Australian Vs. U.S.A Book Covers.

Touch of Power (Healer #1)

by Maria V. Snyder 

Australian.

American.

I personally definately prefer the American cover.

Book Review (26).

Crave (The Clann #1)

by Melissa Darnell 

Publication: 1st November 2011

Publisher: Harlequin Teen Australia

Pages: 421

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

Savannah Colbert has never known why she's so hated by the kids of the Clann. Nor can she deny her instinct to get close to Clann golden boy Tristan Coleman. Especially when she recovers from a strange illness and the attraction becomes nearly irresistible. It's as if he's a magnet, pulling her gaze, her thoughts, even her dreams. Her family has warned her to have nothing to do with him, or any members of the Clann. But when Tristan is suddenly everywhere she goes, Savannah fears she's destined to fail.

For years, Tristan has been forbidden to even speak to Savannah Colbert. Then Savannah disappears from school for a week and comes back…different, and suddenly he can't stay away. Boys seem intoxicated just from looking at her. His own family becomes stricter than ever. And Tristan has to fight his own urge to protect her, to be near her no matter the consequences...

My Thoughts.

In grade four Savannah 'married' her best friend Tristan while her other twin best friends watched on, the next day they told her they were never allowed to speak to her again.

Nearly seven years later and the twins pick on her and Tristan ignores her she's also been told by her parents to stay away from them, The Clann as they and they're families are known as, rule the town and are witches and warlocks.

One day at school Savannah gets really sick and after a week off school sick and after she becomes lucid her parents and Nanna tell her she's half witch on her Mum's side and half vampire on her Dad's side the first and only dhampir ever.

Of course relationship's between the two sides are forbidden and neither side were happy when Savannah was born so Savannah's Mum and Nanna were cast out of The Clann and a pact was made between the warring parties that Savannah was never to be taught any magic at all.

Of course she goes back to school and realises that guys are hypnotised by her gaze and become stalkerish and while both Savannah and Tristan are both attracted to each other and try to stay away from each other they start dating in secret and meeting up in their dreams.

I highly recommend this book, I love the writing style and the alternating views between Savannah and Tristan.

And to have in a paranormal romance  the female protagonist as the vampire is such a fresh twist and take on the genre I didn't want to have to put the book down.

I loved this book and would have loved to have the second book sitting right next to me so I could go on with it straight away.

Bring on next year.

I give this 4/5

A big thanks to Gabby @ Harlequin Teen Australia.

Feature And Follow Friday (7).

Q: What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to books? Maybe you don’t like love triangles or thin plots? Tell us about it!

The pet peeve I have when it comes to reading is when something is over-described or the same thing is described continuously through a book.

Book Review (25).

Smoulder

by Brenna Yovanoff 

Publication: 1st December 2012

Publisher: Simon Pulse/ Simon And Schuster

Pages: 368

Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

Price: $19.99

Being the youngest daughter of the Devil has never been easy. Daphne's father has no time for her, her mother no interest, and her status in the upper echelon separates her from the working-class demons that populate Lucifer's metropolis. When her brother and only confidante goes missing, life in the restrictive city of Pandemonium becomes intolerable. Now, in an attempt to find him, Daphne sets out for Earth - and finds it larger and more chaotic than she imagined: a dazzling expanse of noise, dirt and random violence. Despite her bewilderment, she navigates the mortal world with growing fascination, gaining an ally when she saves a dying boy from her father's minions.
For Truman Flynn, the last year has been one long downward spiral, but when Daphne arrives just in time to save his life, he finds himself unexpectedly glad to have another chance. Together, Daphne and Truman go in search of her brother, braving the hazards of Las Vegas and the perils of first love, even as it becomes increasingly clear that her brother might have had a secret and compelling reason for leaving. Lucifer's agents aren't the only creatures on the prowl, and Daphne soon finds herself the target of a plan to rid the world of demons for good. Now she must evade a demon-eating monster, rescue her brother from an angelic zealot, and save the boy she loves from his greatest enemy - himself. 

My Thoughts.

I found out about this book a while ago and immediately put it on my wishlist I was very intrigued by the plotline and wanted to see how it would turn out.

Daphne lives in hell and is the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith her father never has time for her and her mother doesn't seem to care one way or another, the only people who really seem to pay her any attention are her older brother Obie who is the son of Lilith and Adam (from the Garden Of Eden) and Beelzebub her father's close friend.

One day Obie comes to tell her that he's leaving for good and is going to stay on Earth, Daphne is upset and misses him a lot when he leaves, their mother has a vision thatsomething bad has happened to Obie so because she's stuck in hell and can never leave she sends Daphne up to find her brother.

On Earth she meets up with a boy who was the last person to see Obie, Truman is very troubled after his mother died of cancer he tried to kill himself and has been on a self destructive path ever since, he's been having nightmares of a shadow man and does everything he can to stay awake so he doesn't dream,

But his dreams aren't nightmares and they will end up helping Daphne find her brother.

I pretty much liked all of the characters in this book the exceptions being Azrael, Dark Dreadful (she goes around killing any demons she comes across) and the Lilim (Lillith's other daughters).

With the alternating views of Daphne and Truman you get to better understand the torment and pain that Truman is going through, and then the fact Daphne believes herself to have no emotions whatsoever but her feelings are brought out by Truman. 

I loved the twist on the demons and angels, this isn't your ordinary happily ever after that you associate with angels but something entirely different.

I give this 4/5

A big thanks to Caroline @ Simon And Schuster Australia

Waiting On Wednesday (7).

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine where you can spotlight an upcoming release that you're eagerly anticipating.

