Blog Tour Review & Giveaway - Stitch by Samantha Durante

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Paperback: 314 pages
Publisher: Samantha Durante
Publication date: Aug 1st 2012
ISBN13: 9780985804602

First Line - She woke to the sound of heavy boot steps marching down the hall and the familiar pang in her hip bones wrought from too many nights on a rigid metal cot.

Her heart races, her muscles coil, and every impulse in Alessa's body screams at her to run... but yet she's powerless to move.

Still struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her parents, the last thing college freshman Alessa has the strength to deal with is the inexplicable visceral pull drawing her to a handsome ghostly presence. In between grappling with exams and sorority soirees - and disturbing recurring dreams of being captive in a futuristic prison hell - Alessa is determined to unravel the mystery of the apparition who leaves her breathless. But the terrifying secret she uncovers will find her groping desperately through her nightmares for answers.

Because what Alessa hasn't figured out yet is that she's not really a student, the object of her obsession is no ghost, and her sneaking suspicions that something sinister is lurking behind the walls of her university's idyllic campus are only just scratching the surface...

The opening installment in a twist-laden trilogy, Stitch spans the genres of paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi to explore the challenges of a society in transition, where morality, vision, and pragmatism collide leaving the average citizen to suffer the results.

OOh, this is a good one! I was lucky enough to be offered a place on the STITCH Blog tour and before I even read the synopsis I was interested...that cover...oh my it looks lovely, doesn't it? Drew me right in. Then I read the blurb and the second box was ticked, it sounded just like the kind of book that appeals to me. I'm in!

I purposely didn't read any reviews for it beforehand though so I had no clue what I was going to get. I went into it expecting Sci-fi because the cover looks a bit 'techy' and the blurb made me think Paranormal/Ghosty/Romance but what I actually got is so much more. Dystopian is the new buzz word right now and that's probably as good a genre as any to slot this into it's but it's not just a one trick pony. This pony has a trick up every sleeve! It's got so much going on in the pages.

It's like being on a Tilt-a-Whirl, one minute you're heading one way and seconds later you've got whiplash from a rapid change in direction and your head is left spinning. Sometimes that irritates me, the constant backwards/forwards/sideways thing and the accompanying POV changes but with STITCH it just sucked me in even more. Unless a POV change is really well done I tire of it easily because I'm attached to certain characters above others, (*whisper* Shhh, don't tell anyone but, - I sometimes....skim-read the bits with characters I don't like. AMG!! Did I say that out loud?!) but here I actually looked forward to the POV changes. I wanted to know what was going on in other people's heads, I wanted/needed to know how they were interpreting things. With this type of book I like to know how everyone is dealing with situations and it helps build the world too.

Through Alessa you realise early on that there's something a bit 'iffy' going on and I was constantly trying to piece together all the little clues alongside her. I'd think I'd got it in one chapter only to find I was way off course by the next. It's frustrating, but in a good way.

What I loved most about it all though, is the one thing I can't talk about. When everything was unravelled and things fell into place I was so excited! It's one of the plots I've always wanted to read about in a book. There's a film out there that uses a similar setting. The storyline's are nothing alike but the setting is one that just seems to appeal to me and sucks me in. I can't say more than that without spoiling the surprise and I hate to be cryptic but I'm afraid you'll just have to read it for yourself to find out what the twist is.

I'll absolutely be reading the next part in the trilogy when it's released and can't wait to see how it all unravels for Alessa and Isaac. I hope I make the cut for that blog tour too!

A blog tour participant list can be found here so check out those other awesome reviews if you get a chance!

As promised you can be in with a chance of winning STITCH in ebook form, just by entering the giveaway below. It's open internationally and the lucky winner will be notified by email. Prizes are sent directly from the author Samantha Durante who you can find at her website

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Book Review - The Collaborator by Margaret Leroy

Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Harlequin (UK)
Publication date: May 20th 2011
ISBN13: 9780778304593

First Line - "Once upon a time there were twelve princesses..."

