Showing posts with label Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Series. Show all posts
Friday, November 12, 2010
Review: Embrace by Jessica Shirvington
Release Date: October 14, 2010
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Genre: Angels, Romance
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 288
Source: Hachette Australia
Blurb (from goodreads.com)
I slowly opened my eyes. The sun speared its first bright rays of golden orange into the sky and I leapt from the cliff, with the sorrowful knowledge that no matter what the outcome, at least part of me would die that day...
Violet Eden Lincoln
After he gives her the world’s most incredible kiss – and then abandons her on her front doorstep – Violet is determined to get some answers. But nothing could have prepared her forLincoln
Without warning, Violet’s world is turned upside down. She never believed in God, let alone angels. But there’s no denying the strange changes in her body ... and her feelings forLincoln Phoenix
As Violet gets caught up in an ancient battle between dark and light, she must choose her path. The wrong choice could cost not only her life, but her eternity...
After he gives her the world’s most incredible kiss – and then abandons her on her front doorstep – Violet is determined to get some answers. But nothing could have prepared her for
Without warning, Violet’s world is turned upside down. She never believed in God, let alone angels. But there’s no denying the strange changes in her body ... and her feelings for
As Violet gets caught up in an ancient battle between dark and light, she must choose her path. The wrong choice could cost not only her life, but her eternity...
The Quickie Review
Whilst Embrace is a well written debut novel (from Australian author Jessica Shirvington) which has all the elements that make up a story I should love - hot boys, a love triangle and a dash of fantasy – I found there was something lacking due to my inability to sympathize or connect with the two main male leads who were quite frankly pretty dodgy.
The Full Blown Review
I’m doing a little bit of a change in my reviewing style for this review as surprisingly the blurb pretty much sums up most of the events in the book, I don’t want to give the rest away, so I’m going to skip the whole blurby goodness I usually do and go straight to my bookish thoughts.
Okay so first off I thoroughly enjoy a good love triangle and this book is basically Violet swinging between Lincoln and Phoenix, two hot males (so if you don’t love a good ol’ love triangle this book probably isn’t for you at all), however for the whole love triangle to work I have to actually like the characters and I didn’t really which was a shame because I really wanted to, I tried oh how I tried, but in the end both male leads were not very endearing, they both were shall I say douchey even their hotness could not make me like them very much. Take Lincoln he kept this huge life changing secret from Violet then when she found out this secret he wanted to give her ‘space’ to think about it even though he knew Phoenix, an exiled angel (which are apparently really bad as they want to kill Grigori), was itching to get him some Violet, I mean can you say weiner that boy really needed to grow some and protect his woman! Then we have Phoenix who was dark and broodingly handsome but just as bad as Lincoln because the nut was manipulating Violet’s feelings influencing how she felt towards himself and Lincoln
Then we have Violet, ahh Violet, Violet, Violet, where to begin. Well her ridiculous stance towards Lincoln’s lying and then trusting Phoenix even though he lied to her too, it made no sense to me, can someone say double standards and believe me I cannot stand people who have double standards, it makes me so frustrated, arghh! I was also surprised she let Phoenix
Apart from Violet, Lincoln and Phoenix
Now you may be reading this and think ohhh you must not have enjoyed this book at all, well not true, I did, I really did, I mean the main characters were a bit dodgy but overall it wasn’t a bad read. The whole premise behind the Grigori and exiled angles was quite interesting, that said I did get a tad confused at times about the whole angel hierarchy so it was good a hierarchical map was included so whenever I needed an angel hierarchy refresher I simply turned to the hierarchical map and voila! There was also some interesting discussion as to the whole ‘good’ and ‘bad’ labels we give people, we tend to lump things into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ however it’s usually not so clear cut, good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. I also found the book to be well written especially considering this is Jessica Shirvington’s first novel, she can sure write some good ol’ romance scenes for sure!
So basically whilst Embrace is not a deep novel (but you already probably knew that, its fantasy which is meant to whisk you away and yes it did that for me) and I didn’t really connect with any of the main characters, it was well written and definitely shows some promise. I’ll probably read the next book in the series, what can I say I’m a glutton for these kind of books, I want to find out if Lincoln
Rating
3.5 out of 5
There’s Another Book?!?
Jessica has signed a three book deal with Hachette Australia so there are at least two more books in the series, however with that said in an interview with Tina over at Book Couture Jessica said there will be 4 books in the series so I’m not sure!
The second book in the series Enticed will be released in 2011, here’s a little bit on what we can expect -
Violet continues to discover and do battle with her angelic nature within – will this nature ensure that any choices she makes stay true to the path of her pre-determined destiny?
