Tuesday 31 May 2016

Release Day Blitz: Our Song - Ashley Bodette


I don't normally participate in release day blitz things but for Our Song I made an exception. Drawn in by both the pretty colors of the cover and the ominous sounding blurb this is one book I'm looking forward to reading. Look out for a review coming soon!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30048228-our-song

Our Song - Ashley Bodette
Publisher - From The Ashes Press
Release Date - May 31 2016
Find - Goodreads

Becca:

I broke up with Trip four months ago. But with the exception of my parents, I haven’t told anyone why. Not my friends, not my little sister, not even Asher.

Asher:


I’ve been missing my best friend every day for the last nine months. Even though Becca broke up with Trip months ago, she’s still been distant, even when we’re in the same room.

Trip:


She thinks she can break up with me and then go on a “family” vacation with him? I’m going to prove to both of them that she never should have left me.










About The Author



Ashley Bodette is a soon-to-be MA publishing graduate from Kingston University London. She started her venture into the book world as a book blogger, never imagining that one day she'd write a book. Now, you couldn't stop her from writing if you tried.
Along with writing and providing editing and other author services, you also might find Ashley crocheting, watching British television shows on Netflix, playing piano, singing around the house, or, of course, curled up with a good book.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest | Tumblr | Instagram | LinkedIn | Google + | Wattpad

Top Ten Tuesday #111 - Books That Are On Holiday With Me Right Now...


Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the fabulous girls cover at The Broke & The Bookish. This week's topic is -

Books That Are Holiday With Me Right Now...

Provided that the petrol situation in France hasn't derailed our plans, no pun intended but we are going via the Eurotunnel, these are the books that made it on to my holiday reading list. Hopefully I'm relaxing by a beautiful blue sea, eating some good food and drinking some fabulous French wine...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30070615-alfie-bloom-and-the-talisman-thief#

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26236443-a-gathering-of-shadows#

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28218622-twisted

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29848950-you-know-me-well#

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10194157-shadow-and-bone

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26889459-the-woman-in-cabin-10#

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29243123-the-madwoman-upstairs

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27154693-mystery-mayhem

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114545-too-like-the-lightning

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Waiting On Wednesday #160 - Miranda & Caliban

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -


Miranda And Caliban - Jacqueline Carey
ISBN - 9780765386793
Publisher - Tor Books
Release date - February 14 2017

In William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the action of the entire play unfolds over the course of a single day. But what happened on the island in the twelve years leading up to that day? Why does the magician Prospero keep his daughter Miranda ignorant of her history? Why does he take the supposedly monstrous Caliban under his wing?

Miranda is a lonely child. For as long as she can remember, she and her father have lived in isolation in the abandoned Moorish palace. There are chickens and goats, and a terrible wailing spirit trapped in a pine tree, but the elusive wild boy who spies on her from the crumbling walls and leaves gifts on their doorstep is the isle’s only other human inhabitant. There are other memories, too: vague, dream-like memories of another time and another place. There are questions that Miranda dare not ask her stern and controlling father, who guards his secrets with zealous care: Who am I? Where did I come from? The wild boy Caliban is a lonely child, too; an orphan left to fend for himself at an early age, all language lost to him. When Caliban is summoned and bound into captivity by Miranda’s father as part of a grand experiment, he rages against his confinement; and yet he hungers for kindness and love. This darkly re-imagined vision of Shakespeare’s beloved tale is told in their voices and is rife with issues of power and control, innocence and sexuality. Lovers of the fantastic, the classic, and beautiful writing will fall in love with Carey’s imaginative retelling.


New Jacqueline Carey! And a Tempest retelling at that! I cannot wait, I absolutely love Carey's writing especially in her Kushiel series so this should be a positive feast. Out on February 14 2017 it will be a nice Valentine present to myself!

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Top Ten Tuesday #110 - Books I Love Even More Now!


Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the fabulous girls cover at The Broke & The Bookish. This week's topic is -

Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed

Wow, I hadn't realised I hadn't done a TTT post for quite so long! Ooops? Anyway, here are the books that I love more now than when I originally read them. I'm pretty sure most of them, if not all, will be familiar to long-time readers...


