prince Cristoph Timmel interested in Elizabeth until she finishes her unexpected, pressing personal business in the States.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">But fate intervenes… Lucy meets and is wildly attracted to sexy, bad-boy Nick on the oh-so-long flights to Fredonia. Unfortunately for Lucy—Nick and Elizabeth have a hot sexual history, which Nick wants to immediately resume.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Prince Cristoph proposes marriage. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">What's an imposter girl to do?</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Elizabeth insists that she’ll make it back home in time for the wedding. Lucy accepts Cristoph’s proposal and is on the fast track to becoming a Princess but continues to fall for the wrong Prince of Fredonia—Nick. When another tiny glitch arises—someone’s trying to kill her.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The only folks helping Lucy are her wild, party hard, take-no-prisoners Ladies-in-Waiting. </span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">When the real Lady Elizabeth decides she’s not marrying Cristoph and never returning to Fredonia, Lucy’s faced with an uncomfortable decision—continue her deception, marry the prince she’s not in love with and live a dream life albeit without Nick, her dream guy? Or tell the truth and return to poverty and oblivion?</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">A modern day sexy fairy tale with romance, twists and turns, LOL moments, a few tears and an empowering ending.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy lately. And most of it is pretty normal fare fantasy voice wise. So when I saw this book come up I decided it was time to break my reading streak and go for something a bit... lighter.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-7622f4e3-b148-bd4f-5144-dc2253ed8a72" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part-Time Princess is about a girl, Lucy, who is fired from her job (the guy was totally asking for it though) and is desperate to get another job to keep her Uncle in a nice home and keep her from living on the streets. So she turns to internet classifieds and applies for every job she thinks applies to her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of these jobs ends up being impersonating a Princess for a few weeks and it pays amazingly well, just what she needs. She also happens to look very similar, though her personality is quite different.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Obviously you all can see where this is going to end up. There are shenanigans a-glore. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lucy is a great character. I loved reading her voice as she tried really hard to roll with the punches. Her job is way over her head, however, and she knows it. There is definitely a suspension of disbelief we have to put on (because these people have known Elizabeth her whole life, how is it that the only thing they notice differently about Lucy is that she’s curvier, come on!) but I happily suspended it and enjoyed the story.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The romance was done really well for this kind of story. Often I have trouble reading stories like this because I can’t stand the second-hand embarrassment or the way everyone is BETRAYED, but there were some clever leavings done by the main love interest that made it feel less weird in the end and well... I won't spoil it for you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I enjoyed the tense feeling of anxiety as Lucy’s stay grew longer and longer and then on top of that trying to figure out who was trying to kill “Elizabeth”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overall this book was exactly what I needed. The prose is light-hearted, the story comedy-based and the characters entertaining. If you enjoy princess stories with hijinks (like Princess Diaries for example) this is one to pick up and enjoy.</span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About
the Author</b></span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Pamela DuMond is the author who discovered Erin Brockovich’s life story, thought it would make a great movie and pitched it to ‘Hollywood’.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">She writes romantic comedic mysteries, romantic YA time travel and New Adult romance.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Her book The Story of You and Me was a Quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakout Novel Award (ABNA) 2014 in Romance.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Cupcakes, Pies, and Hot Guys was a Quarterfinalist in ABNA 2013 in Mystery .</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">She’s addicted to TV shows — The Voice and Reign. The movies Love Actually and The Bourne trilogy (with Matt Damon — not that other actor guy,) make her cry ever time she watches them. (Like — a thousand.)</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">When she’s not writing Pamela’s also a chiropractor and cat wrangler. She loves reading, the beach, working out, movies, TV, animals, her family and friends. She lives in Venice, California with her fur-babies.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">She likes her coffee strong, her cabernet hearty, her chocolate dark, her foods non-GMO and she lives for a good giggle.</span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 100%;">Author
Links:</span></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.pameladumond.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411722670130_6657" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://www.pameladumond.com/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4430293.Pamela_DuMond" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411722670130_6679" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4430293.Pamela_DuMond</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pamela-DuMond-Books/694104930620682" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411722670130_6680" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pamela-DuMond-Books/694104930620682</a></div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/Pamela_DuMond" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411722670130_6689" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/Pamela_DuMond</a></div>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-47438262522145826332014-09-25T05:26:00.001-05:002014-09-25T05:26:54.438-05:00Blog Tour Guest Post: World Building 101 | The Violet Fox by Clare C. Marshall<div style="text-align: center;">
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<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />The Violet Fox (The Violet Fox #1)</span></h2>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Clare C. Marshall</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14743283-the-violet-fox">Goodreads</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Violet-Fox-Clare-C-Marshall-ebook/dp/B009PMZZZ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411567527&sr=1-1&keywords=the+violet+fox">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.faeryinkpress.com/blog/the-violet-fox-blog-tour-2014">Tour </a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>October 13th 2012</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publisher</b>: Faery Ink Press</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Genre:</b> Fantasy, Young Adult</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pages:</b> 288</span><br />
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<div style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px;">
<i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Run.<br />That’s what instinct told me.<br />But in order to save the secrets of my people<br />and to protect my brother<br />I have to become the enemy.</i><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">There are two kinds of people in the land of Marlenia.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The Marlenians, who live on the surface,</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">and the Freetors, who are forced to live underground.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The war between them ended two hundred years ago, but the Freetors still fight for the right to live under the sun. Fifteen-year-old Kiera Driscoll embodies the Freetors’ hopes as the Violet Fox. In a violet cape and mask, she sneaks around Marlenia City stealing food and freeing her people from slavery.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Then the Elders task her with a secret mission: retrieve a stolen tome that contains the secrets of Freetor magic, something the Marlenians both fear and covet. Kiera must disguise herself as a noblewoman and infiltrate the Marlenian castle before the Freetor-hating Advisor finds out her real identity, before her brother is imprisoned because of the secrets he hides, and before she falls any more in love with the prince she’s supposed to hate.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">More is happening in the castle than she realizes, and Kiera is faced with a difficult choice. Will she be loyal to her people and their fight for freedom, or will she be loyal to her heart?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I read <i>The Violet Fox, </i>it's not surprising that I found myself entranced by the world Marshall had created. World building is something that I find vital for books that delve into something more than just contemporary and especially so in Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror. Here is Marshall's advice when it comes to trying to create a world of your own.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<h2 style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">World Building 101</span></span></b></span></h2>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Not only am I an
author/publisher, but I’m a professional editor as well. And one of
the things I notice when I’m editing (especially a new author) is
the lack of world development.</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">But what does this
mean?</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Where you grow up
influences how you turn out. I grew up in a rural town in Nova
Scotia. When I’d visit the streets of Halifax in my teen years, I
would freak out at huge buses whizzing by. Why? Because we didn’t
have buses where I lived. It’s not that I didn’t know about
buses--it’s because I wasn’t used to being inches from them
rushing by me. It just wasn’t in my sphere of experience, so I’d
react badly. Now I’m used to it, but only because I’ve lived in
many other large cities since.</span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">In </span><span lang="en-CA"><i>The
Violet Fox</i></span><span lang="en-CA">, the people who live on the
surface of Marlenia have a lot of prejudice and hatred against the
people who live underground, because there was a big war 200 years
ago. Even though it was so long ago, this prejudice and hatred is
passed down through the generations. This means that my protagonist,
Kiera, who lives underground and steals from people who live on the
surface, was basically taught that people who live on the surface are
unfeeling, hateful bastards who would kill her people without a
second thought. Throughout the book, however, her perception changes,
because she has more experiences that change her perception.</span></div>
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<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">So, how can I
improve world building for my own books?</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Here are some
questions I ask myself when I’m developing worlds, and
specifically, the world of Marlenia, where </span><span lang="en-CA"><i>The
Violet Fox</i></span><span lang="en-CA"> and its upcoming sequel, </span><span lang="en-CA"><i>The
Silver Spear</i></span><span lang="en-CA">, take place.</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA"><b>1) Starting wide:
what is the history of your world?</b></span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">This seems like a
daunting task, but just start with one fact. Just one.</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Mine was: even in
the earliest drafts of the book, the ruler of Marlenia is called the
Holy One.</span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Why might that be, I
wondered? It was originally just a cool title that popped into my
head! I had to come up with a reason that made sense within the
world, because there’s not a lot of religion in the world
currently. So I came up with this: Marlenia is a lapsed theocracy.
That means the society used to be heavily religious, but over the
generations, religion became less important, but remnants of that
earlier time remain, because the tradition is hard-wired.</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Try it! Pick one
obscure fact about a character and ask: why?</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA"><b>2)</b></span><span lang="en-CA">
</span><span lang="en-CA"><b>Starting specific: what is the backstory
for my main character?</b></span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Sometimes you might
just have characters, and no place. So look to your character’s
childhood. How did he or she grow up? Was there an early childhood
tragedy that influenced his or her development? Is there a specific
pass time they enjoy?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Now take it wider.
If he or she had a terrible childhood, why would that be? Did they
grow up on the streets? Which streets, where? Why are they so
terrible? If they grew up in a stable household, what did his or her
parents do? Are their professions considered respectable in your
world? Did they make a lot of money? Economic standing in society
plays a big role in what we have access to, and our decisions in
life.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Then, take it wider.
Compare your character’s experiences with other potential
characters in the world. Is your character’s experience typical or
atypical in the world? Connect the dots. The idea is to keep asking
questions until you have every detail sussed out.</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA"><b>3) Going deeper</b></span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">This is getting
beyond a 101, but if you’re developing fantasy, you need to ask
yourself why specific cities develop in the way they do. Study the
history of your own country and notice when and how towns develop.
Here in Canada, the east was developed first, and then people
migrated further west, and inland. The east was settled by Europeans
first because that’s the patch of land that was closest to them.
