BLOG TOUR: The Artisans by Julie Reece- Review & Giveaway

Title: The Artisans

Publication date: May 12, 2015

Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.

Author: Julie Reece

Buy Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | kobo | TBD
Goodreads: Add to Goodreads

Blurb Description: They say death can be beautiful. But after the death of her mother, seventeen-year-old Raven Weathersby gives up her dream of becoming a fashion designer, barely surviving life in the South Carolina lowlands.

To make ends meet, Raven works after school as a seamstress creating stunning works of fashion that often rival the great names of the day.

Instead of making things easier on the high school senior, her stepdad's drinking leads to a run in with the highly reclusive heir to the Maddox family fortune, Gideon Maddox.

But Raven's stepdad's drying out and in no condition to attend the meeting with Maddox. So Raven volunteers to take his place and offers to repay the debt in order to keep the only father she's ever known out of jail, or worse.

Gideon Maddox agrees, outlining an outrageous demand: Raven must live in his home for a year while she designs for Maddox Industries' clothing line, signing over her creative rights.

Her handsome young captor is arrogant and infuriating to the nth degree, and Raven can't imagine working for him, let alone sharing the same space for more than five minutes.

But nothing is ever as it seems. Is Gideon Maddox the monster the world believes him to be? And can he stand to let the young seamstress see him as he really is?

ABOUT JULIE REECE:

Born in Ohio, I lived next to my grandfather’s horse farm until the fourth grade. Summers were about riding, fishing and make-believe, while winter brought sledding and ice-skating on frozen ponds. Most of life was magical, but not all.

I struggled with multiple learning disabilities, did not excel in school. I spent much of my time looking out windows and daydreaming. In the fourth grade (with the help of one very nice teacher) I fought dyslexia for my right to read, like a prince fights a dragon in order to free the princess locked in a tower, and I won.

Afterwards, I read like a fiend. I invented stories where I could be the princess… or a gifted heroine from another world who kicked bad guy butt to win the heart of a charismatic hero. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? Later, I moved to Florida where I continued to fantasize about superpowers and monsters, fabricating stories (my mother called it lying) and sharing them with my friends.

Then I thought I’d write one down…

Hooked, I’ve been writing ever since. I write historical, contemporary, urban fantasy, adventure, and young adult romances. I love strong heroines, sweeping tales of mystery and epic adventure… which must include a really hot guy. My writing is proof you can work hard to overcome any obstacle. Don’t give up. I say, if you write, write on!

Connect with the Author:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

**GIVEAWAY**

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**MY REVIEW**

I'm a huge fan of the impossible. And strange, sexy, weirdly controlling, know it all guys. And mystery. So, The Artisans, on reading the synopsis, sounded like the perfect book for me!

And while it was a good book, I wished that it could have been more. 

I loved the fact that Raven had a conscious, that she was an excellent artist, and that she cared so much for her family, even if the first was shadowed by excessive teenage drama. I loved that Gideon always mentioned that aloof, mysterious, charming attitude, with the I know it all, have it all air- all while slowly breaking the exterior and showing us his soft side. I loved Dane (Ravens best friend) and all the brotherly love, but it seemed  like Maggie (her other best friend) was only put there because Julie Reece wanted to avoid a love triangle between Gideon, Dane and Raven and to start putting ideas into Ravens head about Gideon- and the I didn't like because best friends are supposed to be more than just that.

I thought the entire concept of the Artisans was strange as well- I mean seriously? Who does that? But then, I guess I figured it out long before it was actually explained, and a small part of me was hoping for more, and I didn't get it. And Desiree. She was the worst of the lot- you'll have to read to find out who she is- but still.

But I did love the overall themes of friendship and strange, forbidden love and random acts of sexy kindness! So, overall, a book I would recommend if just for the romance! 4 stars!

BLOG TOUR: City Of Love by Susane Colasanti- Review, Dream Cast & Giveaway

City Love by Susane Colasanti
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: April 21st 2015

Rate: 4 stars!
Synopsis: Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna are living together in New York City the summer before their freshman year of college begins. With no parents, no rules, and an entire city to explore, these three girls are on the verge of the best summer of their lives.