The Court Of The Midnight King
The Dark Is Rising Sequence
Fly By Night
I Capture The Castle
The Little Country
The Raven Boys 


The Owl Service
The Raven Boys
When Marnie Was There
The Wood Wife










Monday 23 May 2016

Bookmarked... #19


The return of the (mostly) weekly post letting you all know what I'm reading and have lined up for the week! It's my own version of Sheila at Book Journey's It's Monday What Are You Reading (now hosted by Kathryn at Book Date) and I have her permission to rename it for my own nefarious reasons...

I have lost track of what I've read or what I've stuck bookmarks in since my last Bookmarked... post so I'm just going to start afresh and let you know what I've read over the last week and what I may or may not start reading this week!

Click on the covers to check out the relevant Goodreads pages!

Finished

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18633327-eligible

Those of you who follow me on Goodreads will know of my strong dislike of the Austen Project by The Borough Press. Having read and hated strongly disliked two of the previous three instalments I swore I wouldn't read any more but it's Curtis Sittenfeld, it's Pride & Prejudice and if you haven't read Prep, go do so now...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23848124-a-wild-swan

Finally read another fairy tale retelling that counts towards my fairy tale challenge (which I should probably give up on, I'm so far behind!) A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham is a gem of a book, most definitely for adults - these retellings are not pretty - and beautifully written by Cunningham and beautifully illustrated by Yuko Shimizu.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29545599-the-house-of-smoke

I've read a couple of books by Sam Christer, enough to know that his books are my go-to for when I want something thriller-ish but easy to read. As soon as I saw he was delving into the world of Sherlock Holmes this was a must-read and I absolutely loved it! I'm honestly hoping this was the first in a series because that ending was so open!

Currently Reading

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24684097-alfie-bloom-and-the-secrets-of-hexbridge-castle

This is a re-read as I'm on the blog tour for the second book, Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief in June. If you like middle grade fiction this is definitely worth checking out, great writing and Alfie is a fantastic character!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23346539-the-changeling

A YA novel about fairies and a teenager developing strange magical powers, halfway through this and loving it!

Monday 16 May 2016

Bout Of Books 16 Updates


Welcome to my Bout of Books 16 update post! Rather than have lots of small daily posts I shall just update this one every day with my progress (or lack of) and any challenges I may do.

Goals

  • Read at least 7 books over 7 days
  • Participate in social stuff - Twitter, commenting etc.
Progress Report

Day 1

I am so behind with everything in real life just now that reading and blogging seems to have taken a back seat. I managed to read a fabulous middle grade book today, The Windvale Sprites by Mackenzie Crook - yes, that Mackenzie Crook, the actor from The Detectorists etc. No socializing though and still haven't done the 'introduce yourself in six words' thing.

Today's Read(s): The Windvale Sprites - Mackenzie Crook
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Number of pages I’ve read today: 203
Total number of books read: 1
Total number of pages read: 203

Day 2

Today was a day of frustration, Blogger wasn't working properly and of course it was my stop on a blog tour so I was not in the best of moods. I also had the opticians, eye test and choosing prescription sunglasses ready pour mes vacances en France at the end of the month!


Today's Read(s): The Girl With A Clock For A Heart - Peter Swanson
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Number of pages I’ve read today: 333
Total number of books read: 2
Total number of pages read: 536


Day 3

I wasn't well today so the thought of doing anything but going to bed after finishing work was not appealing. I was only briefly online to try and sort out a blog post which hadn't posted thanks to Blogger and that was it! As for reading I decided to pick up possibly the biggest, heaviest book on my TBR pile and read about 100 pages.

Today's Read(s): Aeronaut's Windlass - Jim Butcher
Number of books I’ve read today: 0
Number of pages I’ve read today: 105
Total number of books read: 2
Total number of pages read: 1625


Day 4

Much improved but still not 100% so curled up in bed for most of the day. Aeronaut's Windlass was just too heavy to keep reading in bed so I picked up a psychological thriller by Carol Goodman and devoured the whole thing!

