Book of the Month: May

Book of the Month is a monthly event, hosted by Book Whales. This is done to highlight one of the books we have read in the previous month.

I know this is kind of late but I'm really swamped these past few days. So my book of the month is (cue drum roll please..)

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

My review

So many great books are published on May and I know everyone is either buzzing about Insurgent or the latest instalment of The Mortal Instruments series but I think it's about time that a stand alone book receives some due attention. Besides I'm a huge fan of fairy tale stories.

Review, Interview & Giveaway: The House on Blackstone Moor

Welcome to author Carole Gill.

Where did you get the inspiration to write the book?
I have always been a fan of the gothic romantic genre. I think however the genre needs to be modernized for today’s reader. This I did with my novel, The House on Blackstone Moor.

The story is a lot darker than would have been permitted years ago.

Take the classic, Jane Eyre. I love the dark and brooding Mr. Rochester but I wanted to create an entirely different sort of brooding character, one who is damned through no fault of his own, a creature of the night, damned before he was born; a creature with no hope of salvation.

Louis Darton is the son of a fallen angel and a human mother; he is the male protagonist in my novel.

I asked myself how such a creature would react if a beautiful young girl came into his world. Would it hurt to look at her? Would the light of her soul cause him to feel filthy because he has lived with sin and corruption for so long? Hence, the story began to evolve.

What do you think is totally unique about your story?
I think the fact that I have taken all the elements that make gothic romance what it is, but I have introduced dark horror in it, makes it unique.

I have also included the theme of child abuse, abuse committed by a human being. I did this because the question is posed throughout, is human evil as bad as supernatural evil and does evil invite further worse evil in?

Your favorite character in the book and why?
I have to say, the evil counterpart to my hero, Louis Darton is my favorite. Eco is like Louis. He is also demon spawn; his father was a fallen angel as well. But unlike Louis, he is mad, bad and dangerous to know. He has become pretty popular too. And as such is featured in the sequel!

The sequel btw will be released shortly. It is called Unholy Testament and it is Eco’s confession of sins committed during his entire existence. It is presented to the woman he loves.

Favorite book of all time and why?
Jane Eyre. I remember reading it as a young girl and falling in love with the narrative.

Jane Eyre has other things going for it. There is the examination of religious hypocrisy and the awful problems of social injustice.

The world of Jane Eyre was grim and unforgiving. Her desire to survive and to actually be happy and see to it that others are as well makes Jane Eyre one of the most admirable heroines ever.

Her world did exist and we can thank Charlotte Bronte for illuminating it as brilliantly as she did.

Favorite holiday destination? 

Without doubt, Paris! I love it. It is a beautiful city, with its wide boulevards. I love the cafes and the book stalls along the Seine.

It is a place you can dream in. Sit in one of the cafes and day dream over a cup of excellent coffee. Walk anywhere and you will be delighted with what you see.

And if you like books please bear in mind that France’s highest rated television show is a book review show! That is commendable.

Yes, I love Paris!

If someone made a movie based on your life, which actor/actress will you pick to be you?
Cate Blanchett! Cate in cape and hood walking over moorland with dogs, a figure shrouded in the cold, gray mist of a foggy morning.

She is one of my favorite actresses and I would love to look like her!



The House on Blackstone Moor
by Carole Gill
ebook
251 pages
Published May 2nd 2012

Summary:

“They say my father was mad, so corrupted by evil and tainted by sin that he did what he did. I came home to find them all dead; their throats savagely cut. My sisters only five and eight were gone as well as my brother who was twelve. My mother too lay butchered in her marriage bed. The bed her children were born in…” 

Young Rose Baines discovers the savage murders of her family by her mad, incestuous father. 

She is plunged into a nightmare of hell and is incarcerated in two madhouses after which she is helped to obtain a position as governess at Blackstone House. 

The house is located on haunted moorland. Nothing is as it seems for Blackstone House and its inhabitants have hideous secrets. There is unimaginable horror there but there is love too--love that comes at a terrible price. 

Thoughts:
I'm always pleasantly surprised when a self-published book is so well written and this is certainly no exception. It's creepy and haunting and even from the first page I was so immersed in Rose's chilling account of the gruesome tragedy that has befallen her family that it's hard for me to put down the book.

As Rose tried to put the horrors behind her, she grew up and later offered a job in Blackstone Moor after going out of the asylum that she was put into when she was young. The house is enshrouded in mystery and darkness and Rose has decide where her heart and loyalty lies.

Recommended for: fans of horror and gothic fantasy
Verdict: 4 stars.
Available on: Amazon

Review: Enchanted

Enchanted
by Alethea Kontis
Hardcover
305 pages
Published May 8th 2012
by Harcourt Children's Books

Summary from Goodreads:

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?

Thoughts:
I absolutely love this book and maybe that's because I'm a big fan of fairy tale retellings. The main storyline is a twisted version of The Frog Prince and the girl who actually fell in love with the prince is Sunday the seventh daughter whose eldest brother has been punished by the prince years ago for killing his beloved pup.

Without realising that she has fallen in love with the same prince that is despised by his father, Sunday and her sisters then were invited to a ball being held by the now cured prince with the intention of finding out the girl who has freed him from the spell.

What makes this book so adorable is not only the romance which is pre requisite in any fairy tale but also Sunday's colourful  family where each character has their own story. All of the sisters have different traits and has their own twisted fairy tale. Even the male sibling have their own part.

So it's not only the story of Sunday and her prince but it's also the wonderful story of the Woodcutter's family and their adventures. Delightfully entertaining!Thrown in a whole bunch of fairy tales, cute characters, obsessive fairy godmothers, sibling love and rivalry then you will get this book. It's funny, whimsical, light hearted and made me smile constantly.

Recommended for: fans of Princess Academy and fairy tale retellings
Verdict: 5 stars.

In my Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge 
Available on: Amazon

Wishlist Wednesday #21

Wishlist Wednesday is a wonderful meme created by the ever sweet Dani from Pen to Paper where we will post about one book per week that has been on our wishlist for some time, or just added (it's entirely up to you), that we can't wait to get off the wishlist and onto our wonderful shelves.

Soulbound (Legacy of Tril #1)
by Heather Brewer
Expected publication: July 5th 2012 by Dial

Summary from Goodreads:

What's worse than being blackmailed to attend a hidden school where you're treated like a second-class citizen? How about nearly getting eaten by a monster when you arrive? Or learning that your soulmate was killed in a centuries-old secret war? And then there's the evil king who's determined to rule the world unless you can stop him...

Meet Kaya, a young woman with the power to heal and the determination to fight. But struggle as she will, she remains tied to three very different men: a hero who has forsaken glory, a tyrannical ruler who wants to use Kaya, and a warrior who's stolen her heart. Kaya learns the hard way that some ties can't be broken...and blood is the strongest bond of all.

Babble:

If there's a cool girl with a sword on the cover of a book then I'm totally in. But I'm not sure whether she can actually see with that net around her head. If the summary is any indication of how epic the book can be than I'm really hoping for another Graceling or Lady Katsa. Female warriors or assassins are just my thing.

Review:Struck

Struck (Struck #1)
by Jennifer Bosworth
Hardcover
373 pages
Published May 8th 2012
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR

Summary from Goodreads:

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She's survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.

Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn't who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

Thoughts:
Struck is nothing like I'd expected. The story is more about the religious undertones than about a special girl who can harness lightning. What with all the emphasis on the Prophet, the end of days and everything that sometimes I feel as if I'm reading some religious text instead of a YA novel.

What is not reflected in the blurb is that the book concentrates so much on how people cope with an impending doom and how religious cults can actually influence people in their lives which is kind of creepy and disturbing for me.

I can't help but imagine the Village of the Damned children when reading about the Prophet and his all white and creepy Twelve Apostles who are all teens and young ones. Super creepy.

If the story focus more on Mia's awesome lightning power than I've would have enjoy it more. But a lot of it  is about her struggle to survive and keeping her younger brother and delusional mother alive and sane which proves to be a daunting task since two different cults are trying to force them to join. The pre requisite handsome guy; Jeremy provides a distraction for Mia and the ending which is done in a grandeur setting might appeal to some but is totally expected and doesn't provide for that extra something that the book needs.

Recommended for: dystopian fans
Verdict: 3 stars.

In my Debut Author Reading Challenge 
Available on: Amazon

Review: Angel Eyes

Angel Eyes (Angel Eyes Trilogy #1)
by Shannon Dittemore
ebook
320 pages
Published May 29th 2012
by Thomas Nelson Fiction
ARC from Netgalley

Summary from Goodreads:

Once you’ve seen, you can’t unsee. Everything changes when you’ve looked at the world through . . .

ANGEL EYES

Brielle’s a ballerina who went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She’s come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can’t seem to shake.

Jake’s the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.

Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what’s going to happen. And a beauty brighter than Jake or Brielle has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.

A realm that only angels and demons—and Brielle—can perceive.

Thoughts:
The cover and the title literally give away the plotline! Yes, I'm not a big fan of books featuring angels but this one is not so bad once you're able to go through the very slow start.

At first, I don't really get all the sadness and sorrow that the MC is going through. Her best friend is apparently tragically murdered and she decided to ditched her dreams of becoming a hotshot ballerina and instead go back to her small town home. Then the cliché started. Brielle meets the mysterious handsome new boy and both of them immediately have a connection of some sort. Handsome guy revealed his 'purpose' and the fact that Brielle is connected to it.

And yes the cover is actually pointing out to the big clue of the said purpose. Brielle is blessed with the gift of seeing through angel eyes but with some help, of course.

There's a whole mystery going on about Brielle's reason for coming back to her hometown and I would have love it if there's more to it. The connection between the murder and Brielle is sometimes baffling. Maybe it's coincidence or just plain bad luck?

Of all the characters, I think Brielle's dad is most endearing since the angels kind of creeped me out and Brielle is too depressing.

I'm not particularly fond of books with multiple POV because I think it's just better to read something from a third person POV rather than going back and forth from this guy perception to that girl and the next. Especially towards the end when they're supposed to be in this epic battle scene and the chapter keep changing from Brielle's POV to the others.

Ultimately, I stuck through till the end since the story is quite engaging at times. I just hope that the next book feature less multiple POV.

Recommended for: fans of Unearthly
Verdict: 3 stars.

In my Debut Author Reading Challenge 
Available on: Amazon

Splash into Summer Giveaway Hop

Welcome to my stop of the Splash into Summer Giveaway Hop hosted by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and  Page Turners Blog.

Rules:

1. One winner will get a book of their choice up to $15 USD from The Book Depository/Amazon.

2. As usual it's open to International followers as long as The Book Depository ships to you.

3. Fill in the rafflecopter and that's it.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners: Goddess Interrupted & Tangled Tides Giveaway

Congrats to the winners of

Goddess Interrupted Giveaway

Christina Bahr


Tangled Tides Giveaway
Jenny C