Mini Reviews + Giveaway: Masquerade and Friendship on Fire

MASQUERADE (Heven and Hell #1)
Cambria Hebert
Paranormal Young Adult
360 pages
Otherworld Publications
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Before. Everything was so much better Before. I wasn’t haunted by nightmares, my place at school was secure and my face was flawless. Now, I’m a freak and everything has changed. The worst part is that I can’t remember the night I was sentenced to the shadows. The memory has been stolen from me and I just can’t shake the feeling that someone, something is out there -watching.

Just when I think I have my life handled, Sam, with his intimidating golden stare and shiver inducing voice, makes me realize that I don’t know anything. He makes me see that my scars don’t matter. That they never mattered. I can’t help but fall for him, completely unknowing that he knows exactly how I got this way. Not knowing he was involved.

***

Heven has no idea how closely death stalks her. She has no idea what I have done to keep her alive. I fear the day she learns my secrets, finds out what I really am. But even then I cannot stop, I vow to make things right. Finally her hunter will be hunted, Heaven and Hell, faith and sin will battle, and we will be victorious. But first, Heven must learn to be what she never imagined. I know her strength is there – I feel it. If we are to overcome all odds, she must push past her flaws - her frailties - to become much more.

MY THOUGHTS
Brimming with darkness and passion, Masquerade provides us with a intriguing combination of normal and paranormal, providing us the opportunity to closely examine the emotional complexities of a disfigured young woman while also unfolding before our eyes a supernatural mystery featuring blissfully underutilized supernatural entities. Due to the relative newness of these beings, we have an intense desire to know as much about them as possible, but sadly, the mythology is left fairly incomplete in this first installment with only a snippet here and there mentioning their history and how they came to exist alongside human beings. We know little of their traits and abilities other than the bare necessities to understand a certain character’s physical transformations, so we can't help but spend much of our time wishing for a touch less of the sweet lightness of the romance and a bit more of the alluring darkness of the unknown.

While Masquerade is certainly well-written and weaves a complicated and layered tale, heroine Heven is a difficult young woman to really connect with though we certainly sympathize with her circumstances. She suffers from extremely low self-esteem as a result of the brutal scars marring her otherwise stunning face, and while Sam’s affections do build her confidence, she remains throughout a girl who needs a boy in her life and has trouble fully functioning without him. Both she and Sam enter into a mutually co-dependent relationship, constantly needing to be together at every turn in order to feel at peace to the extent that they become the sole focus of each other’s existence, defined by the other person rather than by themselves.

Overall, Ms. Hebert has created the foundation for a potentially fascinating world, and toward the end prepares us for a rather epic journey to begin in the sequel, but I'm hoping we get a little more independence from both Sam and Heven as they set forth on their quest.

Rating: 3/5


FRIENDSHIP ON FIRE
Danielle Weiler
Contemporary Young Adult
488 pages
Sid Harta Publishers
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)
The first few days of year 12 are disastrous for school captain Daisy Brooks. But Daisy’s life takes a sudden turn when she is dared by Skye, the leader of the Blonde Brigade, to meet the mysterious, drop-dead gorgeous stranger, Nate, from rival school Addison Grammar. Daisy’s instant attraction to him disrupts her world. But what about her best friend Roman? How will he respond to this intruder? Daisy is a vulnerable, yet fiery girl going through the chaotic phase between teenage and adulthood. She is about to discover the complexities of relationships, the etiquette of friendship and, most of all, her development as a woman. Is it too late for Daisy to realise that the choices she makes shapes who she is and who she will become?

MY THOUGHTS
Friendship on Fire is a bit of a meandering tale, forcing us to take a long and winding path to reach our final destination rather than a shorter, more direct route, and often losing our attention at times as a result. We can see fairly early on where the story is ultimately heading–a story of friendship and first love and the evolving nature of the two–and while we’re thoroughly excited to dive in and begin our journey with Daisy, that excitement quickly wanes in the face of pages and pages of her day-to-day activities and the general minutiae of her life. It’s almost like we readers are on a merry-go-round–we’re able to spot something of interest between Roman and Daisy quickly, but before we can reach out and grab it for closer study, we’re whipped around in yet another circle and and continue to rotate gradually until we complete the revolution and are granted the opportunity to try and reach out one more time.

