Wishing For Wednesday #10

This week features, two books that I have been eagerly awaiting, and when I say eagerly, I mean the wait has been killing me!
They are part of two of my favourite series, and I really really can't wait to get hold of them!
The third is one that looks darkly enticing.

Stone Cold Touch

Layla Shaw is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life—no easy task for a seventeen-year-old who’s pretty sure things can’t get worse. Her impossibly gorgeous best friend, Zayne, is forever off-limits thanks to the mysterious powers of her soul-stealing kiss. The Warden clan that has always protected her is suddenly keeping dangerous secrets. And she can barely think about Roth, the wickedly hot demon prince who understood her in ways no one else could.

But sometimes rock bottom is only the beginning. Because suddenly Layla’s powers begin to evolve, and she’s offered a tantalizing taste of what has always been forbidden. Then, when she least expects it, Roth returns, bringing news that could change her world forever. She’s finally getting what she always wanted, but with hell literally breaking loose and the body count adding up, the price may be higher than Layla is willing to pay…


Stone Cold Touch is out October 21st, pre-order your copy here.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue is out October 21st, pre-order your copy here.


Beware The Wild

It's an oppressively hot and sticky morning in June when Sterling and her brother, Phin, have an argument that compels him to run into the town swamp -- the one that strikes fear in all the residents of Sticks, Louisiana. Phin doesn't return. Instead, a girl named Lenora May climbs out, and now Sterling is the only person in Sticks who remembers her brother ever existed.

Sterling needs to figure out what the swamp's done with her beloved brother and how Lenora May is connected to his disappearance -- and loner boy Heath Durham might be the only one who can help her. 

This debut novel is full of atmosphere, twists and turns, and a swoon-worthy romance.

Beware The Wild is out October 21st, pre-order your copy here.

The Hawley Book Of The Dead

The Hawley Book Of The Dead
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Proof courtesy of the publisher

After a magic trick is sabotaged and goes tragically wrong, Reve is left without her husband, but with 3 kids to keep safe from the killer who is now stalking them all around Vegas. After a mysterious letter from her Grandmother she decides to do as it says and take them back to her hometown, Hawley Five Corners, except, after 5 girls and then the entire town vanished in the 20's, no-one in the nearby town of Hawley Village will come near their new home.

The house is surrounded by acres of forest, drenched in secrets, mysteries and magic. Reve finds a mysterious book called The Hawley Book Of The Dead, which gives her visions of what their stalker is up to. When he follows them to Hawley, and her twins go missing, Reve will have to solve the mysteries and find out the secrets, of her families history. It turns out there's more to her family than originally meets the eye.

Man, this should be called The Hawley Book Of You Should Have Listened To Your Mother. I know things have to happen a certain way to move the plot along and so on, but I really couldn't stop myself from getting so irritated with Reve's kids who literally never do what they're told. Ya know...taking dodgy magical items from strangers that mean a dodgy magician can listen in and find the book, and ya know...going out for a ride alone when they where told not to because they're being stalked by a total crazy. I literally got so annoyed. It's like in Game Of Thrones when no-one listened to Mama Stark and they all ended up dead, crippled, engaged to a psycho or pretending to be a boy and getting in trouble every 5 seconds.

I really loved the magic, and all the magic tricks and so on, and I loved the actual real magic. I thought the history of the family was very rich and intriguing. I really enjoyed learning about the family history and trying to work out what had happened back in the day and coming up with theories that where then proved wrong. I mean there where some parts that I could guess, but there where others that left me surprised so it was a good mix of both!

The pacing was fairly good, it started off strong, it drew you in, and then the end was a race to the finish full of suspense, but for a little bit in the middle it kind of slowed down and I was a little bit bored for a while, but there where still interesting tidbits to keep the mystery alive even if the pace had died a little bit.

The plot was fairly complex, there where threads from the past and a secret government experiment going on, that was tied in to the main story very well, the little bits of information from the family history where always thrown in at the right moment and the main plot, was a bit of a surprise at the end and it was just a very well thought out and complex plot that brought lots of threads together.

