Tuesday, 10 March 2015

The Perfect Mother


Published November 24 2014 by Plume

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20893341-the-perfect-mother?ac=1

SUMMARY

When an American exchange student is accused of murder, her mother will stop at nothing to save her.

A midnight phone call shatters Jennifer Lewis’s carefully orchestrated life. Her daughter, Emma, who’s studying abroad in Spain, has been arrested after the brutal murder of another student. Jennifer rushes to her side, certain the arrest is a terrible mistake and determined to do whatever is necessary to bring Emma home. But as she begins to investigate the crime, she starts to wonder whether she ever really knew her daughter. The police charge Emma, and the press leaps on the story, exaggerating every sordid detail. One by one, Emma’s defense team, her father, and finally even Jennifer begin to have doubts.
 A novel of harrowing emotional suspense, The Perfect Mother probes the dark side of parenthood and the complicated bond between mothers and daughters.

REVIEW

I won this book as part of the Goodreads first reads program, I didn't know what to expect from it, except I was hoping that it would keep me on the edge of my seat with what was going to happen next, and it did not disappoint!

I liked most of the characters, however, I did not like Emma, she came off as a spoiled rotten little brat, it was not till the end of the book that I started to feel differently about her. She did not seem to understand the seriousness of the situation that she was in, and just seemed to wrapped up in her own head to want to try and help herself at all.

Jennifer was a dutiful mother who only wanted to help her daughter get out of a very serious situation, even when her daughter did not want to help at all. I can understand the reasons for her actions throughout the novel, and I think that I would do the same thing if I was in her shoes. Mark  was strong through the whole thing, even though he could not be there for Emma as much as he wanted to.

I think my favourite character was Roberto, he was the manager of the case for Jennifer, and he had his own side line story that I would like to see turned in to a follow up from this book, don't know if that is going to happen.

I liked how the author gave instances of where the criminal justice system was different in Spain than it was in the US, you could tell she did her homework there. The police had their own theory on what happened, and with all the facts that Emma was giving them, I believed them over her, and as much as Jennifer did not want to, there was a point in the novel where she could not put those doubts aside anymore. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I will be looking up the authors other work as well, I give this book a 4/5!
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Thursday, 18 December 2014

Lunar Passing Blog Tour



Book Title: Lunar Passing (Book 2 of the Caged Moon Series) by Rachel Deagan
Genre: YA  Paranormal Romance



As if in slow motion, the world spun. The front fender of the truck slammed into us from behind, and everything lurched forward. Bags, arms, clothes, sailed by my head. The muffled sound of screams were lost somewhere in a tumultuous roar as the van hit a pothole, and we began to roll. Cold metal crushed in on me, and the splintering sound of gunshots echoed in my ears…

Several months had passed since the murders in the old farmhouse and secrets had been revealed. Too bad a cover up in this day and age, hadn’t been exactly so easy.

EXCERPT

“What are you doing here?” Aaron asked, standing in the doorway at the side of the room marked Staff Only. I hadn’t heard the main door open behind me, nor had I felt the cold draft of air that would have been pulled in with him. So he was already here, before me. The thought sent goose bumps down my spine. “Liam said for everyone to stay put, so we wouldn’t be seen.”
“I should be asking you the same thing,” I said, trying to front an air of self-confident bravery. “Why are you here then?”
A devious smile rose across his lips. “I don’t take orders from my brother. Apparently, you don’t either. I admire that.”
My stomach felt sick. How could he think that I would ever be on his side about anything, especially in defiance of Liam? “He loves you,” I blurted out, trying to refrain from shaking. I was so upset. “How dare you.”
“Oh, please. Don’t go getting your panties all in a bunch. You really need to learn how to relax.” He shook his head, and closed the staff door behind him. “I was teasing, Charlotte, but that aside, what are you doing out here?”
My wolf wanted to claw and scratch him. He had some nerve. “I don’t need to be telling you anything,” I said, slipping the envelope into my pocket while he closed the staff door behind him.
“Well, good then.” He smiled in a way that made me want to growl. “Then I don’t have to tell you, what I’m doing either.” He winked, moving past me to the main door leading to the curb outside. “We have a truce.”
“Wait,” I said, and he paused, lifting a brow. “What are you talking about? Why were you in the office? That’s staff only.”
“Now, come on, Charlotte. I thought we had a deal.”
“I never agreed to anything, and you don’t exactly have a great track record. Did you do something to the guy who works here? Where is he?”
Aaron shrugged, extending his arms with mocked innocence.
I sighed. “Fine, I was going to mail a letter to my parents to tell them I was okay. I didn’t want them to worry.”
“Thank you,” he said with a smile. “That’s all I wanted to know.” He turned back to the door, swinging it wide. The cool air nipped at my skin, making me shiver.
“Hey,” I said, stomping up to him, “that’s not fair. I told you what I was doing. Now you have to.”
“Why?” he asked with a chuckle. “You really are fun to mess with though,” he teased with a grin. “The look on your face is great.”
God, I hated him. I tried to stay calm.
“Did you do something to the man who works here?” I demanded through my teeth, barely containing the coiling fury building inside me.
He licked his lip and then leaned in close to me, his breath tickling my ear. “I ate him.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel grew up in small town Massachusetts where she spent most of her time writing about strange paranormal creatures instead of paying attention in class. She has always been considered the ‘dreamy’ one with her head in the clouds, but it has all been worth it. Rachel, now, is YA Author of both The Caged Moon Series, and The Prophecy.
Twitter: @racheldeagan

