book hangovers

The Griever’s Mark by Katherine Hurley

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Synopsis

Astarti would bet her life on one thing: she will never escape her master Belos.

After Belos found her as an abandoned infant, he planted within her a Leash, which he uses to control her power. Astarti is a Drifter, able to manipulate the energy world of the Drift–to shape weapons, to bind others, to travel great distances in mere seconds. Astarti’s job is to strike deals with desperate souls who would Leash themselves to Belos for political or personal gain. Her other objective is to kill any Earthmaker–those who wield the power of the elements–whenever possible.

But when Astarti lets one handsome Earthmaker escape, she sets into motion a chain of events that will lead her to question everything she knows about herself and her power. Even her Griever’s Mark tattoo, the symbol of her mother’s abandonment, may not mean what Astarti has always been told.

My Thoughts

I received a copy of this book from the author, through the Goodreads Group “YA Lovers” in exchange for and honest review. So first up I’m going to say Thank you!

The more I like a book a book the harder I find it to say anything about it without gushing like a school girl high on sugar holding hands with her crush for the first time. So I will try to contain myself.

I dived into the world that Ms Hurley created and was in love. She gives as an immensely rich world with forbidden love (My favourite kind of love) earth magic (my favourite kind of magic) evil twisted bad guys, treason, turf wars and a heroine with a dark and mysterious past. Yes please, give me more! I can’t say too much about Astarti, her mother, The Drift, Logan or Earth Magic without giving away the big plot points of the story.

As this is the first book in a series there is a lot of world building and background information given to us, but Ms Hurley makes it all flow beautiful into a enthralling story. In this book we met Astarti and through her adventures we learn all about her life and discover her secret family history with her. We also get to meet Logan the delicious earth maker as she does. We learn a little about Logan and his world in this book, but at the end of the book we are left with questions of his heritage and what his fate will be. So yes we are left with a cliff hanger; the ending brings a whole load more to be answered in the next book and plenty more adventures for Astarti to tackle.

I am looking forward to reading the next instalment.  Five Stars.

Goodreads authors website

Allegiant

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Allegiant (Divergent #3) by Veronica Roth

Synopsis:

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

My Thoughts:

It’s been a few days since I finished reading Allegiant and I’m still sitting here like a stunned mullet trying to figure out what to write – I was that dumbfounded and disappointed in the ending.

I went out and bought Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant and Four all at once so I could read them as a whole. I hadn’t done any “research” on the series other than reading a few reviews on the first book and seeing a trailer on TV for the Divergent movie. I flew through the first two books and really enjoyed them, but am now regretting not reading Four before Allegiant. I suggest reading Four before Allegiant or it’ll be bitter sweet and feel rather pointless.

Now I suggest if you don’t want the ending spoiled you stop reading now, because I’m about to have a whinge about it.

Ok, Ok, so Ms Roth, you give me characters that I love (Tobias & Tris), you put them through hell and make them lose all their family and friends, then for no good reason you kill Tris, POINTLESSLY Kill Tris! Chicago could still have settled the same way, Tobias could still have gone into politics and Tris could have spent her time helping the fringe dwellers. There was no point to it, no lesson to be learned by her death. Her parents had sacrificed themselves for her, she’d saved her city, and she’d lost countless friends, so why kill her. We know life is unfair Ms Roth and you successfully showed us that by Tris losing friends and family, and by Tobias’s relationships with his parents – So why take her from us and Tobias, all this does is make it feel pointless. All it does is say that love DOESN’T concur all, which may be true in the real world, shouldn’t be in book land. Love that ends happily ever after gives us hope, Hope is extremely necessary in this less than ideal world. Up until the point that you needlessly killed Tris, I loved the series, so why couldn’t she just have been gravely injured and taken months to recover instead – Hmmmmmm.

Anyway rant over.  Seriously though I really enjoyed the series, Allegiant’s got all the action, adventure and drama of the first two books, I just felt that the ending (for lack of a better word) “Sucked” and didn’t to Tobias and Tris justice.

