Review: What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang

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11043618 In this world all children are born with two souls in one body. One of those souls is expected to be recessive and to settle – basically fading away to nothingness. But when the norm doesn’t happen they’re called Hybrids and society considers them to be a very dangerous thing and force them to go through medical testing and counseling until the dominant soul is the only one left.

This is what Addie and Eva have gone through and come out the other side – but with a secret. Eva, the recessive soul, has survived. They consciously work daily to ensure that no one suspects this, not even their family.

“But understanding a thing and accepting it are so very different things.”

When they meet another Hybrid everything changes. Eva is given a chance to have a voice again and while Addie wants to stick with the status quo, for once Eva won’t let her. It’s incredibly dangerous and if anyone finds out they could be institutionalized or worse.

From the very beginning Kat Zhang’s prose grabbed me and pulled me into this world and into Addie/Eva’s head. The book is told from Eva’s point of view which is in stark contrast to her world, where she literally has no voice. Eva’s experiences were heartbreaking and very well expressed.

As the book progresses and there are more and more decisions to make we get to hear Addie and Eva’s internal monologue on how to deal with these new challenges. Addie has been used to being the dominant soul and letting go of that is hard for her but she still wants to give Eva the chance to not be hidden anymore.

I would highly recommend this book, it’s a different take that I’ve ever seen before and I am super excited to review the second book What We Were in a few weeks when it comes out!

5 stars

~Clio

Buy it Now What’s Left of Me: The Hybrid Chronicles, Book One

Review: Keeping Her: A Losing It Novella by Cora Carmack

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image2.5/5 stars

Garrick and Bliss are going to London to meet his parents. Bliss is very worried about meeting his mother. Garrick tries to re-assure that everything will be ok.

In London, Bliss meets his two oldest friends first. Then they go Garrick’s parents’ home, where a surprise engagement party awaits them. And that’s just the start. There is some more added un-needed drama. I wish the novella focused more on Garrick and his two friends, instead of the melodrama.

This novella is for hard-core fans of the series. You are not missing anything if you skip it.

Looking forward to the next full-length book in this featuring Bliss’ friend, Kelsey in October.

~Thalia

Buy It Now Keeping Her: A LOSING IT Novella

Find Out They First Met & Got Together Losing It

Review: Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

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Seating Arrangements was one of those books I saw on a list of “must reads.” The description mentioned a wedding, a beach setting, a few families getting together, New England seaside living, and summer vacation. What’s not to love?!

And then I read the book. The description above is technically correct. However, the mood of this novel is dreary, dingy, grimy, contemptible, and depressing. No one is happy. I’ve never read such gloomy characters in a plot that I expected to be so lovely and delightful.

Maggie Shipstead writes beautifully – both technically and emotionally. And the plot at face value – families get together at the beach house to celebrate a wedding – is one that would normally interest me. But the crass and sad approach to it bogged me down. Each character fails at managing what life threw at them. Each character fails to live up to his own standards. Each character has more flaws than redeeming qualities. The story ends up being a description of this family’s debacles.

I enjoy light and upbeat books – or ones that at least have some ups and downs. Seating Arrangements just brought me down.

5 stars for writing ability, literary accomplishment (great symbolism and allusions), and character development.

1 star for enjoyability and plot presentation.

-Calliope

For literary fiction fans who don’t mind their novels on the depressing side, you’ll appreciate the writing!
Buy It Now Seating Arrangements

For fans of jovial, lighthearted stories of beaches and friends and weddings, try this August release instead!
Buy It Now Plus One is a Lucky Number: HarperImpulse RomCom

Review: Her Favorite Rival by Sarah Mayberry

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imageAudrey and Zach both have painful pasts. Audrey ran away from home at the age of sixteen. Although she came back home, her parents never truly forgave her. Instead they lavished attention on her younger sister while became she became the black sheep of the family.

Zach’s parents were recreational drug users. His mom became addicted to heroin after the death of his father in a motorcycle accident.

Audrey and Zach have overcome their hardships and are successful in the corporate world. They are both buyers for a large hardware chain of stores. A new CEO has come on board and they want to prove themselves in hopes of getting a promotion to category manager. Audrey has the experience. Zach has the academic qualifications.

