The Elite by Kiera Cass

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It's been a while since I read The Selection, so it was a little hard to get into The Elite. I couldn't remember most of the characters or details of what had happened in the first book, but I remembered the gist.

This is one of those frustrating books that you read because you have to. I HAD to know who America would choose and I have my clear favourite: Maxon. I wanted her to choose him and I was so, so annoyed when she would go back and forth between he and Aspen. In fact, the sheer amount of back and forthing made me really hate America. She was petulant, and whiny and stubborn and she made stupid decisions all because she couldn't ASK!!

I think I might like her more in the third book, as I started to warm to her again towards the end. I find myself liking her when she's being warm with Maxon and to her maids, but that's it.

I did like this book, although it was very much a set up for the next one. The next one will feature resistance and sabotage from the King and that's quite exciting. In a horrible way, I'm glad America will have to face this. It might make her more grateful for the amazing experience she had been given instead of complaining about it.

But I tore through this book. Much like I remembered in the first. While nothing really happens, plot wise, and the characters aren't massively simulating, this book attracts my wishful side and it's entertainment factor is incredibly high.

4 stars.



View all my reviews

Arclight by Josin L. McQuein


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I think this had the potential to be something amazing...instead, it was mediocre.

Save from Across the Universe, this probably had one of the most exciting first chapters that I've read in a while. Ignoring how utterly and completely confused I was, I was very intrigued and couldn't wait until it was all explained...

Fast forward six or seven chapters later and I'm still confused. Fast forward six or seven chapters after THAT and I'm still confused. I know that part of the allure to this book is that we have an unreliable MC. She has no memory of her time before the Arclight and therefore is unable to tell us a lot of thing. But information on the hook to this book would have been nice.

I found this book so confusing at times that I think I lost the main point of it. The sentence structures were all over the place, and I know that I had an ARC but the errors were offputting in a big way. It took a lot of piecing information together myself and even then I wasn't sure if I'd come to the right conclusion.

However, in all it's faults I found myself utterly determined to get to the main crux of the plot and I was fascinated by this new world - if only I could really understand it. I did, in a way, like that there weren't huge chunks of back story and explanatory narrative. But I think it needed to find a healthy medium.

The main character was likeable and I understood her decisions and thoughts and the twist at the end, while obvious, was handled well. What I really didn't like was that the Fade - who were awesome - turned out not to be the bad guys and instead were fluffy type good creatures which really ruined the book for me. Can we keep our evil creatures evil, please?

The first half of the book was better than the second. I think, if I could get this book changed I would ask that a lot of unnecessary words be cut (sentences were too long and often didn't make sense. Way too chunk of a book for what it was) and that description was focused on slowly rather than quick dashes of words. The Fade should have been really developed through this and instead weren't.

3.5 stars.




View all my reviews

Taken by Erin Bowman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I wasn't sure what to expect with this. I loved the cover and I was excited when I was sent the book for review.

At first, this was a great read. I loved learning about the town enclosed by a wall where boys are taken at 18 and escape leads to death. There was a great mysterious atmosphere where the main character was trying to figure out what the Heist meant and why he seemed to have beaten it.

And then the book changed. It went from being something original and unique to your run of the mill dystopian's. The mystery of the town took a back seat and it turned into a story about corrupt government leaders and unveiling the secrets behind that.

Then it changed once more! It went from the dystopian community to escape and training and war.

It felt very unstructured, all in all. Just when I started getting used to one plot, it changed to another. This felt like 3 books in one and because of that I felt that a lot of questions weren't answered and plot holes were just quickly half filled. I wanted so much more from this book, which I thought we could have got if this hadn't have changed so quickly. It didn't feel natural or smooth.

I was also unconvinced by the main character. I liked that it was told from a male POV. I even liked that he was a black sheep and despite not being as good as his brother, still managed to succeed. He was stubborn and rash and rude. But there was one scene at the start which meant I couldn't fully get behind him, and then again at the end.

It is NOT okay for him to attack a woman. It isn't. This was one of the first scenes in a book. He pounds upon a girl who is taunting him and he isn't the least bit sorry about it either. And then towards the end of the book he plays with one girl's feelings for him to make another jealous. But he does it in such an awful way. To purposefully almost have sex with a girl on the other side of the fire to the girl you're in love with. Not cool.