I liked the world, the world building was fantastic and vivid, there where creepy elements at first with their house and the disappearing villagers, and then the missing girls  being found. The mystery and intrigue was kept up the whole way through, there where nice little gaps in the story when the book told you more about Voss and what happened to Maggie and where Voss was that added nice little breaks from the narrative and gave you a lot of information in an interesting way. The end had the perfect amount of suspense as well.

I liked the characters well enough, like I said, her kids really irritated me, but I really liked Reve herself and the other members of her family, and Jolon was cool too. I did think it was weird that she rather suddenly appeared to get with Jolon, but whatever. Reve was a character you could empathize with and understand her logic and her actions so her narrative was easy to read and was engaging.

Overall The Hawley Book Of The Dead, while having a few pacing problems and moments of blah, was for the most part, full of mystery and suspense and two very different kinds of magic. It was really enjoyable and had a nice creepy element to keep you on your toes!

The Mysteries

The Mysteries
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy!
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

Ever since Ian Kennedy's father went missing when he was a kid, and he subsequently found him a few years later, he's been obsessed with mysterious disappearances, and fell in to becoming a PI looking for missing persons. It all started when he was sent to Scotland to track down a family friends missing daughter, in what was not only his first, but also his strangest case. A case he has told no-one about.

So when Laura Lensky knocks on his door one day, and says her friend recommended him to her as he's dealt with a similar case, he's immediately intrigued and wary. Laura's  missing daughter Peri has been gone for two years, and police don't want to know. You see, Peri called her mother 5 months after she originally disappeared saying she was fine, while that solved things for the Police, it just made her mother need to know what was going on, all the more.

But Peri isn't a runaway, while the Police may think it, Peri's mother Laura, and boyfriend Hugh, know it's a different case. Ian realizes why, when he agrees to be Laura's last ditch attempt to locate her daughter. Why? Because when he questions Hugh about the last night he saw Peri he tells an incredibly strange and unbelievable story, one that not only has parallels to his first case....but also sounds eerily similar to an old Celtic myth. But there's something strange going on....something....unexplainable.

Being that it's called The Mysteries, it will come as no surprise that this book is FULL of mysteries. It starts with a mystery, solves a mystery, showcases some other mysteries and ends with a mystery. Well it's a mystery if you don't have your own little idea of what Ian did. For the third review this week I find myself saying, "if you don't like not having a definitive answer....you will have a problem with this book".

I originally started reading this, unsure what to expect, I figured it was going to be a mystery book, girl goes missing, and the whole Celtic myth thing was just something the kidnapper was doing because he or she was weird. I was so very wrong. There are Sidth involved. As soon as I saw that word, I knew exactly what I had gotten myself in to. I don't want to boast, but I was quite the obsessed Merlin fan, and so ya know...they had an episode or two about said Sidth. It's this element that ensures The Mysteries stands out from other books in it's genre.

There's so much that's unique about this book, and so much that I loved. There's the way it starts off as a series mystery book, then adds these...magical elements, initially only mentioned in small chunks, as little tidbits, until the story of Amy's case unfurls and then there's  more magical/mythical elements as they search for Peri.

The thing I loved most was that you'd have a chapter on the present day narrative, involving Peri's case and such, that is the main story that is going on in this book. After a point in the book, you then have Amy's case/story woven in and being told alongside Peri's, to explain why Peri's case seems so familiar. But that's not all, along with these, you have chapters with different people's names at the top, I've not done a google search yet to see if any of these stories are true or not, I'm under the impression they are, but I loved the inclusion of them. I loved how they changed. We get little chapters, a couple of pages long, about different people and how they disappeared, if they where found and so on, each is different to the other, but I loved how they changed in intent? Content? I'm not sure which word to use.

