All posts in category Books

Dealing with reader expectations

This week the final book in the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series by Charlaine Harris (adapted as True Blood for TV) is being released. I’ve enjoyed this series from book one and am looking forward to reading the last one but the author has discovered that some fans can be a little over zealous when it comes to a successful books series. In this interview she describes the pressure that she’s feeling, the threats she’s had from ‘fans’ over her ending the series and how they expect the series to end, especially who Sookie will end up with. It has caused Ms Harris to decide not to do any promotion for the last book, which is a huge shame for readers who would have loved her to sign the final book regardless of how the book ends.

The books series is a long one – the final book is number thirteen and as a writer I can’t begin to imagine how hard it is to write that many books about the same characters, to juggle the number of characters and plot lines the series has and to still make each book it’s own story. It’s a real achievement and it’s a shame that some readers can’t enjoy the books there are and realise it’s time for the author to move on. I’d rather the series ends than read sub-par books that make it obvious the author just doesn’t care anymore. After reading the last book, I have my own ideas who I want Sookie to end up with BUT I’m well aware this is Ms Harris’ story to tell and it’s up to her to end it how she want to.

It’s kind of a double edge sword – you’d love your series to be popular and to have passionate fans but it must be so scary to receive death threats and abuse from them. On her Facebook page the author revealed that someone has posted the series ending and asked fans not to spoil it for others. I stopped reading the comments because people were even posting the ending on there after such a polite request not to. I just don’t understand why you would want to do that. I want to read the book for myself – it’s the only way you’ll understand why an ending was chosen and you might find you like it after all.

I hope Ms Harris can be proud of her series and that she will continue to take pleasure in writing. And I hope the fans will understand why she wanted to end the series on a high and why she chose the ending did. And above all remember that it’s only fiction after all

How do you think you’d deal with reader expectations on how a series should end?

Victoria

xoxo

10 Comments

by Victoria-writes on May 6, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Musings, Writing

Tagged book, Charlaine Harris, musings, Sookie Stackhouse, writing

Posted by Victoria-writes on May 6, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/05/06/dealing-with-reader-expectations/

Recent Reads

I’ve read some great books lately and had to share them with you guys:

Getting Over Garett Delaney by Abby McDonald

This contemporary YA book is about a girl who’s in love with her best friend who has no clue about it. When Garrett leaves for the summer and falls in love with someone else, Sadie decides she has to get over him for good. This book is loads of fun and has a great message about being yourself. Full of awesome characters, wit and a useful plan for getting over a boy, I loved it and will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This adult thriller is everywhere right now with a film version to the way. It’s kind of impossible to review as it relies on unreliable narrators and lots of twists and turns that keep you guessing till the end. It’s about married couple Nick and Amy – when Amy goes missing, the finger of suspicion points to Nick – what is he hiding and what’s happened to Amy? It takes a few chapters for the first twist to come and then it throws more and more at us. You are left unsure just who to trust – it’s a real character study and I’m still thinking about it.

Losing It by Cora Carmack

This is a NA contemporary romance about a girl at college in America called Bliss who’s 22 and still a virgin. She resolves to lose it in a one night stand with a hot British guy called Garrett who she meets in a bar but the next day he turns up to her theatre class – as the teacher. This book was hilarious in places – Bliss is totally awkward at anything bedroom related and gabbles when nervous, I thought her character was well drawn and even though it’s unusual now for someone to be a virgin at 22 it was believable for this character. And Garrett – well, he’s HOT and looks after her when she’s sick *swoon*. This book was a fun read perfect for summer – it has romance and laughs and a gorgeously happy ending. I read it in a day

Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne

This YA contemporary thriller is about a girl called Adamma Okomma who joins an English boarding school and makes friends with the fun but secretive Scarlett Chiltern. When the girls fall for the same guy, things fall apart. Scarlett goes missing and Adamma is determine to find out what happened to her even if it will reveals things she doesn’t want to know. This book is told with flashbacks and continues the edgy theme from Tanya’s first book. It’s a real page turner with some great twists and turns – I couldn’t put it down right up to the shocking end. I love finding great British YA books like this.

