artsy musings of a bibliophile

young adult

Review: Shift by Raine Thomas

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Title: Shift (Firstborn, #2)

Author: Raine Thomas
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Iambe Books
Release Date: 24 August 2012
Pages: 323 (eBook)

Synopsis

Having the ability to shapeshift, Sophia is familiar with change. But even she feels the rising tension in her homeland.
A shadowy male and deadly beast reside in their midst. The births of the newest Kynzesti loom. Hostile Mercesti continue to hunt for the Elder Scroll, and a traumatized female is too afraid to use her abilities to stop them.
Topping off Sophia’s stress is Quincy, the male she’s convinced can’t stand her. She rues the loss of their friendship, but can’t figure out how to move past it. She’ll soon learn, however, that mending that rift bears more significance than she ever imagined.
The search for the Elder Scroll takes on unexpected urgency, and Sophia finds herself in a race across the mainland. To stop the Mercesti led by Eirik, she and her companions must get past their differences and unite against them. If they don’t, Eirik will acquire the immense power he seeks, and two of the beings Sophia loves most will die.


My Rating
* * * *
The Review
Shift follows the events that occurred in Defy as the back story but it focuses on Sophia and Quincy as the protagonists. I looked forward to reading Sophia’s story because she is different in appearance and abilities from the rest of her class due to her different DNA. Thus, it is curious to see how she sees herself and how she copes with the fact that she is different. Where Tate is defiant, free-spirited and stubborn, Sophia’s personality shines through her intellect and her ability to reason. However, this also makes her prone to come to wrong conclusions when it comes to the matters of heart and Quincy.
Quincy has been staying with the family to oversee the pregnancies of the Saraquel daughters as he is an obstetrician. However, Saraquel was his best friend and he is considered like family to them. His feelings for Sophia extend far beyond the love one has for family and it seems everyone is aware of it except Sophia herself. This is also true for Sophie. It is interesting to see two people apparently so in love with each other trying to hide behind the shadow of masked emotions. Both of them are convinced that the other cannot stand the site of them.
But when Quincy has to recount the events that led to Saraquel’s death, Sophia sees that he has no one to comfort him. This leads to an intervention where Sophia ends up blurting out her thoughts out loud. Quincy immediately sees the error of his way but the plans of Eirik and Metis stands in the way. Sophia also has to fully embrace her ability to shift and it is very interesting to see her change in that way.
The relationship of Tate and Zachariah also feature in Shift and it is good to read about their relationship and read more about the background of Zachariah. A big event occurs in Shift which changes their relationship forever and I didn’t see it coming at all.
Shift gives a deeper insight into the evil plan introduced in Defy. For the Mercesti to become an Elder, the help of abilities Ariana and Tate have are required. Hence, it becomes a race against time as the Elders seek to get to the scroll before Eirik can and this ensues much of the action in the book.
Even though the book deals with a lot of characters, each of them have something different to offer to the reader. Raine Thomas has written everything with such preciseness that it wasn’t hard to keep up with all that was happening in Shift. It would be interesting to see how things end for everyone in Elder as the big revelation at the end of Shift had me reeling for the last book. Shift is a great book with humor, awkwardness, romance, betrayal and action all packed in together making it a page-turner of a book.
Best Quotes:
“And this time, when she lashed out at him, it was with the arm of a bear. She ripped through fabric and muscle as her claws and power struck him. This time, he was the one who fell.”

““The kind of emotion required to create an avowed pairing is unparalleled,” he said at last. “Two beings have to love each other unequivocally. They have to be willing to commit their entire existences to each other…die for one another.”” 

Raine Thomas can be found at 
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Buy Shift (Firstborn, #2)
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Thanks to Raine Thomas for providing me a copy of Shift for review.

Review: Owlet by Emma Michaels Blog Tour + Excerpt + Giveaway

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Title: Owlet (Society of Feathers, #1)

Author: Emma Michaels
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Tribute Books
Release Date: 13 October 2012
Pages: 178 (eARC)

Synopsis
Somewhere between falling and flying… there is a girl.

