Awaken by Sarah M. Ross

 

Awaken

(The Patronus)

strong>Awaken (The Patronus)

Lucy Donovan was supposed to have a weekend of fun in the sun, celebrating

her upcoming graduation from college. In a split second, everything

changed. A drunk driver ended Lucy’s mortal life.

Lucy opens her eyes to a world she never imagined possible and a new

destiny: as a Patronus, a guardian of spirits. Adjusting to her new role

and abilities while negotiating this confusing realm will test her limits

and push her further than she ever dreamed she would go. From wayward

spirits who don’t want her help to soul stealing vampires, and even a

stuck-up British royal, Lucy must brave them all to save one spirit she

can’t bear to lose.

Further complicating her confusing life is an inexplicable yet growing

connection she feels to a member of her team, Max, whose mysterious

behavior leaves her both confused and intrigued.

Waking up dead was just the beginning of her problems. Lucy’s death is

about to become the greatest adventure of her life.

My Review:

Ok so after finding out that this book was only 140 pages on my Ipad2 I thought well I can read this in a day.  So Off I went.  Ok so I'm only 9 pages in and I must say I'm hooked!  I am so happy that this book adds to it something that I always wonder about horror movies and TV shows.  That do these people watch TV?  I mean if you do would you go down the dark hallway, go into a house that everyone says is haunted, or even say some words that are supposed to bring back a demon that tormented the works eons ago?  I know I wouldn't!  

Ok I'm SOLD!  If you look at my site you will see that my part ion goddess is Hekate and well that is what they are yay~

Ok I don't believe I didn't read this before!  You have to read this like NOW!

Friend's Review of this book:

Something New

Sarah M. Ross' "Awaken" has managed to breathe new life into the world of paranormal romance.  Though the elements of the story:  vampires, wares, and angelic guardians are the same, the story, lore and world that is built for readers within the pages of this tale are something new altogether.

   

Readers will be pleasantly surprised to find that there is a novel sized story within this relatively short read.  Don't let the size if this book fool you.  It is a complex, full bodied story that is chock full of complex characters, action, heartbreak and romance.

Romance....And So Much More

This book stands heads above the rest in that area.  It would have been so easy for  this author to have just allowed Lucy and Max to just fall into bed and succumb to the attraction that is so obvious from the start.  Instead, she takes the high road in this, allowing the relationship between the two to mature as an element of the story instead of becoming its focus.

There are so many other relationships that are allowed to have their place in the spotlight throughout this read.  The friendships that exist between Lucy, James, Cassie, and Max.  The love that shines through for Lucy toward her sister, and the battle within Lucy herself are just a few colors within the emotional rainbow that is this tale.

This is a wonderful read and a great introduction to what promises to be a fascinating series.  

Bring on book two...I'm hooked!

Link:  http://wtfareyoureading.blogspot.com/2012/02/dont-sleep-on-awaken.html

And Another Friend lol 

My Review- The story in this book was absolutely amazing. There's not a person that doesn't wonder about what happens when we die. This story gives yet another perspective on that question. It mixes up some of our long held beliefs about mythical creatures also. The story of Lucy and what happens when a drunk driver takes her life is one of the best I've read in a long time. I laughed and even cried at several points in the book. I would absolutely recommend this book and I can not wait for the second book to find out what happens next!

momzunas.blogspot.com

Insure Your Love!

You have to see this!  Its so funny! 
http://insureyourlove.org/
Dont forget to check out the Romance-O-Meter! You will laugh your ass off!

Second Look Tuesday! Update

Ok so I know that I have been off the grid for a while now.  I haven't really posted anything.  Well here is an update!

So take a second look at my twitter stats and you will see it go up by a few people every few minutes.  I don't know why but I have gone from 301 followers to well over 400 followers in just two days.  So if this keeps going ill have more than a few hundred by the end of the week.  
Ok so Ill be posting a new giveaway for signed and unsigned bookmarks.  Im cleaning out my drawers and found a bunch of bookmarks that I have copies of.  
I will also be giving away my ARC of Embrace.  (yes its in print) and Ill be giving it away to one lucky follower.  
As well as some other books that I have laying around

!!So for the update!! 


So I am still on the crutches.  My ankle is getting stronger every day and then I walk on it and it starts to hurt again.  I am hoping to be mobile again by the end of Feb. Or it will be back to the ER for me. 
My daughter's legs look wonderful!! Her burns are healing way fast.  She has an appointment with the burn clinic this week so well see how that goes. 
Im attempting to catch up on reviews.  So for right now unless your book is something big-ie. the next house of night novel, or something like that I won't be reviewing any books right now.  

