Exciting news for all those fans of the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. Pencil this date into your diaries now!
Random House Children’s Books will publish an original novel by Lauren Kate that is connected to her internationally bestselling series, Fallen. The novel, 'Fallen in Love' will be released in the UK on 2nd February 2012 It's a collection of four intertwined love stories featuring the Fallen characters that fans have grown to know and love: Miles, Shelby, Roland, Arriane, and Luce & Daniel.
Following on from this, the final novel in the series, 'Rapture', will be released in the UK in June 2012, concluding an incredible series which has really captivated readers all around the world.
I was thrilled to find out about this new title from Lauren Kate. I'm not usually a big fan of short stories but I'll definitely be making an exception for this one.
Friday, 30 September 2011
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Review: Embrace - Jessica Shirvington
Embrace by Jessica Shirvington published on 6th October 2011 by Orchard Books
Goodreads synopsis:
Violet Eden has only ever wanted to be with Lincoln. But when he reveals a secret so powerful it could tear them apart, her world spins out of control. Then she meets Phoenix. Intense and beautiful, Violet is helplessly drawn to him...
Caught up in a battle between light and dark - where angels seek vengeance and humans are warriors - Violet must decide how much she's willing to sacrifice. And who she can love...
Review:
This is the debut novel from Australian author Jessica Shirvington. I've been waiting months for a UK release, so I was incredibly excited to finally receive a copy for review. I picked it up almost as soon as it fell through my mailbox and I was glued to the pages for the rest of the day!
Violet Eden has just turned seventeen and the only thing she wants for her birthday is to have Lincoln, the guy whom she's known for two years and fallen in love with. Lincoln however, seems determined to keep her at a distance. Violet eventually accidentally discovers a secret surrounding her heritage which changes her whole world and makes her reassess everything she thought she knew and felt about Lincoln and her life.
When I started this book I wondered whether I'd have to read on through most of the story before the big secret about Violet was revealed. Happily that wasn't the case and Shirvington wasted little time in letting the plot unfold and clueing readers in on the important choice that Violet faced. She was then left with more time to devote to the love triangle which forms between Violet, Lincoln and mysterious new guy Phoenix, who suddenly appears on the scene and who seems to have a magnetic hold over Violet. I have to say that I'm definitely a Lincoln fan! He is utterly adorable! If you like the strong, silent and mysterious type then Lincoln most certainly fits the bill. I never really felt entirely won over by Phoenix. He does do some incredible things in the romance department but I spent a good part of the book willing Violet to open her eyes and see his true character.
I adored the angel mythology and the depth and detail in which their history is described. Although it seemed incredibly complex at the start, it was also absolutely fascinating and I was intrigued by the different ranks of angels that are in existence. Most of the questions I had about exiles and Grigori (people who are part human and part angel) were answered and Shirvington had obviously spent a great deal of time mapping out the story because there were no gaping holes in the plot and even a handy chart at the back of the book to help you understand the angel hierarchy.
It took me a little while to warm to Violet, the main character but she really grew on me over the course of the book and I liked the way she eventually grew to accept and embrace her new role. I would have preferred to have seen Violet's relationship with her father develop further as I always like stories which devote enough time and development to family relationships and I found theirs to be a little one-dimensional, but this is only a small point and didn't distract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
Paranormal fans will love this exciting new series which really puts angels back on the map! 'Enticed' the second book in the series will be published by Egmont in February 2012 and I shall be queuing up to get my copy.
Goodreads synopsis:
Violet Eden has only ever wanted to be with Lincoln. But when he reveals a secret so powerful it could tear them apart, her world spins out of control. Then she meets Phoenix. Intense and beautiful, Violet is helplessly drawn to him...
Caught up in a battle between light and dark - where angels seek vengeance and humans are warriors - Violet must decide how much she's willing to sacrifice. And who she can love...
Review:
This is the debut novel from Australian author Jessica Shirvington. I've been waiting months for a UK release, so I was incredibly excited to finally receive a copy for review. I picked it up almost as soon as it fell through my mailbox and I was glued to the pages for the rest of the day!
Violet Eden has just turned seventeen and the only thing she wants for her birthday is to have Lincoln, the guy whom she's known for two years and fallen in love with. Lincoln however, seems determined to keep her at a distance. Violet eventually accidentally discovers a secret surrounding her heritage which changes her whole world and makes her reassess everything she thought she knew and felt about Lincoln and her life.
