The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
From Publishers – Simon & Schuster Australia
Release Date – 1st February 2011
Check it out at Goodreads | The Book Depository | Kobo

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

Review by Liz Carson: Mara has survived a horrific accident which left three of her friends dead. But why did she survive? She has no memory of the accident and to get away from the memories of her best friend, her family moves to a new town and Mara starts a new school. At the school is the mysterious Noah Shaw who has a panty-dropping smile and seems to want to get to know the new girl. Mara slowly begins to get snippets of the night of the accident, but is mentally falling apart with the revelations.

As well as coping with her newfound memories, things start happening that she fantasized about moments before. Does she have a strange power that makes things happen? And how dangerous is this power to her family and new friends? The book ends on a cliff hanger and I will be keeping an eye out for The Evolution of Mara Dyer, which is due out in October.

About the Author: At the age of sixteen, Michelle Hodkin lost the rights to her soul in a poker game with pirates just south of Natchez. Shortly thereafter, she joined an acting troupe and traveled the world performing feats of wonder and mischief. She has been seen on stages nationwide and earned rave reviews for her one woman performance of Titus Andronicus before writing THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER, her first novel. Michelle currently lives with her three pets and may or may not be a reliable narrator of her own life :)

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Review – The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

Sixteen-year-old American girl Rory has just arrived at boarding school in London when a Jack the Ripper copycat-killer begins terrorising the city. All the hallmarks of his infamous murders are frighteningly present, but there are few clues to the killer?s identity.

“Rippermania” grabs hold of modern-day London, and the police are stumped with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. In an unknown city with few friends to turn to, Rory makes a chilling discovery…

Could the copycat murderer really be Jack the Ripper back from the grave?

Review by Esther Fong: For a girl who has a crazy family consisting an uncle who looks like a bickie but loves birds, another who has a boat lashed to his roof and 8 freezers in the reinforced second story of his house just for a natural disaster. An aunt who believes she can see angels and a grandmother who dresses in silk night gowns and heeled slippers, Aurora (Rory) Deveraux from Louisiana is surprisingly normal.

Rory is so excited to be moving to London and attending a boarding school. She expects good times, lots of laughs and the sneaky pint of beer at the pub. Life can’t be any more amazing. That is until Jack the Ripper comes calling. This story follows the copy-cat murders of Jack the Ripper and how Rory is thrown into a world of horror and intrigue.

All I can say is wow. I am so glad that I didn’t read any reviews of this book (didn’t even read the blurb as I had a e-book) as the story had already captured me before it was reveled that Rory could see ghosts.

Maureen Johnson is such a vivid story teller, I had just thought this book was a plain old horror story yet it was so much more then that. This world is filled with ghosts and people with the sight who protect humans from ghosts. Like a new age teen ghost busters. Any one who is looking for an interesting original story with no teen angst then this is the book for you. I’m about to now go and read all Maureen Johnsons other books and I can’t wait for the next one to come out.

About the Author: Maureen knew from an early age she wanted to be a writer. She went to high school at an all-girls’ Catholic school and graduated from University of Delaware with a degree in writing. She now lives and writes in New York City.

Many of the adventures Maureen’s characters face in her books are based on real-life stories. Maureen has traveled all over Europe, and is a Secret Sister to vlog brothers Hank and John Green.

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Review – The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
Sookie Stackhouse Book #12
From Publishers – Hachette Aust.
Release Date – 1st May 2012
Check it out at Goodreads | The Book Depository

The Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Now the vampires and the shapeshifters are ‘out’, you’d think the supernaturals would get on with each other. But nothing is that simple in Bon Temps!

Sookie has a murder investigation on her hands. A young girl has died at a vampire party – and it looks as though her lover, Eric, might be responsible. Eric swears he didn’t do it, the police don’t believe him, and even Sookie isn’t so sure. Nor is she inclined to take his word for it, not having caught him enjoying the victim’s blood minutes before she was killed. But something strange is going on. Why had Sookie been asked to come to the fateful party a few minutes early – just to catch Eric in the act? And why had the victim spiked her blood before approaching Eric? Was it simply because she wanted to be irresistible, or was it something more sinister? Sookie will have to find out . . . but it’s the worst moment to investigate, as her Fae family are having troubles of their own and Sookie is, inevitably, drawn in. And there is one last complication. The cluviel dor her grandmother left her. It will grant her one wish, which could fulfil Sookie’s heart’s desire. The only problem is, she still doesn’t know what – or who – her heart truly desires . . .