Some of the oldest cities in Canada are next to the water, be it
rivers or the ocean. Why? Fishing was (still is) a big industry, and
cities by the water can trade by boat with other cities accessible by
water (mutually beneficial). This is overly simplistic description,
but it should get you thinking about your fictional city’s
infrastructure, and what kind of jobs your character or your
character’s family might have.</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="en-CA">Keep going backwards
in time, keep going deeper. And remember: the actions of just one
person can change the course of history--and change how your world
develops.</span></div>
<div lang="en-CA" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span lang="en-CA">Happy
world building, and don’t forget to check out my book </span><span lang="en-CA"><i>The
Violet Fox</i></span><span lang="en-CA">, and the crowdfunding
campaign for the upcoming sequel, </span><span lang="en-CA"><i>The
Silver Spear</i></span><span lang="en-CA">, at
http://igg.me/at/silverspear.</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiXDk5ODbFrUshMbGhx2GuGFjGl_-nUIuMlwpIMF1OSHf6J63tUiZBIPpEbO5PGqFsALWsDKZ8NtvRHF7UZbzmbbhUjz9MTMtTp1iu0UrAyhFUwqpREQWCw_3zcmwERd6ySlROd2t3-BU/s1600/claire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiXDk5ODbFrUshMbGhx2GuGFjGl_-nUIuMlwpIMF1OSHf6J63tUiZBIPpEbO5PGqFsALWsDKZ8NtvRHF7UZbzmbbhUjz9MTMtTp1iu0UrAyhFUwqpREQWCw_3zcmwERd6ySlROd2t3-BU/s1600/claire.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About the Author</b></span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Clare C. Marshall grew up in rural Nova Scotia with very little television and dial up internet, and yet, she turned out okay. She has a combined honours degree in journalism and psychology from the University of King’s College, and is a graduate from Humber College’s Creative Book Publishing Program. She is a full-time freelance editor, book designer, and web manager. She enjoys publishing books through her publishing imprint, Faery Ink Press. When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing the fiddle and making silly noises at cats.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;">Author Links:</span></b><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1405417570422_2589" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410435712919_11435">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_3243">
Facebook: <a href="http://faeryinkpress.com/faeryinkpress" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_3254" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://faeryinkpress.com/faeryinkpress</a></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_2983">
Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/claremarshall13" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_3255" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/claremarshall13</a><span class="yiv2063023753" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_2970">
Goodreads: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5120291.Clare_C_Marshall" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_2982" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5120291.Clare_C_Marshall</a></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_2959">
Goodreads Book Page: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14743283-the-violet-fox" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_2958" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14743283-the-violet-fox</a></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_2947">
Website: <a href="http://faeryinkpress.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_3257" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://faeryinkpress.com</a><br />
<br /></div>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://journeythroughpages.blogspot.jp/2014/09/blog-tour-review-violet-fox-by-clare-c.html">MY REVIEW OF THE VIOLET FOX</a></span></span></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/raise-the-silver-spear"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ctHPciMXD8Bc5yLYM9WnP7tI2WlEbisX-Q4Z2nKy02DrUFX406nk2i6FZuWqWjbigRYpKDSXz3jXPfe6nsSw55-Pq0HcA3VU7f5-u10x4DVBciL6huPFEAMq3_8EbPrjXwuR5HONbsY/s1600/20140912224313-raiseyourspear3.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<h3>
There's an Indiegogo Campaign for the Second Book, why don't you support?</h3>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-16960778159559184102014-09-25T05:17:00.000-05:002014-09-25T05:17:00.956-05:00Blog Tour Review: The Violet Fox by Clare C. Marshall<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />The Violet Fox (The Violet Fox #1)</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Clare C. Marshall</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14743283-the-violet-fox">Goodreads</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Violet-Fox-Clare-C-Marshall-ebook/dp/B009PMZZZ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411567527&sr=1-1&keywords=the+violet+fox">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.faeryinkpress.com/blog/the-violet-fox-blog-tour-2014">Tour </a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>October 13th 2012</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publisher</b>: Faery Ink Press</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Genre:</b> Fantasy, Young Adult</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pages:</b> 288</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Run.<br />That’s what instinct told me.<br />But in order to save the secrets of my people<br />and to protect my brother<br />I have to become the enemy.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">There are two kinds of people in the land of Marlenia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The Marlenians, who live on the surface,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">and the Freetors, who are forced to live underground.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The war between them ended two hundred years ago, but the Freetors still fight for the right to live under the sun. Fifteen-year-old Kiera Driscoll embodies the Freetors’ hopes as the Violet Fox. In a violet cape and mask, she sneaks around Marlenia City stealing food and freeing her people from slavery.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Then the Elders task her with a secret mission: retrieve a stolen tome that contains the secrets of Freetor magic, something the Marlenians both fear and covet. Kiera must disguise herself as a noblewoman and infiltrate the Marlenian castle before the Freetor-hating Advisor finds out her real identity, before her brother is imprisoned because of the secrets he hides, and before she falls any more in love with the prince she’s supposed to hate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">More is happening in the castle than she realizes, and Kiera is faced with a difficult choice. Will she be loyal to her people and their fight for freedom, or will she be loyal to her heart?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You look at the cover and title of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Violet Fox</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the first thing you think is: is this a superhero book? You read the synopsis and you then wonder: is this a dystopia book? Then you read the book and you realize what it is: fantasy. It is a fantasy book with unique world-building, enjoyable characters and a captivating story.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-7622f4e3-a7fe-70f8-3ad8-5ad7711cdfd1" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marlenia is separated into two types of people. Kiera Driscoll, our main character, is a part of the impoverished Freetors forced to live underground and steal food from above to survive. They are the losers of a civil war that had happened long ago, one sparked by the discovery of magic.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kiera is an icon for her people. The first time she had come above to help get food she put on an outlandish outfit as a distraction and it’s stuck ever since. She became “The Violet Fox”. This is what brings her to the attention of the council who want to send her on a mission to the aboveground castle to take back something stolen from them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The characters are strong, the personalities well defined. The romance is far from instant which I always appreciate. The plot keeps readers on our toes as there were quite a few twists I did not expect one bit. In fact this book is really twisty and very cleverly done. They’re the kind of twists that make me want to re-read the book to see if I can catch them faster rather than ones that make me unable to pick up a book ever again.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The setting of the book is a fantasy world, focusing more on political fantasy. Other fantasy books I’m reminded of is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poison Study</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Graceling</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but this one is also a bit lighter maybe more like the book I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poison</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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There is just so much to comment on here. I love the fact that her father was the advisor. I was saddened by the fact that her brother was an extremist. I hadn’t put together that Erskina was the bad guy until she was violent with Kiera.
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I found myself overwhelmed in a good way in how nothing was how I thought it was. I cried with her brother’s death. I celebrated the orb coming to live for Kiera. Reading this book was a journey.
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To expand on my issue with the ending, however. I feel like everything could have been done in one go. The stopping of the wedding and Erskina attacking, the lull where Kiera is in the dungeons felt out of sync with the rest of the book.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-7622f4e3-a7fe-bea7-785f-0e060d1bd68b"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you enjoy unique and great young adult fantasy please give this book a try. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Violet Fox</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a fantastic political adventure young adult fantasy. The next book seems to be more adventure, but I still wonder how they’re going to pick up the many pieces left over.</span></span><br />
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">STAY TUNED FOR A GUEST POST</span></span></b></span></h2>
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<a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/raise-the-silver-spear"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ctHPciMXD8Bc5yLYM9WnP7tI2WlEbisX-Q4Z2nKy02DrUFX406nk2i6FZuWqWjbigRYpKDSXz3jXPfe6nsSw55-Pq0HcA3VU7f5-u10x4DVBciL6huPFEAMq3_8EbPrjXwuR5HONbsY/s1600/20140912224313-raiseyourspear3.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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There's an Indiegogo Campaign for the Second Book, why don't you support?</h3>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About
the Author</b></span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Clare C. Marshall grew up in rural Nova Scotia with very little television and dial up internet, and yet, she turned out okay. She has a combined honours degree in journalism and psychology from the University of King’s College, and is a graduate from Humber College’s Creative Book Publishing Program. She is a full-time freelance editor, book designer, and web manager. She enjoys publishing books through her publishing imprint, Faery Ink Press. When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing the fiddle and making silly noises at cats.</span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 100%;">Author
Links:</span></b><br />
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Facebook: <a href="http://faeryinkpress.com/faeryinkpress" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_3254" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://faeryinkpress.com/faeryinkpress</a></div>
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Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/claremarshall13" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_3255" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/claremarshall13</a><span class="yiv2063023753" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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Goodreads: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5120291.Clare_C_Marshall" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411567049518_2982" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5120291.Clare_C_Marshall</a></div>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-69164906314188525432014-09-22T06:22:00.002-05:002014-09-22T22:03:56.786-05:00ARC Book Review: Queen of Someday by Sherry D. Ficklin<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Queen of Someday</span></h2>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Sherry D. Ficklin</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBvemofbhJ4I9EnLCWGL535gc8tM5u65WKGhFrCa3AlszTETFts_9lmfVNr4Fhl2pVSniJRpBWwnfcynA0_rm0q1qpKAnUOadaM2dPuA0380KboMeK83SYdOfNl9ScRK8ls_l5sZQEzJc/s1600/QueenSomeday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBvemofbhJ4I9EnLCWGL535gc8tM5u65WKGhFrCa3AlszTETFts_9lmfVNr4Fhl2pVSniJRpBWwnfcynA0_rm0q1qpKAnUOadaM2dPuA0380KboMeK83SYdOfNl9ScRK8ls_l5sZQEzJc/s1600/QueenSomeday.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">ARC Disclaimer: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">I was not paid in any way by the publishers to review this book favourably. The review is my own honest opinion (Whether or not it is agreed with).</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Clean Teen Publishing</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><b>Published Date:</b> October 7th 2014<br />
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<b>Pages: </b>262<br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Historical, Political, Young Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">ONE GIRL WILL BRING AN EMPIRE TO ITS KNEES...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Before she can become the greatest empress in history, fifteen-year-old Sophie will have to survive her social-climbing mother’s quest to put her on the throne of Russia—at any cost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Imperial Court holds dangers like nothing Sophie has ever faced before. In the heart of St. Petersburg, surviving means navigating the political, romantic, and religious demands of the bitter Empress Elizabeth and her handsome, but sadistic nephew, Peter. Determined to save her impoverished family—and herself—Sophie vows to do whatever is necessary to thrive in her new surroundings. But an attempt on her life and an unexpected attraction threatens to derail her plans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Alone in a new and dangerous world, learning who to trust and who to charm may mean the difference between becoming queen and being sent home in shame to marry her lecherous uncle. With traitors and murderers lurking around every corner, her very life hangs in the balance. Betrothed to one man but falling in love with another, Sophie will need to decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice in order to become the empress she is destined to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">In a battle for the soul of a nation, will love or destiny reign supreme?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Queen of Someday</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> starts out introducing us to Sophie, a girl who although Princess in name, has grown up living a rather non-Princess-y life out in the sticks. So not surprisingly, when given the indirect invitation to be the wife of the the Russian Empress's heir, her mother jumps at the chance to regain lost wealth and prestige. Sophie, however, is just glad to be given the opportunity to marry someone her own age rather then being shipped off to the highest bidder.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, despite having the Empress fully behind her, things are not as easy as Sophie hoped they would be. The prince likes playing game and she soon realizes that their personalities are far from compatible. On top of that she meets another who stirs her into feelings and someone is trying to kill her</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a lot for an innocent sixteen year old girl to handle.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the author notes of this book, Ficklin mentions that she conceived the series wondering how Catherine the Great went from innocent German girl to cold-hearted Empress, and I think that’s one of the shining parts of this book. I loved watching Sophie grow and change thanks to the people she met and the situations she faced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And in general I have become very attached to her as a character, which is important as she will carry the series and I want to continue reading so that I can know how she evolve next. How does she become this person from history? How will Ficklin interpret her feelings as she goes through things</span></div>
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My favourite character from the very beginning was Sergei. His quiet but strong support was vital for Sophie and so much more of what she needed than the dramatic affair with Alexander. She always read as 100% herself with Sergei, while Alexander made her act more like how she was before she came to the palace.