Sadie is a native New Yorker. She is hopeful, romantic, and an eternal optimist who is ready to find her soul mate. Then she meets her dream boy: cute, funny, and quirky in all the right ways. The chemistry between them is unreal. Could he be the one?

Darcy is a free spirit from SoCal with rebellious tendencies and unlimited financial resources. Moving to New York City is just another adventure for her. Darcy wants this summer to be all about boy adventures—nothing serious. But how much fun is too much?

Rosanna leaves Chicago for NYC so she can put her past behind her and reinvent herself. The only thing standing in her way is the grand total of seventy-three cents she has saved. Then she meets a guy who wants to show her the glamorous side of New York—a side that she would never get to experience on her own. If Rosanna doesn't resist, she may find herself in city love.

Told from alternating points of view, City Love captures the moments in each girl's life when everything is thrilling, amazing, and terrifying all at once . . . in a way it will never be again.

The city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, the big apple- Welcome to New York City- where a million dreamers live and continue dreaming! Sadie, Rosanna and Darcy are three of these dreamers- now living the dream! 

“This is the place where dreams become reality. This is the place where anything is possible. This is the city that never sleeps and I intend to be wide awake for every breathtaking second”

Three roommates, three very different lives, three loves, three stories blended into one brilliant tale!

Sadie is the hopeful one- waiting for the love she's always wanted, that could be right around the corner. Rosanna is the one that got away from her small town existence to trying to make it work in the big city- financially and emotionally- along with her baggage. Darcy is the wild one, with her heart on her sleeve- or that's what she wants everyone to think! Living in university housing for the summer term, this is their story...

City of Love is a brilliant book! It's everything like the city it talks another- hopeful and heartbreaking, exciting and dangerous, predictable and limitless. There was something so New York about it- that you couldn't help but fall in love! Hope and dreams and just the uniqueness of the city wafted off of every page, love and boys showing up at every street corner, all under the glaring yet beautiful city lights!

“The possibilities this summer can bring are infinite. New York City is my drug of choice”

Although this book is great and authentic, I felt like through all of it, there was an element to the writing that made it seem distanced from everything that was going on. That somehow, through everything and all the hope and the love, it wasn't there one hundred percent- if that makes sense. 

I would definitely recommend it, however! A great read filled with everything that the greatest city stands for

DREAM CAST!

SADIE- Lea Michele (I don't know why- she just reminds me of Rachel on Glee, in some ways)

ROSANNA

DARCY

Follow the City Love by Susane Colasanti Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Susane Colasanti is the bestselling author of When It Happens, Take Me There, Waiting for You, Something Like Fate, So Much Closer, Keep Holding On, All I Need, and Now and Forever. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from New York University. Before becoming a full-time author in 2007, Susane was a high school science teacher for ten years. She lives in New York City.

The first book of Susane's City Love trilogy will be released on April 21, 2015.

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Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: September 10th 2013

Part of A Series?: No

I Got A Copy Through: I bought it! 

Blurb Description: A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

**MY REVIEW**

If there is one emotion that Fangirl left me with, I would have to pinpoint it as confusion. Pure, and utter emotional turmoil- with the afterthoughts of (after pondering over how one single book, with a few hundred pages of black and white text, could leave me in such a state of bewilderment, for only about the hundredth time) nothing but the characters and what their lives would turn out to be.

Cath is shy, socially awkward- an introvert with a passion. Fanfiction. Wren is her twin- outgoing, friendly, wild. Reagan is Cath's roommate, Levi is her ex- boyfriend, and Nick is her writing partner. Her father is a workaholic, with well, let's call them issues, just to not be too descriptive.

And this is their story. Well, Cath's mostly but theirs as well.

Cath is in college- and is extremely nervous to be there. How in the world was this going to be easy for her, she wasn’t boisterous like Wren, nor did she make friends easily. Or at all. How was she supposed to navigate through the huge campus, to the cafeteria, and around all these new people and parties? Even her own twin doesn’t want to have anything to do with her.

But, with Rainbow Rowell’s exceptional writing, we see the real Cath. The Cath that slowly comes out of her shell. With Nick, her writing buddy and all the evenings and nights they spend writing in a notebook, because computers lose the purity of actually writing. With Reagan, who realises that Cath has no friends, and decides to take her under her wing. And then there’s Levi.

