Good day to you! Our day starts with Top 10 Tuesday 😀 This meme is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish and as if I wasn’t a rebel before, now I reached a whole new level, haha! Besides choosing to show you guys my 10 favorite covers within my 2015 reads, I also made it 18 covers because it was IMPOSSIBLE to narrow this down, haha!
Lest’s go:
Venom, from Kristin Middleton
The Gentleman and The Lamplighter, from Summer Devon
Hello to you! Yes, we have another blog tour today! ❤ The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange is ON FIRE! Haha 😉 Today is my pleasure to introduce The Girl and the Gargoyle, second book in The Girl and the Raven series, from Pauline Gruber 😀
Being half-witch/half-demon and dating Marcus, a gargoyle and demon enemy, is complicated enough for Lucy. She can almost tolerate Jude, her demon father, forcing her to undergo combat training.
But when Marcus’s long-lost family returns to Chicago, her world begins to crumble. Marcus’s mother wants him to leave to join the gargoyle clan; his father wants him to help kill Jude. There’s one major problem with this: if Jude dies, Lucy dies.
Marcus will do whatever it takes to save Lucy and her father. Meanwhile Lucy has her own plan and with the aid of a surprise newcomer, seeks help from the most unlikely—and dangerous—source.
Mind blowing, right?! If you still didn’t get the fells just from this synopsis, check this excerpt!
“Why did I allow you to talk me into this?” Marcus rubs the back of his neck as he paces beside me. It’s impossible to read his expression in the near-darkness.
“Relax,” Selima says. “You’re going to love it. Tell him, Lucy.”
Marcus moves to the other side of the clearing. A chorus of sounds ring out through the woods, the skitter of nocturnal animals moving over a blanket of twigs, leaves and brush. Two owls hoot, hoot to one another.
“But I tried this before. Twice. It was a disaster.” He clears his throat. “Maybe I can’t fly. You know…like…some protectors can and some can’t.”
“Why didn’t I think of that?” Selima says, her tone mocking. “While every protector I’ve ever known can fly, you’re the one exception. Silly me.”
I burst out laughing then clamp my hand over my mouth, certain Marcus is glaring at me through the darkness.
“Let’s get this over with,” Marcus mutters.
“That’s the spirit, little brother!” Selima says. “I need to change. Lucy, can I get my other shirt?”
I toss Selima what can be best described as part T-shirt and part string bikini.
I thought it would be better in the dark, not seeing them go through the change. Marcus groans, and I visualize the skin splitting along his back, feathers scraping muscle and bone as they struggle free. I imagine his pain and shudder. Selima whimpers once. Did she just morph instantly?
“You ready, little brother?” Selima calls out.
Sliding my cell phone from my pocket, I select the flashlight app and wave it like a wand in front of me. I gasp as Selima is illuminated. While Marcus’s wings are gray and white, Selima’s are white with what appears to be a large, black spot on the left wing.
“Beautiful,” I murmur.
Marcus moves into the light and studies his sister’s wings. “It’s like you have an extra eye.” He points to the black spot. “Creepy.”
Selima shrugs. “You ever hear of the evil eye? This is the opposite. It keeps me safe.”
“Says the girl who works for demons,” I say.
Selima arches an eyebrow at me before returning her attention to Marcus. “I want you to forget what you’ve tried before. Assume it’s all wrong.”
Marcus snorts. I expect him to come back with some smart aleck remark and am relieved when he stays quiet. Why’s he fighting this? Doesn’t he understand how lucky he is? He can heal people. He can control other people’s emotions. He’s strong and fast. And now he’s going to learn to fly.
Book One:
About the Author
Pauline Gruber is a self-professed music junkie, cat wrangler, and travel nut. She went to Paris in the 90’s where she discovered a love of three things: croissants, old cathedrals, and gargoyles. Deciding that the paranormal world could use a new kind of hero, Pauline translated her fascination with the protective gargoyle into a suspenseful love story. She is the author of the young adult series, The Girl and the Raven, The Girl and the Gargoyle and the forthcoming novel, The Girl and the Demon. By day, Pauline is a legal assistant for a Chicago law firm where she steals identities and incorporates them into her books. If you tell anyone, she’ll deny, deny, deny. Pauline lives outside of Chicago with her precocious black cats.
Author Links:
And there is more! Pauline even put together a Spotify music playlist for this series 😀 If you, like me, loves to read while listening to music, look those precious jems:
Everlong – acoustic version, by Foo Fighters
Hero/Heroine, by Boys Like Girls
Take Me (As You Found Me), by Anberlin
Your Guardian Angel, by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Little Death, by +44
Running Up That Hill, by Placebo
Tomorrow Comes Today, by Gorillaz
Franklin, by Paramore
Velvet, by The Big Pink
Walking With A Ghost, by Tegan and Sara
Magic, by Coldplay
Electric Feel, by MGMT
Isn’t this seriously cool?? ❤ And, the greatest news of it all is that you can win both books of the series on a giveaway 😀
GIVEAWAY: the prize is offered internationally. The prize will include a tote bag, a paperback copy of both The Girl and the Raven and The Girl and the Gargoyle and a $50 Amazon gift card. There will also be a separate runner up prize of a $20 Amazon GC.