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I have so much respect for the way Sophie acts in general. Especially at the end. She will make sure that Peter doesn’t win and that is the most important thing, really. I know I should worry more about the heart of the people or other things, but if she beats him at his own game, I will be immensely satisfied. Peter is too spoiled for his own good.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-3dbc5e97-5a04-1a0b-16e2-25981d6cf943"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-7622f4e3-9d18-db5d-1a8d-602258e2492a"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is historical fiction, so if you love stories exploring how famous figures came to be, you will adore this book. It has easily become one of my favourites, bringing me back to my childhood when I read the Royal Diary books and </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beware, Princess Elizabeth </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by Carolyn Meyer. So if you enjoyed those books as well, I urge you to pick this up</span></span><br />
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-536073167988849072014-09-12T05:00:00.000-05:002014-09-12T05:00:11.102-05:00Blog Tour & Amazon Card Giveaway (INT): Coral & Bone by Tiffany Daune<div style="text-align: center;">
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<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />Coral & Bone</span></h2>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Tiffany Daune</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21826050-coral-bone">Goodreads</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Coral-Bone-Tiffany-Daune/dp/0993653707/ref=tmm_pap_title_0">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://xpressobooktours.com/2014/06/17/tour-sign-up-coral-bone-by-tiffany-daune/">Tour </a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>July 8th 2014</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publisher</b>: Jester Ink Press</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Genre:</b> Paranormal, Fantasy, Young Adult</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pages:</b> 290</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Halen knows the sparks igniting under her fingertips are dangerous. She has spent her entire life trying to quell the tingly feelings that make her destroy things, but now that she is back in Rockaway Beach, where she watched her father drown, the flames have become impossible to tame.Halen is trying to hold on, but when she is thrust into a mysterious new world, the underwater realm of Elosia, she unravels the secrets of her past and can't help but ignite. As she explores Elosia, she realizes her life has been a lie. And when those who have deceived her come to her for help, Halen must choose—walk away or unleash the magick that could destroy them all</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not surprisingly there is a strong YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE feeling to the beginning of the book. There was one or two chapters in particular that made me wonder if this book was going to fall into a lot of overdone cliches. Luckily however, after that initial dip, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coral and Bone</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> steered more into unique and original story telling, including some fantastic plot twists. </span></div>
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First the cliche camoflauge! Halen and Dax’s relationship seemed to be a INSTA LOVE type of relationship. She’s been drawing him and they have an instant connection and it just screams fated love that is all the rage in YA books right now. Of course, though we may suspect that he was Natalie’s ex-boyfriend, it doesn’t cross many reader’s minds to pin him as their Guardian. Especially with Tage working so hard and him being introduced as full Elosian.
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Now on to my feelings on the ending. And by the ending I mean the very end. The fact that Halen has eaten Asair’s soul accidently and now they are secretly living in the same body is just awesome. It gives us so many worries for the next book and even if the author never writes another book in the series, there’s something satisfying about wondering all the things that could happen. It’s rather horror movie cyclical like.
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About
the Author</b></span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">I write stories about magick, love and dark creatures lurking in the shadows. When I'm not lost in Edit Land you can find me reading a book from my towering TBR pile or at the movie theater nibbling licorice. I don't have a lucky number, but my favorite time is 11:11. I completely believe that the fortunes found inside cookies will come true and that you must be careful when wishing on stars. I live on an island, so if you want to visit you'll need a boat, and if you want to survive the passage, be sure to bring candy for the mermaids. </span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 100%;">Author
Links:</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6904400.Tiffany_Daune" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410435712919_11429" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6904400.Tiffany_Daune</a></div>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-24409039154198982042014-09-09T05:47:00.001-05:002014-09-22T06:23:43.567-05:00ARC Book Review: Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz & Michael Johnston<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Frozen</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Melissa de la Cruz & Michael Johnston</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4740PIjDIZd2BateugqK5Mh994tS9v2c48mADIAW41hu98BsEcrn1rnsmW5sLEKMDcqXHQIXnxrpm6Gc-_5O-Qec5A3RI2pbqqjKNE3q8vzNH_wvY6bUvNrggGLBu9tvf8UeRgege1n0/s1600/frozen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4740PIjDIZd2BateugqK5Mh994tS9v2c48mADIAW41hu98BsEcrn1rnsmW5sLEKMDcqXHQIXnxrpm6Gc-_5O-Qec5A3RI2pbqqjKNE3q8vzNH_wvY6bUvNrggGLBu9tvf8UeRgege1n0/s1600/frozen.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">ARC Disclaimer: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">I was not paid in any way by the publishers to review this book favourably. The review is my own honest opinion (Whether or not it is agreed with).</span></div>
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<b>Publisher:</b> Putnam Juvenile</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>Pages: </b>336<br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Adventure, Young Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice. Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature—freezing. But some things never change. The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out. Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called “the Blue.” They say it’s a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise. More importantly, it’s a place where Nat won’t be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.</span><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">But passage to the Blue is treacherous, if not impossible, and her only shot is to bet on a ragtag crew of mercenaries led by a cocky runner named Ryan Wesson to take her there. Danger and deceit await on every corner, even as Nat and Wes find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. But can true love survive the lies? Fiery hearts collide in this fantastic tale of the evil men do and the awesome power within us all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think if we had focused more on the environment and less on the people encountered it would have been more enjoyable.</span></div>
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The fantasy aspects of this book are so cool in theory, but end up giving the story an over-burdened feeling in practice. I think it would have done just as well without the different species and had instead just kept to the special powers.
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I also wish we had seen more of the “wailer” before the ending, but I really liked the whole scare and wonder of what it is during the book and then the bird as well.
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I kind of like that the Nat and Ryan choose not to stay with each other and instead go with their duty. I’m sure in a later book they will be reunited, but romance in YA and NA has made me want more couples not to end perfectly.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-3dbc5e97-5a04-1a0b-16e2-25981d6cf943"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ratings for this book are all over the place if you look it up. I think, however, though it’s not without it’s issues, the idea and plot are interesting and the adventure part is really enjoyable.</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-53262401818120050942014-09-07T02:47:00.000-05:002014-09-07T02:47:10.981-05:00Book Review: Poison by Bridget Zinn<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Poison</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Bridget Zinn</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJCXJRbVGjq_hEdg-cGK62Fj7IxQU04F46mzzTmmkSWI4XE5ubmJxZ6-RK0cGxdzipYbTVJfoGWCvEPeZyAura4u46T6HFXA3JlkdN1O3SeIZG1f4No1x1sJwukIQc1AdRPybahpy26w0/s1600/poison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJCXJRbVGjq_hEdg-cGK62Fj7IxQU04F46mzzTmmkSWI4XE5ubmJxZ6-RK0cGxdzipYbTVJfoGWCvEPeZyAura4u46T6HFXA3JlkdN1O3SeIZG1f4No1x1sJwukIQc1AdRPybahpy26w0/s1600/poison.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Published Date: </b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 12th 2013</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publisher:</b> Disney Hyperion</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pages:</b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 288</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Fantasy, Adventure, Young Adult</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she’s the only one who can save it. Faced with no other choice, Kyra decides to do what she does best: poison the kingdom’s future ruler, who also happens to be her former best friend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">But, for the first time ever, her poisoned dart . . . misses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Now a fugitive instead of a hero, Kyra is caught in a game of hide-and-seek with the king’s army and her potioner ex-boyfriend, Hal. At least she’s not alone. She’s armed with her vital potions, a too-cute pig, and Fred, the charming adventurer she can’t stop thinking about. Kyra is determined to get herself a second chance (at murder), but will she be able to find and defeat the princess before Hal and the army find her?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Kyra is not your typical murderer, and she’s certainly no damsel-in-distress—she’s the lovable and quick-witted hero of this romantic novel that has all the right ingredients to make teen girls swoon.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I picked up </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poison</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> due the an interesting synopsis paired up with a gorgeous cover. I would be lying if I hadn’t thought of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poison Study </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and hoped that this book would be written in a similar style.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Luckily, reality didn’t hit too far from my expectations. Things were a little lighter, a little simpler, but the style of the writing the kind I enjoy reading the most. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book opens up with Kyra sneaking around and avoiding old friends and guards, because she had tried to kill the princess with her potions and poisons. She failed the first time and now everyone is after her, but she is determined to try again… despite the fact that the princess is her best friend.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The great strength of this book is how our main character doesn’t tell us, the reader, anything. For example the book starts off going on about how she needs to kill the princess and after we’re comfortable with that it throws us for a loop with the best friend thing. It then teases us with only half an explanation of why and we spend most of the book wanting to throttle Kyra, and have her think clearly about it all so we can understand what's going on and her motives.</span></div>
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So many pieces of information slowly dripped to us through the course of the book and even the ones that didn’t sneak up on me, I didn’t start to piece together until right before the reveal. Simple touches made this work out perfectly. Things like the relationship between Kyra and her mother being what it is so that she naturally refers to her as “Duchess” instead. The way that the fiance prince is described in a way that fits Fred, so that when he is revealed, as surprising as it is, it also doesn’t feel forced or out of the blue.
