Book Review ~ Alienated by Melissa Landers

Title: Alienated (Alienated #1)
Author: Melissa Landers
Release Date: February 4th 2014
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: Received from the publisher via NetGalley

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.
 
My Thoughts

Alienated by Melissa Landers is a fresh and interesting YA story that revolves around the integration of an alien boy and a human girl.

I pretty much devoured the first two thirds of this book, soaking up the well written story, the interesting characters and the journey of prejudice and love in which Cara and Aelyx find themselves.

However, I felt let down by the rushed and too easy ending that just didn’t ring true for me. The hurried and seemingly simple solution to the plight of the entire world, and the punishment met out by the L’eihr elders just didn’t measure up with the punishments the reader is led to believe exists for much lesser crimes, earlier on in the book. 

The lack of emotion and compassion we are also led to believe about the L’eihr race seems to disappear in order to round out the story, letting Cara and Aelyx off pretty much scot-free.

Overall, I did enjoy the story and I’ll be sure to read the follow up, but in-my-opinion, there needs to be more story consistency in order to make it coherent and believable. 3.5 STARS

Book Review: Bound by Night by Larissa Ione

Title: Bound by Night (MoonBound Clan Vampire #1)
Author: Larissa Ione
Release Date: September 24th 2013
Publisher: Pocket Books
Source: Received from the publisher via NetGalley
 
A WOMAN OUT FOR BLOOD
Nicole Martin was only eight years old when the vampire slaves rose up in rebellion and killed her family. Now she devotes her life to finding a vaccine against vampirism, hoping to wipe out her memories—along with every bloodsucker on the planet. But there’s one thing she cannot destroy: her searing, undeniable attraction for the one man she should hate and fear the most . . .

A VAMPIRE OUT FOR REVENGE
A member of the renegade vampire MoonBound Clan, Riker is haunted by demons of his own. When he recognizes Nicole and remembers how her family enslaved his loved ones, his heart burns for vengeance. But when he kidnaps Nicole and holds her in a secret lair, his mortal enemy becomes his soul obsession, his greatest temptation, and, perhaps, his only salvation—a hot-blooded lover who could heal him with her touch . . . or bury him forever.

My Thoughts

I’m a big fan of Larissa Ione, especially her ‘Lords of Deliverance’ series, so I was eager to see what she could do with her own brand of vampires.

The first half was slow and a bit long-winded with its background, history and world building etc, but that sometimes happens with the first book in a new series. Allowances tend to be made for that fact. But I also didn’t really care for either Nicole or Riker all that much. I found them both to be very self absorbed and bitter. I really couldn’t find many redeeming features.

However, the second half picked up considerably. Events (no spoilers!) brought out another side to the characters, revelations about them changed my opinions of them, the story began to take on an interesting shape and I was very pleased with how it all played out. This was the Larissa Ione I have come to love.

Overall, I enjoyed where this book went, it just took a long time to get there.

I’ll reserve judgment on the authors new vampire world until the next installment but I think it shows promise, a reasonable 3.5 star read.

Book Review: The Silver Chain by Primula Bond

Title: The Silver Chain (The Unbreakable Trilogy #1)
Author: Primula Bond
Release Date: July 4th 2013
Publisher: AVON (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd)
Source: ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Bound by passion, she was powerless to resist.

One dark evening in London, photographer Serena Folkes is indulging her impulsive side with a night-time shoot. But someone is watching her – mysterious entrepreneur Gustav Levi. Serena doesn’t know it yet, but this handsome stranger will change her life forever…

Serena is fascinated by Gustav, the enigmatic owner of the Levi Gallery, and she soon feels an irresistible pull of attraction. The interest is mutual, and Gustav promises to launch Serena’s photographic career at his gallery, but only if Serena agrees to become his exclusive companion.

To mark their agreement, Gustav gives Serena a bracelet to wear at all times. Attached to it is a silver chain of which he is the keeper. With the chain Gustav controls Serena physically and symbolically – a sign that she is under his power.

As their passionate relationship intensifies, Gustav’s hold on the silver chain grows stronger. But will Gustav’s dark past tear them apart?

My Thoughts

It’s a well known fact (if you’re a regular here at MBC) that I’m not a huge bondage fan, but I do love a well crafted story full of great sex - plus I’m ever hopeful that I will find a tie-me-up-and-dominate-me book that I will fall in love with - so I happily started The Silver Chain free of expectation.