What I’ve Read So Far

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Here is a recap of the books I’ve managed to read and review so far this year 🙂

Books Read in 2014 =

January:

  1. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5) by Rick Riordan (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-3x )
  2. The Demigod Diaries (The Heroes of Olympus) by Rick Riordan (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-44 )
  3. Tripwire (Jack Reacher #3) by Lee Child (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-4u )
  4. The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus #1) by Rick Riordan (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-50 )
  5. The Visitor (Jack Reacher #4) by Lee Child (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-5U )
  6. The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus #2) by Rick Riordan (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-66 )
  7. The Son of Sobek (Percy Jackson & Kane Chronicles Crossover #1) by Rick Riordan (My Review http://wp.me/431Gp )

February:

  1. The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3) by Rick Riordan (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-6E )
  2. Midnight Sun (Twilight #1.5) by Stephenie Meyer (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-6y )
  3. The Enemy (Jack Reacher #8) by Lee Child (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-6R )
  4. Harry Potter – Three Short Stories by Bruce T Forbes
  5. Take Me To Your Reader: An Otherworld Anthology by Amy A. Bartol, Tammy Blackwell, Amanda Havard, Heather Hildenbrand, Tiffany King, C.A. Kunz, Sarah M. Ross, Raine Thomas (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-7b )
  6. Here Among The Ruins by Regina Puckett (my Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-6K )
  7. Day Trips to Narnia by Bruce T. Forbes
  8. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  9. Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-7F )

March:

  1. The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4) by Rick Riordan (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-7L )
  2. Casting Shadows Everywhere by L.T. Vargus (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-8d )
  3. Salvation by A.M.C. (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-8J )
  4. Smashwords Style Guide by Mark Coker
  5. Delta Force Vampire: Insurgency by Alex Shaw (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-9m )

April:

  1. Lust & Longing: A Collection of Erotic Shorts by Charity Parkerson
  2. Dementional by Tonya Cannariato (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-9z )
  3. Words by Robert Zimmermann
  4. Time Shifters by Shanna Lauffey (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-at )
  5. Vaempires: Revolution By Thomas Winship (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-aN )
  6. Fifty First Times: A New Adult Anthology
  7. Now You Shall Know – Newcastle Poetry Prize 2013 Anthology
  8. Thunderhead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-bc )
  9. Speak of the Devil by Shawna Romkey (My Review http://wp.me/p431Gp-bz )

Vaempires: Revolution By Thomas Winship

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Vaempires: Revolution By Thomas Winship

 Synopsis:

 It is the morning of Princess Cassandra’s sixteenth birthday. Everyone’s attention is focused on the heir to the vampire throne. World leaders, the rich and famous, and VIPs from every corner of the globe have gathered in the nation’s capital to celebrate the momentous event.

Cassandra’s boyfriend, Daniel, is late for the party. He’s still outside the city when all hell breaks loose. What he believes is an act of terrorism proves to be a full-fledged revolution. Vaempires-former vampires who mutated into warm-blooded creatures with an insatiable hunger for cold blood-have launched coordinated attacks across the globe, with three goals: the eradication of humanity, the enslavement of vampires, and the ascension of vaempires as the dominant species on the planet.

The vampire and human leaders are killed. Cassandra is missing. Daniel is the acting king. Desperate to find the princess, Daniel and his friends fight their way across the besieged city. With the hopes of the free world resting on the shoulders of four vampire teenagers, vaempires unleash their secret weapon: a new breed of vaempire that is far deadlier than any ever seen before.

What can four teens do against an enemy that can shape-shift, fly, and walk through walls?

My Thoughts:

The story is non-stop action from the first page and as it continues we get friendship and romance added to the mix.

The story is set in a future earth where World War Three happened, caused a Nuclear Winter that nearly destroyed the whole planet and in turn created Vampires, LOVE IT.

I really enjoyed that it’s not Humans vs. Vampires. Vampires are the dominant species, the good guys, the ones being attacked and their world destroyed. An even more mutated race Vaempires are the bad guys slaughtering humans and vampire’s as they attempt to take control. The main characters felt real and I immediately cared about them. As I got closer to the end of this book I thought I knew how it was going to end, but the ending shocked me, I didn’t see it coming. Five out of five stars, I’m really looking forward to reading the next instalment.

Take Me To Your Reader: An Otherworld Anthology

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Goodreads Synopsis: Eight Bestselling Authors Come Together To Bring You An Out Of This World Collection…

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20769049-take-me-to-your-reader?from_search=true

The two most powerful questions in the universe are “What if” and “Why not.” The best-selling and talented authors who contributed to “Take Me To Your Reader” let those questions guide them when they composed these original and never-before-published stories that combine the most exquisite parts of science fiction and romance. Escape to new worlds of adventure, bravery and love.