Ereader Wars! What Reader is best for me?

So this past year we have heard of the EWar!  


Get a kindle and read in the sunlight! 

Get an IPad and get tons of features at the touch of a finger.  

Then you have the nook or BAM Reader the Sony reader, then you have Kobo and a few others.  

With all the hoopla around all the kinds of ereaders which one is the best one?

Well for me that was the ipad.  I use books from both kindle and ibooks which are Mobi and Epub.  I also use PDF sometimes.  And the ipad is the only thing that lets you use all three. 

Im not crazy enough to take my reader to the beach or anywhere near where it can get wet.  Like the side of the pool as in the kindle add that has been running.  

So here is a break down if you are trying to figure out what you want to get.  

First off Kindle

McDonald's Coffe is WAY TO HOT!!

So sorry guys for not being on for a few days.  As I will not be on for a few more days as well.  My daughter was burned with McDonald's coffee.  She was taken to the Bartow Hosital and then transferred to Tampa General.  We were told that she has 2nd degree burns on both thighs.  
We found out that the coffee from McDonalds is around 205 degrees.  Which if you ask me is way to hot to handle. 

The Sounding

The Sounding

By Carrie Salo

Book Description:

In the Book of Revelation, a man named John has a prophetic dream.  He dreams of the final prophecies that will come to pass – and the seven archangels that guard them.  Each angel waits to sound their trumpet at God’s appointed time, preparing humanity to fight and win the final battle.

2,000 years later, Father Chris Mognahan is a member of the Hetairia Melchizedek, a secret society within the Catholic Church that studies Biblical omens. The society asks Chris to investigate an unusually grotesque crime – a murder on a college campus where the killer's hand literally burned off the victim's face.

While the killing seems isolated at first, the society ties the murder to the final Biblical prophecy and a terrifying omen that the order of the prophecies is about to be disrupted. The final battle is coming too soon – long before humanity is prepared to win it.

Suddenly, Chris finds himself fighting against time and hell to keep the prophecies in order and stop an early Armageddon. He is joined by a band of unlikely allies, and together they find themselves in Rome above the Vatican Necropolis – the city of the dead – where the future is revealed to them in ancient texts.

They are not alone, however; an evil as old as time itself hunts them. As they travel across continents on their mission, the demonic force follows relentlessly, waiting in every shadowed corner, and every dark place.

As Armageddon descends, Father Chris finds that his only hope lies in a young woman within the group who has a secret gift – and their belief that God Himself may have sent her to keep the final angelic trumpet from sounding out the early end of the Earth.

Available at Amazon print, Kindle and Barnes and Noble

View the book trailer: http://youtu.be/K4Pp8F3A298   
Excerpt One

Lorenze strapped his uniform on, knowing where every clasp and buckle fell exactly.  Still, something about it felt foreign: he had not worn it in several days.  Several very, very long days. 

The red, blue and yellow stripes that Michelangelo designed for the guard centuries earlier: many men fell under those colors.  He knew their names by heart.  And he promised to join them if called to…

…Lorenze propelled himself to the other side of the room where the society had left a small stockpile of weapons.  He pulled out the sniper’s rifle case and its box of bullets.  With hard clicks, he opened the case to see that all was in order.  The parts gleamed and winked at him in the light like so many eyes. 

More gently, Lorenze lifted the sight from the case. It was heavy to his hand.  He put it to his eye and some miniscule scratch in the floor became like a canyon. 

Thou shalt not kill.  Lorenze smirked and put the sight down.  Thou shalt not kill unless God asks you to. Thou shalt not kill unless God needs you to.

Lorenze closed the case.  He surveyed the room, looked again at the uniform.  He only had a few minutes left.  He knelt to pray. 

But what was there to pray for?  Should he pray for their lives, for their safety?  Could he ask that God grant them success on a murder mission?  Should he pray for time or protection, or just for the world not to die?

In the end with his last few minutes, Lorenze prayed for the soul of another assassin.  One who also betrayed innocence for the greater good.  Remiel had, after all, been right – they were in common with a certain other fallen disciple.  And so, with his eyes squeezed shut,Lorenze prayed for mercy for Judas Iscariot.  For if Judas – that tool of fate led to betray history’s most innocent man – was able to find God’s forgiveness, perhaps so might he.

 Excerpt Two

Clyde’s features were hardly distinguishable from his forehead down.  There was some fragmented cartilage where his nose had once been, and one eye was still intact, although the eyelid had been missing.  His cheekbone on the right side was gone, leaving the loose and shredded skin to fill in the sunken mess.  The left cheekbone was bared, along with parts of his chin.

But the fingers…now they were distinguishable.  Not Clyde’s of course, but rather the fingers of the person who hit him.

There were five visible areas of flesh damage – the first four were each the width and length of a finger beginning on the left hand side of his face and smearing across and down to the right.  They looked like dark canals, jagged and full of black, dried blood, giving the mutilated face a striped look.  The fifth and last “area of impact” was at his mouth – a shorter and smaller laceration the size of someone’s pinky – where Clyde’s lips had been removed.

“What about DNA?  I mean, if someone hit him that hard, isn’t there anything from them…in there?  Chris asked in a whisper.

“Nah.  See where the,” the sheriff cleared his throat, “the impact lines are?  You see them there in the picture? The forensic people couldn’t get anything from them. ‘Parently they’re burned in – not just cut.  They were too damaged to carry any sort of identifiable…um…fibers.”

“Burned?” Chris asked the question for both he and Francis.

“Yeah, that’s not all just dried blood there.”

Chris had suddenly envisioned the black, flaky skin of barbecued chicken left on the grill too long.

 Bio:

Carrie Salo is a dark storyteller and emerging author of supernatural thrillers.  Classically trained at an Ivy League university, she studied the works of master storytellers seven stories underground in the muffled heart of one of the world's largest libraries.  Carrie looks to wield unrelenting suspense in her own exploration of all things (especially true things) that keep us awake at night.  Her extensive travels have led her to many haunted places, including the private, underground catacombs of the Vatican.  The Sounding is her debut novel. 

Visit her at: www.carriesalo.com

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarrieSalo

Manic Monday!!

OK so when my mother went to get the mail today I didn't think this would be in there! 

YES that is non other than a PRINT PRINT PRINT COPY of 

Coming out this March!!!

I am also on the Massive Review Post for this book set for March 1st You can still sign up! 

And Ebooks will be provided!

Click the banner below to join

Review : Everneath

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ok so the only thing I didn't like about this book was that it was WAY SLOW. So I'm docing one star for that. Other than that I thought the book was wonderful. It give a fresh new story to the old myths of our time. Below are some of the parts I loved best.

Page 83 "I'd like you to ask yourself, who loses hope first? And who never gives up? Because its not the supernatural abilities that set mythical characters apart." She leaned forward. "Its the decisions the human characters make, in impossible situations, that have us still talking about them centuries later. Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with."

Page 100 "Sometimes a week felt like a day, and sometimes a minute felt like an eternity"







View all my reviews

Parks and Jessica Don't Mix!

So the above pictures are of my left ankle 4 days after I sprained it at the park.  Doesn't it look pretty?  I so thought I broke it that day. 
And there is a wonderful video of when I was in the ER before it went purple.  
I think I need to be put in a padded room with books.  That way I can't get hurt and I'll have no distractions but reading.  
 

The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games Author: Suzanne Collins Pages: 384 Publisher: Scholastic Press  Rating: 5 Stars Ages: 12 and up

About the book: In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.



My Review: 
OK so I read this book for my book club and I have to say that I LOVED IT!!  I can't wait for the movie and we are now reading the rest of the books!  
This book ended at a great point to start the next book as it didn't end at a high point in the book and didn't leave you hanging to much. 

Embrace Massive Review Post! March 1st

On March 1st we will be posting a massive link list of this upcoming book!  

Author Site

About The Book:

"My girl, "
Happy 17th birthday. I wish I could be there with you, but I think if you ar reading this...I am not. For that, I am sorry. The day your dad and I found out we were going to have a baby was the happiest day of my long life. I know the only day that will exceed that joy will be the day you are born - no matter how that day ends.
A big decision lies ahead. The burden of the covenant is a heavy one to bear. Choose with your heart, for I already know that you, my girl, must let your heart guide the way.
"I love you. Please forgive me."
"Mom"
Discover more at "embracetheseries.com"

So Join us then for this amazing post!  
I will be adding a contest to win a free Kindle Copy of this book! 
The Contest is open to EVERYONE!  