The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

This YA thriller is about a girl called Kayla who disappears whilst delivering pizza for a fake order but her colleague Gabbie learns the caller asked for her. This book is told from multiple points of view as we learn what happened to Kayla, who has her and why and how Gabbie deals with knowing she was the one who should have disappeared. This book raced along to the edge-of-your seat ending.

What are you currently reading?

Victoria

xoxo

8 Comments

by Victoria-writes on April 15, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Reviews

Tagged book reviews, Follow Me Down, Getting Over Garrett Delaney, Gone Girl, Losing It, The Night She Disappeared

Posted by Victoria-writes on April 15, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/04/15/recent-reads-3/

When a series ends

I’ve never written a books series but I might one day and it kind of terrifies me. When a series becomes popular, the expectations from readers are key high and so many become disappointed when the author ends things in a way they didn’t expect or like. I just finished the final book in Lauren Oliver’s Delirium series, which got me thinking on this subject. I loved the first two books (see here) and was desperate to read the third.

This series is a YA dystopian story about a society where love is treated as a disease and everyone is cured when they reach a certain age of the ability to love. The main character Lena is desperate to avoid getting sick before her cure date until she meets Alex and learns exactly what love is and then begins her fight to save it. The second book ended with a big cliffhanger and this book picks up three days later – Lena is on the run with the resistance, torn between two boys and unsure whether they can survive against the Government and rough life in the Wilds.

What’s interesting about this series is that each book has a different structure – the first book is told from Lena’s point of view and includes extracts from Government propaganda about love; the second is told from Lena again but flits between the past and present, and the final book is spilt between Lena and her ex best friend Hana who has been cured. I think the different structures work and help keep us hooked – you never know what’s coming next and Requiem shows us what it’s like for someone in society fighting for love to be banned and someone who’s desperate to change things. I’ve read some disappointed reviews about how the book ends with some loose ends for you to interpret but what I enjoyed was the focus on the individual and their story. Yes they take place in the wider fight against the Government but we stay focused on the characters we know.

Ultimately, this story is about love and when love is banned, the choices and risks people take to fight for it. I think it’s clever that it doesn’t paint society as completely wrong or the resistance as completely right – it’s hard in the Wilds, people turn on each other and die from the elements, starvation or fighting with the authorities and in society, some are doing really well but others are poor, some find the cure has made then calmer and more focused, some find it didn’t work. There’s no black and white – the characters have to make their choices again and again.

Overall I’d highly recommend this series. I like how it broke rules and ended in a way us readers can debate. I feel for the author and how some are pleased and others not as she write a brilliant first book and expectations were high. I don’t know whether I’ll ever write a series but I definitely learned some things from this one and it kept me entertained right to the end, which I guess is all you can really ask for from a book series.

Has a books series ever disappointed you?

Victoria

xoxo

8 Comments

by Victoria-writes on April 2, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Reviews, Writing

Tagged book reviews, Lauren Oliver, writing

Posted by Victoria-writes on April 2, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/04/02/when-a-series-ends/

Barely Breathing – Rebecca Donovan

A couple of months ago I read the first book in this series Reason To Breathe and you can read my review of that book here. The first book ended on a huge cliff-hanger and this sequel picks up the story six months later. I expected the book to start immediately after that cliffhanger but instead you get a prologue written by the main character telling you what happened and then we jump to the present day.

I quite liked the fact that this book is a new story, it definitely took me places I didn’t think it would but I would recommended reading the first book so you understand all the motivations of the characters. In this book, Emma moves in with her estranged mother and sets out to learn about her past. Emma isn’t the easiest character sometimes, she kept a lot of things secret in the first book and it takes her a while to learn her lesson on that in this one. We get a new character in this book – her mother’s younger boyfriend Jonathan and he has his fair share of demons which bonds him to Emma.

I suspect some readers won’t like the Jonathan storyline as they love Emma’s boyfriend Evan but I actually liked how he got Emma to share things and open up, which she really needed to learn to do, he was there for her and her mother and got her to face up to her mother’s issues. Obviously the fact that he’s sleeping with her mother is a bit icky but I quite liked him

As this is Emma though she does stick up for herself in the end of this book but hurts people in the process. Unfortunately, she then falls into the trap of blaming herself when really she is the victim. I thought this was realistic and you want to shake her in the end as she takes herself away from everyone in a fit of regret for her actions. I was expecting another cliffhanger and we got one, leaving the window open or the final book and I have no idea where it will take Emma or us.