So yes, I was torn about this book. Because despite all the bad points I just wrote about, I tore through the book hoping for something that wasn't there. I did enjoy reading and the pace was fast. But I think I wanted this to be something that it wasn't.

3.5 stars.



View all my reviews

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

Bad things come in threes. In Shady Springs, that includes murder.
Murder Now
Lange Crawford’s move to Shady Springs, Pennsylvania, lands her a group of awesome friends, a major crush on songwriter Vaughn, and life in a haunted, 200-year-old farmhouse. It also brings The Hunt: an infamous murder mystery festival where students solve a fake, gruesome murder scheme during the week of Halloween. Well, supposedly fake.
Murder Then
Weeks before The Hunt, Lange and her friends hold a séance in the farmhouse’s eerie barn. When a voice rushes through, whispering haunting words that only she and Vaughn can hear, Lange realizes it's begging for help. The mysterious voice leads Lange and Vaughn to uncover letters and photos left behind by a murdered girl, Ginny, and they become obsessed with her story and the horrifying threats that led to her murder.
Murder Yet to Come
But someone doesn’t like their snooping, and Lange and Vaughn begin receiving the same threats that Ginny once did. The mysterious words from the barn become crucial to figuring out Ginny's past and their own, and how closely the two are connected. They must work fast to uncover the truth or risk finding out if history really does repeat itself.

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wow.

This was AMAZING. The kind of book I've been wanting to read for a very long time, without knowing it. It was so real and raw and honest. I loved that it wasn't all sunshine and roses. There was real struggle, even after they found paradise.

The story is told from Carey's point of view. A young, teenage girl who looks after her six year old sister, Janessa. They live, like scavengers, in a camper in the woods where their mother left them. Their mother who comes and goes, leaving them with scraps and beans. Their mother who does awful things to her girls in order to fund a meth habit. The story starts with Carey's father and a social worker finding the girls and continues in three sections.

The first section focuses mainly on Carey and Janessa's reintegration back to civilisation. Back to plumbing and restaurants and soft beds and a family home. It shows Carey's gratitude yet confusion over missing a place that wasn't meant for survival, but a familiar and comforting home. The first section was my favourite part. I was absolutely hooked. Reading as these two poor girls are swept back into modern first world life and completely unprepared for it. Fantastic.

The second section focuses on Carey's development and character. Now that she's settled into her new home (mostly) and has a new step-mother who can take care of her little sister, Carey is left to look after herself. She goes to school and learns to navigate the cruel and strange hallways of a high school. She meets a boy. She learns about fashion and parties and friendships. It was lovely and sweet to see how she reacted to it.

And the last section focuses on revelations. It uncovers the secrets that have been hinted at throughout the other two sections. The reason why Carey's little sister no longer talks. The reason Carey can't quite let go enough to enjoy being back at home. The reason why she can't let herself bond with her dad. And it does not disappoint.

There were a couple things I wanted answering that never were...but that's life, I suppose! Not everything has an answer there and then. I would love if there were a sequel to this. The end is very unsure and if would be great to see the fallout of the revelations.

5 stars. Without a doubt. I would recommend EVERYONE read this.



View all my reviews

Mac can’t lose another friend. Even if he doesn’t want to be found.

The ripple effect caused by Mac’s best friend Amy’s murder has driven Mac’s new love, Kyle, to leave Hemlock and disappear from her life forever. But Mac knows that Kyle plans to enroll in a rehabilitation camp, where he can live with other werewolves. She refuses to accept his decision, especially since the camps are rumored to be tortuous. So she sets out in search of Kyle with a barely sober Jason—and Amy’s all-seeing ghost—in tow.

Clues lead Mac to find Kyle in a werewolf den in Colorado—but their reunion is cut short by a Tracker raid. Now Mac and Kyle are trapped inside the electric fences of Thornhill, a camp for young werewolves. As she devises an escape plan, Mac uncovers dangerous secrets buried within the walls of Thornhill—and realizes that the risk to the people she loves is greater than ever before.

Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Bonnie and Clyde, eat your heart out.

I really enjoyed this one. It was one of those books where if I wasn't reading about it, I was thinking about it. It had this raw innocence to it, this kind of realistic, heartfelt need. And I was sucked right into it. I craved it, more and more.

It's a simple plot. Boy meets girl. Boy wants to save girl. Boy and girl run away together. Cue wacky drama. But what's different about this book are the characters.

Will has just turned eighteen. He never met his dad and was given to the state by his Mum, but no one could adopt him because she disappeared. He's spent most of his life in care and fighting both physically and mentally to survive. When he meets Zoe, he knows he wants to save her and so together they run away to Vegas.

Zoe is fifteen. Her dad beats her up. She doesn't have a back bone and is too responsible for her own good. She thinks Will can save her.

Separately, they're an annoying couple of characters. Will is one angry kid. He is quite demanding and condesending and he makes the stupidest choices ever. I mean, how did he think running away with a fifteen year old would work? He couldn't wait a few years? And Zoe? Well, she acts like she's about 10, doesn't stand up for herself, is a bit of a tease and also makes really bad choices.

And yet, and yet I loved them. I wanted them to be happy and end up together. I wanted a happy ending for them. I winced as they made mistake after mistake after mistake, but I enjoyed their roadtrip almost as much as they did.

Wasn't a fan of the ending. I thought it was quite rushed and emotionless. I also thought that Zoe's inner monologue was quite different from the way she was described in Will's POV.

4.5 stars. Because this grabbed my attention from the start and I never wanted to let go.



View all my reviews

It's been a bit quiet over on this blog lately, and I know I've been pretty cryptic about what's happening and not really saying much, but I'm finally here to reveal all!!

Firstly, some bad news.

My Heart Be Damned won't be available to buy for the foreseeable future.
Why? Because I cancelled my contract with Knight Romance Publishing (or Mitchell Morris Publishing - take your pick). I'll talk about that further below, if you want all the ugly details. But I want to say here and now that I am so grateful for everyone who wanted to read it, everyone who reviewed advanced copies, everyone who wrote to me or commented on posts or just thought 'oh that sounds interesting'. You have no idea how much I appreciate it, and whenever I get a little sad that MHBD won't be in the world, I read those posts and I'm happy.

Some more bad news (now you can see why it's been quiet around here!).

I am no longer represented by Victoria Marini. Why? Because our interests no longer aligned. Victoria wanted stories I didn't want to write, and I wanted to write stories that Victoria didn't want. So we both agreed that it was best to part ways rather than continue to try to shove a cube into a circular hole. But I encourage people to continue to query Victoria, because she is great!

Some good news!

I have found my calling in thrillers. I'm a huge horror and thriller fan. That's what I'm currently writing too. Dark stuff. Edgy stuff. Scary stuff! Yay! Hopefully, you'll see some of that soon.

And even better news?

I am now represented by Lauren MacLeod of the Strothman Agency and I couldn't be happier with this. Lauren has always been a dream agent of mine and when she emailed me to tell me that she would love to represent me, I thought I might burst with happiness. Literally.

So that's the short story behind the changes. If you're willing to get a taste of my writing (which is long and why I can never write short books), keep reading.

A little while ago, Victoria wrote a blog post about why sometimes having no publisher is better than having a bad publisher. I was the caution behind that tale.

I have nothing against small publishers. Nor will I ever. And I'm firmly under the belief that everyone has to start somewhere. Every big company had to start small before they became successful, and therefore people needed to take a chance there. I took a chance with KRP and it turned out to be a bad move, but it has taught me a lot.

Maybe one day KRP will be a great publisher. Today is not that day. They made a lot of promises to me that they couldn't/wouldn't keep and all the promotion my book got was my own doing. I got no help from my publishers at all (they couldn't even spell my name correctly most times). I was given a very unprofessional booklet of ways to promote my book (including leaving copies in doctor surgery waiting rooms, though where I'd get these copies from was another matter). I'd been promised 5 ARCs (yes, only 5) and got 1. I was promised Kirkus reviews and magazine reviews and got none. I was told B&N would shelf my book. They wouldn't. And then there were rumours of money not being paid and royalties being ignored and I knew something was very, very wrong.

