Month: March 2014

Review: Twisted, by Emma Chase

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There are two kinds of people in the world. The ones who look first, and the ones who leap. I’ve always been more of a looker. Cautious. A planner. That changed after I met Drew Evans. He was so persistent. So sure of himself – and of me.

But not all love stories end happily ever after. Did you think Drew and I were going to ride off into the sunset? Join the club. Now I have to make a choice, the most important of my life. Drew already made his –in fact, he tried to decide for the both of us. But you know that’s just not my style. So I came back to Greenville. Alone. Well, sort of alone….

What I’ve come to realize is that old habits die hard and sometimes you have to go back to where you began, before you can move ahead.

This story takes place two years after Tangled left off, and it’s from Kate’s point of view.

Life has been perfect for Drew and Kate. Well, that is, until it wasn’t. I must admit, My stomach dropped at one point in this book. I was saddened by Drew’s actions. He most definitely NOT perfect. But I was still shocked. Now, don’t get me wrong, he was still the same smart a$$, and some of his comments cracked me up, but he also needed a swift kind in the balls, for some of his actions.

Kate and Drew’s happily ever after was shattered, and they must figure out if it’s worth the trouble to repair it.

There was lots of funny scenes and sexy scenes, and of course the token, “Holy Crap!!” scene. To quote Grandma, “Don’t believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see.” Truer words never spoken.

This book will take you full circle and end at a very high point. No worries. HEA all the way!!!

~Melpomene

I received this ARC for an honest review.

Buy Twisted (The Tangled Series)

Review: Come Home to Me by Brenda Novak

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20140318-221559.jpg March 25 release — newest Whiskey Creek

Come Home to Me is an excellent, complex, original romance, unlike any I’ve read recently. Novak takes her time developing the characters on their own, and then showing how they fit in with the cast. I admit I was a little impatient to get the story going, but all that character development made the plot nice and substantial.

So. Presley and Aaron. They’re the main romantic couple in the novel. What a pair. They have history together. They have chemistry. Still. But it’s just not that great of an idea for them to get together again, for a whole host of reasons.

I took this book nice and slow, and really enjoyed seeing how Aaron tried to entice Presley into a relationship with him. And even though I didn’t personally identify with Presley, I loved watching her give Aaron a hard time… sometimes because she just wasn’t feelin’ it, and sometimes just to watch Aaron squirm. 🙂

In Come Home to Me, Novak writes excellent characters with real and deep sibling relationships. Those family connections held up the characters of Presley and Aaron, and made their relationship part of real life instead of a romance bloomed in isolation. (I like those unrealistic kind of romance novels, too, but this was a pleasant breath of fresh air!)

–Calliope

Buy/preorder COME HOME TO ME

Review: The Troop by Nick Cutter

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the troopI can not bear to finish this book. I am physically ill from reading this. I don’t mind gore. Actually, I kinda like it. Brian Lumley is fast favourite of mine.

I thought this was going to be a really wonderful book. I really did. When I started it, it was wonderful. I love the concept of it. A small group of boys on a isolated island with only a scoutmaster there to guide them. All electronics left behind and no outside communication allowed for the duration. Then one night a mysterious stranger joins them on the island. I loved the back stories of the boys. The mesh of their personalities. They all made for a very interesting storyline. I loved the scoutmaster as well…a small town general practitioner.

However, I have to write this review to warn others. There is some really disturbing stuff within these pages. Again, I don’t mind the gore. I don’t even mind if characters I like are picked off one by one….well, I mind…but you know what I mean…..

However, senseless animal cruelty that leaves me shaking and very nauseous is enough to make me not want to finish this book. No, it makes me unable to finish this book. Yes, I admit, I want to know how it ends…but I am not willing to pay the price for this knowledge. I understand that perhaps Cutter (which is really Canadian writer Craig Davison) is trying to use this to build up character’s personality….but I just feel there are better and more worthy ways of doing so than a play by play scene that leaves NOTHING to the imagination.

I don’t mean to bash this author or his writing….as I stated, there is a lot I like in this novel….however, I can’t let something that sits so uneasily on me go undisclosed. I know a lot of people are excited to start reading this…and I don’t wish to deter them, only warn them….

Until next time….

Urania xx

ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review

Buy it now The Troop by Nick Cutter

Special Announcement from K.A.Tucker

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OH MY WORD!!!!! This day is getting better and better. K.A.Tucker just announced that, on September 1, 2014, Atria will be releasing a prequel novella to Ten Tiny Breaths, called In Her Wake. It will be from Trent’s point of view. The BEST thing about it, is it’s ONLY 99 cents!!! I can’t wait!!!