Iris has a secret. She lost her memory eight years ago and never told a living soul. After an asthma attack one night she finds out that her dreams of a strange house on a snowy island may be a memory resurfacing but the more she learns about the past the more she realizes the life she has been living is a lie. As the façade her father has built starts to crumble around her she will have to decide which means more to her; the truth or her life.
My Rating
* * * *
The Review
Owlet begins and ends with a dream and in between, the words have a singsong and dreamlike quality to them as if they are floating inside the mind of the reader. 
I didn’t know what to expect from Iris and her story. It is so unique to read a fantasy book where the main character is asthmatic, dreams of flying and has more than a subtle conscience speaking to her about the life she no longer remembers.
While the reason behind Iris’s memory loss is not made clear, it is clear that Iris is being protected from humans that want her dead. Humans that are have birds as half-souls just like her. Iris was supposed to have dies as a baby because of what she was thought to be. But unconditional love made her parents want to protect her at any cost and that cost was not telling Iris who she really is.
Yet she dreams of an island she calls her Never-Never and flies to that island in her dreams and knows it like the back of her hand. When she finally gathers the courage to tell her father about the strange dreams, he is overjoyed and relieved. He decides to send her to the island with Diana, her caretaker telling her he’d join her soon and finally tell her the truth.
On the island, which is exactly like the her Never-Never, her mind tells her that she will also find him. He who has been waiting for her to find him and in her core she really knows him. Falcon was sent to harm her but he couldn’t do it and instead they fell in love as children. But then the dangerous circumstances and her memory loss made her forget him. Now he is adamant to never go through the pain of her not recognizing him.
Owlet is a very refreshing book in the fantasy genre. It isn’t long and when it ended I wanted to go on reading about the true self of Iris and what it means for Falcon. Though we only get to read about the secondary characters for a short amount of time, they really stick with you especially Diana and Nathanial. Emma Michaels is a talented author for having written Owlet with such an open mind and embracing the concept of the Stryx. I am looking forward to read more of her work.
Best Quotes:

“Chocolate chip pancakes are more important than grudges.”

“Closing her eyes for a moment, just wanting to clear away the tears from her lashes so that she could see Falcon clearly, Iris suddenly felt as though she was being pulled away from sweet oblivion as her moment of dreamless sleep slipped away from her and she felt snow against her skin.”

The Excerpt for the read along
The song is part of the legend. There is the original legend on the Vermilion but then there is also the Stryx legend of Tessa and Orinthian. Tessa was a Vermilion who fell in love with Orinthian. When word of their sad story spread songs were written about it, and this was one of them, a more recent version, in fact. My favorite…

Even as the stars shine, I only see the night.
Until I found a way to illuminate my sky;
A simple touch palm to palm with the man I came to love;
Sent the vivid colors of the world pouring into my gaze.
A simple touch that changed my life, as;
My heart started to dream in color.
I may be blind but he showed me the beauty the world had to offer;
By giving me one breath of his life at a time.
Slowly as he showed me sights I watched his face wither;
As my seeing the world’s beauty slowly stole him away from me.
I ran from him on swift wings to a place of safety;
And asked the Eyrie to lay me to rest.
I would not risk one of their own for my greed;
But as I asked them to let me pass,
I remembered that I had never seen the sun rise through the sky.
I asked them for only one favor,
I wanted to die flying;
On the Isle of White, from the highest cliff at sunrise;
I stood on the edge of death and felt the warmth on my face.
But before I could fall forward I felt gentle palms against my own,
And saw the sky was more than I ever imagined.
The colors set my heart afire.
As it did I watched my Orinthian’s sacrifice;
I faced a choice worse than the only one I had graced myself;
And learned to fly;
Flying to his side again;
Somewhere we would always see the world’s most exquisite beauty…
Together.

About the Author

Emma Michaels is the author of the ‘A Sense of Truth’ and ‘Society of Feathers’ series. Her goal with her latest YA novel ‘Owlet’ is to give others what she did not have growing up; a strong female protagonist with asthma. While her previous aspiration was to be a lady knight she realized that not being able to run more than a few feet might become a hindrance so turned to writing instead. Her day jobs include being a cover artist, marketing consultant and silk screen designer.