Inspired by the #utopYA2014 writer’s conference theme “aliens and outerspace,” these eight authors and friends combined their extraordinary talents to help support the conference that was created to support established and aspiring writers, bloggers, designers, and other publishing industry experts. Proceeds from the book will fund utopYA’s mission efforts of collaboration, education and inspiration.

My Thoughts: I found this book through Robert Zimmerman: http://alifeamongthepages.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/newrelease-take-me-to-your-reader/

And I loved Loved LOVED this book. I really enjoyed this book as a whole and I can see myself reading its stories again and again. I will definitely be looking up some of the authors other works.

As there is eight stories I’m only going to write brief comments on each one.

“The Divided” by Amy Bartol (Premonition Series. ‘Under Different Stars’)

–> Death divided them. Will she survive his return?

I wanted this story to keep going. I could read a whole novel about Vi, Mattie, So-wah and Clyde, in fact I’d really like to.  In this brief snapshot of the characters’ lives we get intergalactic romance, revenge, action and a glimpse at what could be a much bigger story. You immediately feel for Violet; she’s a young woman with her whole life ahead of her but then her Violet finance is murdered and what follows his death introduces her to a whole other world. Five Stars out of Five.

“Monsters of Earth” by Tammy Blackwell (Timberwolves Series)

–> An intergalactic soldier is sent to Earth…

At the start you think you’re going to get some light-hearted monster slaying romp, but what you end up getting in this very short story is a lot of emotion and a monster that you really hope Helem can defeat. Four Stars out of Five.

“The House on Maple Street” by Amanda Havard (The Survivors Series and Immersedition)

–> It’s always the quiet kid who notices…

This was a nice light hearted boy finds aliens, boy outwits aliens and makes a new friend tail. You get nasty aliens, friendship, action and an average guy as the hero. I also think I would enjoy this story longer as well, maybe the aliens come back for revenge huh? I really enjoyed the Fenton and Travis dynamic, I think they could have some rather good adventures together. Four Stars out of Five.

“The Force” by Heather Hildenbrand (The Dirty Blood Series. The Imitation Series)

–> Spring Break…extra-terrestrial style!

I started reading this story and thought to myself this is sounding very much like that hangover movie but with teenage aliens instead of middle aged men. It got better as it went on and turned out to be about more than just waking up with a mate missing and not remembering what happened the night before. It’s not a bad story but the ending was a letdown for me, I would have liked the romance to build more between Axel and Becca and maybe even see him smuggling her back to his home land (but that’s just my personal taste) still a fun and entertaining read. Three Stars out of Five.

“Ultra-Con” by Tiffany King (The Saving Angels Series. ‘Miss Me Not.’ ‘No Attachments.’

–> Discover what happens when extra-terrestrial fantasy meets reality.

Ahh having your body taken over by an alien force was one of my recurring nightmares as a child. We get good aliens, bad aliens, action, danger and humans caught in-between it all. The story built nicely but then the final standoff seemed too rushed for my taste. Three stars out of Five.

“Snow Globe” by C.A. Kunz (The Childe Series. ‘The Modified.’ ‘One Tiny Secret.’ ‘Lucky Number Four’ {as Amanda Jason})

–> An alien-meets-girl kind of story.

I would have liked it to keep going, I want to know how Kyle goes fitting in on earth. A nice sweet little story about an alien boy finding happiness thanks to a human girl that will leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy. Four stars out of Five.

“The Black Stone Heir” by Sarah M. Ross (The Patronus Series. ‘Inhale Exhale.’)

–> A dangerous close encounter will thrust them together.

This was a lovely well rounded story. We had action, adventure and romance. I really liked how the narration kept changing between the main two characters. It’s a loved each other from affair, unknowingly, and then coming together – Aww my favourite kind of love story. Four Stars out of Five

“The Ascendant” by Raine Thomas (Daughters of Saraquel Trilogy. Firstborn Trilogy. ‘Meant for Her.’ ‘For Everly.’)

–> A girl destined to rule worlds.

I NEED More!!!!!! Wow loved it. In this short story we get action, bad aliens and forbidden romance. I want a whole series of Kyr learning her lessons, coming across Ty each time and then finally how they continue their relationship once she takes on her destined responsibilities! Please give me more to read! Five Stars out of Five.

Oh man I have the biggest book hangover ever. I’m going back to the beginning and reading them all again. Bye now!