Winner of Daughter of Smoke and Bone Announcement!

and the winner is as selected by Random.Org...

The Library Owl

Congratulations to the winner! I hope you love this book as much as I did. I'll be sending an email to you shortly to confirm your win please reply within the week so I can get your book sent out to you.

Big thank you's to everybody who entered!

Happy reading till next time!

Review for September’s Readers Choice Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Publisher: Corgi (Random House)
Release Date: 7th July 2011
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Paranormal, Ghosts, Witches, Romance
Rating: 2/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"Amy Goodnight's family are far from normal. She comes from a long line of witches, and grew up surrounded by benevolent spirits and kitchen spells. All fairly harmless, but Amy can't wait to get to college and escape the "family business".


But things take a darker turn when she and her sister Phin spend the summer looking after Aunt Hyacinth's ranch. Amy is visited by a midnight spectre who is clearly trying to send her a message. It seems that the discovery of an old grave on a neighbour's land has been the catalyst for an apparent ghost uprising.


Aided by local friends and Ben, the handsome cowboy who just can't take his eyes off Amy, the sisters investigate. And they soon find that there's something strange and dangerous going on, deep in the heart of Texas..."


Review
So it actually took me a while to get into Texas Gothic. It felt like it took a good hundred odd pages for me to really settle into the story and throughout that time I felt like giving up on this book several times. Looking back now that I’ve finished I kind of wish that I hadn’t bothered.

The thing is I just didn’t like the actual story itself. It reads a little bit like a Scooby Doo mystery and I’ve never been a fan of Scooby Doo. From the back of the book I expected a lot of cool paranormal goings on with the main character and her family being witches but to be honest they were kind of boring witches. I felt that the paranormal aspect of the book was barely there instead it was definitely more of a mystery which would have been fine except I found that side of it a bit dull as well and sussed out all the plot twists and who the bad guys were from the beginning. So the twists didn’t come as a surprise to me making the plot just feel really amateur and underdeveloped. Basically and I know this sounds harsh but the book just wasn’t all that interesting to me.

That being said I will give props where props are due. There were things I did enjoy about this book. Texas Gothic has a really hot and sexy romance between our heroine Amy and Ben the smokin’ local cowboy. The dialog between them sizzled and gave the Texas desert a run for its money in heat! I also really liked the characters especially Amy. She got on my nerves at the beginning with her so desperately wanting to be normal I found that to be a little unbelievable and irritating I mean who wouldn’t want to be a witch and be able to do super awesome spells? But as she rediscovered her Goodnight roots and started to develop an unwanted attraction to Ben I bonded with her more. Amy and Ben make a fiery, quick witted duo who I really wanted to see get together.

Overall Texas Gothic wasn’t really for me but that was mainly down to the issues I had with the plot because plots really what makes a good book for me. If you’re a plot kinda person yourself you may want to give this one a miss but if your all about the hot and sexy romance by all means give this one a go as Amy and Ben have chemistry to boot!

Book of the Month! Featuring Dead Sisters, 15th July and The Boy Next Door…

Hi guys, welcome to September's book of the month and monthly round up! This is a feature to sum up for you my reading and recommendations for the past month and to share with you the exciting things that have been going on on the blog and books I’m looking forward to in the following month.

September's Book of the Month is...One Day by David Nicholls...AND Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Okay so this month I’m totally cheating and having TWO books of the month. If I’ve had a good book month then yes its usually hard for me to pick just one book that I would absolutely recommend above all others for you guys to check out but this month it was IMPOSSIBLE seriously I loved these two books so hard and if they’d been read on separate months they would both totally be deserving of Book of the Month so this month I’m cheating and having two. But seriously two amazing love stories that are so much more than love stories. I like the fact that one’s YA and one’s adult so depending on what you follow the blog for ( I know some people are here strictly for chick-lit and others YA) there’s something for hopefully all of you :-) Reviews coming soon!

Best Plot: Soul Beach by Kate Harrison
Best Writing: One Day by David Nicholls
Best Cover: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Best Characters: One Day by David Nicholls
Best Ending: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Best Romance: One Day by David Nicholls
Most un-put-down-able: The Lying Game by Sara Shepard
Most Memorable: One Day by David Nicholls
Best Moral: One Day by David Nicholls

Books read this month
56.) Velvet by Mary Hooper (4*)
57.) The Lying Game by Sara Shepard (3.5*)
58.) Never Have I Ever by Sara Shepard (3.5*)
59.) One Day by David Nicholls (5*)
60.) Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement- Moore (2*)
61.) Soul Beach by Kate Harrison (4.5*)
62.) Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (5*)

Top 3 Most Recommended Books: One Day, Lola and the Boy Next Door and Soul Beach

Bookish Highlights of the month
Lots of excitement this month! I got a lot of amazing new books and a new laptop for blogging but the best thing to happen this month has to be being quoted in a book for the first time for those who missed the post it was a quote in Angel Fire by L.A Weatherly you can find the post with me squealing here.

