Traveler by L.E. DeLano – Review

February 11, 2017 carolinevaught1 Comment

Title: Traveler
Author: L.E. DeLano
Format: Paperback
Rating: 5/5

Fair warning: may be spoilers

So, I put off this review for a while solely because I’m not entirely sure what to say about it without being repetitive of the review I wrote a while back. Of course, this book is the final copy, therefore different, but for the most part, it’s the same.

It is no secret that I absolutely love this book and that it’s one of my (if not my all-time) favourite books and has been since I first read it on Swoonreads.com. The way DeLano writes is like I’m actually in the pages of the book. From page one through the last page, you are having adventures with Jessa and Finn. With this writing, you are a Traveler. And I think that’s all a book lover really wants. To have the adventure of a lifetime. So, when you read a book that gives you the sense of that adventure, what more could you ask for? Besides a book 2, of course.

I could read this book a dozen, a thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand, a million times and I will fall in love with it every time. I could read this book until it falls apart in my hands, turns to dust, and I have it memorized and I would still fall in love with it. In a day and age where supposedly there are ‘no unique story ideas’, L.E. DeLano sure did find a way.

Now that I have my swooning (see what I did there?) out of the way, let’s get down to some points and characters.

Let’s start with Jessa; creative, clever, caring (especially when it comes to family), and down to earth. In the beginning, Jessa comes off as the normal day-to-day teenager; school, work, home, repeat, but Jessa is a writer. Her dreams are so vivid that she can take those and put them on a page like no other. That is, until she meets a guy from her dreams. After some coaxing, Jessa finally gets the truth behind her vivid dreams. She is a Traveler, a person who can travel between the different realities using reflective objects. But all is not as it seems as Jessa learns that being a Traveler isn’t all it’s made out to be. Some of her “other lives” don’t have it as well as she does, not to mention she’s being hunted in every reality.

Finn. The thing that I just can’t get over about this book is that you can have one character, but actually have him be like a hundred different characters at the same time. But he’s still always the same character. It might be a little confusing when you look at it that way, but trust me, it makes sense. I can’t say much about Finn without giving away some things, but just a warning, this character will make you cry at every turn.

Another thing about DeLano that just blows me away is that she must have had to come up with dozens of back stories and lives for every reality, because they are literally so detailed and insightful, it’s almost hard to believe. I could spend weeks just reading about all the different realities and how they differ from the one we’re in.

There’s just so much about this book that I love that if I went over everything I want to, this would win an award for world’s longest review, so I’ll just leave it to the reader to find all the amazingness (and pirates). This story and this world has so much to offer, I can’t believe I have to wait a year for book two!

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The Rose Society by Marie Lu – Review

January 18, 2017 carolinevaughtLeave a comment

Title: The Rose Society
Series: The Young Elites
Author: Marie Lu
Rating: 5/5

Okay, to sum it up, I’m very dissatisfied with the steps that were taken throughout the novel. Beware of spoilers, because I have a lot to say about this.

I do not like what happened to Enzo. I can understand that it was for plot and character development. As well as the whole “telling from the perspective of the villain” idea. I get it, really. But I shipped Adelina and Enzo sooooo hard and, regardless of the things that happened in this novel, I still freaking do. Magiano is great. He has a good vibe and I think he has great chemistry with Adelina that I would love to see more of in the next book.

I just don’t understand why Adelina can’t just explain what happened. Why can’t she get the Daggers together and calmly explain to them and Enzo what exactly happened when he died. Maybe then they could work together again. Or perhaps I misread entirely and no one was willing to hear her out, but me thinks it’s more because she craves the power to herself. Either way, I find it upsetting.

It probably seems like I’m just spewing a bunch of hate, but while I don’t agree with the course of things, I can’t deny that this was still an amazingly written book. The ending especially is what finally convinced me that this was a five star book. No matter how much I hate Violetta, I can’t turn away the fact that she does have a point about what’s happening with the Elites and while my fondness of Raffaelle has turned rotten and sour, it won’t blind me to the fact that he has discovered a genuine problem. I can’t wait to see how Lu decides to execute this in the last book.

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An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – Review

January 14, 2017 carolinevaughtLeave a comment

Maybe 4.5

Great way to start off the year! Beginning was a little slow, but amazing once it picked up!
—
Okay, after further reflection, I decided I should go a little more in depth about the first book I read for 2017.

I absolutely, positively, with out a single doubt in my mind, hated Helene with a burning passion to the point where I can’t even explain why without it sounding fake. She tries…way to hard to be tough. And I get it, she is, and in a world full of boys that aren’t necessarily trained with boundaries and respect for women, she is forced into taking on a tougher persona even more than she would have. Yet, from the minute we met her I just knew she was a bad seed. And the way she interacted with Elias was just not okay with me and my disinterest in her and her life just went all the way through the ending and will probably carry into the next book.

Elias. Dear, poor soul. I did get a little tired of his ‘taking the high road’ personality where he looked down on basically everyone, but I got over it. He and Laia…I love it. I’m not blind though, I see the instalove, I can’t ignore it, it’s there, but it doesn’t change the fact that I love them so much. I’m excited to see them in the next book without Helene there to interfere with my little mental image of the happy ending (Is that even a thing?).

Laia.
Honestly, not that sure what to say about her. Well, if I had one thing to tell her I would say “Your mother doesn’t seem that great.” Am I the only one that thought that? Based on what I know about her, she seems to have had a god complex, while her father was the real caring, smart one. Laia must take after him a lot, but her courage is probably from her mother’s side. To a degree, I would compare Laia’s mother to the Commandant. But enough about the mother. I like Laia. She’s tough and on more than one occasion I was genuinely scared for her, but dang she can be stupid. For reasons that I won’t bring up because I don’t want to spoil, but if you read it, you know what I mean.

Overall, it was a great book. Truly. Quite excited to read more.

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Best Books of 2016!

December 26, 2016 carolinevaughtLeave a comment

It’s that time of year again! 2016 is almost over and it’s time for my list of top 6s from 2016! These are all in my opinion!

Best Books from 2016*

1. A Court of Mist and Fusy by Sarah J. Maas

2. With Malice by Eileen Cook

3. The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye

4. The Neverland Wars by Audrey Greathouse
5. Starflight by Melissa Landers
6. The Widow by Fiona Barton

*Note: These are my top choices of books I’ve read that were published in 2016.

Best Covers from 2016*

1. A Million Worlds with You by Claudia Gray

2. The Graces by Laure Eve

3. The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee
4. Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

5. The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye
6. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

*Note: This was very difficult. Many beautiful books were published.

Best Plot Ideas from 2016

1. The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

2. This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

3. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

4. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

5. Firstlife by Gena Showalter
6. Heartless by Marissa Meyer

And finally, here are my top 16 books that I read in 2016, regardless of publication year.

Top 16 Overall Books of 2016

1. Traveler by L.E. DeLano*

2. Amid Stars and Darkness by Tempest C. Avery**

3. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

4. The Body Electric by Beth Revis

5. World After by Susan Ee

6. Air Awakens by Elise Kova

7. Alienated by Melissa Landers

8. With Malice by Eileen Cook

9. The Program by Suzanne Young

10. Angelfall by Susan Ee

11. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

12. Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

13. The Young Elites by Marie Lu

14. Nil by Lynne Matson

15. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
16. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

*This is me going around the rules, I didn’t technically read the ARC or the final draft, but the SwoonReads version was to die for.
**For the same reason as above.

It’s been a good year, getting to read all these amazing and beautiful (and some not so amazing and beautiful) books. I look forward to a great 2017 filled with all new books. Happy reading and Happy New Year!

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I’ve Been Nominated for the Liebster Award!

June 30, 2016 carolinevaught2 Comments

I was nominated for the Liebster Award by Zoe (My Bookish Wonderland)! Thank you so much, as a still relatively new blogger this is a huge deal to me. In fact I had no idea this award even existed until I was nominated. My Bookish Wonderland is spectacular with amazing reviews, certainly worth reading and following!

The rules for this award are as follows:

1. Acknowledge the blog that nominated you and display the award.
2. Answer the 11 questions that the blog gives you.
3. Give 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 5-11 blogs that you think are deserving of the award that have less than 200 followers.
5. Let the blogs know you have nominated them.
6. Give them 11 questions to answer.

Here are my answers to the 11 questions I got:

1. What’s your favourite music genre?

I’m relatively balanced when it comes to music, I’m not really picky. If you hit shuffle on my Spotify, you might get Imagine Dragons, Lady Gaga, something else pop, you might get Mozart, Bach, or Yo Yo Ma, instrumental from Lord of the Rings or Lost (TV show), or you could get hardcore rap or Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie. The only music I can’t stand listening to is country music, I won’t stand for it.

2. Do you listen to music while reading?

I could, but I don’t. It doesn’t do anything for me and I usually end up tuning it out anyway, so there’s no point for me to have it on. And sometimes I get carried away with the music and put my book down to sing and dance along, which obviously takes away from reading!

3. Are you good at predicting plot twists?

I can predict that one is coming up and if I’m lucky I get pieces of it right, but for the most part plot twists are a surprise!

4. Do you want to write a book yourself one day?

I’ve actually tried four times to write a story and the furthest I’ve gotten into one was 23 thousand words, after that it felt like I was just stringing out the plot and became disinterested. It’s possible I might come back to one of them in the future, but I think I’d like to stick with reading books for now!

5. Do you like going to libraries and borrowing books there?

Oh gosh no. As much as I would love to save the money, some of the questionable substances I’ve seen between the pages of library books have completely ruined the experience for me. The whole area is a cesspool of germs and bacteria. There was a time when I would get a whole stack of books from the library and as long as they’re in good condition I might still, but I just love owning them too much. I try to stick with my own personal library.

6. What do you do when someone borrows a book of yours and returns it in bad condition?

Oh that just doesn’t happen. I make 100% certain that people who borrow my books know that they mean everything to me and that if they ruin it, I will not respect them anymore. And if I lend out hardbacks I always take the cover off just in case the book itself gets a little damaged, that way the cover can still cover some damage.

7. Who is your favourite character? (Book or otherwise)

Tricky, because I love so many characters. I love Damon Salvatore from the Vampire Diaries and Frodo and Bilbo from Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, but I also love Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones, Stiles Stilinski from Teen Wolf, and Feyre from A Court of Thorns and Roses. There’s so many to pick from and every book/show/movie presents a new character I love!

8. How many books are on your TBR list?

All the books.

9. How many books would you like to read this year?

My goal is 100, but if I surpass it, I won’t complain 🙂

10. When do you read most during the day?

At night, easily. There’s no obligations, no loss of focus, no noise….and no sleep.

11. If you could meet any author who would it be and what would you ask them?

The list is impossibly long. I would give anything to have five seconds in a room with Rick Riordan, but no matter who it is, I always ask authors if they have any advice for aspiring writers and where their inspiration came from.

11 random facts about me:

1. I don’t like the taste of meat, the texture bothers me (whether that makes me a vegetarian or not is up to you)

2. Whenever I feel sad, I watch the Lord of the Rings

3. I don’t usually read books more than once

4. The only sport I give any thought to is lacrosse

5. My zodiac is Cancer and it shows

6. I believe that a good long run or hike in the woods can do a person a world of good, but I’m always afraid of how I’ll look to the people I pass

7. I’m terrified of roller coasters, because when the wind comes at me at high speeds I can’t breath and I’m afraid I’ll pass out

8. I stay up all night and sleep all day

9. I have a dog and I used to have 12 cats

10. Sometimes people get so hyped up on books that it makes me not excited for them

11. I hope to attend a college for a Publishing degree to become an editor or a publicist

I nominate….
1. The Review Queen
2. The Nocturnal Fey
3. Sandra the Bookworm
4. Rattle the Pages
5. Hills of Books

I hope you all decide to participate and if you do, please comment your post below, I would love to read them!

11 Questions:

1. Book or movie?
2. What is your least favourite book to movie adaptation?
3. Book you haven’t read that everyone else has?
4. A book you wish you hadn’t read?
5. Top five series? Why?
6. Most owned author?
7. Ebook or physical book? Why?
8. If you could pick one book to survive time to be passed down forever, what would it be?
9. Favourite book read this year?
10. What are some of your favourite characters?
11. Current read?

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Artificial by Jadah McCoy – Blog Tour + Giveaway

June 15, 2016 carolinevaught1 Comment

Title: Artificial

Author: Jadah McCoy
Series: The Kepler Chronicles #1
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

She struggles to feel human.