Coming Soon – Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

Winter's Light by M.J. Hearle

Winter’s Light by M.J. Hearle
Winter’s Shadow Book #2
From Publishers – Pan Macmillan Aust.
Release Date – 1st May 2012
Check it out at Goodreads | The Book Depository

Blake is gone.

He sacrificed himself to save Winter, leaving her alone, unprotected… hunted.

An ancient enemy is rising, but Winter is no longer the innocent girl who was fated to die at Pilgrim’s Lament. She will not wait to be saved. She will do what she must to survive, even accept an unsavoury alliance with those who destroyed her love.

In the gathering darkness, the enemy of an enemy is not always a friend, and Winter must find the strength to stand alone and fight for the one she loves. For she is the key to unlocking the secrets beyond the veil of shadows.

And she is Blake’s only hope.

Coming Soon – Winter’s Light by M.J. Hearle is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

Lover Reborn by J.R Ward
From Publishers – Piatkus Fiction
Release Date – 1st April 2012
Check it out at Goodreads | The Book Depository| Kobo | iBooks

In the darkest corners of the night in Caldwell, New York, a conflict like no other rages. The city is home to a band of brothers born to defend their race: the warrior vampires of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Now back in the Brotherhood – and unrecognisable as the vampire leader he once was – Tohrment is physically emaciated and heartbroken beyond despair. When he begins to see his beloved in his dreams – trapped in a cold, isolating netherworld – Tohr turns to a self-serving fallen angel in hopes of saving the one he has lost. When he’s told he must learn to love another to free his former mate, Tohr knows they are all doomed . . . Except then a female with a shadowed history begins to get through to him. Against the backdrop of the raging war with the lessers, and with a new clan of vampires vying for the Blind King’s throne, Tohr struggles between the buried past, and a very hot, passion-filled future . . . but can his heart let go and set all of them free?

Review by By Esther Fong: Lover Reborn is the 10th book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. If you haven’t read the series the introduction at the start of the book is a must read or you will be scratching your head the whole book wondering what everything is. That said I am an avid fan of the BDB, all those sexy males just makes me want to swoon.

Lover Reborn tells the highly anticipated story of Tohr’s struggle after Wellesandra (his mate) is killed. We first met Tohr in Dark Lover and his story continued on through meeting and adopting John Michael to the murder of Welles. I’m so glad to have a book that is dedicated to Tohr’s struggle after he had lost Welles. Many of us BDB fans were heartbroken that Welles was killed just after she reveled that she was pregnant and we felt for Tohr when he found out and disappeared.

This book did justice to his story; this book is about forgiveness and moving on. That said, a lot of the time I was a bit irritated reading this story as there were so many other stories playing a part. Yes I thought they were necessary to the previous books in providing character development but we didn’t really need to read about them. Also the moving on really didn’t happen till the last quarter of the book. But what an ending it was. If the first half of the book didn’t grip me the end of the book certainly did. No’one was finally realizing that there was more to life then having to atone for her past sins and Tohr was realizing that just because he lived did not mean he was doing injustice to Welles memory.

Lassiter the angel would have to be my new favorite character. He was so funny. Who knew a grown man could love Ellen so much. This book is a must read as its not so much about the story of the BDB but more about how beautiful life is and that we should appreciate everything that we have, but we should never punish ourselves for something that we have no control over.

About the Author: Jessica Rowley Pell Bird is an American author. Under her real name, she writes contemporary romance novels. As J.R. Ward, she writes paranormal romance. She has received the Romance Writers of America RITA Award.

Jessica Bird is the daughter of W. Gillette Bird, Jr. and Maxine F. Bird. She began writing as a child, penning her thoughts in diaries as well as inventing short stories. The summer before she went to college she wrote her first book, a romance novel. After that, she wrote regularly, but for herself. Bird attended Smith College where she double majored in history and art history, concentrating on medieval period. She then received a law degree from Albany Law School and worked in healthcare administration for many years, including as the Chief of Staff at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 2001, Bird married John Neville Blakemore III. Her new husband encouraged her to try to get an agent and market her manuscripts. She found an agent, and in 2002 her first novel, a contemporary romance called Leaping Hearts, was published. Several years later, Bird invented a world populated by vampires and began writing single-title paranormal romance novels under the pen name J.R. Ward. These novels are a series, known as the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

Bird likes to write series novels which incorporate characters from her previous books. She likens the process of creating a series to “meeting friends through other friends”. Her heroes are most often alpha males, “the tougher, the cockier, the more arrogant, the better”, while the heroines are smart and strong.