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I like books that do something just a little bit differently and though it doesn’t always pay off to experiment, in this case I believe it did.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-3dbc5e97-4f12-8b10-f2c7-758e79307fce"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys some nice YA Fantasy with charming characters. I also recommend this to anyone who enjoys it when an author carefully fits together the reveal of a mystery like a puzzle.</span></span></div>
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<span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This book was published post-mortem as the author died of cancer in 2011. There won't be any more books by her and that is such a tragedy. She would have easily become a favourite author of mine. I hope she realized how great this book was.</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4.5 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-45498223866075735952014-08-24T02:52:00.001-05:002014-08-24T02:52:28.187-05:00ARC Book Review: Fueds by Avery Hastings<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Fueds</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Avery Hastings</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8MkCZXl5KIN_NTkCAQwkO-NnO8JjbNIox8tdiHD64qI7wmdvTS9LT5AzKm4t0uqrwsi04C_BPdh4tCwYGEazAldCLsoiZMWwOlTrRTS9BLDUiZovZVh-EkZdbNWFd3kQvILgqzDuKODw/s1600/Fueds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8MkCZXl5KIN_NTkCAQwkO-NnO8JjbNIox8tdiHD64qI7wmdvTS9LT5AzKm4t0uqrwsi04C_BPdh4tCwYGEazAldCLsoiZMWwOlTrRTS9BLDUiZovZVh-EkZdbNWFd3kQvILgqzDuKODw/s1600/Fueds.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">ARC Disclaimer: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">I was not paid in any way by the publishers to review this book favourably. The review is my own honest opinion (Whether or not it is agreed with).</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
<b>Publisher:</b> St. Martin's Griffin</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>Pages: </b>272<br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Dystopia, Romance, Young Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Dress-up turns deadly. . .</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">For Davis Morrow, perfection is a daily reality. Like all Priors, Davis has spent her whole life primed to be smarter, stronger, and more graceful than the lowly Imperfects, or “Imps.” A fiercely ambitious ballerina, Davis is only a few weeks away from qualifying for the Olympiads and finally living up to her mother’s legacy when she meets Cole, a mysterious boy who leaves her with more questions each time he disappears.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Davis has no idea that Cole has his own agenda, or that he’s a rising star in the FEUDS, an underground fighting ring where Priors gamble on Imps. Cole has every reason to hate Davis—her father’s campaign hinges on the total segregation of the Imps and Priors—but despite his best efforts, Cole finds himself as drawn to Davis as she is to him.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Then Narxis, a deadly virus, takes its hold--and Davis’s friends start dying. When the Priors refuse to acknowledge the epidemic, Davis has no one to turn to but Cole. Falling in love was never part of their plan, but their love may be the only thing that can save her world...in Avery Hastings's </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Feuds</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There
are two types of people living in the futuristic city of Columbus.
There are the Priors and there are the Imps. Priors are genetically enhanced, while Imps are "Imperfect" nothing enhanced about
them. It doesn't take much to guess which group is in political power
and how the group in power treats the other.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As
a romance novel, you can see where this is probably going. Davis, our
main female character is a Prior and Cole, the male half, is an Imp.
This is a plot that has been done since the dawn of storytelling. It
could have easily gone to many cliché places and a couple of times it
did, but what saves this book is the amount of layering in the world
building and the mysterious disease that haunts the pages.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hastings
held my attention with that mystery. It had me biting my nails as I
saw the inevitable coming along. I found myself wondering which
characters in power knew and which didn't. The world also, though a play on a common theme, is set up nicely and I feel
like there is more to explore about it.</span></div>
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isn't anything extra-ordinary about the characters themselves for me,
but they weren't lacking either. The pacing felt slow from
time-to-time, but it continued to keep my attention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The
thing the book has going for it the most, however, is that it is
strong enough to carry as a series (and from the cliffhanger ended it
most certainly will at least have a sequel). Extra layers were added
at the end and the world has enough mysteries while still feeling
like the exact story of the first book is at a stopping point.</span></div>
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I adore the fact that Davis is apparently only half Prior and this whole mystery of her mother is revealed. This was both surprising and natural in the story. We know Davis has the sickness the moment that she screws up her dance performance (and let me say the fact that Priors insist they're all right to end was terrifying to read in Davis, because as readers <i>we</i> know and we want her to tell people and get help before she dies), but she seemed to be fine for so long after first showing symptoms, so to figure out "why" is next.
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It's also a fantastic plot twist in the characterization of her father and mother. I want to know that story now. I want to know what happened, if he knew, what he feels like, if his campaign has anything to do with her, it's all bouncing around my head.
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The other thing was that I almost swallowed my heart when Cole decided to fake his death. It reminded me way too much of Romeo and Juliet and I became truly afraid that maybe the book wouldn't have a sequel, that it was going to be a retelling of Romeo and Juliet that ends the traditional way, with both of their deaths because one mistook a fake death for a real one.
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I'll definitely be picking up the next book to find out what happens.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I
recommend this to people who love star-crossed lovers stories. I
doubly recommend it if you also like Dystopias and stories about
people versus government corruption. It was a satisfying Young Adult
read.</span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-60764962859605679352014-08-13T08:17:00.003-05:002014-08-13T08:17:54.222-05:00Book Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Cruel Beauty</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Rosamund Hodge</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Published Date: </b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">January 28th 2014</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publisher:</b> Balzer + Bray</span>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pages:</b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 342</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Fairy tale, Mythology, Fantasy-esqe, Romance, Young Adult</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.<br /><br />Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.<br /><br />With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.<br /><br />But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.<br /><br />As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I love the setting and world building of this book. Hodge is absolutely brilliant. It’s part fantasy, part historical fiction, part mythological retelling and part fairytale retelling. In the story, Arcadia is an island off of Greece, sharing in their mythology after the mainland had come to influence and conquer, yet also keeping their own hedge gods. It was a prosperous place until something, no one knows exactly what, happened at the castle, the sky went from blue to parchment, demons came to torture the minds of those the caught and the Gentle Lord came to bargain and rule.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Nyx is around because of one of those bargains, and her fate is sealed because of it as well. She must go off to the castle and marry the Gentle Lord, the one in charge of the demons. She is sent so that her sister can live happily and coddled and so that she can attempt to bring back the blue skies by defeating the house or the Gentle Lord himself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, it is certainly one of the best and is my favourite. I like it for many of the same reasons why I like The Lunar Chronicles, it’s not a straightforward retelling and instead is very imaginative and clever.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The fairy tale and amazing world aside, however, it’s our main characters, Nyx and Ignifex, the Gentle Lord, who are really the stars of the show. There is a realness and complexity to these characters. They are far from perfect, they are even downright nasty sometimes, but they are learning to accept that in themselves and in each other. They were a joy to read in their growth as separate characters and as a couple.</span><br />
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I adore the idea that the entirety of Arcadia is inside the room, inside the mansion and that they all are in Pandora’s Box. In general the way all of the mythology and hedge god-ness was incorporated in the story was natural and intriguing. We are left hundreds of clues and themes dealing with the idea of Pandora’s Box and the truth.
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Such as Nyx being too curious and determined to open the box and Ignifex trying so hard not to learn any more truth since he fears it.
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I also really enjoyed the way that Nyx and her sister changed when reality was distorted. The way Nyx was a little less edgy and her sister was more clever and even slightly darker. Things felt more balanced.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-db25eaf0-cf82-d4e5-5cc3-b442fdd40821" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you like Beauty and the Beast, read this book, but even if you’re not into fairytales, if you enjoy fantasy mixed with mythology, or just great characters and a great couple, I highly recommend this book. It’s world is amazing and unique and it’s characters layered and real.</span>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4.5 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-81972275155204254812014-08-09T03:01:00.002-05:002014-08-09T03:01:35.620-05:00Book Review: Taken by David Massey<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Taken</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">David Massey</span></h2>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">ARC Disclaimer: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">I was not paid in any way by the publishers to review this book favourably. The review is my own honest opinion (Whether or not it is agreed with).</span></div>
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<b>Publisher:</b> Chicken House</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Published Date: </b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 6th 2014</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Adventure, Suspense</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">A young crew of five are toughing it out together, sailing around the world on a gruelling charity challenge. They are used to being pushed to the limit, but nothing could have prepared them for being kidnapped.<br /><br />When they are taken hostage by a notorious warlord and his band of child soldiers, the trip of a lifetime turns into a one-way journey into the heart of the African jungle.<br /><br />When hope is all you have, survival is all you can fight for...</span></div>
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<i>Taken</i> is most certainly a plot driven book. A group of young ex-soldiers whose service was cut short by debilitating injuries decide to show their new disabilities do not hinder them by taking a sailing trip around the world for charity. Rio, our main character, is hired as support crew as she is a sailing champion and they are required to have a certain number of able bodied members aboard or no sponsors.<br />
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As that stands there is of course a little tension as Rio is an outsider to this close knit group. Of course, when a group of child soldiers led by a terrorist attacks their ship and takes them captive every thing soon changes.<br />
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Taken is a pretty unique book among New Adult. I feel as if most NA and YA books are heavily character (or romance) driven as opposed to plot. Of course, due to the focus the main group of characters feels underdeveloped compared to what I am used to. Many of them are a bit one note, which didn't ring well with me. The most developed and layered character however, is the Empty Child. She soon becomes the mystery that I am most interested in and her story does not disappoint.<br />
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Along those lines for much of the book I was confused as to the age of our main characters. Rio seems to be sixteen or seventeen, but the others were all in military and trained. I don't know the age for military service in Great Britain and the book didn’t specifically say what their ages were. This may not bother most people, but I spent half the book wondering about it.<br />
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On the plus side, the environment and situations in this book is very well done. A couple of scenes had my heart dropping. Others filled me with grisly anticipation. <br />
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There also was an obvious amount of research done which I appreciated as a reader. I loved the inclusion of the runner blades for Ash as those are one of the cooler innovations I’ve come across. And all of their issues were different as was how they dealt with them. On top of that we have the horrifying description of child soldiers, fear and brainwashing and the wild animals the group comes across.</div>
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The scenes that hit me the most are definitely the ones with the hippo and the gorilla. Hippos are incredibly dangerous creatures so when one appeared I was loving the acknowledgement of this fact, but then when I realized the reason the hippo was attacking was because of the baby I died a little bit on the inside.
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The gorilla as well, the way they hunted it down just to prove how amazing they were was sickening, though if they hadn’t our characters wouldn’t have been able to be found.
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I loved the empty child’s revelation as well. I kind of guessed some parts, like that she was the daughter, but I didn’t realize that she was supposed to be Kony’s bride as well or the rest of her story. I loved her finding Ash and Rio at the end. I hope she goes with them to travel.
