Book Review: Finding Hope by Colleen Nelson

Release Date: March 19th, 2016
Read: April 5th-8th, 2016
Publishing:  Dundurn
Series: N/A
Format: Paperback, 200 pages
Source: Exchange with publisher for honest review.

Description from GoodReads:

   Hope leaves her small town for a fresh start, but her plans are derailed by an online romance and the appearance of her brother.

   Hope lives in a small town with nothing to do and nowhere to go. With a drug addict for a brother, she focuses on the only thing that keeps her sane, writing poetry. To escape, she jumps at the chance to attend Ravenhurst Academy as a boarding student. She’ll even put up with the clique-ish Ravens if it means making a fresh start.

   At first, Ravenhurst is better than Hope could have dreamed. She has a boyfriend and a cool roommate, and she might finally have found a place she can fit in. But can she trust her online boyfriend? And what can she do after her brother shows up at the school gates, desperate for help, and the Ravens turn on her? Trapped and unsure, Hope realizes that if she wants to save her brother, she has to save herself first.

Review:

   I'd never felt so alone.
   I had met Colleen at the MYRCA Round Table Dinner in October 2015, where my sister and I got to talk to her for a good period of time! But it wasn't until Dundurn sent me a copy of Finding Hope, that I actually had the chance to read one of her novels, and I couldn't be more excited. I had actually finished it in time for it's book launch, which made the experience even better.
   Finding Hope was told between the perspective of both Eric and his sister Hope, Eric being my favourite. It was intriguing to see the way Nelson portrayed his character. Being in the mind of a drug addict, sometimes we got to see his mind sober, and other times not. The research that had gone into making the novel accurate was probably extensive.
   Completely opposite of Eric, was Hope. Although siblings, I found them both complete opposites of each other. I also admired Hope's need to help her brother with his situation, although throughout the novel I found myself not taking a liking to her. Even if she had to deal with her rough life, of having to take care of her brother, and dealing with it on a day to day basis, I still found her immature and gullible. More often than not, I found myself shaking my head at her actions.
   Besides my dislike of Hope, Finding Hope was a quick, enjoyable and mature read. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a contemporary to read. Although just a fair warning, it does have some more, mature matters besides the drug addiction that would probably wouldn't make the book best for younger audiences.

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"A secret
Held close
spills,
tripping like blood into
your waiting hands."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Family, Drug Use, Abuse

Book Review: Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevive Tucholke

Release Date: March 22nd, 2016
Read: March 9th-16th, 2016
Publisher: Dial Books
Series: N/A
Format: ARC, 256 pages
Source: McNally Robinson/ Be First Book Club

Description from GoodReads:

   Every story needs a hero.
   Every story needs a villain.
   Every story needs a secret.

   Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.

   What really happened?
   Someone knows.
   Someone is lying.

Review:

   Everyone is afraid of dying, Midnight.

   Like everyone, I was excited for Wink Poppy Midnight. I had read Tucholke's debut novel more than a year ago, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, so I knew to expect weird and unusual. I just didn't expect it to be that unusual.
   I did not enjoy the story that is Wink Poppy Midnight, I found it to be very confusing and nothing special. I went through the book slowly, and feeling like it would never end. The story was constant back and fourth, it was all repetitive.
   One thing stood out for me in the book though, and that was the food. Tuckolke would bring up unusual foods that aren't often thought of, and example would be Olive Oil Ice Cream. With owning an Olive Oil shop, I know the wonderfulness of it with Ice Cream. So having it brought up alongside other unique favourites, like pumpkin hot chocolate, fresh salad with basil and olive oil drizzled over it, overjoyed me.
   If you are ever looking for an usual read to mess with your mind, then Wink Poppy Midnight is the one for you.

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"When you look into the darkness, the darkness looks into you."

"I get away with murder because I'm pretty."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Tarot Cards, unique foods + living styles

Blog Tour: The Fallen Prince by Amalie Howard

   Hello and welcome to The Fallen Prince Blog Tour!
   I'm so excited to be able to celebrate Amalie's latest release with you all, I'm a super fan of her Aquarathi series!
   So today I have for you an exclusive excerpt, as well as a contest for you to enter! I hope you enjoy, and if you enter the contest, then I hope you have good luck!