As the founder of The Writers Voice blog she loves to connect authors and readers. As a book blogger turned author, she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, until she moved at eighteen to Washington State. Suddenly, the world was a new place filled with tall green trees that reached further for the sky with every moment, making her want to do the same. Ever since, she has tried to make her life something new and different from what it was before, pursuing her future career, setting high goals and reaching for them. With the support of her fiancé, Chihuahua, and her amazing blog followers and fellow bloggers, she wants to prove to the world that anything is possible and help inspire fellow literary lovers to reach for their dreams.


Emma Michaels can be found at 

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Tribute Books can be found at
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Buy Owlet (Society of Feathers, #1)

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The Giveaway

The giveaway is open internationally and there are lots of prizes up for grabs! Enter away.
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Thanks to Tribute Books for providing me a copy of Owlet for review.

Review: Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Title: Cursed

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Release Date: 18 September 2012
Pages: 288 (ARC)
Synopsis
Dying sucks and high school senior Ember McWilliams knows firsthand. After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows.
Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things–including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he’s a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she’s more than interested. There’s just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden’s adopted father, a man she’s sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out. 
However, she’s willing to do anything to hold her sister’s hand again. And hell, she’d also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn’t? But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not have been an accident at all, she’s not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life. 
For real this time.
My Rating
* * *
The Review
You know just when you think that something cannot get any worse, it does? That’s what it’s like to live Ember’s life. She was supposed to be dead; only her younger sister Olivia brought her back from the dead. Now Ember feels cursed because her touch is deadly, her mother has a dead-to-the-world state of mind since her father died and Olivia keeps resurrecting animals. It’s like a family of freaks and even though Ember wants to just disappear, she can’t leave Olivia alone.
So in between juggling bullies at school and keeping up with Olivia’s demands, Ember is swamped, tired and lonely. She only has Adam to fall back on but even he doesn’t know her secret or the real reason behind her wearing gloves. And then she spots a Hot Dude and thinks, “My brain must have felt sorry for me, so it’d created the only type of guy I could touch—a fantasy one.”
Things take a turn for the worse when her ex-boyfriend dies at Ember’s hands, someone takes Olivia from school and the Hot Dude ends up squeezing her hands instead of dying when she attacks him knowing he has something to do with Olivia’s disappearance. Turns out there are gifted people out there and a man named Cromwell protects them. So it’s only natural that he forces takes in Ember’s family in order to protect Olivia’s gift. 
The fact that Ember is a danger to others is made painfully obvious to her by the other gifted people her family is now living with. All except Hayden the Hot Dude. He has the power to absorb energy and he believes that Ember can control her touch of death if she practices.
Ember is fierce yet extremely vulnerable ever since the accident and so she has a hard time trusting people and rightly so. There is something amiss with Cromwell and that doesn’t sit well with Ember so she tries to break free of him. I really connected with Ember on a certain level because she didn’t feel like she belonged anywhere however much she tried to make it all better. And boy does she! It’s like a battle of touch-don’t-touch going on inside her head.
As deeply emotional and captivating it was to read Cursed, it also has light and funny moments to offer. The romance between Ember and Hayden is built slowly and steadily. Hayden has his own demons to deal with and together they fit with that connection. Though they go through certain misunderstandings, Hayden really believes in Ember and gives her hope. However, Ember is convinced that Cromwell is bad news and tries to work out theories which agitates Hayden to an extent because he thinks highly of him.
Cursed is an engaging read and Jennifer Armentrout has put her own concept into it with the way the story is crafted. It has mysterious elements and a villain with a twisted mind. If you like books about deadly touches, Cursed is a must read and it will leave you feeling satisfied at the end.

The Quotes:

“You worry about hurting me, but you never seem to worry about me hurting you. And I’m the one with the killer touch.”

“My heart jumped in my chest, and then sped up erratically. The thick tension hit a new all-time high. Surprisingly, I found that I still had the ability to speak.”
Thanks to Spencer Hill Press for providing me an ARC of Cursed for review.

Review: Betwixt by Melissa Pearl Blog Tour + Giveaway

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ABOUT THE BOOK

young adult paranormal self-published on 5 November 2012
first book in Betwixt series

Beautiful, wild-child Nicole Tepper is hit by a car and left for dead. But when she wakes the next morning, Nicole finds herself in bed without a scratch. Perhaps she was more intoxicated than usual, as her mother is giving her the silent treatment and her friends are ignoring her as well. 
Things take a turn for the weird when Nicole soon discovers she is actually hovering between life and death. Her body is lying in the forest while her spirit is searching for anyone who can hear her. Unfortunately the only person who can is Dale Finnigan, the guy she publicly humiliated with a sharp-tongued insult that has left him branded.
Desperate, Nicole has no choice but to haunt Dale and convince the freaked-out senior to help her. Will he find her body before it’s too late? Or will the guy who tried to kill her with his car, beat him there and finish her off before anyone finds out?