After we make our way through the extremely slow buildup of Daisy’s relationship with Nate and find ourselves about halfway through, things start to pick up and the emotions begin to feel far more real than the short temper flare-ups expressed by Daisy up to that point. Suddenly in the final 150 pages there’s a new layer of tension not bogged down by or hidden behind superfluous school events or soccer matches, instead the connection we’ve been waiting for begins to take form and we find ourselves invested in Daisy’s life. Overall, Friendship on Fire is a story that could have easily been told in well under 500 pages, but when Ms. Weiler does finally get down to the emotionally gritty parts of the story, she has a fully captivated audience in us as readers.

Rating: 3/5

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Ms. Weiler, I have a signed paperback copy of Friendship on Fire up for grabs on the blog today! To enter, please just leave a comment with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway is open to US residents only and will run through midnight EST on Sunday, March 25th after which time a winner will be chosen and emailed. Good luck everyone!

Review: Slide

SLIDE (Slide #1)
Jill Hathaway
Paranormal-ish Young Adult
256 pages
Balzer + Bray
Available March 27th
Received through Teen Book Scene for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

MY THOUGHTS
Slide is a story that draws us in quickly, making us feel vulnerable on a level rarely experienced while reading and binding us to Vee as we tread precariously through the strangeness of her life. Not only do we have the vulnerability we typically feel as passive observers to fictional action–stuck outside the pages with absolutely no ability to direct or alter what’s unfolding before us–but with Vee’s story that usual vulnerability is compounded by her ability to slide into the minds of others without effecting change while she’s there. Thus, we find ourselves observers of someone who’s an even more intimate observer of others, leaving us helpless not just on a single default level but on a far deeper level as well, and making the reading experience a kind of fascinating exercise in facing our own impotence.

Vee is a young woman whose gift superficially seems like it might be something we’d like to experience, but the more time we spend with her, the more her ability takes on a darker, almost sinister edge, turning us all into unintentional voyeurs invading the privacy of others without their consent. Her sliding also leaves her body starkly exposed, her mind unable to protect its physical form while occupied in the mind of another, and we therefore feel an intense need to protect her despite our deep-seated knowledge that we are unable to do so. Still, Vee’s safety–emotionally and physically–becomes important to us, and we envy the strength she possesses to deal with such unusual circumstances and the horrors she is sometimes subjected to as a result.

Though Vee is a heroine it’s extremely easy to root for and we are rapidly swept away into a world where seeing is not just believing but also experiencing, the overall feeling we are left with upon finishing is one of slight disappointment. Ms. Hathaway has written a gorgeously dark story with characters who have problems and pasts that keep us riveted to the pages, however, we are denied deeper, richer access to them. Reading this story is a bit like being children in a candy store–we want nothing more than to touch and taste everything within reach of our greedy fingers, but the firm hand of our parents restrains us, their authoritative voices reminding us we are to look only while fully indulging in nothing. There’s an intriguing relationship with Rollins of which we only get a brief flash, just as there is a great deal of pain and loss in Vee’s own past that we get a little snippet of when everything comes together at the end, but those tiny tastes, however delightful, make us feel the absence of something weightier all the more keenly.

Overall, Slide is a very quick and entertaining read, one that is done just well enough that we can’t help but want to immerse ourselves a little more thoroughly in the world and its characters, thereby causing the inability to do so to affect us more than it might in another book. Ms. Hathaway is certainly an author going on my “authors to keep track of” list, and I look forward to whatever she releases next.

Rating: 3.5/5

Guest Post: Augusta Blythe and Ravenstoke

Today I'm extremely pleased to have author Augusta Blythe take over the blog to talk to us a little bit about the characters from her young adult urban fantasy novels Winterborne and Ravenstoke. Welcome to Supernatural Snark Augusta!

On Plundering and Pillaging Other People or, in Simpler Terms, Character Inspiration

A friend recently emailed me after reading my latest book, Ravenstoke–“I can't help but play the who-is-this-character-based-on game." That comment definitely got me thinking about my characters from her perspective. She obviously saw some familiar folks lurking in the shadows of my characters. There was only one character I could think of that was a thinly veiled version of a person in my life. The character of Gran in Winterborne (Ravenstoke’s predecessor) was based on my own grandmother, who died in 2003. (As an aside, some reviews of Winterborne referenced the horrible and verbally abusive Gran and it made me laugh. Although the real Gran was quick with a tongue-lashing, her remarks were more entertaining than abusive.)