A forbidden love...a private war. There's a sudden scatter of birds in the sky. I flinch. Little things seem violent to me. And in that moment my decision is made. It's 1940, Guernsey. Vivienne de la Mare waits nervously for the bombs to drop. Instead comes quiet surrender and insidious occupation. Nothing is safe anymore. Her husband is fighting on the frontline and the facade of being the perfect wife is cracking. Her new life is one where the enemy lives next door. Small acts of kindness from one Nazi soldier feel like a betrayal. But how can you hate your enemy when you know his name, when he makes you feel alive, when everything else is dying around you? Vivienne is fighting her own private war. On one side, the safe, secret, loving world she could build with her captain; on the other, virtuous loneliness and danger. It's time for Vivienne to choose: collaboration or resistance...Margaret Leroy explores a forbidden friendship in a frightening world. In the darkest hours in history, no choices are simple.

Nazi occupation on Guernsey during WWII. Doesn't really conjure up images of a lovely romance for me but I think this is considered Historical Romance. The only thing I found romantic about it was the language and the setting but I did enjoy it. While reading it the star rating swung from 4 to 2 to 4 and finally settled on 3 but then just at the last page jumped it back to 4 again, at the last second. I didn't like the ending particularly but I didn't see it coming so it got an extra star for the shock factor.

Vivienne, a soldier's wife, is living on Guernsey with her 2 daughters and her mother-in-law while her husband is away fighting for his country. When the German army come to occupy the island she learns to come to terms with restricted living. When a few Nazi soldiers commandeer her empty neighbour's house she's drawn to one of them in particular (Gunther), and so begins the 'romance'. Vivienne's marriage is an unhappy one and I get the impression that her marriage was over a long time before her husband left to fight but to be honest I still have no clue what she ever saw in Gunther. He didn't strike me as romance material but I think Viv was just miserably unhappy and lonely and whichever of the Nazi's had shown an interest in her would have had just as much chance to get with her.

I didn't feel that the romance was actually the focal point of the story for me. It was always there in the background but I was more interested in the Historical aspects. The Resistance from the Islanders, the Prisoners of War, the shortages and rationing...in general the results of the Occupation on the island. There were some really touching moments and some harrowing moments, as you'd expect from a war-time drama and all the characters were really well written and I really cared what happened to them.

I was frustrated with the ending though. I was all set to give it 3 stars overall and file it under 'a good read' but then I got to the end and I lost my footing. I'm still not sure how to deal with it. Not sure if I liked the ending, neither am I sure I disliked it. It took me by surprise and when I read it I wanted to know more and was annoyed that I'd never find out...then back pedalled and thought the shock ending was the right way to deal with it. Argh! I don't know. I'll just say it was a surprising end to a good book. Not sure if it was good or bad ending but it was surprising.

It's a nice gentle read, despite the war theme and the occupation and I'd maybe read more by this author.

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Review - This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin
Publication date: July 9th 2012
ISBN13: 9780312656744

First Line - "Lily, I woke up and the last piece of my heart disappeared"

It's the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won't stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn't sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she's failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she's forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group's fate is determined less and less by what's happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life and death inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

I'm not really sure what to make of this one. It was a good read and it was well written but maybe I was expecting more zombies? Or explainations? Or a resoloution? I'm torn.

I really liked the story and couldn't put it down until I found out what happened to them all... but I didn't get closure. I'm not saying all endings have to always be neatly tied up but I just feel that there's too much has been left unsaid.

A handful of kids end up in a school, sheltering from the zombie hoards outside which roam their town relentlessly. Why are there zombies? I have no idea and I suspect the kids don't either but since they never ask each other those simple question's, "Why?", "Where?", "How?" I'm left wondering if maybe they do know, in which case - why don't I know too?

Sloane is the narrator and we get an insight into her life before the zombies came although I felt that I never really knew the whole story of what went on there either. It's frustrating. There's only one viewpoint really and I only found out what Sloane wanted me to know. Since Sloane herself was mostly fixated on her sister and her need to end it all I didn't get to know half of what I needed (wanted) to know. Enquiring minds need to know.

So, accepting that I didn't find out all that I wanted (needed), how was the story? It was good actually. Dark and sinister and creepy and scary and all the stuff you come to expect from a zombie book...just without many zombies. One or two popped up every now and then and they were the jacked up crazy kind but because I didn't see much of them they were more of a psychological fear than a physical fear. It was scary wondering where they where going to come from...if they were going to come...when they were going to come. Sometimes that's scarier than the actual event of them coming. It's the not knowing.

