Move Over Darling by Christine Stovell

Received for review

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Choc Lit (7 Oct 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1906931658
• ISBN-13: 978-1906931650
• When is it time to stop running?
  Coralie Casey is haunted by her past. Deciding it's time for a fresh start, she sets up 'Sweet Cleans', a range of natural beauty and cleaning products, and escapes to Penmorfa, a quiet coastal village in west Wales.
  
  
  Gethin Lewis thinks he's about to put his home village Penmorfa behind him for good. Now an internationally-acclaimed artist living in New York, he just has to return one last time to wind up his father's estate.
  
  
  But the village soon disrupts their carefully laid plans. As truths are uncovered which threaten to split the community apart, Gethin is forced to question his real reasons for abandoning Penmorfa, and Coralie is made to face the fact that some stains just won't go away.
  
  
• Cover:  The prettiness of this cover isn't really shown on screen, but in person it's a beautiful and striking mint green that I adore.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book!  I was hooked from page one, and read through it in one day!
Coralie and Gethin were wonderful protagonists.  Coralie is a genuinely sweet and kind character, and Gethin is a little cynical, but both made for some hilarious situations.
This book definitely left me with a smile on my face, a feel good read for sure.
You really start to care for Coralie and Gethin, and want them to work out that they're meant for each other.
I really loved the small village setting.  That there's no secrets, everyone knows everyone else's business, and that it's full of gossiping older women.
The subplots and secondary characters were also well written, and delightful to read.
There was one plotline that did throw a twist in, and catch me completely by surprise, and that was Kitty's pregnancy...had no idea who the father was.
The romance was really sweet and believable.
4.5/5 stars!  This is a must read for fans of chicklit, with great characters that will make you laugh.  A real breath of fresh air.

The A-Z TAG

The Road Back by Liz Harris

• Received for review
• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Choc Lit (7 Sep 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1906931674
• ISBN-13: 978-1906931674
• The Road Back is a split era novel set in the 1950s and 1995; it's a novel about relationships and how the past impacts upon the present. Set against a cultural background rarely featured in novels - that of the Buddhist part of Ladakh, a country to the west of Tibet - it tells of a passion that crosses cultures, of a love that lasts a lifetime, and of hope that can only come from revisiting the past.
  
  When Patricia accompanies her father, Major George Carstairs, on a trip to Ladakh, north of the Himalayas, in the early 1960s, she sees it as a chance to step out from the shadow of her dead brother, James, and finally to win her father’s love.
  
  What she doesn’t expect to do is meet Kalden – a local man destined by circumstances beyond his control to be a monk, but fated to be the love of her life.
  
  Despite her father’s fury, the lovers are determined to be together, but their plans go tragically awry, and thirty -two years later a young woman comes knocking at Patricia’s door, looking for answers.
  
  The Road Back is a love story that spans two continents. It tells of a passion that crosses cultures, of a love that endures for a lifetime, and of the hope that can only come from revisiting the past.
• Cover:  I love this cover, it's such a beautiful, relevant, scenic cover.
• I really enjoyed this book.  It has a beautiful, different setting.  I've never read a book set in Ladakh before- hadn't even heard of it, so it was really interesting and refreshing.
• I found the first 100 pages of build up slow, I appreciated a little background on both Patricia and Kalden but I just felt there was a little too much, and then the actual romance between them was rushed.  I wanted a little bit more  between them.
• The first half of the book we have both characters perspectives, but the second half we don't get Kalden's, and I missed it.
• Patricia was a hard character for me to like, I felt she didn't fight for what she wanted enough.  I know that for a young girl in the 1960s things were different, but I still felt she was a weak character.
• Over all I give The Road Back 4/5 stars.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading about somewhere different, a beautiful romance in a beautiful setting and it really made me want to believe that there is true love that can span anything.

BLOGTOUR: Wildflower by Amy Maurer Jones +GIVEAWAY

Love can be tragic.  17th Century America:
A Shaman’s daughter falls in love with an Englishman,
only her hand has been promised to a warrior.
Tears fall.
Promises are broken.
Rage is unleashed.
Souls are bound or shattered.
Present Day:
Laney Stillwater dreams about a boy she has never met,
but she longs for the attention of the ever popular and gorgeous, Jordan Stone.

Time tempts change.
Destined souls awaken.
Love gets a second chance.
Souls are bound or shattered.

What will destiny offer this time?
Reconciliation or more despair?

Cover: I really like this cover.  I love black and white, and then the title is in bright purple, that really makes it 'pop' at you.

