Monday, September 30, 2013

Unraveling: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Title: The Bone Season
Series: The Bone Season Book One
Publication Date: August 20, 2013

It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing.

But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.

Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.

The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine—a young woman learning to harness her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.
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My Thoughts



The Bone Season was one of those special kind of books. The kind where you get caught up in the story and you finish it and you think it's brilliant then about 10mins later you start thinking about the awesome review you have to write for such a great book, and that's when it hits you. It's not actually that great.

When I finished reading The Bone Season I rushed over to Goodreads and rated it 4 Stars. That's a great rating right? Then I started thinking about the review. What I was going to write and how, and it was when I started getting pissed. Everything about the book started ticking me off. I didn't like most of the aspects that made The Bone Season what it is, but I still got caught up with the story towards the end. By the end of my mental review writing I ended up going back to Goodreads and lowering the rating to 2 Stars. Yes, you read that right. Two.

I'll start off by saying what I did like. That it was about psychics. I am a sucker for books about psychics, and Shannon built and incredibly detailed world about them. So detailed that I would have to stop and think about what kind of power they actually had half the time. This shouldn't have been such a problem since there is a diagram and everything to break them down at the beginning, but I read this in an eBook format and therefore the diagram was completely useless. I could not read it for the life me. I tried EVERYTHING. Nothing zoomed it in enough to actually make out what was written. If anyone knows how to read maps/diagrams on a eBook please let me know.

This ties in to my second point. The language. Or the language used in this world. Yes we are in London, so they are speaking British English. I have read enough books with this English before that I have mostly gotten used to it, but the problem is that this wasn't just British English it also had steampunk-like elements and slang to top it all off. I had learned my lesson with Stormdancer, read the glossary first before attempting to read and understand the whole book, so after 5 minutes of reading I went looking for the glossary, read the whole thing, cleared up some of the issues, and went back to reading. It helped quite a bit. But the whole time I felt like I was reading to study something. As in I had to remember everything from the glossary and piece together the diagram that I couldn't read. It was a bit exhausting to say the least, but I passed the 15% mark, got used to it and it was much smoother after that in that sense.

Next up we have Paige, the special snowflake. I didn't like her. She made no sense. At first I thought she ended up on bad times and that's why she had to join the psychic Mafia, but here is the kicker. She is rich! Or at least her dad is! Maybe her dad doesn't love her and gives her a hard time then? (I actually thought this for a good portion of the book) He actually does love her! So I don't get it. So she doesn't like school big woop, most people don't, that doesn't mean the all end up joining the damn Mafia. She had to have options! But it was all just so close minded.

Then we have her actually personality. I REALLY didn't like her. Once she gets to the Rephims or whatever they are called, she starts acting all high and mighty like she is up on a pedestal and they are all lowly, horrible creatures and she is just So. Much. Better. She starts getting the other humans in trouble while she doesn't suffer any of the consequences because Artur is protecting her and she has the gal to go off on the guy all the bloody time! Everyone is telling her she is so damn lucky to be living with Artur, and they are right! But since she is so high up in her pedestal  having an actual room to herself with a bed and everything is not good enough, while everyone else is pretty much sleeping on the floor with no blankets, barely any food and getting physically abused most nights. But ya know, the hell with it.

Moving on! The romance was also a no-no. I understood that it was building up to that. How could it not? Artur was always protecting her for some reason or other and she was always being a brat, but the spark, the connection, was never there. Then suddenly past the 80% mark they suddenly just start kissing and being all over each other and it just wasn't natural. It was like someone flipped a switch and they wen't from tolerating enemies to lovers all of a sudden. Just no.

Now, I did say I got caught up towards the end. And I did. The climax of the plot had me immersed, because there was finally something exciting going on. Explosions, fighting, people dying, psychic fighting going on. It was awesome. But that was the last 20% of the book, which is why I was left feeling good about it.

When it all came down to it, The Bone Season just couldn't hold it's own. Notice how I didn't talk much about the world-building, just touched on it? Needless to say it didn't quite make sense either. The reasons where there but when you put it all together it wasn't enough to have ended up as this new world. 1+1 did not equal 2, more like 1, then 0 xD


So...

Would I Recommend it?





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Other books in The Bone Season Series:

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Upcoming New Releases - Week of Sept. 30


Here are the releases for the up coming week of September 30 - October 6, 2013




Tuesday, October 1, 2013







Thursday, October 3, 2013






Books I'm looking forward to:

  • Endless Knight by Kresley Cole
  • Countdown by Michelle Rowen
  • Blackout by Robinson Wells
  • Backward Glass by David Lomax
  • Shadowlark by Meagan Spooner
  • Perfect Ruin by Lauren Destefano
  • Hereafter by Kate Brian
  • Fearsome Dreamer by Laure Eve

I'm in so much trouble this month. SO MANY BOOKS!! I'm a slightly fast reader. I can read a book a day even with homework/internship/classes. But there are just way too many books coming out each week in October that have caught my attention. So I managed to narrow it down to 3 books this week that I just HAVE to read. The rest I could wait a bit longer for :)


What books are you looking forward to?

