Sunday, July 21, 2013

Snow White Sorrow by Cameron Jace


Genre:  YA Fairy Tale Fantasy
The Grimm Diaries Series, Book 1

Description (taken from Goodreads):
What if all you knew about fairy tales was wrong?

Sixteen year old Loki Blackstar is no Prince Charming. His mother is a ghost. His only friend is a red Cadillac that sings to him through the radio. He looks like an Angel but acts like jerk. No wonder he has been banned from Heaven, which is the least of his troubles. Loki needs a job to pay for school and support himself.

Still, Loki has a rare gift: He is a Dreamhunter. One of the few in the world who can hunt and kill immortal demons in their dreams so they never wake up again.

When Loki is sent to kill a sixteen-year-old vampire girl the locals call Snow White Sorrow, he is pulled into a magical but dangerous world. The locals believe the monster to be Snow White.

The real Snow White... living in the ruins of an ancient castle in a small town. She is described as horribly beautiful, terrifyingly enchanting, and wickedly lovely.

What he finds instead is a beautiful monster girl filled with rage and hurt, who has an epic untold story to tell of things such like why the Brothers Grimm altered the fairy tale, who the Evil Queen really is, where the mirror came from, and who possessed it.

Snow White has killed every person who has dared come near the castle where she once lived with the queen. Mysteriously, she lets Loki live, and whispers two words in his ears; two words that will change his life forever.

Another fairy tale retelling, right?  Only, I've never seen so much weird imagination.  I mean, there's imagination, and then there's the weird, eccentric imagination that Cameron Jace has.  He melds our world into the city of Sorrow which melds fairy tale characters into real life people.  And they all have a different paranormal aspect to them.

Loki is almost like your average teen, except for the fact that he's a fallen angel who's forgotten his past.  But he's trying to get in everyone's good graces even though he has an attitude and doesn't need anyone's help.  We kind of get to see him grow throughout the novel.  And there's Snow White.  She's beautiful, mysterious, and a vampire.  Yep, everything I need to make my book complete.

For me, this book started out really slow.  Watching Loki journey into Sorrow and meeting new characters was difficult for me.  I wanted the fairy tales.  But once we got into the dreamworld, I was hooked.  I loved the retelling of Snow White and how things began to unravel together so well.

Now that I've read the beginning, I'm hoping the next few books will go straight into the dream world and fairy tale retelling (you can tell I'm straight to the point).  It's a fun read.


Thanks goes to Cameron Jace for providing me a review copy.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready


Genre:  YA Paranormal Fantasy
Shade Trilogy, Book 3

Description (taken from Jeri Smith-Ready's website):
No other love has burned so bright

Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.

As the first in a generation that can see ghosts, Aura is convinced that she has a connection to the Shift. She’s trusted Zachary, ever patient and ever by her side, with all that she knows. But when the government threatens his life in an attempt to learn Aura’s secrets, she will stop at nothing to protect herself and the one she loves...even if that means betraying her own heart.

Hmm, I think I liked the first two books in this series more.  Maybe it's the long time I waited to read the finale, or maybe it's because we're done with the love triangle.  For whatever reason, I don't know.

In a world where kids born after a specific date can see ghosts and those ghosts have the potential to use these kids, you can see where issues could arise.  Where people could be scared enough to react in ways that dehumanize the living.  Welcome to Aura's world.  And various companies will stop at nothing to gain control of the situation.

And as always, we have Zachary: the love interest.  As much as I loved Logan, Zachary was alive and well enough to love more.  But it seems like this book was more about nurturing their love than it was about solving the mystery of the Shift.  I guess I wanted more historical aspects and more solving-the-mystery action.  Don't get me wrong because that stuff is in the book.  It just takes a major back seat when it comes to Zachary and Aura's love for each other.

It was a great ending to a fun trilogy.  I just wished I had read this one sooner...


Challenges:  Paranormal Reading Challenge and TBR Pile Challenge

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Pure Textuality Convention

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Hey!!
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C'mere!!
I have a secret to tell you....

14PTC Badge

ATTENDEE REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!
And we have EARLY BIRD RATES!!!
RATES WILL INCREASE ON AUGUST 11, 2013 AT 11:59PM
AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS: WE STILL HAVE SPOTS OPEN AS WELL!
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES COMING SOON!


The 2014 Pure Textuality Convention is an official sponsor of
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!


I'll be going to this event.  Will you?
I'm kind of excited; it'll be my first book event.  I figured since it's only four hours away in Minneapolis, I should make sure I can get myself there.  And what's even more awesome is I've been selected as one of the bloggers for this event.  So, you'll be hearing more as we get closer to it.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

The Grimm Diaries Prequels Volume 1-6 by Cameron Jace


Genre:  YA Fairy Tale Fantasy

Description (taken from Goodreads):
What if all you knew about fairy tales was wrong?

Warning: these Grimm Prequels are like snap shots of a magical land you're about to visit soon. I like to think of them as poisoned apples. Once you taste them, you will never see fairy tales in the same light again.

This Grimm Diaries Prequels are a number of short books in the form of epistolary diary entries. The diaries are more of teasers for the upcoming series: The Grimm Diaries, allowing you to get a glimpse of what to expect of the series. The 6 diaries are told by The Evil Queen, Peter Pan, Little Red Riding Hood, the Devil, Prince Charming, and Alice Grimm.

Have you ever imagined a world where ours collides with the fairy tales we've been told since we were kids?  And then add a little warped fantasy (you know, the kind I tend to read and love), and you've got a really weird story where fantasy collides with fairy tales in our world.  These six stories are just a taste of what we'll find from Cameron Jace.

We have six different stories from varying characters.  We hear the evil queen's take on her story and almost feel sorry for her.  We get a glimpse of Cinderella's world.  We see Peter Pan con Dracula into helping him all in the name of resurrecting his love.  We also get to hear from other characters.  And as much as their worlds are set in the fairy tale world, they're still in our world.  So we see some history lessons collide with nursery rhymes and tales of wonder.  It's so weird it's good.

With these prequels, we get a glimpse of this world.  We're introduced to the dream world and the immortals.  And we're left wondering what's going to happen in the actual diaries?  I'll be picking up Snow White's story soon...

Sidenote:  I wouldn't recommend these stories for younger kids.  They may be fairy tales, but they're warped with fantasy that can involve slightly darker themes.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

manda-rae's Haul

Stacking the Shelves consists of books we received in the last week, hosted by Tynga's reviews.

I had such a fun week this week.  Quite a few books came in the mail for me.  I love winning things.  It makes me feel awesome...  I hope everyone has a happy Saturday!

For Review:

  • Aquifer by Jonathan Friesen
    • Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
      • Something more precious than gold, more precious than money.  In fact, it's needed to sustain life.  And those in power control it.  Water is scarce in this world.  Sounds intriguing, no?  Thanks goes to Zondervan publishing for this goodie.

Won from Beth Revis:

  • Defy the Dark edited by Saundra Mitchell plus swag
    • Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
      • Isn't this cover awesome?!  And more short stories to become acquainted with new authors.  I'm kind of looking forward to it.  Plus I got some nifty bookmarks; they say "Don't be afraid of the dark".  Since I have extras, let me know if you want one and I can mail it to you.  Thank you Saundra and Beth!
  • Shades of Earth by Beth Revis
    • Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
      • If another copy of an awesome book gave me the same feel-good first-read thrill experience, I'd totally take advantage of this new copy.  But...  I can totally read my other copy a second time.   So...  I'm trying to decide what to do with this copy: offer up for swap on swapping sites, donate it to other readers, or maybe a giveaway.  I'm not sure, feedback anyone?

Won from Lili's Reflections:

  • Prophecy by Ellen Oh (signed) plus bookmark
    • Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
      • I've been wanting to get my hands on a good fantasy.  And this one seems like something fun to read.  And it's signed (see inset picture).  Cool beans!  Thanks Ellen and Lili!
  • Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

From the Library:

  • Survive by Alex Morel
    • Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads
      • Prior to winning the butt load of books, I thought I might pick some books from my tbr pile that I wanted to read last year but didn't.  This was one of them.  And it's all about surviving...

Purchased (e-edition):

The Moon Dwellers by David Estes
An indie dystopian.  I like these indie authors.  He was celebrating his one year a couple of weeks ago by offering free copies, and I thought I'd snag one while I could.

Yellow Socks and Blood Spots by Bailey J Thompson
Another freebie that I snagged.  I like being notified of these awesome freebies.  Of course, this book deals with more serious issues than what I'm used to.  But it still looks good.



manda-rae's Past Two Weeks

Reviews:

Promo:

Giveaways:
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