Sweet, Perfect Levi.

And Fangirl is also and fangirling. Fanfiction, over the Simon Snow series. And how Cath lives for writing her version of the story. How is becomes more important that writing her own stories, and how she must learn to change that.

"You don't push through every moment. You pay attention. You take everything in. I like that about you- I like that better. I like your glasses," he said. "I like your Simon Snow t-Shirts. I like that you don't smile at everyone, because then, when you smile at me..."

Fangirl was the first book of Rainbow Rowell’s that I've read- and I definitely want more. I loved the way she made Cath grow her relationships, intensify them and create problems within them; how not once did the characters do something that you couldn't imagine they would do, but still leaving one those cute moments where you could smile and others when you'd be shocked at the turn of events. 

A book that you will devour in one sitting- because leaving this world will simply be impossible- READ IT! - 4 stars.

Review: Compulsion by Martina Boone

Title: Compulsion

Author: Martina Boone

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: October 28th 2014

Part of A Series?: Yes- The Heirs of Watson Island #1

I Got A Copy Through: YASH prize from the author

Blurb Description: Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient curse.

All her life, Barrie Watson has been a virtual prisoner in the house where she lives with her shut-in mother. When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead—a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.

Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family's twisted secrets. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn't what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead.

**MY REVIEW**

"You can’t lose someone you truly love. Love doesn’t come with an on- off switch. It’s made of too many threads of memory and hope and heartache that weave themselves into the very core of who you are."

Barrie Watson is not normal. Barrie Watson has baggage. Barrie Watson had a silent, tough, mother, who never really approved of her and never left their house because of the scars she bore, leaving Barrie to be raised be her gay Godfather, who was brilliant until he announced that he has pancreatic cancer and he was dying, which made Lula Watson die of a heart attack instantaneously.

So, Barrie is shipped to her ancestral home. A huge, falling apart plantation, with an eccentric aunt, a beautiful boy with a number as his name, a slimy uncle and a gorgeous cousin- none of who's intentions are clear, none of whom will explain what the mystery about Watson Island is all about- it's magic, it's history, it's abnormalities.

Except, Barrie isn't normal either. She has a gift- to find lost things- and the house is filled with them. Then she sees a man made of fire, and shadows calling out to her in the dark, and everything goes missing- and she know nothing will ever be what she thought it was...

Compulsion was everything I thought it would be and SO much more. It had the capturing power that only very few books do- to keep you hooked and so much in that world that you find it hard to believe that you're actually living in another. It had everything one could expect from a good book- romance, family, spirits, history and a bit of the paranormal. 

I absolutely loved the characters that Martina created- especially Eight Beaufort, with his perfect imperfections and his gift and just everything about him, that made him SO SO SO swoon worthy!

I will definitely be reading the sequel! 5 golden stars!

Review: The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

Title: The Walled City

Author: Ryan Graudin

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: November 4th 2014

Part of A Series?: No, Standalone

I Got A Copy Through: ARC via Guardian Children's Books

Blurb Description: 730. That's how many days I've been trapped. 18. That's how many days I have left to find a way out.
DAI, trying to escape a haunting past, traffics drugs for the most ruthless kingpin in the Walled City. But in order to find the key to his freedom, he needs help from someone with the power to be invisible....
JIN hides under the radar, afraid the wild street gangs will discover her biggest secret: Jin passes as a boy to stay safe. Still, every chance she gets, she searches for her lost sister....
MEI YEE has been trapped in a brothel for the past two years, dreaming of getting out while watching the girls who try fail one by one. She's about to give up, when one day she sees an unexpected face at her window.....

In this innovative and adrenaline-fueled novel, they all come together in a desperate attempt to escape a lawless labyrinth before the clock runs out.

**MY REVIEW**

"There are three rules of survival in the Walled City: Run fast. Trust no one. Always carry your knife.

Right now, my life depends completely on the first. Run, run, run."

Sunless, lawless, ruled by gangs that deal in two things- drugs and prostitutes. The Walled City is a nightmare. Hell, even. It is death personified with hope being crushed out. And yet, there are always those that break the rules…

Dai. Running away from a crime he didn't actually commit and into the Walled City from his huge mansion, he has only one chance at redemption. A chance that will very likely cost him his life.