Goodies
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Review: The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller
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Release Date: August 30, 2010 Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Paranormal, Romance (sort of)
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 420
Source: Penguin Australia
Blurb (from Penguin Australia
Haven Moore has always known she's different: there are the talents that can't be explained; the knowledge of places she's never been; and then there are the visions that overwhelm her - terrifying visions of a life that ended tragically two decades earlier and more than a thousand miles away in New York City. The citizens of Haven's rural, highly religious community, believe that she's been possessed by a demon. But this is no demon: it's reincarnation.
Haven journeys all the way to Manhattan
This is an epic and thrilling romance set in the snake-handling churches of Appalachia, the dusty ruins of ancient Rome , and the grand mansions of Manhattan
The Quickie Review
So I’ve mentioned this before about a hundred times but I am a huge sucker for romance in novels so from simply reading the blurb of The Eternal Ones I was sure I’d fall in love with it I mean the whole premise of eternal love and searching every lifetime for your soulmate super duper romantic. Alas however romance was seriously lacking, I mean there was a bit but not much at all, the story was more of a mystery which worked quite well as it had me double guessing myself a couple of times, I thought I knew what happened but then I was thrown through the loop again. So basically if your looking simply for romance this probably wont be the best book to read however if you enjoy a little mystery you should definitely give this a go.
The Full Blown Review
Ever since Haven Moore was little she has had visions from a past life as a girl named Constance - all of which involve or are about the love of her life Ethan - making Haven very different from the rest of the inhabitants of the small, tight knit community of Snope City. Consequently when living in a small community such as Haven does being different is never a good thing even when Haven hasn’t had any visions in years. Soon however Haven’s visions suddenly return when she sees Iain Morrow an impossibly handsome and rich movie star on TV who Haven’s convinced she’s met before but how exactly? Could this Iain actually be Ethan, Haven’s true love? Now with the visions back Haven’s grandmother along with the rest of the inhabitants of Snope City New York
I’ve never read anything dealing with reincarnation before that said I find the whole concept really fascinating I mean being able to come back from a past life, pretty cool. Miller’s description of Haven and Iain’s past lives was so detailed and interesting, whilst Miller concentrated on Haven’s past life as Constance in the visions, the very beginning of the love affair between Haven and Iain was detailed so the reader knows how it all started and let me tell you what a beginning!
Haven was a strong lead character, I especially loved her interactions with her grandmother, which I’m sure were unintentionally hilarious, well they were for me. Nothing seemed to phase Haven she knew what she had to do and she did it. Whilst many girls would take the gorgeous looking Iain’s words as gospel Haven always questioned what he was or wasn’t telling her which is refreshing. That being said however her indecisiveness towards Iain did cheese me off a bit, I mean pick your position and stick with it! The supporting characters were also well developed with my favourites being Beau, Haven’s best friend and Haven’s mean, nutty, tough as nails, take no crap from anybody (phew that’s a lot of adjectives) grandmother Imogene Snively who has to have one of the best surnames ever!
I love how Miller took us on a journey from the small rural town of Snope City to the bright lights of New York and then to the ancient city of Rome Rome as I absolutely adored Rome when I was there and with Miller’s descriptions I could perfectly picture the beautiful settings such as such as the bustling piazzas and the magnificent buildings that make up Rome
The stunning Piazza Navona which was described in the book
A fair portion of the start of the book is dedicated to Haven’s back story and her life before she leaves for New York Snope City
Haven’s story really starts to pick up once she gets to New York and is confronted with the mystery of Constance ’s death which she must solve in order to work out who she can trust. Whilst at first it appears simple to Haven that Iain is her one and only, and she can trust him entirely her view begins to change can she really trust Iain because if she can why is he hiding things from her and telling her to stay away from the Ouroboros Society? The last quarter of the book really picked up the pace and was really engrossing as the mystery was coming to a pretty spectacular conclusion where many of our questions were answered, my main one being can Haven trust Iain or not, because frankly I had no idea!
What did irk me sometimes was Haven’s attitude towards Iain, boy was she a flip flopper, I was like girl just pick whether you’re going to trust him or not. At one point in the story she decided that she could trust him and then all of a sudden she didn’t and then once again she changed her mind and went back to him, can you say frustrating! Perhaps I’m being to hard on poor Haven I mean I’ll admit that I was pretty flummoxed at who to trust or what was going on sometimes especially when I thought I knew what was going on, oh how wrong was I, don’t you just love that in a book when you have no idea what’s going to happen next, I know I do.
The Eternal Ones was a thoroughly enjoyable read even though the romance aspect was not as all encompassing as I believed it would be as the mystery aspect really kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what was going to happen next. Whilst the ending did conclude nicely there is definitely room for a sequel which will hopefully delve more into Haven and Iain past lives.
Rating
3.5 out of 5
There’s Another Book?!?
Yes indeed there will be another book in the series here’s what Kirsten has to say about it –
It is action-packed. Haven is forced to infiltrate the Ouroboros Society in order to save someone she loves. I won't say more for fear of giving too much away. But I'll be posting updates on my blog over the next few months!
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