The final straw (and I'm leaving A LOT out of this story) was when they signed MHBD up for Amazon KDP, having already received a request from me to NOT do that, and put the book out early for free. So yes, I decided to cancel the contract and am focusing on other works now.

Maybe one day, I can put MHBD out there (even if I have to self publish it). But my energy needs to be elsewhere for now and once again I thank you all for sticking with me.

Chanelle.

Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


On the surface, this was a five star book. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. When I wasn't thinking about it...well, that didn't happen. Too many books focus on the kidnap itself. The time spent being kidnapped. I liked that this looked at the after effects. I liked that it focused on Angie coming home. Because there's trauma there too. Different, but still trauma.

The book starts with Angie's return home. It's been three years since she was taken, but to Angie, no time has passed at all. In fact, she still thinks she's thirteen, still thinks she was camping with her friends, still thinks that it's August. She can't quite believe what her stunned parents tell her, and the face in the mirror just isn't hers. But with the help of a psychologist, Angie learns the truth: she has DID (dissociative identity disorder) and there are a number of Angie's, but which one you'll get depends entirely on the circumstance.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Like I mentioned above, on the surface this was fantastic. It was interesting, haunting, emotional and tragic. But, unfortunately, the second half of the book led me to a few problems and though I was enjoying what I was reading, in the back of my head I was very disbelieving and quite irritated.

A lot of the big twists are revealed and then forgotten. Some of the twists were good ones, ones with a lot of fallout after. With 90% of these cases, the fallout wasn't mentioned. It was skipped and we were briefly told what happened later. It wasn't good enough for me.

My biggest complaint of this was after Angie attacks Yuncle and her parents find out what had happened. I expected this huge emotional scene, especially a confrontation between Angie and her father, and instead that wasn't explained. We're later told her parents accepted it and now her Grandma won't come to Christmas? It felt to me like a cop out.

Another complaint...when Angie manages to mould two of her alters with her own personality, she gets back all of their memories and isn't affected one tiny bit by it. The girl was held captive for 3 years and terrified of her captor, not to mention the incident that caused her to have an alter in the first place. But she doesn't think about it or react to it at all. She carries on dating and babysitting and going on with life as though none of that never happened. For me, that was really unrealistic.

There were more things I had a problem with, but I won't go into it. Because at the end of it all, I still really enjoyed reading it. I devoured the entire book and finished it quickly. I wanted more and more and more. And actually, maybe I'm so annoyed at the parts missed out because in fact, I just wanted to know more and that's a sign of a good story. If I didn't care about the book, I wouldn't want more!

4 stars.



View all my reviews

Splintered by A.G. Howard

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wow.

I had NOT expected this. It was like an emo Alice in Wonderland!!

This was a mammoth book. And just when I thought it might end, it didn't and a whole new plot rolled out. BUT this was good! Good because I was so invested in the characters and their development and just READING about them, that I didn't want the story to end.

Alyssa is the great, great, great granddaughter of Alice from Alice in Wonderland. But what the story didn't say was that when Alice came back from Wonderland, all her female descendants would be cursed. A curse that would then turn them insane. Alyssa has just started to experience the things that has her mother locked away in an Asylum and heads down the rabbit hole with the boy next door to try and end the curse.

There's a love triangle. Sometimes I hated it and was just wanted it to be Jeb and Alyssa forever. And then I liked it. Morpheus had more layers than an onion. And more secrets than layers! You never quite knew what was happening.

The writing was amazing and very visual, which helped for this type of story. I could picture everything well and this would make an amazing film. But this wasn't the Wonderland you thought you knew. It was creepy. The characters were evil. Everyone had their own motivations. It was fantastic.

I would definitely recommend this to people who like reading about fantasy adventures with some hot romance and creepy creatures! 5 stars.



View all my reviews

For seventeen-year-old serial womanizer Fletch Colson, life is a game and if he plays by the rules, he’ll win it all: his dream college, his parents’ money, and a hot (if a little vapid) girl on his arm. Really, it couldn’t be easier. All he has to do is get good grades, live a privileged boarding school life, and try not to mess up too much.

