Category Archives: Reviews

Blog Tour: Son of War, Daughter of Chaos by Janette Rallison

Son of War Daughter of Chaos Blog TourBlog Tour Schedule

 

SonOfWarEBookSon of War, Daughter of Chaos

Aislynn is accustomed to watching for the enemy. Her parents instructed her from the time she was young to look for the signs: people with greater than normal strength, eyes that can glow green, and have the ability to jump long distances. Over the years, Aislynn has come to view her parents’ fears as quirks—things that get in the way of having a normal high school life.

When Aislynn’s mother dies under suspicious conditions, her father doubles his restrictions. But all his precautions can’t stop the boy with glowing green eyes from finding Aislynn. She realizes too late she’s been drafted into an ancient Egyptian war, whether she’s prepared or not.

Excerpt: 

Preface

An Egyptian tomb is only a good place to die if you happen to be the pharaoh for whom it was built. And maybe not even then. I didn’t intend to room with any of the deceased, which meant the sooner I got out of this place the better.
My flashlight swept over the figures on the mural in front of me. A feeling of danger and expectation clung to everything here, as thick as the dust. On the mural, a warrior with bright green eyes stared back at me. Horusian glowing eyes. I could almost see the smugness in his expression, an expression that said he was coming for me. Or at least his kind were.
 
Behind me, something creaked. Footsteps.

AMAZON

 Review: I was hooked immediately as I read the preface. Rallison’s story of suspense, love and mythology is filled with lovable characters and suspense. While I’m not usually one to get caught up in the history and mythology of the story, I felt that the way Rallison presented the information was gripping and never boring. Aislynn was likable from the first page. She’s witty, strong and a little vulnerable at times.  I loved reading the story from her perspective.  Since Aislynn was kept in the dark for so long about the family’s history, I was surprised every time she was and completely shocked by all the twists and turns. I also loved watching her falling in love for the first time.  The combination of romance and thriller makes this book one of the best I’ve read. I’m hoping Rallison will write a sequel soon (I have to know what happens the next year).

Janette RallisonAuthor Janette Rallison

Janette Rallison is old. Don’t ask how old, because it isn’t polite. Let’s just say she’s older than she’d like to be and leave it at that.

Janette lives in Chandler, Arizona with her husband, five children and enough cats to classify her as “an eccentric cat lady.” She did not do this on purpose. (The cats, that is; she had the children on purpose.) Every single one of the felines showed up on its own and refuses to leave. Not even the family’s fearless little Westie dog can drive them off.

Since Janette has five children and deadlines to write books, she doesn’t have much time left over for hobbies. But since this is the internet and you can’t actually check up to see if anything on this site is true, let’s just say she enjoys dancing, scuba diving, horse back riding and long talks with Orlando Bloom. (Well, I never said he answers back.)

Website * Facebook * Twitter

 

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Blog Tour Giveaway

$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 8/24/14

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the publisher. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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Student Review: Julie M: The Lives We Lost by

Author Megan Crewe 

Published: February 12, 2013

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

10 Reasons You Should Read The Lives We Lost

1. The cover gives a great description of the setting of the book. In this book it is the middle of winter and most people have died from this rapidly spreading virus.

2. Surreal. Imagine that everyone you know is suddenly dying from this terrible disease and there is no cure and you can’t do anything about it. It would lead you to do some bizarre things in order to stay alive and save your loved ones.

3. Kaelyn and Gav. These two teens have been dating for about a year and their love for each other intensifies during the outbreak of the disease. They stick together and through out the story you can see how much they really care about each other. It keeps them together during the tough times they go through.  When Gav suddenly becomes sick with the disease Kaelyn loses all hope and there is nothing else she can do except watch her love die.

4. Kaelyn and Leo. They were best friends even before the disease broke out. They have a strong connection and they even kiss each other while Kaelyn is still dating Gav. Gav never finds out but through out the book Leo and Kaelyn have moments of connection and they truly do care about each other. Kaelyn becomes conflicted because Gav gets sick and she has feelings for Leo at the same time.

