Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday: The Accursed


Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and is a chance to let us show off some books we are excited for. So I haven't taken part in WoW for quite awhile, but I had to take part today because I am so excited for this book, I really can't stop talking about and I am literally counting down the days until I can get my hands on a copy of it...

I've been waiting to show this one off because I was waiting on the synopsis, which I just found up yesterday :D YAY


Title: The Accursed
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Publisher: Ecco (Harper Collins)

Goodreads Synopsis:

This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset by a powerful curse. The Devil has come to this little town and not a soul will be spared. 'The Accursed' marks new territory for the masterful Joyce Carol Oates - narrated with her unmistakable psychological insight, it combines beautifully transporting historical detail with chilling fantastical elements to stunning effect.

Doesn't it just sound amazing... and I love that cover! 

What are you waiting on today?

Monday, November 26, 2012

Blog Tour: Review of ReAwakened by Ada Adams

Publisher: Self-published
Series: Angel Creek #2
Received: Given an e-copy from the author

Release Date: November 27, 2012
Check out more fun things on the ReVamped Website

Goodreads Synopsis:

Becoming a vampire guardian was Dawn Fairchild’s ticket out of the Scarlet House. Fresh off a successful mission, life in Angel Creek should have been great. But when her sort-of-maybe-boyfriend, Sebastian, disappears on a quest to help a beautiful vampire from his past, Dawn finds herself amidst a web of danger, lies, and deceit.

Joining forces with Razor, an enigmatic rebel lacking both a verbal and a physical filter, and her band of Misfits—Brooke, Sophie, Hunter, and Seth—Dawn is thrust into a race against the clock to solve the mystery surrounding brutal Born kidnappings and come to terms with the sudden discovery of her own unique powers. With time ticking away and Born vampires’ lives in jeopardy, it quickly becomes evident that someone—or something—desperately wants Dawn and is willing to shed any amount of blood to get her.

Dawn has only one chance to face her demons and overcome all obstacles standing in her way as she embarks on the biggest mission of her life—one that threatens a deadly outcome for all involved.

My Review: 

This book begins two weeks after the ending of ReVamped (review here), we start out seeing how Dawn deals with the falling out of everything that previously happened and it begins to take a toll on her. I really enjoy how Ada incorporates the new revelations into this story and yet she shocks you with even more information. Right from the beginning you can see that Adams is drawing her reader in to an thrill ride of a story, and she delivered one that was impossible to put down.

ReAwakened brings readers on a new adventure for Dawn and the group of misfit vampires where they are looking to find out the mystery of someone kidnapping Born vampires. This book was very action packed right from the beginning and I found myself looking around corners at every turn of this story. Every time I put this book down I continue thought about the story trying to figure out the mystery and found myself back reading it again 5 minutes later (shirking some housework I should have been doing).

ReVamped gave us insight into Dawn's life and her upbringing, and in ReAwakened we get a lot more background to the Misfits. I really enjoy the insight into why many of the characters act the way they do now that I know more about their lives and what brought them to where they are today. There was a lot of growth for all the characters in the first book and even more so throughout this book.

Aside from the Misfits there were so many other great secondary characters introduced in ReAwakened that I absolutely loved, the main one being Razor. He brought a lot of great humor to an intense story, and I loved the other side of Dawn that was brought out when he was around.

I loved that Adams gave us more information to Dawn's story as well and a huge twist that I never saw coming out of the book. With the Angel Creek series Adams has brought about a new idea to vampires and I find myself wanting more because everything is so much fun. As soon as I finished this book I actually had a conversation with Ada on Twitter because I needed to know that more would be coming soon. This book left me in so much pain that I actually couldn't even read anything else for awhile after (and that doesn't happen often for me)

Ada Adams is such an amazing storyteller and she really brings her own personality to her characters in her story. I love when an author puts themselves into their work, and I'm so happy to be a part of this tour and getting word out there about Ada's books. Everyone needs to go out and read these books just for a new twist on the paranormal.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Review: Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pages: 336
Received: Bought own copy

Release Date: April 10, 2012
Buy From Amazon.ca / Buy From Chapters.ca /
Buy From BookDepository.com

Goodreads Synopsis:

Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.

My Review:

I love fairy tales and the main draw for me with this book was that Cross took it back to the original fairy tales where everything is so dark and disturbing and not everything ends in a happy perfect way. I have been eagerly trying to find time to pick up this book because of this idea that it is a modern day take on fairy tales, it's not a retelling (which really peaked my interest).

I really enjoyed how Cross wrote the story, instead of actually being a fairy tale Beau Rivage is a place where fairy tales come to life in different people. I liked how Cross took the stories and made them into curses for the characters instead of them actually being the characters from the tales they are forced to know that one day they will be condemned to act out the fairy tale. Cross definitely took an interesting twist to fairy tales in KILL ME SOFTLY.

Sadly, though the premise of the story caught my attention the story itself was not for me. I had trouble really getting into the story because I found myself disliking many of the characters. The main character of Mirabelle was a bit infuriating for me. I felt like she was overly naive for her age, I understand that she was very sheltered growing up but I just found that when things were clearly laid out for her she still refused to believe in it. Throughout most of the book I was yelling at her for being so closed-minded and not looking at what was right in front of her.

A lot of the secondary characters got on my nerves at times too. I just felt that the characters were very immature and I couldn't connect with any of them. I think I would have enjoyed this story a little more if the characters were more relatable. The story itself was very interesting and I enjoyed learning about the mystery behind Mirabelle's history.

I did enjoy how the story ended giving readers more insight into these fairy tales. But in the end this book just sadly wasn't for me.

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