Clio

Announcing the Giveaway Winners! Muses’ Favorite Books of 2013

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Drum Roll Please….. The winners for our Best Books of 2013 Giveaway are:

Alice G for A Hundred Summers
Faith McLaughlin for Left Drowning
Sprite for I am Malala
Kimberlyn for N0S4A2
Jennifer for Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Krista Irvin for Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Congratulations!

Winners, please send us your email address here on the blog, randommusesblog@gmail.com, or via private message on the Random Book Muses Facebook page.

This weekend we will send the winners their Kindle books.

Thanks for entering! Watch for more giveaways on the blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Review: The Program by Suzanne Young

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11366397 This book is frightening in its realistic approach to a governmental solution to teen suicide. In this reality teen suicide has become more than a sad occurrence, it’s become an outbreak of epic proportions. The government has stepped in and created The Program. The Program whisks teenagers away for weeks for a highly secretive time after which they come back and don’t remember their friends or almost anything.

Sloane is terrified of The Program. She literally watched her brother commit suicide before her eyes but she cannot show any emotion for fear she will be taken away. The only person she has left to truly be with is James. James who was best friends with her brother and is now her boyfriend. But as they watch their friends become depressed and commit suicide it becomes harder for them to keep it together.

This book felt so realistic in how it dealt with the feelings of depression, the loneliness and the despair. Suzanne Young did a wonderful job of capturing how it must feel to be young and feel completely alone. As the book progresses into the the actual program I really enjoyed the creepiness factor that set it as I wondered what was part of the program and what was reality. It was so hard to tell, which was great as that was exactly how Sloane should have felt as well.

I thought this was a haunting and very well done book. I think that teenagers as well as adults will like it but for different reasons. I can see teens liking the young adult aspect of the group dynamics and watching Sloane trying to figure things out within the program and within her friends. I can also see adults liking the partial dystopian aspects of this book.

It is part of a series and there is a bit of a cliffhanger but I don’t feel desperate to read it right this very second. Which is a good thing because I hate that so very much!! I will definitely be reading the next one when it comes out.

5 stars

~Clio

Buy it Now The Program

Muses’ Favorite Books of 2013

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The six of us chose our favorite books reviewed by Random Book Muses this year. And we want to give away copies to YOU!

***Comment on this post (Facebook, blog or twitter) with the title you want to win, and the name of YOUR favorite book of 2013 and you’ll be entered into the giveaway.***

Contest ends December 20.

Melpomene: Left Drowning by Jessica Park
20131210-215516.jpg I fell in love with Jessica Park’s writing when I read Flat-Out Love. I knew I’d read whatever she wrote afterwards. But I wasn’t nearly prepared for the devastation I felt when reading Left Drowning. This story is about loss and love and learning to move on from both. The characters were so real, that I felt like I was sitting right with them, laughing when they laughed and crying when they cried. And when their hearts broke, mine did as well. I may never get over this book. This book totally killed me and I hope it kills you too.
You can read the full review here.

Thalia: My Name is Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb
20131210-215528.jpg What a challenge, to pick just ONE favorite book from this past year. How in the world am I supposed to do that? Almost every book I’ve read has been a favorite in some way. Otherwise I wouldn’t have finished it. That being said…the book that has touched me the most and still resonates with me is “My Name is Malala.” When I first heard about this young lady and the tragedy that befell her, I was shocked like most other people were. But I couldn’t truly comprehend exactly what she went through up to the point when she was shot. Her book received a lot of publicity before it was released, and I was excited to read it. I don’t often buy books the day that they come out but this one was an exception. I have even more respect for Malala and her entire family after reading her story. What strength and courage it takes to stand up for what you believe in under the pressure of such danger. This family,and Malala in particular, is truly an inspiration!
You can read the full review here.

Pegasus: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach
20131211-230709.jpg As you can see from many of my reviews, comedy isn’t a genre that I read a lot of.  With that in mind, I was a bit skeptical when I first picked up the book.  How wrong was I?!   A story with elements of comedy, mixed up with drama, family dynamics, cultural clashes, and prejudices that are dispelled as freely as they are assumed, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a refreshing, hilarious, poignant, and stark look on our lives and how we choose to live them.
You can read the full review here.

Urania: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
20131210-215537.jpgWith 2013 coming to an end, as I look back at all of my reads of the year, I realize just how lucky I am! There were so many great books! It’s almost impossible to pick my very favorite, so instead, I shall pick out the one that surprised me the most….This book is NOS4A2. This is a book that I went into not expecting very much. I put it off for months. I believed that Joe was published and popular because of his famous father. Wow! While it may be true that the apple does not fall very far from the tree…I suddenly know that sometimes, the old apple tree is surpassed by the fruit it has born…After reading this long novel that had a writing style that made it feel fast and quick, I look forward to reading many more by JH…and I think in the years to come he might be every bit as famous as his father….and not because of his father…but because he absolutely deserves it!
You can read the full review here.

Clio: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
20131211-230656.jpg Picking my favorite book out of the ones I’ve reviewed for the blog was difficult. So I chose the one that surprised me the most. The Coldest Girl in Cold Town surprised me in so many ways – and all of them are good! This was a 5 star book from start to finish. The world is dark, creepy and complex. The complexity is woven into the hopelessness, the technology, and even into the romance that this amazingly well written novel contains. Loved every bit of it!
You can read the full review here.

Calliope: A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
20131211-230722.jpg I love all the reading I’ve done this year, but I loved reading A Hundred Summers best. Beatriz Williams wrote my favroite genre – romance – into literary fiction with such substance and chutzpah, I was astonished at every turn. My shoulders are tensing just thinking about it. And even though I have hundreds of unread books waiting for me, A Hundred Summers compels me to re-read it. I know I’ll hear myself gasp, laugh, and blush all over again on the beach with Nick, Budgie, Graham and Lily. 
You can read the full review here.

Review: Holiday for Two by Maggie Robinson and Elyssa Patrick

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18629390 I’m starting to think I have a thing for Holiday novellas as this is the second one I fell in love with. Always fun to find a new “thing” that I love! This is a duet of two novellas. The first one up is All Through the Night by Maggie Robinson. I’ve never read anything by this author and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the story.

Carrie is trying to get to her employer’s house on Christmas Eve with groceries and various supplies her eccentric author sent her out to get. When she misses the last ferry for the day and is stranded in a blizzard she doesn’t panic, just goes into girl scout mode. Lord Griffin Archer who is the author employer’s nephew is stranded with her as well and is pretty horrified at the girl scout mode that includes breaking and entering to save them from the elements.

While they slowly thaw out, they get to know each other and realize while they may come from totally different worlds, *ahem* he is a Lord, that do have some things in common. I found this short story overall cute and funny. The hero is very British and I love that the heroine repeatedly points out the differences in the language. The romance was sweet and the HEA was perfect.

ELyssa Patrick’s novella, While it was Snowing, is up next. I’m a fan of this author’s other work and this is the main reason I was excited to read this in the first place and I was completely not disappointed. I loved her book Stay With Me from earlier in the year which is a low angst New Adult book. This novella is completely different – zero angst and more adult. So I was super happy to see that I still loved her voice in a different area.

The scene opens with Felicity, naked, whip creaming herself into a bikini for her best friend Harry, who has no idea this is going on. The opening scene had me laughing at the vivid description of Felicity trying to figure this out and then realizing how freaking cold the whip cream actually was. Immediately I love Felicity. She comes across as extremely confident, plus size, cursing and hilarious. I adore her. She owns a company called Fat Lady Sweets. Love. Her.

When Harry gets there I’m even more in love. He’s an adorable beta nerd who has no idea how cute he is, wears a bow tie and ruffles his hair. Oh, and he’s a virgin. Let me remind you that Felicity is naked, well – in a whip cream bikini of sorts. Chaos ensues. Harry produces a contract, which is my second favorite moment. We don’t see the entire thing (which is almost 17 pages) but I wish we could have because I was laughing at every single point.

My favorite moment is the spider of death moment because I was truly laughing out loud here.

A big, nasty, black spider. Waiting for her. Planning to kill her.
And then it started to move.
She screamed.
And screamed.
And screamed some more.
She scrambled out of the shower, keeping her eye on the Spider of Death and took the shower curtain with her. Her legs tangled with the fabric and oh my God, what if there were more spiders on the shower curtain? What if they were climbing on her body right now and laying spider eggs everywhere?

Okay, obviously there is way more to this than this snippet but seriously I was laughing so hard at certain parts. I thoroughly enjoyed this and thought it was a great read. Not everyone can write good novellas- and I thought this one was just about perfect.

Overall I give this duet 4.5 stars. It releases today and is only 99 cents! For this price I highly recommend it, they’re both great reads for the Holidays.

I received an ARC in return for an honest review.

~Clio

Buy it Now Holiday for Two (a duet of Christmas novellas)

Review: Also Known As by Robin Benway

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13132661 This was recommended to me but I resisted it for some reason, I’m not sure if it was the cover or the synopsis but I just wasn’t feeling this. But when I finally picked it up I was so surprised at how much I liked this!

This is a young adult book about a family of spies in which the 16 year old daughter has to enroll in high school for the first time while she takes the lead on her very own case, again for the first time. That’s the book in a nutshell but in reality what it is is a sarcastic, funny, touching and young love – almost coming of age story. Which is a lot for one story to be but it wasn’t too much in one book. It was just right.

Maggie Silver is used to being on the run, used to traveling the world as a safecracker with her parents who are both spies and part of The Collective, a team that does good and basically fights crime. Maggie is not, however, used to being in school. But when she is assigned her first case, has to go to school and is assigned a boy to get close to she tells herself she can do this.

Things get out of hand quickly when she makes a friend (a friend !) and kind of, sort of, falls for the boy she is supposed to get close to for the job. Jesse, the boy, is just the kind of guy she would fall for normally.

Is it weird that hearing him use a polysyllabic word gave me butterflies? Yes, that’s weird. Forget I said anything.

Roux, her new best friend, is quirky, but kind of perfect and fits into her spy lifestyle without even knowing it. The sarcasm and dry with between Jesse, Roux and Maggie was cracking me up throughout the whole book.

“And now he probably thinks I’m lost in Siberia or something because I didn’t answer it!” “Lost in Siberia?” It’s a lot more possible than you think.”

“Hey, I’m making eye contact with a gargoyle!” Roux said, looking out one of the grimy windows. I shall name him George.”

I highlighted tons and tons of different parts of this book because I was laughing at different things. There was some action and high stakes, light romance, and typical YA issues. Basically, it’s super cute and any fan of young adult books should read it!

4 stars

~ Clio

Buy it Now Also Known As

Review: Rain of the Ghosts by Greg Weisman

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17286840 This cover is beautiful and made me want a lot from the book. But I didn’t get it unfortunately. Everything seemed to happen pretty quickly in this book so I felt like I never quite got my bearings.

When we were introduced to the islands in the book, it was made to appear very mysterious, as if there was a big reason for such a separation between the others and the Islanders. I’m honestly still not clear what the point of that was, or if that is coming later in this new series.

The main character. Rain, loses her grandfather suddenly and the book changes drastically. All of a sudden we’re thrust into a different world where we’re looking for ghosts and possibly for Rain’s dead grandfather.

Then there was supposed to be a Dark Man who is connected to the Island in some way. Quite frankly by this point I was lost and confused and didn’t really care about the Dark Man. For a young adult book I was surprised at how convoluted I found the plot. Usually with a YA book the plot is straight forward and from paint A to point B. I felt that the bare bones of a good book and a good series was present here but wasn’t quite done all the way.

2 disappointed stars.

~Clio

Rain of the Ghosts

Review: The Chocolate Heart by Laura Florand

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16101234 I love the Chocolate series by Laura Florand. 2 different authors that I really like – Ruthie Knox and Nalini Singh – recommended these books publicly and I’m so glad they did.

The latest book, The Chocolate Heart, is set in a Parisian hotel for the majority of the book. Summer Corey has been told all of her life that she is a spoiled brat. By her father, by those around her and by the press who loved to follow her around as she made mistakes. Everyone was surprised when about 4 years ago she dropped out of sight and it was rumored she was on an island the entire time. The first time she’s seen again by the public is in her father’s expensive hotel facing off with pastry chef Luc Leroi.

Fans of the series will recognize the Corey last name and will be happy to see some previously featured characters have some screen time. Summer’s father has essentially blackmailed Summer to be in France for a certain amount of time even though Summer hates the city and has only negative memories of the hotel. Luc tries to woo her with his elaborate chocolate desserts and is astonished to have them returned to the kitchen one by one every evening with Summer’s regrets, saying that she does not eat sweets. Luc is bound and determined to get to the heart of this enigma of a woman who does not want to let anyone in.

What I love about this series and what is hard to explain is that it’s about chocolate, but so much more. Looking at covers and reading descriptions doesn’t quite do the books justice because there is so much depth to these books that were unexpected to me at first. This new book does not disappoint at all. I adore the descriptions of the desserts and how they’re made – the author does a wonderful job of doing this in such a way that it captures the emotion and passion that seems to jump from the page. After reading each book in this series I always want to run off to France and find a chocolatier to watch at their best.

Luc is a passionate man but not a typical alpha male in the sense that is common in many romance novels currently. He is intent on Summer and wants to know her and why she is the way she is, while Summer has no desire to get to know him. She wants to run away back to her island and get back to her lonely existence.

This was a beautifully written addition to the series. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to another romance lover.

5 stars

~Clio

Buy it Now The Chocolate Heart (Amour et Chocolat)

Sneak Peek Review: Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

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17233800 I have loved this series from the beginning – I gave the first book 5 stars, and the second 4 stars (as I wasn’t a big Beth fan). This is Isaiah’s story and he intrigued me from the first time we saw him in Pushing the Limits. I can’t help it, I like guys with tattoos. Guys with tattoos AND feelings? That’s not even playing fair in my opinion!

Isaiah has a crappy life, has been in foster care has a crappy Mom who was in prison but is now out. But he has a few things going for him and he knows it – Noah, his best friend being the most important. They’ve been through hell together and when Noah got out of the foster system he promised to take Isaiah with him and he hasn’t let him down yet. The other thing he has is his mechanical abilities – Isaiah knows he’s talented in that area and he uses it the best he can to make any money he can. He had a third thing – Beth his other best friend, but she disappeared into a better life.

Rachel, however, has a perfect life. She has wealthy parents and brothers who love and protect her…and no friends, crippling anxiety and too many secrets to count. The only thing that makes her happy is taking off in her Mustang. One night she ends up in a street race and when Isaiah saves her from Eric, a street thug who mean business, neither can figure out what just happened.

They have 6 weeks to get Eric the money he thinks they owe him or they are both completely screwed. Meanwhile, Rachel is drawn to Isaiah in ways she didn’t think she could be and Isaiah wonders what exactly she could see in him as messed up as he is.

What I love about Katie McGarry’s writing is that she really gets the details of every little thing. Every aspect of the book felt very fleshed out. From the minor background characters at the street races to the major characters like Rachel’s brothers. I really appreciated finding out in book 2 that Beth did not end up with Isaiah but what I appreciated even more in this book was that the romance did not falter at all. Obviously they had their ups and downs and big obstacles to overcome but there wasn’t hot and cold when it came to the emotions of the main characters. I felt that Rachel balanced Isaiah out much better than Beth ever could have.

I really, really disliked Rachel’s family and there is a scene in the book I all but stood up and cheered. Everyone but Isaiah took her for granted and no one appreciated her. It seemed like she was how many girls feel to the extreme.

Just a small taste of what I liked about the romance –

I don’t want to be without you. I like who I am with you, and I don’t want to go back to who I was before. I love you, Rachel. So this will work. No matter what or who stands in our way.

Overall this book had just about everything I could ask for in a young adult/new adult book: romance, action, family drama, guys with tattoos. OOH – also for fans of this series I just about died when I got to the end and found out that IT’S NOT DONE! She’s writing MORE! The next one will continue on with one of Rachel’s brothers. Who I really despise right now so I will hold out on judging it at the moment. But I love this author’s writing so YAY!

I received this ARC via the Publisher in return for an honest review from both NetGalley and Edelweiss.

5 Stars

Links for all 3 books below because all 3 are great!!

~Clio

Buy it Now (Book #3 ) Crash into You (Harlequin Teen)

Book #1 Pushing the Limits (Harlequin Teen)

Book #2 Dare You To

Review: In the Clear by Tamara Morgan

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18627383 Fletcher Owens has not had a great life, but the one thing he could count on was his best friend Sean Sinclair and his twin sister Lexie. Their family became like his family while growing up and he would never do anything to risk that, not even act on his feelings towards Lexie. Fletcher is quiet, sensitive and afraid of blood. To conquer that fear he decides to volunteer for the Search and Rescue team, but doesn’t want the attention he knows that will bring so he keeps it secret from his best friends.

Lexie is outgoing and bubbly, a fundraiser for a local charity. She loves her twin brother and Fletcher but hates feeling like an outsider in the trio. When they hang out without her she feels left out as they are truly her best friends as well. When Fletcher’s secret is revealed in the local paper she is shocked that she really doesn’t know him as well as she thought. Lexie ends up on a rescue mission with Fletcher and what they discover about each other surprises them both.

I fell in love with this novella immediately, I love this romantic trope. I felt that the traditional gender roles in these kinds of stories were flipped, which I really appreciated. Often in romance novels we see the confident, outgoing males who will get what they want no matter want and in this one while Fletcher was definitely a strong male, he has his quirks and anxieties. Which made me love him even more. The rescue mission with Lexie interacting with Fletcher and the whole team was the best part of the book for me as it revealed Lexie’s strengths, that she didn’t know she had. The banter between Lexie and the other guys slowly revealed more of Lexie to Fletcher that he didn’t know was there.

Both characters have a lot of depth and are well thought out for a short story. I felt that I knew them very well. Fletcher and Lexie are almost opposites and seeing the two together and interact was very cute. Overall, this was an adorable Holiday novella. I would definitely recommend. PLUS it’s only 99 cents! That is a crazy good price a such a cute story. I would so buy it if I were you. Now!!

I received this ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

4 stars.

~ Clio

Buy it Now In the Clear (Winter Rescue)

Review: 4 to 16 Characters by Kelly Hourihan

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18273649 Jane Shilling is 15 year old and pretty much hates her life. So she escapes into one of her alternate online lives, of which there are many. Her mother died last year, her father drinks and she is pretty much invisible at school so she balances her different personas. One is an emo, goth boy who likes to blog about dark feelings, another is an angry woman who likes to pick fights online but mostly she is Rachel online. Rachel, who likes to write fan fiction for her favorite sci-fi show.

Jane hates her therapist at school and hates her teacher when she tries to send home notes about her missing 27 homework assignments. Why do they care? What business is it of theirs? She begins to become friends with some online people but finds it tricky when none of the things she reveals is true. A boy at school tries to be her friend but Jane can’t understand why he would want to and is he really a skee-ball champion?

I found this book to be funny and touching in surprising ways. The cover definitely underwhelms and I wish it would get a new one just so it would draw some actual readers in. I always like when books use multiple mediums to tell stories and the use of IM’s, emails and journal entries definitely worked for me. Through this medium we were able to tell at a glance which of Jane’s online personas were “talking”. I loved reading Jane’s actual journal entries because her venting about her school was one of my favorite parts of the book.

The surprisingly touching parts came in the forms of the IM’s. Both the therapist and Jane’s friends had conversations that were insightful and real. I know some older people might find it hard to read the IM’s because they were in “text speak” that teenagers use, but since this is a young adult novel I thought it was very appropriate and right on. I would recommend this book to any young adult reader.

I received this book via Netgally in return for an honest review.

4 stars

~Clio

Buy it Now 4 to 16 Characters