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I think if you enjoy survival and adventure stories you will enjoy Taken. If you find plot more important to you than character development than I also recommend this book to you.</span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3.5 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-49884390212907799612014-08-09T01:58:00.002-05:002014-08-09T01:58:31.993-05:00Update: I'm back~!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have officially climbed Mount Fuji as of now and can get back to my regularly scheduled book reviewing updates!</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If anyone's wondering about the climb, I did it all in one go with a friend. We started the hike at ~8:15 and ended at 7:15, so all together it took around 11 hours. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the coolest moments of my life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I already want to do it again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm also done moving (though I am living a no-fridge life at the moment). And have a temporary internet set up, so my updating schedule should return to normal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-10780361506136476072014-08-07T05:00:00.000-05:002014-08-07T05:00:06.534-05:00Blog Tour & Giveaway(INT): Fractured by Erin Hayes<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />Fractured</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Erin Hayes</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5335865.Erin_Hayes">Goodreads</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Erin-Hayes/e/B009W8D29W/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1400601917&sr=8-1">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://xpressobooktours.com/2014/05/20/tour-sign-up-fractured-by-erin-hayes/">Tour </a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>July 8th 2014</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Genre:</b> Horror, Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Blinded by a mysterious seizure when she was three years old, Bash Martin has managed to carve out a normal life for herself as an adult. Yet she still yearns for a deeper connection with her twin sister Lily, who has always been jealous of the attention their parents bestowed upon Bash due to her disability. <br /><br />A dream vacation seems like the perfect chance to heal their relationship, but Bash soon realizes there is something terribly wrong with Lily and that her sister is hiding a dark secret. And when a supernatural fire engulfs their hotel and corpses come back to life, the sisters are plunged into a nightmarish world that threatens not only their lives, but their very souls.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The best way I can describe <i>Fractured</i>
by Erin Hayes is as a Horror Movie in print. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">We follow several characters,
focusing in on a pair of twins and the man that both of them love. Of course,
something has been "haunting" the twins for a while and that
something is absolutely terrifying and dangerous.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The twins are set up well as
characters. They have two very distinct personalities and we can see how they
both got to that point. I found myself easily being able to compare them to
people I knew in real life.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The darkness of the book is set up
well as well. Things are littered throughout the beginning that become
important later. We are given enough things, that if we're paying close enough
attention, we can guess and figure things out.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The fact that this is pretty much a
Horror Movie in print is a double edged sword. On one hand everything is very
visual in the book. I can see everything playing out in my mind perfectly. I
can even imagine up the music playing in the background at certain moments and
the fear in the characters voices. The imagery is very, very scary.<br />
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On the other hand it would have come across much scarier as a movie due to the
fact that in a book you can't just introduce characters for a second and expect
them to make impacts on us. <i>Fractured</i> has three sets of characters. The
three main ones, the secondary characters (their group of friends) and the
background characters. I feel like if this last group had been set up far in
advanced, things later would have had a greater impact on us readers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That aside, however, I greatly
enjoyed the mythology and main characters that the book did present.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></div>
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Just to reiterate what I mentioned above. All the deaths that happened quickly weren't that scary. Even what happened to the secondary characters only bordered on it. While when it came down to our main characters, I was gripping the book, terrified. As much as I loved the set up for the main characters, if we had just met many of the other characters, even in passing and got a feel for their personalities even just a little bit, the book would have raised a notch. I pretty much ignored all the background characters since they were all introduced and named too quickly to keep track who was who.
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I loved the layers to Seth that were revealed. I also loved the imagery of the final scene (Hayes really is masterful when it comes to that). Though I do wish that Lily could have been given a longer time to dish out revenge on the demon. It all happened really fast.
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The way it ended was slightly too convenient and easy, but on the other hand I adore the idea of the two of them merging into one to escape the claws of the demon. I also love how you could see both of their personalities in the epilogue-like scene where they meet Seth again.
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">If you like Horror Movies, you will
like <i>Fractured</i>. It's not quite at Stephen King level, but the imagery is
top-notch and it is quite scary. </span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">||*|| Giveaway ||*||</span></span></b></span></h2>
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<a class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d0425123490/" id="rc-d0425123490" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About
the Author</b></span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Sci-fi junkie, video game nerd, and wannabe manga artist, Erin Hayes writes a lot of things. Sometimes she writes books, like the fantasy mystery Death is but a Dream and the sci-fi middle grade book Jacob Smith is Incredibly Average.<br /><br />You can reach her at tiptoegirl87@gmail.com and she’ll be happy to chat. Especially if you want to debate Star Wars.</span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 100%;">Author
Links:</span></b><br />
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<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1405417570422_2589" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">
<a href="http://www.erinhayesbooks.com/">http://www.erinhayesbooks.com/</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5335865.Erin_Hayes">https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5335865.Erin_Hayes</a><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/erinhayesbooks">https://www.facebook.com/erinhayesbooks</a><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/erinhayes5399">https://twitter.com/erinhayes5399</a></div>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-92089587948100111602014-08-06T05:00:00.000-05:002014-08-06T05:00:08.651-05:00Blog Tour & Giveaway(INT): The Lost Kingdom by Stephanie Beerden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />The Lost Kingdom (The Elements #1)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Stephanie Beerden</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20873418-the-lost-kingdom">Goodreads</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JZQGSDI/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=httpwwwgoodco-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00JZQGSDI&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://www.itchingforbooks.com/2014/05/blog-tour-sign-upthe-lost-kingdom-by.html">Tour </a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>April 28th 2014</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Genre:</b> Fantasy</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">A Prophecy made long ago, announced the arrival of the new Ladies of Elements.<br /><br />And now almost a millennia later, it finally came true …<br /><br />All her life Arima thought she knew who and what she was. That is until the day of her sixteenth birthday came and her world is turned upside down, when she’s told she’s not a White Witch but Lady Spirit. And that she is the one that has been foretold, will unite the Five Ladies of Elements once again and save Ilendia and the Other Lands from Ahriman, the Demon King.<br /><br />At first Arima refuses to accept her new fate, but when Shanums come and destroy her village and kill her loved ones, she has no choice but to flee and fall right into the destiny she never wanted.<br /><br />As she grudgingly starts her journey into the unknown, she is accompanied by her unicorn familiar Sirrim, Blythe, a Vampire with a dark past and Myrddin, a mysterious Ljosalfar.<br /><br />And the longer her journey lasts, the more Arima begins to realise that she can’t escape her own destiny and she must learn to control her powers and learn to be a Lady for the sake of the Sisters she doesn’t know and the people of Ilendia and the Other Lands.<br /><br />However, things get more complicated when Arima comes into the possession of a key. Her instincts compel her to go towards danger when she discovers that the key she holds, can unlock the legendary kingdom of Eléssima, the home of the Ladies of Elements.<br /><br />She will have to make the choice to follow her instincts …<br /><br />…or stay on the path that has been laid out for her.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">DREAM CAST</span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Lost Kingdom</span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> has so many characters that are only around for a short time, so I tried to focus on the characters that are a constant throughout the book, sans Ahriman (only because I keep imagining him as a living suit of armor for some reason... no idea why).</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">ARIMA - DAKOTA FANNING</span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">While reading the book, I kept thinking of the Fanning sisters when I read Arima, personality-wise, Dakota fits better, however. Of course the last film I saw with Fanning was a while ago and she played a young girl with attitude and rebelliousness which I feel fits Arima well. Also, I feel like Arima's eyes are an interesting part of her looks, so Fanning's huge and gorgeous eyes would be a great way to highlight that feature.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>BLYTHE - IAIN GLEN</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">As for Blythe, in my brain I both as both rugged in a "I've been through a lot" kind of way and dashing. I also wanted to pick someone who looking exasperated constantly would sit well on.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>BRYEIA - EMMA THOMPSON</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I had a hard time with Bryeia. I didn't want to find a stereotypical older woman actress. She is introduced to us as being pretty crotchety and then we are shown the other side with Arima. Thompson's pretty versatile in that way.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Also she always looks so fantastic aged up.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I'm not 100% on this though, as I said I had a hard time, but since she's important, I wanted to cast her.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGIROI1S6tdZSsUfUo9JMDjq9jK1c2DIg1DJziv590OQkMwQ3N5EQkMC0C-7Hz-gIu1vWmpnKqFRUWfWM6vAfx39nKQ4mxMidahgUYR6xGzIDfxZJCZjjjYvZsG8wP4iTbnqNdvPEBDyc/s1600/Dark-Shadows-eva-green-29787782-604-340.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGIROI1S6tdZSsUfUo9JMDjq9jK1c2DIg1DJziv590OQkMwQ3N5EQkMC0C-7Hz-gIu1vWmpnKqFRUWfWM6vAfx39nKQ4mxMidahgUYR6xGzIDfxZJCZjjjYvZsG8wP4iTbnqNdvPEBDyc/s1600/Dark-Shadows-eva-green-29787782-604-340.jpg" height="112" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">CRIMSON - EVA GREEN</span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Crimson was first character that I casted almost immediately while reading. For some reason I kept seeing her as Eva Green in Dark Shadows (except with red hair) and that terrifying smile end up sticking in my head every time she popped into the story.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">ECHANTRE - MICHELLE PFEIFFER</span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Beautiful, Enchanting and fantastic at going from sweet to vengeful and cruel at the turn of a dime</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span></span><br />
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">||*|| Giveaway & Excerpt ||*||</span></span></b></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Shortly before
midnight Bryeia and Gideon called out to her and told her they would be going
back home because they had something very important to tell her. The walk to
Arima and Bryeia’s house was quiet and tense. It made Arima feel uneasy. Even
Rowan was silent and wouldn’t even look at her. After a while, they arrived at
the house. The house itself was made out of light brown wood and had a wooden
roof with a layer of straw beneath it to insulate it during the winter months.
The windows were a bit dirty and the door was worn, but it was home. Bryeia let
everybody into the house before shutting the door securely behind her. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They entered the
living room; it was cosy with a rectangular table and two chairs. A coloured
carpet decorated the floor for a small coffee table, and a rocking chair stood
near the window close to the broad window-sill, which had a few small pillows
on it because it was Arima’s favourite spot to sit. There were several cabinets
and closets against the wall; one of them was a book-case, which held several
books and parchment paper, and the other was a long cabinet with closed doors.