THE RATING

THE REVIEW

Even though Betwixt is little over 200 pages long, it managed to stir up a range of emotions inside me. The story begins when Nicole was out partying as usual but then things turned from bad to worse when her boyfriend Trent leaves her stranded in the middle of nowhere. More annoyed than frightened, she starts walking down the road cursing, gets hit by a car and wakes up invisible to everyone but Dale Finnegan. With no memory of what happened last night, Nicole really thinks she is doomed.
On the surface, Nicole seems like the run of the mill popular, mean girl in high school who spend her days partying and staying out late at nights. She has almost convinced herself of the persona she adopted ever since Jody. The tree that Nicole tried to avoid looking at in order to forget the pain of what happened. To be mean and rude so people end up hating her which is so much easier than letting them see the damage in her.
There are little revelations along the way, as the discovery for Nicole’s body continues with Dale’s help. Being invisible to everyone except Dale, Nicole gets to see the true face of all the people in her life. When the initial shock wears off and search efforts go futile, Nicole gets the overwhelming feeling of deserving to die. To never be found. But it’s more about the journey of getting to her body than the destination. Especially when she drifts inside her body from time to time and the unbearable pain makes her realize the grave situation she is. She might just die if no one finds her in time.
Dale is a unique character in the book, he has an easygoing aura around him and the fact that it’s difficult for something to get to him. He might just have a scar running down one side of his face but he feels more proud of it than ashamed. No one know how he got it. He attempted to talk to Nicole before but she more than harsh with her and he finally had to let go. So when he comes across Nicole’s voice in school, despite being wary of her he decides to help her.
For all the time Nicole spends with Dale, she actually likes it but is afraid to admit so. Saddened by her parents initial reaction of her running away, Nicole goes through strong emotions when her parents consider the graveness of the situation as days pass. Dale and Nicole try to locate her body and find themselves more times at a standstill than they’d have preferred. However, when Nicole catches two people trying to find her body to bury her, things starts looking up.
The time Nicole and Dale spend together, confiding in each other and just being together is stirring. When Nicole gets to look at her life from the outside, she realizes how empty it really has been. And she knows why. It’s heartbreaking and gut-wrenching when her parents finally realizes that Nicole is worse off then they’d believe. What pulled them apart is part of the mystery and same goes for Dale and his headfirst approach towards life.
Betwixt is an engaging story of the time Nicole spends in between the state of living and dead. Will she survive and whether she would amend her falling out with her parents is an engrossing discovery. Betwixt is a thought-provoking book which jolts the reader’s mind to question the existence and why do we choose what we choose. Melissa Pearl has written a beautiful story of not just surviving life but living it. Yet for all that Betwixt offers, it’s a forgettable story because of its genericity.

THE QUOTES

‘I can feel the clock ticking with excruciating slowness as we wait for a resolution. It’s almost more painful than my wounds.’ 

‘And I want to kiss you every day, but not just because I’m saying goodbye.’

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa Pearl was born in Auckland, New Zealand, but has spent much of her life abroad, living in countries such as Jordan, Cyprus and Pakistan… not to mention a nine month road trip around North America with her husband. “Best. Year. Ever!!” She now lives in China with her husband and two sons. She is a trained elementary teacher, but writing is her passion. Since becoming a full time mother she has had the opportunity to pursue this dream and her debut novel hit the internet in November, 2011. Since then she has produced three more books with her fifth novel, Betwixt, out in November 2012.

Melissa Pearl can be found at 
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Buy Betwixt

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THE GIVEAWAY

The giveaway is open internationally and there are lots of prizes up for grabs!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to Melissa Pearl and ATOMR for providing me a copy of Betwixt for review.

