Book Review (363): The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1) - Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1)

by Samantha Shannon 

Publication: 20th August 2013

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Pages: 466

Genre: Fantasy/Dystopian

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

Buy It: Amazon

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It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing.

But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.

Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.

The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine—a young woman learning to harness her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

My Thoughts.

The Bone Season is the first book in a new epic series, a mix of dystopian and fantasy, this is a thrilling, heart-pounding and nail-biting story that will leave you breathless and extremely desperate to get your hands on a copy of the next book The Mime Order.

Set in the year 2059, the world is now ruled by Scion, people like Paige who have some kind of psychic ability are deemed "unnaturals" and are hunted down and/or tortured and killed.

Paige belongs to one of the groups that are part of the Seven Seals the criminal underworld consisting of unnaturals/voyants with varied abilities that search out information by using their skills.

Paige has a very rare power, she is able to break in to people's minds through their dreamscapes, her ability makes her a dreamwalker a very rare clairovoyant that accidentally has her killing two guards, she is subsequently caught and sent to the long ago abandoned city of Oxford, run by the Rephaim whom are otherworldly creatures, each  voyant is picked by a keeper to serve as their slaves, when Paige is chosen by Warden to be his slave and he her Master everyone is shocked as he has never had a human slave before, but his plans are to train her and help her to develop her ability, but she soon discovers that Warden is nothing like any of the other Masters, and if she has any hope of escaping she needs to learn to trust him, he may just be her best bet in achieving that.

The small bit of romance shared between these two at the end of the book has me anxiously awaiting what can only be one of my most anticipated books for the rest of this year, the world, imagery and characters combine to make this an extremely unforgettable novel.

I'm eager to see where the rest of this series goes, at the planned length of seven books there is sure to hopefully be some more Warden appearances,  and even perhaps some more romance, and of course let's not forget Samantha's amazing storytelling.

Highly recommended.

I give this 5/5 stars.

I'm Samantha Shannon: dreamer, migraineur and author ofThe Bone Season, the first in a projected series of seven fantasy novels. I was born in Hammersmith, London in 1991. From 2010 – 2013 I studied English Language and Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford, specialising in Principles of Film Criticism and Emily Dickinson. I'm now working on the second book in the Bone Season series,The Mime Order (out 21 October 2014).

I'm a fan of old music, gramophones, silent film, good coffee, and real books. I have four siblings, four parents, and a male tortoise named Lily-Beth, some of whom live with me in west London. The Bone Season is my first published novel. 

My blog, A Book from the Beginning, tracks my journey to publication and my experiences as a debut novelist. Comments and discussion are always welcome. 

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(ARC) Book Review (362):The Promise (Thunder Point #5) - Robyn Carr

The Promise (Thunder Point #5)

by Robyn Carr 

Publication: 24th June 2014

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA

Pages: 363

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Age Appropriate: Adult

Buy It: 

#1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr returns to Thunder Point with an uplifting story about overcoming loss and finding unexpected love 

Scott Grant has a bustling family practice in the small Oregon community of Thunder Point. The town and its people have embraced the widowed doctor and father of two, his children are thriving, and Scott knows it's time to move on from his loss. But as the town's only doctor, the dating scene is awkward. That is, until a stunning physician's assistant applies for a job at his clinic. 

Peyton Lacoumette considers herself entirely out of the dating scene. She's already been burned by a man with kids, and she's come to Thunder Point determined not to repeat past mistakes. When Scott offers her a job, at a much lower salary than she's used to, Peyton is surprisingly eager to accept…at least for now. She's willing to stay for a three-month trial period while she explores other options. 

Scott and Peyton know the arrangement is temporary—it isn't enough time to build a real relationship, never mind anything with lasting commitment. But love can blossom faster than you think when the timing is right, and this short visit just might hold the promise of forever.

My Thoughts.

The Promise is the fifth book in the Thunder Point series, a small town contemporary romance series which gets better with every release.

While every book features a different couple, we also get multiple perspectives of past couples and residents of Thunder Point featured throughout each and every book, and while most people will read that and think ugh...I hate more than one point of view in a book, for these books it works, it carries the story along and you are left in no doubt as to which characters perspective you're reading at any given time.