I initially found the main characters to be interesting, perhaps a little quirky; which is totally cool with me, I’m slightly off-the-wall myself!
But man, the first 25% of the book is very slow and it lacked flow so it was a wee bit clunky to read.

The burgeoning friendship/attraction element felt very forced and gave me a creepy-old-man vibe. But thankfully, as the story progressed and the MC’s grew, I felt more of a connection, more of a belief in them as a couple. However, tortured pasts come back to haunt the fledgling relationship and feelings get hurt - self doubts rise and everything falls apart.

After some time to reassess, Gustav and Serena manage to find a balance they can both be happy with and they get their HEA; there’s even a final little twist to set up the next book in this series - nice.

The Silver Chain was a bit of a hit and miss for me, but it is full of trysts, tease, borderline kink, domination and more; a 3.5 star read.

Author's blog
Amazon US

COVER REVEAL: Fire by T.G. Ayer

And here it is - the long awaited
and highly anticipated
Cover Reveal of
FIRE (The Hand of Kali #1)
by T.G. Ayer!!

 
Title: FIRE
Series: The Hand of Kali Series
Volume: 1
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Publication Date: (expected) July 2013
Format: Paperback, E-Book
ISBN-10:  TBA 
Publisher: Infinite Ink
Pages: 350
Add on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17264568-flame 

DESCRIPTION:
Normal people sneak out to a party and have fun. Maya Rao ends the evening by incinerating the guy who attacks her.
Nik Lucas, sexy, new in town and totally forbidden, happens to walk in on her. Normal guys would run for the hills. Nik knows a whole lot more than he's telling.
Maya doesn't believe the gods are real, doesn't waste her time with mere mythology. But when gods, demons and hellhound's become the new normal and wielding fire becomes her new skill, she must decide what it is she really believes.
Can Maya accept that normal is something she will never be because it isn't normal to be
...the Hand of Kali.

EXCERPT:
Fear spun Maya around on stricken feet. To defend her back perhaps. She just felt less vulnerable facing her attacker, where she could see his next move. He barreled straight at her. And for all her training in martial arts, she did the one thing her dad always said never to do. She ducked her head and hid her face with her hands. Hands out, as if she could fend off this vicious attacker merely with the soft skin of her palms.
Maya felt the heat before she saw it.
Byron was on fire. A living column of shimmering orange flames. She couldn't breathe. Was afraid to breathe. How did that happen? She glanced around the bathroom as panic filled her veins, her fear taking on a whole new level of hysteria. She had to put the fire out.
She turned to the faucet to fill her hands with water. And froze. In the mirror she saw the burning reflection of Byron disappear. Byron was there one moment and gone the next. Only a few burnt shards of fabric left to say he was ever there. But she remembered the last thing she'd seen before Byron became nothing: brilliant blue eyes turning a frighteningly blood-red.
And Nik, holding the doorknob, staring at the empty space on the floor behind her.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I have been a writer from the time I was old enough to recognise that reading was a doorway into my imagination. Poetry was my first foray into the art of the written word. Books were my best friends, my escape, my haven. I am essentially a recluse but this part of my personality is impossible to practise given I have two teenage daughters, who are actually my friends, my tea-makers, my confidantes… I am blessed with a husband who has left me for golf. It’s a fair trade as I have left him for writing. We are both passionate supporters of each other's loves – it works wonderfully…

My heart is currently broken in two. One half resides in South Africa where my old roots still remain, and my heart still longs for the endless beaches and the smell of moist soil after a summer downpour. My love for Ma Afrika will never fade. The other half of me has been transplanted to the Land of the Long White Cloud. The land of the Taniwha, beautiful Maraes, and volcanoes. The land of green, pure beauty that truly inspires. And because I am so torn between these two lands – I shall forever remain cross-eyed.

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Spotlight On... Winter Queen by Amber Argyle

Title: Winter Queen (Fairy Queens #1)
Release Date: June 19th 2013
Publisher: Starling Publishing

~Becoming a winter queen will make Ilyenna as cold and cruel and deadly as winter itself, but it might be the only way to save her people from a war they have no hope of winning.~

Mortally wounded during a raid, seventeen-year-old Ilyenna is healed by winter fairies who present her with a seductive offer: become one of them and share their power over winter. But that power comes with a price. If she accepts, she will become a force of nature, lose her humanity, and abandon her family.