5. It makes you think. You never know, a disease could break out and kill millions of people. It really makes you think about what you would do in this situation if you were a survivor. The group or survivors in this book break into peoples houses and steal their cars, clothes, beds, and food. They even end up killing people.

6It leaves you hanging. They are trying to find someone who can help them duplicate the vaccine to help save people. They have traveled to many places and have had many false hopes. The book ends with them deciding to go to Atlanta and Gav barley hanging onto life.

7. The Wardens. Not all of the people left in the world are trying to help other people like Kaelyn and her friends are. The Wardens are a group of people who are only looking out for themselves and are hunting Kaelyn and her friends. They constantly have to be on the look out for the and it keeps the readers on their toes.

8. Adventure. Kaelyn, Gav, Leo, Tessa, and Meredith all once lived on an island. It became so infected with the disease that the military starts blowing it up in order to kill all of the sick people. In order to survive, they have to walk all the way to Ottawa in the middle of the winter with limited supplies.

9. The Fallen World Trilogy.  The Lives We Lost is just the second book in a trilogy of suspenseful books. The action continues once they reach Atlanta.

10. Anika. She used to be apart of The Wardens until Kaelyn and he friends decide to let her into their group. But the real question is if the can trust her or not.

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Student Review: Kiley D.: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wintergirls
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Genre: Fiction
Publishing Date: March 19, 2009 
Publishing CompanyPenguin Group (USA) Incorporated


Summary (Goodreads):

“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secrets,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.

I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.

I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia’s mother is busy saving other people’s lives. Her father is away on business. Her stepmother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia’s head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way – thin, thinner, thinnest – maybe she’ll disappear altogether.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl’s chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.
 


Review: Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is an amazing book that just sucks the reader into the story. I really enjoyed it because many books have been written about anorexia, but never from the perspective of the person who actually has the eating disorder. The book really sheds a light on what people with eating disorders are actually thinking and going through. It doesn’t sugarcoat the problems that come along with anorexia, and Laurie Halse Anderson does a great job of showing the reality of eating disorders and how the family and the person with the disorder cope with the issues they are going through. I would definitely recommend this book to someone else as I really enjoyed reading it myself. But I would not recommend Wintergirls to a younger child to read as it is a very serious and covers a deep topic that a younger child might not understand.

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Student Review: Lauren L: Graceling by Kristen Cashore


Graceling by Kristen Cashore

Copyright © 2008 Harcourt. Fantasy.

This is the first of three books in the Graceling Realm Series, and precedes  Fire and Bitterblue

Summary (Back Cover): Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight- she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As the niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
She never expects to become Po’s friend.
She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace- or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away…

Review: I was lucky enough to find this book at Barnes and Noble at noon a few weeks ago, and I finished it by 6:30 pm that night. This book is rather lengthy (471 pages), but I didn’t finish it quickly because it was an easy read, I finished it in record time because I couldn’t put it down. Personally, I love reading fantasy books that include kingdoms, strategy and conspiracies, and Graceling was the perfect combination of the three. Kristin Cashore did a fantastic job of  filling her book to the brim with creativity from the names of the characters to the plot. I became a little too emotionally attached to the main characters, Katsa and Po, but that made the book that much more enjoyable for me. This novel is not written at a third grade level, but its non-threatening text allows for a wide variety of people to read it, and I highly recommend it to anybody that is intrigued by castles and fantasy.

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Student Review: Anna S.: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.



Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green

 

Publisher: Dutton Books
Published: January 1st 2012
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Summary (from the cover flap): Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis.  But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.  
Review:
          I am currently rereading The Fault in Our Stars for the third time and I don’t know if I’ll finish it.  Not because it is a bad book. Heaven knows that The Fault in Our Stars is not a bad book.  If fact, The Fault in Our Stars (let’s shorten it to TFIOS, shall we?) is likely one of the best books I will ever read in my life.  John Green managed to convey the story of Hazel Grace is such a beautiful way the strikes me right to the core.  This book makes me feel a array of emotions, but more than anything it makes me cry.  It makes me cry for a million different reasons.  While reading TFIOS I 1) cry because I am upset, 2) cry because this book makes me wish I was a better person, 3) cry because this book makes me wish other people were better people, but 4) mostly I cry because of how beautiful the story is, and how beautiful its theme’s are.  Can you guess why I might not finish this book again? It’s because it makes me cry so much.