Arima immediately went to her favourite spot on the window-sill and looked at
the other three people in the room, confused as to what was going on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Why did we leave so
early, Nana?” Arima asked, feeling a bit disappointed. Bryeia and Gideon looked
at each other while Rowan pushed himself against a wall and kept his gaze away
from hers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bryeia hesitantly
stepped forward and said, “Arima, there is something I must tell you. Something
I am not sure will be easy to accept, but you must know that it is the truth.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“What is, Nana?” Arima
asked, confused. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bryeia sighed and
looked at Gideon , who nodded encouragingly. “Arima, you weren’t abandoned on
my doorstep as a baby,” Bryeia started. “I found you in the forest sixteen
years ago on the first night of spring, like today … when you fell from the
heavens like a falling star.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“What?” Arima said,
looking at Bryeia with wide, unbelieving eyes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Arima, you are not a
White Witch. I made you that way with a spell I cast on you when you were a
baby, to protect you from Ahriman. But I cannot protect you any longer. At
midnight tonight, the spell will break, and Ahriman will be able to find you,”
Bryeia said. She took a deep breath, while taking Arima’s hands in her own and
looked at the hurt and disbelief in the girl’s light-green eyes . </span><span lang="NL-BE" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Arima
… you … you are Lady Spirit.”</span><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About
the Author</b></span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Stephanie Beerden was born on Friday the 13th (no joke, she really was) in a small city called Genk in Belgium. She has always been fascinated with the occult, magic and books. Her childhood and teen years were filled with reading lots and lots of books and imagining what life would be like as a vampire. Until one day she decided that she wanted to try her hand at writing her own books and that was the beginning of her writing adventure.</span></blockquote>
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Links:</span></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.stephaniebeerden.com/">www.stephaniebeerden.com</a> <br />
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-53656558894032502482014-08-02T21:59:00.002-05:002014-08-02T21:59:29.225-05:00Update: Mt. Fuji Hiatus for a few days and then back to Normal<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, maybe my full hiatus isn't going to be truly long enough to garner anyone's attention, but it's so I can go climb Mt. Fuji and I'm so excited about that I have to share it EVERYWHERE.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other new however, I also have borrowed the internet (mobile internet for the win) from a friend until I'm able to get some installed in my new place (or buy a mobile internet for my own, haven't decided yet, need to price quote it). This means that as soon as I get back from Fuji (on Thursday), I will be 100% back to my normal posting schedule.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So excited~~!</span>Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-28511487062973813622014-08-01T03:29:00.003-05:002014-08-01T03:29:46.688-05:00Feature & Follow: Closest City<h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; line-height: 26px;">Question of the Week: What is the biggest city you live near (or interesting landmark)? Show us a postcard picture.</span></div>
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Since I'm on half-hiatus, I wasn't going to be participating in any weekly posts until I get my normal computer up and running, but how can I resist this week's theme?<br />
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The biggest city I live near is the one that I'm officially in... <b>Osaka, Japan</b>.<br />
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Yep, I live in good old Osaka, one of the most colorful cities in Japan, where the people challenge Japanese stereotypes an all the greatest comedians hail and greatest food hails from.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhujuHmCdJgGCr-0AhpbjbgSvzkdb7uW9g9i9lzqUA0eKUGRmBLCoZdj7aKqvT5mc6uTq9234d5BLCxEzIfjWlT8IB4yiRPsw89s_ATaStcODqCQmEtx2SLN-J-7vO2ZXuFb_QE6ehbmIg/s1600/osaka02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhujuHmCdJgGCr-0AhpbjbgSvzkdb7uW9g9i9lzqUA0eKUGRmBLCoZdj7aKqvT5mc6uTq9234d5BLCxEzIfjWlT8IB4yiRPsw89s_ATaStcODqCQmEtx2SLN-J-7vO2ZXuFb_QE6ehbmIg/s1600/osaka02.jpg" height="176" width="400" /></a></div>
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We got Osaka Castle Park, which is a huge park in the middle of the city (and of course home to Osaka Castle).</div>
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And we have one of the bigger shopping/touristy areas, the street Dotonbori (in Namba/Shinsaibashi area).
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-73534170337955397102014-07-28T02:32:00.001-05:002014-07-28T02:32:24.516-05:00Book Review: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas<style type="text/css">
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<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)</span></h2>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Sarah J. Maas</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiPenpdSFlBCiq1ez5SRqbwUnC0CVcE7-qrHLhSlS27D0Gz_3wvIeLqp-XyGhcVZZXqUDK437sfr8vLd29cvZ4nvxVcRytAUm6vnJ919lJuouOB9g0GaalHmaBqw8UIK515eYKzGXHWE/s1600/CrownMidnight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiPenpdSFlBCiq1ez5SRqbwUnC0CVcE7-qrHLhSlS27D0Gz_3wvIeLqp-XyGhcVZZXqUDK437sfr8vLd29cvZ4nvxVcRytAUm6vnJ919lJuouOB9g0GaalHmaBqw8UIK515eYKzGXHWE/s1600/CrownMidnight.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Review of <a href="http://journeythroughpages.blogspot.com/2012/07/arc-book-review-throne-of-glass-by.html">Throne of Glass</a></b><br />
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Published Date: </b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">August 27th 2013</span><br />
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Publisher:</b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Bloomsbury Childrens</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<b>Pages: </b>420<br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Fantasy, Young Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie...and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.</span></div>
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Nehemia! I can’t believe it. I am really upset she died. It was just when I started hoping she and Dorian might be able to fall for each other with her helping him with his magic. I worry so much for the prince. He’s so important in fixing what his father has destroyed, but if his father disinheirits him or kills him… then there is only Hollin… We have yet to officially meet this character, but everything we hear is enough for us to know he would be more similar to his father as a ruler.
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Chaol and Celaena did fall into a bit of over-dramatics for me at the end, but as I mentioned above, because of the way things slowly happened in the first book it felt like it had a stronger foundation for being so intense. It’s very different than the week long romance that is true love and instead happened slowly with them starting out as friends.
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-5876957941586026392014-07-24T08:06:00.000-05:002014-07-24T08:06:14.823-05:00Book Review: The Possession by J.D. Spikes<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">The Possession (Secret Journals #1)</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">J.D. Spikes</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO2JyI61NMDPKwEQfiX2q-SdkZPvXWLVCvRr41WeVp1nJPvZ7inc5TOU5IUB6MH7ez7taao9s2heU78AXmCbuRhfiGUjCk2JiF_932NyB3lPSYcr7j0j432AXSIfhE9YgIF6Ky0s4nuq4/s1600/thepossession.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO2JyI61NMDPKwEQfiX2q-SdkZPvXWLVCvRr41WeVp1nJPvZ7inc5TOU5IUB6MH7ez7taao9s2heU78AXmCbuRhfiGUjCk2JiF_932NyB3lPSYcr7j0j432AXSIfhE9YgIF6Ky0s4nuq4/s1600/thepossession.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">ARC Disclaimer: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">I was not paid in any way by the publishers to review this book favourably. The review is my own honest opinion (Whether or not it is agreed with).</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Lachesis Publishing</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>Pages: </b>212<br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Paranormal, Romance, Horro, Young Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Daphne Wentworth is almost seventeen, definitely a red head, and most likely the tallest girl in her class, which is awkward to say the least when it comes to dating boys in her school. But she doesn’t have to worry about school for the next two months since she’s spending the summer at her aunt Dwill’s lighthouse in Maine. What she does have to worry about is seeing ghosts in the lighthouse cemetery, having strange dreams, and hearing the voices of star-crossed lovers who lived two-hundred years ago. And then there’s a local boy named Zach Philbrook who works for her aunt. He’s too gorgeous for his own good. He’s also very tall, with midnight black hair, and the most beautiful indigo blue eyes Daphne has ever seen. Zach is treated like an outcast by the local teens in town. He’s Micmac and therefore not “one of the gang”. Daphne can’t help being drawn to his strength, especially considering that he’s had to live his entire life dealing with ignorance. But the local teens aren’t the only trouble-makers in town. As Zach and Daphne get closer, the lighthouse ghost lovers begin haunting them. When Daphne and Zach try to figure out how to fight them, the spirits get bolder and more dangerous. So how do you protect yourself from something that isn’t really there?</span></div>
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<i>The Possession</i> is a book about curses, ghosts and prejudices. It is set in a small town and lighthouse where the main character, Daphne is helping her aunt out. She meets the Native American, Zach while helping to clean the lighthouse’s graveyard and then everything starts to go crazy.</div>
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My main issue with The Possession is the suddenness of the romance. There is absolutely no build-up or courting it is just BAM they meet for the first time (despite her having visited this area for years) BAM they are in love and act as if they are girlfriend and boyfriend. Excepting that, they did have a rather good portrayal of relationship that is going from new to serious, so if Spikes hadn’t just skipped to there it would have been done quite well.</div>
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Lack of build-up was also at fault with the mystery as well. It felt like we went straight from nothing to everything. I did enjoy the mystery, however. I loved reading about the ghostly couple and the troubles they went through trying to have a bi-racial bi-cultural relationship in that time period. I also enjoyed how the “curse” caused this relationship to repeat itself generation after generation.</div>
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I also loved the setting of the old lighthouse. It was something different and highly interesting.</div>
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I have to mention the ridiculousness near the end of this book. All the kids who had been very discriminatory towards Zach pretty much since the moment he arrived in the town, added with how predatory and rude they had been to Daphne. There is no way I could ever believe that they would have a complete change of heart and suddenly just want to help. Life doesn’t work that way. Not so suddenly and it made for cringe-worthy reading, I’m sorry to say. It knocked me completely out of the book. It also throws out the theme of racial issues that can happen, writing it off as something that solves itself in an instant.
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Maybe, with the one main girl from town it could be somewhat believable, we deal with her for much of end bit and her coming to terms with the ghost I can understand, but those kids who went straight from hard core bullying and sexual advances to “I WILL HELP YOU!”, not so much.
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I thing I did enjoy was how our main couple dealt with the issue of sex. It felt very real. It’s not always a clear-cut easy decision especially when you’re younger and you’re getting advice from all sorts of places. I like how they had both brought condoms, showing that they kind of wanted to, but how in the end that indecision made Daphne decide she just wasn’t ready quite yet. I really do think that was an interesting touch.