You see they start as stories about people who disappeared, one a British Ambassador, who just vanished in to thin air and was thought to have been assassinated by the French, for example, one's like that, that seemed strange and improbable, but had plenty of rational explanations. As the book continues, and as the stranger elements of Peri's case come out, as the story of Amy's case comes out, and as the Sidth and the magical element is introduced, these little chapters on different missing people changed to stories about people who'd been taken by the fairies and came back, or in some very old cases, some old lore was used, and they where rescued by people before the fairies could take them to the Otherworld.

I loved that, because the entire tone of the book changes, it's intent changes, and I just really loved it. The individual cases also added a break from the narrative, so you could process what had happened in the previous chapter, and refreshed you. I just really enjoyed the obvious slow changing of the book.

On much the same note, I loved the lore/mythology of the book, and it's something I'd quite like to check out more, pay a trip to the library and so on, to find out  more. There's only so much you can glean from a 40 or so minute episode of Merlin, and I was eager throughout the book to learn more of the mythology, not just the Celtic Myth linked to Peri, but I was fascinated by the older missing persons cases in the book, about how to deal with fairies almost. The whole they have to trade with you thing, and so on. It was fascinating and so fantastically woven in to the main story, a story that you're under the impression is just a regular mystery book. The fairies and the mythology are subtle at first, then it gradually becomes more and more until the book changes.

I feel like I'm not describing it adequately but it's so hard to explain!

To be honest, I'll probably never look at missing persons case in the same way again, I mean I was reading this until about 4am, and I freely admit I was so involved in what was going on that I jumped a foot in the air when it started to loudly piss it down with rain. I seriously couldn't put this book down, putting it down even for to make a cup of tea, and I found myself thinking about it, running theories through my head and trying to work out what was going on, and I'm SO pleased to say this is one of the few books where it's near impossible to workout, so you're constantly surprised, shocked and amazed.

I really loved The Mysteries, it's fast paced, intriguing, impossible to put down, full of surprises, full of mythology and lore that's totally fascinating, and just totally unique to anything else. I can't sing its praises enough to be honest, it's a total mash-up of mystery, thriller, fantasy and even fairy tale!

The Fall

The Fall
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the Publisher!

The Ushers of Usher House die young. They are all cursed, doomed thanks to a greedy and bloodthirsty ancestor. You see Usher House is different, some say it's haunted, but the Ushers know that the house has a mind of it's own. Ushers can never leave the House, it won't let them. They feel what it feels and it thrives on suffering and pain. At first, Madeline was seduced by the House, when you have a mother as cruel as  hers, who loves her twin brother more than her, the affection and the love brought from being the House's favourite, meant everything to her, especially when her mother saves her brother from the curse by sending him away. Soon enough, Madeline is alone in the House, the House the only thing that cares about her, it even sends her a dog to keep her company, although she is wary of gifts from the House. But being the House's favourite doesn't mean you're safe.

Through bursts of Madeline's memories over the years, we learn about the House, her life and watch as she makes the first friend in her entire life, watch a doctor become a murderer and watch Madeline finally hatch a plan to escape. You see, she has to destroy the House. But when she wakes up in a coffin, it seems the House has won. Can Madeline be strong enough to destroy the House to save herself and her brother?

Guys this is seriously right up there as a Halloween read, I was going to save it until closer to the time, but I kept looking at, and I watched all the other reviews roll in and I couldn't stop myself. I cracked. And I'm soooo glad I did, I zoomed through this in a couple of hours and I was hooked the entire way through! I seriously couldn't put it down.

The Fall is fantastically, creepily atmospheric. The House can be pictured so vividly you feel as if you've been there before, and this book is so incredibly unique. You find yourself transported in to the incredibly eerie house, breathing in the dust and the decay and quite honestly, I should REALLY not have been reading this as late at night as I was, because I was completely creeped out, yet I couldn't simply close the book and put it down. I mean, I have been known to watch Most Haunted and then be able to sleep properly for a week, and the mentions of ghosts in this where so very eerie and creepy, yet, like the glutton for punishment I am, I carried on. (In case anyone was wondering, I did sleep perfectly fine after a couple of hours of mindlessly reading peoples crap on Facebook)