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Sunday, 7 December 2014

After Blog Tour



After: (After Series Book 1) by Samantha Gregory
Genre: YA Horror
Published: May 31st, 2014
Published by J Ellington Ashton Press

SUMMARY

The dead walked. The world fell apart. But what happened after? Jenna Deluise is just trying to survive in this broken world, but after her father’s apparent suicide she discovers that she didn’t really know him at all. How was he connected to the zombies? Why is his former boss so sure he is alive?
What else was he hiding?

EXCERPT

The dead walked. People try to forget, to pretend it didn’t
happen. But it happened. I’ve heard the stories, the horror. I’ve even
seen some of it for myself. Lives were destroyed, families torn apart,
so many turned, and when it was over - the world was a different
place.
Now the dead are gone, turned to ash.
From the ashes of the old government rose the New Alliance, a
powerful military group who helped us rebuild and aided in creating
a vaccine to prevent another outbreak.
It came with a price, of course. The Alliance has complete
control over the country. Anyone who goes up against them is sent to
one of the many containment camps.
Maybe we were safer with the dead...

One
Jenna
I kept my head down as I walked along the C road, clutching the
bag of groceries to my chest. It wasn’t the kind of neighborhood you
wanted to linger in, and it was one of the better ones in the city. I
sidestepped a man sitting on the ground. He was wrapped in an old,
tattered blanket. He held his hands out to whoever passed him,
begging for any money they could spare. I tried not to look at him. I
didn’t have any money to give him. I barely had enough for the
groceries I just bought.
Joining the queue for the checkpoint, I tried to ignore the chill
wind blowing. Summer was definitely over. My jacket was
threadbare as it was and I couldn’t afford a new one. Winter was
going to be fun. Not.
I kept my gaze fixed on the ground as I moved closer to the front
of the line. It wasn’t a good idea to make eye contact with a lot of
the people who lived around here. I missed our old house. At least
you could walk the streets without worrying about getting mugged,
or worse.
I was jostled from behind by a woman wearing a black knit cap
and a long black coat.
“What are you looking at?” she snapped. I quickly faced front. I
wasn’t interested in a fight; I just wanted to go home.
I swiped my identity pass at the checkpoint; I was two blocks
from home. The Alliance soldier posted there scrutinized it carefully
before handing it back. Seriously, did I look like a threat?
“Reason for entering this area?” he asked, his cold blue eyes
piercing mine. He wore the standard black uniform with the red
Alliance symbol on the breast. An automatic weapon hung at his side
and I had no doubt that he knew how to use it. The New Alliance
was the ultimate law enforcement.
“I live here,” I said.
“What’s in the bag?”
“Food.”
I don’t think he liked my tone, but I didn’t have another I cared
to use. Every freaking day I had to go through this. I’m pretty sure it
was the same guard too, but the AS had a habit of making people’s
lives miserable. He took his time searching my bag, for all that was
in it. A few canned goods.
The line behind me was a long one; everyone was crowded
together, eager to get home before dark. Most of the people looked
half starved. Food wasn’t cheap in this quadrant and a lot of people
had taken to stealing it to survive. We weren’t that bad, yet.
Finally, he waved me through. I hurried away, glad to put him
behind me.
I didn’t get far before startled cries rang through the crowd. I
glanced back to see someone stagger into the road. He was dressed
in rags, his face covered in dirt. The crowd fell silent as he let out a
loud moan. I froze. It couldn’t be. My heart began to race.
A ripple went through the crowd and one word rang out clearly.
The word no one wanted to hear, the word most people were too
terrified to even utter.
Several AS ran forward, weapons already drawn. When the man
saw them coming he dropped the act and raised his hands in
surrender.
“It was a joke,” he cried as he was tackled to the ground. There
were grunts and cries from him as the AS laid into him. Idiot!