The Fallen Prince by Amalie Howard

Release Date: April 5th, 2016

Publishing: Sky Pony Press

Series: The Riven Chronicles, #2

Format: Hardcover, 384 pages

Description from GoodReads:

   Riven has fought for a hard-won peace in her world, and has come to shaky terms with who and what she is—a human with cyborg DNA. Now that the rightful ruler of Neospes has been reinstated, Riven is on the hunt for her father in the Otherworld to bring him to justice for his crimes against her people.

   But when she receives an unwelcome visit from two former allies, she knows that trouble is brewing once again in Neospes. The army has been decimated and there are precious few left to fight this mysterious new threat.

   To muster a first line of defense, her people need help from the one person Riven loathes most—her father. But what he wants in return is her complete surrender.

   And now Riven must choose: save Neospes or save herself.

   The flare of blue fire is blinding. Then again, it’s gone so quickly that even if you were staring right at me, you’d blink and it’d vanish. The emissions from the process of eversion—shifting between universes—are unavoidable. However, I try to be careful, everting in concealed areas away from people, and away from the eyes of the Faction and the Guardians. They’re always watching for those who break the law—those who don’t

remain where they belong.

Me, more so than ever.

I belong in Neospes, a domed city in a parallel dimension to the Otherworld. But I’m here in pursuit of a man who everted over a year ago. A man who nearly destroyed my world in his quest for power. A man so consumed with retaliation that to let him loose in either world would be a colossal mistake. 

And so I hunt him. I’ve been hunting him—across thirty states and always a step or two behind. He’s clever, brilliant, and a master strategist.

After all, he’s my father. And he’s my creator.

I may look like an ordinary girl, but I’m far from one. It’s something I’m still coming to terms with, ever since I learned the truth. I am a product of genetic experimentation and advanced robotics. I am the girl with nanoplasm for blood—the perfect combination of human and machine, an aberration of nature—and yet, its greatest creation. I am the only one of my kind.

My name is Riven.

And I am a killer.

The TAG Initiative Contest

   Celebrate the dual releases of The Riven Chronicles–THE ALMOST GIRL and THE FALLEN PRINCE–by participating in this awesome, fun, month-long contest.

   Are you up to the challenge?

   Join the initiative starting on March 24th 2016 to celebrate The Riven Chronicles’s THE ALMOST GIRL and THE FALLEN PRINCE!

   It’s easy…Complete at least one challenge, earn points with each completed challenge, and have a chance to win a Lenovo Ideapad 11.6″ laptop. Yes, you absolutely read that right–enter for a chance to win a LAPTOP (*US only due to shipping restrictions).

Join Here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/197906917237408/ 

   AMALIE HOWARD grew up on a small Caribbean island where she spent most of her childhood with her nose buried in a book or being a tomboy running around barefoot, shimmying up mango

trees and dreaming of adventure.
   An aspiring writer from a young age, Amalie Howard's poem “The Candle,” written at age thirteen, was published in a University of Warwick journal. She was also a recipient of a Royal Commonwealth Society essay award (a global youth writing competition). A Colby College graduate, she completed simultaneous Honors Theses in both French and International Studies, and graduated Summa Cum Laude/Phi Beta Kappa. At Colby, she was cited for research and criticism in Raffael Scheck’s article, “German Conservatism and Female Political Activism in the Early Weimar Republic,” and his subsequent book, “Mothers of the nation: right-wing women in Weimar Germany.” She also received a distinction in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, A-level Examinations as well as a certificate in French Literature from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. She is a member of SCBWI.

   Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully you guys check out Amalie's books! They are fantastic!

Book Blitz: The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

   Hello world!

   Today I'm excited to be able to celebrate The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead's release with Rockstar Book Tours! I have been such a huge fan of Richelle's work since before Last Sacrifice's release! 

   So today I have for you an exclusive excerpt from the book, and a lovely giveaway supplied by the author and publisher! I hope you all enjoy!

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

Release Date: April 5th, 2016

Publisher: Razorbill

Series: The Glittering Court, #1

Format: Hardcover, 416 pages

Description from GoodReads:

   For a select group of girls, the Glittering Court offers a shot at a life they’ve only ever dreamed of, one of luxury, glamour, and leisure. To high-born Adelaide, whose wealthy family is forcing her into a loveless marriage, the Glittering Court represents something else: the chance to chart her own destiny, and adventure in an unspoiled, prosperous new land across the sea.