Unwilling to pay such a high price, Ilyenna is enslaved by one of the invaders, Darrien. While in captivity, she learns the attack wasn’t just a simple raid but part of a larger plot to overthrow her entire nation.

With the enemy stealing over the mountains and Darrien coming to take her to his bed, Ilyenna must decide whether to resurrect the power the fairies left behind. Doing so will allow her to defeat Darrien and the other invaders, but if she embraces winter, she will lose herself to that destroying power—forever.

Amber Argyle talks about her new book, Winter Queen

1. Where did you come up with the setting for Winter Queen?

Amber: I wanted something with abrupt mountains and alpine meadows. A rocky, cold environment that made surviving a challenge, but which also provided protection from any marauding forces. Basically, a landscape that made characters as tough as it was.

I also wanted a place where winter was a dark and deadly presence, signaling the end of warmth and light. All this so my character would hate winter and see it as a sort of evil. When she's presented with the opportunity to save her people from a war they cannot win, she must turn to this dark force to save them.

I even searched out old maps and Pinterest for such places and found Triglav National Park in Slovenia (there are lots of hints of this throughout the novel, but they are buried pretty deeply). Check out my Winter Queen Pinterest board to see some of the images that inspired me.  

2. Is it true parts of the book were inspired by the movie The Last of the Mohican's? 

Amber: Yes. I watched the movie as a young teenager and found myself much more fascinated with Alice's story as opposed to Cora's. Alice was portrayed as the weaker of the two sisters, but in reality, she was simply untried--very young, and very innocent.

The moment when she stood at the edge of the cliff, looking down the long drop below, still haunts me. She had a choice to marry and bear children for her captor, or end her life.

She chose to die, and I wanted to shout at that there was another choice. She could be strong, endure until she had a chance to change her life. To live.

But she didn't. She dropped, silently and suddenly. And I wondered how differently that story would have been if Alice had chosen to live.

That's the story I wanted to explore in Winter Queen. A girl faced with a similar choice: death or marriage to the murderer of those she loves. But . . . . well, I don't want to spoil it for you. But it's pretty intense.  

3. You also explore themes of what it means to be a man and a woman in the book. Can you tell us a little about that?

Amber: I'm not sure when I realized that boys would, for the most part, outgrow rules like "stranger danger", "the buddy system", etc. While I never would.

That to be a woman meant I was and always would be vulnerable. How much worse then for a woman raised in a time when all that stood between her and those who meant her harm were her kith and kin.

So what would happen if her kith and kin were presented with a choice to save her--the daughter and girl they loved--or themselves? It's a choice that is replayed over and over again throughout the world's history.

In ancient times, men were fighters and protectors. So what does it do to them when they fail? When they aren't strong enough to defend what's theirs, despite everything they could do. I explore this as well with my hero, Rone. 

4. This sounds like a pretty intense book, with some difficult themes. What age to you recommend reads it?

Amber: If you're okay with the violence level in Hunger Games and the steaminess in Twilight, you'll be fine with Winter Queen.

LINKS

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Quickie Book Review: Frostbite by Lynn Rush

Title: Frostbite (Touch of Frost #1)
Author: Lynn Rush
Release Date: September 17th 2013
Publisher: Lynn Rush, LLC
Source: Won an e-arc from the author

Amanda gives a whole new meaning to cool…

Amanda Smith is sick of getting chased from town-to-town. So when she lands in tiny Trifle, Arizona, she hopes it’s her last move for a long time. Despite hating the smallness of the town, she settles in and finds a best friend, and even a boyfriend. Normality at its finest.

But for a girl who can shoot snow from her hands and lift a two-ton truck over her head like a bag of feathers—normal is not an option.

The scientists who murdered her mother come barreling into Amanda’s quiet life. She must decide if she’ll run again or stay and fight. The price of either choice might be her life or the lives of those she’s come to love…

My Thoughts

Frostbite is full of unexpected twists and turns, I never really knew what would happen next and I loved that about this book.
It has also been quite some time since a YA book made me cry; such were the emotions of this story.
I especially loved the prologue – it really sets the scene; lots of dire events, fighting and surprising ice action!
 

A great story, well told with realistic relationships/friendships portrayed. I look forward to reading where this story goes next.
A lovely 4 star read ;]