Nobody tried to help him, and I didn’t blame them. It wasn’t
something to joke about.
They hauled him to his feet and led him away. I wasn’t sticking
around any longer.
Turning into the alleyway that would take me home, I found that it
was already occupied by a street vendor, selling a variety of fruits
that were hard to come by nowadays.
“Hey sweetness,” the vendor crooned at me. I glanced at him,
taking in the ratty hair, beard and cold black eyes that were checking
me out. I used my free hand to pull my jacket tighter around me.
I sped up, hoping to get past him, but he stepped forward,
blocking my path.
“Why don’t you choose something nice for yourself, then we can
discuss payment,” he raised an eyebrow. He was standing way too
close for my liking. I could smell his rancid breath.
9
He was at least six inches taller than me and while he was no
wrestler, he still had more muscle than me. This could go wrong
very quickly. Thinking fast, I said, “Do you have a permit to sell
these goods?”
I tried to keep my voice steady. The question seemed to confuse
him, “What?”
“A permit. Under section seven of the New Alliance code, it is
illegal to sell imported goods without one.”
“Yeah? And what would you know about it, little girl?”
I pulled an ID card from my jacket pocket, “Plenty, I’m an
undercover agent for the Alliance.”
He backed away, swearing, “An agent? What are they hiring
them straight out of kindergarten now?”
I glared at him. Okay, I look slightly younger than my seventeen
years but not that young.
“I should shut you down right now,” I said.
“Come on, I’m just trying to make a living, like everyone else.”
I sighed and took a closer look at his pitch. I spied some oranges.
I hadn’t had one in years. I picked up three of them and dropped
them into my grocery bag.
The vendor watched me, but didn’t say anything. Usually where
there was one agent, another was never far behind. He was probably
used to them shaking him down. Why would they pay for things
when they could just take them?
I lifted an apple too, making a show of biting into it. It was
delicious.
“If I catch you around here again, I’ll shut you down,” I walked
away.
At the end of the alley I turned right, passing a burnt out car. A
huge black skull had been painted on the wall beside it, along with
the words CHAOS REIGNS. Yeah, it did.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


When she’s not writing, Samantha works as a journalist and in her spare time she enjoys reading, archery and is learning to play guitar. After is her second novel and is the first book in a new zombie series.

Twitter: @sam_skgregory

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Wednesday, 3 December 2014

Last House Burning Blog Tour



Last House Burning by Katy Scott
Genre: YA/NA urban fantasy with a touch of satire
Publication Date: October 14th, 2014
Publisher: Herringshaw Press

SYNOPSIS

When you speak of the Devil, he probably won’t appear. But he may send one of his staff.last-house-burning-cover-webIn an old house in a deserted, burned-down village, a young woman called Verla lives alone. Year after year she stays there while the world changes around her, no one else ever stepping foot in the village, the people in the nearby towns forgetting she exists. Verla is used to it. It’s the way things have to be.Until Ben, a bored teenager visiting the area with his family, barges into her life and discovers her terrible secret. As he spirals deeper and deeper into the bureaucratic world of Heaven and Hell that Verla is part of, he realizes he has one chance to help free her from her lonely fate.
But securing Verla’s freedom is going to involve more than just an appointment at the local office of the underworld. Especially when Ben encounters a charismatic American with a suspiciously broad knowledge of Hell, a mysterious elevator with deep and terrifying powers, and a pinstripe-suited demon with an evil scheme that could shake the foundations of Heaven, Hell and Earth.
And things are about to get personal.
Last House Burning is part urban fantasy, part satire and all adventure. After all, the last thing you expect on a family vacation is to discover that there are pockets of Hell here on Earth – and a rowdy crew of Heaven and Hell employees running the entire show.

