The Best Books Ever

Defy the Dark By  Saundra Mitchell, Courtney Summers, Aprilynne Pike, Dia Reeves, Malinda Lo, Rachel Hawkins, Valerie Kemp, Sarah Rees Brennan, Beth Revis, Carrie Ryan, Jon Skovron, Myra McEntire, Christine Johnson, Sarah Ockler, Jackson Pearce, Tessa Gratton Published on June 18th 2013 Published by Harper Teen Source: Publisher Defy the Dark, an all-new anthology edited by Saundra Mitchell. Coming Summer 2013 from HarperTeen! It features 16 stories by critically-acclaimed and bestselling YA authors as they explore things that can only happen in the dark. Authors include Sarah Rees Brennan, Rachel Hawkins, Carrie Ryan, Aprilynne Pike, Malinda Lo, Courtney Summers, Beth Revis, Sarah Ockler, and more. Contemporary, genre, these stories will explore every corner of our world- and so many others. What will be the final story that defies the dark? Who will the author be? Defy the Dark is a collection of sixteen short stories all by different authors. They're all storie...

Ha ha, I got you with that title- didn't I?  (Look at me being all clever and controversial to get you to click!) Ok, so I will admit it.  I am a terrible book reviewer.  I will read books, and then wait like 2 months to write the review (if you are new- this is NOT the way to do it).  So I get around to doing the review and I have absolutely NO IDEA what to write.  It isn't that I can't remember the book- I just have no idea where to start.  And then I do the best thing possible- I avoid- and I read 5 other books.  Do you see a pattern here?  I end up with a stack of books read and no reviews written. I know I can't be the only one out there who makes this mistake... right?  Well, I am going to offer hopefully a good "cheat sheet" to help you write an awesome review (or at least get you started).  And if I am the only one who does this... well I am helping myself! Coranne's Absolutely Useful Book Review Questionnaire: G...

Thanks to AToMR Tours , we're pleased to present a review for the brand new time travel/paranormal romance, Forged in Dreams and Magick , by Kat Bastion.  Keep scrolling to check out our review and then enter to win a copy for yourself! Make sure to check out the other stops on the tour for more. Forged in Dreams and Magick By  Kat Bastion Published on September 23rd 2013 Published by: self-published Isobel MacInnes wakes up in present-day California, lunches in medieval Scotland, and by ten days’ end, falls in love with a man and his country, only to lose them in a heart-wrenching twist of fate . . . Found in the arms of her second soul mate . . . Forced to balance the delicate strands of time between two millennia . . . Shocked by revelations rewriting the very foundations of history . . . of everything. Isobel, a rising-star archaeology student, is dropped into two ancient worlds without warning . . . or her permission. Her fiery spirit resists the dep...

Wrestling with the Devil: The True Story of a World Champion Professional Wrestler - His Reign, Ruin, and Redemption By  Lex Luger Published on August 13th 2013 Published by Tyndale Momentum Source: NetGalley Lex Luger, wrestling megasensation and three-time world heavyweight champion, ruled the ring for years as “The Total Package.” Whether he was making a dramatic entrance from a helicopter, defeating champ Hulk Hogan, or sculpting a near-perfect physique, Lex was on top of his game. Yet backstage, he was wrestling with addictions to sex, drugs, and alcohol—things he clung to even when his mistress died suddenly of a drug overdose and Lex went to jail. There, Lex faced the truth: he was losing the fight for his life. And still awaiting him was his most brutal opponent yet, when the wrestling champ found himself helplessly paralyzed from the neck down. In Wrestling with the Devil, Lex Luger reveals never-before-told stories from his career, his struggle with personal dem...

Thanks to  TLC Book Tours , we're pleased to present a review for  Mother, Mother , a new contemporary novel by Koren Zailckas. Make sure to  check out the rest of the tour stops  to see other reviews! Mother, Mother By  Koren Zailckas Published on September 17th 2013 Published by Crown Source: Netgalley/blog tour Josephine Hurst has her family under control. With two beautiful daughters, a brilliantly intelligent son, a tech-guru of a husband and a historical landmark home, her life is picture perfect. She has everything she wants; all she has to do is keep it that way. But living in this matriarch’s determinedly cheerful, yet subtly controlling domain hasn’t been easy for her family, and when her oldest daughter, Rose, runs off with a mysterious boyfriend, Josephine tightens her grip, gradually turning her flawless home into a darker sort of prison. Resentful of her sister’s newfound freedom, Violet turns to eastern philosophy, hallucinoge...

The Butterfly Sister By  Amy Gail Hansen Published on August 6th 2013 Published by William Morrow Paperbacks Source: Publisher "My past was never more than one thought, one breath, one heartbeat away. And then, on that particular October evening, it literally arrived at my doorstep." Eight months after dropping out of Tarble, an all-women's college, twenty-two-year-old Ruby Rousseau is still haunted by the memories of her senior year-a year marred by an affair with her English professor and a deep depression that not only caused her to question her own sanity but prompted a failed suicide attempt. And then a mysterious paisley print suitcase arrives, bearing Ruby's name and address on the tag. When Ruby tries to return the luggage to its rightful owner, Beth Richards, her dorm mate at Tarble, she learns that Beth disappeared two days earlier, and the suitcase is the only tangible evidence as to her whereabouts. Consumed by the mystery of the missing gi...