        Sobbing Staab aside, this book is phenomenal.  Never, ever, has a book stuck with me as much as this book has.  I first read it ages ago, right around the time it was published (the beginning of 2012), but I live life the way I do because of this book.  As mentioned before, the theme’s throughout this novel are immense.  From acknowledging that sometimes life sucks but you have to make the best of it or from how people to often leave negative marks upon this world, the theme’s in this novel are not only thought provoking, but (at least to me) life changing.  I’ve spent countless days and nights thinking about quotes from this book and what they mean to me, and I know I will keep on doing this until the day I die.  Sometimes books do that.  They stay with you long after you’ve read the last word. TFIOS is one of those books.

        You might be thinking “I don’t want to cry” or “I don’t want to read a depressing book”, but this book is more than just a sad story. It’s not just a cancer story.  It’s a story of two teenagers living their life.  Hazel Grace is a funny and snarky narrator who feels like a long lost best friend, and Augustus Waters is the prince of this story.  And oh my goodness, what a prince he is.  If nothing else you should read this book so you can get to know Augustus Waters.   If you think that you will never have a crush on a fictional character then read TFIOS and let Augustus Waters prove you wrong.

Did I mention that this book is getting made into a movie? Yep.  And by the looks of the first trailer it is going to be a pretty amazing one too.  So what are you doing? Read this book. Laugh. Cry. Then watch the movie and laugh and cry a little more. Trust me, it’s good fun! 🙂


      

I’ll end this review with a fantastic quote from the book that basically sums up all of my feelings in one neat little sentence:

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”
         -John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: Harp’s Song by Cassie Shine

Welcome to the tour stop for the Harp’s Song Blog Tour for Cassie Shine’s debut novel, HARP’S SONG (Harp’s Song #1)

Harps_Song_Tour_Banner       HarpsSong_FINAL_EbookIn just a few months Harp Evans will be officially coming of age and graduating from high school. She will be free from the mother that never wanted her, the house that never felt like home, and the disappointment of the last seventeen years. What she doesn’t know is that her mother has been holding onto a secret that has the potential to derail her dreams and destroy her already faulty sense of self. A self-proclaimed recluse, Harp spends most of her time practicing the cello, in the hopes of earning a full scholarship that will grant her freedom, but will also send her away from her best friend Connor Williams, who is becoming more than just a friend. As revelations are made, will Harp still feel the same way about leaving everyone that cares about her behind? Or will she continue to pursue the life she’s been dreaming of for as long as she can remember?  GOODREADS    AMAZON    BARNES & NOBLE      SMASHWORDS

Review

Harps’ Song is a beautifully written novel that deals with a very upsetting subject matter. Since April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month as well as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, everyone should read this book. Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. I immediately fell in love with Connor and his mother for being such amazing people to Harp. I loved that Connor and Harp’s relationship grows more strongly with each page. Connor is one of the best characters I have read in while. He’s devotion to Harp is breathtaking. While this is a quick read, the development of the story and relationships is slow and deliberate. It’s emotionally taxing (so keep those tissues handy) but so incredibly worth it. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Cassie Shine released her debut young adult novel, Harp’s Song in November 2013, finally finishing the short story she started in her college creative writing class … many, many moons ago. She has always been an avid reader and lover of music (yes, she was in the high school marching band). While she has a weak spot for all things teeny bopper, especially boy bands, she also loves classical, country, rock and well, pretty much everything. After living in St. Louis for more than ten years, she and her husband packed up a U-Haul and headed west. They currently live in Orange County, CA with their furry kids Finnegan and Molly.  WEBSITE       FACEBOOK         TWITTER       GOODREADS

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Giveaway

One winner will receive a signed copy of HARP’S SONG and $25 Amazon or B&N gift card (US/CA only). Three winners will receive an ebook copy (international). a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule

Monday, April 7th – My Stars Book Blog (Review) Tuesday, April 8th – Cuzinlogic (Interview) & Savings in Seconds (Review) Wednesday, April 9th – Once Upon a YA Book (Top 10 Lists) Thursday, April 10th – Girl Meets Books (Guest Post) & Imaginative Minds (Review) Friday, April 11th – Swipe the Pages (Review & Dream Cast) Monday, April 14th – The Real Bookshelves of Room 918 (Review) Tuesday, April 15th – A Book and a Latte (Interview) & Actin’ Up With Books (Review) Wednesday, April 16th – Sleepless in Chicago (Review) Thursday, April 17th – Mythical Books (Guest Post) & Deal Sharing Aunt (Guest Post) Friday, April 18th – My Daily Romance (Review) Monday, April 21st – Plain Talk Book Marketing (Guest Post) Tuesday, April 22nd – Book Bliss (Guest Post) & Books Books Books (Review) Wednesday, April 23rd – Inside the Pages of a Book (Interview) Thursday, April 24th – Fictionally Obsessed (Post/Excerpt) & Forever Obsession (Review) Friday, April 25h – Through the Booking Glass (Review)

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Blog Tour & Review: Song and Signal by ME Patterson

Song and Signal by ME Patterson

January 9, 2014 By 

Song_and_Signal_Tour_Banner1

Welcome to the Official Blog Tour for SONG AND SIGNAL by M.E. Patterson

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* From the award-winning, bestselling author of Devil’s Hand and Burning Cards comes a universe-spanning science fiction adventure. *

Seventeen year-old genius Zakari Sharp has never stood on the surface of a planet, never seen a sun-streaked sky. He lives on a corporate-owned mining facility at the edge of the solar system, with a mute alien for a guardian and brainwashed, muscle-bound ex-convicts for company. The day his father vanished was so long ago that Zak thought he would never hear from him again.

Zak was wrong.

Now, chased off-station by a cabal of mythical assassins, Zak and his best friend Liz embark on a harrowing journey across the galaxy, to find his father’s hiding place and learn the universe-shaking discovery that hides with him. But their enemies will stop at nothing to steal the secret themselves.

Can a teenage boy change the fate of the universe? Or will a nanotech-wielding killer reach him first?


PRAISE FOR SONG AND SIGNAL:

“The kind of storytelling that makes a statement: M. E. Patterson is here to stay.” — Austin Post

“[Song and Signal is] WELL worth the read. Enjoyable and immersive.” — Michal
 
“Patterson’s work will blow you away… a page turning, roller coaster ride.” — ReviewsByMolly

 My Review:

This isn’t usually a genre I readily pick up, but the synopsis really drew me in. I couldn’t wait to see what kind of adventure Zak would get into. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. It’s packed with nail-biting action. This is honestly the best sci-fi I’ve read in awhile. There were sections that got a little “techy” for me but I was still able to keep up with the story line. I found that the jargon was a little heavy in the beginning but served a purpose later and is worth reading. Don’t skip over it, no matter how frustrating it might be to some of use that aren’t as tech-savvy as Zach and the other characters may be.  Patterson’s ability to put the reader into the action is amazing. I became apart of Zak’s world immediately and didn’t want the adventure to end. I liked being whisked away to a different planet. Even if you’re not usually a sci-fi fan, I highly recommend Song and Signal. 

Pick up an eBook or Paperback of Song and Signal Now!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

mepattersongiveaway

M. E. Patterson is a bestselling author of highly-rated horror and science fiction novels for both teens and adult readers. His first novel, Devil’s Hand, was a Kindle bestseller in Horror, and was the winner of Kindle Book Review’s 2012 “Best Indie Horror Novel” award.

In addition to writing fiction, Mr. Patterson is also an accomplished web software engineer and software consultant, currently working with the video game industry. He lives in Austin, Texas with his family.

My Author Site — http://mepatterson.net
Twitter — http://twitter.com/mepatterson
Facebook — http://facebook.com/mepattersonauthor
Goodreads — http://www.goodreads.com/mepatterson

GIVEAWAY 

Must be 13 + To Enter
Gift Card open internationally
Books ship in US only. 

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