Framed In Words: 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.