This was a really quick and sweet read.  The fast pace meant I finished it in a couple of hours.
I really loved the premise of two soul mates kept apart over the centuries because of tragedy, and Wildflower/Laney and Joshua's story is a sad one and the author has really made me root for them, and hope that there is a way for them to be happy together.
Most of the time I liked Laney, mostly when she was being strong, but then other times she forgave far too readily, which frustrated me.  Whereas her best friend, Carly, was a great character- feisty, loyal and strong.
I did get a tad bored of reading so many song lyrics, I just didn't feel they gave anything to the story.
Wildflower has definitely left me wanting more, I especially want to see the mean girl, Gracie, get her comeuppance.
I recommend to anyone that loves a sweet romance story with a paranormal twist.
4/5 stars. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out the other stops on the tour!

Nov 13- Globug and Hootie Need a Book<http://globugandhootie.blogspot.com/> and Books Complete Me<http://www.bookscompleteme.com/>

Nov 14- A Diary of a Book Addict<http://adiaryofabookaddict.blogspot.com/>

Nov 16- Books Complete Me<http://www.bookscompleteme.com/>

Nov 19- I Read Indie<http://twimom101bookblog.blogspot.com/>

Nov 20- The Autumn Review<http://www.autumnreview.com/>

Nov 21- Live to Read<http://livetoread-krystal.blogspot.com/>

Nov 22- My Pathway to Books<http://tessmw.blogspot.com/> & Britt Reads Indie<http://brittreadsindie.blogspot.com/>

Nov 23- Wrathsqueen's Books<http://wrathsqueensbooks.blogspot.co.uk/>

Nov 26- An Owl's Book Nook<http://www.anowlsbooknook.blogspot.com/> & Literati Literature Lovers<http://literatiliteraturelovers.com/>

Nov 27- Fantasy Book Chic<http://fantasybookchick.blogspot.com/>

Nov 28- Kimberly's Cozy Korner<http://kimberlyskozykorner.blogspot.com/>

Nov 29- Intoxicated by Books<http://intoxicatedbybooks.blogspot.com/> & Insane About Books<http://insaneaboutbooks.blogspot.com/>

Nov 30- Amy Jones Young Adult Fantasy Fiction<http://amyjonesyaff.blogspot.com/>

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Booking Through Thursday and a different question is posted every week. 

It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., so … what are you thankful for this year, reading-wise? New, favorite books? New gadget for reading? New comfy chair? Bonus time to read? Just the mere fact of BEING a reader? Having the internet to share ideas/recommendations/conversations about books?

Well here in the UK we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I don't need that to be thankful.
I am thankful for most of the things listed in the question.
I have found some amazing new favourite reads and authors this year, to name a few:-

• The Fault In Our Stars- John Green
• Daughter of Smoke & Bone and Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
• Heart On A Chain by Cindy C. Bennett
• Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

The list could go on and on.

I'm thankful that I've met fellow book bloggers/vloggers that share the same passion for books as me, and I consider them friends.

And I'm also thankful for me Kindle, which my Mum gave me for Christmas last year, and has given me the opportunity to check out some great Indie authors.

I'm also thankful to the publishers that send me books for review, I consider it a great privilege.

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Received for review
Hardcover: 528 pages

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (8 Nov 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1444722670
• ISBN-13: 978-1444722673
• Sequel to Daughter of Smoke & Bone
• Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living – one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.
  
  Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel – a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.
  
  This was not that world.
• Cover: At first I wasn't a big fan of the UK covers for Daughter of Smoke and Bone & Days of Blood and Starlight, but they've definitely grown on me.  This one in particular.  When I first saw pictures of it online I wasn't amazed or anything, but in person, this cover is stunning.

I finally read Daughter of Smoke and Bone last month and loved it so much.  It instantly became a new favourite, and I couldn't wait to delve into the sequel.

I wasn't disappointed at all!

It flowed on from book 1 so well, and I was just as hooked.

Everything about it was so well developed, plot, characters and the writing is what really makes these books, beautiful, almost poetic but then some parts can be very witty and cutting.

The characters make this book so special.  They're all so individual and vibrant, that it's so fun to read about them.

I loved Karou's character more in book 1, and in this one she's a little harder to like, I didn't agree with a lot of her decisions so I was practically screaming 'Oh My God NOOOO' at some parts, but I always understood how she felt and why she felt she had to do what she did.

Akiva...there are not enough words to describe how much I love his character.

Zuzana is the highlight of this book.  Karou's best friend is described as a 'rabid fairy' and her energy, loyalty and humour give a much needed lighthearted-ness to the book.  She is the ultimate best friend character so I loved that we got more parts from her point of view.