Anyway, it's a good story which is well told. Sloane's voice is right for the telling of it but I just wish she'd been a little more forthcoming with the stuff I needed to know...

I'd even be happier if I knew there was a follow on book which might fill in some of the details for me (there's not, is there?).

*Sigh* It's a hard one. Good story, well written I just wanted...I'm not sure what I wanted. More? Better? Fuller?

Review - Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Orion
Publication date: Oct 15th 2009
ISBN13: 9781409103233

First Line - "What would you do if you thought you were about to die?"

'What would I do without you, Lucy Brown?' he said, and kissed me softly. I held his face in my hands and kissed him back. I felt that life just couldn't get any more perfect. And I was right, it wouldn't. By the end of the next day, I'd be dead.

Lucy is about to marry the man of her dreams - kind, handsome, funny Dan - when she breaks her neck the night before their wedding. Unable to accept a lifetime's separation from her soulmate, Lucy decides to become a ghost rather than go to heaven and be parted from Dan. But it turns out things aren't quite as easy as that. When Lucy discovers that Limbo is a grotty student-style house in North London she's less than thrilled. Especially after meeting her new flatmates: grumpy, cider-swilling EMO-kid Claire; and Brian, a train-spotter with a Thomas the Tank Engine duvet and a big BO problem. But Lucy has a more major problem on her hands - if she wants to become a ghost and be with Dan she has to complete an almost impossible task.

How the hell does a girl like Lucy find a girlfriend for the dorkiest man in England? IT geek Archie's only passions are multi-player computer games and his Grandma. But Lucy only has twenty-one days to find him love. And when she discovers that her so-called friend Anna is determined to make a move on the heart-broken, vulnerable Dan, the pressure is really on...

My newly found love of chick lit has brought me to this one by Cally Taylor and I loved it so much! I think maybe I still have one foot in the 'Paranormal' camp though because I seem to be drawn to the one's that have something magical about them. This one has ghostly going's on and despite the fact that the leading lady dies within the first few pages it's really funny. I especially loved the other characters. Stinky Brian was my favourite I think. Bless. He's got a rug in his room that smells like boiled cabbage and a Thomas the Tank engine duvet cover. Loved him!

Anyway, as mentioned Tess dies (on the eve of her wedding) and is given a choice - go straight to heaven or go back down to earth and become a ghost so she can hang around her husband-to-be Dan. She chooses to become a ghost so needs to pass her 'task' first and she's got 21 days to do it in. She shares a grotty bedsit in London with a couple of other Wannabe ghosts who also have their own 'tasks' to complete and it's impossible to not get dragged in to their respective dilemma's and feel for them. The characters are so well written that I pictured them clearly in my mind and couldn't put the book down until I knew how their stories ended. I really felt like I knew them.

Trainspotter Brian has his work cut out for him with his task and has some fantastically funny moments trying to solve it. Damaged Claire's has attitude and has erected a shield of bitchiness around herself to mask how vulnerable she really is (I felt really sorry for her). The IT guys are suitably geeky and it's like watching an episode of 'The IT crowd' when they get going (the boss especailly reminds me of the IT crowd boss). Even the secondary characters are fleshed out and Sandwich Sally is like a little powerpuff girl - cuteness and sass all rolled into one. Love them all.

The only bit I wasn't overly fond of was the last chapter. I didn't care for how it ended. Really, given that this is chick lit it was the only way it could have ended but that doesn't mean I like it. The options were probably limited and another ending would have given a whole different feel to the book but I still wasn't keen on that last chapter.

That said though, I wish this was a series so that I could read more about other wannabe ghosts. I'd auto buy all the others if it was. I might even go back to this one for a re-read some time. I'd definitely LOVE to see this made into a movie!!

Book Review - Don't You Forget About Me by Alexandra Potter

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: July 19th 2012
ISBN13: 9781444712117

First Line - "What's on your mind?"

After a bad break up, doesn't every girl want the same things?

* For her ex-boyfriend to stay single forever...
* Or maybe emigrate, to a remote, uninhabited island?
* Better still, that she'd never met him in the first place!

But what if one of those wishes came true?