EXCERPT

That night, Ben lay fully-clothed on his bed, thinking. No one else seemed fascinated with Verla and her big house, and he felt a little foolish about his persistence with finding out what her story was. But he had a sense of curiosity, not just about the house but Verla herself, and he had a strange but distinct feeling that whatever was going on in her life, he could help her.

But she hadn’t been particularly forthcoming about her circumstances, and everyone else was showing a frustrating lack of interest. What did people do when they were in this situation? 

In the movies they trotted down to their local library, found a large dingy room with pools of sunlight dropping through the windows, and searched through huge, dusty tomes until they found the answer. But Ben didn’t know what he was looking for in the first place. Maybe finding out more about the town’s history would be a good start.

“Mom?” he called, jumping up from his bed. “Do you know if there’s a library around here? Would it be open now? I need to look something up!”

“It’s ten o’clock at night,” his mother’s voice floated back to him. “Can’t you just Google it?”

Right, of course. Ben rolled his eyes at himself.

His phone still wouldn’t connect to the internet, so he settled himself in front of his father’s laptop in the lounge and brought up a search page. Feeling more than a bit like a stalker, he typed in ‘Verla’ and ‘Carmenton’.

No results.

Like it was going to be that easy, he told himself – did he expect that she’d have a personal website with her full story detailed?

He searched for ‘Carmenton fire’ and scrolled through the results. Swimming carnivals from 1950 onwards. The official website for the bottle cap museum. After he'd clicked on a few dead ends, the website for the Carmenton Historical Society flashed up in front of him.

There was a page dedicated to the fire, with a few black and white photos of burned houses and a list of everyone who had died. Ben scanned through the names and felt a small pang when he saw the name ‘Diamant’ appearing a number of times. He'd had no idea his mother’s ancestors had been so involved in this little town and its big tragedy.

The photo gallery contained sepia images of large, imposing houses: the mansions before the fires ruined their grandeur. Even though the pictures were faded and marked, he could see how beautiful the town must have been. There were groups of people posing stiffly in front of the houses, with the formal faces that usually appeared in the photographs of that time. 

He scrolled through a whole page of these photos, and sighed to himself. It hadn’t told him anything he didn’t know already. He’d just have to go back and pester Verla again. At least she’d said they could be friends. He closed the lid of the laptop and with nothing better to do, went to bed to read his book for a while before going to sleep.

Hours later, Ben woke with a start, and lay in bed listening to the silence of the night. Something was sitting at the back of his mind, something was trying to tell him something…

He leapt out of bed, into the lounge room and back to the laptop. He hunted through the browser history to find the historical society’s website, and clicked on the photo gallery. After scrolling past several images, he finally came to the one he was looking for. A picture of a man and a woman with three little boys and a teenage girl. Ben stared at the picture, then zoomed in impatiently. The girl’s face stared at him, unsmiling and formal. She was dressed in a high-collared dress with a long flared skirt, which reminded him of some pictures he’d seen of Amish people. He looked from her clothes to her face, the dark eyes, the black hair and the now-familiar sombre expression.

“Oh no,” Ben whispered. “Verla.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


I write books in a couple of different genres: urban fantasy and chick lit/romance. When I’m not writing books I write for lifestyle magazines and corporate websites, and I blog about gaming over at warpkey.org.
I like movies, video games, cheese, shoes and my husband. I’m technically an adult but most of the time I feel like I’m just pretending to be one.


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Tuesday, 11 November 2014

The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes


SUMMARY

Stella Sweeney is back in Dublin. After living the dream in New York for a year - touring her self-help book, appearing on talk shows all over the USA and living it up in her 10-room duplex on the Upper West Side - she's back to normality with a bang. And she's got writer's block.

Stella wants a clean break as she didn't exactly leave New York on a high. Why is she back in Ireland so soon? Who is it who keeps calling? Stella wants to get back to being the woman she used to be. But can she? And should she?

