The Orphan Choir - Sophie Hannah

Louise's seven year old son has been sent away to boarding school against her wishes, and she misses him desperately.

And her neighbor from hell is keeping her awake at night by playing loud, intrusive music.

So when the chance comes to move to the country, she jumps at it as a way of saving her sanity. Only it doesn't.

Because the music has followed her. Except this time, it's choral music sung by a choir of children only she can see and hear...

I picked up The Orphan Choir for two reasons, the fact that I loved Sophie Hannah's Spilling CID series ( the first few anyway,) and because I was intrigued by the new Hammer imprint. If you like horror it's pretty obvious you're going to check out Hammer books sooner or later! 

I'm not sure what Sophie Hannah intended with The Orphan Choir but I'm quite sure it wasn't complete and utter confusion, along with a healthy dose of disbelief. Louise and Stuart have a talented son who is lucky enough to be a chorister and boarder but Louise is not happy about this. She thinks her son is slowly being taken away from her but can't convince her husband of her worries. Added to this an ongoing feud with the next door neighbor who will insist on playing loud music at all times of the day and night and Louise is falling apart.

When a lifeline appears in the form of a second home in a secluded rural gated community Louise is off, trying to work out how she can stay there full-time and have her son with her. If something seems too good to be true though, it normally is and Swallowfield is where her life will change forever.

You might think, that as this is a Hammer novel, that it's full-on horror, scary and bloody but it's not. The Orphan Choir is a subtle horror, a ghost story, unsettling, more psychological than horrifying but there are parts that will stay with you for some time after reading. This is where the confusion comes in though as the vast majority of the story seemed to consist of the fight with the noisy neighbor, the battle to have Joseph come home on weekends and then all of a sudden it's the last twenty pages of the book and everything is happening. People are dropping huge hints that maybe everything isn't quite right, Louise is starting to figure out the origin of the mysterious choral singing and then, bam! It's all over... 

If you're a fan of Sophie Hannah's books then you'll like The Orphan Choir but if you're reading it for the horror and hopes of a good ghost story I would suggest you look elsewhere unfortunately.

The Orphan Choir - Sophie Hannah
ISBN - 9780099580027
Publisher - Hammer
Release date - October 10th, 2013
Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Lucas Mackenzie & the London Midnight Ghost Show by Steve Bryant

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

Lucas Mackenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show
by Steve Bryant

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Lucas Mackenzie has got the best job of any 10 year old boy. He travels from city-to-city as part of the London Midnight Ghost Show, scaring unsuspecting show-goers year round. Performing comes naturally to Lucas and the rest of the troupe, who’ve been doing it for as long as Lucas can remember.

But there’s something Lucas doesn’t know.

Like the rest of Luca’s friends, he’s dead. And for some reason, Lucas can’t remember his former life, his parents or friends. Did he go to school? Have a dog? Brothers and sisters?
If only he could recall his former life, maybe even reach out to his parents, haunt them.

When a ghost hunter determines to shut the show down, Lucas realizes the life he has might soon be over. And without a connection to his family, he will have nothing. There’s little time and Lucas has much to do. Can he win the love of Columbine, the show's enchanting fifteen-year-old mystic? Can he outwit the forces of life and death that thwart his efforts to find his family?

Keep the lights on! Lucas Mackenzie’s coming to town.

Title: Lucas Mackenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show
Publication date: November 18, 2014
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Steve Bryant

Steve Bryant is a new novelist, but a veteran author of books of card tricks. He founded a 40+ page monthly internet magazine for magicians containing news, reviews, magic tricks, humor, and fiction; and he frequently contributes biographical cover articles to the country’s two leading magic journals (his most recent article was about the séance at Hollywood’s Magic Castle).

Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

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(Winners will receive their book on release day)

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Review & Giveaway: My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal

My Last Kiss
by Bethany Neal
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: June 10th 2014

Synopsis:

What if your last kiss was with the wrong boy? 

Cassidy Haines remembers her first kiss vividly. It was on the old covered bridge the summer before her freshman year with her boyfriend of three years, Ethan Keys. But her last kiss--the one she shared with someone at her seventeenth birthday party the night she died--is a blur. Cassidy is trapped in the living world, not only mourning the loss of her human body, but left with the grim suspicion that her untimely death wasn't a suicide as everyone assumes. She can't remember anything from the weeks leading up to her birthday and she's worried that she may have betrayed her boyfriend. 