Thunder Point's Dr Scott is a widower who has recently moved to town with his two young children to open a new clinic, he is finally ready to move on and find romance again, enter Peyton a nurse who has just ended a disastrous relationship with a doctor and his horrible kids, and is in no way looking for a relationship in any way, shape or form.

But sparks fly when these two are together and it's not long before Peyton realises that not all men are like her ex, and by giving Scott a chance she may just find the kind of love that she's always dreamed of.

The Promise is full of romance, laughter and small town charm that will leave a warm spot in your heart and a smile on your face, long after you've turned the last page.

Robyn has created such a heartwarming, well written series with fleshed out characters that will have you caring for each and every one and will leave you anticipating every new release.

A quick and easy read that I got through in just one sitting, this is one book that you won't want to put down.

I give this 4/5 stars.

Now that Robyn Carr has earned the #1 slot on the New York Times list many times, the creator of the wildly popular Virgin River and Thunder Point series laughs when someone refers to her as an overnight success.

“The truth is, I was first published in 1978, and it took me thirty years to make it to The New York Times bestseller List,” she pointed out, referring to 2007’s A Virgin River Christmas.

But once Robyn became that popular, she stayed that popular. WhenBring Me Home for Christmas, the 16th Virgin River novel, was released in November 2011, it debuted in the #1 slot not just on the New York Times roster, but also on the Barnes & Noble and Publishers Weekly lists as well. Her last seven books, including her three 2013 Thunder Point novels, have all earned the coveted #1 New York Timesslot the first week on sale. Her newest milestone: The Hero, her September 2013 Thunder Point novel, debuted in the #1 position onseven national bestseller lists: USA Today, Publishers Weekly, New York Times Mass-market Fiction, New York Times eBook Fiction, New York Times Combined Print/eBook Fiction, the Wall Street Journal, and Bookscan.

After thirty-plus years of hard work, life is very, very good for the Las Vegas author who began writing when her two children were babies.

Those who try to explain Robyn’s “sudden” success might say it was because she was on the leading edge of a trend toward small-town romances. The truth is, Robyn’s Virgin River and Thunder Point series, like her earlier Grace Valley books, are a blend of romance and women’s fiction—books that not only entertain but also address sensitive issues, such as domestic violence, health risks and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anything that can compromise a woman’s happiness because she’s female. And there’s no denying that Robyn has a way with words. Her voice is unique and takes her readers into the hearts and minds of the brave men and women who have served in the military, into the families left behind, and into those who confront challenges head-in in their search for love and fulfillment.

Surprisingly, Robyn didn’t always know she wanted to be a writer. She had planned to become a nurse. She married her high school sweetheart four weeks before he left for Air Force Officer’s Training School at the peak of the Vietnam War. Because she found herself following Jim from base to base, Robyn never had a chance to pursue nursing. Her husband worked long hours and often traveled. To pass the time Robyn read. When doctors instructed her to stay down and keep her feet up during a complicated pregnancy, her neighbor began bringing her ten paperbacks a week.

“I was reading more than one a day. Nothing short of labor pains could snap me out of it,” Robyn said.

Since the books she’d been devouring were by Anya Seton, Kathleen Woodiweiss and Rosemary Hawley Jarmen, Robyn says it only made sense that her first efforts to write were in the historical romance genre as well.

There was no training program available at the time for writing romance. At the first writers’ conference Robyn attended—back in 1976—a novelist who wrote in a different genre critiqued Robyn’s third manuscript and suggested she go home and find something to do for which she had talent.

That same manuscript was published in hardcover two years later asChelynne, a novel which Robyn has reissued as an e-book. Her second manuscript was eventually published as well. But Robyn says her first was simply a tool for learning and will remain buried and “never seen by human eyes.”

Robyn has always written about strong women, no matter the period in which they live. For the first fifteen years of her career she wrote romance, the early books of which were all historical, but later included contemporaries. Needing a change, she branched out and wrote a thriller, which she said she’ll never do again because, for her, it was too creepy. She also tried her hand at non-fiction and what she smilingly describes as “several brilliant but as yet unsold screenplays,” in addition to articles and short stories.

“I jumped all over the place, not really aware that I was working on reinventing myself and redesigning my craft,” she says. “I began to develop my own brand of women’s fiction, a style that most closely resembles my take on life. I want to laugh through a book, but I don’t want a book that’s a big laugh. As a reader I want to have a genuinely good time, but I don’t want the book to be a joke. I want real women’s issues, real humor and teeth in the story.”