The Romance Writers of America awarded her the RITA Award for Best Short Contemporary Romance in 2007 for her novel From the First. She has also been nominated six times for Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Awards, winning once for Lover Awakened.

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Review – Lover Reborn by J.R Ward is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle’s body bears the telltale marks of a comarre – a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility and control their hungers. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the darkness of the mortal world . . . and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Chrysabelle’s secrets, though, are about to put her life – and those around her – in even greater jeopardy. She possesses a powerful ring, the key to unlocking an ancient prophecy destined to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. A chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen threatens to reign unless she and Malkolm can stop the noble vampire behind the merciless plot.

Review by Esther Fong – First of all I’m so glad that I have a hard copy of this book as the cover is amazing (normally I read ebooks). The cover really helps you picture the gold etchings that cover Chrysabelle’s skin.

Chrysabelle was born a Comarre, a bred of humans whose pure blood provides there vampire patrons with special powers in return for longer life. After the suspicious death of her patron she escapes to America to her aunt and meets Malkom, the vampire cursed to kill everyone that he drinks from. Their interactions show the imperfections of each character and the ways that they try to over come this and begin to trust each other. After Chrysabelle’s aunt is kidnapped by Tatiana a noble vampire out to break the covenant that binds vampires from all out feeding on humans. Blood Rights follows their journey to the heartland of vampire society to face Tatiana and her evil patron.

Blood Rights is a well written story with amazing world building. It is not often that I read a book that allows the story to speak for itself and doesn’t force it onto the reader. Blood Rights is set in the world of vampires, comarre (humans bred to feed vampires) fae and Varcolai(shifters). At some points in the book I did find myself drifting when I was reading. This may have been due to the fact that there was several POV (point of views) which made the story hard to entrance me, as just when I got into the POV of one character it would jump to another. Towards the end of the book the pace increased and things finally started to happen.

The character that I loved the most of Tatiana. The evil Vampire set on world domination. She was so well written that I could relate to her so well. I understood where she was coming from and after the revelation of the last chapters you understood what caused her to become the way she was. I look forward to reading the next two books, Flesh and Blood and Bad Blood. Bring on the world of the Comarre!

About the Author: Kristen Painter is a former college English teacher, personal trainer, advertising exec, maitre d’ and runway model. She lives in Rockledge, Florida.

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Review – Blood Rights by Kristen Painter is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur

Born from a lab-enhanced clone mother and an Aedh father, Risa Jones can not only talk to the souls of the dying and the dead, but she can see reapers and walk the grey fields that divide this world from the next. They are skills she rarely uses, however. But when her mother asks her to help the parents of a little girl locked in a coma, she reluctantly agrees. What she discovers terrifies her: someone has ripped the girl’s soul from her flesh.

As it turns out, a creature consuming the souls of the innocent – and not so innocent – is the least of her problems. Because someone wants to rip open the gates that divide hell from earth and Risa is a key component in their plans. And the only person standing between her and disaster is a reaper who isn’t exactly on her side.

Reviewed by Selina – Risa. She is part Aedh (you will have to read the book to find out what this is), wolf, shape shifter, psychic and has the ability to see Reapers and communicate with the dead or dying. Risa is the heroine of the story and quickly gets pulled into a conspiracy that seems to involve her father, of whom she has never known. There is a kidnapping attempt, a soul stealing monster, a stalking shirtless sword wielding reaper, the fiery gates of Hell and mystical magical tattoos.
Not having read Keri Arthurs books before I thoroughly enjoyed the vivid world that has been created here. Keri Arthur’s characters are very raw with their animalistic natures and some seem complicated and have many hidden histories and talents. She builds her world with intriguing characters, and tangled plots. I had to remind myself that this is a part of a series. I can’t wait to see what is unravelled in the next book.

