Hacienda Moon by KaSonndra Leigh

Buy the book: Amazon US

Information:

Title: Hacienda Moon

Author: KaSonndra Leigh

Publisher: TriGate Group

Target Audience: Adult

Genre: Paranormal

Length: 280 pages

Story: Love, obsession, and betrayal, the most powerful human emotions, are spun together in this gothic novel. Tandie Harrison is a police medium who has just suffered a divorce after losing both her psychic visions and her daughter in a car accident. When she leaves New York City to start a new life near her hometown, she moves into the alluring plantation house, Chelby Rose, and falls for its charismatic caretaker, Eric Fontalvo. Their burgeoning affair ignites a centuries old curse, ensnaring them in a web of danger, deceit, and intrigue. Soon Tandie learns that in placid Bolivia, the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected.

Hacienda Moon is a seductive tale of one woman’s journey to confront the demons of her past and find the courage to face her future. It is a mesmerizing novel that explores the deepest depths of human nature, and the characters will hold and haunt you long after you have read the final chapter.

Thoughts and impressions: As soon as I read the synopsis for this one, I was intrigued. I wanted to know more and so when the promo tour also offered six review copies, I immediately signed up for one of the six. I didn’t actually receive my copy until after the promo post (here) and I had a couple of other blog tour books to read before I could crack this one open, but I had itchy-finger-syndrome when it came to this one.

I cracked it open for the first time after having just finished another book of a very different genre. In hindsight, that wasn’t the best idea ever. I should have given myself some time to unwind from the first book before I cracked open this one. I also only allowed myself the time to read the prologue and things might have been different had I been able to immediately continue on to the first couple of chapters. The consequence of not doing so was that the prologue left me thrown and not entirely enraptured. This is my own fault, of course, and I suspect that my experience of starting the book would have been very different had I approached it differently.

It doesn’t help that I’ve been very busy recently, which meant that for the first few chapters I was only managing to snatch a chapter or two at a time rather than sitting down and reading a large chunk all at once (which is my preference). As a result of this style of reading, the story felt very slow-burning to me. This is not at all a bad thing. The author took her time to present each part of the story just as she wanted it to be presented, taking the reader down a dark path of confusing twists and turns and more than a few dead ends rather than rushing in to things head on.

There were certain things that were certainly confusing. At times I could tell that the person Tandie, the main character, was interacting with was not of our time. In fact, it seemed odd that she herself didn’t stop to question why on earth these people would be wearing period dress rather than jeans and a t-shirt. At other times I couldn’t figure out whether she was interacting with someone living or with one of the dead. These sorts of scenes really leant to the spooky feel that was gradually being built up in the story.

Right now I have a thing about ghosts in my paranormal / urban fantasy stories. They’re not as used and abused as vampires and werewolves (yet) which gives the author a little more leeway to make their ghosts relatable characters who are still unique in their own way. I liked all of the characters but one of the ghosts in particular (not naming names so people can deduce which of the characters are ghosts on their own should they choose to read the book). She was a chilling but fabulous character, very complex.

Though I had some reservations to begin with, the story soon smashed them all apart and turned out to be a gripping thrill ride. Well, I say thrill ride but I want to stress that it is slow burning. Things come together very slowly, but once all of the pieces are in place, it is definitely worth it! I really enjoyed the book.

Style: I noticed a tendency to repeat the same word sometimes rather than using synonyms. There were times when it felt like it verged a little too far on the tell instead of show side, but overall a style that I enjoyed.

Final verdict: A highly enjoyable ghost story that takes the time to draw the reader into the world created. 4 stars



Get A Taste: Throne of Glass

Tara of Basically Books and I often read very different books but sometimes find interesting new books to potentially add to the ever-growing monsters that our TBR piles have morphed into. However, we know that we do not have 100% the same taste and we wanted another way of getting a look at these books...

Do you ever feel like getting a bit of a taster for a book you’ve been thinking of reading but aren’t fully sold on yet? Do you feel like sharing a taster for your current read with the world? Well, here’s your chance.

Each week the random number generator will pick a number between 1 and 100 for books with pages or 1 and 25% for ebooks. We figured that these numbers would keep us out of spoiler territory. Open your book to the specified place and pick a paragraph. Share it with the world!

The numbers for this week are:

Page 21 for books

16% for ebooks

My book:

When Chaol came to fetch her the next morning, he found her sleeping on the floor, wrapped in a blanket. "Sardothian," he said. She made a mumbling noise, burying her face father into the pillow. "Why are you sleeping on the ground?" She opened an eye. Of course, he didn't mention how different she looked now that she was clean.