She says that reading is important because people need a safe place to deal with the emotions they’re stuck with, and a book is a safe place to do that. She believes there’s great value in her novels dealing with real issues in a realistic manner.

Robyn’s settings are so richly drawn they function like characters. Virgin River—a fictional town in the rugged, remote Humboldt County of northern California—is a location that Robyn describes as a brave and adventurous spot.

“It’s not a cute and easy place to live,” Robyn explained. “It calls on my characters’ deepest sense of adventure to live there.”

Asked if she’d enjoy living in Virgin River, Robyn’s quick to say that even if it were a real spot, she’d never move there.

“I have an overwhelming need to live in a place where I can get my eyebrows waxed,” she explains.

After writing twenty Virgin River stories, Robyn is now taking her readers into another fictional community, a picturesque coastal town on the Oregon coast she calls Thunder Point. Like her Virgin River novels, the Thunder Point books will make readers laugh, sigh, and fall in love: with a small town filled with people they’ll never forget. In addition to 2013’s The Wanderer, The Newcomer and The Hero, Thunder Point novels on Robyn’s schedule are three 2014 titles, The Chance (March), The Promise (July), and The Homecoming (September).

Robyn and her husband enjoy traveling, often taking research trips together. Their son and daughter are grown. Robyn says that, in addition to reading her novels and making snide remarks about how she’s used family scenarios to her advantage, they have made her a happy grandmother.

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Top Ten Tuesday - 10 Favorite Tv Shows

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover!

This week's theme is:  Favorite Movies or TV Shows.  

Besides The Top Show Which Is My All-Time Favorite Show Ever, The Rest Are In No Particular Order.

Book Review (361): Summoned (Redemption's Heir #1) - Anne M. Pillsworth

Summoned (Redemption's Heir #1)

by Anne M. Pillsworth

Publication: 24th June 2014

Publisher: Tor Teen

Pages: 320

Genre: Fantasy

Age Appropriate: Young Adult

Buy It: Amazon + Barnes & Noble + The Book Depository

When the Elder Gods extend an invitation, be wary of the strings attached

While browsing in a rare book store in Arkham, Sean finds an occult book with an ad seeking an apprentice sorcerer, from a newspaper dated March 21, 1895. Even more intriguing, the ad specifically requests applicants reply by email.

Sean’s always been interested in magic, particularly the Lovecraftian dark mythology. Against his best friend Edna's ("call-me-Eddy-or-else") advice, he decides to answer the ad, figuring it’s a clever hoax, but hoping that it won’t be. The advertiser, Reverend Redemption Orne, claims to be a master of the occult born more than 300 years ago. To prove his legitimacy, Orne gives Sean instructions to summon a harmless but useful familiar—but Sean’s ceremony takes a dark turn, and he instead accidentally beckons a bloodthirsty servant to the Cthulhu Mythos god Nyarlathotep. The ritual is preemptively broken, and now Sean must find and bind the servitor, before it grows too strong to contain. But strange things are already happening in the town of Arkham....

My Thoughts.

Summoned is the first book in an all new young adult series Redemption's Heir by Anne M. Pillsworth, set in the fantasy genre, with a hint of mythology thrown in as well.

We are introduced to teenager Sean who with his best-friend Eddy are browsing in an occult book shop when Sean comes across an extremely old book which when opened is found to contain a newspaper clipping from 1895, what's strange about that you may ask, well there's a circled ad for somebody searching for an apprentice sorcerer, applicants are asked to email to request an interview, thinking that it's a very well thought out joke, although Eddy is wary they email only to discover that Reverend Orne seriously believes that sorcerer's and witches are real, and even claims to be a sorcerer himself born 300 years ago!

To determine whether Sean has any inkling of magic he sets him a task of performing a summoning spell, against his better judgement and ignoring Eddy's warnings he goes ahead with it, and that's when everything goes catastrophically wrong.

Accidentally summoning a servitor who is a servant to the Cthulhu Mythos god Nyarlathotep, who's main source of sustenance are animals and if given the chance humans, Sean is terrified and unintentionally let's the servitor get away before he gets a chance to bind the creature to him.