Well, Gran doesn’t make it into Ravenstoke so had I sucked the souls of people I know without realizing it? For the most part, Loie and Mia are their own people. There’s a little bit of me sprinkled into both characters. Otherwise, Loie is, in Winterborne anyway, a composite of all those awesome girls in the world with inexplicable self-esteem issues. The ones you want to throttle for not seeing how wonderful they are. New guy Cian was inspired by a blend of Darren Criss (Blaine from Glee), Flynn Rider from Tangled (sorry, but I have a 4-year-old daughter and I watch that movie a lot), and Hugh Grant’s smarmy character in the film version of Bridget’s Jones’s Diary. The character of Pippa (not Middleton) was inspired by a woman I read about in a home and garden magazine. And no, the actual woman did not keep a stockade of weapons in her secret cellar…that I know of. As for Mr. Winterborne, in one of the books I make reference to Orson Welles and that’s a true reflection of the inspiration. I picture him as this room-filling man, in spirit as much as size. His personality sucks all the energy out of the room and he feeds on it. He’s like a black hole. Secondary character Bethany Bright has a bit of Rachel from Glee in her, but without the Broadway aspirations and definitely without Lea Michele’s amazing voice.

That’s about it for plundering, pillaging, and inspiration. All the other characters are their own people. I guess I could ask my friend whom she had in mind, but I think her question is really a reflection of how and why we read in the first place. We like to get lost in a story, sure, but we also like to identify with or relate to one or more of the characters. As a result, we may see ourselves or other people we know in those characters and that’s simply the beauty of books.

Thanks so much for stopping by Augusta! More information on Augusta, Winterborne, and Ravenstoke can be found here:

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RAVENSTOKE

In Winterborne, Loie and Mia's seventeenth birthdays brought more drama and surprises than they ever expected. Now, in Ravenstoke, they are adjusting to the aftermath and struggling to keep those newfound powers in check. When Andreas is called away to England under mysterious circumstances, a new guy is sent to Salcey Ridge in his place. Cian is smarmy and cocksure and Loie wants nothing more than to unleash a hellhound on him. Unfortunately, Cian isn't the only complication in their lives as the girls must also contend with the reappearance of Mr. Winterborne himself and Loie's most dreaded fear of all - a part in the school musical. Can the girls survive the rest of junior year unscathed?

Review: Goddess Interrupted

GODDESS INTERRUPTED
(Goddess Test #2)
Aimee Carter
Paranormal Young Adult
304 pages
Harlequin Teen
Available March 27th
Received through NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Kate Winters has won immortality. But if she wants a life with Henry in the Underworld, she'll have to fight for it.

Becoming immortal wasn't supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she's as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he's becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate's coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.

As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.

Henry's first wife, Persephone.

MY THOUGHTS
A bit darker and fraught with more emotional intensity than its predecessor, Goddess Interrupted takes us beneath the surface both literally and figuratively as Kate descends to the Underworld after her absence over the summer and finds the progress she made with Henry before her departure lost behind his reinforced defensive shields. The tenuous thread of hope she mustered after he saved her life in the previous book quickly frays, the stark realization that she’s in a relationship with not only Henry, but also Henry’s long memory of Persephone as well, one that settles over all of us with a tangible weight that only increases in tonnage as she throws herself against his barriers again and again to no avail. We walk alongside Kate one lead foot after the other, wishing as she does for some flicker of love or approval from the ruler of the Underworld to help her navigate the monumental task of guiding the dead while she fights a Titan who can easily replace her immortality with mortality.

Kate is still the same young woman we met in the first book, her tendencies toward self-sacrifice in full swing as the Olympian gods face an ancient foe, but her vulnerabilities with regard to Henry are more apparent than ever. While we completely understand her insecurities when faced with Henry’s obvious love for Persephone and how his seeming lack of affection for her chips away at her confidence, the cyclical nature of her self-pity, then her resolve to embrace what she has instead of mourn what she doesn’t, and finally the deterioration of that resolve in the face of Henry’s detachment gets a bit tedious. Her anger and hurt are more than justified, Henry’s family’s pretty words and assurances that his love for her is real both empty and meaningless when any sign of their truth is hidden behind an impenetrable immortal mask, however her downward spiral into a repeated mantra of “I’ll always be second to Persephone” tries our patience as we flip the pages.