Rowan, Kestrel, and Jade know that they are taking a path of no return when they flee their home. The three sisters are well aware of all the risks and sacrifices involved, but anything in the human world is better than to live in an eternal bubble without any real living.
What they didn’t expect was to have a nosy neighbor.
Mary-Lynnette is a loner, a creature of the night. The stars are her best friends, along with her brother Mark. Or so she thought, until meeting her three new and inhumanly beautiful neighbors. The girls seem to be nice enough despite all oddities surrounding their family, but can Mary-Lynnette handle with their older brother…?
Ash knew he was doomed in the moment he laid eyes on Mary-Lynnette. Once, he had heard from a cousin how he would fall hard for his soul mate, but never believed in such crap. He was a man in a mission and Mary-Lynnette couldn’t be related to his difficulties in taking his sisters back home.
Or could she?
The Analysis
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
OMG, WHY DID I TAKE SO DAMN LONG TO READ THIS SERIES?! IT’S EVEN BETTER THAN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES! (Just don’t tell this to television guys, they will screw this up, haha!). I loved everything aspect of this book and can’t wait to finish Spellbinder, the next book 🙂 Ash was perfection since Secret Vampire, but in this one is where I fell hard for him… *sighs in pure love* I’ll try to do a good job here, but it is so damn difficult when all I feel like doing is fangirling non-stop about Ash, haha!
Ahem.
The narrative was my favorite one: third person with alternating points of view. I wish there were more parts under Ash’s POV, but I understand that not knowing much about him it’s part of his charm. Putting more parts under his view would have bared him too much for the reader and all, haha! But one can dream, right? 😉
The plot wasn’t overly complicated and quite predictable, but there is a little twist in the end that caught me off guard and this was awesome ❤ I don’t really mind simple plots as long as they are well executed and hold my attention while I read. I can even know how it all will end, but I always get curious to see how the outcome shall arrive, haha! My point? There is no lost trip for me, haha!
The characters are the high point in this book. Rowan, Kestrel and Jade are unique and each represent a type of person: Rowan is gentle and naïve despite being the oldest; Kestrel is ruthless and savage; and Jade is dreamy and brave. They complement each other in such a perfect way! Mark was also a pleasant enough character and I really liked Jeremy despite everything. And, of course, there is their older brother Ash, but never fear, I’ll get to him. I really liked Mary-Lynnette. She was such a strong heroine for a Young Adult book but without losing her teenager spirit. I could have never made her final decision on the end of the book and I will admire her for this till the world ends.
Sorry, I had to insert this here, haha!
Now, let’s go to Ash. Oh, Ash. He is the lost cousin of Damon Salvatore, I assure you. The difference between them is that Damon is actually a pretty nice guy trying to fool people into believing that he is a demon and Ash is actually a demon trying to fool people into believing that he is a pretty nice guy, haha! 😉 Mary-Lynnette described him as a royal cat with ever-changing eye colors and this is the most accurate description ever. Ash has his own pace for everything (cof except when it comes to Mary-Lynnette cof) and never has a permanent eye color – not even in his full vampire form. The strange thing about him is that he is both intelligent and not stubborn at all. He sees something that he is doing wrong and he promptly fixes it instead of insisting that he is right. Not many males have this blessed ability, haha!
I really think that L. J. Smith rocked in the Night World series so far and dare to say that those books are a must-read if you love Y&A, romance, Vampires, Witches, Werewolves and really cool humans, haha!
That’s it! Thanks for reading this review and I hope to finish Spellbinder soon, haha! Have you read the Night World series?
Hello, again! I know I am a little late to do this, but better late than never, haha! January is going to be insane for me, as my younger cousin is going to be here until Sunday and next week I may start a course – more info as my life goes, haha!
But I’m blabbering, let’s do this:
December Wrap Up
I’m very proud of my reading month! I’ve read 11 books!! =O I’m still wondering how I did it, so I can repeat the dose this month, haha!