In 2256, the only remnants of civilization on Earth’s first colonized planet, Kepler, are the plant-covered buildings and the nocturnal, genetically spliced bug-people nesting within them: the Cull. During the day, Syl leaves her home in the sewers beneath Elite City to scavenge for food, but at night the Cull come looking for a meal of their own. Syl thought gene splicing died with the Android War a century ago. She thought the bugs could be exterminated, Elite city rebuilt, and the population replenished. She’s wrong.

Whoever engineered the Cull isn’t done playing God. Syl is abducted and tortured in horrific experiments which result in her own DNA being spliced, slowly turning her into one of the bugs. Now she must find a cure and stop the person responsible before every remaining man, woman, and child on Kepler is transformed into the abomination they fear.

He struggles not to.

For Bastion, being an android in the sex industry isn’t so bad. Clubbing beneath the streets of New Elite by day and seducing the rich by night isn’t an altogether undesirable occupation. But every day a new android cadaver appears in the slum gutters, and each caved in metal skull and heap of mangled wires whittles away at him.

Glitches—androids with empathy—are being murdered, their models discontinued and strung up as a warning. Show emotion, you die. Good thing Bastion can keep a secret, or he would be the next body lining the street.

He can almost live with hiding his emotions. That is, until a girl shows up in the slums—a human girl, who claims she was an experiment. And in New Elite, being a human is even worse than being a Glitch. Now Bastion must help the girl escape before he becomes victim to his too-human emotions, one way or another.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28682101-artificial?from_new_nav=true&ac=1&from_search=true

Purchase:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Jadah-McCoy-ebook/dp/B01CDAA1IA
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/artificial-jadah-mccoy/1123599684?ean=9781620074978

Author Bio:
Jadah currently lives in Nashville, TN and works in law. When not babysitting attorneys, she can be found juicing her brain for creative ideas or fantasizing about her next trip out of the country (or about Tom Hiddleston as Loki – it’s always a toss up when she fantasizes).

She grew up in rural Arkansas, yet can still write good and sometimes even wears shoes! She did date her first cousin for a while but they decided against marriage for the sake of the gene pool.

Her true loves are elephants, cursing, and sangria – in that order. If you find an elephant that curses like a sailor whilst drinking sangria, you’re dangerously close to becoming her next romantic victim – er, partner.

She cut her writing teeth on badly written, hormone-driven fanfiction (be glad that’s out of her system), and her one true dream is to have wildly erotic fanfiction with dubious grammar written about her own novels. Please make her dreams come true.

Special Excerpt from Artificial!

A house looms in front of me, quiet and ominous. It’s tucked away at the edge of the city, where the tree line gets thicker and more dangerous. It’s almost completely overrun with creep moss, the forest reclaiming the building after decades of disuse. It looks to be undisturbed, which means there might still be food there.

Eclipse season is coming soon, and the months beforehand are always a scramble to get more scouting parties out, pushing the boundaries of how late we return. There’s always a shortage of food, and if we run out during the eclipse, well… Whoever draws the short stick better gear up and pray their flashlight doesn’t attract anything other than Cull.

It couldn’t hurt to scout this one last building. Besides, Serge and Lucca won’t be heading back for a few more minutes, and there’s too much adrenaline in my system to retreat back into the sewers just yet.
I glance up; the sky is orange. I’ll have to hurry.

Creep moss cascades from the door. I brush it aside and the thin tendrils disintegrate into puffs of powdery green. I cover my nose and mouth with a hand; the stuff can cause hallucinations if inhaled.

Inside, the building is mildewed and molded, the frame probably only held together by the moss and vines attached to it. Orange light shines through the stained windows, illuminating the dust motes in the air. The floor creaks as I pass through what looks to be a living room. A few feet away, something scurries in a small hole. Beady eyes peer out at me.

Past the living room is a tiny rectangular room that was once a kitchen. The one window in the room is shattered. Flowering limbs press through and cover every surface, sealing shut the cabinets lining the walls. I take my knife and jam it into the crack between the two cabinet doors, sawing all the way down until I can pry the limbs away with my blade. They drip red onto the counters below, and the liquid bubbles as it eats at the material.

