Give away post!

Sometimes, lovely readers, things work out perfectly. Like how I'm moving tomorrow and won't have any internet for quite some time. So no new reviews.

But fear not, I have something AMAZING to hold you over until then. My very first give away, in collaboration with other blogs.

I introduce the Bloodcurling Blowout 2014!

So what can you win and how? Well, I said I would give away a 10 dollar giftcard for Amazon (UK or USA). But because of my inactivity on this blog, lets make it a gift card for TWO winners, so there is are two chances to win a $10 dollar gift card! Or two of my favourite books I've read this year (for the readers who like a surprise!)

And that's not all. There's a Kindle Fire HD that can be won and a selection of book packages, composed thanks to the help of all the blogs of the Bloodcurling Blowout 2014, that can be found here. 

So how can you win all this stuff?

For the Kindle HD or prize packages, click on the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want the giftcard or the two favourite books? Enter your e-mail address in the box below. On the 9th of September, I'll e-mail two winners who will be randomly picked by a computer program. 

Likes on this blog do not count towards the competition, since I have no way of checking who likes a post, so please enter your e-mail address.

Had To Be You - Julie Chatham

RATING: ★★★★☆

HAD TO BE YOU is a contemporary new adult romance set in a small Massachusetts beach town in the days leading up to a summer wedding. At its heart, this is a story about first love, but as it also carries over into post-college years, spanning that decade and touching upon more mature themes. It does not shy away from erotic description, but only as it reflects and reinforces the deep connection and passion defining the relationship. 

When Rory Finn first left behind the familiarity of her quiet, picturesque hometown to pursue a professional career in the city after college, her intention was to focus on the future—until a jarring bit of unwelcome news forces her to face the past. What if her first love could actually still be the true love of her life? There’s just one little problem with the timing of this revelation. He is about to marry someone else. 

As she embarks upon an impulsive, desperate bid to win him back, her mission turns into an unexpected and emotional journey of rediscovery. With both humor and heartbreak, the story itself transitions from past to present, exploring a small history of love from its tentative beginnings to what may just turned out to be its final bittersweet end.

My number one thing on my Christmas list this year (hey it’s never too early to start one!) is my own Matt O’Shea. Also known as the hunk that’s described as the first love of Rory. He’s cute, he’s sweet and the most adorable male character I’ve ever read. Every single one of this thoughts made me fall in love with him.

Matt is engaged at the beginning of the story to a girl, you might have guessed it, who is not Rory. He loves this girl and is fully committed to her, until Rory shows up. And that’s when I really fell in love with Matt.

He doesn’t just up and leaves his fiancé because of a crazy crush. No, he feels responsibility towards her, towards their commitment and is totally ready to make it work.

Does anyone get major Sharpay vibes from this cover? I LOVE IT.

Rory on the other hand suddenly realised how poorly she treated Matt and wants to tell him that she still likes him. She thinks. Rory is not completely sure about what she’s feeling, which only complicates the situation for everyone.

So Matt and Rory are the main characters, though the focus is more on Rory. I really liked her. She seems like your typical female narrator, but it turns out that there’s a lot more under the surface. She has a lot of relatable issues she has to work through (commitment fears, fears of a future career, family issues,…), but because of her quirky thinking, the book stays funny and light while dealing with serious problems.

I clearly adored this story, but I did have one issue with it : it dragged on a little bit towards the ending. In the beginning, everything is so open and exciting. Will Rory go home? Will Matt get married? What happens to Rory’s bf, Jill, who is pregnant? However, after reading 75% of the book, most issues are already solved. There is some needless back and forth about things, but I already knew how it was going to end. I think this would have been a great point to just stop the book and leave the ending kinda open. Not all ties need to be wrapped up.

What I did love were the flashbacks that show the teenage years of Rory and Matt. They weren’t chronological, which I think might bother some readers, but I actually liked it. You learn more and more about the couple in different ways. One flashback raises questions about how they got together and voila, the next one answers that. It’s different from most flashbacks, but once you’re used to it, it’s totally fine. Also, it says that there are "erotic" scenes, which I'm usually not a fan of, but really there aren't many and they aren't very graphic. So don't let that turn you off of this book.