SYNOPSIS
Cole Reynolds had it all. And then one night he makes a bad choice… and loses everything.

When a drunken night out at a Michigan State college party results in the death of six people, Cole must come to terms with his part in the tragedy. Normally, he’d be able to lean on his best friends. The best friends that have been in his life since he could barely walk. Only, they’re gone. Worse, there’s the shattered body of a sixteen-year-old girl lying somewhere in a hospital bed, her entire life ripped from her because of a case of beer and a set of keys.

Everyone assures him that they know it wasn’t intentional and yet he can’t ignore the weight of their gazes, the whispers behind his back. The all-consuming guilt he feels every time he thinks of that girl who won’t so much as allow him near her hospital room to apologize. As the months go by and the shame and loneliness festers, Cole begins to lose his grip of what once was important-college, his girlfriend, his future. His life. It’s not until Cole hits rock-bottom that he can begin to see another way out of his personal hell: forgiveness.

And there’s only one person who can give that to him…

Look at this cover!!!!!!!

In Her Wake cover (1)

This is turning out to be an exciting year!!!

~Melpomene

Pre-order In Her Wake: A Ten Tiny Breaths Novella

Get caught up with the series

Buy Ten Tiny Breaths: A Novel

Buy One Tiny Lie: A Novel

Buy Four Seconds to Lose: A Novel

Pre-order Five Ways to Fall: A Novel

It’s a National CoHo day and giveaway!!

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What does CoHo stand for, you ask?? Well, it’s Colleen Hoover, sillies. And today she has two new releases. Well technically one new one and one kinda new one. Maybe Someday is the brand new one. I have read it and I LOVED it!! Check out my review HERE. I can’t say enough good things about this book. It was a brand new reading experience for me.

For those who don’t know, Griffin Peterson wrote an album to go along with Maybe Someday. It’s a match made in heaven, I tell ya!! You click on the link or GR code, depending on which type of book you’re reading, and it will take you to the website with the music. Then, as you read the book, you click on the songs that go along with certain scenes.

It is just perfect. You’ll fall in love with the songs and his lovely voice. He is super talented and I am so glad he agreed to write these songs for Colleen. They complete this book. Like I said in my review, when I read song lyrics it’s hard to determine the melody. So when I can actually hear the songs as I read, I am blown away. My favorite song is a toss up between Maybe Someday and Hold On to You. Every time I listen to it, I think of the scenes they were played in, and I cry. Such a beautiful story paired up with beautiful music.

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Also releasing today is Finding Cinderella. Now this book is already a free ebook. But as a true CoHo fan, I need her books in the dtb(dead tree book) form. So a group of us diehards bombarded Atria Books on Facebook and Twitter, begging them to print it out for us. For months we did this and it totally paid off!! Today the paperback of Finding Cinderella novella is being released. I know I’ll be stalking my mail man all day. Inside this book will be some of the texts that we sent, and bonus content that isn’t in the ebook. I am super excited to have this on my shelf!!!

GIVEAWAY TIME
Comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of the MP3 album Maybe Someday, by Griffin Peterson. You can download it to your iPod or phone and take his fabulous songs everywhere you go. Trust me, you want this. This music will make your heart happy. The contest will run all week, and I’ll draw a name on Friday at noon. US ONLY

~Melpomene

Buy the book Maybe Someday

Buy the soundtrack Maybe Someday

Buy Finding Cinderella: A Novella

Review: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

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20140222-090030.jpgGabrielle Zevin’s debut novel, Elsewhere, is one of those once-in-lifetime books that steals your soul and sticks in your head forever and ever. So the bar was set exceptionally high when I decided to add one of her more recent stories to my list of books read.

When sixteen-year-old Naomi falls down and hits her head, the resulting amnesia causes her to examine her life and who she truly wants to be. Waking up in the hospital, she soon discovers that the past four years of her life have disappeared. She has no memory of her popular star athlete boyfriend Ace. Where is her mom and why are they no longer on speaking terms? Who are these people talking to her when she returns to school? Even her house is different from the one she remembers. Of course there’s a love story twist thrown in for interest. James is the mysterious new kid in school who was there when she fell and rode with her to the hospital. And then there’s Will, her quirky best friend who is probably the best character in the book. Lots of decisions to be made by Naomi as she comes to terms with what she remembers, what she wants to forget, and what she wants to change.

So did this one measure up to my admittedly very high expectations? Yes and no. It’s really not fair or compare it to Elsewhere as they’re two completely different kinds of stories. Whereas Elsewhere is a story full of mysticism and the afterlife, Memoirs is more of a true to life, coming of age story. Still, it’s an excellent young adult book with highly likeable characters and enjoyable dialogue written by an outstanding author.

~Thalia

Buy it Now: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Review: Four Friends by Robyn Carr

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20140315-230110.jpg I’ve been a fan of Robyn Carr ever since Virgin River … And I’ll always be a fan. But Four Friends is nothing like the nature-filled, adventurous, romantic tales of Virgin River or Thunder Point.

Four friends is about four neighborhood women, each in a different phase in life, each with struggles, and each with strengths. They bring each other wine, pull each other out of bed to join the daily morning walks, and save each other’s lives. Literally.

The more I think about this book, the more ambivalent I am about it. I liked it, but there were some parts that just annoyed me!

For example:
I’m a sucker for a good tale about marriage, but I hated that there was cheating going on. I appreciate Carr being a champion for victims of domestic abuse, but some of that story seemed contrived. Crystal-toting Sonja lent a cool quirkiness that I loved… and then the rug was ripped out from under me when Sonja wasn’t really who she appeared to be. And Andy’s love life was great for her, but her new man was so timid and tepid that I couldn’t feel the attraction.

I think I felt like I was looking in on a pretend world when I read Four Friends. I was totally entertained, and the friendships were terrific. But I wasn’t drawn in to the story… I wasn’t in the pages with the characters… They just weren’t real to me.

All in all, from the outside looking in, Four Friends is a fresh take on women’s friendships with each other and the struggles they overcome in their relationships with men.

–Calliope

Buy FOUR FRIENDS

Melpomene’s Top 10, in other words, Angstfest 2014

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I was looking through Goodreads and I decided to make a Top 10 list of my favorites. By the end, you will get a glimpse into what I look for in a book, as if you don’t already know.

#1 Beautiful Disaster: A Novel, by Jamie McGuire
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Travis is my very first book boyfriend and no one will ever take his title. This book was my first introduction into the New Adult, angst filled romance books, and it set a pretty high standard. It is usually one of two books I always tell people to read. Beautiful Disaster is pure perfection. My review doesn’t even do it justice. It’s just perfect. Read it for yourself and you will fall in love with it. I promise you.

#2 Poughkeepsie (The Poughkeepsie Series), by Debra Anastasia
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This is by far the wildest romance book I’ve ever read. I am in love with this book so much, I can’t put it into words. I made the tattoo as my phone cover, a poster in my reading corner and even a book bag. I just love all thing Poughkeepsie. It’s real and raw and so very romantic. It’s basically the perfect combination of everything I love in a romance book. I judge every other romance book against this one.

#3 Point of Retreat: A Novel (Slammed), by Colleen Hoover
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I am a lifetime CoHort. Seriously. I love EVERY book Colleen Hoover writes, but Point of Retreat is my all time favorite. I can’t pinpoint the reason, but the emotions that this book caused was so overpowering, I was devastated. This is another NA/romance book that will not disappoint. But be sure to read Slammed first, or you’ll be completely lost. 🙂

#4 The Edge of Never, by J.A. Redmerski
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I actually grabbed this book, based on the cover. I had no idea what it was about. I new it was NA, which seems to be my theme, but I never read the description. This book had a rather unconventional love story, but I think my review does it justice. It can be read as a standalone, even though she wrote a second book. This one was my favorite.

#5 The Sea of Tranquility: A Novel, by Katja Millay
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This was another book that I grabbed, based on the cover. And it shocked the emotions right out of me. It’s hard to put in words how I felt. I wanted to reach inside this book and hug every single person. They were so broken, my heart was breaking for them. Beautiful and gut wrenching. Another perfect book.

#6 Gabriel’s Inferno, by Sylvain Reynard
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I remember picking this up and thinking, “How in the world is a guy going to be able to write a romance and make it beautiful?” HA!! I was totally surprised. This book was absolutely beautiful. I was shocked by the tears that fell from my eyes. The words were so romantic and beautiful.

#7 The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
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OK. This book DESTROYED me. Honest to goodness killed me. I was ripped to pieces and shredded. I have never cried more in my life, than when I read this book, TWICE. This book gets into your soul and changes you. It’s beautiful and sad. If you need to release some pent up emotions, read this. You will feel whole, when you are done.

#8 When I Look to the Sky (The Rock and Roll Trilogy), by Barbara Stewart
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This is the second book in a trilogy and it was very hard to decide which book I liked more. The first one, Rock & Roll Never Forgets, I can’t even review. It was so beautiful and epic and I was sobbing by the end. I tried to write a review, but every time I think of this book I cry. Big, fat, ugly tears. This book killed me even more, but I HAD to post about it. I can’t have another day go by without people hearing about this book. My review took forever to write. In between all the tears and emotions that were pouring out of me. My family thought I lost my mind, after I was done. It was that good. On a side note, this story helped me get through one the hardest times in my life. I ordered a complete set of signed books and they arrived at my house on the day I received such horrible news. They were such a comfort to me. I can never truly explain how much I love Barbara for these.

#9 Easy, by Tammara Webber
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I remember searching for books similar to Beautiful Disaster, and stumbling upon Easy. I was completely blown away. I fell for Lucas, instantly. I love reading about broken guys who try desperately to put it all behind them and move forward. And I love the girls who help them. 🙂 I am anxiously waiting for Lucas’ story to come out, in May. I am already anticipating on needing tissues for that one. 🙂

#10 Left Drowning, by Jessica Park
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I remember reading Flat Out Love and completely falling in love with Jessica Park. So when I found out that she was going to write another book, I was super excited to read it. This book…..To quote the last line of my review, “I may never get over this book.” This was the perfect combination of romance, angst, silliness and devastation. Another perfect combination. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next from her. But it will be awesome.

WOW!!! Typing this out, brought all the emotions back to the surface. Now I need a tissue, or two…perhaps a hug.

~Melpomene

The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal

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18077844For those of you that love historical fiction, this may be a book for you. I’m personally not a huge historical fiction fan, and I generally hold everything up to a few favourites I’ve read in the past. Not fair? You’re right, it isn’t but unfortunately I can’t help it!
The Anatomy Lesson is set in Holland in the 1600’s. It follows several characters around the time in which Rembrandt was commissioned to paint one of his most famous pieces: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulpe. Each of the characters in the story all have something to do with, or influence the events around this painting. The general premise of this book is interesting and it would have made a really good novel. However, in my opinion, there were too many flaws that didn’t allow me to enjoy it as much as I should have.
First, let’s talk about the structure. The story is initially divided into two narratives. One set in 17th century Holland, and the in modern day Holland. The latter narrative revolves around an art historian who is examining the painting and trying to repair it back to its former glory. To me, this narrative really wasn’t necessary. It did not add anything to the plot.
The other thing that bothered me (and it might not bother others), was the constant change of tense and personal narrative. One minute someone is speaking in 1st person and the next 3rd person. I’m sure there was a literary/personal reason for this, but it just grated on me.
This is a short review, because as you can probably tell, I didn’t really enjoy it. However, if you enjoy historical fiction, and want something different than the usual 16th century royal family sagas, then give this one a go, and form your own opinion. There is definitely potential…

~ Pegasus.

The Anatomy Lesson: A Novel

Review: Missing You by Harlan Coben

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missing you***SNEAK PEEK*** **This title will be released in the USA on March 18**

OKAY!!!!!!!! LISTEN UP!!!!! YOU!!!!! YEA!!!! YOU!!!!! What are your plans for March 18, 2014? Well…whatever they are, forget them…ditch them….change them….You need to be first in line to buy this newest thriller from Harlan Coben…..no, seriously…I’m not kidding! This was a fantastic read!!!! I think it might be my favourite Coben yet, and I’ve been a mad fan for years!

Here we have a story about Kat….a NYPD detective. After a close friend signs up the single Kat for an online dating service, she stumbles across an old flame. This one simple act, combined with the imminent death of her father’s convicted killer sets Kat off to question events in her past that have always remained a mystery…to ask questions that might be best left unasked….to seek answers she might not be able to live with…..along this road of discovery she also stumbles upon a questionable missing persons case….and from there all hell breaks loose….

And that is all I am going to spill…..

This novel has lots of puzzle pieces for you to figure out. Although you are able to fit the pieces together, piece by piece, you’re still unsure of what the overall picture is….you’re also missing that one very important puzzle piece…..even when it’s all solved, you still won’t see everything until the last possible minute….that’s right….you need to read this one to the end…..and just listen up….it’s worth your time and your trouble…..this is a heart racing read…the further you read, the more your heart is going to race….near the end, you’re certain to be fighting yourself to slow down and actually read the pages and not just race ahead to see what happens….

This is a solid 5 star read for me….It might not be the best book I read in 2014, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being the most suspenseful and exciting read of the year!

Have you marked your calendar yet? Don’t forget! March 18, 2014…..it’s going to be a very good day….

Until next time….

Urania xx

ARC provided by NetGallery for an honest review

Buy it now Missing You by Harlan Coben