This book was a real page turner for me and I really wanted to know where things were heading. I was rooting for an outcome that didn’t happen but I totally get why it didn’t and although Emma makes some mistakes and keeps things to herself too much, I still rooted for her. Actually, I think I enjoyed this sequel more than the first book so I hope the final one ends the story with a bang.

Do you like sequels to take you to unexpected places?

Victoria

xoxo

2 Comments

by Victoria-writes on March 22, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Reviews

Tagged Barely Breathing, book review, Rebecca Donovan

Posted by Victoria-writes on March 22, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/03/22/barely-breathing-rebecca-donovan/

Meet the author: Elizabeth Arroyo – The Second Sign

Elizabeth and I connected through our blogs and sent each other stories to critique. She was the first person to read the story that landed me an agent I gave Liz feedback on another story but it was her book The Second Sign that landed her a publishing deal. I finally read the book after waiting ages for it to come out and I thought it was fab. I’d describe it as a YA supernatural thriller about a girl and boy who find themselves caught up in the war between angels and demons. It’s fast paced, full of action and romance and well worth reading.

The Goodreads summary of The Second Sign: Bred to believe in the war between angels and demons, Gabby has come to the conclusion that love is responsible for war, jealousy, and all the other deadly sins she can think of. So when she’s exiled to the middle of nowhere for getting kicked out of her fifth school for fighting, she doesn’t expect to meet Jake. Much less fall in love. But Jake is quickly drawn to the eerie beauty of her violet eyes while Gabby is unsettled by their undeniable connection.

When a demon guardian comes to collect her soul, she refuses to give it up. She’s not a demon. She can’t be. Her father and twin brother are angels. The demon gives Gabby twenty-four hours to decide her allegiance, and then starts killing her short list of friends, leaving a message behind: She is the Second Sign.

As Gabby and Jake begin to unravel the mystery behind the Second Sign, she learns Jake may be the key to saving her soul. But it means a sacrifice has to be made that will change their lives forever.

How did you come up with the idea for The Second Sign?

The idea came to me in a dream. Weird, I know. During construction of my basement, I dreamt one of the workers, dressed in red coveralls, entered my bathroom without a word. After a few minutes, he came out, stepped into the light, and exploded. But before he exploded he mentioned the second something. Second coming, second sign…something that I needed to get a grasp on. And after doing some research I found the biblical reference of the Second Sign. And a story was born.

The book creates a world where angels and demons are at war – did you have to do any research for the book and what interested you about these creatures?

I’ve always been afraid of demons. As a kid my dad would tell us stories about how the devil roamed the countryside taking a form of a man with a goats hoof. Kinda explains why I came out the way I did…lol.

Anyway…I always wanted to write something scary and since demons scare the crap out of me, and after the weird dream, I went with it. Now the angels are a different story. They were harder to grasp. But after seeing some images as to how angels are portrayed. I started to fill in the blanks using my creative license. The element of free-will and the theory that love, hate, and everything in between is inherent in ALL living beings was born. Yes, even demons.

You write the story from both Gabby and Jake’s point of view – how did you draw their characters and did you find it challenging to juggle two POV’s?

I have always been curious with the whole nature vs. nurture question. Are we a product of our experiences in the world, or our biology? Or both? I drew Gabby’s character with that thought in mind. She’s half angel, her biology dictates that. But she is also experiencing the world through a different view point than her angel brother. This internal conflict drives her.

I wanted Jake to be her complete opposite. While she is pessimistic, he sees hope. While she doesn’t trust anyone, he trusts her. He is her better half. And he experiences the most change in his character arc at the end.

Writing from both POV’s was a challenge because I wanted it to be alternating chapters and I needed to show certain things through the viewpoint that made more sense, so I structured the scenes around the chapters.

There will be a sequel to the book (yay!) – did you find it difficult deciding how many answers to give the reader and how much to hold back for the next book?

Yes! I wanted TSS to have a mysterious element. Who did it? I didn’t want the answers to be obvious. During the querying stage of book one, I only had the first three chapters of book two outlined with a broad overview of the theme. But after book one published I started connecting the dots and they fell in place a bit too perfectly. Let’s just say, I expect that most of what went unanswered in book one is touched on in book two, hopefully, seamlessly. I relied on my betas and crit partners for book one to let me know how confused they were

Who is your favourite character in the book and why?