Review: Through to You by Emily Hainsworth

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Title: Through to You

Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: 2 October 2012
Pages: 194 (eARC)

Synopsis

Camden Pike has been grief-stricken since his girlfriend, Viv, died. Viv was the last good thing in his life: helping him rebuild his identity after a career-ending football injury, picking up the pieces when his home life shattered, and healing his pain long after the meds wore off. And now, he’d give anything for one more glimpse of her. But when Cam makes a visit to the site of Viv’s deadly car accident, he sees some kind of apparition. And it isn’t Viv.
The apparition’s name is Nina, and she’s not a ghost. She’s a girl from a parallel world, and in this world, Viv is still alive. Cam can’t believe his wildest dreams have come true. All he can focus on is getting his girlfriend back, no matter the cost. But things are different in this other world: Viv and Cam have both made very different choices, things between them have changed in unexpected ways, and Viv isn’t the same girl he remembers. Nina is keeping some dangerous secrets, too, and the window between the worlds is shrinking every day. As Cam comes to terms with who this Viv has become and the part Nina played in his parallel story, he’s forced to choose—stay with Viv or let her go—before the window closes between them once and for all.

My Rating
* * *
The Review
Grieving, moving on, trying to get through every day when everything becomes a chore, a mechanical movement of limbs; it’s all for everything and nothing. Life would have been a lot easier if there was a chance to see how it could all go beforehand. How it would all be if you didn’t lose that one person who was holding it all together for you. There are countless ways in which your life can turn out, unlimited scenarios out there and only two words that can get you there in your mind: what if. The term that can manage to throw logic out the window. Only it does. In Cam’s case.
Camden Pike had everything in Vivian Hayward even if he wasn’t in with the popular crowd or the star quarterback anymore. It simply didn’t matter. It mattered even less when Viv died and Cam life got way out of his comfort zone and into a series of uncomfortable interactions with a psychiatrist and unnecessary notes in the fruit bowl from her workaholic mother. 
There is only one place in all of Fayetville where Cam feels closest to Viv and that is at the exact spot she died. Where they put up a memorial two months ago. Mike doesn’t get it, willing him to join the team, which is not very plausible given the condition of Cam’s leg after the injury and how they both quit football together; him as the quarterback and her as the cheerleader. But then everything changes when Nina stumbles upon the parallel universe and sees Cam. Only she seems to know him and Cam has never seen her before.
The window between the two parallel worlds is there for a reason which Cam sees as the best thing that ever happened to him when he discovers that Viv is alive there. But Nina seems to be dousing his happiness and warning him to not cross the window over and over. It’s clear to see where Nina is coming from and I was definitely intrigued about the part she plays in the book. She’s obviously the sensible one yet she has an aura of sadness around her. As if she is trying hard to live less life.
Cam is very dignified when it comes to honoring Viv and it’s clear that he’s having a hard time letting her go. But Cam is in a downward spiral, he needs to have the sense to be realistic but it’s easier to do the opposite. To close eyes and see Viv smile instead. It’s interesting to see him trying to get past the crossroad trying to decide between his desperation for wanting to be with Viv and trying to get away from everyone.
But he knows that Viv is all he wants and the feeling is mutual. But even if it seems like she’s the same Viv, it isn’t. Cam see glimpses of a person who feels like a stranger to him and given the situation, it isn’t surprising seeing she’s from a parallel world. Yet the mind cannot stop but wonder what would make him not stay if Cam found the person he thought he’d lost forever? Even if that person was not exactly like the person Cam lost. It seems as if there is an obvious solution to the question but once a layer is removed with such a thought, it becomes complicated.
I admired the way Emily Hainsworth took hold of the concept and wrapped it around Cam’s story. It was gripping to read the book and towards the end, I had no idea how it was all going to play out. Being a character-driven story, I found Through to You to be a bittersweet read. The subtle way in which differences in Cam’s Viv and the other Viv starts showing up is done brilliantly. The descriptions of the different-yet-same parallel worlds is unnerving enough to bring weird thoughts in your mind and make it seem almost real.

Best Quote:

“It doesn’t matter why I want to leave. You’re the reason I want to stay.”

“I’m in that place between waking and sleep. The one where everything’s still black and peaceful until it gets invaded by my thoughts.”
Thanks to Balzer + Bray and Edelweiss for providing me an eARC of Through to You for review.