Jin Ling. Run, run, run. It's all she does. In the quest to find her sister who was taken by the reapers to be a brothel girl, she finds herself breaking all her rules. Trust, friendship, and worst of all, the dream of thinking about what the future holds for her.

Mei Yee. Staring out of her window that gives her only an ounce of the freedom she wants deep inside, all she is told is that this is her life. There is no way out. And yet, there is a mysterious boy who stands outside her window, promising her a life filled with seashells and happiness…

While it took me a while to actually get hooked onto the Walled City, the book itself was genius! Ryan Graudin's writing was BRILLIANT; her words are so soulful, her each line tinted with mystery, hope and desperation all together that I couldn't help but fall in love!

"Instead of dreaming about dancing in zero gravity, making footprints in moon dust – he's six feet under. Shattered beyond repair; broken just like everything else I leave behind."

I would most definitely recommend The Walled City – to anyone who wants to feel hope – really feel it – in a place where it is crushed out. 5 glowing stars!

BLOG TOUR: Neverland by Shari Arnold- Review & Giveaway

Title: NEVERLAND
Author: Shari Arnold
Release Date: April 7th, 2015

Blurb Description: It’s been four months since seventeen-year-old Livy Cloud lost her younger sister, but she isn’t quite ready to move on with her life — not even close. She’d rather spend her time at the Seattle Children’s hospital, reading to the patients and holding onto memories of the sister who was everything to her and more.

But when she meets the mysterious and illusive Meyer she is drawn into a world of adventure, a world where questions abound. 

Is she ready to live life without her sister? Or more importantly, is she brave enough to love again?

In this modern reimagining of Peter Pan, will Livy lose herself to Neverland or will she find what she’s been searching for?  

BOOK LINKS: Goodreads || Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shari Arnold grew up in California and Utah but now resides in Connecticut, with her husband and two kids, where she finds it difficult to trust a beach without waves. She writes Young Adult fiction because it's her favorite. And occasionally she takes photographs.

Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Blog

GIVEAWAY

One winner will get a signed copy of Neverland and a $10.00 Amazon Gift card.
Open to US only.

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**MY REVIEW**

Live as if they are going to tell stories about you."

Livy lives in a large penthouse, has private tutors, her own roof to be her private place, and everything a teenage girl could want...

Except her younger sister, Jenna. Who is dead. So, what really, is the point to Livy's life- other than mourning her sister, eating her sisters ice cream flavour, and spending all her time at the children's hospital, where Jenna died. How can she move on, and love, when the most important part of her has disappeared?

And so, she leads a bleak existence, with two inattentive parents, and just one friend. Until she meets Meyer.

Meyer who isn't like anyone she's ever met- who lives life like its one big adventure. Meyer, who she knows nothing concrete about except the fact that he has eyes as green as emeralds, and that he makes her feel things she's never left before. 

But Meyer is more than meets the eye, and for the first time, Livy feels like she is alive again. No more numbing pain, no more feeling inconsequential. No more living like she's not really alive. 

Neverland may seem like a beautiful place with its unlimited supply of wishes, but are wishes enough when you can’t share them with the ones you love?

This book is in two words- INTENSELY BEAUTIFUL! I've never seen a book that is So serious and yet has the ability to make you love and hope and want to see more, and feel more, than this BRILLIANT Peter Pan retelling by Shari Arnold!

A modern twist to a classic, that will leave you spellbound! Family, letting go, moving on, love, adventure, and what it means to be alive- you're about to start the journey of a lifetime!

Review: Catch Me When I Fall by Vicki Leigh

Title: Catch Me When I Fall
Author: Vicki Leigh
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication Date: October 23rd 2014
Part of A Series?: Yes, Part 1 of  2 (so far)
I Got A Copy Through: The author, for a review

Blurb Description:In 1814, at the age of seventeen, Daniel Graham sacrificed himself to save another. Recruited at his death to be a Protector of the Night, he has spent 200 years as a Dreamcatcher, guarding humans from Nightmares—clawed, red-eyed creatures that feed off people’s fears while they sleep. He’s become one of the best, but he wants nothing more than to stop. 