I actually fell in love with Pat. I am drawn to dark, broken characters. I had a lot of questions for Pat. But I also had to keep it elusive because book one wasn’t about him and I didn’t want to move the focus away from Gabby and Jake.

There is a lot of death and destruction in the book – was it important to you to not to sugarcoat anything for your YA audience?

This is such a great question! The first murder scene I wrote was Marty’s possession, and it happened during the first draft with little thought on my part. If that makes sense. It just happened. After she does what she does and enters her brother’s room I stopped writing. I had to pull away and regroup. I asked myself what the eff is going on? How could she? Why is this scene important? Is it too dark?

I realized then the story I was writing was dark. I also realized this was a pivotal point in the story to show the dangerous situation Gabby faced that would ultimately lead her down a path I wanted her to follow. Yes. It was necessary. I brainstormed it with my son. He loved it. I kept it. It wasn’t until after the reviews came in that I realized the reason why it was so dark. I wrote it in the POV of Marty. The person doing the action. It wasn’t a bystander looking in, but us looking out. And I think that changed the level of intimacy with the scene and the level of fear.

The tone of the book and the battle between angels and demons reminded me of TV show Supernatural – did you have any inspirations that fed into The Second Sign?

Ha! I’m so happy you asked this. Actually, no. But I found Supernatural after I started submitting. I had posted the first 250 words for review during a contest on my blog and one of the bloggers mentioned that it sounded like Supernatural. I’m like…yeah, it is supernatural. Then I looked it up and I found Dean. **swoons** I did a whole week of catching up on netflix. My son is now urging me to add the car in book two. lol.

(VW -this means we can have a photo of Dean, right? Right!)

The Second Sign is your debut novel – did you know it would be The One when you were writing it?

No. I didn’t. I wrote TSS on a rebound from my first manuscript heartbreak. The one I wrote and submitted before TSS. I wrote this one to forget the other one. But I became optimistic when my crit partner said this was the one. She obviously knows more than me.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors out there?

I don’t want to discourage anyone. And there are some great success stories out there. Those are the ones we tend to hear and clutch on to. Publishing is hard work and you really need a thick skin to stay alive. It helped me to remind myself that publication is a perk, and not the reason I started writing in the first place. Even if I don’t publish anything any more I will continue to write because it is a part of me. So for advice…don’t lose the core reason of why you write. Do it because you love it and everything will fall into place.

Thanks for the interview! I do have a Q/A group up on Goodreads if anyone has any questions I’ll be happy to answer them.

Thanks Liz! If anyone has another question for Liz or me, feel free to ask it below!

Victoria

xoxo

11 Comments

by Victoria-writes on March 15, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, interviews, Writing

Tagged book reviews, interviews, writing

Posted by Victoria-writes on March 15, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/03/15/meet-the-author-elizabeth-arroyo-the-second-sign-2/

When a book gives you FEELS

Firstly, happy World Book Day everyone! There is only one way I can mark this day and it’s to talk about books I’m going to talk about the last book I read and it’s one that gave me FEELS.

I think we all move from saying we like a book to loving a book when we read one that makes us feel something. Something that grabs us emotionally and crawls into our hearts. It could be because it has a warm and fuzzy ending, a happy ever after moment or it could take us on a moral journey, making us question who we are and want we want from life, it could be bittersweet and leave us feeling sad or it could just be a terrific page turner that leaves our hearts racing. There are a lot of books that I love for one or more of these reasons but it’s actually rare for a book to make me cry. Often I have a lump in my throat at the end of a book or just a big goofy smile but one that leaves me with ugly tears doesn’t happen that often.

Last year, the only book that produced real tears was John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars and those who have read it can imagine why This year, I’ve found a book early on that made me cry – The Last First Kiss by Ali Harris. Most of my reading tends to be young adult because I love it but I do mix it up by reading adult books now and again and this one made it on my list. I enjoyed Ali Harris’ first book but this one really moved me. Taking us on a journey though the relationship of Ryan and Molly, jumping back and forward through their story, we find out who they fell in love and how they were torn apart.