She didn't bother concealing herself with the blanket as she stood. The yards of fabric they called a nightgown covered her enough. "The bed was uncomfortable," she said simply but quickly forgot the captain as she beheld the sunlight.

Pure, fresh, warm sunlight. Sunlight that she could bask in all day if she got her freedom, sunlight to drown out the endless dark of the mines.

Tara took a quote from this one last week but as I spent all day Sunday reading it, I decided that I wanted to have it up as my book, too, though I suppose that I could have chosen another book had I really wanted to. I was actually a frequent reader on FictionPress when Sarah J. Maas was publishing this (as Queen of Glass) on there but the length of it made it too daunting for me to tackle - something I came to regret later. I'm glad I got this opportunity to read it now! I've finished the book already. Review will be coming sooner or later.

Do you want to join in too? Here’s how:

Step 1: Copy and paste the Get A Taste image.

Step 2: Copy and paste our intro or write your own but it must link back to both of our blogs.

Step 3: Find the designated page for the week.

Step 4: Type out a paragraph or so from your book.

Step 5: Post it and share it!

We would appreciate it if you'd leave a comment letting us know where we can find your post. We'll be sure to pop on by and leave a comment!

Thanks and have fun!

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Bayou Myth by Mary Ann Loesch

Information:

Title: Bayou Myth

Author: Mary Ann Loesch

Series: Bayou Myth #1

Publisher: Dragonfire Press

Target Audience: YA

Genre: Urban fantasy

Length: 240 pages

Story: As a sixteen year old voodoo queen in the making, Joan Renault just wants to be like all the other girls in the small town of Monte Parish, Louisiana—obsessed with boys and swamped with social lives. If the other kids would quit calling her “hoodoo hag,” she might have a small shot at normality. It would also help if Joan’s weekend outings with her secret crush, Dave, weren’t always being interrupted by her dead Grandmere, the legendary Marie Laveau. After all, it’s hard to make out with your best friend when your grandmother is watching! But when you come from a long line of voodoo priestesses with dried gator heads decorating the wall of their huts, normal doesn’t come easily. 

When Joan witnesses the brutal sacrifice of a child to a tree Druid, she learns her Grandmere’s scandalous past has come back to haunt those living in the present. Hera, a vengeful voodoo priestess is determined to use the residual energy of Pandora’s Box to revive a sleeping voodoo god and declare war on the descendants of Marie Laveau, especially Joan. Suddenly, Greek myths are being re-enacted all over town, and Joan has her hands full trying to sort it all out. With the approach of Samedi’s Day—the voodoo day of resurrection—Joan must learn to accept her destiny in order to stop the approaching threat to her family and friends.

Thoughts and impressions: As soon as I read the synopsis for this one I was sold. Voodoo and Greek gods? Cool! Totally sounds like my sort of thing... Then I stopped and thought about it for a bit and I started to have a few reservations about whether or not the author would be able to successfully pull off a believable scenario that mixes voodoo and the myths and legends on Ancient Greece. So I went into the book in a state that was somewhere between excitement and trepidation.

Excitement won.

I read the book in two sittings. One that was about 1-25% (I only stopped because it was late and I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore!) and the second was the other 75% of the book. The fact that I sat down and read 75% of a book with no breaks says everything. I could finish the review right here… but I’m not going to.

I’m not going to spoil how the author manages to merge the two very different cultures of voodoo and the Greek myths and legends, but I thought the way she did it was rather ingenious. It allowed them both to stay true to themselves without forcing either into an uncomfortable situation. I was so glad that they were mixed together in such a way rather than trying to shove two pantheons together and require them to work.

The story itself turned out to be addictive. I was in one of those “just one more chapter…” phases. You know, the ones you never slip out of until you’ve turned the last page and then you have an oops moment as you realise just how much of the day you’ve lost. Oops. But it was worth it! I’ve never seen Marie Laveau portrayed in a positive light before so this was an interesting experience for me from that point of view. I was also captivated by the Louisiana bayou setting. For someone who grew up in the Pennines and the Alps, the bayou is a far cry from any environment I’ve known. That could be part of its mysticism and the charm it weaves on me. I loved how the author managed to really bring it to life for me, despite the huge distance separating me from it.

Joan, the main character, was also very interesting. Chosen to be the next great voodoo priestess, she’s still in the phase where she resists her calling despite her grandmere’s consistent intervening. Of course, events line up just so and she can no longer ignore the destiny that is before her. I did occasionally get the feeling that she was a little too blind to things around her. For example, at one point she thinks she’s talking to her best friend and just blurts out her whole plan when he’s practically interrogating her. Only later does she realise that her best friend might not actually have been the one controlling the body she was interacting with.