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Do you like ghostly mysteries? Do you like lighthouses? Do you like fated romances at are bi-racial, bi-culture? Then it doesn't hurt to pick up this book and give it a try</span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-57771937693460692492014-07-22T05:41:00.001-05:002014-07-22T05:41:22.214-05:00Update: Moving Apartments~!So, posting reviews has taken a little bit of a hit for me right now, but there is a very important reason...<br />
<br />
I'M MOVING APARTMENTS! YAY!<br />
<br />
I have been working hard to secure a new apartment for the last couple of months and now it is officially mine and I have a couple of weeks to move all of my stuff.<br />
<br />
Needless to say, I'm a bit busy.<br />
<br />
There is also one other thing. My new place... it won't have internet until at least August 14th (unless I borrow money from someone to get it set up). So... even though I will be reading and writing reviews, I may not be able to post them up for a while.<br />
<br />
I may schedule up a few while I still have internet (and a couple of blog tours as well), but the speed will obviously go down for a couple of weeks.<br />
<br />
So... consider me on a sort of semi-hiatus.<br />
<br />
And wish me luck with OPERATION LIVE WITHOUT TRUE INTERNET (because phones don't count).Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-25132540182068945772014-07-19T23:01:00.000-05:002014-07-19T23:01:05.888-05:00Book Review: Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Princess of the Midnight Ball (Princess #1)</span></h2>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Jessica Day George</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzh-hrcIIgSE9prw8RIysKb4JzF6WZgpRl9f2eKINyrytzxm3OyymzOXuRMWLHEp6CviL3J3NMDJJREz4zH2ecnhteROufiEZNWsm-_46jrDGOIGCwy5KxqiKkTN-YITnjT9y6sF-RnM/s1600/midnightball.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzh-hrcIIgSE9prw8RIysKb4JzF6WZgpRl9f2eKINyrytzxm3OyymzOXuRMWLHEp6CviL3J3NMDJJREz4zH2ecnhteROufiEZNWsm-_46jrDGOIGCwy5KxqiKkTN-YITnjT9y6sF-RnM/s1600/midnightball.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Publication Date: </span></b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">January 20th 2009</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Bloomsbury USA Childrens</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>Pages: </b>280<br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Fairytale, Young Adult</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;"><i>A tale of twelve princesses doomed to dance until dawn…</i> </b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance at the midnight balls. All they need is one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all—true love—to conquer their foes in the dark halls below. But malevolent forces are working against them above ground as well, and as cruel as the King Under Stone has seemed, his wrath is mere irritation compared to the evil that awaits Galen and Rose in the brighter world above. </span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Captivating from start to finish, Jessica Day George’s take on the Grimms’ tale </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">The Twelve Dancing Princesses </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">demonstrates yet again her mastery at spinning something entirely fresh out of a story you thought you knew.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">If
anyone keeps up and reads many of my reviews than you know that there
are a few things I really appreciate in a book. I enjoy stories that
are written simply and non-dramatically. In other words, I tend to
find other things more exciting in a book (such as the adventure).
This is possibly why I enjoy most fantasy retellings so much, as they
have all ended up similar tones of storytelling. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Princess
of the Midnight Ball</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
benefits from this as well. The romance happens, but they don't dwell
on it. There is a terrible thing happening to the girls, but they try
their hardest to just weather through it instead of going 'woe is me'
in the inner voices. It's very refreshing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This
book is a retelling of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses", a
very popular fairytale to retell since it has many elements that can
be dealt with in an interesting way. Unlike many of the retellings,
however, a little more than half the book is told from the point of
view of our hero. On top of that, most of the parts from Rose (our
eldest sister's) perspective is told in a limited way, keeping our
knowledge of everything at a similar level to Galen (our hero).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Speaking
of Galen, he is a wonderfully faceted hero. His personality is so
refreshing among all of the brooding heroes in young adult fiction.
And I can't resist a man who knits and is proud of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Our
princesses are well established as well. It is </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>hard</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
to get twelve sisters to stick in your mind. George managed to get
half of them established enough that I knew who they were and what
their personalities were like off-hand.</span></span></div>
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I really enjoyed the final scenes of dealing with the bishop, getting caught by the King Under the Stone and the escape. It's something I would love to see brought to life. I also adored how important knitting became.
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Rose and Galen's romance is also really quite nice. It develops naturally and the two are adorable around each other.
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There is also the fact that there are still sons left there, and what will happen if they find another door up? Will they go get revenge on the girls and Galen?
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As
this has become a basic book in the libraries of those who love
fairytale retellings, I'm sure many of you have read this book. If
you are a fairytale fan and you haven't yet, however, I strongly urge
you to. It's cute and full of adventure.</span></div>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-53588217036019212362014-07-18T05:00:00.000-05:002014-07-18T05:00:08.586-05:00Blog Tour and Kindle Giveaway: Shattering Halos by Sunniva Dee<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />Shattering Halos (Halos #1)</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Sunniva Dee</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBK-yvTmTLRTfbVlzxxOJZrY08-qznsSzcYhvMPR_m6TIiCroWcjOEXdb-Ky5kqq2QoPo2I0dCzpT8PeDndL64L5g1R9tHk1fOX0XfISYLrPAOFtWST79IhfZgtfDH_4xKTlgFtKPkTY/s1600/Halos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBK-yvTmTLRTfbVlzxxOJZrY08-qznsSzcYhvMPR_m6TIiCroWcjOEXdb-Ky5kqq2QoPo2I0dCzpT8PeDndL64L5g1R9tHk1fOX0XfISYLrPAOFtWST79IhfZgtfDH_4xKTlgFtKPkTY/s1600/Halos.jpg" height="320" width="199" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18245332-shattering-halos?from_search=true">Goodreads</a> | <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/buy_buttons/12/follow?book_id=18245332">Amazon</a> | <a href="http://xpressobooktours.com/2014/04/22/tour-sign-up-shattering-halos-by-sunniva-dee/">Tour </a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>February 24th 2014</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<b>Pages: </b>362</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Genre:</b> Paranormal Romance, New Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">I traded my death for love. I wasn’t given a choice. His decision has caught up with us, so now I am a living, breathing catalyst to war between Heaven and Hell.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">The violations he committed saved my life. Since the collision, he’s appeared everywhere. In my hospital room, my school, even my house. He shows up in my paintings, my drawings, in all of my art projects. I can’t stop thinking about him.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">He says his name is Gabriel, and he doesn’t understand what’s happening to him. He doesn’t know how I can see him or why he wants me in ways that should be impossible for a Celestial.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">My obsession grows. I need him to hold me, kiss me—give all of himself. For every day he protects me, the consequences loom darker and taller. Soon, they’ll crash down on us.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">The war is about to begin.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">When
</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Shattering
Halos</span></i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">
starts it is a story about obsession. It is frightening to read,
even. For some it may seem romantic, but for me I didn't trust it one
second. I was worried I wasn't going to like this book because of how
much it put me off. Then our two main characters stop fighting and
the story changes.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The
last two-thirds of this book are an epic paranormal ride. As soon as
the actual plot and stakes are introduced things become interesting.
We start to learn about this world and become involved. Dee has a way
with words. Her sentences compelled me and dragged me along. Her
prose style in the beginning is different than most New Adult or
Young Adult out there, less straight forward and little more dreamy
and it ends up working for her well. The reader is made to feel like
they are passing through a dream in that first third, which is very
close to Gaia, our main character is feeling throughout it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cassiel
is the strongest out of all the characters dealt with in the book.
Unfortunately Gaia and Gabriel fall flat when portrayed on their own.
It's their relationship and romance that is the true main character
of the book and not them. Cassiel on the other hand is layered. He's
the one that becomes the most interesting to follow. I would read
more books with him as a main character.</span></span></div>
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Though I was better with the romance in the last parts of the book, there was still enough of that obsession making me feel a bit off-kilter (I think that Gabriel being and angel made this far worse, especially when it comes out that Gaia's body would pretty much crave his like a drug and having sex is dangerous yet she is constantly craving it. That's scary.), added to the fact that things worked out too easily for them (no punishment?) that I wish that their relationship would have had a tragic end some how. It would have fit so well with the story as well. An epic love beyond all love becomes even more epic if it is lost.
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On another note, I loved reading a description of the battle. I could not get over how well Dee set it up and described it. It was a gorgeous bit of action, I wish I had gotten to read more battles in the story because of it.