When I started this book I wondered whether I'd have to read on through most of the story before the big secret about Violet was revealed. Happily that wasn't the case and Shirvington wasted little time in letting the plot unfold and clueing readers in on the important choice that Violet faced. She was then left with more time to devote to the love triangle which forms between Violet, Lincoln and mysterious new guy Phoenix, who suddenly appears on the scene and who seems to have a magnetic hold over Violet. I have to say that I'm definitely a Lincoln fan! He is utterly adorable! If you like the strong, silent and mysterious type then Lincoln most certainly fits the bill. I never really felt entirely won over by Phoenix. He does do some incredible things in the romance department but I spent a good part of the book willing Violet to open her eyes and see his true character.
I adored the angel mythology and the depth and detail in which their history is described. Although it seemed incredibly complex at the start, it was also absolutely fascinating and I was intrigued by the different ranks of angels that are in existence. Most of the questions I had about exiles and Grigori (people who are part human and part angel) were answered and Shirvington had obviously spent a great deal of time mapping out the story because there were no gaping holes in the plot and even a handy chart at the back of the book to help you understand the angel hierarchy.
It took me a little while to warm to Violet, the main character but she really grew on me over the course of the book and I liked the way she eventually grew to accept and embrace her new role. I would have preferred to have seen Violet's relationship with her father develop further as I always like stories which devote enough time and development to family relationships and I found theirs to be a little one-dimensional, but this is only a small point and didn't distract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
Paranormal fans will love this exciting new series which really puts angels back on the map! 'Enticed' the second book in the series will be published by Egmont in February 2012 and I shall be queuing up to get my copy.
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Waiting on Wednesday #42
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine that spotlights eagerly awaited upcoming releases. Head on over there to take part or to check out all the other fabulous books that people are looking forward to reading!
Illuminate by Aimee Agresti
Published on 6th March 2012 by Harcourt Children's Books
Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything begins to change when she turns sixteen. Along with her best friend Dante and their quiet and brilliant classmate Lance, she is awarded a prestigious internship in the big city— Chicago—and is sent to live and work at a swanky and stylish hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous and shockingly young-looking strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit.
As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers a network of secret passageways from the hotel’s jazz-age past that leads her to the heart of the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?
This is the first book in a brand new series which I'm eagerly awaiting. The cover is mind-blowingly pretty and it sounds like an intriguing and exciting read.
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Review: Naked - Kevin Brooks
Naked by Kevin Brooks, published on 6th October 2011 by Puffin
Goodreads synopsis:
London, 1976: a summer of chaos, punk, love ...and the boy they called Billy the Kid. It was the summer of so many things. Heat and violence, love and hate, heaven and hell. It was the time I met William Bonney - the boy from Belfast known as Billy the Kid. I've kept William's secrets for a long time, but now things have changed and I have to tell the truth. But I can't begin until I've told you about Curtis Ray. Hip, cool, rebellious Curtis Ray. Without Curtis, there wouldn't be a story to tell. It's the story of our band, of life and death ...and everything in between.
Review:
This is the first Kevin Brooks book I've read. He's an incredibly popular author and as I've been wanting to read one of his novels for a while I was excited about the opportunity to review his new title. I also discovered while reading the press release that he hails from my home town so I was doubly pleased!
The main thing I enjoyed about 'Naked' was the way in which Kevin Brooks really captured the essence of the seventies and set about recreating the culture of the day, including the different groups which were prevalent at the time - the punks, skinheads and rockers. Although the seventies is not an era that I'm particularly familiar with and indeed I wasn't even born during 1976, the year the book is set, everything is described so vividly that it didn't take much imagination for me to feel transported back in time and immersed in the period. With references to bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, I felt like I was right in the heart of an era characterised by sex, drugs and rock n roll.
The inclusion of a sub-plot involving the IRA conflict between the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland was an interesting angle and added depth to the story. It also helped to illustrate the divide which can occur between different groups of people, whether punk or skinhead, black or white, Protestant or Catholic. This was quite a heavy-hitting and gritty storyline so probably better suited to slightly older teen readers.
Although I didn't instantly connect with the story, mainly I think because the subject matter wasn't one that I would normally choose, I did find the characters fascinating. There's the main character Lili, who starts off on the straight and narrow and is gradually seduced by Curtis, who gets her mixed up in the music world and who shows her the real life behind the glamour of being in a band. I liked the fact that the book had a female narrator and I enjoyed following the evolution of her character as she falls under the spell of one boy, only to end up seduced by another. My favourite character was actually William Bonney or Billy the Kid as he's nicknamed. When Lili meets William everything changes and he opens her eyes to a lot of things. William is kept deliberately mysterious for a large part of the first half of the book until he opens up to Lili and reveals a number of secrets. I found him so intriguing and I was continually left wanting to know more and more about him.
Kevin Brooks doesn't hold back from confronting difficult topics. 'Naked' does deal with some hardhitting themes but the grittiness underlining the novel is part of what makes it such an interesting book. Although this one didn't win me over entirely, Brooks's writing is intelligent and perceptive and I'm looking forward to giving more of his novels a go in the future.
