Showing posts with label #February. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #February. Show all posts

Monday, 23 February 2015

Review: No Parking at the End Times




No Parking at the End Times
Author: 
Publication Date: February 24th 2015
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Abigail’s parents have made mistake after mistake, and now they've lost everything. She’s left to decide: Does she still believe in them? Or is it time to believe in herself? Fans of Sara Zarr, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell will connect with this moving debut.

Abigail doesn't know how her dad found Brother John. Maybe it was the billboards. Or the radio. What she does know is that he never should have made that first donation. Or the next, or the next. Her parents shouldn't have sold their house. Or packed Abigail and her twin brother, Aaron, into their old van to drive across the country to San Francisco, to be there with Brother John for the "end of the world." Because of course the end didn't come. And now they're living in their van. And Aaron’s disappearing to who-knows-where every night. Their family is falling apart. All Abigail wants is to hold them together, to get them back to the place where things were right. But maybe it’s too big a task for one teenage girl. Bryan Bliss’s thoughtful, literary debut novel is about losing everything—and about what you will do for the people you love.



I give No Parking at the End Times props for being different. Different it definitely was. I don't read that many religious centred books, I usually stay far away from ones I know are going to be so, but every now and then they sneak up on me. What drew me to this one though is the cult-like fashion it was handled. The religious aspect wasn't bible-bashing, but in a way a little bible-bashing but not overbearing, and it's delves into faith verses religion. Can you have faith without having religion? When you think about it, faith and religion go together, but faith does exist out of religion. You don't have to have a religion to believe in God, to believe and have faith in something unknown. Whether that's God, life, the future, it's still faith.

Friday, 13 February 2015

Review: Soulprint








Soulprint
Author:
Publication Date: February 12th 2015                    
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens 
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

A new literary, sci-fi thriller from acclaimed author Megan Miranda.

With the science of soul-fingerprinting a reality, Alina Chase has spent her entire life imprisoned for the crimes her past-self committed. In an attempt to clear her name, Alina unintentionally trades one prison for another when she escapes, aided by a group of teens whose intentions and motivations are a mystery to her. As she gets to know one of the boys, sparks fly, and Alina believes she may finally be able to trust someone. But when she uncovers clues left behind from her past life that only she can decipher, secrets begin to unravel. Alina must figure out whether she’s more than the soul she inherited, or if she’s fated to repeat the past.

This compelling story will leave readers wondering if this fictional world could become a reality



Oh Soulprint, you are my kind of weird.  It delves into one of my favourite debates. No, not reincarnation, or a type of reincarnation, even though that is a similar factor in Soulprint, but the subject of criminal DNA and the whole are criminal's born vs are criminals made? I could read so many of them and not get bored, it's what I loved abut Uninvited and it's what I loved about Soulprint., and as with both, they go to the extreme. They're quite similar in a way, in the way of the reaction and effects it has on the way people perceive it. But, they are different, considering Uninvited is to do with a Criminal Gene, and Soul Print is to do with past criminals souls being reborn. There's a database proves the distinction between past life crimes linking to a present life crimes, a likely hood that that soul will possibly do that crime again as someone else. So does that automatically make that person a criminal, though they haven't done anything yet? Or does the fact they know they have a soul of a past criminal that makes them think, well, might as well. There's a test, tapping into your spinal fluid that can prove who's soul is in you., and you're judged before you even do anything, it's like a ticking time bomb. Alina has the soul of one half of the notorious criminal duo of June Calahan and Liam White.

Thursday, 12 February 2015

Review: Unspeakable





Unspeakable
Author:
Publication Date: February 5th 2015        
Publisher: Atom
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~



Megan doesn't speak. She hasn't spoken in months.

Pushing away the people she cares about is just a small price to pay. Because there are things locked inside Megan's head - things that are screaming to be heard - that she cannot, must not, let out.

Then Jasmine starts at school: bubbly, beautiful, talkative Jasmine. And for reasons Megan can't quite understand, life starts to look a bit brighter.

Megan would love to speak again, and it seems like Jasmine might be the answer. But if she finds her voice, will she lose everything else?


Going into Unspeakable, since the cover is so vague, I was expecting the aftermath of a rape story, a trauma  or maybe something to do with OCD for the reason why Megan suddenly stopped speaking. Then we get to know a little why she stopped, the  vague details anyway,  but you know that's not the reason why. I was expecting something different.
I didn't get different.

Friday, 6 February 2015

Review: All Fall Down








All Fall Down
Author:
Publication Date: February 5th 2015        
Publisher: Orchard Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~


Grace can best be described as a daredevil, an Army brat, and a rebel. She is also the only granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful ambassador in the world and Grace has spent every summer of her childhood running across the roofs of Embassy Row.

Now, at age sixteen, she's come back to stay - in order to solve the mystery of her mother's death. In the process, she uncovers an international conspiracy of unsettling proportions, and must choose her friends and watch her foes carefully if she and the world are to be saved


Ally Carter's done it again. Seriously. Can she do no wrong? The answer to that, obviously, is no. She cannot do no wrong because she always seems to create a story and a set of characters that are hilarious and relatable yet serious and kind of untouchable. She creates characters that in any other, would make you hate the character, but you'll instantly love and suck you in, because they are fleshed out. They are each their own and balanced. All Fall Down are not short on those characters, though this is my little glitch and why it was almost perfect for me instead of perfect. Some of the secondary characters felt a little left out. I wanted to get to know them more than we did, and that is literally my only complaint. Which, when you think about it, is pretty good since this is book one, we'll have time to get into the secondary cast more. I loved Grace though, she made my very sarcastic heart very happy. She's a little, uhm, shall we say, unstable? Yup. She's a little unstable because of people constantly telling her she is unstable over how she saw her mother die. The 'official' story versus Grace's story, but since she was thirteen when it happened, the adults like to tell her she's crazy.

Friday, 7 February 2014

Review: Vengeance

Vengeance
Author: 

Publication Date: February 4th 2014  (February 13th  UK)           
~A copy was provided by Bloomsbury Childrens  via Netgalely in exchange for an honest review~
 
 

What cover do you prefer?

 
 

 
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Falcon Lake wants vengeance. And so, it seems, does someone else... An intense, heart-rending psychological thriller to accompany the chilling and seductive Fracture

When Decker drags his best friend Delaney’s lifeless body out of the frozen lake, he makes a deal: Anyone but her. Everyone but her. The lake releases her. It takes another...

All their friends blame Delaney for Carson’s death. But Decker knows the truth: Delaney is drawn to those who are dying, and she would have tried to help Carson.

Or so Decker believes until a body lies in front of him in a pool of water on his kitchen floor. Until he sees in Delaney’s eyes that she knew this would happen too – and she said nothing. Until he realises it isn’t the lake that is looking for revenge – Delaney is part of someone else’s plan.


This powerful and emotionally charged psychological thriller follows Megan Miranda’s stunning debut Fracture.
 
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The first thing I thought when finding out Fracture had a sequel: Why? The second: I can't spell Vengeance.
I liked Fracture, it was angsty and perfect and I'm a sucker for the best friends/relationship, but I didn't think it needed anything else. It was done.
Being from Decker's perspective changed a lot of what I originally thought, and I was interested in seeing where it would carry on, and since I loved him in Fracture, nothing could go wrong, right?
Nope.
Wrong.

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Waiting on Wednesday (#21)

 "Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.
 
 



 ORDER, ELEGANCE, PROSPERITY.
The words might as well be branded on seventeen-year-old Madeline Landry herself. Here in the future United States, ruled by the lavish gentry, very little is left to choice—and even less is left to Madeline. Gentry decorum and Madeline’s domineering father insist that she must marry, like a good Landry woman, and run the family estate. But as she steps outside the decadent walls of her world, Madeline begins to question everything she has ever learned. In her desperation, she turns to the only person who seems to understand: handsome, beguiling avid Dana.

Soon, rumours of war and rebellion start to spread, and Madeline finds herself and David at the centre of it all. Ultimately, she must make a choice between her duty—the family and estate she loves dearly—and her desire.





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No specific reason this week, other than it sounds and looks amazing.

So, what're you waiting on?

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Waiting on Wednesday (#15)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.
 
 





Death hasn’t visited Rowan Rose since it took her mother when Rowan was only a little girl. But that changes one bleak morning, when five horses and their riders thunder into her village and through the forest, disappearing into the hills. Days later, the riders’ bodies are found, and though no one can say for certain what happened in their final hours, their remains prove that whatever it was must have been brutal.

Rowan’s village was once a tranquil place, but now things have changed. Something has followed the path those riders made and has come down from the hills, through the forest, and into the village. Beast or man, it has brought death to Rowan’s door once again.

Only this time, its appetite is insatiable.





Creepy, with an extra dose of creepy cover.

What are you waiting on this week? :)

 

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Waiting on Wednesday (#14)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.
 
 
 
 
 
What if your destiny was to kill the one you love?

One moment. One foolish desire. One mistake. And Corinthe lost everything.

She fell from her tranquil life in Pyralis Terra and found herself exiled to the human world. Her punishment? To make sure people’s fates unfold according to plan. Now, years later, Corinthe has one last assignment: kill Lucas Kaller. His death will be her ticket home.

But for the first time, Corinthe feels a tingle of doubt. It begins as a lump in her throat, then grows toward her heart, and suddenly she feels like she’s falling all over again—this time for a boy she knows she can never have. Because it is written: one of them must live, and one of them must die.

In a universe where every moment, every second, every fate has already been decided, where does love fit in?
 
 
I love the concept of fate and destinies, of different paths but ultimately ending up on the same one, even if you detoured for a little while. It's always that question of what if? What if that didn't happen, would I be were I am now? Are two people destined to be together, no matter what? I find it fascinating so Fates should hopefully be an interesting read.
 
 
What are you waiting on? :)