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I
recommend this to people who enjoy stories of angels and fallen
angels. I also believe that if you are into reading </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">epic</span></i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
romances (even if some realism is lost in loo of epicness) this is
definitely a book for you. It is not surprising that most of the 5
star reviews I've seen around laud the romance as being amazing.</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3.5 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">||*|| Giveaway ||*||</span></span></b></span></h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b></div>
<a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<a class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0142481/" id="rc-0142481" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHFiyX8icDnrHc9TMF5eoMZtEyypaIQd5FAvc4u4Q9Pf1sQu4Pn8coCdtKmFUbMF3tj-K54X1dWdNV0AbPAvEI8cWA-0XofwlcxOTlSleZw5sSFdHcfxiiRNDI3ec7veeZMzMHfbJ_VM/s1600/Sunniva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHFiyX8icDnrHc9TMF5eoMZtEyypaIQd5FAvc4u4Q9Pf1sQu4Pn8coCdtKmFUbMF3tj-K54X1dWdNV0AbPAvEI8cWA-0XofwlcxOTlSleZw5sSFdHcfxiiRNDI3ec7veeZMzMHfbJ_VM/s1600/Sunniva.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>About
the Author</b></span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">I write New Adult fiction with a paranormal twist and don’t shy away from romance and heart-wrenching passion when necessary.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">I moved from Norway to the United States in 2001, and the first awesome five years I spent in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. Then I read “The Book,” aka Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which spurred my husband and me to move cross country to beautiful Savannah, Georgia.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">I’m currently on my seventh year in the Deep South, where I enjoy the heat and the humidity. Besides writing, I spend my time with our “petting zoo” as in an opinionated parrot, a herd of cats that are experts on keyboard shortcuts, and puppies that…uh, bark.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">I hold a Master’s degree in languages, with concentrations within literature and linguistics. I taught at college level for a decade before settling in as a graduate adviser at the Savannah College of Art and Design.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Writing is my passion, my joy, and my addiction. When I’m not writing, I read.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">Shattering Halos is my debut novel, and its standalone sequel, Stargazer, is due out later this year.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 100%;">Author
Links:</span></b><br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1405417570422_2589" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">
<a href="http://www.sunnivadee.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1405417570422_2588" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://www.sunnivadee.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7191170.Sunniva_Dee" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7191170.Sunniva_Dee</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/SunnivaD" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/SunnivaD</a></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1405417570422_2772" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/sunniva.dee" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1405417570422_2774" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/sunniva.dee</a></div>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-30800029222881557882014-07-18T01:30:00.000-05:002014-07-18T06:05:17.532-05:00Feature & Follow: Funny Videos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.alisoncanread.com/2014/07/feature-and-follow-friday-210.html#more" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRkHJvUXNtSwdR2UNE7oaZvXj1bvGwtzhNcpReoSOnWWBMZFfXfltwDrSfskPkqSd9Nk0aRhwZYwAy3s_OYY4MhBAQIa4lUujfvboyG0e6wNIpHzCMfIQmrT_Niubz35_CAlnMmE1tik8/s1600/FF.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: -webkit-center;"><h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; line-height: 26px;">Question of the Week: Funny Videos</span></div>
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So my funny video once again brings my Morning Musume obsession to light. These video feature two of the old members attempting to relate a story in English and being quite brilliant lol.<br /><br />Please watch and enjoy!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6Z6IW8KUXkQ" width="560"></iframe>
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Annnd~
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KJMXZ2T3t3E" width="420"></iframe>
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<br />
<!-- start LinkyTools script --><script src="http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=238091" type="text/javascript"></script><!-- end LinkyTools script -->Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-42309826148162103342014-07-15T06:09:00.001-05:002014-07-24T08:17:36.361-05:00Book Review: The One by Kiera Cass<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">The One (The Selection #3)</span></h2>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Kiera Cass</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0PQJrbSTP6lgMhRqoX1lUCWxaAAsLZxt8sWlsL-53RuQjDZz1XthJEScqF_Ry9ZWRCPjs2TO7NEW4oP00kz9zxCyQr00EezCQ-jsNZmGVX-MjTy9toQnY_heHpIF9Mr9Sf-Grda4M3lA/s1600/theone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0PQJrbSTP6lgMhRqoX1lUCWxaAAsLZxt8sWlsL-53RuQjDZz1XthJEScqF_Ry9ZWRCPjs2TO7NEW4oP00kz9zxCyQr00EezCQ-jsNZmGVX-MjTy9toQnY_heHpIF9Mr9Sf-Grda4M3lA/s1600/theone.jpg" height="320" width="208" /></a></div>
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Review of <u><a href="http://journeythroughpages.blogspot.com/2012/05/book-review-selection-by-kiera-cass.html">The Selection</a></u></b><br />
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Review of <a href="http://journeythroughpages.blogspot.com/2014/07/book-review-elite-by-kiera-cass.html">The Elite (The Selection #2)</a></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>June 5th</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 2014</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
<b>Publisher:</b> HarperTeen</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>Pages: </b>325<br />
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<b>Genre:</b> Fantasy-esque, Dystopia-esque, Romance, Young Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">For the four girls who remain at the palace, the friendships they’ve formed, rivalries they’ve struggled with and dangers they’ve faced have bound them to each other for the rest of their lives.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Now, the time has come for one winner to be chosen.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown – or to Prince Maxon’s heart. But as the competition approaches its end and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realises just how much she stands to lose – and how hard she’ll have to fight for the future she wants.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Yes.
This one is the best one. I can't believe this is the same writer as
the first book, she has improved so much for me. Although maybe
gulping both this and </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The
Elite</span></i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">
one right after each other on the same day could be coloring my view.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The
highlight of this book for me (I'm sure it's not true of everyone) is
not the romance but instead the friendships and politics of the book.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">On top of that Cass
manages to show growth in almost every single character still
around in this final book. The final four girls left, aside from
America, are the side characters where it's the most obvious. It makes me want to go re-read the first book again just to
remember how they were when they had started and truly appreciate
what they've grown into. America herself grows tremendously as well, from a
girl who just wanted to marry the boy of her dreams to the girl who
wants to make a difference. </span></span>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It's
hard to talk about this book without revealing all. I laughed. I
cried. I almost missed my bell to go to class because I became so
absorbed. I am glad I gave this series another chance after a rocky
start. I think the first book is a poor introduction to all of the
non-romance parts that this series has to offer, but on the other hand it was a good
set-up for things to come.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">One
thing that's true however is that </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The
One</span></i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">
is a different book than </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The
Selection</span></i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.
Lucky for me that was a good thing.</span></span></div>
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Celeste! I cried for Celeste! It was only one line, brief in the epilogue, but as soon as I realized what it alluded to I started tearing up. I think her growth was one of my favourites. She was so hated in the beginning, seemed so shallow as a character, and then she seemed to get worse, but this situation it beats everyone down. All of the girls are in a very dangerous place and her stubbornness kept her from leaving. When she broke down and America and her made the truce, she became my favourite character.
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The friendship that the final girls created was also dear to me, I hadn't expected it and I think it was good of Cass to do.
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I also teared up a bit when Maxon revealed that he had been trying to figure out how the eliminate the caste system since almost way in the beginning. I was so proud of him at the moment. I admire him so much as a character. Everything he would try to do that was against his father was a risk for him, yet he'd still do it.
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There is so much more I could talk about, but I could go on forever.
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This
is a fantastic end that cleans up the loose ends of the previous book
and ends at a place that feels comfortable and finished. This series
is good. It is a fantasy story based in a possible future of our own
world. It is a princess story that doesn't shy from the politics of
the situation. And it is a love story that plays out dramatically,
but realistically.</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4.5 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1546221431102353037.post-77780514721023525562014-07-11T09:36:00.000-05:002014-07-11T09:36:20.689-05:00Book Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Marissa Meyer</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljiWR9q97TSezFsnkIzdH-UXw5f_VVZfw-Mu65SgUu1I8c2RKsNFfAWg2gwV1rG8SCeRonik2oKnpwukxSf0cqFA1tACUCde1Ld9Lyd0ZcdD02ii2io6qV48D41melieIruQw7Gp5pxo/s1600/cress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljiWR9q97TSezFsnkIzdH-UXw5f_VVZfw-Mu65SgUu1I8c2RKsNFfAWg2gwV1rG8SCeRonik2oKnpwukxSf0cqFA1tACUCde1Ld9Lyd0ZcdD02ii2io6qV48D41melieIruQw7Gp5pxo/s1600/cress.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Review of <u><a href="http://journeythroughpages.blogspot.jp/2014/06/blog-review-scarlet-by-marissa-meyer.html">Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2)</a></u></b><br />
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Review of <u><a href="http://journeythroughpages.blogspot.com/2012/06/book-review-cinder-by-marissa-meyer.html">Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)</a></u></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Publication Date: </b>February 4th</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 2014</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Feiwel and Friends</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<b>Pages: </b>550<br />
<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Fairytale, Scifi, Adventure, Young Adult</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. </span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. </span><br />
<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;" />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Finishing
Cress left me with a similar sensation to the first time I read
</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Scarlet</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">,
that I liked it, but not as much as I hoped I would. I think for me,
the Lunar Chronicles are a series I have to reread, because for some
reason I enjoy them better the second time around. Honestly this
makes them more valuable as books than those that I read once, enjoy
immensely and never pick up again. These books have a lasting power.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Cress
</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">sees
the continuation of the overreaching plotline from </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Cinder</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
with the addition of the characters from </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Scarlet,
</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">plus
the new plotline taken from the fairy tale "Rapunzel".
"Rapunzel" happens to be one of my favourite fairy tales,
though I still don't know why. I remembered watching closely when I
heard Disney were going to get their hands into it (long before the
general public knew), the pain when it got shelved again and the joy
when it was brought back and designs were released. I went to see it
opening night. I also wrote my own interpretation of the story in the
story telling medium of Visual Novels.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">One
interesting thing that I have taken from these different versions is
that Rapunzel ends up being characterized the same way: naive and
awkward. But really, realistically how else is a girl supposed to be
when trapped in a tower for so long? Cress is certainly my favourite
version I have read. The way she is written and presented as a
character once again solidifies what I stated in my review of
</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Scarlet,
</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">that
Meyer does characters strong and well. The relationship is also my
favourite of the three presented so far in the series, it's adorable,
quirky and tentative. Both of them are out of their depths and it's
wonderful.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Though
the characters are the stars of the books, the plot also continues to
hold my attention, which after three books of it is not an easy task.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The
biggest issue I had while reading the book can only get worse,
unfortunately with the final installment. With each book, there is an
increase of characters and plotlines. Last book, the balance was
perfect. This time around, with </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Cress</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
I started to feel a little overwhelmed. The story of Rapunzel got
shafted a bit in the end, having to bow to getting the characters to
where they're supposed to do so the main plot doesn't fall apart.
Unlike in the first two books, this time I can see obviously where
bits from the fairy tale were forced it. It was less natural.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I
do think that this is something that will improve upon rereading and
honestly I'm being a bit strict, perhaps, but I feel as though </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Cinder</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
and </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>Scarlet</i></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
have set a bar.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">All
of that said, I am incredibly intrugued by the charactera of Winter
and her probably beau and cannot wait to read them.</span></div>
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The bit that is the most awkward for me in the book was Cress's kidnapping just having her end up in a safe place. I get we needed to get them back with the group, but I felt like so much that could have been was cut out, because of all the other stuff that needed to be put in the book. Meyer had to make decisions involving pacing and length, and although I'm sure most would read an 800-page book by her at this point, her publishers probably wouldn't have been so keen on it. And I don't know how that would have affected the pacing of the rest of the book. There was already a slight feeling of the book being put on pause so that desert time could be squished in.
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<br />
On a plus note, I love that Iko has a body now! And I love that it's so realistic. I want Iko to have a story! I want her to have lovey dovey time. I'm also really interested in how she has gotten so much personality. What in her programming has allowed her to create such a realistic AI.
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<br />
Ah! The kiss. The kiss was so cute and I loved that he remembered her desert fever babblings. I love how Cress in general kept making Thorne control himself, and through controlling himself he realizes when he starts to become fond of her that he wants to be careful and learn how to do things right and not just spurt words of meaningless love. Cress realizing he is more than a "hero" like she thought is also really nice to see.
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I wish I had been surprised when I'd learned that Cress was the doctor's daughter, but I had been spoiled for that by a review on Goodreads.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Are
you not reading this series yet? Seriously? Get on it! Even if you're
not a fairy tale person, it's a great YA Scifi story. Though of
course loving fairy tales increases it's enjoyability. I'm also
starting to believe that very few authors do characters as well as
she does. Pretty much I recommend this to everyone. Read it!</span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4 Bookmarks</span></span></b></span></h2>
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Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16191050456749847083noreply@blogger.com0