There really isn’t much to say about the writing. Juliet Chatham did a great job portraying the story. You get sucked in and feel like you’re in Massachusetts, living the characters lives. Was there anything really special about the writing? No, it was pretty basic. But that works perfectly for the kind of escape-literature this is. 

And I definitely escaped my world with this book. I loved it. Because of the issues I had towards the ending of the book, I’ll give it 4.5 stars instead of 5. But seriously, pick up this book.

Rival Love - Natalie Decker

RATING: ★★★☆☆

Skylar Fletcher is a proud Harris Academy Bulldog! She has everything she’s ever wanted: a perfect boyfriend, great friends, and her dream college waiting for her in the fall. But nothing lasts forever. Skylar's world shatters when her mom decides it is time to move and drags Skylar, kicking and screaming, into Bobcat territory.

At Delmont High School, home of the Bobcats, Skylar has no friends and is often bullied. To make matters worse, her home life sucks thanks to all-star quarterback Caleb Morgan, nephew of her mom's live-in boyfriend.

At first Skylar and Caleb want nothing to do with one another. But they soon discover they're not that different after all--and each is harboring a secret attraction to the other. But can a Bulldog and a Bobcat ever really be more than friends? And are Skylar and Caleb willing to risk everything to find out? Rival Love is a debut young adult contemporary romance from Natalie Decker.

Love this cover btw, excellent choice to represent the story!

The summary of Rival Love makes it sound like every other YA novel out there - so many authors try a modern twist on the Romeo and Juliet story, that it makes it hard to enjoy any of those stories anymore.

So if you’re looking for an original story, this book is not for you. I can predict that 90% of you already know how this book is going to end from reading the summary (do let me know your guesses in the comments - maybe I’m wrong about this!).

But like I said before, originality in a book is only required for some people. I need some very original books every now and then, but sometimes, when I’m having a wonderful lazy day, I can really enjoy a predictable book. I don’t want to be on the edge of my seat, I don’t want my brain to work in overtime. I want to be sucked into another world and enjoy the comfort of knowing how it will work out.

And for this, Rival Love was perfect. Skylar Fletcher is the book version of Hannah from Pretty Little Liars. The moment I started reading, I heard her voice in my head. And then her “co-star” turned out to be someone named Caleb and I couldn’t resist using the two characters from the show for my reading.

This worked perfectly though. Skylar is crazy beautiful, sassy, spontaneous and deep down pretty insecure about herself. Caleb acts all cool and self-confident, but the boy has some serious issues. The chapters alternate between the point of view of Skylar and Caleb and the author did a great job of giving both characters very distinctive narrative voices. I never got confused about who was talking.

The issues, that both Skylar and Caleb have, meant that there was a bit too much back and forth for my liking. I understand the difficulties, but come oooon. At some point, just get together or not. Just decide. They were more wishy-washy than Madoc and Fallon in Rival (very similar titles, but not too similar plots actually). I think my impatience with this is also due to the fact that I don’t really get the high school rivalry. I understand it, but for it to be so bad that you get beat up everyday and actually won’t like someone just because of the school they come from? I guess I’m too European for that.

Besides that, I also didn’t like the ending at all. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone, but it’s way too open. What does it mean? Is there going to be a sequel? Since I actually did some research this time, it seems like there isn’t going to be. So then the ending was way too rushed. Everything is “tied together” in the last twenty pages. But nothing is really solved or decided. Instead of the crazy “WOW” feeling I had with the unexpected We Were Liars ending, this ending just leave me feeling “What? Is my ebook version not the complete version?”.But maybe that’s the unexpected in the book that readers will appreciate. It just didn’t do it for me.

I’ll give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. It was a good easy read with very likeable main characters. But there were elements that rubbed me the wrong way. I wish more time was spend on the ending and less time on the unnecessary back and forth between Skylar and Caleb.

