My 2014 Meh Mini Reviews

I had  such a bad book slump last year because I was so dissappointed with so many books that I've read. Most of it are YA fantasy and after awhile it gets tedious to read books with similar plotline, sketchy world building, love triangle, instant love and such bland female characters. Many of my favourite YA series have ended so it might be that I'm still getting over that. So here are my thoughts on some of the disappointments of last year.

The Dolls (The Dolls #1) by Kiki Sullivan
ebook, 384 pages 
Published September 2nd 2014
by Balzer + Bray
ARC from Netgalley
Goodreads | 

Eveny Cheval just moved back to Louisiana after spending her childhood in New York with her aunt Bea. Eveny hasn’t seen her hometown since her mother’s suicide fourteen years ago, and her memories couldn’t have prepared her for what she encounters. Because pristine, perfectly manicured Carrefour has a dark side full of intrigue, betrayal, and lies—and Eveny quickly finds herself at the center of it all. Enter Peregrine Marceau, Chloe St. Pierre, and their group of rich, sexy friends known as the Dolls. From sipping champagne at lunch to hooking up with the hottest boys, Peregrine and Chloe have everything—including an explanation for what’s going on in Carrefour. And Eveny doesn’t trust them one bit. But after murder strikes and Eveny discovers that everything she believes about herself, her family, and her life is a lie, she must turn to the Dolls for answers. Something’s wrong in paradise, and it’s up to Eveny, Chloe, and Peregrine to save Carrefour and make it right. 

If you love to read about vain, snobbish and pretty rich high schoolers with magical powers then this is certainly for you. Otherwise just stay away from this Southern fantasy.I don't get the appeal of reading about some mean girls with voodoo powers. And the love triangle just made me cringe, Beautiful Creatures is still my favourite Southern YA to this day. Oh..how I miss Ethan and Lena.

The Fire Wish (The Jinni Wars #1)
by Amber Lough 
Published July 22nd 2014 
by Random House Children's
ARC from Netgalley
Goodreads |

A jinni. A princess. And the wish that changes everything. . . . 

Najwa is a jinni, training to be a spy in the war against the humans. Zayele is a human on her way to marry a prince of Baghdad—which she’ll do anything to avoid. So she captures Najwa and makes a wish. With a rush of smoke and fire, they fall apart and re-form—as each other. A jinni and a human, trading lives. Both girls must play their parts among enemies who would kill them if the deception were ever discovered—enemies including the young men Najwa and Zayele are just discovering they might love.

I'm always intrigued when a YA fantasy is set in some exotic-non white/Western setting because hey..I'm all for diversity. And the fact that the book is about jinnis made me all excited. I mean.. come on..we need more jinni stories. Enough of those vampires, werewolves and fairies stuff. Jinni rocks! But after reading this and putting this review on hold for such a long time, I think I need to be honest and say that this is so disappointing. I tried very hard to like it and ended up so annoyed that a wonderful idea and setting is wasted on such boring characters, predictable plots and cheesy instant loves. (Sigh). 

The Queen's Choice (Heirs of Chrior #1) 
by Cayla Kluver 
Hardcover, 512 pages 
Published January 28th 2014 
by Harlequin Teen
Goodreads | 

Magic was seeping out of me, black and agonizing. I could see it drifting away. The magic that would let me pass the Road to reach home again. When sixteen-year-old Anya learns that her aunt, Queen of the Faerie Kingdom of Chrior, will soon die, her grief is equalled only by her despair for the future of the kingdom. Her young cousin, Illumina, is unfit to rule, and Anya is determined not to take up the queen's mantle herself. Convinced that the only solution is to find Prince Zabriel, who long ago disappeared into the human realm of Warckum, and persuade him to take up his rightful crown, Anya journeys into the Warckum Territory to bring him home. But her journey is doomed to be more harrowing than she ever could have imagined. She’s searching for answers to her past. They’re hunting her to save their future. 

I believe I had enough of fairies stories to last me a lifetime after reading this book. It was unbelievably boring even from the very beginning. Why would you want to rescue a spoilt faire prince who doesn't even want to rule in the first place is beyond me. Anya could have just taken the easier route by taking over the kingdom instead of getting hopelessly lost and powerless in the Warckum Territory.