If anyone thinks women’s fiction or if we must call it chick-lit is just fluff, they should read this. A story of love and friendship, of growing together and growing apart, I was totally absorbed in finding out what happens to these two characters. The timeline jumps around but I didn’t find it hard to work out where we were in the story. The two leads were well-drawn characters as well their family and friends and there was often humour as well as moving moments. Yes it’s unashamedly romantic and has it’s share of slushy passages but it never lost me along the way. I suppose you could say it’s similar to One Day in that it spans years of the same relationship but this one wedged itself into my heart more than that book did and the last couple of chapters made me cry so hard, I couldn’t see the words on the page. I’m not going to spoil the story in case you guys want to read it but know that the ending is bittersweet.

Somehow this book is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching and Ryan and Molly’s story will stay with me for a long time.

What was the last book to give you FEELS?

Victoria

xoxo

10 Comments

by Victoria-writes on March 7, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Reviews

Tagged Ali Harris, book review, The First Last Kiss, World Book Day

Posted by Victoria-writes on March 7, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/03/07/when-a-book-gives-you-feels/

Happy Birthday Pride and Prejudice

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Two hundred years ago today, Pride and Prejudice was published. It’s amazing to think a book that was written so long ago is still so popular today. It’s also my favourite book so I had to mark the occasion with a post.

“Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.”

I first read it in my early teens. My first experience of Jane Austen was the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I watched it on TV with my mum and was enchanted by the costumes, the courtship, the balls, the Bennet sisters and, of course, the romance between witty Elizabeth Bennet and dashing Mr Darcy. And I don’t think any of us can not enjoy the lake scene

That adaptation kicked started my love of all things Austen. I went to Winchester for the day and brought my first Austen novels – Pride and Prejudice, of course, and Sense and Sensibility. I loved the books as much as the TV show and I was hooked. I read all of her novels and became a fan – although I was less sure of Mansfield Park as we had to read it for English Lit A Level and studying a book sometimes lessens my enjoyment of it. Through the years I’ve re-read them all and what I enjoy changes each time, there seems to always be something new to discover. I have even learnt to enjoy Mansfield Park!

“My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”

I have not only enjoyed the books and the numerous TV adaptations there have been of Austen since. I have also visited her house in Hampshire and marvelled at the pretty cottage where she wrote many of her books. I also went to Bath, where she lived for many years and which appears in her books. They have a museum there and the whole place seems steeped in Austen history. I am constantly fascinated by the world her characters inhabit.

“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”

Yet my love of Austen always comes back to this book. It’s the one I have read the most and I love it as much as I did the very first time. It’s hard to explain why I enjoy it still. Perhaps it’s the study of human nature, the transportation back in time, the well rounded characters, the humour or the romance. Perhaps it’s the fairytale story of a love that sparks across social divides. Perhaps it’s the language. Perhaps it’s the wit and irony. Perhaps it’s the age-old story of opposites attracting. Most likely, it’s all of these things plus the mysterious X Factor that favourite books have. You can’t fully explain your love because love itself is unexplainable.

“Till this moment I never knew myself.”

So happy birthday Pride and Prejudice and thank you Ms Austen for writing it. You have given me the most enduring love of my life so far.

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

Tell me – what’s your favourite book?

Victoria

xoxo

20 Comments

by Victoria-writes on January 28, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, My fave things

Tagged books, Jane Austen, my favourite things, Pride and Prejudice

Posted by Victoria-writes on January 28, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/01/28/happy-birthday-pride-and-prejudice/

Reason to Breathe – Rebecca Donovan

In the affluent town of Weslyn, Connecticut, where most people worry about what to be seen in and who to be seen with, Emma Thomas would rather not be seen at all. She’s more concerned with feigning perfection while pulling down her sleeves to conceal the bruises – not wanting anyone to know how far from perfect her life truly is. Without expecting it, she finds love. It challenges her to recognize her own worth – but at the risk of revealing the terrible secret she’s desperate to hide.

Reason to Breathe is an electrifying page turner from start to finish, a unique tale of life-changing love, unspeakable cruelty, and one girl’s fragile grasp of hope (Goodreads summary)

I was excited to read this book – it was successful self published before being published in the UK by Penguin and is often linked with Tammara Webber’s Easy, which I loved. It’s a contemporary YA story of a teenage girl who doesn’t live but survives because she is both emotionally and physically abused by her aunt. Desperate to keep this a secret, she puts all her efforts into excelling at school and soccer, seeing college as her way out of her hellish home life. Her best friend Sara is her only solace until new boy Evan arrives at school and pushes his way into her life.

