It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (16)
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila of Book Journey. It’s where book bloggers gather to talk about what books they read and reviewed last week, what books they’re currently reading and what books they’re planning to read. This is a great way for me to plan my reading week, and to take a sneak peek at what others are reading.
Click HERE to view all my ‘It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?‘ posts.
Reviewed Last Week
Click on the links below to read the review.
- Shadow on the Wall by Pavarti K. Tyler
- Unicorn Keep by Angelia Almos
- Intuition by Jayne Fordham
Finished Reading Last Week
- Thorn by Intisar Khanani
- You Shall Never Know Security by J.R. Hamantaschen
- The Angel Maker by Stefan Brijs
Currently Reading
- Want by Stephanie Lawton
- The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin
- Whispers From The Grave by Leslie Rule
Book Tour Stop for Thorn by Intisar Khanani and Giveaway
I’m proud to hosting a tour stop for Thorn by Intisar Khanani today. I’m in the middle of reading the book, and loving it so far. You can read an excerpt from Thorn here. I’m also glad to host a giveaway for a signed bookmark for Thorn, and one lucky commenter during the tour will win a fantasy cloak! Scroll down to participate in the giveaways. I’m going to review this book tomorrow.
Title: Thorn
Author: Intisar Khanani
Genre: YA Fantasy
Princess Alyrra’s strength lies in silence. Scorned by her family, she avoids the court, spending her time with servants. When her marriage is unexpectedly arranged with the prince of a powerful neighboring kingdom, Alyrra feels trapped. As the court celebrates her match, dark rumors spread about the unexplained deaths of the women of her new family. Alyrra begins her journey with mounting trepidation. Betrayed while traveling, she seizes an opportunity to start a life away from court.
Walking away from a prince whom she doesn’t know should have been easy. But from the moment she sets eyes on him, Alyrra realizes that her freedom could cost him his life. Without any magical defense of her own, she is plunged into a lethal game of sorcery and deceit. Now Alyrra must decide whom she can trust and what she’s willing to fight for—before her silence proves fatal.
Book Excerpt
I reach to scoop up more water from the river and then pause, staring. There is something odd about my reflection but I cannot make out what, for the water does not run smoothly but in ripples and eddies. I dip my fingers in, breaking the image. But it does not break.
A hand reaches up and closes around my wrist. I choke on a cry of terror, jerking away, but it pulls down—hard—and I lose my footing on the muddy bank, falling headfirst into the rushing waters. The world is strange, blunted, beneath water. I twist, striking out, but cannot quite find my attacker. The hand still holds my wrist in an iron grip. I kick, desperately trying to tear myself away, push my way to the surface. The air burns in my lungs, spots dancing before my eyes. Something touches my throat—a knife? I flail away from it, feel a slicing pain, and abruptly I am released. I find myself on my hands and knees, coughing up water, gentle waves lapping around my chest.
I look up in terror, my hair sending an arc of droplets flying over the quiet waters. The river runs clear. But the birds are silent.
Author Bio
Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and traveler. Born in Wisconsin, she has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah on the coast of the Red Sea. She first remembers seeing snow on a wintry street in Zurich, Switzerland, and vaguely recollects having breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo when she was five. She now resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and young daughter. Intisar writes grants and develops projects to address community health with the Cincinnati Health Department, which is as close as she can get to saving the world. Her approach to writing fantasy reflects her lifelong passion for stories from different cultures. She is currently writing a trilogy set in the same world as Thorn. This is her first novel.
Giveaways
There are two giveaways for this tour. One is limited to US/CA only, and the winner will get chosen from participants over all tour blogs. He/she will win a fantasy cloak! The other contest is for this blog only, and the winner will get a signed bookmark for Thorn. The second contest is international.
In My Mailbox (37) / Mailbox Monday (46) / Stacking The Shelves (3) /
The purpose of this meme is to share the books that came into our house last week with our readers. These can be ARCs, books we purchased ourselves, books requested for review by authors and publishers, eBooks, free reads we stumbled upon and audiobooks. The only thing that doesn’t count are library books.
Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Cindy’s Love of Books.
Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
Click HERE to view all my ‘In My Mailbox’ posts.
- In The Presence of Spirits by Barbara Parks
- Ascend (Trylle Trilogy #3) by Amanda Hocking
- Familiar Ties by Naya Nikki
Thanks to Llewellyn Worldwide and InkSpell Publishing for the review copies. Ascend was purchased by yours truly.
- Want by Stephanie Lawton
- The Carny by Brooke Moss
- In Leah’s Wake by Terri Giuliano Long
Thanks to InkSpell Publishing and Novel Publicity for the review copies.
What’s in your mailbox this week?
The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba The Caffeinated Book Reviewer and its purpose is to recap the events of the last week.
This week on the blog I launched the Starter Day Party for Want by Stephanie Lawton. We had a great start and I hope the entire tour runs great! I also reviewed Unicorn Keep by Angelia Almos and am hosting a giveaway for another one of her titles, Horse Charmer. Click on the previous link to participate. This is international.
I also reviewed Intuition by Jayne Fordham, and enjoyed it immensly. And last but not least, I participated in the cover reveal for The Life and Death of Lily Drake. Check out that cover – isn’t it gorgeous?
What have you been up to this week?
Oh, and just a reminder, but my epic giveaway is still running. Participants can win four books of their choice from this awesome haul of books. And, four other winners each get one of these titles!