Book Blitz & Giveaway: The Gatekeeper's Son

Hi, everyone! Today I'm having a Book Blitz for the YA Asian fantasy; The Gatekeeper's Son.


The Gatekeeper’s Son 
by C.R. Fladmark (The Gatekeeper’s Son #1) 
 Publication date: October 1st 2014 
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult  

Junya’s grandfather is a billionaire who keeps the secret to his success hidden in a heavily guarded safe. His mother is a martial artist who wields a razor-sharp katana—and seems to read his mind. And a mysterious girl in a Japanese school uniform can knock him over—literally—with just a look. What do they know that he doesn’t? Junya’s life takes a dangerous turn on his sixteenth birthday, when someone sets out to destroy not only the family’s business empire—the one that he’s set to inherit—but Junya himself. He’s fighting for his life, and doesn’t know who to trust. What has his family been keeping from him? Junya’s journey takes him from the narrow streets of San Francisco to Japan, and through hidden portals to the top of the ancient Japanese Izumo Shinto shrine, to places where death and violence are a way of life. And in a mystical world he’s never imagined, he finds his true destiny. .

Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | 

Award winning author, C.R. Fladmark lives in a small, historic town in British Columbia and travels often to Japan, where he researches his novels among the ancient sites in Shimane Prefecture. To learn more, and read a way longer bio of his life and see FAQ, visit www.crfladmark.com or find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crfladmark.;

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | 

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May I Suggest Giveaway Hop

Hello everyone! Welcome to my stop of the May I Suggest Giveaway Hop hosted by Valerie  from Stuck in Books. I did this last year and decided to have another one this year since May is my birthday month. Yay!

Rules:

1. One winner will get a book from my suggestion list. These are books that I loved so far this year and some are my most anticipated for 2015. It's a combination of YA, fantasy and mystery which are my current favourite genre right now.

2. Fill in the rafflecopter and that's it.
3. Open to everyone! Don't forget to wish me a Happy Birthday..:).

 

 

 

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Review: Red Queen

Red Queen

by Victoria Aveyard

Published February 10th 2015
by Orion
Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | TBD

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red Girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

It is indeed one of my anticipated book of 2015 and when I started reading it, I was so confident that it is a 5 star read. I love the fact that Mare comes from a poor and loving family. I find it interesting that in her world even girls are conscripted to serve in the war when you turned eighteen. And Mare was doomed from the start. She was not an apprentice like her younger sister Gisa who is a skilled seamstress or her best friend Kilorn who is a future fisherman. She had no apparent talent other than pickpocketing. So she had accepted the fate that awaits her earlier on. 

But a chance encounter with a stranger and a twist of fate change Mare and Kilorn's life forever. Mare was whisk off to the summer palace of the ruling Silver to serve as a servant. And that's when things get really interesting. But let me spare you all the details.

As I said, there's so many things that I like about this book. The setting, the wonderful world building and the fact that the main character is not an orphan that just spring out of nowhere like most female YA protagonist. Mare reminds me a bit of Katniss. With her brothers away at war, her family looks up to her to take care of them so it does make some sense when she took the risks to protect her family.

What I don't get is..how easily she is caught up in a love triangle with the two charming Silver princes? I mean really...she is supposed to be this cool savior of the Reds but she has times to secretly dance at night with one and be all romantic with the other? Seriously I was rolling my eyes at this point.
And that ending just came out of nowhere. It bothers me that I was left hanging with more questions at the end.

Book Blitz & Giveaway: Wash Me Away

Hi, everyone! Today I'm having a Book Blitz for the book Wash Me Away by Wendy Owens.

Monsters have a way of following you. Immersed in a new world at boarding school, Addy Buckley learns she’s not the only one with secrets. While trying to navigate the minefield of painful lies that seem to be rattling around her family’s past, she meets soft on the eyes and heavy on the heart, Napoleon Blake. When faced with the darkness, Addy must decide to cling to her new life and friends or let the monster carry her away. The choice is hers, sink or swim.

Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | 

I smile at the sincerity in his voice. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you for keeping the ghosts away. ”He’s no longer looking at me. Instead he watches our friends leap into the air, laughing and screaming as they chase the fluttering glow bugs.