I pull open the cabinet and… jackpot! Stacks of cans greet me on the other side. I reach for them and—
There’s a loud thud in the next room.

My hand freezes in the air, my grip tightening on the knife in my other hand. I step out of the kitchen and farther down the hall. The room across from the kitchen is dark and quiet, partially lit by a stray beam of evening sunlight.

“Hello?” My voice sounds too loud in the silence.

There’s no answer.

I return to the cabinet, shoving the cans of food into my bag. It was probably nothing, just some animal seeking shelter or being nosy. That doesn’t stop me from cleaning the place out and getting the hell out of there as fast as possible.

Sprinting wouldn’t get me out of the kitchen fast enough. Maybe I inhaled some of those damn creep moss spores on accident.

When I leave the house, I glance back one last time. For a moment I think I see a face in the dirty window, white and smiling, and then it’s gone. A shiver trails down my spine.

Definitely the creep moss.

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Just a Few Inches by Tara St. Pierre – Review

June 11, 2016 carolinevaughtLeave a comment

Title: Just a Few Inches
Author: Tara St. Pierre
Format: Paperback
Pages: 306
Rating: 4.5/5

To see my interview with Tara St. Pierre, go here!

I received a review copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my review.

Carrie Roberts is your normal teenage girl that has something completely abnormal happen to her. She’s shrinking…in height. After taking some weight loss pills to fit into a dress for the school formal, Carrie loses a little more than ‘just a few inches’. Soon, Carrie finds herself shrinking almost an inch every day. The problem? She doesn’t know how to stop it. The doctors don’t know how to stop it. And even if they stop it, they don’t know if they can reverse it. And every one starts asking the question. What if Carrie never stops shrinking?

This book was spectacular. In the beginning, I found it a little slow going. I didn’t particularly like Todd and I found the small interactions between Carrie and her friends tedious at times. As for her feeling the need to lose the extra weight, that just made me mad. She’s a cheerleader and is obviously popular at school with friends that care about her and her boyfriend is practically a star in the eyes of the school, yet, basically out of spite, she buys a dress she knows won’t fit her, just to prove a point?! Ugh. I can understand wanting to aggravate your mortal enemy, if even a little, but ladies, please don’t do harm to your bodies to prove a point, you are worth more than that and you all look beautiful.

Carrie doesn’t notice that she’s shrinking right away, until she notices that she’s looking up at a friend she’s usually level with and level with a friend she’s used to looking down at. If you’re like me, then you’re already barely five foot tall and wouldn’t notice losing another inch or two (but what I wouldn’t give to have an extra three inches, eh?), but for a 5′ 8” Carrie, this is a drastic change. Carrie’s shrinking puts into perspective of who her true friends are and who she really wants in her live. Once things get more serious, you start to wonder if Carrie will ever stop shrinking…but I’ll leave it to the reader to figure that one out.

There’s this one part near the end of the book that really showed the real danger that Carrie got herself in. Being about the size of a doll and a little sister with little friends that don’t believe in people Carrie’s size…you can understand how quickly things can go wrong there. My heart started pounding and I was flipping the pages so fast I thought I might rip a page. This ending is amazing and, while it scared the crap out of me, was probably my favourite part. Certainly a must read for someone looking for a fun, quick read.

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2016 Debut Author Bash – Kathy MacMillan + Giveaway

June 8, 2016May 16, 2019 carolinevaught5 Comments

Alright, so today I’m going to be telling you about a lovely debut novel that came out in January of this year. Now, I haven’t actually gotten around to reading it yet, but it’s certainly near the top of my TBR!

Title: Sword and Verse
Author: Kathy MacMillan
Series: Sword and Verse #1
Release Date: 1/19/2016