Tess is heartbroken when Seb breaks up with her and can't help blaming herself. If only she'd done things differently. If only she could make right all her regrets... But she can't. It's over. She has to forget about him. Drunk and upset on New Year's Eve she wishes she'd never met him.

But when she wakes up to discover this dream has come true, she realises she has a chance. To do it all over again. And to get it right this time...

First, a disclaimer: I'm a newcomer to Chick Lit. I read quite a bit but not in this genre so don't have a lot to judge this against.

That said, I thought this was a great read. My usual reads are urban/paranormal and come in black covers or apocalyptic fiction which have slavering zombies on the cover and as a rule anything with a pastel coloured covered doesn't even register when I'm scanning the shelves at the book shop or library. Lately though I'm getting burned out on the whole vampire/werewolf/demon thing and when I was offered a pastel covered book a while back I thought I'd give it a whirl to see what I was missing (that book was Out of the Blue by Belinda Jones) and I really enjoyed it so started checking out other pastel covers. I find that I really like the ones that have cartoony covers and that's what drew me to this one by Alexandra Potter. That, and the fact that Tesco's had it for under £4.

Anyhoo, the book... I liked it. I wasn't sure at the start and got a bit lost with the mechanics of the wish fulfillment but by the end I was hooked and couldn't wait to see how it all came together.

It's the story of Tess who has recently been dumped by her boyfriend and she's heartbroken. She makes a wish on New Year's Eve that she'd never met him so that she doesn't have to suffer the pain of losing him and her wish comes true! It's as if they didn't meet. However, it's everyone else who forgets she ever met him, Tess herself doesn't forget and when she's given a second chance to do it all again, with knowledge of all the mistakes from before she's thrilled.

I have watched my fair share of 'RomCom' in movie form and this book is just like watching one of those. (I think this would transfer really well onto film and I'd definitely pay to watch it). All through the book there are little clues dropped and loose ends and it's not until the very end that they all fit together and tie up and along the way there's plenty of laughs and misunderstandings.

I did guess the ending within the first 3 chapters but that didn't spoil anything for me, I just looked forward to it happening. There are a few other twists throughout and I guessed a couple of those too but it was still a great read. I liked that all the loose ends were tied up nicely.

Some of the characters were hateful and I loved how they were dealt with in the end, likewise I liked how the underdogs were treated too. I just liked it all around really. As a newbie I'm a fan of the genre so far :)

I hope all the pastel covers I read from now on are as good as this!

Book Review - Undead by Kirsty McKay

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Chicken House
Publication date: Sept 1st 2011
ISBN13: 9781906427870

First Line - "I would rather die than face them all again."

It was just another school trip... When their ski-coach pulls up at a cafe, and everyone else gets off, new girl Bobby and rebel Smitty stay behind. They hardly know each other but that changes when through the falling snow, the see the others coming back. Something has happened to them. Something bad...Soon only a pair of double doors stand between those on the bus and their ex-friends the Undead outside. Time to get a life.

Two words - Scotland. Zombies. I was all over it! Zombies on my home turf?! I'm in!

 What I didn't realise going into this was that it's probably what's known as a 'middle grade' read (I think) and that definitely had a bearing on how I was feeling towards the book before I figured it out. I had wrongly thought this was at least a YA so when the zombie's were few and far between and there was a general 'tameness' to it overall I was feeling unsatisfied. But then it clicked...it's for kids. Or is it? I think so...I'm conflicted...I'd say it's for roughly age 12+

Okay, so my uncertainties aside I'll be assuming this is for kids and that being the case I thought it was great! It's scary enough without being too scary. For the intented age group that is.

I don't like including synopsis in my reviews but just a quick overview would be - School bus trip to Aviemore, Scotland and a handful of teens are left to survive after making a rest stop at a cafe where almost everyone in the vicinity drop's dead and rises again as a zombie.

I loved the characters and they were really well written and believable. What really brought them to life for me was the dialogue. The dialogue was spot on and the intereaction of the mismatched band of survivors really worked. I had no problem 'hearing' their voices in my head as I was reading. The characters are stereotypes 101 but I loved them all anyway.

If you've ever watched 'The Breakfast Club' there's a line at the start that goes, "We're a princess, a jock, a brain, a basket case..." or something like that and Undead's characters reminded me of those. They're all so different but they're thrown together in something that none of them asked for or wanted and they're getting along and getting though it as best they can.

Considering it's a zombie book it's actually quite a funny book too. It's not a joke a minute type thing but the characters can find humour even in terror. For example they give names to the zombies (booby woman springs to mind, ha!) and there is lots of observational humour and wise-assery scattered about too. I like that.

The only downside I found was that I wasn't overly fond of the ending. It felt a bit rushed compared to the rest of the book and left me wonedering what just happened but I 'think' there's another book to follow so I'll be checking that out and looking forward to continuing the story, and maybe getting some more answers to the questions I have about the ending.

I'm not the target audience but I do love a zombie book and this one is still a 4 star for me, regardless of whether or not I'm in the correct age bracket for it.

Book Review - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Century
Publication date: August 18th 2011
ISBN13: 9781846059377

First Line - "Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest."

It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty, and disease are widespread.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based in the culture of the late twentieth century. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle.

Suddenly, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed.

Back in the day I was a bit of a girl gamer. A 'tiny' bit. Ok, quite a lot actually but it was the 80's and I was a teen and geeks were cool back then and Summer lasted 10 months of the year...ok, some of that was probably made up but the rest is true.

As soon as I saw that Ready Player one was about game geeks with strong links to the 1980's I was all over it and from start to finish I couldn't put it down. It's fantastic. I don't know if it's because the 80's are my era and games are in my blood and but I suspect it would be just as epic a read for anyone who doesn't share my history. It's just fantastic. The story telling is spot on and there are so many twists and turns that it's hard to put down.

The 80's references are everywhere, since the whole idea of the contest in the book focuses on the 80's but the author has either done his homework very well or was in fact a geek boi himself. I'm guessing it's the latter and he probably still is. I'm still a big game geek at heart too. I'm a high 100+ lvl warrior on a popular MMORPG which I've played for almost 6 years now and not ashamed to admit it...well, not here anyway :D

Although it's set in the future the story took me right back. The music references were like a trip down memory lane and the author has kindly compiled a mix tape for listening to alongside the book. Epic soundtrack!

Apart from all of that, I really, really liked the hero Parzival and cared about what happened to him. Total geek but that's the point of the book - they're all geeks. Even the non-geeks are geeks. Everyone plugs into the virtual reality known as the Oasis, it's the norm for just about everyone on the planet. Even Parzival's elderly neighbour plugs in for hours and hours on end so she can sit in the pews of her virtual church and sing hymns and listen to sermons. Business meetings take place in the Oasis where attendee's don't even leave thier own office/home if they don't want to, they just sign in to the Oasis, put on their virtual reality goggles and gloves and thier avatars do their business dealings in the comfort of virtual rooms/workplaces, with collegues who live on the other side of the planet. Kids don't go to school much, they just plug into the VR school's in the Oasis. Everything is done via the Oasis, even the very poor homeless people have access to free VR goggles and gloves so that they can hook up via free wireless and imerse themselves in a reality that's favourable to thier own. There's nothing that can't be done on the Oasis and nowhere that can't be visited.

I barely know where to start with this one. It's really hard to say much about it without ruining the plot. And the good bits that aren't about the plot are just too many to single out one or two to write about. It's all good. It's just...really, really good and I'd recommend it. It brought back to mind lots of things from my youth that I thought I'd forgotten and for that I'm grateful. Plus, I got a fantastic story to immerse myself in so all-in-all it was moeny well spent.

Ah, the 80's. It's like I never left :D

Back then we lived in a house by the beach and there was a permanant Carny just 10 minutes walk from us on the beachfront. Arcade games aplenty! Nothing could beat the thrill of seeing your own three initials on the scoreboard and achievments like that took a LOT of practice (and a lot of cash.) We spent a LOT of time huddled round those machines. Boys really seemed to sit up and take notice of you when you kick their butt and replace their initials with your own...

Happy days.

Oh, and one of my favourite games at the time, that I played in the privacy of my own room on my ZX Spectrum was....'My name is Uncle Groucho, you win a fat cigar'. Seriously. Catchy game name, huh?!



Don't laugh, the game's designer Mel Croucher went on to be better known for his later works Deus Ex Machina so he got a bit better with the game titles - and the gameplay.

Geek out!