I keep capitalizing House in my synopsis and so far in this review, to me, I feel it should be, as the House isn't just a building, it feels like an actual character in the book. It prevents the family from leaving, I'm fairly certain the house is what causes their "illness", and ya know...it threw an axe at Madeline. The House feels incredibly vengeful, incredibly.....malicious? It enjoys grief and pain and cruelty, and so it enjoys taunting and terrorizing it's inhabitants. This really adds to the incredible atmosphere of the book, you can feel the foreboding, the fear, the dread, the hopelessness of everyone from the House that has ever tried to beat it, to leave. It feels like no-one in the House is truly living. There's incredible moments of disorientation, particularly when the House seems to be making Madeline think she's gone mad, I mean it could have been the Doctor drugging her, that was a contribution, but the House would make things disappear. Stairs go nowhere, doors open on to walls. It was astounding.

The story is strange, in that the pace is fairly slow, but you're still gripped, compelled to keep reading. The POV switches from current Madeline of 18 year's, to younger Madeline, from 8, I think the youngest was, to 17. The chapters are fairly short, but it's sufficient enough in length to give you a glimpse in to Madeline's past, to keep you reading as you try to put the pieces together. It's through these flashbacks, as well as the diary entries of Lisbeth Usher, scattered throughout Madeline's narrative? POV's? I'm not sure how to put it, that we learn of Madeline's family history. I will admit I worked out who Lisbeth was fairly quickly, but I was not expecting the conclusion of Lisbeth's story, as it where, I had assumed she was someone's mother and was very wrong!

I loved the first chapter, with Madeline in the coffin, almost the end at the beginning, you knew it was going to happen, as you read you work out why it must have happened, but  you can't wait to find out what happens next, and when it reaches the tie in, as the book is racing towards the end you're frantically turning pages, and realizing how few there are left, which is mildly worrying.

I loved the ending. If you want a definitive ending, this will probably vex you. I liked how Cassandra was there, I'd quite like to know what the deal was with the tentacle monster and how she survived! You're left wondering if Madeline and Roderick are alive, I would like to think they are, from the ending, I really do think they are, but you're left to draw your own conclusion and for me, I felt like it was the perfect ending to the book. Keeping some mystery and intrigue.

Madeline I felt for from the beginning with how her mother treated her as opposed to Roderick, and I could understand each and every feeling she had, including when she felt some resentment to him. I mean I resented him and more than once wanted to smack him one, I mean who could leave their sister alone, all by herself, on Christmas Day just because he didn't like the House. There where a few moments like that where I really hated him. But Madeline I connected with.

When you're reading you see and feel what Madeline see's and feels, for example with Emily, like Madeline, I really did think she'd taken the money and scarpered, just used Madeline with no intention of coming back, I did not, at all, expect what had really happened, I mean I knew he was cray-cray but I didn't think he was THAT bad. The Fall for me, was a good mix between being able to guess some things, and being totally shocked and surprised by others. You constantly create theories as you read and have them totally destroyed in an unexpected way.

Also, like Madeline, you doubt everything and everyone. Is Cassandra really Madeline's ally? Is Emily trustworthy? Is Dr.Paul? You question everyone and their motives, particularly the doctors. Pretty much everyone in the House has some Usher blood and was drawn in by the House so everyone is suspect, I can't imagine living questioning everyone and never trusting everyone like Madeline did every single day.

The characters and their transformations where particularly fascinating. The young Doctor being a prime example, in the beginning there where hints of genuine romance, from a young man who just wanted to solve the family illness/curse and cure Madeline, who became infected by the House and it's evil spirit, although, having said that, i'm not sure how innocent he was in the beginning after a conversation was overheard, I was starting to think he had ulterior motives for going there. He did a total 180. Then there was Roderick, who seemed to escape the curse, but changed entirely when he came back and spent a certain amount of time with the House, not to mention the House's rather (very well done) skeevy desire to have Madeline and Roderick be a liiiiiiiittle bit incestuous. They don't, because ya know...they realize it's the House.

