Friday, August 31, 2012

"They Say, Blood Will Have Blood": A Review on The Blood Keeper by Tessa Gratton

Mab Prowd is a wild and stubborn blood witch, living on a farm in Kansas. When her old mentor dies, she decides to dig around in the garden, determined to discover the truth about the roses there after her mentor asked her to get rid of them. Her spell takes a wrong turn and lets loose an old powerful curse, one that manages to rope in the life of Will Sanger, a local boy who is forced into the world of Mab's blood magic. Determined to remedy her mistake, Mab works to cleanse her land and her life of the effects of the curse. However, the curse is stronger than Mab ever considered and it is determined to destroy Will, Mab and anything else that gets in its way.

Have you ever had your cards read? Have you heard about the Death card and what it truly means when its pulled out in a reading? For those who don't know, the Death card can mean transformation, change, end and beginning.

Tessa Gratton's The Blood Keeper is about all that and more.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Update to the Ratings System

If you look to the right, you will notice that the ratings system now officially goes up to 10 Stars. You can read the previous post on the Ratings System for the imagery attached to each star rating.

I just started to think that giving every single book I love a 5 Star rating just doesn't work and dropping to 4 Stars or even 4 1/2 just doesn't cut things down to the right sentiments for me anymore.

So, now I'm going back through my reviews and adjusting their ratings accordingly. Check back this weekend at the latest for 2 new reviews on a pair of YA releases I've been waiting to get my hands on that were just released this past week.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Between Life and Death: A Review on Revived by Cat Patrick

Daisy Appleby died for the first time when she was five years old in a bus crash that changed the lives of everyone on board. As part of a government program, Daisy and the other children on board the bus were given a drug called Revive which allowed for these children to come back to life and cheat death. By the time she's 15, Daisy has died 5 times, each time leading to a new life in a different city. Now starting her sophomore year, Daisy enters her new school and for the first time in a long time she manages to make her first true friends outside of the program. Confronted with the aspects of real everyday lives in ways she's never considered before, Daisy starts to question the benefits of the Revive program, the secrecy involved with it and the effects it has had on her life and the lives of everyone she's ever known.

I first learned about Cat Patrick a year ago, when I bought her debut novel Forgotten. I had a marathon reading session with it, going in to read it at one point only to emerge 3 hours later having finished the novel. I was impressed with the plot, the characters, and the pacing so much that when I found Patrick's next release on shelves I picked up a copy.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

A New Light Part III: A Book Review on Anastasia Forever by Joy Preble


Anastasia Forever follows our same lively trio of Anne, Ethan and Tess, as they attempt to work with the deal that Anne has made with a witch concerning her magic and her ancestry. Our lead Big Bad enemy is back and has a few new tricks up their sleeve. Anne is struggling to hold her family together while attempting to come to terms with what she feels for Ethan and how he fits into her world.

Finally! The potential of the last two books has made an appearance! Sort of. After a bit of feet dragging (once even quite literally) Anne is finally taking matters into her own hands with figuring out the fate that has been laid out for her. She makes the attempt of facing her problems head-on, although it did take her a good while to get there, even in this book.

A New Light Part II: A Book Review on Haunted by Joy Preble


Haunted once again follows Anne, Tess and Ethan, as the characters we met in Dreaming Anastasia deal with the aftermath of the last book. Ethan has returned to Anne after taking some time to explore Europe only to discover that Anne has moved on with a lifeguard named Ben. To make matters worse, Anne has been keeping a secret from her friends. A secret where a woman is following Anne, appearing wherever there is water, and she won't stop haunting Anne until she gets what she wants from her.

As it is a trilogy, it stands to reason that plot and narration devices follow the same formula as the last book. Everything follows its course and the chapters alternate accordingly (although I do kind of wish that the obnoxiously stubborn Tess could have had a say of her own once in a while).

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

A New Light: A Book Review on Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

It's been a while since I posted a review but I have a good reason, I think. As a change of pace, this review will go over the entire Anastasia Trilogy by Joy Preble, as a result of the final installment's release this month. That's right. Three book reviews, all in one blog post. Enjoy!***


***Edit Note: I spoke too soon. So hubby dear told me the original post was too long and he just skipped to the end of my review to read my ratings. Needless to say, I felt extremely dismayed. As a result, the reviews are now officially being split into parts. Each will have its rating and the overall trilogy rating will be added at the end of the final installment's review. I've also officially changed the title of this post to reflect the fact that it's only reviewing one book and not the entire trilogy anymore. Live and learn, right?

(And as a sidenote to my  edit note, I do kind of mourn the loss of the original LONG post but while it may have looked pretty, I'm sure it was as difficult to read through to the end as it was for me to write it in the first place.)


Dreaming Anastasia follows Anne Michaelson, whose dreams lately have her seeing life through the eyes of Anastasia Romonov, the youngest daughter of the last Tsar of Russia. Anne's dreams show her that the rumors may be true about Anastasia having managed to survive her family's massacre but unfortunately for Anastasia, she may have ended up with a fate much worse than death. While Anne deals with her dreams on top of her family's grief over a recent loss and her average struggles with college applications, she meets Ethan Kozninsky, a young man who claims that Anne is the key to releasing Anastasia once and for all.