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Raisa was only a child when she was kidnapped and enslaved in Qilara. Forced to serve in the palace of the King, she’s endured hunger, abuse, and the harrowing fear of discovery. Everyone knows that Raisa is Arnath, but not that she is a Learned One, a part of an Arnath group educated in higher order symbols. In Qilara, this language is so fiercely protected that only the King, the Prince, and Tutors are allowed to know it. So when the current Tutor-in-training is executed for sharing the guarded language with slaves and Raisa is chosen to replace her, Raisa knows that, although she may have a privileged position among slaves, any slipup could mean death.
That would be challenging enough, but training alongside Prince Mati could be her real undoing. And when a romance blossoms between them, she’s suddenly filled with a dangerous hope for something she never before thought possible: more. Then she’s approached by the Resistance—an underground army of slaves—to help liberate the Arnath people. Joining the Resistance could mean freeing her people…but she’d also be aiding in the war against her beloved, an honorable man she knows wants to help the slaves.
Working against the one she loves—and a palace full of deadly political renegades—has some heady consequences. As Raisa struggles with what’s right, she unwittingly uncovers a secret that the Qilarites have long since buried…one that, unlocked, could bring the current world order to its knees.
And Raisa is the one holding the key.

Makes you totally want to read it, right? Well, you’re in luck, because you can buy it today!

** If I didn’t include a place you frequent, I’m sure they have it too, these are just popular places that I know are used a lot!

Kathy MacMillan is a writer, American Sign Language interpreter, consultant, librarian, signing storyteller, and avowed Hufflepuff. Kathy is the founder of The Sweet Sixteens (www.thesweet16s.com) debut group of 2016 middle grade and young adult authors, and serves as the Published and Listed Member Coordinator for the Maryland/Delaware/West Virginia Region of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She is a volunteer director and board president of Deaf Camps, Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides camps for deaf children. She lives near Baltimore, MD with her husband, son, and a cat named Pancake.

From Kathy MacMillan:

I’m so excited to be participating in the 2016 Debut Authors Bash! Thank you so much to Across the Bookiverse for hosting me!

Today I am sharing an extra from the world of Sword and Verse, from Jonis’s point of view. When I am working on a book, I always end up writing lots of extra scenes from other characters’ perspectives. Sometimes it’s just for fun, and sometimes it’s a necessary writing exercise; if I am stuck in a scene in the main story, then writing something from a different point of view almost always gets me unstuck.

This is one of several extras and deleted scenes from Sword and Verse. You can find more on my website at http://www.kathymacmillan.com!

Iron and Silk: A Story from the World of Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan

Recruiting one Tutor into the Resistance was a risk – one that led to her execution and that of half the Resistance leaders. It would be madness to try again – but then, Jonis never was one to play it safe.

“He says not to do it, Jonis,” whispered Deshti as she heaved a crate of candles into my arms.

I balanced the crate on the stack next to the house and went back to the cart for more, ignoring her. She pattered behind me, as though she didn’t want to be left alone near the house. She was always fluttery when my master was home from sea.

But I knew that Horel Stit had been out late at the alehouse with his first mate last night, and wouldn’t be roused from his bed until the temple bells called at mid-morning. I knew this because he had clattered into the house in the middle of the night and poked me with his walking stick until I awoke, then ordered me to make him tea. By the time I had stumbled to the kitchen, heated the water, and returned with his blasted tea, he was snoring in the armchair in the front room. I’d drunk the tea myself, then heaved him up and helped him to bed, earning a few drunken punches in the process.

Strange that a man as deadly as Stit could be sober was such a foolish, ineffective drunk.

Deshti was hissing again about Tabor’s orders, and I entertained myself by imagining her as a goose. When the cart was completely unloaded, I faced her. “I know what Tabor says,” I said softly. Though Stit couldn’t be awake yet, there was no sense in courting danger. “But I have to try. You know that.”

She bit her lip, a tiny vertical line appearing between her eyebrows. “But after…after…”

“Tyasha,” I said, dropping my voice even lower. Deshti flinched. “I take responsibility for that. But it will be different this time.”

Read the rest of the story at https://kathymacmillan.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/iron-and-silk-by-kathy-macmillan.pdf

AND FINALLY, A GIVEAWAY!

Sword and Verse swag pack including a personalized bookmark with your name in the language of the gods!

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The White Rabbit by David Balzarini (ARC) – Review

May 18, 2016 carolinevaught1 Comment

Title: The White Rabbit
Author: David Balzarini
Format: Epub (ARC/beta)
Pages: 238
Release: 6/7/2016
Rating: 4/5

Marshall Lisser is a wannabe rock musician with a talent for singing, song writing, and guitar playing. While at a party, Marshall’s life changes forever. Silvia Sorenstam is a goddess. She’s mysterious, she’s beautiful, and she’s nothing but trouble. After a week long relationship, Marshall and Silvia are wed, with more trouble than they bargained for. As if family problems weren’t enough, Silvia becomes pregnant. The secrets just start piling up from there and you know what they say about secrets. Once you start keeping secrets, it’s hard to stop. It’s a good thing Silvia and Marshall are bound together in sickness and in health.