Goodreads synopsis:
London, 1976: a summer of chaos, punk, love ...and the boy they called Billy the Kid. It was the summer of so many things. Heat and violence, love and hate, heaven and hell. It was the time I met William Bonney - the boy from Belfast known as Billy the Kid. I've kept William's secrets for a long time, but now things have changed and I have to tell the truth. But I can't begin until I've told you about Curtis Ray. Hip, cool, rebellious Curtis Ray. Without Curtis, there wouldn't be a story to tell. It's the story of our band, of life and death ...and everything in between.
Review:
This is the first Kevin Brooks book I've read. He's an incredibly popular author and as I've been wanting to read one of his novels for a while I was excited about the opportunity to review his new title. I also discovered while reading the press release that he hails from my home town so I was doubly pleased!
The main thing I enjoyed about 'Naked' was the way in which Kevin Brooks really captured the essence of the seventies and set about recreating the culture of the day, including the different groups which were prevalent at the time - the punks, skinheads and rockers. Although the seventies is not an era that I'm particularly familiar with and indeed I wasn't even born during 1976, the year the book is set, everything is described so vividly that it didn't take much imagination for me to feel transported back in time and immersed in the period. With references to bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, I felt like I was right in the heart of an era characterised by sex, drugs and rock n roll.
The inclusion of a sub-plot involving the IRA conflict between the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland was an interesting angle and added depth to the story. It also helped to illustrate the divide which can occur between different groups of people, whether punk or skinhead, black or white, Protestant or Catholic. This was quite a heavy-hitting and gritty storyline so probably better suited to slightly older teen readers.
Although I didn't instantly connect with the story, mainly I think because the subject matter wasn't one that I would normally choose, I did find the characters fascinating. There's the main character Lili, who starts off on the straight and narrow and is gradually seduced by Curtis, who gets her mixed up in the music world and who shows her the real life behind the glamour of being in a band. I liked the fact that the book had a female narrator and I enjoyed following the evolution of her character as she falls under the spell of one boy, only to end up seduced by another. My favourite character was actually William Bonney or Billy the Kid as he's nicknamed. When Lili meets William everything changes and he opens her eyes to a lot of things. William is kept deliberately mysterious for a large part of the first half of the book until he opens up to Lili and reveals a number of secrets. I found him so intriguing and I was continually left wanting to know more and more about him.
Kevin Brooks doesn't hold back from confronting difficult topics. 'Naked' does deal with some hardhitting themes but the grittiness underlining the novel is part of what makes it such an interesting book. Although this one didn't win me over entirely, Brooks's writing is intelligent and perceptive and I'm looking forward to giving more of his novels a go in the future.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Blog tour: Kate Harrison - Soul Beach - 'Not one of those books...'
Today I'm taking part in the blog tour for Kate Harrison's awesome debut YA novel 'Soul Beach' which was published on 1st September 2011 by new imprint Indigo.
I've read several of Kate's adult novels which are wonderful, including my favourite, The Secret Shoppers series and so was curious about how Kate had bridged the gap between adult and young-adult fiction.
Not one of those books…
Of all the things I expected when my first book was published – fame, fortune, a movie deal – ridicule definitely wasn’t one of them.
But that’s what I got. At my very first literary party, I was brought swiftly down to earth. I was making small talk with a nice chap, telling him proudly about my debut novel.
‘What’s it about?’
I told him it was a dark comedy about a thirtysomething school bully who organises a reunion to liven up her life, not realising all the guests hate her guts.
‘Oh, it’s one of those books. Chick lit. I don’t know how you can lower yourself to write that rubbish.’
I was, momentarily, lost for words. Then I managed to smile and asked him, ‘what do you write?’
‘Computer manuals,’ he replied, before turning away to find someone more worthwhile to talk to.
It was a sign of what was to come. Not from the fantastic readers, or from othere authors of what I prefer to call commercial women’s fiction. But newspapers and critics and more literary writers love to weigh in, blaming books with pastel covers for pretty much everything from girl gangs to the death of literature.
After a while, I learned to ignore it and focus on what I wanted to do: tell a good story, entertain people. If that wasn’t to some people’s liking, that was their problem.
So, fast forward to today. Exactly eight years after my first adult novel was published, my debut Young Adult book, Soul Beach , is making its entrance into the world. And the response couldn’t be more different. I’ve accidentally stumbled into a ‘hot’ genre. YA is vibrant and cool and some of that seems to be rubbing off on me!
‘What made you want to write YA?’ people ask. Some of them sound like TV legend Mrs Merton when she asked Debbie McGee ‘What was it that first attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?’