Book of Opera, from Arthur Jacobs and Stanley Sadie
The Other Side of Midnight, from Sidney Sheldon
The Devil’s Advocate, from Morris West
Vixen 03, from Clive Cussler
The Name of the Rose, from Umberto Eco
Lie Down With Lions, Ken Follett
An illustrated guide to Dresden
Amar se Aprende Amando, from Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Antologia Poética, from Vinicius de Moraes
Antologia Poética, from Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Dona Flor e seus Dois Maridos, from Jorge Amado
Tieta do Agreste, from Jorge Amado
Tenda dos Milagres, from Jorge Amado
A Moreninha, from Joaquim Manuel de Macedo
I know, I know. So many books, haha! I can explain 🙂 14 of my won books were at my uncle’s place, waiting for death. Yeah. So I won a cattle with lots of books and selected the ones that seemed promising 🙂 I wish I could have saved all books that were there, but there were some destroyed ones by the time, others that I knew for being a bore and some that weren’t my thing at all… Anyway, at least I could save some of them, haha!
Freebies that I got this month
Anywhere But Here (The Starborn Ascension Book 1), from Jason D. Morrow
Beyond Secret Worlds: Ten Stories of Paranormal Fantasy and Romance
The Ducal Gift and The Christmas Carriage, from Grace Burrowes
Soar (The Empire Chronicles Book 1), from Alyssa Rose Ivy
Hidden (Dragonlands Book 1), from Megg Jensen
Aloha Texas (Aloha #1), from Chris Keniston
Binarius: Episode I (The Binarius Series Book 1), from Kendra McMahan
Globalização, Mídia e Ética, from Erasmo de Freitas Nuzzi and Clovis de Barros Filho
Hello, again! Yes, despite the readathon, the blog is still up and running, haha! 😉
Today I bring back to life a section of the blog called Must-Have Edition of the Month, which started as weekly, but I think it will be more cool to be around only once a month. To see the previous post, click here 🙂
Beautiful and flawless, right? I won earlier this year their edition of Alice and that piece of art made me want ALL OF BARNES & NOBLE EDITIONS, OMG!
So, if you want to give me a Christmas present, you can pick any of these classic beauties (except for Alice’s and Peter Pan’s, which I already own, haha!) and I will love you forever ;D
That’s it, thanks for reading! Are you a sucker for B&N editions as well??
Hello! Today we have the first post in my new section, Authors from my Heart <3, that will talk about a book author! Last time, I talked about a manga author and now we open the book author section with Meg Cabot!
(x) Writer’s royalty member
The first time I’ve read a book by Meg Cabot, I was just a kid. I knew her from The Princess Diaries movies and, of course, wanted to read the books as well. I ran to the bookstore with my mom (I was about 8 or 9) and the first book in the collection was sold out on that particularly place. On that fateful day, my mom couldn’t take me anywhere else and I was so sad that I would have to wait a few more weeks to get it… I don’t remember why, but my mom wouldn’t be able to take me to another bookstore anytime soon. Then, feeling my pain, the bookshop seller said that I could take home a different Meg Cabot series while I waited for The Princess Diaries to be back on stock. That’s when I met The Mediator series ❤ I held the first book with its oh-so-ugly cover in my hands and wanted to cry. My mom insisted that I take it, along with volume 2 in The Princess Diaries series (which had a beautiful cover), so I did it. THANKS, MR. BOOKSHOP SELLER, THANKS, MOM!
That’s how I got to know my all-time favorite series from Meg and how I discovered that I only liked when Meg wrote supernatural stories. I read the second book in TPD series, believing that I didn’t need book 1 as I had seen the movie and hated everything, haha! Point for the ugly covered book 🙂
I love the movies with all my heart, but those books weren’t for me, simply like that. I used to have the Brazilian Edition in the picture, but I gave it away to my school’s library, as it was clear I would never read it again or continue reading…
Oh those covers. Honestly, they were so ugly that the next Brazilian edition had it changed to this:
despite the inconstancy of Suzannah’s looks through those covers, they are still better than the ones I have home.
The sad part is to see that the original covers also sucked hard. Still, ugly covers or not, I love this series. Jesse was one of my first bookish boyfriends and he played a very important part in my life, as he was almost a cowboy and I have been fascinated by those since I’m a toddler that watched my dad reading Tex’s adventures (a cowboy with a yellow shirt, any bells ringing?). But I’m babbling and the important thing is: WE WILL HAVE ANOTHER BOOK IN THIS SERIES NEXT YEAR!
This book shouldn’t be a standalone, Meg! Please, stop writing lame books and revisit this series, please! But, again: BRAZIL, WHY DO WE HAVE SUCH AN AWFUL COVER?!
I was so happy with The Mediator and Jinx that I forgot how big of a flop that TPD was for me and borrowed The Boy Next Door from a friend. Awful mistake. I’m still not into those kind of books I don’t even remember if I was able to finish it or not, haha!
I had a true State of Grace when I started this series, as I was on a big hiatus from Meg (her fault, as she made it so hard for me to buy her historical romances and impossible for me to like her regular teen books). I read it slowly, savoring each chapter, because I knew it all ended in three books. And it did and I cried because I was once again orphan from her. And still am, btw. I plan on starting the 1-800-Where-R-You series, but I have no guarantees that I shall like it, so I’m delaying this moment, haha!