This book is a page turner – I was eager to find out what was going to happen, the characters are well drawn and the content is emotive. The subject matter is obviously tough and some readers will find it difficult to read at times but this didn’t bother me, I like a gritty story. But what I did find lessened my enjoyment was some of the decisions the characters make. The reason why Emma keeps the abuse a secret is difficult to swallow and makes it hard to fully connect with her. I was also confused that she has a brilliant best friend and a boy who loves her who both know she’s being abused but yet they don’t tell anyone. I just couldn’t fully accept that.

The abuse scenes are raw and violent but because it’s told from Emma’s point of view they are sometimes a little sudden and confusing. She doesn’t really see it coming or what she’s being hurt with so a couple of times I had to re-read the scene to understand what had happened. I felt sometimes the story lost tension because of this. I think the author wrote the central romance very well – there is a sweet love story between Emma and Evan and you are rooting for them throughout. However, the middle of the book flags a little and a kind of love triangle is introduced. I couldn’t invest in this as much as I would have liked to, I didn’t feel it was needed.

This is a really difficult book to review because of the ending. Just when Emma finally makes the decision you wanted her to all through the book, she changes her mind and there is a sudden, shocking ending. A cliffhanger to rival a soap opera. This means the story isn’t satisfying. This book discusses important issues and hopefully will encourage teens to speak out if they are going through anything similar to Emma. There is an important lesson inside this story. It just didn’t flow for me enough to love it. I would like to read the sequels to find out what happens next, it’s hard to properly review this book as it’s such a fragment and ends on such a low note. I just hope the series will end the way I want to to.

I went onto the author’s website and she has page on there where she discusses some of the parts of the story that I found hard to accept including the ending and discusses why she wrote it the way she did. I obviously had similar feelings as others on this book and it’s interesting that she chose to defend why the characters make the decisions that they do. If you’ve read the book, check out the page here.

How do you feel about endings – should they satisfy or shock? Should an author have to defend their ending?

Victoria

xoxo

13 Comments

by Victoria-writes on January 25, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Reviews

Tagged books, Reason to Breathe, Reviews, young adult

Posted by Victoria-writes on January 25, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/01/25/reason-to-breathe-rebecca-donovan/

Recent reads

Pushing the Limits – Katie McGarry

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again (Goodreads summary)

This book was completely my kind of book. Echo is a damaged teenage girl haunted by a night that gave her scars physically and mentally. She is thrown together with bad boy Noah who is seeing the same therapist. Their relationship has the power to heal them both if they will let it – but it means learning to trust and love again by facing their pasts. The story is told from both their points-of-view and their voices are unique and believable. Their romance is both intense and tentative and I was desperate to find out what was going to happen to them. But it’s more than a romance – the characters both take a journey to discover who they are and what they want for their futures. The book is realistic and emotional – honest, raw and powerful. I couldn’t put it down.

Black Spring – Alison Croggon

Inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, BLACK SPRING reimagines the passionate story in a fantasy 19th century society sustained by wizardry and the vengeance code of vendetta.

Anna spent her childhood with Damek and her volatile foster sister Lina, daughter of the Lord of the village. Lina has magical powers, and in this brutal patriarchal society women with magical powers are put to death as babies. Lina’s father, however, refuses to kill her but when vendetta explodes in their village and Lina’s father dies, their lives are changed forever. Their new guardian Masko sends Anna away and reduces Lina to the status of a servant. Damek—mad with love for Lina—attempts to murder Masko, then vanishes for several years. Anna comes home five years later to find Lina about to marry a pleasant young farmer, and witnesses Damek’s vengeful return and its catastrophic consequences.