Queen of Someday - Sherry D. Ficklin

RATING: ★★★★☆

RELEASE : OCTOBER 7TH 2014

Queen of Someday should be named Sophie’s World, but then unfortunately there would be copyright issues. The story revolves around Sophie and Sophie’s quest to the throne, Sophie’s love life, Sophie’s family, Sophie’s insecurity,… Everything involving Sophie.

Sophie is fifteen years old and is on her way to become Catherine the Great from Russia. All she has to do is court Prince Peter. Easy right? Except Peter is very feeble and very wishy-washy about any kind of feelings for anyone - the boy is obviously traumatised from his past, but because it’s Sophie’s story, we never really find out why. All we know is that he likes to take a selection of girls back to his “chambers”.

If that wasn’t hard enough, two other very attractive Russian men come into the story: Sergei and Alexander. They work at the court and are supposed to prepare the German Sophie for her future role. Focus here is on “supposed to”.

Who will capture Sophie’s heart? Will she become ruler of Russia? (if you know anything about Russian history, you can already guess the answer to both these questions) And most importantly, will she do it before the reader gets tired of the attractive girls with an escort of lovers?

I started off reading this book having no idea that this was the story of Catherine the Great. I saw the similarities, but because the narrator is Sophie, I didn’t really make the connection until after her Russian baptism. This made the story even more exciting, since I couldn’t guess at all the outcome of the story.

However, knowing the historical facts, I adore what the author did with the story.

Sophie is not written as a ruthless killer queen nor as a delicate wallflower who gets sucked into a manipulative game by men. Sophie is at times very naive, but she’s also still so young. Dealing with the intrigues of the Russian court at the age of fifteen must be hard and Sherry D. Ficklin knows how to make the reader empathetic for Sophie. Yes, it is all about her, but if you relate to her the way that I did, then you won’t mind that one single bit. I wanted to know everything Sophie was feeling and doing and I loved the amount of detail the reader was told about the young princess. 

I can imagine that some readers will be annoyed with the perfection of Sophie. Every man she meets falls for her and it seems like she can do no wrong. However, if you stick with the story, you’ll find out that beauty really isn’t everything. So just read enough, that’s my advice.

I had some serious hatred towards the mother of Sophie. She seemed unnecessarily cold and rude towards her daughter and really pushed her into the marriage “to save her family”. But after checking out Wikipedia (yes, my college professors can cry now) it turns out that her mother really was that way. So not much I can say about a character who was written historically accurate.

What I did dislike about the story was the depiction of Peter. As history tells, Peter and Catherine eventually turn against each other and one dies. So I understand the need to make Peter slowly into an antagonist in this story - it has to set the scene for the books to come. However, I really wanted more backstory from Peter. The moment he acts like an asshole, Sophie just accepts it. She never tries to really figure out why he is the way he is or even tries to fix him. She goes along in his sick games. I think a good sit-down between Sophie and Peter would have given the reader more insight into the Prince’s personality. And since the details of their relationship have never been recorded, it wouldn’t interfere with historical accuracy either.

But if the reader just accepts that this is Sophie’s story and all about her point of view, and realises that Sophie just has a personality in which she accepts a lot (probably her nativity again), then you can get carried away. The Russian court is described beautifully, there are many turns and twist in the plot (trust me - it’s not your regular love triangle story) and Sophie is a great character to connect to. We want her to succeed. To be happy. And Sherry D. Ficklin definitely made me happy when I read this book. 4.5 stars for an amazing take of an interesting historical event.

Rival - Penelope Douglas

RATING: ★★★★☆

I love receiving books from Netgalley. The feeling of reading something before the everyone else gets to read it fills my heart with joy. 

However, it’s always a bit of a wild gamble - I apply for loads of books and I don't remember why I actually requested them. My memory sucks.

Turns out that Rival by Penelope Douglas, which I picked solely based on the cover, is a highly anticipated book and part of a series (I learned that boring sidekick of Madoc, Jared, has his own story in another book - I’ll have to read it to find out more about him).

Plot

But what is this book about? It’s filled with so many twists and turns that I really wasn’t sure how to describe the plot. So I copied it from Goodreads.