Cover Reveal for The Life and Death of Lily Drake
Hey everyone! I’m glad to announce the cover reveal for The Life and Death of Lily Drake by T. Michelle Nelson on my blog today!
This is another gorgeous cover by InkSpell Publishing. Let me know your thoughts! I for one absolutely love it!
Title: The Life and Death of Lily Drake
Author: T. Michelle Nelson
Genre: Vampires, Paranormal Romance
Publisher: InkSpell Publishing
Publication Date: August 2012
Pre-Order your Copy now!
For Lily Drake, slaying vampires is easy…Dating them is the hard part.
Lily Drake is your everyday hard-working single mom…until a gorgeous vampire shows up on her front door who she mistakenly assumes is her blind date for the evening. As one crazy scenario after another unfolds, Lily finds herself falling in love with two vampires, slaying the evil ones, and being prophesied as the savior of the entire undead race.
Deciding between pizza and Chinese take-out will no longer be one of the hard decisions facing Lily Drake once she is emerged into vampire society. Humanity or immortality? That doesn’t hold a candle against this question – which of the two handsome vampire cousins?
The Life and Death of Lily Drake is not your typical vampire love story. It’s a tale about the humorous mistakes a woman makes simply trying to survive not only life, but the dating scene. How will Lily manage working full-time, taking care of her young son and fighting the undead at every turn?
Lily will have to figure it out, but who better to save the world than a mom?
Book Review: Intuition by Jayne Fordham
Title: Intuition
Author: Jayne Fordham
Genre: Supernatural, Suspense
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: March 2012
Rating: 
Goodreads | Author Website | Buy from Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Tours.
Olive Morgan is not your typical psychologist. She can also access the memories of anyone she comes into contact with. After an explosion in a Sydney shopping mall, Olive is enlisted alongside a team of ‘Elite’ consultants. She joins Canan Jones who can attune to the emotions of other people, including Olive. Initially, she distrusts the agency, but when another explosion threatens more lives Olive has no choice but to use her skill to prevent another disaster.
Is terrorism really at play or is the agency hiding the real reason behind these attacks?
Olive wants to solve the case, but her personal life is suffering. Despite having a boyfriend, she feels a connection brewing with Canan, who has an uncanny way of making her feel calm when life becomes overwhelming…
Intuition is a tale of supernatural suspense and the first book in the Elite Series. For more information visit the author’s website.
Olive can know a person’s past whenever she touches them, delving into their deepest emotions and most well-guarded secrets. Although she tries to refrrain from using her powers, that’s easier said than done. Then she’s contacted by an agency who wants to put together an “Elite” team, a team of people with other intuitive gifts. Together they have to stop a series of supposed terrorist crimes happening all over the country.
The people in Olive’s squad all have gifts of their own. Cadan for instance can read other people’s emotions – if they’re anxious, happy, sad, and a lot more than that. Whereas Olive can see the past, Hope can see the future. And Zac can manipulate people into behaving a certain way. But there are more uncanny resemblances between them than just the fact that they’re all gifted with something related to emotions. They were all born on April Fool’s Day as well. And they’re not the only ones.
What author Jayne Fordham has written here is supernatural suspense at its best. I was immediately enthralled with the characters, especially Olive. She’s a psychologist, so she’s used to helping out patients deal with traumas and experiences, but once she gets thrown into the action herself and suffers from a near-death experience, she has trouble adapting her psychologist skills to her own life. This, along with several other characteristics, make her very human. She struggles between staying in a relationship with her long-time boyfriend Trent who obviously doesn’t love her the way he should, and she relies heavily on her friends in time of crisis. I wish we got to see more of Olive’s relationship with her parents though. We see a brief scene of her talking to her Mom, who has bought a gigantic number of socks on ebay, but that’s about it. Her Mom does sound like a fun character though, so I hope we get to see more of her soon.
I liked Hope and Zac, but it felt like they were a bit underdeveloped. Hope doesn’t show any real personality, making her the weakest link in the entire squad. She seems friendly enough, but is she really? I wish Olive would’ve taken more time to get to know Hope personally so the readers could get to know her as well. Knowing one’s past is relatively simple compared to possibly knowing the future, and I would’ve liked if the book delved more into that topic as well. It seems overlooked. Our main character Olive is a bit wary of Zac from the start. He’s over-confident, sometimes bordering on arrogant, but we soon figure out why. I actually thought Zac was, next to Olive, the most interesting character. Again, I wish I could’ve seen more of him, but hopefully in the next few books.
Cadan, the other remaining member of the Elite team, soon becomes Olive’s love interest. He’s everything her current boyfriend isn’t: attentive and caring, not a big fan of going out and getting drunk, intuitive and intriguing. There was genuine chemistry between these two characters and I was cheering for them early on, especially when Olive’s boyfriend turned out to be an idiot. Olive definitely has a lot more patience than I have, because she stayed with Trent longer than I would’ve.
This book relies heavily on its plot, and the plot itself is very intriguing. There are supposed terrorist attacks happening all over the country. Fires start seemingly out of the blue and firemen are left wondering what the heck is going on. But then the Elite Team gets a lead, and the cause of the fires may be more supernatural than anyone believed at first…
Intuition is a decent, fast-paced novel with some intriguing plot twists and loveable characters. It’s the ideal book to read on a rainy afternoon or when you’re getting ready for bed. Although aimed primarily at adults, there are no inappropriate scenes, and it could be read by young adults as well. If you’re a fan of supernatural suspense, you don’t want to miss out on this one.
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