If Cassidy is to uncover the truth about that fateful night and make amends with the only boy she'll ever love, she must face her past and all the decisions she made--good and bad--that led to her last kiss.

Bethany Neal's suspenseful debut novel is about the power of first love and the haunting lies that threaten to tear it apart.

 I've just this minute finished My Last Kiss and I'm pretty sure I'm sitting here with my jaw dropping to the floor. I don't know what it is about YA mysteries with a twist, be it ghosts or something else, but I find them addictive to read and if there's a big showdown? I never guess whodunnit, never!

My Last Kiss is about Cassidy and her last kiss, Cassidy is dead but for some reason is sure her last kiss wasn't with her boyfriend of three years, Ethan. Realizing she's dead Cassidy becomes determined to find out what happened. Found in the icy river clutching a note the police write off her death as a suicide devastating friends & family alike. Cassidy doesn't accept this though, she's almost certain she didn't jump and luckily for her, one of her best friends Aimee is convinced that something sinister happened on that bridge too. She turns detective and starts questioning everyone who was at Cassidy's birthday party including Ethan and Caleb, the other 'love interest' in the story, who shouldn't have been at the party in the first place.

Cassidy, Aimee and Madison are best friends who share everything except for one thing. Cassidy, too ashamed to say that her parents are having marital trouble, turns to childhood friend Caleb, now a high school stoner after going through the same thing and starts spending more & more time with him instead of her beloved boyfriend Ethan. This is where all Cassidy's problems start! She knows something major happened on that bridge so she starts haunting her friends and to her amazement, Ethan can see her but just Ethan, the one person who, in Cassidy's mind, does not want to be 'haunted' by her. She gets hurt by the realization that everybody knows something about what happened, summed by these three lines (the only ones I highlighted in the whole book, apart from character names).

It seems everyone I know holds captive some piece of my past. I want them, no matter how much they'll hurt. They're mine and I deserve to hold them.

There are so many great things about My Last Kiss it's hard to know where to start. The characters were definitely one of my favorite things about the book. Apart from the core group of Cassidy, Aimee, Madison and Ethan there were also their inner circle of friends - Drew, Mica, Caleb - and Cassidy's family, Joules was the perfect little sister. She sounds far cooler than mine was at that age but shush, that's just between us...

I loved the way she moved between the present day and moments in her past, memories, that are all leading up to the last minutes on the bridge and just who was her last kiss. The moment of the great reveal? Well, I hadn't guessed beforehand so I was still stuck on the last person put forward as a serious contender for last kiss/murder so it was definitely not where I was expecting it to go. I loved that though, My Last Kiss was never predictable, it was fast paced and stylish, it held your attention and drew you into the story. There was humor, tension, romance and regret - everything you could ask for in a YA thriller. Although the heart of the story was a story about romance and just how wrong it can go the book as a whole was so much more, about the consequences of doing things that you don't want people to find out, how you really never do know everything about anybody and how you can grow as a person - even if you're a ghost ;)

One last thing to mention, you all need to get yourselves over to Tor's website to read Bethany's short story, Friends 'Til The End, which is suitably creepy, has a stunning 'cover' and is quite possibly one of my favorite short stories so far this year :) After reading both I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what Bethany writes next!

 

Follow the FFBC Played blog tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Bethany Neal writes young-adult novels with a little dark side and a lot of kissing! She is obsessed with (but not limited to): nail polish, ginormous rings, pigs, pickles, and dessert. 

You can find her locked in her Writertorium for insane amounts of time. But, hey, insanity is fun! My Last Kiss is her first novel.

Giveaway is open to US/CAN Only | Must be 13 or older to enter 

Win (1) signed hardback of My Last Kiss + a Swag Pack ( MLK Button, MLK Notebook, & Cassidy's watermelon lip gloss)

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Tour co-hosted by Bethany Neal and The Fantastic Flying Book Club

Waiting On Wednesday #73 - Bloody Mary Special!

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 a double bill of want! You wait forever for a book featuring Bloody Mary, quite possibly one of my favorite legends, and then two come along at once. One book is from the UK and the other is from the US, one is out in June and the other in September. I'll be getting both, purely for research purposes of course...

Say Her Name - James Dawson
ISBN - 9781471402449
Publisher - Hot Key Books
Expected release date - June 5th 2014
Find - Goodreads/Book Depository

'Roberta 'Bobbie' Rowe is not the kind of person who believes in ghosts. A Halloween dare at her ridiculously spooky boarding school is no big deal, especially when her best friend Naya and cute local boy Caine agree to join in too. They are ordered to summon the legendary ghost of 'Bloody Mary': say her name five times in front of a candlelit mirror, and she shall appear... But, surprise surprise, nothing happens. Or does it?

Next morning, Bobbie finds a message on her bathroom mirror... five days... but what does it mean? And who left it there? Things get increasingly weird and more terrifying for Bobbie and Naya, until it becomes all too clear that Bloody Mary was indeed called from the afterlife that night, and she is definitely not a friendly ghost. Bobbie, Naya and Caine are now in a race against time before their five days are up and Mary comes for them, as she has come for countless others before...'

A truly spine-chilling yet witty horror from shortlisted 'Queen of Teen' author James Dawson. - Goodreads

Mary: The Summoning - Hillary Monahan
ISBN - 9781423185192
Publisher - Disney-Hyperion
Expected release date - September 2nd 2014
Find - Goodreads/Book Depository

'There is a right way and a wrong way to summon her.

Jess had done the research. Success requires precision: a dark room, a mirror, a candle, salt, and four teenage girls. Each of them - Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna - must link hands, follow the rules... and never let go.

A thrilling fear spins around the room the first time Jess calls her name: "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. BLOODY MARY." A ripple of terror follows when a shadowy silhouette emerges through the fog, a spectre trapped behind the mirror.

Once is not enough, though - at least not for Jess. Mary is called again. And again. But when their summoning circle is broken, Bloody Mary slips through the glass with a taste for revenge on her lips. As the girls struggle to escape Mary's wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are forever altered.

A haunting trail of clues leads Shauna on a desperate search to uncover the legacy of Mary Worth. What she finds will change everything, but will it be enough to stop Mary - and Jess - before it's too late?' - Goodreads

Waiting On Wednesday #40 - Bellman & Black

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 -

UK Cover

US Cover

Bellman & Black - Diane Setterfield
UK ISBN - 9781409128014
US ISBN - 9781476711959
UK Publisher - Orion
US Publisher - Emily Bestler Books/Atria
UK Release date - October 10th 2013
US Release date - November 5th 2013
Find - Book Depository/Goodreads

'As a boy, William Bellman commits one small, cruel act: killing a bird with his slingshot. Little does he know the unforeseen and terrible consequences of the deed, which is soon forgotten amidst the riot of boyhood games. By the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, William seems to be a man blessed by fortune—until tragedy strikes and the stranger in black comes. Then he starts to wonder if all his happiness is about to be eclipsed. Desperate to save the one precious thing he has left, William enters into a rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner, to found a decidedly macabre business.' - Goodreads

I have been waiting for another Diane Setterfield book since the second I finished The Thirteenth Tale and now that's almost here I'm utterly terrified I won't like it... What I do know is that I love the UK cover! I like the US cover but I'm glad I'm getting the UK one, it's almost Poe-like :)

What are you desperately waiting for this week?

The Weight of Souls - Bryony Pearce

The Weight of Souls - Bryony Pearce @ Twitter
ISBN - 9781908844637
Publisher - Strange Chemistry @ Twitter
Release date -
Find - Book Depository/Goodreads

'Sixteen year old Taylor Oh is cursed: if she is touched by the ghost of a murder victim then they pass a mark beneath her skin. She has three weeks to find their murderer and pass the mark to them – letting justice take place and sending them into the Darkness. And if she doesn’t make it in time? The Darkness will come for her…

She spends her life trying to avoid ghosts, make it through school where she’s bullied by popular Justin and his cronies, keep her one remaining friend, and persuade her father that this is real and that she’s not going crazy.

But then Justin is murdered and everything gets a whole lot worse. Justin doesn’t know who killed him, so there’s no obvious person for Taylor to go after. The clues she has lead her to the V Club, a vicious secret society at her school where no one is allowed to leave… and where Justin was dared to do the stunt which led to his death.

Can she find out who was responsible for his murder before the Darkness comes for her? Can she put aside her hatred for her former bully to truly help him?

And what happens if she starts to fall for him?' - Goodreads

Ghosts, bullying and Egyptian mythology are not three subjects you would usually find all together in one book but The Weight of Souls by Bryony Pearce has exactly those three things and combines them perfectly! I love ghost stories and Egyptian mythology  so this book was definitely on my 'must read' list, I was intrigued to see how these different elements could all tied together.Also, any book that opens with a Poe quote is not going to be bad!

Taylor Oh is cursed... Her mother is dead, her father is convinced both she & her mother are mentally ill and spends his days trawling the internet looking for 'cures' and her best friend is one cancelled get-together/ditched school day away from disowning her because Taylor, in what she thinks is a bid to protect those closest to her, can't be honest and tell her the truth. This is both a weakness and a strength for Taylor, she does herself no favours by closing herself off or denying herself normal every day things like best friends, boyfriends and a social life and it only makes her more vulnerable. On the other hand she starts to realise that behaving this way is not good and she finds the strength to pull herself out of this mindset - eventually! Throw in secret societies with both unexpected and influential members and bullying from what feels like every student at her school certainly makes life difficult for Taylor. After discovering that the secret society, the V club has its roots in her school and is some sort of extreme 'truth or dare' group who had involvement in Justin's death, with members including including Justin's girlfriend and best friends. Taylor becomes determined to get to the bottom of his murder, not only for him but for the sake of her own sanity too. Thanks to Justin having given her his Mark the hunt for his killers turns into an exhilarating race against both time and the Darkness.

The supporting characters in the Weight of Souls are a varied bunch. I really loved Hannah - the best friend - who was there for Taylor as much as she was allowed to be, until pushed away once too often. Hannah gives Taylor every opportunity to be honest but of course she doesn't do this until it's pushed their friendship beyond breaking point. I wasn't a huge fan of Taylor's father to start with, he seemed set on there being only one possible explanation for Taylor's ability to see ghosts and the Mark on her hand and that is mental illness, the same mental illness that caused his wife's death and the one responsible for causing the accident that led to him being wheelchair-bound. I thought it was quite significant when he finally accepted that neither his wife or daughter were mentally ill and that in actual fact the Oh family curse is very real, especially after he sees Justin in all his ghostly glory! The biggest change in character of course is in Justin, who goes from alive & bullying to dead & apologetic for everything that went before.  Justin admits that he could well have been able to stop at least some of the devastating bullying that went on, having had a crush on Taylor from the day he arrived as a new student he found it easier to be nasty to her after she showed no interest in him and unfortunately the other members of the V club picked up on this. This was the only bit of the story I found a bit difficult to believe, having gone through almost constant bullying from Justin and his friends I found it hard to believe that Taylor would forgive & forget so quickly, even if Justin was dead.

The action in the story was fast paced and well written, especially in the second half as more & more secrets are revealed and challenges are made. The ending was suitably both resolved and left hanging, I can only hope this means there will be a sequel of some sorts as I want to know more! This is the second novel I've read by Bryony Pearce, the first was Angel's Fury which was also her first novel published, and I sincerely hope we get to read something else from her soon!

Many thanks to Strange Chemistry via Netgalley for providing me with a copy of The Weight of Souls! I bought myself a copy to get signed along with a wee ghostie charm - thanks to Bryony for that :)

Top Ten Tuesday #5

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely people at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is -

Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book

This is a good one! This could have quite easily turned into a top fifty...

1. Dragons

Seraphina

 2. Fairies

The Iron King

 3. Witches

A Discovery Of Witches

 4. Mythology

Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief

 5. Libraries/Books

The Demon's Librarian

 6. Fairy Tales

Complete Fairy Tales

 7. Humor

Wyrd Sisters

 8. Gothic

We Have Always Lived In The Castle

9. Ghosts

Anna Dressed In Blood

10. Vampires

Interview With The Vampire