They see each other as rivals but working together on a report allows them to get to know each other. An attraction develops. Naturally, they flirt.

“Why do men always buy manual cars?”
“Because we like to be in control.”
“Why do women always buy automatics?”
“Because we like to conserve our energy for some important things.”
“I have plenty of energy left to spare, don’t worry.”

They eventually give in to this attraction and it is Audrey who initiates this. It is Zach who insists that it goes beyond one night, who wants to start dating her.

“He didn’t care. Maybe that was because he was so tired, or maybe it was because he’d spent the night beside his sick mother, and turning his back on something -somone- who felt as good and life-affirming and right as Audrey did seemed nuts.”

It is mutual decision that they keep it quite from work for now.

As they open up about their families, they are there to console, comfort and support each other.

The category manager position does eventually open up. Both are asked to interview. No matter whom is selected, I firmly believed that the other would be proud and supportive of the other.

“All right. It’ll probably end in tears, but if you think we can handle this, I guess we’ve got to do it.”
“We can handle it.”

This is another winner by Mayberry. She writes compelling and sometimes heartbreaking stories featuring everyday, hardworking characters. It was a pleasure to see Audrey and Zach fall for each other as they deftly handled their career aspirations and difficult past.

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley.

~Thalia

Read Clio’s review of the prequel featuring Audrey’s sister.

Buy It Now Her Favorite Rival (Harlequin Superromance)

Review: When the World was Flat (and We Were in Love) by Ingrid Jonach

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15767908 This was an amazingly different Young Adult book. Different in a very good way. It captivated me from the first chapter and didn’t disappoint throughout the book. Do not let the science fiction genre title on this book scare you away!

Lillie lives in a small town with her Mom and has a small group of friends. Over the last few months she’s been having nightmares that feel very real and terrifying. But she doesn’t mention these to anyone because it’s kind of weird when you’re 16 and talking about bad dreams right?

It’s big news when Tom moves to the small town as there are very few new people in her school ever. Lillie feels very drawn to him but is rebuffed almost immediately. Yet they keep having interactions and at each one she feels that he may have the key to telling her what exactly is going on with her.

She eventually finds the truth and has to deal with that and how it affects the rest of her life and those around her since it changes things forever.

I loved the way this was written – I didn’t mean to finish it in one night but it just happened because I needed to know what was going on. I thought that Lillie was a very relatable character, I felt for her as she tried to figure out her feelings. Feelings of being so awkward around a boy she liked, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with her friends and dealing with bitchy girls in high school.

But on top of that traditional YA part of the book was the sci-fi part of the book. I don’t read sci-fi. Like ever. But this melded extremely well together and I loved the way it was done. I was fascinated throughout. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves YA books but wants something a little bit different. The book comes out tomorrow and you should get it!!

I received this ARC in return for an honest review.

4 stars

~Clio

Buy it Now

When the World was Flat (and we were in love)

Review: All Over the Place by Serena Clarke

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4 stars

Livi is a New Zealander who runs away to London after a humiliating – and very public – breakup. While she’s doing the single-working-girl thing in England, the book read like straight chick-lit, which I love. She had fun with her best friends, kept in touch with some schoolmates back home, flirted with a smattering of guys, and alternately complained about and thrived on her work in a hair salon.

And then all hell broke loose.

Livi’s mother came to London to “find herself” while Livi’s dad was nowhere to be found. Livi’s best friend Cam was sometimes being his sweet self and sometimes ignoring her texts and emails. Finally, Livi got stuck with a handsome American’s leather satchel due to a mishap on the train.

With a nudge from her flatmate, Livi went all over the place – throughout town, on day trips around England, and even a few days in romantic Paris – trying to find the American and return his satchel. She also went all over the place in her heart and mind, trying to figure out where her life was going and who she wanted to spend it with.

And there’s where chick-lit turned to romance.

I won’t give away details, but Livi got one of the best, most romantic, awe-inspiring and awwwww-inspiring happily ever afters I’ve read in a long time.

Brava, Serena Clarke! I plan to read more by you.