I think about his words. That’s exactly what he has done for me … keep the ghosts away.

I lay down in the tall grass, my head tilted to the night sky, the moon full over our heads.

“Alrighty,” he says, filling the void next to me. “What are we doing?”

“Watching.”

“For?” he asks.

“God.”

His hand seeks mine through the blades of grass, our palms flat against one another’s. My heart starts to race. I’m listening to the song of the crickets mixed with our friend’s laughter, and in that moment I want nothing more than to crash into Leo and make the world stop turning. Instead, I settle for the moment, touching a friend’s hand, quietly keeping the ghosts at bay for one another.

“Do you think he’s there?” he asks.

“Who?” I forget what we’re talking about, distracted by his touch.

He doesn’t move his hand away. “God.”

I swallow. I’ve wondered that a lot, especially as a little girl, on those nights that Daddy would visit my room. “I don’t know,” I answer in barely a whisper.

“It’s a nice thought.”

“What is?”

“The whole heaven thing. That people are waiting for us,” he says.

“I guess.”

“What? You don’t believe in heaven?”

“I don’t know,” I say again honestly. “If that’s all real, it just seems hard to swallow.”

“What does?”

“Suffering,” I reply.

He’s quiet, and I wish I hadn’t rained on the moment. “Yeah, it is.”

 I want to tell him I hope there’s a heaven because he deserves to see his brother again. I want to tell him that I hope hell exists because people like my father deserve to go there. I want to tell him that through all the bull, I still have hope it’s all real and this being is out there, loving me with all the blemishes others have placed onto me. But instead I lay there, content with the touch of his hand.

Wendy Owens Wendy Owens is a writer, born in the small college town, Oxford Ohio. After attending Miami University, Wendy went onto a career in the visual arts. After several years of creating and selling her own artwork she gave her first love, writing, a try. It’s become a passion ever since. Wendy now happily spends her days writing the stories her characters guide her to tell, admitting even she doesn’t always know where that might lead. Her first series, The Guardians, is a YA fantasy series about angel and human hybrids. Since then she has branched into NA Contemporary Romance and released titles to include Stubborn Love, Only In Dreams, and Do Anything. Her next romance, The Luckiest is scheduled to be released in July 2014. When she’s not writing, this dog lover can be found spending time with her tech geek husband, their three amazing kids, and two pups. She loves to cook and is a film fanatic.

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Book Hype: Good or Bad?

As you can see, I'm a major sucker for hype surrounding books. Which is not surprising actually since I love books so much and do sometimes wonder what other people are reading? What is the most popular book out there? Those on the New York Times Best Selling List. The books everyone seemed to buy.The one even those casual readers are talking about.

Casual readers are the masses in my country. They don't follow a specific genre. They read what's currently popular just to be in the know. Crazy book lovers (like you and I) have a long list of favourite authors, favourite genres, series that we're collecting and so on. A casual reader will buy a book or two a year and talk about it incessantly while the book lovers just smile politely thinking how much books they can get for a $100.

Most of my friends are casual readers. Thanks to book hype, they're read several popular fiction such as Twilight, the Harry Potter series and even got hooked on the Hunger Games series. But I toed the line when one of them forced me to buy Fifty Shades of Grey. Erotica is certainly not my thing, darling. And yes the movie and book was banned here which is kind of funny because I saw  the series being promoted on a local bookstore in front of children months before the movie was out.

But the latest book hype surrounding female eccentric mystery thrillers baffled me. Gone Girl and now The Girl on the Train. Apparently women love to read about other women being murdered or turned into a murderer these past few years. And men apparently. Blimey. But, it is certainly an improvement from erotica. No offense to those avid fans.

So what do you guys think of book hype? Is it good or bad? Overblown promotional stunt without substance? What happened if the popular book does not meet our expectations? Its good that there's a hype at all surrounding books. Otherwise how do we get those casual readers and non readers (like my husband) to even read a book. And when those popular books get turned into a movie, we'll be the ones who knew the plot as well as the ending well before the others. And I'll be the only one thinking I much prefer the book to the movie after all.

Book Blast & Giveaway: Love, Lucy

Hi, everyone! Today I'm having a Book Blast for the book Love, Lucy by April Lindner. There's also a wonderful guest post by author where she shares some tips for travelling abroad just like the main character; Lucy in the book. Oooh I just love HOLIDAYS..don't you? I'm going to Phuket next month so this book just might get me into that vacation mood. Don't forget to enter the awesome giveaway to win a copy of the book and 3 signed Jane posters.

Title: LOVE, LUCY
Author: April Lindner
Release date: January 27, 2015
 Publisher: Poppy
Pages: 304
Formats: Hardcover, eBook

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too. In this coming-of-age romance, April Lindner perfectly captures the highs and lows of a summer love that might just be meant to last beyond the season.

Find it: AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY | INDIEBOUND | GOODREADS

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April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, releasing January 27, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

BLOG | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | TUMBLR | GOOGLE + | GOODREADS

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SOME RULES OF THE ROAD

Like Lucy Sommersworth, the heroine of Love, Lucy, my parents gave me the gift of a lifetime: a backpacking trip to Europe. I was a bit older than Lucy—22, and just out of

college—but when I arrived in Milan, Italy with a Eurail pass, a copy of Let’s Go: Europe, and a seventy-pound backpack I could barely lift, I was a wee bit terrified. Like Lucy, I spoke only a little bit of Italian, just barely enough to get by, and I wasn’t particularly good at

reading maps or train schedules. Unlike Lucy, I was travelling solo.

Luckily, my journey began with training wheels. I’d just taken a college Italian class, and my professor had offered a safe crash pad for the first few days of my trip—in

her family home in the Alps. Less luckily, when I reached Malpensa airport, nobody was there to pick me up. Giddy with excitement and jet lag, I wandered around the airport, eavesdropping on Italians as they hugged each other hello and goodbye, and had noisy arguments. I’d never felt more alone in

my life. Where would I sleep that night if my ride didn’t show up?

Luckily, my professor’s brother arrived at last to whisk me away to the family home in Domodossola. The extended family welcomed and fed me, gave me tours of their city

with its charming medieval center, helped me practice my Italian, and, when the time was right, brought me to the train station where my solo travels began for

real. It was time to take off the training wheels. 

If I’d felt alone back in the airport, I was even more so on that train to Verona, a city where I didn’t know a soul. In those pre-internet days, I could disappear

into thin air and nobody would even notice I was gone. The thought was chilling, but oddly exciting.

By nightfall, I’d made it to Verona. I’d figured out the public transportation, found a youth hostel, and booked myself a bed. Best of all, I had introduced myself to a handful of other backpackers. We hung out together in the hostel’s common area, sharing bread and cheese, exchanging stories, discussing the rules of the road—those bits of practical wisdom our travels were teaching us. Here are a few.

Time passes differently on the road.  Spend a few very intense hours seeing the sites with strangers and by the end of the day, those strangers have become a part of your story. Years later you’ll see their faces in your photo album and still remember stray details of the adventures you shared together, even if you can’t quite recall their names. 

Spontaneity is key.  There are few things as magical as showing up at a train station with no idea where you’re headed next, picking a random

train, and hopping on. 

Janis Joplin said it best: Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.  When you’re carrying all your possessions on

your back in a city where you don’t know a soul, you’re absolutely free. You can go anywhere, do anything. That freedom has its lonely moments—but it

can be the doorway to all kinds of adventures.

Embrace misadventure.  As carefully as you plan there will be crazy mistakes: wrong turns, slept-through train stops, multilingual misunderstandings, and all kinds of other blunders—and these will make the best stories. My misadventures are some of my favorite memories. The time I missed curfew and had to climb into my hostel through a second-story window. The morning when, hanging out my recently washed clothes to dry, I dropped my wet underthings out the window, onto a

stranger’s head. The night when, with no room to stay in, I slept on Venice’s train station steps with about a hundred other backpackers, the stars above us and the Grand Canal stretched out before us.

Would I trade that last memory for a safe, comfy night in an actual bed?  Not on your life.

The Giveaway

There is a blast-wide giveaway, ending February 6th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific, for:

1 copy of LOVE, LUCY to be ordered from Amazon or The Book Depository – Int’l

3 JANE posters (signed) – US only

Enter in the Rafflecopter below...

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