   After a chance meeting with the dazzling Cedric Thorn, Adelaide poses as a servant to join the crop of impoverished girls he promises to transform into proper ladies. But her familiarity with upper class life comes with a price: she must hide her identity from her new friends, mysterious refugee Mira and fiery former laundress Tamsin, and most importantly, from Cedric himself—even though she’s falling in love with him. 

   Everything begins to crumble when Cedric discovers Adelaide’s ruse, and she catches the eye of a powerful young governor, who wants her for a wife. She didn’t leave the gilded cage of her old life behind just to become someone else's property. But nothing is as daunting—or as wonderful—as the potent, forbidden attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. One that, if acted on, would make them both outcasts in a wild, dangerous, uncharted world, and possibly lead them to their deaths.

   

   Richelle Mead has written over twenty-five novels for teens and adults. She is the author of the international #1 bestselling Vampire Academy series and its spinoff series, Bloodlines. Her recent standalone novel, Soundless, draws upon Chinese mythology and history, and her forthcoming series, The Glittering Court, follows the adventures of girls destined for arranged marriages in a fantasy world inspired by colonial America. A lifelong reader, Richelle has always had a particular fascination with mythology and folklore. When she can actually tear herself away from books (either reading or writing them), she enjoys bad reality TV, traveling, trying interesting cocktails, and shopping for dresses to wear on tour. She is a self-professed coffee addict, works in her pajamas, and has a passion for all things wacky and humorous. Originally from Michigan, Richelle now lives in Seattle, Washington, where she is hard at work on her next novel.

1 winner will receive a hardcover of THE GLITTERING COURT & a $25 Sephora Gift Card. US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

   Thanks for stopping by! Definitely let me know if you pick up a copy of The Glittering Court! I'd love to hear what you think of it!

Book Review: Broken Crowns by Lauren DeStefano

Release Date: March 22nd, 2016
Read: March 14th-15th, 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Series: The Internment Chronicles, #3
Format: ARC, 272 pages
Source: McNally Robinson/Two Thumbs Up Program

Description from GoodReads:

   The city is falling out of the sky…

   Morgan always thought it was just a saying. A metaphor. The words of the dying. But as they look up at the floating island that was their home, Pen and Morgan make a horrible discovery—Internment is sinking.

   And it’s all Morgan’s fault.

   Corrupted from the inside by one terrible king and assailed from the outside for precious resources by another, Internment could be destroyed because Morgan couldn’t keep a secret. As two wars become one, Morgan must find a way to bring her two worlds together to stop the kings that wage them…

   Or face the furthest fall yet. 

Review:

   How can you tell which are good and which are bad?
   Lauren DeStefano doesn't write books the same way that other authors do, it doesn't matter if she writes Science Fiction or Fantasy, they always have a realness to them. I learnt this when reading her first series, The Chemical Garden series, and saw the same with the first two novels in The Internment Chronicles, Perfect Ruin and Burning Kingdom. It was no different when reading Broken Crowns.
   The biggest thing that stood out about DeStefano's writing is how she's able to put a new view on everything, especially when it came to Internment. She was able to make things that are usually boring or not usually viewed as interesting, intriguing. Like the sun disease, you couldn't help but be intrigued over it, but in reality it was actually cancer. Because the people of Internment were completely new to earth, the new vocabulary was expected, but you couldn't help but feel the same amazement and emotions as the newcomers when it came to the world, drawing you into the story all that more.
   The Internment Chronicles has a new way of viewing happy endings, not everyone has to be with their true love, with no complications with life. DeStefano shows you that you can live a happy life, even if it's not like the usual fairy tale ending.
   Broken Crowns was not what I expected, and in the end, it was everything that I didn't know I needed. With solving all the characters problems in a relatively realistic way, it made the story feel as if it could one day, perhaps actually be real.
  Leaving me content and satisfied, Broken Crowns is the perfect conclusion to an unique series.

Rating:

Favourite Quotes:

"A girl should never stop thinking. Otherwise we'll become what our world thinks of us."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Fantasy, Sci Fi, Dystopian, Steampunk, Advenerture, New Worlds