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Book Blitz + Giveaway: Deadly To Love by Mia Hodell

Deadly To Love by Mia Hodell Book Blitz


Deadly To Love by Mia Hodell
Deadly To Love (Elemental Killers #1)
by Mia Hodell

Release Date: February 8, 2013

Summary from Goodreads:
The world is dangerous – but love will kill you.

Little did Serena Jackson know that one simple, flirty remark to an anonymous guy online would lead to her world being changed forever.
She doesn't know him, but inexplicably, is drawn. She knows it is wrong but she agrees to meet.
His real name is Kai. He is beautiful. And immediately Serena feels herself blindly falling for him even though she senses a lie. She knows he is hiding something and it terrifies her.

What she doesn't realize is that her entire life has been built on secrets and lies. The people she loved left her in the dark for a reason.

She trusted them. She trusts Kai. But as he pulls her straight into the heart of the danger the lies and deadly secrets are revealed. They overwhelm her, and the person she once was no longer exists as she is thrown into a ruthless world of elemental forces. The price of truth is her life—and now the world wants her dead.

  



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Excerpt




Happy with the amount of photos I had collected I started to head back out of the forest, still flicking through my shots. As well as close ups, I had taken a few landscapes and as I was almost at the edge of the forest I noticed something in one of the photographs that made me stop.

In the left hand corner was a figure that looked mostly human, but was blurred as if they were moving on the spot.
A cold shudder shot through me.

Looking over my shoulder I became slightly panicked and felt as if someone was following me.
My eyes flicked and searched the shadows. Even though there was no sign that anything had ever been behind me, the forest looked different now - dark and threatening.

Instinctively I broke away and ran, still clutching the camera that was displaying the freaky image. Surrounded by trees I didn’t stop until I was free of the forest and back in the open light and sight of my house.

Throwing open my door, I slumped against the inside of it, regaining my breath from the short sprint. Once I had recovered I looked down at the photo once more, just to make sure that I hadn’t been seeing things. The old saying “the camera never lies,” came into my mind and for the first time I wished it not to be true. Sure enough though, as I looked down at the screen, the figure was still there and this time I noticed a red and orange glow around where its feet should have been. The image almost looked like the person was on fire but I thought I would have surely noticed if there had been a burning man in front of me.



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About the Author




Mia Hodell
Mia Hoddell lives in the UK with her family and two cats. She spends most of her time writing or reading and loves anything paranormal. Mia always had a love of writing but never reading. She was more interested in sports and hated sitting still - despite getting three poems published before the age of sixteen. Finally though, she found some novels that captured her interest and developed a love of reading which is now one of her favourite hobbies.

Mia began with poems before moving on to short stories. Although she enjoyed this, Mia found she had too much to tell with too little space, so later on she created her first series 'The Wanderer Trilogy' and from there other ideas have emerged. With a total of nine books planned at this moment, she is busy working on her second series 'Elemental Killers' before moving onto the next idea on her ever growing list.





Author Links:




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Giveaway




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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Book Blitz + Giveaway: Kinetic by S.K. Anthony

Kinetic Book Blitz by S.K. Anthony Xpresso Book Tours


Kinetic by S.K. Anthony
Kinetic (The Luminaires #1)
by S.K. Anthony

Release Date: September 18, 2013

Summary from Goodreads:
Being strong is one thing. Being an unlimited source of power is quite another.

Genetically altered by the Organization, Annie Fox takes down criminals CIA-style with her luminary strength. With nothing to mend but her broken heart, she is relentlessly pursued by her boss Derek Lake. Just when Annie is about to give him a chance, her ex-husband unexpectedly comes out of hiding.

A wanted man, Nick Logan is a cold-hearted murderer who is considered enemy number one, and orders are clear: kill on contact. He is more powerful than ever and threatens the lives of those she holds most dear. His plan? Get his hands on Annie and use her Kinetic energy to destroy them all. When Annie finds herself with an opportunity to end him, she pauses, horrified by the scars covering the face she once loved. A split second that will cost her everything…

  



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Excerpt




Coming to my feet, I ran into the vault and found myself at the bottom of what seemed like three floors. It was filled with storage units, all next to each other. It reminded me of prison cells, each of them with their own armored doors. I smelled more smoke coming from above, so I ran up the first set of stairs and let my nose guide me. I saw the figure trying to melt one of the armored doors, and I launched myself at him. He was ready for me, though, so I found myself thrown across the room like a ragdoll. I pretended to be injured as he approached me, and when he was close enough, I kicked his feet from under him and he fell, hitting his head on the concrete floor. I jumped on him and pinned his hands down just as he looked up at me.

And there he was, Nick Logan. My ex-husband.
I stared at the face I'd once loved, now with a patch covering his left eye and scars running all the way down his jaw. They were almost hidden under his days-old beard and wild, dark hair. His deep hazel eye looked at me, empty, daring me to speak first. I punched him.



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About the Author




S.K. Anthony
S. K. Anthony is a writer, a reader and a make-stuff-up-er who lives in New York with her husband and toddler twins. She is a wine connoisseur, which just really means she knows she loves it, and a caffeine addict. When she isn’t busy with her family she finds herself being transported into the world of imagination. Well, either that or running away from spiders…she is convinced they are out to get her!





Author Links:




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Giveaway




Open Internationally


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