However, when he accepts the seemingly impossible bet to change his ways and be “just friends” with smart, beautiful, tempting Ellie Jacobs – a girl who seems hell bent on confusing him - Fletch’s whole world is turned upside down.

Suddenly, what seemed simple and clear, no longer feels right and Fletch must decide if winning it all is worth losing a piece of himself.

Renegade by J.A. Souders

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's been a while since I've done a review, but I'm back!

At first, I wasn't sure what I was reading. Evie - the main character - read very young and immature. The writing wasn't too developed and there was an overuseage of words. But I always try to finish a book I've been asked to review, and in this case, I'm glad I pushed myself past those awkward first chapters.

Because then the book morphs into an action filled, mystery packed, suspenseful story. The setting was intriguing, though I would have loved a little more description of it. A world undersea! How fantastic! I wanted to really feel it. Rather than have Evie spend the first couple of chapters being uninspiring and often, frankly, annoying, she could have been our eyes a little more. Because we could trust her eyes even if we couldn't trust her mind.

And the mind. I LOVED the conditioning aspect. The repetition of lines like 'My life is almost perfect' which is the dead giveaway when something is wrong. I spent most of the book asking 'why' and at the end it was all explained, if not in a rushed and anti-climatic way. But I did enjoy the conclusion.

There was a lot of action and adventure in this. As I was reading, I couldn't quite believe that 3/4s of this book was dedicated to the escape, but it was and I loved it. I kept thinking that something was going to happen and both Evie and Gavin would be captured and a new storyline would happen. But it didn't.

Evie was developed well, but all the other characters needed more. Gavin was a little...empty. I liked him, but only because he helped Evie. Their romance was VERY fast, and while I understand first impressions and love at first sight, I didn't quite buy their strong feelings.

However, I did really enjoy this book and the bad points I mentioned didn't interrupt the flow of the story or the enjoyment of it. 4 Stars.



View all my reviews

Behind the creepy castle like exterior of Birchtree academy is the sound of gossip, back stabbing and malice. When Zara’s dad takes on the new principle job at the elite boarding school, Zara knows she’ll be an outsider. She dreams of true love and marriage instead of possible frenemies and secrets. Definitely not Birchtree material.

In the cusp of everything are the twins. Oliver and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Nixon are renowned for their different – yet equally effective – methods of torture. And both have their eyes set on goody, goody Zara. Oliver wants to date her and Lizzie wants to befriend her?

At first, Zara is caught in the Nixon’s spell, but it’s not long until cracks begin to show through their dazzling façade. An anonymous email account, which targets students with their own secrets, has focused it’s energy on Zara using weapons only the Nixon’s could have provided. But have they turned on her? Is there a hidden agenda behind Lizzie’s interest in Zara? It’ll take four months, three warnings, two released sex tapes, and one dead body for Zara to finally learn the truth. And the truth can either destroy the boy she’s fallen for – and his twin sister – or save them both.

CAN TESSA POSE AS MADISON . . . AND STOP A KILLER BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE?

Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI.

When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again.

Tessa hates everything about being an impostor—the stress, the danger, the deceit—but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep.

Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.

(X-men meets The Silence of the Lambs)

Anna Whitt, daughter of a guardian angel and a demon, promised herself she’d never do the work of her father—polluting souls. She’d been naive to make such a claim. She’d been naive about a lot of things. Haunted by demon whisperers, Anna does whatever she can to survive, even if it means embracing her dark side and earning an unwanted reputation as her school’s party girl. Her life has never looked more bleak. And all the while there’s Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust, plaguing her heart and mind.

When an unexpected lost message from the angels surfaces, Anna finds herself traveling the globe with Kopano, son of Wrath, in an attempt to gain support of fellow Nephilim and give them hope for the first time. It soon becomes clear that whatever freedoms Anna and the rest of the Neph are hoping to win will not be gained without a fight. Until then, Anna and Kaidan must put aside the issues between them, overcome the steamiest of temptations yet, and face the ultimate question: is loving someone worth risking their life?