I took my time reading this because I didn't want it to end, I just wanted to carry on turning the pages forever and I was sad when it came to an end, so I can't wait for the third book next year- one of, if not my most highly anticipated release of 2013.

I really hope there is a happy ending for Karou and Akiva and I can't wait to find out.

Without a doubt 5/5 stars!  If you haven't read this series you need to!  I recommend this to absolutely everyone!

Book Haul/In My Mailbox 16/11/12

Breaking Dawn Part 2 - Movie Thoughts

Last night, my best friend and I went to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn Part 2.

OMG.

I've honestly never been so emotionally drained by a movie in my life.

Some stuff you just don't see coming.  Obviously I'm not gonna spoil it here, but because you've read the books you think you know what's happening, but BAM! 

Huge shock.

I can't decide if it's my favourite of the movies though...it's definitely amazing and I loved it.

I loved seeing Renesmee, Edward and Bella's cottage, the vampire covens, and Charlie is hilarious.

I can't lie, I cried and was in shock for like 10 minutes, my heart was going crazy.  Sounds extremely pathetic but it's true.

I thought I'd have trouble staying awake because I've never gone to a midnight showing before, but as soon as the movie started I was wide awake.

If you've seen it let me know what you thought of it.

I freaking loved it and will be going to see it again.

Magic Study (Study #2) by Maria V. Snyder

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Mira Books; Young adult ed edition 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848451172
• ISBN-13: 978-1848451179
• You know your life is bad when you miss your days as a poison taster... 
  
  With an execution order on her head, Yelena has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the land of her birth. With only a year to master her magic - or face death - Yelena must begin her apprenticeship and travels to the Four Towers of the Magician's Keep.
  
  But nothing in Sitia is familiar. Not the family to whom she is a stranger. Not the unsettling new facets of her magic. Nor the brother who resents her return. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her rare powers, a rogue magician emerges - and Yelena catches his eye.
  
  Suddenly she is embroiled in battle of good against evil. And once again it will be her magical abilities that will either save her life...or be her downfall.
• Cover: Love that the cover has the same look and feel as the first book, but the details have changed, felecting the changes that Yelena faces.  Green (I love that part because it's my favourite colour) feflects her Zaltana heritage, her family are a jungle clan.
• As soon as I finished Poison Study I had to pick up the next book in the trilogy.
• I enjoyed Magic Study just s much as Poison Study.  Even though the setting moved from Ixia to Sitia, there was still intrigue, danger, mystery and a kick butt heroine were still in Magic Study.  The only thing it missed was the actual poison element - I really liked the unusual premise of it in book 1 and just missed it even though I understood that Yelena as a character had to evolve and move forward.
• The lack of Valek bothered me a little.  After Poison Study I felt that we needed to see more of him and Yelena as a viable couple, not less of him.  So that was a little disappointing.
• Regardless I was enthralled by Magic Study and definitely recommend what I've read of this series so far to everyone!

A Touch of Crimson by Sylvia Day

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Eternal Romance (27 Sep 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1472200748
• ISBN-13: 978-1472200747
• Adult Paranormal Romance
• Adrian Mitchell is an angel of immense power and an insatiable desire for the one woman he can't have. The head of an elite Special Ops unit of the Seraphim, his task is to punish the Fallen - angels who have become vampires - and command a restless pack of indentured lycans. 
  
  But Adrian has suffered his own punishment for becoming involved with mortals - losing the love of his life again and again. Now, after nearly two hundred years, he has found his beloved Shadoe, her soul once more inhabiting a new body with no memory of him. This time he won't let her go. 
  
  With no memory of her past as Shadoe, Lindsay Gibson only knows she can't resist her fierce attraction to the smouldering, seductive male who crosses her path. Swept into a dangerous world of tumultuous passion and preternatural conflict, Lindsay is soon caught in the middle between an angel lover, an estranged vampire father, and a full-blown lycan revolt. There's more at stake than her love and her life - this time she could lose her very soul...
• Cover: I like that it's simple and relevant, the feather being how Adrian's wings are described.
• I picked this book up for several reasons.

1. It was super cheap in the supermarket, this and book two both for £7.
2. Lara Adrian blurbed the back, Lara Adrian being my favourite adult author.
3. I know how popular Sylvia Day's Gideon Cross books are.

I was kind of disappointed.  It paled in comparison to Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series and because she blurbed it, I couldn't help but compare them.

The romance was just unconvincing.  Adrian has mourned loosing Shadoe over and over again for centuries, and suddenly after a few weeks loves Lindsay?

I just didn't buy it.