There was also a fair amount of exposition through dreams. This is not something that I’m usually fond of, preferring other means to be used to uncover secrets, but I have to say that it did work fairly well in this particular novel.

I wasn’t aware that this is actually the first of a series. In a way, I’m slightly bummed out because I want to have the answers to my questions already – in the form of the next novel of course! Things are not really rounded off at the end of the story and a lot of threads are left dangling to be picked up come book two. I really want to find out how Joan’s relationship with her best friend, Dave, will progress now that she’s finally uncovered the truth about the secrets he’s been keeping. I’ve got my fingers crossed for them as Dave turned out to be a very decent guy.

Possibly the very best thing about this novel is the role that the parents play. There are far too many YA novels out there where the parents either aren’t there or just don’t give a damn about what their teenage child is getting up to. In Bayou Myth the parents played a very positive role.  They cared about Joan, gave her limits to what she could do (not that she always respected them) and helped her when the going got tough. There should be more YA books out there where the parents are portrayed in such a positive light.

Overall a fabulous book. When’s book 2 coming out?

Style: There were some problems towards the end of the book. It felt like the editor had just got bored and so missed some fairly obvious mistakes.

Final verdict: Not at all what I was expecting but so much the better for it. I really enjoyed this book! 5 stars

Extra notes: Bad language is present. Sex behind closed doors.

The author:

 Mary Ann Loesch is an award winning fiction writer from Texas. Her urban fantasy, Nephilim, was published in July 2011 by Lyrical Press Inc.  An avid blogger for All Things Writing (http://www.allthingswriting.blogspot.com) and Loesch’s Muse (http://www.loeschsmuse.blogspot.com), Mary Ann has also contributed stories in the horror anthology, All Things Dark and Dastardly. Her latest book, Bayou Myth, was released in June 2012. While she loves dirty martinis and cuddling with her dachshund, she loves fan mail even more! Contact her through her website at www.maryannloesch.com.

Win your own copy of Bayou Myth:

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The Cover Wars: Room

Tara of Basically Books and I decided to get together to do a weekly meme where we would compare covers of the UK editions of books with those of the US editions.

The aim of this is to just have a bit of fun. We put ourselves in the position where we see both of these books side by side in the bookstore. Which would we choose? Why that one and not the other?

This week we will be comparing the covers of Room by Emma Donoghue.

US cover                                      UK cover

Rea says: Both of these covers are very appealing. They both catch my eye and leave me wanting to crack open the book. This said, I adore the simplicity of the US cover. US for me.

Tara says:  I like them both so very much and they are very appealing. The UK one is blue, it has a little house and it just makes me want to read it. The US one is simple and yet I feel as if it’s going to be a great book. Just because it’s simple yet eye-catching, and I have seen it so many times, I will go with the US one.

Score:

Week 29:

US: 5     UK: 15     Draw: 8

Do you want to join in too? Here’s how:

Step 1: Copy and paste the Cover Wars image.

Step 2: Copy and paste our intro or write your own but it must link back to both of our blogs.

Step 3: Copy and paste the US and UK cover images.

Step 4: Compare the two.

Step 5: Either use our score or keep your own score.

Step 6: Post it and share it!

Thanks and have fun!

Blog Tour: Sykosa by Justin Ordoñez

Buy the book: Amazon US ; Amazon UK ; Barnes & Noble

Information:

Title: Skyosa

Author: Justin Ordoñez

Publisher: TDS Publishing

Series: Skysoa #1

Target Audience: Older YA+

Genre: Realistic fiction

Length: 320 pages

Story: Sykosa (that's "sy"-as-in-"my" ko-sa) is a junior in high school. She belongs to an exclusive clique of girls called the "Queens." The leader is her best friend Niko. Their friendship has been strained lately because Tom—Sykosa's first boyfriend boyfriend—has gotten all serious about making her his pretty Prom princess. That is if he ever gets around to asking her. Before Prom, there's a party at Niko's cottage where parental supervision will be nil. He wants to have sex. She doesn't. He sometimes acts like that doesn't matter.

It matters.

Sykosa has a secret she has never told anyone about. Although, some people—Tom included—know anyway. It happened last year and it was big and she'll cry if she talks about it so she's done talking about it, okay? Never mind, it's nobody's business. Except it keeps happening, and it never stops. She doesn't want to deal with it. He does. She sometimes acts like that doesn't matter.

It matters.

Thoughts and impressions: The style of this story is very out of the norm. It’s one that’s very raw and to the point while still somehow managing to only skirt around certain subjects. I admit that it took me a while to actually get into the style. I read the book in parts, at first because the style failed to really lure me in and then because I had other reading obligations that were more urgent. The synopsis was one that caught my attention immediately, but I was quite a way into the book before it had really sucked me in. On top of this the jumpy narration occasionally made it quite hard to follow events and I would find myself having to go back and reread passages in order to really understand what was going on. This was frustrating.

Eventually I came to realise that this was written more like the style of Skyosa’s thought flow. I’m not so keen on that style (“je buvais des grenouilles” – I drank frogs – the sentence that put me off this style), but I do see the appeal for it, especially for a story such as this where everything is very dependent on Skykosa’s innermost thoughts and secrets, and her preference to skirt around a certain event in her past rather than tackling the event head on. This event in her past is very important to the evolution of her character. She often alludes to it but never quite manages to tackle it head on.

I think that it is important to note that while the story may be considered aimed at the YA market, it’s more aimed at mature YA or adult readers. There are a number of subjects tackled that I wouldn’t consider entirely appropriate for younger readers. There is a huge focus on sex in particular. And when I say that it focuses on sex, I mean it seems like all of the characters focus on sex almost all of the time. I don’t remember being that sex-mad as a teen but then I did grow up in a very different environment.

In fact, I’m not sure that this environment could have been any farther from the one I experienced myself. I liked that they were Asian characters, in a very religious environment and yet many of the parental figures take a backseat to the action, seeming to take little interest in their teenage children’s antics. It made for an original setting. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read something quite like this.

There is a darkness that overshadows the whole of this story. It’s not a feel good book. It’s a grim look at a potential reality that a teen could face. There’s a cast of broken individuals who are all struggling to come to terms with events they’ve faced and how their lives have been impacted. It’s not a book that I would normally pick up but it’s one that made me stop and think. And it’s got me intrigued – I’m very interested in seeing where things will go next!

Style: See review.

Final verdict: A dark tale that took me places I hadn't expected to go. I really enjoyed the story but found the style a little off putting (the style is, however, part of what makes this story so different and is central to what makes Skyosa Skyosa). 4 stars

Extra notes: Bad language is present. There is a focus on sex.

The author:

Justin Ordoñez was born in Spain, raised in the mid-west, and currently lives in Seattle. He's nearly thirty years old, almost graduated from the University of Washington, and prefers to wait until TV shows come out on DVD so he can watch them in one-shot while playing iPad games. For fifteen years, he has written as a freelance writer, occasionally doing pieces as interesting as an editorial, but frequently helping to craft professional documents or assisting in the writing of recommendation letters for people who have great praise for friends or colleagues and struggle to phrase it. Sykosa is his debut novel.


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Get A Taste: The Child Thief

Tara of Basically Books and I often read very different books but sometimes find interesting new books to potentially add to the ever-growing monsters that our TBR piles have morphed into. However, we know that we do not have 100% the same taste and we wanted another way of getting a look at these books...

Do you ever feel like getting a bit of a taster for a book you’ve been thinking of reading but aren’t fully sold on yet? Do you feel like sharing a taster for your current read with the world? Well, here’s your chance.

Each week the random number generator will pick a number between 1 and 100 for books with pages or 1 and 25% for ebooks. We figured that these numbers would keep us out of spoiler territory. Open your book to the specified place and pick a paragraph. Share it with the world!

The numbers for this week are:

Page 19 for books

20% for ebooks

My book:

Peter ducked and spun, and again Nick found himself amazed at the boy's speed. The back of Peter's fist caught Bennie full in the face. Nick couldn't see the actual contact from where he sat, but based on the way Bennie's head flew back, based on the horrible cracking sound, he knew Bennie was going down.


Bennie crumbled to his knees, his arms flopping limply by his sides, then he fell over face-first onto the sidewalk.


A chill climbed up Nick's spine. He's dead. He's dead for sure. And just for a second, Nick caught a haunted look on Peter's face. Then, as though knowing the boy's eyes were upon him, Peter's quirky smile leaped back into place. But Nick couldn't get that look out of his dead. He'd seen something wild, something scary.


I bought this book from one of the small shops by the canals just outside of the city centre in Utrecht. It's one that I've been aware of for some time but just never purchased for whatever reason. I've not had the chance to read very much of it yet, but what I have read has been a fabulously woven dark tale. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Do you want to join in too? Here’s how:

Step 1: Copy and paste the Get A Taste image.

Step 2: Copy and paste our intro or write your own but it must link back to both of our blogs.

Step 3: Find the designated page for the week.

Step 4: Type out a paragraph or so from your book.

Step 5: Post it and share it!