Oh, and by the way. 1-800-Where-R-You also has awful covers. Meg, you should sue most of your your graphic designers team. Just a friend’s advice, seriously.
That’s it! Thanks for reading ❤ Do you like Meg Cabot? Which is your favorite book? HAVE YOU READ 1-800-Where-R-You SERIES?! I need to know if I won’t have my heart broken, haha!
Hello, there! Today I would like to introduce you to a book called The Night Clock, by Paul Meloy! We are on its release day, so I’ll leave a list of where to find it online on the bottom of the review 🙂 I received my review copy through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review, so thank you again!
I’ll do something different this time, as I was in love with the blurb available at NetGalley and Goodreads: instead of telling the story myself, I’ll let you guys see what I expected from the book and I’ll explain why later:
Goodreads Story
An incredible debut novel that will move and terrify you, as reality itself is threatened by a world just beyond our own.
And still the Night Clock ticks…
Phil Trevena’s patients are dying and he needs answers. One of the disturbed men in his care tells him that he needs to find Daniel, that Daniel will be able to explain what is happening. But who is Daniel? Daniel was lost once, broken by the same force that has turned its hatred on Trevena. His destiny is greater than he could ever imagine.
Drawn together, Trevena and Daniel embark on an extraordinary journey of discovery, encountering The Firmament Surgeons in the Dark Time – the flux above our reality. Whoever controls Dark Time controls the minds of humanity. The Firmament Surgeons, aware of the approach of limitless hostility and darkness, are gathered to bring an end to the war with the Autoscopes, before they tear our reality apart.
The Analysis
I apologize for not bringing the story myself, but I wanted you guys to feel what I did. The Night Clock sounded to me like an amazing sci-fi/horror story and I make no secret how much I enjoy fictional books that discuss on their narratives the capacity of our minds. I was so excited when I started it that pains me to say that I wasn’t the right audience for this book. Without a doubt it has an amazing plot and the narrative style is interesting, but I was bored to my bones. It takes too much time for the reader to realize the connections that Meloy does between his characters and the character’s manners also got me a bit. I can handle swearing and I don’t mind, but I don’t like vulgar and there were too many vulgar characters to my taste. I finished the book yesterday night and my overall evaluation was of two stars, as Meloy has good moves during the story and had an amazing plot to work with. Now, let’s begin the real analysis.
As I said, the plot was amazing. A doctor that starts to see his patients dying out of nowhere? A book that plays with the mind? Awesome! But I got so confused during the reading… I discovered that I didn’t like or connect with neither Phil or Daniel, so it was hard to be involved in the story. I really think that Meloy had an awesome idea, but I wasn’t ready for it, it was beyond my tastes as a reader and I apologize for that. I feel very bad for talking like this, because I know how much love, thought and effort takes to write and publish a book. Honestly, if you like sci-fi, give it a try, you may like it 😀
The narrative was a strong point of the book. The point of view of the characters was always changing, so you could have a big picture of what was happening during all the struggles and mysteries – but without realizing what was within The Night Clock. I was so anxious to know exactly what was The Night Clock that I made a dance when it was finally explained (it was part of the mystery of the book, so of course it takes time for us to be sure, haha!). I liked that no character was wasted for Meloy. If the person appeared, Meloy always had a way to tell the reader who that person was before their function on the book. I’m a very curious girl (cof journalist cof), so I was very happy with this, haha!
Which takes me to the characters. I didn’t like or connect to anyone, but also didn’t hate anyone. They were real people, don’t get me wrong. Just not my kind of people, I guess. I see book characters as someone you would like to be near in anyway and you measure how much you like them for the desire of closeness with them (we do this without realizing, trust me). I didn’t wish to be close to anyone in this book and you see, I have a soft spot for villains and bad guys. That’s why I said that I was the problem, that this book wasn’t for me. If you can’t connect with anything in the book, the problem is you, sorry, haha!
There’s something that I really wish to compliment: the looks of The Night Clock. I got a pdf for this review, but omg: it was BEAUTIFUL. The cover, the title page, the chapters… Seriously, I don’t regret owning this ebook at all and wish I could afford it on print. The art is breathtaking and deserves a space on my shellfish wardrobe ❤
The amazing title page ❤the chapters ❤
I won’t make this as long as it could because I see no point: I really admire Meloy’s creativity and his narrative skills, his talent for making a story of everything inside of The Night Clock and I wish him all the success in the world 🙂
That’s it, guys! Thanks for reading, sorry if I wasn’t very helpful today. As promised, you can take a look here where to find the book 😀 And Happy release day to Paul Meloy!
![IMG_7512[1]](https://anneliselestrange.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/img_75121.jpg?w=809)
I don’t even remember if I was able to finish it or not, haha!
The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange 