DNF Review: 13 Days of Midnight

13 Days of Midnight
Author: Leo Hunt
Publication Date: July 2nd 2015
Publisher: Orchard Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

 When Luke Manchett's estranged father dies suddenly, he leaves his son a dark inheritance. Luke has been left in charge of his father's ghost collection: eight restless spirits. They want revenge for their long enslavement, and in the absence of the father, they're more than happy to take his son. It isn't fair, but you try and reason with the vengeful dead.

Halloween, the night when the ghosts reach the height of their power, is fast approaching. With the help of school witchlet Elza Moss, and his cowardly dog Ham, Luke has just thirteen days to uncover the closely guarded secrets of black magic, and send the unquiet spirits to their eternal rest. The alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

This is going to be a short review, because I don't have much to say about Thirteen Days to Midnight, bar the last 25%, it was boring me to death, pun not intended. Okay, I'm being a little mean, it wasn't that bad, but it seemed like a first in a series, which is not, I don't think, and it felt more like a spoof of a mixture of things of sorts.

Review: The Cost of All Things

The Cost of All Things
Author: Maggie Lehrman
Publication Date:  May 12th 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets We Were Liars in this thought-provoking and brilliantly written debut that is part love story, part mystery, part high-stakes drama.

What would you pay to cure your heartbreak? Banish your sadness? Transform your looks? The right spell can fix anything…. When Ari's boyfriend Win dies, she gets a spell to erase all memory of him. But spells come at a cost, and this one sets off a chain of events that reveal the hidden—and sometimes dangerous—connections between Ari, her friends, and the boyfriend she can no longer remember.

Told from four different points of view, this original and affecting novel weaves past and present in a suspenseful narrative that unveils the truth behind a terrible tragedy

My feelings are all over the place for The Cost of All Things, I wish I could say I loved it, but I didn't. I wish I could say I hated it, which I did at parts, but once it all comes together and clicks, I can't say I truly hated it either.

Review: Everything That Makes You

Everything That Makes You
Author: Moriah McStay
Publication Date: March 17th 2015
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.

And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacrosse player in the state, heading straight to Northwestern on a full ride. She’s got more important things to deal with than her best friend Trent McKinnon, who’s been different ever since the kiss. When her luck goes south, even lacrosse can’t define her anymore. When you’ve always been the best at something, one dumb move can screw everything up. Can Fi fight back?

Hasn’t everyone wondered what if? In this daring debut novel, Moriah McStay gives us the rare opportunity to see what might have happened if things were different. Maybe luck determines our paths. But maybe it’s who we are that determines our luck

In the style of Just Like Fate, Everything That Makes You is cut into two different stories, a what if scenario, only with Just Like Fate, I actually liked it and though Caroline made some rash and stupid decisions, you could understand her, sympathise with her. Fioana and  "Fi" not so much. Wasn't the whole what if scenario was a way of thinking that if Fiona didn't get her face scarred when she was younger, she would be a different person?

If Everything That Makes You meant to say, that no matter what happens to you, you were always meant to be a certain person, then it succeeded, Because she was a horrible person both ways. If you think I'm being mean now, hang around a while. Fiona is a spiteful little bitch. There we go. She's bitter, which okay, you can get, she's bitter at the world, at herself, she has low self-esteem, given all that: she's still a bitch. To her family, to her so called friends, to her boyfriend, self deprecating , selfish and completely takes things for granted. Isn't having something so horrible like this happen to you, supposed to make you have a real long look at yourself and see just how strong you are? To make yourself a better person? Even the "Fi" What If, she was still like this and because of that, even though we know which part is which, I had a hard time differentiating  the two, and considering the names are in the chapter titles, it shouldn't be that hard.

Guest Review Amber: Shadows

Shadows (Dark Touch #1)

Author: Amy Meredith
Publication Date: April 1st 2010
Publisher: Red Fox

Pages : 240

Rough estimate of time it took to read : 14 Hours

Source: Gifted by Kirsty

Fifteen-year-old Eve Evergold is cute, sassy and enjoying a busy social life. What she doesn't know yet is that someone close to her is an evil demon that only she has the supernatural power to defeat. She needs to work out who it is - and fast! Because although there's something very attractive about the dark side...dating a demon? Pure hell!

I'm going to keep this review short since it's a short book, more like a novella than a full-length novel, and I'm not sure what I feel about it, either.

I'm not sure what to think of this book, the last 6-8 chapters were  worth the read but all the previous ones well I just feel like majority it was wasting my time to read. I really struggled with this book. I don't know what to think as I said the last couple chapters were very very good and made me want to read the next book in the series. But looking at the book over all I would have to admit not worth the read unless you are like me and have to finish a book once you've started just to get the satisfaction of knowing you slugged through it and completed a small challenge.

Review: Tabula Rasa (Don't Get Me Started)

Title: Tabula Rasa
Author: Kristen Lippert-Martin
Publication Date: September 23rd 2014        
Publisher: EgmontUSA
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

The Bourne Identity meets Divergent in this heart-pounding debut.
Sixteen-year-old Sarah has a rare chance at a new life. Or so the doctors tell her. She’s been undergoing a cutting-edge procedure that will render her a tabula rasa—a blank slate. Memory by memory her troubled past is being taken away.

But when her final surgery is interrupted and a team of elite soldiers invades the isolated hospital under cover of a massive blizzard, her fresh start could be her end.

Navigating familiar halls that have become a dangerous maze with the help of a teen computer hacker who's trying to bring the hospital down for his own reasons, Sarah starts to piece together who she is and why someone would want her erased. And she won’t be silenced again.

A high-stakes thriller featuring a non-stop race for survival and a smart heroine who will risk everything, Tabula Rasa is, in short, unforgettable 

Eh. At first the whole idea of Tabula Rasa reminded me of the Slated series by Teri Terry, criminals or dangerous people- who are either a danger to others or themselves get a second chance by having their memories wiped for a fresh start, but with Tabula Rasa, you quickly realise that that's not the case. The idea of it is- the criminal's getting their memories wiped is- but the execution is not.

Review: Feral

 

Title: Feral

Author: Holly Schindler

Release date:  August 26th 2014              

Publisher: HarperTeen 

The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know.
It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.

But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened. But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley….

Holly Schindler’s gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page

Oh Feral, what am I going to do with you? On one hand you were crazy and weird and pretty much what I love about these types of books. But then on the other hand, it was not at all where I wanted or thought it would go. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing it just really had this big build up that kept you guessing what was going on that by the time it was revealed it deflated.

Review: Amity (Just Say No)

Amity
Author: Micol Ostow
Publication Date: August 26th 2014         
Publisher: EgmontUSA
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

For fans of Stephen King and American Horror Story, a gruesome thriller suggested by the events of the Amityville Horror.

Connor's family moves to Amity to escape shady business deals. Ten years later, Gwen's family moves to Amity for a fresh start after she's recovered from a psychotic break.

But something is not right about this secluded house. Connor's nights are plagued with gore-filled dreams of demons and destruction. Dreams he kind of likes. Gwen has lurid visions of corpses that aren't there and bleeding blisters that disappear in the blink of an eye. She knows Amity is evil and she must get her family out, but who would ever believe her?

Amity isn't just a house. She is a living force, bent on manipulating her inhabitants to her twisted will. She will use Connor and Gwen to bring about a bloody end as she's done before. As she'll do again.

Alternating between parallel narratives, Amity is a tense and terrifying tale suggested by true-crime events that will satisfy even the most demanding horror fan.

 

So, I'm keeping this short because 1) there's not much to say about it and 2) it's hard to even know what to say because not much actually went on.

If anyone asked describe Amity in one word it would be disturbing. Because if I said this was disappointing, my house might kill me. Firstly, let's talk about the false marketing shall we? It sounds like an Amityville Horror retelling, looks like an Amityville Horror retelling, the house is described like Amityville and It's even called Amity, so guess what it is?

Review: Vivian Divine is Dead

Vivian Divine is Dead and good riddance.
Author:  Lauren Sabel

Publication Date: June 3rd 2014               
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books 

~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

 

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Filled with surprising twists and poignant moments, Lauren Sabel brings a fresh new voice to contemporary fiction with Vivian Divine Is Dead. Creepy, clever, funny, and romantic.

When a death threat arrives with teen celebrity Vivian Divine's fan mail, Vivian has no choice but to go on the run to Mexico. She soon discovers, though, that her Oscar-nominated performance killing villains on-screen did nothing to prepare her for escaping a madman in real life. Some people say he's a hero, others tremble in his presence, but one thing is clear: he won't stop until Vivian is in his grasp. Why didn't she pay more attention during those judo lessons for her role in Zombie Killer?

Vivian finds an ally in the mysterious and charming Nick. He is everything Hollywood boys are not-genuine, kind, and determined to see Vivian for who she really is. But even he seems like he can't be trusted-what could he be hiding?

Beat up, hungry, and more confused than ever about who she's running from, Vivian is living in a real-life blockbuster horror flick. But there's no option to yell "cut" like there is on set....

Lauren Sabel's Vivian Divine Is Dead is a creepy, witty, fast-paced adventure about family, fame, and having the courage to save yourself.

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Vivian Divine is Dead started out really strong, I was loving it. And then it happened. You know, the thing that always happens in YA. The love interest gets introduced and BAM. The Insta-love starts. It's a very bad disease, people, it devours actual brains cells. The MC can't have coherent thoughts when the love-

What was that? Nick just walked passed.

What was I thinking again?...

I'm not opposed to insta-love, but it wasn't even good insta-love. The L-word was mentioned or thought in one day in meeting him, two, tops. I can't even remember, I actually skipped some passages because I was highlighting the shit out of it. There was no connection whatsoever and just kind of dull. That being said, I love mysteries, I love murder crimes, I love witness protection and though I'm not exactly obsessed with Hollywood, the whole fact a teen starlet being on the run because of her predicted death sounded too much fun and right up my alley.