I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting to get from this book, but what I got was not what I thought. In all honesty, I think by not reading the summary before reading the book, I actually managed to get surprised by things addressed in said summary. So, maybe sometimes going in blind makes the reading experience better?

In any case, I have some very mixed feelings about The White Rabbit. On one hand, I do love how Alice in Wonderland references were made throughout the book. The drama was without a doubt the best thing that this book had going for it. It got to the point where I felt like every time I flipped the page, things just escalated.

Silvia made me repeatedly mad from start to finish. Moral of the story, if you meet a beautiful naked women covered in body paint at a party, you should run the other direction. Yet, even with all her awful qualities, I thought that maybe, just maybe, there would be some kind of redeeming moment for her. Marshall. Marshall, Marshall, Marshall. So misled, so stupid, so blind. That’s really all I can say. This book not only gives, what I would consider, a realistic perspective on the music industry and then layers it with so much deception. I think the ending was rushed. It could have been a little more detailed or built up to, because by the time I reached a certain point that I won’t talk about to avoid spoilers, I read and passed it. I had to go back and reread it a few times for it all to sink in.

Overall, this was an interesting book. I’m glad I read it, because I did enjoy it. And, yes, the characters made me mad the majority of the time and there were some parts that were detailed that could have been simplified and some were simplified when they could have been detailed, but The White Rabbit didn’t disappoint.

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Everafter by M. Lathan – Book Blitz + Giveaway

May 13, 2016 carolinevaught1 Comment

Title: Everafter
Author: M. Lathan
Release Date: 5/15/2016

After years of battling leukemia, seventeen-year-old Sydney Long has made peace with her impending death. She expected pain, she expected tearful goodbyes, but she never expected to be turned into an immortal monster who can, with the slightest touch, control life and death.

Now, flowers are stirring when she walks by, she’s oddly drawn to death and the dying, and she must wear gloves to keep her living parents safe.

While her family toils with this supernatural nightmare and finding a way out of it, Sydney falls for magic and an equally as enticing boy who she can’t seem to stay away from.

But nothing comes without a price. When Sydney is targeted for her illegal magic, she’ll learn a whole new meaning of fighting for her life.

Add it on Goodreads! —-> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29874338-everafter?from_new_nav=true&ac=1&from_search=true

M. Lathan lives in San Antonio with her husband and mini-schnauzer. She enjoys writing and has a B.S. in Psych and a Masters in Counseling. Her passion is a blend of her two interests – creating new worlds and stocking them with crazy people. She enjoys reading anything with interesting characters and writing in front of a window while asking rhetorical questions … like her idol Carrie Bradshaw.

visit http://www.mlathan.com for more info.

Author links:
http://mlathan.com/
https://twitter.com/authormlathan
http://www.amazon.com/M.-Lathan/e/B00AA4FPOW/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6582213.M_Lathan

And now for a special excerpt from the book!

Close your eyes. There will be no more pain.”

No more pain. I liked the sound of that. With closed eyes, I waited patiently for my favorite part of the night.

“Do you believe in fate, my dear?” she asked.

“I guess so. You mean like how everything has a purpose?”

“That’s exactly what I mean. I ran from my purpose for a long time while dancing and working all those odd jobs I told you about. I kept trying to reinvent myself and run from fate. I learned my lesson when …”

I didn’t hear the rest of the story.

Her voice faded away, and I listened to the calming mix of snow and wind beating against my window. After a minute, that sound faded, too. It was like someone was going around and muting the noise in my world, like turning off the lights in a house before leaving. I was left with beeping machines and the sound of my laboring lungs. Seconds passed, and those sounds vanished, too.

The monitor next to my bed delivered the screech I’d dreaded for years. My flatline.

When it ended, all sounds and all light left me, and I was floating in dark space. There was nothing there. No sadness. No pain. Just overwhelming coldness that blasted towards me like a cannon, until it swallowed me whole.

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