The truth, though, is that I wasn’t chasing the money, or the cool. I simply wanted to tell a story that gripped me, just as I did when the idea for my first novel, Old School Ties , came to me one freezing cold Christmas.
Chick lit, YA, dystopian – they’re just labels. Sure, they can help us find our next book to read, to navigate a world where thousands of titles are released every year. But I certainly couldn’t spend a year (or in the case of the Soul Beach trilogy, three years) working on a project just because it seemed fashionable. I need passion to keep me writing.
Any book is a risk. When I started Soul Beach , I didn’t know if I could pull off a darker novel. I certainly didn’t have a book contract or any interest from publishers. But there were things I wanted to explore in my story: paradise and loss, the seductiveness of the online world, love and hate, sisterly love and the fear of the unknown.
I can’t pretend its not great fun to be part of a ‘hot’ genre, especially when I look at my brilliant Indigo stable mates. I think YA is hot because it’s a place where readers are willing to suspend disbelief, explore new ideas, bend genre rules.
But as a writer, what’s most important to me is the idea, the characters, the journey. And as a reader, I happen to think that the least we can expect from an author is that same passion to tell the best story they can.
I've read several of Kate's adult novels which are wonderful, including my favourite, The Secret Shoppers series and so was curious about how Kate had bridged the gap between adult and young-adult fiction.
Not one of those books…
Of all the things I expected when my first book was published – fame, fortune, a movie deal – ridicule definitely wasn’t one of them.
But that’s what I got. At my very first literary party, I was brought swiftly down to earth. I was making small talk with a nice chap, telling him proudly about my debut novel.
‘What’s it about?’
I told him it was a dark comedy about a thirtysomething school bully who organises a reunion to liven up her life, not realising all the guests hate her guts.
‘Oh, it’s one of those books. Chick lit. I don’t know how you can lower yourself to write that rubbish.’
I was, momentarily, lost for words. Then I managed to smile and asked him, ‘what do you write?’
‘Computer manuals,’ he replied, before turning away to find someone more worthwhile to talk to.
It was a sign of what was to come. Not from the fantastic readers, or from othere authors of what I prefer to call commercial women’s fiction. But newspapers and critics and more literary writers love to weigh in, blaming books with pastel covers for pretty much everything from girl gangs to the death of literature.
After a while, I learned to ignore it and focus on what I wanted to do: tell a good story, entertain people. If that wasn’t to some people’s liking, that was their problem.
So, fast forward to today. Exactly eight years after my first adult novel was published, my debut Young Adult book, Soul Beach , is making its entrance into the world. And the response couldn’t be more different. I’ve accidentally stumbled into a ‘hot’ genre. YA is vibrant and cool and some of that seems to be rubbing off on me!
‘What made you want to write YA?’ people ask. Some of them sound like TV legend Mrs Merton when she asked Debbie McGee ‘What was it that first attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?’
The truth, though, is that I wasn’t chasing the money, or the cool. I simply wanted to tell a story that gripped me, just as I did when the idea for my first novel, Old School Ties , came to me one freezing cold Christmas.
Chick lit, YA, dystopian – they’re just labels. Sure, they can help us find our next book to read, to navigate a world where thousands of titles are released every year. But I certainly couldn’t spend a year (or in the case of the Soul Beach trilogy, three years) working on a project just because it seemed fashionable. I need passion to keep me writing.
Any book is a risk. When I started Soul Beach , I didn’t know if I could pull off a darker novel. I certainly didn’t have a book contract or any interest from publishers. But there were things I wanted to explore in my story: paradise and loss, the seductiveness of the online world, love and hate, sisterly love and the fear of the unknown.
I can’t pretend its not great fun to be part of a ‘hot’ genre, especially when I look at my brilliant Indigo stable mates. I think YA is hot because it’s a place where readers are willing to suspend disbelief, explore new ideas, bend genre rules.
But as a writer, what’s most important to me is the idea, the characters, the journey. And as a reader, I happen to think that the least we can expect from an author is that same passion to tell the best story they can.
Sunday, 25 September 2011
In My Mailbox #42
Thanks to Kristi at The Story Siren for holding this meme every week.
I love seeing what everybody else got in their mailboxes.
All links go to Goodreads, where you can add the books to your wishlist if you like the look of them.
I got some really nice books to review this week:
(I actually have a proof of this already but this is a lovely finished hardback copy)
Darkness Falls by Mia James
Darkness Falls by Mia James
(I still have to read the first book in this series 'By Midnight' but I'll be reading and reviewing them both very soon)
The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
(I haven't read anything by this author before but I've been wanting to for a while now. It sounds very heavily fantasy driven but from the sneak peak I had it looks like being really good)
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