Framed In Words: August 2013

Sunday, 18 August 2013

Flicker & Burn Blog Tour: Review and Spotlight + Giveaway

Hey everyone, welcome to my stop of the official Flicker & Burn blog tour. A big thank you to author T.M.Goeglein who enabled us to have this awesome tour and to Book Nerd Tours for organising the tour. To visit the other stops of this awesome tour for many interesting posts by the author and bloggers, click here to see the tour schedule and links. At my stop I'll be reviewing the book and don't forget to enter the amazing tour-wide giveaway. Enjoy!

Flicker & Burn (Cold Fury #2) by T. M. Goeglein

Synopsis

Sara Jane Rispoli is still searching for her missing family, but instead of fighting off a turncoat uncle and crooked cops, this time she finds herself on the run from creepy beings with red, pulsing eyes and pale white skin chasing her through the streets in ice cream trucks; they can only be described as Ice Cream Creatures. They're terrifying and hell bent on killing her, but they're also a link to her family, a clue to where they might be and who has them.

While she battles these new pursuers, she's also discovering more about her own cold fury and more about the Chicago Outfit, how the past misdeeds--old murders and vendettas--might just be connected to her present and the disappearance of her family. But connecting the dots is tough and time-consuming and may finally be the undoing of her relationship with the handsome Max--who's now her boyfriend. But for his own safety, Sara Jane may have to end this relationship before it even really starts.

Her pursuers who've shown her her mother's amputated finger and the head of the Chicago Outfit who's just whistled her in for a sit-down make a romance unthinkable. The only thing that matters is finding her family and keeping everyone she loves alive.

Buy This Book

About the Author

T.M. Goeglein began his career as a writer of print and television ads for a host of advertising and media companies. As a screenwriter, he created both original scripts and worked as a script doctor for several production companies in Los Angeles. He was an original contributor to the Huffington Post 'Living' section, and continues to write for both the national edition and Huffington Post Chicago. Read T.M. Goeglein's stories on the Huffington Post.

His debut young adult novel, COLD FURY, will be published by Penguin/Putnam in 2012 and is the first in a trilogy; he’s currently working on the second book. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Laura, and two young children.

Links:

WEBSITE

My Review

Rating: 3.5 stars

Firstly,I want to thank T. M. Goeglein and Putnam Publishing for providing me with an ARC for an honest review. I really appreciate it.

After a quick recap of what was happening in book one, Flicker & Burn dives straight into seat-gripping action. Once again, the reader is running alongside Sarah Jane as she runs for her life or runs towards saving her loved ones. The plot was a little bit too slow at the beginning, however it gradually picks up and incorporates a lot more interactions between characters as the story progresses. Dialogues in YA books are generally really good at keeping the pace moving and capturing the reader's interest, whereas if there's only one character on the page for many pages in a row, the reader loses interest in reading the character's internal monologue. I felt a bit like that in the first part of the book. Once more characters are introduced, and not just revenge is on Sarah Jane's mind, the story became a lot more interesting. There are quite a few unexpected twists in relationships bewteen characters and you never really know what the characters are going to say or how they will react. This I really enjoy because it gives the reader a sense of surprise when their anticipation is proven wrong which prompts him/her to keep reading.

Sarah Jane becomes even more independent and kick-ass in this book. I really admired her determination and persistance when her goal is set. She fights through numerous obstacles and never loses hope, although at time she may have contemplated it. While she is busy fighting against or with dangerous yet alluring Italian/Chicago Mafias, she also manages to keep up the outside appearance of a normal life. The fact that after what she has gone through, she hasn't curled up into a ball and have emotional break-downs makes her a fearless heroine. However, at times, her decisions really do seem quite stupid and annoy me to no end. I just want to shake her and tell her what to do! Ah, but overall, she, as a character, grew, compared to the last book.

My favourite character in the book is actually Tyler. He makes me laugh and totally confuses Sarah Jane. Their interactions/meetings always makes me chuckle and the way Tyler acts makes me like him a lot. He isn't your usual hero in the book and the reader still doesn't really know him that well, even at the end of the book. But he has this charisma that draws people in. Looking forward to reading more about him in the next book.

There is also characters that I did not like or relate to for one bit. I really really really didn't like Max. I have no idea why Sarah Jane would fall for him even in that first book and now he is even more despicable in my opinion in the second. Sarah Jane's life would be so much easier without troubles about Max thrown in there.

Overall an interesting and intense read. Looking forward to the conclusion of this series and find out what really happens to Sarah and co.

Giveaway

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Friday, 9 August 2013

Charmed Vengeance Blog Tour: Review + Spotlight & Giveaway

Hello and welcome to Day 2 of the Charmed Vengeance Blog Tour. A big thank to Amber and Jean at Book Nerd Tours for organising this tour, as well as to author Suzanne Lazear for all the work she has put in for the tour. Charmed Vengeance is book 2 of The Aether Chronicles (Innocent Darkness is book 1) and at my spot, there will be my review of the book as well as a spotlight and an awesome giveaway. For the full tour schedule and links, visit here.

Charmed Vengeance (The Aether Chronicles #2) by Suzanne Lazear

Synopsis

In the Faerie realm, Noli Braddock's relationship with her best friend V has grown into something more. But V's mother, Faerie Queen Tiana, has ruled that they are forbidden to see each other. Returning to the mortal realm, Noli joins the crew of her brother's air-pirate ship, the Vixen's Revenge. There she discovers that her brother has hired the scallywag Faerie huntsman, Kevighn Silver. While serving as shipmates, Kevighn and Noli learn that the Earth Court King plans to find a forbidden artifact--one that will bring destruction to everyone Noli loves.

Buy this book at:

Suzanne Lazear

Suzanne Lazear is the author of the Young Adult Steampunk dark fairytale series THE AETHER CHRONICLES. Book 1, INNOCENT DARKNESS is out now. Book 2, CHARMED VENGEANCE, releases 8-8-13. She always plays with swords, is never described as normal, and has been know to run with bustles. Suzanne lives in Los Angeles with her daughter and the hubby, and a hermit crab.

Learn more about THE AETHER CHRONICLES at http://www.aetherchronicles.com and her at http://www.suzannelazear.com

Links:

WEBSITE

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/suzannelazear
Twitter: http://twitter.com/suzannelazear
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4342615.Suzanne_Lazear

My Review

Rating: 3.5 stars

Firstly, I would like to thank author Suzanne Lazear, Flux Books and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of Charmed Vengeance (Innocent Darkness #2) for an honest review. I really enjoyed my time while reading it and appreciate the offer.

Charmed Vengeance picks up pretty much straight after the events of Innocent Darkness and after Charlotte's sacrifice, the reader sees Noli back at home in the human world tinkering with her tools once again. However, she is also greatly changed after the events of the previous book. Noli seems older and wiser yet more fragile than before due the experiences she had as well as the ever-constant presence of the tree sprite. In this book, we see her internal struggle with the sprite in trying to establish dominance in her own body. The reader sees how hard Noli is trying to stay true to herself but is constantly under siege from her own head. Every second that she isn't careful, she can turn into a persona that she has always despised. Looking deeper, it can also be seen as a theme of finding oneself. Noli is trying to stay true to who she is and through out the book, she really finds who she is while comparing the differences between herself and the sprite. Although she may think she knew herself before, many interesting and surprising discoveries are made about herself during her journey in the airship. I admire Noli's ability to fight on and stay concentrated even when she is in pain. She is courageous and willing to help. When she is determinded, she will definitely do what it takes to finish her task. Furthermore, I liked how she didn't need to rely very much on men to do what she wants. She was not a weepy girl without brains. Noli is a heorine the reader can really relate to and admire.

However, compared to the last book, there are also aspects of Noli's character which I didn't enjoy as much. She is much for fragile in this book and seems to soften quite a lot from her strong character and demanding presence in book 1. In book two, she seems much more gentle and reliant on other people to think for her. I know that the sprite has messed up her head pretty badly, but I've got to say, I miss the strong-willed, kick-ass mechanic/engineer that tinkers with tools and hands on things all the time.

My favourite character however, is Jeff. Noli's brother is caring, hilarious and strong-willed. He is the kind of big brother I'd love to have. He helps Noli is everyway he can. In a way, Jeff is very similar to Noli (especially the Noli in book 1) and thus he can predict Noli's actions and care for her thoroughly. He also knows Noli well enough to feel it if something is wrong. Unlike a lot of the sibling relationships in other books or even in real life, Jeff puts his younger sister above anything else and make her the most important responsibility he has. He's always taking care of her and worrying about her. That's really sweet. The awkward moments of Jeff always manages to make me laugh and his regard for women really made him impossible to dislike.

On the other hand, I got really annoyed at Steven. He just didn't seem to focus on anything this entire book and is like a combination of a brainless zombie plus an over-cautious pussy. Although some of what he does is right, but James just seems much more likable than he is in this book. His younger brother James seems to be the older brother many times as the story unfolds and is much more relaxed and understanding than Steven. This book made me like Kevighn so much more and it also makes the reader sympathise when him. Uhhhh, I really didn't want to like him, but...

The plot was more enjoyable than the last book, I liked the separation of Noli and Steven (V) in some parts of the book (hmmm I can't give away too much) and felt that gave both of them a breather in their relationship. The airships are awesome!!! :D However, at parts the plot is still a bit slow (especially during James and V's side of things...). Hopefully, next time, some more powerful aether fighting actions will be here and that Noli's character will be stronger.

Overall, a great read! Bravo Suzanne Lazear, for the creative story.

Giveaway:

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Saturday, 3 August 2013

The Year of The Great Seventh Blog Tour

Hey everyone, welcome to the final stop of the 2013 Summer World Tour of The Year of The Great Seventh! This is the most exciting stop of all, because Teresa will be revealing the solution to the game, i.e. the blog tour prophecy answer! I also have my review of the book ready for you so you can see what I thought of the book. If you have missed out on the previous tour stops, I have included the hyperlinks to the other stops at the end fo the post. Just in case anyone joined us here on this stop or forgot the rules or what this is about, here's a reminder of the rules of the game by our lovely author Teresa Orts.

Alright, are we all clear? Are you ready? Drum roll please! *make your noises...* So here is the final solution you all have been waiting for!

The full sentence:

The picture of the secret location:

The answer is:

The secret platform of Grand Central Station. Under the Waldorf Astoria hotel, there is a secret platform that is part of Grand Central Station, known as track 61.

And here is a little message from the author to everyone:

Congratulations to the 5 winners!

Thank you for following The Year of the Great Seventh blog tour. If you enjoyed solving the prophecy, you may also enjoy The Year of the Great Seventh. It is available on Amazon, and from August 3^rd also on Nook.

Have a wonderful summer!

Teresa Orts

Alright, so now the most exciting part is over, here is my review of the book.

The Year of The Great Seventh by Teresa Orts

Rating: 3 stars

Firstly, I would like to thank the author Teresa Orts for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for a honest review. I really appreciate it.

Alright, so let's get on to talk about what I thought of this book. This was a story about Sophie and Nate and their journey to break a certain curse which was affecting not only Sophie and Nate's relationship but other aspects as well. When I was received this book and read the blurb, I wasn't sure what to think of it. Going into this book, I didn't know what to expect. In the beginning, all was very modern and the setting was against the bright city lights of L.A. and I wasn't sure how the author was going to incorporate the Egyptian mythology aspects into the book. It just didn't seem to fit when I started reading it. It seemed more like a modern day American setting with a loudsy Hollywood background. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I kept reading and all parts of the Egyptian myths just came together! I really enjoyed the twists and originality Teresa Orts spins on the Egyptian angle and it made the story that much more interesting and intriguing. I learnt a lot about Egypt and mythology from reading this book as previously I had no idea about the backgrounds of the stories Orts has used. The journey of Sophie and Nate was interesting to follow and I enjoyed to see the characters grow through the course of the story.

However, the characters themselves did not relate to me very well, I didn't feel an echoing of their emotions and predicaments and they just didn't connect with me very strongly. Sophie, the main characters, was very unsure and whiney at times. Sometimes she just couldn't seem to make up her mind and took too long thinking through certain things. While other times, the decisions she made was rush and unthinkable, especially over her relationship. Although it may be true in real life, and Sophie as a character is in fact very realistic, however in a book, such characteristics are not very interesting to read about. Personally, I would never make some of the choices Sophie made and I felt very lucky for her in some of the outcomes of her decisions. Despite not relating to her in some parts, I can relate to the fact that Sophie is a straight-A achieveing student but is encountering forces against her in life. I admire her ability to bypass the allures of the Hollywood/star lifestyle and to keep true to herself and her dreams.

The writing of the book started off quite average and bland, some of the scenes lacked description so was quite hard to imagine the exact details of the pictures. The dialogues were also very short and ordinary, not containing much "push affect" for the reader to keep reading. However, the style of writing and its structure improved as the story progressed and the conversations between characters were much more interesting to read about. More details in description with vivid adjectives would have made the story more comfortable and entertaining to read, as well as create more connections between the characters and the reader. The pace of the plot could also have been faster. Sometimes there are too many inside thoughts of the characters and not enough action. A slightly more even balance would have been nice.

Overall, it was a good read and an interesting story. A bravo effort and result for a debut novel. YA seems easy to write, but to find the right voice isn't the simplest thing to do, so well done! The cliffhanger at the end is what's making me curious about the next book. I would be interested to continue the story but it would not be on my priority-to-read list.

Synopsis

Sophie has always felt out of step—an outsider, even amongst friends in her high school with all the hype about celebrity culture. Her life in L.A. seems to have been already written for her, but when her junior year starts, it all takes a drastic turn. When she crosses paths with the school's heartthrob, Nate Werner, they fall for each other in a way neither can understand. What they don’t know is that by giving in to their desires, they are unlocking an ancient Egyptian prophecy that threatens to return Earth to the dark ages.

To undo the curse, Nate and Sophie embark on an adventure that takes them across the country. But their quest is not only to save the world as they know it. It is also a fight for their very survival. Behind the scenes, there are those that are counting on them to fail.