Like Kate, Henry is much the same character we met in The Goddess Test, a rather dark and brooding version of Hades who doesn’t reflect the explosive personality we might expect from the God of the Underworld. His brooding nature isn’t necessarily a bad thing by any means, but the lack of any emotional spark from him does make our connection to him rocky at best, and we long for the moment when the force of his personality will break through the block of ice in which Persephone’s betrayal encased him to give us a man we can reach out in touch instead of a god who slips right through our fingers. By the end, he does begin to slowly take form, solidifying ever-so-slightly to give us the barest hint of reality instead of smoke and mirrors, and that's enough to have us thoroughly anticipating the third installment in the hope we’ll see what we’ve up till now only caught the barest glimpses of.

The Greek mythology element was extraordinarily subtle in book one, but luckily for us it’s a bit more prominent in Goddess Interrupted, the immortal nature of Kate’s new family becoming more apparent as secrets are revealed thanks to a Persephone-shaped catalyst, opening our eyes a bit wider to Henry’s pain and giving both Kate and us an idea of just how different from us they truly are. Despite Kate’s continuous self-doubt and Henry’s emotional distance, the story itself is fast-paced and entertaining, though those who fear cliffhangers should brace themselves for a rather spectacular one at the end of this story. It does its job however, leaving us blinking rapidly in stupefaction that we’ve reached the last page and groaning aloud as we realize how long we must now wait for the next installment.

Rating: 3.5/5

Cover Critique: Itty Bitty

Let me preface this post by saying that my critiques of these covers are in no way, shape or form a reflection on the author, the content or the publisher. I know the authors have very little, if any, control over the design. These are strictly my thoughts meant simply to be humorous and not insulting.

I think I found something brilliant for you this week my friends. "Think" being the operative word here. I mean, it's entirely possible I've found something brilliant, but it's also entirely possible I didn't. I'm very complicated, I know. Clearly I need to explain the situation and this week's cover, so please bear with me through the following anecdote.

Yesterday I was perusing the internet in search of covers for today's post and stumbled upon a new publisher I'd yet to discover in all my previous cover WTF-ery expeditions. I can't tell you how excited I get when this happens. There before me was an enormous online catalog of potential eye-gouging and soul-searing imagery, and I couldn't wait to dive in and see what treasures awaited. But I was foiled. FOILED! It's as though the publisher knew I was visiting their site and wanted to prevent me from using one of their covers in my Friday feature. And they were very, very sneaky about it. Little did they know that my determination to find cover monstrosities knows no bounds.

I noticed as I was scanning their titles that the thumbnails were tiny. Obviously. That's the point of a thumbnail right? Right. However, theirs in particular seemed abnormally little, and I like to post rather large images of the covers so everyone can take in all the magnificently horrifying details. I wasn't worried though because underneath the thumbnail it said "click for larger image". Perfect. They've thought of everything! I will click for a larger image like no one has ever clicked before! So I did. And this is what came up:



Seriously. Blogger did not shrink my image, this is honestly their version of "larger". Given the publisher I was visiting seemed to publish romance/erotic novels, I have to say this does not bode well for what we're going to find in between the sheets (both paper and fabric) now does it? No. The poor heroes in these books are tragically stunted from the very get go with tiny, unimpressive, no more than inch-long, um, covers. How unsatisfying for all parties involved.

Now, I would like to play a game. A game where you all tell me what the hell I'm looking at because I have no idea. There's clearly at least one shirtless gentleman on there, but as for the rest, I haven't the first clue. Transparency layers are fun aren't they? I can almost hear the designer laughing as he or she adds image after image to this cover while changing the opacity of each layer until we get this monochromatic mess we can't decipher. Or enlarge apparently. Do I see abs on the right there? I think I do (I have an eye for these things people ;-). I have no idea if said abs belong to the nose and mouth up top though, it's all very confusing and jumbled.

Remember those Magic Eye posters? The ones where you basically had to cross your eyes while looking at them and wait until a 3-D image of dinosaurs or birds or deer or something popped out at you? I feel like this is one of those. Like it's testing me. Like I'm supposed to make something of the chaos and the cover is secretly laughing at me because I'm failing to do so. It's obviously taunting me with its distinct lack of clarity. YOU'LL NOT BEST ME TEENY TINY COVER! I WILL PREVAIL IN THE END!