Today's Read(s): River Road - Carol Goodman
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Number of pages I’ve read today: 360
Total number of books read: 3
Total number of pages read: 1985


Day 5

Ill again but not too ill that I couldn't read, curled up in bed most of the day with a stack of library books. I started about five different books and eventually kept going with The Edge Of Nowhere by Elizabeth George.

Today's Read(s): The Edge Of Nowhere - Elizabeth George
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Number of pages I’ve read today: 496
Total number of books read: 4
Total number of pages read: 2481

 

Day 6

Today's Read(s): Daddy Dearest - Paul Southern
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Number of pages I’ve read today: 245
Total number of books read: 5
Total number of pages read: 2726


Day 7

Today's Read(s):  Reckless - Cornelia Funke
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Number of pages I’ve read today: 344
Total number of books read: 6
Total number of pages read:
3070 

Friday 13 May 2016

May New Release Giveaway!


Welcome to the May 2016 New Release Giveaway Hop, hosted by It Starts At Midnight! The hop runs from today through to midnight on May 31 2016. Up for grabs is any new release this month up to the value of $22 from the Book Depository as long as they deliver to your country - find the list of countries here

All you have to do is choose any new release published in May and fill out the rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the linky for lots of other chances to win, thanks for entering and good luck!

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Waiting On Wednesday #159 - The Bone Witch

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -


The Bone Witch - Rin Chupeco
ISBN - 9781492635826
Publisher - Sourcebooks Fire
Release date - March 1 2017

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.

In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha - one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles… and make a powerful choice.


I stumbled across this on someone's Waiting On Wednesday post last week, I think, and loved the sound of it. I have The Girl From The Well by the same author somewhere on my TBR pile so must find it and read it! My only complaint is that release date... 2017?!?

Tuesday 10 May 2016

Review & Giveaway (INT) - The Inventory: Iron Fist - Andy Briggs


The Rules:

If you find a secret inventory of utterly deadly battle tech. 1) Do not try it. 2) Do not tell anyone. 3) Do NOT let thieves in behind you. 

What’s more secret than top-secret? The Inventory. Home to the deadliest inventions the world isn’t ready for. Invisible camouflage. HoverBoots. Indestructible metals. Plus a giant creature of chaos: war robot Iron Fist. No one has ever broken past the state-of-the-art AI security system. (Seriously, most bad guys have no idea this stuff is even there.) Problem 1: the security robot wasn’t ready for a gang of kids wandering in. Problem 2: they’ve ONLY brought the ruthless Shadow Helix gang in behind them. Seriously dumb, but it’s a bit late for ‘sorry’. Say hello to trouble: the Iron Fist is in the wrong hands!

The Inventory: Iron Fist is the first in a new middle grade series from author Andy Briggs. It's a thriller/mystery featuring Devon, or Dev as he prefers to be called, his uncle Charles, two children from his school and a robot called Eema. The Inventory is a giant underground storage area where all the technology in the world is kept if it's deemed unsafe for the public to use and/or know about it. The Iron Fist is one such piece of tech and must be guarded at all times. When Lot and Mason, children from Dev's school show up one day you just know that something is about to go wrong...

The Collector is a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to get hold of the Iron Fist and most of the other tech stored in the Inventory. How he knows of its existence is a mystery but he does and what he wants he gets, by any means necessary. Dev is the odd one out at school, known as a nerd and the shy one so he's suspicious when Lot shows up at the farm one day wanting to spend time with him. She's triggered the exceedingly sensitive security system so when Dev goes out to meet her he is even more suspicious to find Mason hiding in one of the barns.  Mason is not his friend, in any shape or form, so why is he there and just how did he get in without triggering security?