Sean must find a way with the help of his family and friends to find a spell to counteract the summoning spell to send the servitor back where it came from before it's too late and Sean is driven crazy by the constant melding of their minds.

While this was an enjoyable read I felt more excited by the concept rather than the actual story, I do plan to carry on with the series though as I'm curious to see how this series turns out.

I would have liked to see a section somewhere in the book with pronounciations of the names, as a lot of them were hard to figure out and it would have made reading it a little more easier.

I give this 3/5 stars.

I was born in Troy, New York, but I currently live just outside Providence, Rhode Island, at the head of beautiful Narragansett Bay. New England has long been my spiritual home, and the region informs much of my fiction. One day I hope to find Lovecraft's portals to his mythical towns of witch-haunted Arkham and Kingsport, shadowed Innsmouth and accursed Dunwich. Until then, I'll just have to write about them..

I am a member of SFWA and HWA and a rabid Austenite. Don't those three always go together?

Apart from writing, I like gardening, swimming, king cobras, jumping spiders, and cats. No cobras or cats at the moment, but the jumping spiders are always with us. In spite of maintaining a mental age of between twelve and sixteen, I have just married my partner of more than thirty years.  Thanks to the RI Legislature for finally living up to Roger Williams' philosophy of crabbing at people he disagreed with but never denying the primacy of the personal conscience.

Website 

Stop by and chat at TWITTER: @AnneMPillsworth

Official Dead In The City Cocktail Contest.

Official Dead in the City Cocktail Contest

To celebrate the recent release of Sara Humphreys’ latest Dead in the City title,Vampire Trouble, Sourcebooks is holding a contest to create the official Dead in the City series cocktail!

Before Monday, July 28^th we’re asking readers to submit their unique cocktail recipe to Casablanca@sourcebooks.com for a chance to have their creation named the official Dead in the City cocktail and have it featured in Sara’s next Dead in the City title, Vampires Never Cry Wolf (March 2015). Sara will announce the winner in a video where she makes the drink!

Additionally, everyone who sends us their recipe will also be entered in a random drawing to win a Dead in the City themed prize pack including martini glasses, drink supplies, and other sweet treats!

Be sure to follow Sara Humphreys on Facebook, Twitter, and her Website for more details on her latest release, Vampire Trouble, including exclusives and MUCH MORE of her fabulous paranormal romances!

(ARC) Book Review (360): Undeniable (Country Roads #2) - Shannon Richard

Undeniable (Country Roads #2)

by Shannon Richard

Publication: 24th June 2014

Publisher: Forever

Pages: 384

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Age Appropriate: Adult

Buy It: Amazon + Barnes & Noble + The Book Depository

THEIR LOVE WAS UNDENIABLE

Grace King knows two things for certain: she loves working at her grandmother's café and she loves the hunky town sheriff. She always has. As she bakes him sweet treats, Grace fantasizes about helping him work up an appetite all night long. But whenever she thinks she's finally getting somewhere, he whips out some excuse to escape. Growing up, he never looked twice at her. Now Grace won't rest until she has Jax's undivided attention.

Jaxson Anderson can't deny that his best friend's kid sister is the sexiest woman in Mirabelle, Florida. Unwilling to burden Grace with his painful past, Jax keeps the sassy blonde at arm's length. Yet one heated kiss crumbles all of his carefully built defenses. But when a town secret surfaces, threatening to destroy everything they believe in, can the man who defended Grace from bullies as a child protect her now?

My Thoughts.

Undeniable is the second book in the Country Roads series by Shannon Richard, contemporary romances set in the small town of Mirabelle.

Each book features a new couple, this time around the focus is on Grace and the town's sheriff Jax, growing up Grace always had a crush on her older brother Brendan's best-friend Jax, but he has always denied his feelings because of his parents and they way they've made him feel worthless and unwanted all his life, which has given him the opinion that no one could ever love him least of all Grace, it will take all she has to convince him, that his parents were wrong all these years and he deserves to be happy too.

Throughout the story there is a subplot involving an increasing spate of robberies around town, and there is an investigation into who is responsible for these crimes.

Featuring appearances of characters from the first book, they make a welcome and entertaining return.

Love never runs smoothly in these books, there are hurdles each couple need to overcome before they get their happily ever afters.

Shannon has crafted a series that will keep you entertained on so many levels, I adore these books and characters and devour them in one sitting.