Who else keeps repeatedly clicking on the above image in the misguided hope that one of the times you click it the cover will actually show up larger? *raises both hands* We can solve this puzzle together everyone, I know we can. Let's all just stare at it, share our theories in the comments, and take the mystery right out of this bad boy, what do you say? It cannot continue to mock us with its ambiguity, I'll not stand for it! I'M COMING FOR YOU A PRIVATE HUNGER, BE INTIMIDATED BY MY USE OF ALL CAPS!

Seriously though everyone. Help me.

Happy Friday!

Review: The Darkest Seduction

THE DARKEST SEDUCTION
(Lords of the Underworld #9)
Gena Showalter
Adult Paranormal Romance
504 pages
Harlequin
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Possessed by the demon of Promiscuity, immortal warrior Paris is irresistibly seductive-but his potent allure comes at a terrible price. Every night he must bed someone new, or weaken and die. And the woman he craves above all others is the one woman he'd thought was forever beyond his reach…until now.

Newly possessed by the demon of Wrath, Sienna Blackstone is racked by a ruthless need to punish those around her. Yet in Paris's arms, the vulnerable beauty finds soul-searing passion and incredible peace. Until a blood feud between ancient enemies heats up.

Will the battle against gods, angels and creatures of the night bind them eternally-or tear them apart?

MY THOUGHTS
Perhaps the most highly anticipated of the Lords of the Underworld series given the length of time we’ve followed Paris and Sienna’s tragic courtship, The Darkest Seduction doesn’t let us fans of the series down, the moments we’ve spent physically aching for them every time we've received small snippets of their lives in the other Lords’ books more than worth it as we get their full story in gloriously rich detail. We’ve had to watch Paris, previously full of life and charm and always quick with a laugh, lose a little piece of that light and charisma with each book, his guilt over his role in Sienna’s death and subsequent undeath starting out a small dark blot on his heart and spreading with each page read until darkness and vengeance have almost entirely consumed him. As a result, we find ourselves spending long minutes just staring at the image of Paris and Sienna on the cover, desperately wanting to crack the spine but also utterly apprehensive to do so knowing the journey to happiness for them will be long and painful.

Paris, Keeper of Promiscuity, leaps from the pages in the very first book in a deliciously sexy blaze of glory, seeming to revel in the needs of his demon while verbally sparring with his fellow Lords in a way that makes him an instant favorite, taking possession of our hearts as easily as he does all of those he seduces. As the series progresses however, we see small glimpses of the burden he bears as the Lord of Sex, the broken hearts, tears, curses, and pleas for more he leaves in his wake piling one atop the other to create a mountain of self-loathing and shame so great we want nothing more than to reach in and assure him his deeds done to satisfy his demon do not define him as a man. In this, finally his story at last, we experience his every emotion along with him, his desire to find and save Sienna in a way he wasn’t able to previously as well as his fear that Sex’s wants—separate but absolutely linked to his own–will inflict on her wounds deeper and more agonizing than the ones he’s already caused churning our guts as much as they do his.

Sienna is everything we could possibly want for Paris, a woman whose ability to forgive all his real and perceived sins acts as balm to his turbulent soul, granting him absolution and bestowing on him all the love he’s adamantly denied himself. Where she could condemn him for his inability to remain faithful, she offers only understanding, repeatedly putting his health and welfare above any jealousy the idea of his being with someone else brings forth, and proving to him again and again that the fragile trust they’re building is what’s most important to her. While Sienna’s infinite understanding of Paris’s need to sleep with someone else should they be parted for any length of time could have been frustrating–our own inability to overlook repeated infidelity, however necessary, preventing us from being as understanding as she is–Ms. Showalter spares us the torture and torment of cheating in this tale, instead giving us two characters who from the moment they come together on the pages show one another nothing but love and respect.

The Darkest Seduction, in addition to being a stunning fulfillment of a desire a long time coming, is also a crucial book with regard to the Lords’ ongoing battle with the Hunters and the search for Pandora’s Box, giving us a beautiful relationship as well as some incredibly profound developments that will hugely affect all the characters moving forward. Overall, this installment is one not to be missed, a true delight to read and one we can’t wait to flip back to the beginning and start all over again.

Rating: 4.5/5