Pre-Order Embrace NOW!

Embrace Cover Shoot from Sourcebooks Inc on Vimeo.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Embrace!

I am so happy I found this reveal cover for the first book in the Embrace series by Jessica Shirvington! Isn’t it beautiful!!!  I love the way they use the purple and hint to the main character’s name Violet Eden. Her “wings are done so differently from other books of its kind , I can’t help but love everything about this cover and I can’t wait to share my review of this spectacular book.

I found online this video of how they made the cover for you to enjoy!

Read more: http://www.theresabook.com/2011/12/cover-reveal-embrace-by-jessica-shirvington/#ixzz1jB55VPLM

Embrace Cover Shoot from Sourcebooks Inc on Vimeo.

I want to let you know that my tour/reader sites will be doing a mass review of this book that will post MARCH 1st!  So join us here at the Hollow Tours and the Hollow Readers >Links on the side bar for our massive review March 1, 2012!

Incarnate by: Jodi Meadows

Title: Incarnate 

Author: Jodi Meadows

Publication: January 31, 2012

Rating: 5 Stars

Links: 
Author Site
Live Journal
Facebook

About the Book:

NEWSOUL 

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.  

NOSOUL 

Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?  

HEART 

Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies--human and creature alike--let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?  

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

My Review: 
What if when you died you were reborn? What if when you were reborn you would remember everything from every other time you lived?  


Well this is the world that Ana is born into but unlike the rest of the population she is NEW!  


This book was wonderful! I loved it.  The only thing I wish that would have been added was more.  I know that on goodreads it says that this is NewSoul #1 so I'm so happy that I get to read more of Ana and Sam.   


So since I cannot quote directly from the book since it is an advanced copy! So here is something else.  


In this world it seems that even after everyone has lived for thousands of years that they are still afraid of the unknown.  I think that after they had been alive for so long that some of them might get tired of being reborn over and over.  Having to deal with the hardships of living.  The other thing is it seems that they have gotten past the simple gender issues that in our world it seems we may never get over.  
In their world where you are reborn over and over any sometimes you are male and sometimes female.  It goes that gender doesn't mean the same things that it does in our society. 


All in all the only issue I had with this book was there are a TON of questions that have been left unanswered. I hope that those are brought up in the next book.  

Vesper by: Jeff Sampson

click to buy from Amazon

Title: Vesper
Author: Jeff Sampson
Pages: 320
Publication: December 27, 2011

Publisher: Balzer + Bray an imprint of HarperCollins

Rating: 5 stars

Links

Author Site

About the Book:

Emily Webb is a geek. And she’s happy that way. Content hiding under hoodies and curling up to watch old horror flicks, she’s never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for midnight parties. And she’s definitely not the kind of girl who starts fights or flirts with other girls’ boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that . . . the same night one of her classmates—also named Emily—is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn’t know why she’s doing any of this. By day, she’s the same old boring Emily, but by night, she turns into a thrill seeker. With every nightfall, Emily gets wilder until it’s no longer just her personality that changes. Her body can do things it never could before: Emily is now strong, fast, and utterly fearless. And soon Emily realizes that she’s not just coming out of her shell . . . there’s something much bigger going on. Is she bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely—something not human?

As Emily hunts for answers, she finds out that she’s not the only one this is happening to—some of her classmates are changing as well. Who is turning these teens into monsters—and how many people will they kill to get what they want?

› Visit Amazon's Jeff Sampson Page

Biography

My name's Jeff. By day I'm a young adult author. By night, I'm a pop culture fiend. Read more about me and my books--including brand new release Vesper: A Deviants Novel--at jeffsampsonbooks.com.

My Review:








Vesper is the first of a three book series called Deviants.  This is Jeff Sampson's first YA series and he doesn't disappoint! This book involves everything I love in a good book: paranormal,a quick read, and  a surprising plot, and wonderful geeky characters.
Below is some of the quotes I just loved.
Page 170- "you know how beer smells? sort of like cat pee by way of a ready, boozy stench? combine that with a terrible bitter taste that lingers on the tongue, and a warm frothy bubbliness like a can of cola that's been left open int he sun for three weeks, and you can imagine maybe a fraction of the nastiness."
Page 194- :Lesson for the day, kids: Hangovers are real, and they re the opposite of fun."
I loved both of those and they made me laugh for so long!  This book was amazing and I can't wait for the next installment coming Jan. 24th!