–Calliope

The Kindle format is less than $4!
Buy It Now All Over the Place

Review: Baby Polar by Yannick Murphy (Author), Kristen Balouch (Illustrator)

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imageThis is a sweet and charming book about a baby polar bear. A huge snowstorm is coming. He wants to play in the snow. His protective mom allows him to play, but only for a little while.

The baby polar bear wanders off and seems to be lost. He’s cold and frightened. Also, it’s getting hard to see where he’s going because of all of the snow falling. Luckily, he finds a cave. It is filled with warmth and he thinks he can hear the beating heart of his beloved mother. It is his mother, surrounding him with love and protection.

This book would make a great gift for any occasion. It’s an adorable story with gorgeous illustrations.

~Thalia

Buy It Now Baby Polar

Cover Reveal: Return to Poughkeepsie

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To say that I’m excited for this book, is a clear understatement. I can’t find the words to explain how much I’m looking forward to December 31, 2013.

This cover is awesome!!!! The trailer for the book will be released tonight. I saw it, and it gave me chills. I can’t wait to show you.

Return2Poughkeepsie_cover

OK, now I must go and calm down. 🙂

~Melpomene

You must read the first book, Poughkeepsie, so you can fully understand why I’m so excited.

Review: Rock Chick, by Kristen Ashley

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Why did I read this?? In the back of my head I knew I was gonna like it, but I didn’t wanna get sucked into yet another series. But, silly me, I was sick of seeing it staring at me, when I scroll through my kindle, so I decided to give it a shot. Guess what happened???

That’s right, I LOVED it!!!

Indy Savage has loved Lee Nightingale since she was five. But he never looked at her like that. To him, she was a little sister. She has been avoiding him, for the past 10 years, out of embarrassment. But she seems to have gotten herself in a pickle and he decides to help her. She doesn’t want his help, but he seems to take no for an answer.

She finds herself in many Stephanie Plum moments, that had me cracking up. Stun gunned, dead bodies, stolen diamonds, and the occasional kidnapping. She lives her life like she hasn’t a care in the world.

Lee was the perfect Ranger/Morelli. He owns Nightingale Investigations and is trying to keep Indy in one piece long enough to show her how he feels about her.

It was super fun to read. The banter was hilarious.

“Your grandmother used to say that you two were two souls separated at birth. She mainly meant that you were both trouble and deserved each other.”

The romance was sweet.

“I intend to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you. If that freaks you out, tough, because now that we’ve started this, there’s no goin’ back.”

The romance was HOT.

“I could be on assignment, in a desert as hot as an oven, in a jungle as close as fuck, and sometimes I’d get through it dreamin’ of you saying my name like that.”

Since I’ve read her Mystery Man, Unfinished Hero and Chaos series, I just HAD to like this one as well. Now I have a glimpse into a few of the guys we’ve seen in the other series. Looks like I’ll be going on Amazon to grab the other seven books. 🙂

~Melpomene

Buy it now Rock Chick

Review: Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

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11559200This book is an excellent follow up to A Discovery of Witches. I was afraid that the sequel would not live up to my expectations that have been building for a year since I read the first one. Luckily, that fear was incorrect.

Shadow of Night starts immediately where Discovery left off and begins to weave in various historical figures throughout the book right up until the end. In the first book there were many descriptions about the food and wine with great detail, in this one the detail is in the historical aspects. I loved the historical features and characters in this book and felt that just as the descriptive food and wine gave the first book authenticity so did the historical features here.

I loved getting glimpses of various historically famous places and people. Like any good book it made me want to go find out more. I have no doubt I will be reading about Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh due to this book.

The relationship between Matthew and Diana also did not disappoint. There was both romance and intrigue along with more secrets that hadn’t been revealed before. There was enough suspense and action to keep my interest and balance out the romance.

I loved this book, just as much as the first one. I own both audio and Kindle versions because the narrator is so amazing. I will be waiting on pins and needles for the third book. Undoubtedly it will go in my favorites shelf as well. I was able to get a hardcover of this signed by the author, so now I own all of the version of this one just about!

5 Stars

~Clio

But it Now Shadow of Night: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy)