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.

Website | Goodreads| Facebook |  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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.