I also found the world building confusing, I had trouble distinguishing the Fallen, Minions and the Watchers etc.

I liked that Lindsay was a fairly kickass, independent heroine, but towards the end her actions just irritated me.

I wasn't overly keen on Adrian.

This should have put me off wanting to read the rest of the series, but, the parts that I did like in this book that prevented me from giving it a 1/5 was Elijah- an Alpha lycan, which book 2 is about, and Syre- the leader of the Fallen which book 3 is about.  Both of these characters were the most interesting parts of the book so I'm hoping their books are much better and I will read them.

Over all I give this book 2/5 stars.  Definitely not my favourite adult paranormal romance.

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Booking Through Thursday and a different question is posted every week. 

1. How do storms affect your reading? Do you go for comfort reading?

2. How do you deal with power outages? Do you read by candlelight? Flashlights? Use a self-lit e-reader or tablet? Skip reading altogether for the duration and instead play games with the family?

Here in the UK we don't really get many powerful storms so power outages are kinda rare.  However if the weather is particularly bad or cold I do like to curl up with a blanket, a good book and a hot chocolate.  It's one of my favourite things to do.

In the rare times that the power does go off I don't like to read by candle light or on tablet screens because it strains my eyes.

Books That Should Be Movies...

I'm part of  YouTube Collab Channel called FifthTalk and this week's topic was Books That Should Be Movies and I enjoyed this topic so much that I thought I'd post the video here so you guys could see the books that I really want to be made into movies.

October Reading Wrap Up 2012

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Hardcover: 450 pages

• Publisher: Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers (9 Oct 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038574224X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385742245
• Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.
  
  The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.
  
  Bonesaw.
  
  Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days. 
  
  It’ll be brutal... and awesome.
  
  But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.
  
  Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.
• Cover:  I love this cover.  It's creepy and pretty at the same time.  The gray ash is relevant, and the girl is a great match for the protagonist Velveteen.  Not so sure on the guy being suited to Nick though.
• Being part of the book tube community, I follow Daniel Marks and love his videos.  His dark, sardonic humour never fails to make me laugh.  So everyone in the book tube community have been eagerly awaiting this release.
• The plot of a murdered girl taking revenge on her killer drew me straight away!  Completely different to anything else that I have on my shelves.  The idea that it's part YA Horror after reading and thoroughly enjoying another YA Horror called Anna Dressed In Blood definitely made me want to read it even more.
• However I think the synopsis is slightly misleading.  The synopsis gives the impression the book is all about Velveteen getting brutal revenge on her killer, but really that only made up a fraction of the plot.  The majority of the book is about a revolution in Purgatory.  
• The first two chapters really drew me in, being introduced to Bonesaw and Velveteen, but then the next 200 pages really slowed down.  It got to the point where I didn't really care about Purgatory at all.  
• The parts with Bonesaw were definitely more intense, and drew me in, it was just a shame they were so few and far between.
• The romance, I enjoyed but it kinda came out of nowhere.  One minute she hates him, the next she full on loves the guy.  Far too insta-love/lust.  Making out just a couple of hours after they first meet.
• From what we learn of Velveteen, how tough she is, how non-dependent, not very emotional- this seemed to really jar with her character.
• Nick was a really sweet, funny guy and I liked that he was a contrast to Velvet.
• I loved the really dark yet comic writing style.  I think that after watching Danny Marks's youtube videos, you really see a lot of his personality transferred onto the page, which was a pleasure to see.
• I found the writing style a little confusing at times, and often had to re-read sentences to try and figure out what was going on.  I also got tired of reading the word 'undulations' goodness knows how many times.  The amount of description slowed down a lot of the action scenes until they just came across as long winded.
• I didn't really 'get' Purgatory either...I was confused.  I also didn't get how Velveteen's 'salvage' team were beating a record at the number of 57...that just somehow seemed laughable and kind of lame.
• The world building also left me confused, for example "Time was a strange thing when you were living in the same city as people who’d died hundreds of years ago and yesterday," but we never really see examples of this, it's just randomly, suddenly THERE.  Even the characters didn't know if there was Heaven or Hell so...what am I supposed to do with that? 
• In conclusion some elements of this book I seriously loved- namely Bonesaw and Velveteen getting revenge, but I wish this had been the focus, and not Purgatory.  At the end I still have some unanswered questions and hope there is a sequel to clear them up.
• I give this 3/5 stars.  At times I loved it, but sometimes I was forcing myself to pick up the book and read.  I can't lie, I was so excited for this book and in the end it wasn't what I was expecting and I was left feeling a tad disappointed.  But to be clear I didn't hate it.