About the Author: Keri Arthur recently won the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Urban Fantasy and has been nominated in the Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards. She has one daughter and lives in Australia.

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Review – Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

Nocturne by Christine Johnson

Claire couldn’t be happier as it seems like her life is finally settling down. She’s been fully initiated into her family’s pack of female werewolves, her best friend Emily is back in town, and the gorgeous Matthew Engle is now her boyfriend.
But when a new girl comes to town and threatens to break up Claire’s friendship and relationship, everything starts to unravel. Not only is the new girl trying to steal her best friend and boyfriend, but it seems that she may know more about Claire than she’s letting on. Knowing Claire’s secret breaks all the rules of the pack, and the consequences may be more than Claire can handle…

Review by Liz Carson: In the sequel to Claire de Lune, Claire Benoit’s life is just as complicated as ever. Best friend Emily has come back to Hanover Falls after her parents shipped her off to live with an aunt because of their paranoia about the people-killing werewolf, which means Claire needs to keep the truth about what really is, even closer to her chest. This becomes more difficult under the scrutiny of new girl Amy Harper, who seems suspicious of Claire.
In her human world she has school, a boyfriend and trying to keep Emily onside and in her wolf world, the pack is about to expand and Claire must display her talents to the whole pack. The excitement of finally going to a school dance is dampened by a pack gathering of significant importance that Claire can’t avoid. The clash between her human and wolf world becomes increasingly difficult to deal with and it comes to a head after Amy tells Claire she knows all about her.
The teenage angst of wanting to be a 16-year-old girl and the realisation of the importance of the pack to her future are plainly obvious and Christine Johnson captures these emotions succinctly. A bit of maturity is lacking in several of Claire’s decisions and she is lucky that things don’t turn out for the worse. Will Amy reveal Claire’s secret and put herself and everyone Claire knows in danger?

About the Author: Christine Johnson grew up in, moved away from, and finally came home to Indianapolis, Indiana. She lives there with her husband and two children in a creaky old house with a creaky old dog.

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Review – Nocturne by Christine Johnson is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson

Torn between two destinies…

Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she’s the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she’s a werewolf.

As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire’s new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever….

Review by Liz Carson: The residents of Hanover Falls are gripped in terror after a series of unexpected killings are claimed to be werewolf attacks. A daytime attack ruins the 16th birthday party of Claire Benoit as parents panic and the town is on high alert. After the failure of her birthday party, Claire learns something far more terrifying – she is a werewolf.

Her mother reveals the secret she’s been keeping from Claire for 16 years and Claire is none-too-happy about the revelation. Claire struggles with finally knowing the truth about her mother, although it explains the various trips and disappearances that Claire has become accustomed to her mother making. As if finding out you’re a werewolf isn’t bad enough, Claire has to learn to transform into a werewolf, something that doesn’t happen overnight and takes some practice.

Christine Johnson has nailed the descriptions of the transformation as it takes place and the different abilities that come with being a werewolf. As well as learning the rules and laws of the pack, Claire has got a new boyfriend whose father just happens to be the man hunting the dangerous werewolf that is killing people. As Claire gets more used to being in her werewolf form she struggles to keep the secret from the people closest to her. And is her pack in danger from the carelessness of another werewolf?

About the Author: Christine Johnson grew up in, moved away from, and finally came home to Indianapolis, Indiana. She lives there with her husband and two children in a creaky old house with a creaky old dog.

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Review – Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson is a post from: Fictional Fantasy

The third book in Amanda Hocking’s Trylle Trilogy

Wendy Everly can barely remember what it was like to feel like a normal girl. She’d wished for her life to be different but everything is so much more complicated than she’d expected. And she certainly hadn’t dreamt she’d be getting married at eighteen to man she didn’t love – all for the sake of duty.

As the big day approaches, Wendy can’t stop thinking about two different men – and neither of them are her husband-to-be. Finn, quiet, strong and determined to do what’s right and Loki, dark and seductive – a sworn enemy who once saved her life…

With an all-out war just days away, Wendy needs to act quickly if she is to save her friends and family. But while her loyalties and duties are to her people – deeper passions are leading her elsewhere. And as her worlds collide Wendy must sacrifice everything she loves to save them. But will it be enough?

Coming Soon – Ascend by Amanda Hocking is a post from: Fictional Fantasy