REVIEW

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book as it is my first Marian Keyes novel that I have read, however, I was pleasantly surprised, and it for sure will not be my last!

Our main character is Stella, she is at the beginning living with her son in Ireland. The story goes back and forth in time, and we soon come to know how she is in the situation that she is in now. We soon realize that she was married with two children, and something happens during that marriage to cause it to fail, which she feels responsible for. Through the whole book we get to know more and more about Stella, and you really find yourself rooting for her, wanting things to work out in her favour. 

I loved all the characters in this book, even the unlikeable ones because they were real, I can imagine running in to any of them on the street and them being completely normal as no one is perfect. The pacing was great, nothing thrown at you in big gulps, you just take the whole story in one part at a time.


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Thursday, 6 November 2014

Jesus Jackson Blog Tour



Purchase Links
Barnes & Noble

SUMMARY

Jonathan Stiles is a 14 year-old atheist who is coping with his first day of ninth grade at the fervently religious St. Soren’s Academy when his idolized older brother Ryan is found dead at the bottom of a ravine behind the school. As his world crumbles, Jonathan meets an eccentric stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jesus Christ (except for his white linen leisure suit and sparkling gold chains). Jesus Jackson, as he calls himself, offers to provide faith to Jonathan. He also suggests that Ryan s death may not have been an accident after all. Jonathan teams up with Henry, his new best friend at St. Soren s, to investigate. The two boys find footprints leading to the ravine that match Ryan s sneakers. They are assisted by Ryan s grieving girlfriend, Tristan, who also thinks the accident theory is bunk. The police, however, will not listen. But Jonathan knows something the police do not know: Shortly before his death, Ryan was doing cocaine with fellow footballer and number one suspect Alistair not far from the ravine where his body was found. An inspired Jonathan battles sanctimonious school psychologists, overzealous administrators, and a cavalry of Christian classmates on his quest to discover the truth about Ryan’s death and about god, high school, and the meaning of life, while he’s at it. But he keeps getting distracted by Cassie Alistair s quirky younger sister who holds the keys to the answers Jonathan is searching for, but who also makes him wonder if he should be searching for them at all.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


James Ryan Daley is a writer, editor, and digital designer. After earning an MFA in fiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2004, James has spent most of the years since teaching writing to college students, creating websites about video games, and editing anthologies of fiction and political rhetoric. When he's not glued to his computer, James can usually be found skiing the slopes of Vermont’s famous mountains or sailing the harbors of Rhode Island. He lives in Newport, RI with his wife and two daughters

Author links:  www.jamesryandaley.com

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Saturday, 1 November 2014

Shade Blog Tour







SYNOPSIS

Clendon Kiernan has always preferred the shadows. A place where he was free from the hate and fear, from the stares and ridicule of others. One night Clen discovers the shocking truth of why. He is a Shade. A thing of darkness. A creature with the ability to shred souls. When a vile whisper tells him to destroy everything around him Clen does the only thing he can.

 

But he cannot run from himself. The darkness growing inside Clen will soon consume him if he does not learn to control it. In his quest to do so, Clen learns that there is an entire world that exists in the shadows of Ellis, a world that has been hidden from him – secret clans with extraordinary abilities, the ghosts of a hidden past, and a war that’s been brewing for millennia. Clen must uncover the true history of Ellis, see through the generations of lies and deceit, and suffer betrayal and heartbreak if he is to save all those who hate and fear him. But when he learns the truth, will he want to?

 

The darkness in him could save Ellis. Or it could be what destroys it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Cody was born in Upstate New York. Eventually setting off to seek his fortune, he worked in a paper mill, a whipped cream factory, cleaned apartments, and administratively assisted several organizations before returning to the Adirondacks with a wife and child that he picked up along the way.

 

He approaches life as though it were a page – frequently rearranging paragraphs to make it more interesting if not wholly true, fudging with the margins to fit more in, and, sometimes, erasing entire sections altogether.

When not altering reality, he is scouring comic book shops, lying on the ground, or floor (whichever he happens to be standing on when he feels the need to go horizontal), trying to convince his wife to make french toast (she makes amazing french toast), and searching for the darkest cup of coffee in existence.

 





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