Madoc and Fallon. Two estranged teenagers playing games that push the boundaries between love and war…

She’s back.

For the two years she’s been away at boarding school, there was no word from her. Back when we lived in the same house, she used to cut me down during the day and then leave her door open for me at night.

I was stupid then, but now I’m ready to beat her at her own game…

I’m back.

Two years and I can tell he still wants me, even if he acts like he’s better than me.

But I won’t be scared away. Or pushed down. I’ll call his bluff and fight back. That’s what he wants, right? As long as I keep my guard up, he’ll never know how much he affects me….

Nice and vague right? But that's the only way to describe it without giving too much away.

But how did I feel about this book? That’s very hard to answer.

Do they really love each other?

On the one hand, I absolutely adored it. I loved both Fallon and Madoc. They are not without flaws, but they are written like real human beings. Throughout the book, we slowly learn more about each character and like them more and more.

What I especially loved was the description of Madoc. He starts off as the typical 18-year old cocky bad boy, but really turns into an adult you can respect at the end of the book. He had an incredible growing curve during the story and it was very realistic. He didn’t do a 180 and suddenly become Prince Charming, but he learned a lot of things. The most important thing being to publicly show his respect for women. 

But the one thing I disliked about the book is that I felt that Madoc and Fallon never have a real relationship. They have sex, and lots of it (which is described in detail btw), but their conversations seem to fall flat somehow. 

When they do talk, it’s about their past romance and what happened back then. But from what we read, they didn’t really talk much back then either. And otherwise it’s have conversations about their big problems in life. But isn’t a relationship also small talk? Little cute conversations in the night? I would have loved to have read some of that.

So is it love or lust? I think it’s a clear case of teenage lust and I doubt they would be able to make it last in the real world. So no, I don’t ship Fallon and Madoc. At all. I adore them separately, but think they should just let each other go and grow up a bit.

Amazing writer

Penelope Douglas however is a phenomenal writer. She knows how to describe characters so that the reader slowly falls in love with them. She plays with her language and creates a plot that keeps you surprised in every single chapter. Does that mean the plot at times is very broad and slightly confusing? Yes. But it also means that a reader is challenged to pay attention. I enjoyed all the little indicators that showed something would happen before it actually did. It kept me interested in the story.

She also alternated between the point of view of Fallon and Madoc. I love this in any story and Penelope really succeeded in picking the right point of view for the right moment. She also managed to give each character their own unique voice, which really helped with connecting to the characters.

Conclusion

So how to rate this? Due to the lack of real relationship between Fallon and Madoc, it can’t be a 5 star. But because of my love for both of the characters and the great writing style, I have to give it a 4. I just wish the plot would have been slightly less complicated so we could have seen more “real” moments between Madoc and Fallon.

Oh and btw, don't get discouraged by the playlist at the beginning of the book. There's Nickelback in there, which is awful. But I tweeted about it with the author and she said it was nowhere in the book, which she was totally right about. Just skip the playlist and you'll be fine. 

Am I suddenly Robinson Crusoe?

As some of you may know, and with some I mean the people that follow my Tumblr blog, I am 1. moving to the CUTEST house in London soon and 2. starting an online MA in literature soon too.  The combination of these two things have made me crazy more than once. Reading two books a week for this website, reading to prep for the MA and finding, decorating and organising a house is more than a handful for me.

But today, in the weird twist of faith that sometimes gets thrown your way, these two things came together.

For the MA, I have to read Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and let me tell you - this is more exhausting than reading Vanity Fair (which btw is staring at me from across my desk ever since I gave up halfway through the story. I'll finish it, I swear!). But today I suddenly had a breakthrough. 

While I was reading about Robinson's struggle to make bread (which takes up a good 10 pages, just so you know), I realised that I am Robinson Crusoe. No, I'm not struggling to make bread, though I'm sure I would be if I had to make some, but I am struggling to adjust to my new situation. 

How do you get gas in your house? How does the internet get connected? What do I need to buy? These are all questions that take up all of my day while Robinson wonders how to make bread, how to shelter his corn, how to make his parrot talk. It makes him completely question everything he thought he knew, just like I am at times.

We are both in a completely new home, a new country, a new life and are struggling. And while I was thinking about this, I suddenly started to feel for Robinson.

Yes, he is a bit of a brat that keeps nagging on about his bread for way too long, but he's lost. I chose to start a completely new life in a new country. Robinson did too, but he got a whole different life thrown in his way. I'm moving with my best friend, while he doesn't even have a human being around him. I feel bad for Robinson. 

He has to deal with all the questions I'm dealing with but then times a thousand. He has nothing to believe in or nothing familiar around him.

Maybe classics aren't always that difficult to read. Maybe you just need to find something you can relate to. For now, I'll go back to reading about Robinson and hoping he'll be ok - just like I'll be. 

Outshine - Nola Decker

RATING: ★★★★☆

When you start reading Outshine, you enter a moment of “What the F is going on here?”. The reader is introduced to Gabe, who spits out a bunch of statistical data about history and the people in his class. How does he know the exact percentage of all of this? Why does he feel sick when he hears a lie? Why does he hate the girl behind him?

Turns out that Gabe can detect any lie - and can’t tell any lie himself, because it makes him physically sick. He is later referred to as a “spotter” (as in spotting lies I guess). And the girl behind him is Jessa, the second narrator of this book. Jessa can kick some serious ass, Black Widow style, but hides it from everyone around her. Hence why she literally makes Gabe sick. 

But then Gabe gets pulled out of class - his brother Watts is missing and pretty soon Gabe is a suspect. At the same time, Jessa almost gets kidnapped by a bunch of men. These men run project “Outshine” and want to create a supernatural kind of human to save earth from the harm normal humans inflict on it. They’ve got Watts. Will they get Jessa and Gabe?

I started off this book immediately loving Gabe and Jessa. They couldn’t be more different: Gabe is a know-it-all who is extremely frustrated by the world and hates everyone (including his brother Wade). Jessa on the other hand is a popular girly-girl who worries about dates and her nails.

Turns out that neither of them are like that at all. As the story develops, Jessa and Gabe start showing their real personality to each other and to the reader. I absolutely adored this because it makes the book a great character piece.

What do we hide from others? Would we be judged if we showed our true selves? The main characters in Outshine slowly discover that those questions aren’t that easy to answer. 

For example, Jessa hides the fact that she could break any door or for the matter, break any person, from all her friends. She pretends to be all girly so that they wouldn’t notice. This weighs on her and when she can finally let herself do what she always wanted to do, which is beat people up, she feels free and allows other people into her life.

Jessa’s development helps Gabe. The less she lies, the more he likes her, because he feels more comfortable around her. He also starts trusting her enough to drop hints that he might have a sixth sense about liars. 

The book really is about these two characters and their development throughout the story. But every reader knows that a plot cannot just be about characters - something needs to happen. And oh boy, does stuff happen in Outshine. There are kidnappings, drugs, betrayal, government corruption and even environmental issues. How can you not love that in combination with the character development?

The one thing I didn’t like from this book was Watts. I get that Watts is kidnapped in the beginning of the book, so there really isn’t much development you can give to a character that is missing, but there’s so much talk about him and he comes back in different scenes at different times, that I would have liked something more in-depth. He is portrayed as a jerk who doesn’t care about anyone but, mild spoiler, in the end he does something which is incredibly selfless and kind and caring and… so not the Watts from the whole book. What’s up with that? I believe that not one character is pure evil and I would have liked to have seen more of Watts.

Especially since the real baddy in this book, leader of project Outshine Deacon, is also not really a bad guy. He does bad things, really sick bad things, but his motivation for many of those things is mostly understandable. He wants to save the earth and protect a certain kind of people on it. Is it a bit weird? Yes. Is it evil? Yes. Is he really a bad guy? I didn’t think so. For most of the book, he seemed nicer that Watts, which just couldn’t be correct, since the end makes it clear that Deacon really is the bad guy (but Watts gets no real redemption).

So how to rate this book? Four out of five. It’s definitely a great read and it could have been perfect if Watts was just explored a tiny bit more.