I was very intrigued by Noah, and his relationship with Roderick, I assume he was the friend the "incident" happened with, and with how he was treating Madeline, I was very curious to see more of him, but again, you can draw your own conclusions.

The Fall is spooky, creepy, eerie, spellbinding, enchanting, mesmerizing, haunting, I could go on and on, but you get my drift. It was so fantastically vivid and atmospheric that it sucked you in to the story and in to the House along with Madeline, it's an incredible read, with fascinating characters and constant mystery and intrigue for you to work through, putting the pieces together, trying to come up with theories and trying to work out, along with Madeline, how to beat the House. I had very high expectations for this book and I wasn't disappointed, it's one that I will read again and again, particularly around this time of year! The Fall will really give your imagination a work out, from tentacled creatures and ghosts, to those times when you get no definitive answer and have to decide for yourself what happened!

The Snow Child

The Snow Child
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of BookBridgr and Headline

After losing their only baby a few years before, Jack and Mabel pack up and head to Alaska, they want to stake all they have on starting up a homestead. Things are tough in 1920's Alaska, winters are hard, and the ground isn't what Jack, from a large farming family, is used to. They struggle to make it through one winter. Lonely, and haunted by what could have been, Mabel isn't as happy as she thought she would be. But that all changes when Jack and Mabel spend one care free evening building a snow girl. Except when they wake up the next day...it's gone. And then the little girl appears. Gradually she starts to become less wary of them, but as Mabel and Jack make friends with their neighbors Esther and George, things start to change. At first they don't believe Mabel, but as the years wear on, well....they finally meet her, and one of their boys takes a shine. Is she just an orphaned girl, used to living in the wild? Or is she the snow child of an old Russian fairytale?

This book is so beautiful, not just outside, but inside too. The descriptions and the world building where astounding. The story, as heartbreaking at times as it was, was just...beautiful.

I'm not sure if it was just me, but when in Mabel's point of view, at the beginning, the landscape and the world seemed so bleak...so depressing, but as Mabel became happier, with help from their snow child, she started to notice the beauty in the landscape, it might just be me, but it seemed like the descriptions changed as she noticed the beauty in the landscape that she was slowly coming to love. Don't get me wrong though...the descriptions even when they're bleak and depressing, are beautiful as well.

This isn't a fairytale story, it's based on one yes, but there's emotional highs and lows, there is hardship. You see Mabel and Jack struggling to survive, and then you see how important friendship is when those friends lend a helping hand. It's all about survival and friendship and family, and not just blood family, as the book shows. But you also got brief flashes of how brutal it is to survive in the conditions in the book, there's a lot of animal killings, and I guess in this day and age, it's not something we think about much. I found myself thinking I quite probably would not have the stomach to kill and gut an animal, even if my survival depended on it, so there where this brutal/harsh flashes that reminded you that it's tough to survive, it's not easy, and while the landscape may be pretty, it's harsh and unforgiving. The tone of the book the entire way through was sad for me, there where a couple of light moments, but I felt so sad for Mabel and Jack the majority of the time.

It's hard to puzzle out in the beginning, is Faina an actual orphaned child now her dad's dead, or is she the girl from the fairytale who vanishes but comes back with Winter? I was convinced she was, despite evidence to the contrary with her father and so on, but when Esther and that saw her, and Garrett too, I was like "oh okay she's real" but then the ending....it leaves you wondering. You kind of have to draw your own conclusions.

I was spellbound the entire time I was reading, the incredible world building, the amazing descriptions that had me vividly picturing the location of everything, the story/plot, the intrigue regarding Faina, the characters and their struggles and inner hardships, I was sucked in by it all.

I mean, I've never been to Alaska, but I felt like I got a really vivid mental image through the descriptions, when I think of Alaska I think of this movie I used to watch as a kid, Snow Dogs, with the small town and the endless snow, but I feel like I got more of a sense of the place, or a wider/more extensive, sense of the place.