I loved Undeniable more than I did the previous book, and I look forward to continuing on with this series for what I hope is a very long while to come.

I give this 5/5 stars.

All About Shannon

Shannon Richard grew up in the Panhandle of Florida as the baby sister of two overly protective but loving brothers. She was raised by a more than somewhat eccentric mother, a self-proclaimed vocabularist who showed her how to get lost in a book, and a father who passed on his love for coffee and really loud music. She graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s in English literature and still lives in Tallahassee, where she battles everyday life with writing, reading, and a rant every once in a while. Okay, so the rants might happen on a regular basis. She’s still waiting for her Southern, scruffy Mr. Darcy, and in the meantime writes love stories to indulge her overactive imagination. Oh, and she’s a pretty big fan of the whimsy.

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(ARC) Book Review (359): Delicious (Big Sky Pie #2) - Adrianne Lee

Delicious (Big Sky Pie #2)

by Adrianne Lee

Publication: 24th June 2014

Publisher: Forever

Pages: 240

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Age Appropriate: Adult

Buy It: Amazon + Barnes & Noble + The Book Depository

Workaholic Nick Taziano is the proud owner of a successful marketing company in Montana. But his career takes a backseat when he learns his dad plans to remarry his ex. Nick fears she'll break his heart . . . again. And he doesn't like being reunited with her obnoxious daughter-until the all-grown-up beauty kisses him at the engagement party. The kiss might be a mistake, but once he tastes Jane's lips, nothing-not even her famous blueberry pie-compares.

A promising chef at Big Sky Pie, Jane Wilson never, ever wanted to see Nick Taziano again, but he's just been hired to do the pie shop's marketing. How's a girl supposed to bake the best pastries in town when he's a constant reminder of their steamy chemistry? His chocolate eyes and sexy dimples heat up the kitchen-and every part of her body. Jane has no room for a man in her life, yet sometimes the most delicious dishes don't follow the recipe . . .

My Thoughts.

Delicious is the second book in the Big Sky Pie series, focusing on the love lives of the employees of the Big Sky Pie cafe, the new pastry chef Jane who was lucky enough to get her job straight out of culinary school is dealing with the fact that her Mom is remarrying her second husband Romeo, at their engagement party to avoid talking to him she kisses a complete stranger, not realising till afterwards that it was Romeo's son Nick, her despised ex step-sibling, sparks ignite and there is certainly chemistry there.
The grand opening of Big Sky Pie isn't very far away so they decide to hire someone to do some promotion and marketing of the cafe, that turns out to be the owners son Quint's best-friend Nick, much to the horror of Jane after the embarrassment of their kiss, and while Nick is only too willing to see where a relationship could go, Jane has no such plans for a relationship in the near future, especially with Nick, but he is determined to change her mind no matter how long it takes.
This series is so much fun, the characters are extremely likeable, and the romances are sweet with obstacles in the couples way that they have to overcome before they can have their happily ever afters.
Adrianne's books are a joy to read which leave you grinning from ear to ear, I look forward to the other books in this series, and hopefully many more couples to come.
I give this 4/5 stars.

I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart since those good old rock and roll days when Elvis was The King and The Beatles were galloping over the horizon. We live on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula; the Olympic mountains range is the eye candy out my office window.

My adopted cat, Spooky, is always curled up near me as I create my stories thesedays.

My career as a writer started in junior high school in the form of poetic rhymes and continued to my senior year, when I contemplated writing a book, dreaming up characters disturbingly reminiscent of my classmates. But other than a few notes, the book never left the planning stage. I had a discouraging experience in a creative writing course I was taking at the time and being a sensitive teenage girl. . . I didn’t attempt writing stories again for twenty years. I restarted my writing career by taking a community college writing 101 course. The teacher was wonderfully encouraging and luckily for me, I met my first critique group in that class. At the time, I was writing Mysteries and the others in my new critique group were all writing Romance. Since I’ve always been a romantic at heart, I ended up adding romance to my mysteries.

Lots of romance.

Or as one of the characters in my new story would say, “Sex and Murder!”

I call my Romantic/Suspense and Mysteries “Sexy Whodunits.” Romantic Times calls my Contemporary Romances “HOT!!!”

I love to hear from my readers, and welcome you to email me.  Visit me on my Amazon Author Page for more updates & book information!

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