Then he’s given an assignment to watch over sixteen-year-old Kayla Bartlett, a clinically depressed patient in a psychiatric ward. Nightmares love a human with a tortured past. Yet, when they take a deep interest in her, appearing in unprecedented numbers, the job becomes more dangerous than any Daniel’s ever experienced—because someone with the power to control the monsters seems to want her dead.

Driven by his growing feelings for her, he whisks her away to Rome where others like him can keep her safe. Under their roof, the Protectors discover what Kayla is and why someone who can manipulate Nightmares has her in his sights. But before they can make a move, the Protectors are betrayed and Kayla is kidnapped. Daniel will stop at nothing to save her. Even if it means giving up his immortality.

He thought she was just another girl to protect. He was wrong.

**MY REVIEW**

“I was still a young soldier, just in a different kind of war. Good versus Evil. The cliché kind.”

I honestly don’t know what I was expecting from Catch Me When I Fall, for most of the time, I feel like I’ve simply outgrown the paranormal genre. But then, occasionally, there comes along a book that sounds good, and that makes me get into the genre again.

So, when I read the synopsis for this one, I was thinking along of the lines of damsel in distress girl with a strong boy, and a relationship that was so forbidden, that they just had to be together. Get the picture?

Well, I can quite honestly say that this was NOT that- and it surprised me! Because Catch Me When I Fall is a fresh, adrenaline filled and magically spelled book, GUARANTEED to keep you at the edge of your seats!

‘”War” was not a word we were accustomed to. We were the peacekeepers.”

The synopsis tells you what you need to know, so not much more about the actual story line except this- those paras that you’re reading, are just the VERY BEGINNING of the AMAZING tale that will leave you NEEDING to fangirl about it!

I loved that this book did NOT have a damsel in distress, or any of those other aforementioned clichés, I loved that this book had so many plot twists that you were left wondering where the heck the other one concluded and how the heck this new piece came into play. I also LOVED that this book had a wider focus range than more than two teens pining for each other (don’t get me wrong, that is good too, but this is just so FRESH!) And most of all I loved that no matter how hard I tried, this book was SO unpredictable, that I couldn’t help but falling in love.

Thinking in rather detail, though, I can only wish that the original rules of the Catchers were emphasised upon more, just a little, to make it seem a bit more, well, strict or whatever;)

Other than that, if you’re looking for a completely new take into the paranormal and magic genre- go ahead and pick up Vicki Leigh’s book- I couldn’t give it a higher recommendationJ

Review: Throne Of Glass by Sarah. J. Mass

Title: Throne Of Glass
Author: Sarah. J. Mass
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: May 7th 2013
Part of A Series?: Part 1 of 6
I Got A Copy Through: I bought it!
Blurb Description: In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. 

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world

**MY REVIEW**

"My name is Celaena Sardothien, but it makes no difference if my name is Celaena or Lillian, because I'd still beat you, no matter what you call me."

She smiled at him as she stood. He just stared up at her, his bloody nose leaking down the side of his cheek.

Brutally trained as an assassin from the tender age of eight, sent to a death camp at the age of sixteen, out to play a dangerous game to become the King's Champion a year later. She is Ardalan's Assassin, the most notorious of the Assassin's Guild, a girl; a child thrust into the word of darkness, evil and destruction.

From starving, freezing, and being whipped, Celaena Sardothien is transported, to be the crown prince's champion at a competition for the country's best assassin to become the King's. Except, nobody can know that the one everyone feared only a year ago, is back out of the place she was supposed to die in. And so, Lady Lillian, a jewel thief with daddy issues is born.

But for a seventeen year old, a glass castle with the most beautiful gowns, competitors that view her as nothing, a distrusting Captain of the Guard, the Princess from the nation rebelling against the King's rule and the charismatic and ridiculously smart crown prince himself, all in between brutal murders and a competition filled with assassins, soldiers and thieves, things are about to interesting and VERY complicated.

Throne of Glass is simply put, a BRILLIANT book – and I can't wait for book two to reach me. I don't have much more to say, except that this book will give you all you want and more. As the plot thickens, romance lights up the air, other dimensions are opened and ancient magic is brought to life, you will be left breathless and spell bound.