The POV was mostly Mabel and Jack, but we did get Garrett at one point, and the transition was smooth and the multi POV wasn't just the author showing the same scene twice, with the exact same information, there was always a purpose to it, a conversation or event may be mentioned, and then you'd see that particular characters opinion about it, and their feelings, and you'd understand why they acted a certain way which had confused or upset the other character.

The characters are all interesting, like I said, each has their own inner struggles. I did love Mabel and Jack's relationship, I loved the moments when they where like teenagers again, doing silly things like snow angels and you could see that despite the hardships they've faced, their relationship was slowly healing, with some help from Faina of course, but still, it was touching. I also loved Esther and her relationship with Mabel, I loved how Esther would just come barging in and was determined to be friends with Mabel, and you watched Mabel kind of grudgingly, at least at the beginning, start to like Esther, and you watched the friendship grow.

Mostly I loved watching Mabel change, with her drawings and her love of books, she really didn't seem cut out for the life that she'd actually suggested, but when push comes to shove, and she's finally allowed to get her hands dirty, she's out there sorting the fields out, doing all the farm work with help from Esther and Garrett, and your opinion of her changes from the beginning through to the end, and it's the same with Jack, I thought he was a bit of a douche in the beginning, but you realize he hurts too, he just doesn't show it. Garrett was also interesting, he started out as a character you kind of wanted to smack, because he was a bit annoying, and then he was all sulky about having to help Mabel, but again, you saw him change, he helped Mabel, talked to her, she lent him books and so on, and  your opinion of him did a total 180.

I can't really say much about Faina herself, we're kept distanced from her, we don't get to know her all that well, and I think it was done on purpose by the author to keep that air of mystery about her, to keep you guessing and wondering right up until the end and while it may annoy some people who need a straight answer, I thought it was very well done. We had such meaty characters that you where busy trying to work them out, but not too busy to not be intrigued about Faina.

The Snow Child is an ethereal, enchanting and spellbinding read, with an undercurrent of sadness despite the light moments, it's a perfect winter read to curl up with by the fire, or with a blanket and a cup of tea. It will leave you wondering what's real and what's magic right up until the end, and you're left to draw your own conclusions.

Now I'm off to go and attempt to locate a copy of the original Russian Fairytale the book was based on!

Wishing For Wednesday #9

This week I bring you the final book in a series I've been reading for years! I seriously love the House Of Night series and I remember stumbling across it in a bookshop one day and grabbing the only two published!
I've also got two fresh, new books, that both look not only interesting but kind of unique as well!

Snow Like Ashes

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

Snow Like Ashes is out October 14th, pre-order your copy here.

Redeemed

In the final electrifying novel in the HoN series, Neferet has finally made herself known to mortals. A Dark Goddess is loose on Tulsa and the world. No single vampyre is strong enough to vanquish her - unless that creature has the power to summon the elements as well as the ability to wield Old Magick. Only Zoey Redbird is heir to such power…but because of the consequences of using Old Magick, she is unable to help. Find out who will win and who will lose in this epic battle of Light versus Darkness.

Redeemed is out October 14th, pre-order your copy here.






The Cure For Dreaming

Olivia Mead is a headstrong, independent girl—a suffragist—in an age that prefers its girls to be docile. It’s 1900 in Oregon, and Olivia’s father, concerned that she’s headed for trouble, convinces a stage mesmerist to try to hypnotize the rebellion out of her. But the hypnotist, an intriguing young man named Henri Reverie, gives her a terrible gift instead: she’s able to see people’s true natures, manifesting as visions of darkness and goodness, while also unable to speak her true thoughts out loud. These supernatural challenges only make Olivia more determined to speak her mind, and so she’s drawn into a dangerous relationship with the hypnotist and his mysterious motives, all while secretly fighting for the rights of women. Winters breathes new life into history once again with an atmospheric, vividly real story, including archival photos and art from the period throughout.

The Cure For Dreaming is out October 14th, pre-order your copy here.