Passionate, atmospheric and haunting, BLACK SPRING will stay with readers long after they turn the final page (Goodreads summary)

I read Wuthering Heights as a teen and I didn’t really connect with it so I was cautious about this book and my thoughts may differ to someone who is a fan of the original. For me, this was its own story – set in a different world to our own where wizards rule and people live by a vendetta code where if someone is murdered, family members have to kill the murderer’s family in turn. The story starts with a man from the South travelling to the harsh North where he stumbles on a cruel man and his beaten wife and their servant who has a story to tell. I was drawn into this new world and found it richly told. Like the story that inspired it, this is a story of passion, violence and love that destroys, not heals but with a fantasy twist. It was very different to what I usually read but I was swept up by it nonetheless. I also found it more adult in tone than the teenage audience it seems to be aimed at.

Hollow Pike – James Dawson

Something wicked this way comes…

She thought she’d be safe in the country, but you can’t escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her. Lis thinks she’s being paranoid – after all who would want to murder her? She doesn’t believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn’t believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you? Not until you’re alone in the woods, after dark – and a twig snaps… Hollow Pike – where witchcraft never sleeps (Goodreads summary)

This book was creepy but fun. Lis, a teenage girl, moves in with her sister in a small countryside town where strange things happen and folklore abounds. Lis feels the wrath of a mean girl at her new school and falls in with a group of misfits. When a murder rocks the town, Lis and her friends set out to discover the truth before they become the next victims. I loved the characters in this book and Hollow Pike is a great setting for a novel, the story is a thriller with a supernatural twist and I got more into it as it went on. The final third was excellent and I frantically turned the pages to find out what was going to happen. I love reading British YA and this was really enjoyable. It ends on an intriguing note and I hope there will be a sequel in the future.

Hidden Among Us – Katy Moran

This book will be released in March. From the press release: The mysterious boy who Lissy encounters at a deserted train station acts like he’s known her all her life. Unnerved by his unnatural beauty, she sets about uncovering the dark secret of the village of Hopesay Edge. The boy, Larkspur, is a member of the Hidden, an ancient group of elven people and Lissy quickly finds herself fighting to escape from a powerful elven magic. A bargain has been made that cannot be broken, and if the Hidden catch Lissy now, they will never let her go.

This was the first book I’ve read from this author and I enjoyed folky thriller mix. There is so much paranormal on the market, it’s rare to find a new creature so I liked the new race of Hidden in this book. The story is told by several narrators and I found it took longer for me to get into than usual because of this but I liked the mystery that slowly unravels about the bargain made, who the Hidden are and what they want and the people on Earth trying to protect the world from them. It read like a fairytale and there were twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. The book had a chilling feel to it and leaves the door open for future stories set in this world.

What books have you enjoyed recently?

Victoria

xoxo

9 Comments

by Victoria-writes on January 11, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Reviews

Tagged book reviews, young adult

Posted by Victoria-writes on January 11, 2013

http://victoria-writes.com/2013/01/11/recent-reads-2/

Top ten reads of 2012

These were my favourite reads this year. Not all were published in 2012 but as I read them this year they are included on the list!

Skin Deep – Laura Jarratt

After the car crash that leaves her best friend dead, Jenna is permanently scarred. She struggles to rebuild her life, but every stare in the street, every time she looks in the mirror, makes her want to retreat further from the world. Until she meets Ryan. Ryan’s a traveller. When he and his mother moor their narrow boat on the outskirts of a village, she tells him this time it will be different. He doesn’t believe her; he can’t imagine why this place shouldn’t be as unwelcoming as the rest. Until he meets Jenna. But as Jenna and Ryan grow closer, repercussions from the crash continue to reverberate through the community. And then a body is found..

This book is a beautiful story of a girl struggling with the repercussions of a car accident who falls in love with boy a traveller boy and herself. It’s a sweet love story with a important message that appearances certainly aren’t everything. A lovely contemporary YA romance that made me feel warm and fuzzy at the end.

Night School – C.J. Daugherty

Allie Sheridan’s world is falling apart. Her brother’s run away from home. Her parents ignore her. And she’s just been arrested. Again.

This time her parents have had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to boarding school, far from her London friends. But at Cimmeria Academy, Allie is soon caught up in the strange activities of a secret group of elite students. When she’s attacked late one night the incident sets off a chain of increasingly violent events. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, she finds out that nothing at Cimmeria is what it seems to be.

And that she is not who she thought she was.

This contemporary YA thriller is set at a English boarding school. I’ve always loved boarding schools and this school is really creepy – you’re not sure who to trust. This is the first book in a new series that promises a lot of thrills and romance.