The Inventory: Iron Fist is an amazing adventure, there's never a dull moment and I absolutely loved reading about all the tech, both real and imagined. The characters were great and although is the main character I think my favorite was Lot. She took no rubbish from either of the boys and was fantastic in the view that, thanks to her dad, she knew how to fly (sort of) and wasn't afraid of anything. I love reading about female characters, especially the younger ones, who know what they want and also know that they're just as good as the boys. The best way of summing up The Inventory: Iron Fist? Think of it as a middle grade book version of Warehouse 13, one of my favorite television shows, so there was no risk of me not enjoying Iron Fist! I cannot wait to read more about Dev, Lot & Mason, especially after that ending but if you want to find out if they defeated the Collector you're going to have to read Iron Fist yourselves. 

 
Giveaway

- One copy of The Inventory: Iron Fist by Andy Briggs. If you live in the UK or Ireland your prize will be sent by the publisher. If you live outside the UK and Ireland I'll send your copy via Book Depository provided they ship to your country, check here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tour Schedule





Guest Post: Fictional Inspirations - Andy Briggs


 
BEST BOOKISH OR FICTIONAL INSPIRATIONS

When I was asked to write a blog on my fictional inspirations, my brain somersaulted into what a feared was an infinite loop which would result in a single answer: everything. But then I took a step back from the question and, while writing the second book in THE INVENTORY series, I started to wonder exactly what inspired me…

First, the whole notion of my new series, THE INVENTORY: IRON FIST, was inspired by comic books. More specifically, the adverts at the back of old comics that used to promise x-ray specs, hypnotic hats and gloves that let you clamber up walls. It was all very inspiring, even if the final product that arrived at your door was, basically, rubbish.

The comics themselves were a huge inspiration. Dashing characters doing impossible things was always an attraction to me. Plus, being a reluctant reader, they really pushed me forward so rapidly that I started craving books.

Then the books came thick and fast, from The Hobbit through to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Tarzan. From The Lost World to my huge collection of Fighting Fantasy (Deathtrap Dungeon being my favourite) and Choose Your Own Adventure books. The pattern, in retrospect, was one of adventure, escapism and “what if…?”

The Hobbit showed me that entire worlds could be constructed on the page, populated by incredible creatures that had their own languages and customs. It was all a far cry from my childhood town of Liverpool.

While I could escape to other lands with Tolkien, it was Chocolate Factory that taught me adventure and magic could be found in the centre of a dull industrial town, which is something I could relate to.

While lessons in school focused on what we know, it was the book, The Lost World, written by Sherlock’s Arthur Conan Doyle, that opened my eyes to the fact that there are still things in the world that we don’t know about. Even now parts of the Amazon remain unexplored and there are swathes of ocean we have never ventured into; and new species are being discovered every year. This book inspired me so much that, as soon as I was able, I started travelling the world as much as possible (even going to the same location that inspired Doyle to write the book). It was while I was in the Amazon jungle that I was further inspired to create a story called Legendary, which I later wrote and produced as a feature film. That was something I never thought I would do while reading the book in school.

One book that stopped me in my tracks was The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of Douglas Adams’ amazing series. It taught me that ideas could be wacky and still be compelling reading. For me, this went beyond creating mere fantasy realms, but entire universes with infinite probabilities that anything could happen. And that you could also be funny at the same time.

Looking back on these inspirations, it’s no surprise that my own stories tend to combine travelling the world with some sort of adventure and puzzle. However, even as I write this, this most surprising thing of all is that the 11 year old me – reading all those books – didn’t have an inkling of where they would take me. That is the true power of a book, they don’t just change your view of the world. They make you want to go out there and want to change things yourself.

Andy Briggs is a screenwriter, producer and author of the Hero.com, Villain.net and Tarzan series. Andy has worked on film development for Paramount and Warner Bros, as well as working with Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee and producer Robert Evans. With a strong social media following, Andy tours the UK regularly, doing festival, school and library events.







Look out for my review and a giveaway of The Inventory: Iron Fist coming later this morning!


Sunday 8 May 2016

Bout of Books 16


It's that time again!!! Bout of Books 16 starts tomorrow and I'm signing up for my tenth (I think, I've completely lost track) attempt. If all goes to plan BoB 16 should be a blast! Join in here... Hopefully this signup post post will appear as scheduled otherwise I won't be signed up!


 
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