Poison Heart

by S. B. Hayes

1st March 2012 Quercus Books

An idle glance through the window of a bus changes everything for Katy Rivers.

A mysterious girl, with luminous green eyes, stares back and from that moment on she haunts Katy and appears to know her every move, even what she is thinking. What is the strange connection between them? And what is the power of the emerald pendant which the girl bestows on her?

‘I’m everything you’re not and I’m going to take over your life… I’m your worst nightmare.’

These chilling words mean that Katy is gradually backed into a corner, alienated from everyone she holds dear, even her own mother. Only her best friend Luke, keeps faith and together they must find a way to defeat the girl who is determined that she will be with Katy...even until death. 

Wicked as They Come

by Delilah S Dawson

27th March 2012 Pocket

Tish Everett has just left an abusive relationship to find herself and take care of her dying grandmother. When she inadvertently steals an antique locket from an estate sale, she wakes up naked in a strange land and assumes she's having the most realistic dream of her life. Instead she meets the man whose portrait haunted her from inside the locket-- magician, carnival ringmaster, and blood-drinker Criminy Stain.

When the locket is stolen, Tish must choose between her supposed destiny with Criminy in the steampunk Victorian world of Sang and a normal life and family in her own world, where she's the only thing keeping her grandmother alive

Oldsoul

by Dan Haring

24th April 2012 Pendrell Publishing

Jason Gouvas doesn’t want to believe he has special abilities or that
humanity’s fate rests on his shoulders, but the dead girl in his mind
can be quite persuasive.

Silence

by Michelle Sagara West

1st May 2012 DAW Hardcover

“It began in the graveyard. Ever since her boyfriend Nathan died in a tragic accident Emma had been coming to the graveyard at night. During the day she went through the motions at her prep school, in class, with her friends, but that’s all it was. But tonight was different. Tonight Emma and her dog were not alone in the cemetery. There were two others there—Eric, who had just started at her school, and an ancient woman who looked as though she were made of rags. And when they saw Emma there, the old woman reached out to her with a grip as chilling as death….”

Nightshifted

by Cassie Alexander 

22nd May 2012 St Martin's Press

Welcome to the secret wing of County Hospital—where vampires get transfusions, werewolves have silver allergies, and one nurse is in way over her head…

Nursing school prepared Edie Spence for a lot of things. Burn victims? No problem. Severed limbs? Piece of cake. Vampires? No way in hell. But as the newest nurse on Y4, the secret ward hidden in the bowels of County Hospital, Edie has her hands full with every paranormal patient you can imagine—from vamps and were-things to zombies and beyond…

NIGHTSHIFTED

Edie’s just trying to learn the ropes so she can get through her latest shift unscathed. But when a vampire servant turns to dust under her watch, all hell breaks loose. Now she’s haunted by the man’s dying words — Save Anna — and before she knows it, she’s on a mission to rescue some poor girl from the undead. Which involves crashing a vampire den, falling for a zombie, and fighting for her soul.

Gray’s Anatomy was never like this…

The Hunt

by Andrew Fukuda

8th May 2012 St Martin's Griffin

Seventeen-year-old Gene struggles to survive in a society where humans have been eaten to near extinction by the general population. When Gene is chosen to participate in the government-sponsored hunt for the remaining humans, he must learn the art of the hunt but also elude his fellow hunters whose suspicions about his true human nature are growing.

Book Review (24).

Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived

by Andrew Wilson

Published: 1st November 2011

Publisher: Simon And Schuster

Pages: 400

Genre: Historical/Non-Fiction

Age Appropriate: Adult

Price: $40.00

Description

In the early hours of 15 April 1912, after the majestic liner Titanic had split apart and the 1,500 men, women and children struggled to stay alive in the freezing Atlantic, the sea was alive with the sound of screaming. Then, as the ship sank to the ocean floor and the passengers slowly died from hypothermia, a deathly silence settled over the sea. Yet the echoes of that night reverberated through the lives of each of the 705 survivors. Shadow of the Titanic tells the extraordinary stories of some of those who survived. 
Although we think we know the story of the Titanic - the famously unsinkable ship that hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America in April 1912 - little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did the loss of the ship shape the lives of the people who survived? How did those who were saved feel about those who perished? And how did they remember that terrible night, in effect a disaster that has been likened to the destruction of a small town?
Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the sinking, SHADOW OF THE TITANIC will shed new light on this enduringly fascinating story by showing how the disaster continued to shape the lives of a cross-section of passengers who escaped the sinking ship.

My Thoughts.

I've said before that I read anyhting to do with the Titanic and this book was so good.

We all know that the Titanic sank on the 15th April 1912, we know that 1,500 men, women and children died that night, but what we don't really know is what happened to the survivors after the ship sank.

This is one thing I've always been interested in, peoples lives afterward and they're not really happy stories.

A tremendous amount of people refused to speak of the Titanic ever again, some people ended up killing themselves, others ended up in mental institutions and some who suffered mentally for the rest of their lives.

Some people lost all their possessions and were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs, some wrote books about the sinking and some appeared in movies about the ship.

There were some people who used the tragedy as their turn to shine in the spotlight, but it wasn't all doom and gloom some people after losing their respective others found love with other survivors on the ship.

But it all comes down to this the Titanic was one of the biggest tragedies the world has ever seen, and a lot of survivors lives became tragedies as well after the sinking, but perhaps that's why the world is still so intrigued with the Titanic nearly one hundred years later.

I give this 4/5

A big thanks to Caroline @ Simon And Schuster Australia

Australian Vs. U.S.A Book Covers.

Wintergirls

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Australian.

American.