The Last Echo – Kimberly Derting

Violet kept her morbid ability to sense dead bodies a secret from everyone except her family and her childhood-best-friend-turned-boyfriend, Jay Heaton. That is until forensic psychologist Sara Priest discovered Violet’s talent and invited her to use her gift to track down murderers. Now, as she works with an eclectic group of individuals—including mysterious and dangerously attractive Rafe—it’s Violet’s job to help those who have been murdered by bringing their killers to justice.

When Violet discovers the body of a college girl killed by “the girlfriend collector” she is determined to solve the case. But now the serial killer is on the lookout for a new “relationship” and Violet may have caught his eye...

This is the third in a four book YA series about a girl with a talent for finding dead bodies. These books are creepy thrillers that always have me racing to the end. There’s also a hot romance on the side. In this one Violet’s talent is out in the open and she’s helping solve crimes but it leaves you questioning whether she’s working for a good guys or not.

The Help – Kathryn Stockett

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

All the blurbs for this book are really long but in a nutshell is about three women living in 1962 Mississippi – two black maids and a white woman who form an unlikely friendship and set about changing attitudes in their town by writing a book about what it’s like being a black maid working for white families. This adult story is really inspiring and very moving. I thought the film adaptation was also excellent.

The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs… for now. Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

This is a really moving contemporary YA story about a girl dealing with cancer. But it’s really a coming of age story with a touching romance, a beautiful piece of work that had me in floods of tears by the end. I defy you not to be moved.

Heart-Shaped Bruise – Tanya Byrne

They say I’m evil. The police. The newspapers. The girls from school who shake their heads on the six o’clock news and say they always knew there was something not quite right about me. And everyone believes it. Including you. But you don’t know. You don’t know who I used to be. Who I could have been.

Awaiting trial at Archway Young Offenders Institution, Emily Koll is going to tell her side of the story for the first time. Heart-Shaped Bruise is a compulsive and moving novel about infamy, identity and how far a person might go to seek revenge.

This book is on my list for pure originality – I haven’t read a book like this one before. From the point of view of the ‘villain’, this is a raw, honest and compelling contemporary YA book that throws up questions about blame and revenge while making you eagerly turn the pages to find out exactly what the main character has done. The ending has caused some dismay on Amazon so be warned that things aren’t neatly tied up but for me that just adds to its freshness.

Divergent - Veronica Roth

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

This YA dystopian sucked me completely into its world. I loved the concept and found the main character compelling. This is the first book in a trilogy and I read the first two books this year – the sequel was equally good for me and carries on immediately from the first book. I found both books page turning thrillers and I fell hard for the love interest. I can’t wait to read the last book. I may even prefer this to The Hunger Games

Delirium - Lauren Oliver

THEY SAY that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever.And I’ve always believed them. Until now.Now everything has changed. Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

I loved this dystopian YA book – the premise that love that been banned was really intriguing and I frantically read to find out what the main character would do when she fell in love just before she was due to be cured. The thriller / romance spilt was really well done and the world well constructed throughout. I also read the sequel this year and found it equally good – I’m really looking forward to the final book next year.

The Sky is Everywhere – Jandy Nelson

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life – and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.

This is a lovely contemporary YA book about grief and love. It’s emotional but funny and the voice of the main character shines through. The story is peppered with poems that add a realistic and sweet touch. I found it both heartbreaking and heartwarming. A one-off.

Easy – Tammara Webber

A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

This list isn’t in order but I would say this as been my favourite read of 2012. A contemporary New Adult story set at a American college it’s about a girl who is dumped by her boyfriend and then attacked at party. She is rescued by a boy called Lucas with who she starts an intense romance with but when she starts being stalked by her attacker she realises she needs to learn to fight back. This story is about love and trust with a powerful message about protecting yourself without becoming a victim. It really struck a cord with me when I read it. Originally self published, the author has now signed publishing deals in the UK and US so look out for it on the shelves.

What were your favourite reads of 2012?

Victoria

xoxo

22 Comments

by Victoria-writes on December 12, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Books, My fave things, Reviews

Tagged book reviews, my favourite things, top ten books of 2012

Posted by Victoria-writes on December 12, 2012

http://victoria-writes.com/2012/12/12/top-ten-reads-of-2012/