Bookish Lows of the month
Being ill for half of the month. Literally. I kept getting colds one after the other which really affected my blogging but I’m all better now so hopefully that’s it for a while!

Book’s I’m looking forward to in October
There’s quite a few I’m excited for this month but my number 1 has to be The Death Cure by James Dashner which is the last book in The Maze Runner series can’t wait! Between by Jessica Warman I’ve been hearing some great things from my blogger friends about that one, Past Perfect by Leila Sales, Sweetly by Jackson Pearce, Beautiful Chaos and Destined the latest books in the Beautiful Creatures and House of Night series although I have to get up to date with both series first!

So there you have it my September reading summed up for you guys. Have you read any of the books I’ve read this month? What were your thoughts on them? Leave me a comment and let me know and don’t forget to treat yourselves to One Day and Lola and the Boy Next Door! – You won’t regret it! Here’s to another month of fab reading ahead especially with the spooky and supernatural books for Halloween!

UK Giveaway for Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor!

If you’re a regular follower of the blog or my twitter than you’ve probably recently seen me raving about my love for Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone. This book is by far my favourite of the year so far and so I’m excited to be bringing to you today the chance to win your own shiny finished copy courtesy of the publishers! This book has already been receiving phenomenal praise from, well, everyone really! But in case you’ve been living under a rock here’s what it’s all about or for my opinion you can check out my review here.

Amazon Synopsis
Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.

The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things.

When Brimstone called, she always came.

In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

Rules
Open to UK residents only.
End date: Wednesday 12th October 2011
One entry per person.
You do NOT have to follow my blog to enter.
Winner will be contacted by email and will have 1 week to reply else another winner will be selected.

This giveaway is now CLOSED and the winner has been announced here

Review for Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: HarperCollins (UK)
Release Date: 4th August 2011
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Source: Bought

Amazon Summary:
"What if you knew exactly when you would die?


Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb – males only live to age twenty-five and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.


When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden’s genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape – to find her twin brother and go home.


But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden’s eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant she trusts, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left."

Review
Dystopian books are possibly my favourite type of books to read. There’s something so compelling about these dark and dangerous futures that could so easily become this world’s reality and the terror of that makes these kinds of books highly readable to me. In Wither Lauren DeStefano has created a harrowing world where thanks to scientists tinkering with the idea of a “perfect human” through genetic engineering the next generation’s life span is cut short with men dying at age twenty five and women aged twenty. Because of this the world is desperate to repopulate and so girls as young as thirteen are bought by wealthy men and forced to become their brides. The girls that are not chosen are either killed or sold into prostitution. The world is in panic and marriages have become baby farms with everyone desperately trying to reproduce. This world is shocking, scary and controversial making for an unputdownable read that really made me think.

Our main character is sixteen year old Rhine, with only four years left to live Rhine along with two other girls nineteen year old Jenna and thirteen year old Cecily are bought by Linden and kept prisoner in his father’s mansion. Each wife has very different opinions on being a bride. Despite their life of luxury and privilege Rhine craves to be back home with her twin brother, with one year of life left Jenna despite hating Linden resigns herself to dying in this place, and youngest bride Cecily couldn’t be happier with the arrangement! She worships their handsome husband and immediately takes to a life of luxury hoping to reproduce. The strongest aspect of this book as well as the world itself was the characters they were each so well developed and I absolutely loved Rhine and Jenna who were two very strong female leads.

Wither is a slower paced dystopian, instead of a lot of action and gore it was beautifully told the world and goings on in the mansion scary enough. I loved the way Lauren DeStefano told this story and was so caught up in this claustrophobic, fragile world. I was completely enthralled by Wither and was desperate to see if Rhine got the freedom she so desperately wants. Wither isn’t the kind of book that you hurry through in an action packed frenzy but is the kind of book that you take your time over absorbing and thinking about this terrifying way of life and the fate of the characters. If you’re looking for a controversial, beautifully written book then Wither is the way to go.