We would appreciate it if you'd leave a comment letting us know where we can find your post. We'll be sure to pop on by and leave a comment!

Thanks and have fun!

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Buy the book: Amazon US ; Amazon UK ; Barnes & Noble ; Book Depository

Information:

Title: Infinity

Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Series: Chronicles of Nick #1

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Target Audience: YA

Genre: Urban fantasy

Length: 306 pages

Story: I control my destiny and my life.

Nothing controls me.

Ever.

Nick Gautier thinks he knows everything. Streetwise, tough and savvy, his quick sarcasm is renowned. But his whole world is suddenly turned upside down on the night his best friends try to kill him.

Saved by a mysterious warrior, Nick is sucked into the realm of the Dark-Hunters – immortal vampire-slayers who risk everything to save humanity – and he quickly learns that the human world is only a veil for a much larger and more dangerous one that’s filled with all kinds of evil. Nick knows he’s in real danger and he soon has a lot more to deal with than high school – all without getting grounded, suspended… or killed.

Thoughts and impressions: I know that this series is a spinoff of the author’s long-standing paranormal romance series for adult readers. I’ve never read any of the Dark Hunter books, though I’m aware of their existence (who isn’t?). It’s entirely possible – if not likely – that reading this book will be a completely different experience for someone who’s read all of the other books prior to this one. For me, I felt like I was missing a lot of information. There was a lot of name-dropping and I suspect that long-time readers will recognise the names and appreciate the nods to old characters that they’d come to love and adore. However, this wasn’t the case for me, nor I suspect for many of the YA readers who will be new to Sherrilyn Kenyon.

These names meant nothing to me and just served to confuse me as, it has to be said, there were an awful lot of peripheral characters who were all named but tended to play very small roles. Indeed, I often found myself trying to keep up with the who’s who. Occasionally I’d find myself in a situation where I thought there were two characters having a conversation when a third would intervene but I had no idea who they were or when they’d come into the story. I’m a big believer in the rule that if you (the author) can tell the same story without introducing character X, then character X should not be introduced as they obviously don’t play an essential enough role to merit being there.

The synopsis is also misleading and relies on knowledge of the Dark Hunter series. There’s that little bit popped in there about how the Dark-Hunters are “immortal vampire-slayers who risk everything to save humanity” – but there’s nothing in the book about them being vampire-slayers, or even that they’re trying to save humanity. In fact, they’re not really expanded on much at all in this particular book.

So what is the book about? It’s about a young teen, Nick Gautier (who pronounces his name, Gautier, with an “sh” in it for some reason, but I just spent the whole book pronouncing it the French way – Go-tee-ay instead of Go-shay). He comes from a difficult background – his father is in prison for murder and his mother struggles to earn enough money to keep them going – but is a pupil at a prestigious school. Because of just how different he is to everyone else there, he is often bullied not only by his fellow pupils but also by the head teacher. His mum doesn’t pay any attention to his complaints and Nick is very frustrated by the existence he leads. Frustrated enough to lash out and agree to participate in something illegal at his friends’ prompting. This results in Nick getting shot and a mysterious stranger stepping in to save him from certain death.

The mysterious stranger accepts Nick into his employ in exchange for paying his hospital bills (which his mother cannot afford). This throws Nick into a new world of supernatural creatures that he’d never even dreamt could actually exist.

This first book deals with one supernatural creature in particular: zombies!

Argh… brainssss…

But these zombies are a little apart from the norm. Those who become zombies are still living. They’re no longer in control of their motor functions and seem to be actually hunting their targets rather than just going for the closest piece of human meat. Unfortunately for Nick, he’s one of those targeted. For someone who didn’t believe in the supernatural mere days earlier, he gets quite the wake-up call.

There are some fabulous characters in here, such as Bubba and Mark the zombie hunters. They’re the bit of humour to bringer a bit of lighter laughter to a story that’s supposed to be fairly on the dark side. I liked them both and their rules for fighting zombies (shoot first; cover yourself in duck urine; etc.)

For the most part, the novel was fairly tightly woven but there was one thing that was never really resolved: the game that induces living zombie-ism was only given to one person. It is hypothesised that someone else distributed the game to all the others who “changed”. But this is never expanded on. We never discover who distributed it beyond the original victim.

Style: There was some serious abuse of the “…” in this style. They’re all over the place!

Beyond this, there were some places where I found it hard to follow the sentence structure, but I don’t know whether that was just my head being slow or the actual style.

Final verdict: Even though I felt like I’d missed out on a lot by not having read the Dark Hunters series, I did enjoy this book. I intend to read the second book at some point later this year. 4 stars

Extra notes: Bad language is present. Sex is not.