Scars of the Bifrost ByAJM Mousseau Synopsis: Freya Catten has lived on the fringes of society her entire life, growing up in hiding with her mother in the deepest, wildest places left in North America—the national parks and forests. Freya's mother taught her how to live off the land, away from civilization—mysteriously warning her of the dangers of getting involved with society and leaving traces of her DNA behind. But five years ago Freya's mother abandoned her, leaving Freya to survive on her own.  Freya knows how to stay alive, whether she's hiding in the forest or running on the city streets. She changes her appearance often and owns nothing but her backpack filled with survival gear and a necklace that had been her mother’s.  But, keeping one step ahead of Social Services isn't her biggest fear. Freya's true terror lies with The Takers—strange men who rappel from silver cords out of the deep blue sky from nowhere. They s...

Thanks to  TLC Book Tours , we're pleased to present a review for  The Returned , a new sci-fi/paranormal novel by Jason Mott. Make sure to  check out the rest of the tour stops  to see other reviews! The Returned By  Jason Mott Published on August 27th 2013 Published by Harlequin MIRA Source: ARC for blog tour Jacob was time out of sync, time more perfect than it had been. He was life the way it was supposed to be all those years ago. That's what all the Returned were. Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time ... Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep—flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old. All over the world people's loved ones are returning from ...

Three Parts Dead By  Max Gladstone Published on October 2nd 2012 Published by Tor Source: Borrowed A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith. When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival. Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on li...

Charmed Vengeance By Suzanne Lazear Published on August 8, 2013 Published by Flux Source: Net Galley In the Faerie realm, Noli Braddock's relationship with her best friend V has grown into something more. But V's mother, Faerie Queen Tiana, has ruled that they are forbidden to see each other. Returning to the mortal realm, Noli joins the crew of her brother's air-pirate ship, the Vixen's Revenge. There she discovers that her brother has hired the scallywag Faerie huntsman, Kevighn Silver. While serving as shipmates, Kevighn and Noli learn that the Earth Court King plans to find a forbidden artifact--one that will bring destruction to everyone Noli loves. I have had this book sitting on my Kindle for ages. It is funny- I loved the first book in the series, but other books and tour simply kept capturing my attention.  I finally  took the time to read this sequel- I am so happy I did.  It did NOT disappoint. Charmed Vengeance hops right in whe...

Love to Stay By  Rev. Adam Hamilton Published on August 2013 Published by Abingdon Press Source: Author/ Publisher for Review In this book, Adam Hamilton explores how, with God’s help, we can make love last. Drawing upon a survey of thousands of couples and singles, interviews with relationship and marriage therapists, the latest research in the field, and wisdom from the Bible, Hamilton looks at what it takes to create and sustain healthy, meaningful romantic relationships across the course of a lifetime. Contents include: More Than a Piece of Paper; What She Wants; What He Wants; The Significance of Sexual Intimacy; Habits That Hurt, Habits That Heal; Clothe, Bear With, and Forgive; A Love That Lasts a Lifetime Reverend Hamilton is on my radar.  If you didn't know this about me, my husband is a pastor in the United Methodist Church.  Reverend Hamilton is also a pastor for the UMC and is a pastor at the church that all the others want to b...

Night Film By  Marisha Pessl Published on August 20th 2013 Published by Random House Source: Purchased On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years. For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself. Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world. ...

Omens By  Kelley Armstrong Published on August 20th 2013 Published by Dutton Adult Source: Borrowed Twenty-four-year-old Olivia Taylor Jones has the perfect life. The only daughter of a wealthy, prominent Chicago family, she has an Ivy League education, pursues volunteerism and philanthropy, and is engaged to a handsome young tech firm CEO with political ambitions. But Olivia’s world is shattered when she learns that she’s adopted. Her real parents? Todd and Pamela Larsen, notorious serial killers serving a life sentence. When the news brings a maelstrom of unwanted publicity to her adopted family and fiancé, Olivia decides to find out the truth about the Larsens. Olivia ends up in the small town of Cainsville, Illinois, an old and cloistered community that takes a particular interest in both Olivia and her efforts to uncover her birth parents’ past. Aided by her mother’s former lawyer, Gabriel Walsh, Olivia focuses on the Larsens’ last crime, the one her birth moth...

Unbreakable By  Kami Garcia Published on October 1st 2013 Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Source: Netgalley I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me. When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon — a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night. Now Kennedy has to take her mother’s place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon — battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way. Su...

3:59 By  Gretchen McNeil Published on September 17, 2013 Published by Balzer + Bray Source: Publisher Josie Byrne's life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she's betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can't get worse. Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m. Jo's life is everything Josie wants: she's popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they're just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo. Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo's perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day. ...