Review- A Chance For Charity- S.L. Baum

A Chance for Charity by S.L. Baum
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A Chance For Charity is about Charity, who's an immortal. She lives with her made-up uncle and aunt who're also immortals. Several years ago, Charity was in love with a guy named Roger who died in a war. The death of her beau left Charity heart-broken, so much so, that she even tried to commit suicide but failed again and again since she was immortal and any injury automatically healed supernaturally fast.
That was when Charity got to know that she was supernatural, with the help of her then-neighbors James and Catherine. After that incident James and Catherine took Charity under their wings (since she was an orphan) and became Charity's uncle and aunt.
Years pass by, and the little family keeps on moving from one town to another, changing their identities with each shift. Why, you ask? Well, everything isn't so easy in the paranormal world. There are hunters aka Lords, a family who thinks that the immortals are evil and need to be wiped off from the face of the earth. And so, the immortals need to be extra careful and in no way ever come across these hunters.

So, like that the Johnstons family reaches Telluride, where for the first time in a very long time, Charity finds herself finally making some friends. She also meets gorgeous Lincoln aka Link there and instantly finds herself attracted to him. The story then goes on as Charity introduces her paranormal world to Link and how they, along with Charity's family protect themselves form the threat that always looms above them-The Lords/Hunters.

Throughout the story, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to love this book or immediately delete it from my kindle. The starting was fabulous-I loved it. But as it got nearer to the end, somehow the story started losing its charm. Many dialogues were repeated and even though I'm pretty sure the author had done it purposely, I still can't say I liked that part very much.
Even though, I really, really liked Charity and Link's relationship, I couldn't help but roll my eyes when they so suddenly shifted from "magnetic pull/attraction like no other" to "God, I love you!". Aside from this, I liked almost everything else in this book, from the cover to the nicely thought of plot.
The idea of immortals and the paranormal world in this book wasn't entirely new but still fun and good to read.

I really liked Charity's character as she had strength along with awesome looks and pretty good wits. There was no forced love-triangle (yay!) and all the characters were interesting to read about.

Overall, I enjoyed reading A Chance For Charity and maybe I'll continue the series. Or maybe not. :)

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In My Mailbox (02)

 IMM is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Recieved-

Sweetness by Lindsay Paige

I'm Yours by Lindsay Paige

Whatever It Takes by Lindsay Paige

Review-Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Initially, when I started Dead Beautiful I immediately compared Twilight with this because the basic theme WAS pretty similar to Twilight.
Here's what the story is about,
Renee comes from sunny California to the cold, cold Gottfried Academy in Maine when her parents mysteriously die of heart-attack at the same time and same place.
Even though everyone tells her that's how they actually died, Renee doesn't believe it. Nor does her grandfather. He thinks that Renee would no longer be safe in her parent's place and thus, sends her to Gottfried Academy, where she meets Dante on her first day. Instantly, she's attracted to him. Her room-mate, Eleanor tells her how Dante hasn't mixed up with anybody since the year before and how she's the first person he's actually talked to after a long time.
Initially, she thinks that Dante is too weird for her but after he starts giving her Latin lessons after school, she starts liking him. (I have no idea why she exactly liked him. Maybe it was the "beautiful" and "perfect" looks. Or maybe she just liked weird, secretive and boring guys.)
In Gottfried Academy, Renee sees/experiences many strange things. Namely, the death of Benjamin who also died of heart attack the year before and the sudden transfer of his girlfriend soon after his death. As Renee investigates further, she finds that such incidents have been happening in the academy for a long time. Many called it the "Gottfried Curse". Renee feels that these incidents are somehow linked with the death of her parents and she's bent on finding out who's behind all this...

I think I would've actually liked this book, if the romantic part wasn't so typical and the story was described in fewer words. Scenes which could've been explained in a page or two actually took almost five pages. Needless to say, the story got pretty boring after a few chapters and a lot of skipping pages took place. About halfway through the book, I totally gave up and almost discontinued it but then I decided not to because I honestly WANTED to know the mystery behind her parents death and how exactly dead people turned into walking, talking and weirdly beautiful zombies. (I still have a hard time relating good-looks with zombies, and I totally blame it on the zombie movies I've seen and games I've played)

I felt that Dante was the zombie version of Edward Cullen. No really, I couldn't believe how similar both the characters were. The same can be said for Renee but I found her a bit more childish, self-absorbed and annoyingly "flawless" than Bella. That's another big problem I had with this book. ALL the characters were just so...perfect. After a while it just gets hard not to roll your eyes at their perfect-ness. I don't think Renee made even a single teeny-tiny mistake throughout the story except maybe being too self-absorbed to think about her missing best friend/room-mate. I also found Dante and Renee's relationship too rushed. No matter how weird Dante got, she still just ignored it all and that was SUPER irritating.

I can't really say I absolutely disliked this book because I didn't. I really liked the mystery parts of this book. The things which weren't supposed to be figured out till the end, remained that way and I liked it. I especially liked guessing what's gonna happen next and being wrong. But frankly, the execution of the story wasn't that impressive. But I still think, Ms. Woon would make a good mystery author. Hush, Hush and Evermore fans would like this story. But that's just my opinion. :)


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Interview with Wynne Channing and Giveaway of What Kills Me!

About the book: An ancient prophecy warns of a girl destined to cause the extinction of the vampire race. So when 17-year-old Axelia falls into a sacred well filled with blood and emerges a vampire, the immortal empire believes she is this legendary destroyer. Hunted by soldiers and mercenaries, Axelia and her reluctant ally, the vampire bladesmith Lucas, must battle to survive. How will she convince the empire that she is just an innocent teenager-turned bloodsucker and not a creature of destruction? And if she cannot, can a vampire who is afraid of bugs summon the courage to fight a nation of immortals?

About Wynne: Wynne Channing is a national newspaper reporter and young adult novelist. Wynne loves telling stories and as a journalist, she has interviewed everyone from Daniel Radcliffe and Hugh Jackman to the president of the Maldives and Duchess Sarah Ferguson. The closest she has come to interviewing a vampire is sitting down with True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard (he didn’t bite). She briefly considered calling her debut novel “Well” so then everyone would say: “Well written by Wynne Channing.”

For my review of What Kills Me, click here!
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Me:  First of all, tell us a little about yourself.

Wynne: I write for a national newspaper in Canada. I teach dance. I am fully prepared for a zombie invasion.

Me:  When did you first realize that you wanted to be an author?

Wynne: I’ve never wanted to be anything else. (There was a brief period when I was seven when I wanted to be a WWE wrestler so I could paint my face and wear tights.)

Me: Who designed the cover for your book?

Wynne: This amazing artist from Portugal named Liliana Sanches Davis. We worked together to come up with something that reflected the drama in the story. I love it.

Me: What was your inspiration for writing an awesome story like What Kills Me?

Wynne: I was living in Taiwan for a few months and I had a few cockroaches as roommates. Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep, afraid they’d throw a party in my mouth. So I’d lie awake, thinking crazy things: “What would happen if I suddenly disappeared?” “What if I fell into a hole? What if that hole was filled with blood?” Man, that would be gross. The image of a young woman climbing out of a well, soaked in blood, was what started it all. I should probably thank the cockroaches (well, had I not squished them).

Me:  Which book are you working on right now?

Wynne: I’m working on the sequel to What Kills Me so the adventure continues...

Me: Now for the rapid fire round..!

Me: If you could be any mythological creature for one day, what would you like to be?

Wynne: I’d be a genie and I’d go around granting extravagant wishes. (Though, it would suck to be squished into a lamp...)

Me: Blue hair or pink hair?

Wynne: Blue! Like Aja on Jem and the Holograms.

Me:   Which actor/actress would you choose for the roles of Lucas/Zee?

Wynne: I have no idea. I’d prefer to let readers see the heroes as they imagine them in their minds. As for other characters, the vampire empress is inspired by Isabella Rossellini in Death Becomes Her. Liam Neeson would make a good Noel.

Me:   Cupcakes, tarts or pastries? What do you prefer?

Wynne: I have pretty high standards for cupcakes (I’ve judged cupcake contests before). They have to be moist and light. Otherwise, it’s a muffin.

  

Me:   Name some of your favourite authors and why? 

Wynne: Oh, I have so many. Jane Austen, Rohinton Mistry, and Ernest Hemingway. Because their books are sitting on my desk right now.

What Kills Me Links

Goodreads | Wynne Channing’s Website

Buy What Kills Me

Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N | Kobo | iTunes

Connect with Wynne

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

And that's not all! The wonderful Wynne has also decided to giveaway 3 e-copies of her book!! Enter now! :D

 

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Review-What Kills Me by Wynne Channing

What Kills Me by Wynne Channing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After reading so many vampire themed books, I was a little unsure whether I would like this one or not. But fortunately, What Kills Me didn't disappoint me. The story was action-packed, funny, intriguing and most importantly, had oh-so-awesome characters.

When I first read the summary of this book, I was like, "OMG, the girl emerges as a vampire from a blood well!" and expected the scene to be something like this,



So imagine my surprise when it was nothing that dramatically dumb but actually pretty sensible. :P

The starting was OK, the middle part was amazing and by the time I ended it, I was like "NO, WAIT!! I want more Axelia and Lucas!!"

There were many, many parts in the story which were interesting as well as funny. I really liked Axelia and her quirky, upbeat nature as well as her sense of humour. No matter how hard the situations got, she got over it and moved on to become a kick-ass super vampire unlike ahem some characters I could mention(NoraEverGraceBellaetc.etc.) but obviously I won't since I'm so nice and all.

I liked Axelia's and Lucas' chemistry which (THANKFULLY!) wasn't lurrrv at first sight or anything like that. Instead, it took a backseat in the story like a soft background music.
The story itself had a strong base and not even once I felt like discontinuing it. There were so many times when a certain scene would come up and I would think, Hey! This scene would look awesome in a movie!

Overall, What Kills Me was truly commendable for a debut novel and Ms. Channing did an absolutely great job! I can't wait to read more of her books-to-come!

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In My Mailbox (01)

                                           

 IMM is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Received-

What Kills Me- Wynne Channing

                                           

 Bought-

A Chance for Charity- SL Baum

The Mind Readers- Lori Brighton

Review- City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Gosh it took me forever to read this but honestly? It was worth it! The story was even more amazing than the swoon-worthy cover and I absolutely loved eet!

Cassandra Clare's writing style was just as awesome as ever and it was hard not to keep smiling throughout the novel. The story was really nicely executed and fun to read through and through.
I liked Clary's character even more this time and even though she was a little too reckless sometimes, it was what made the story itself so damn interesting.

Jace was even more fun to read about and the whole time Jace and Clary were together, I was like Oh my god, what's gonna happen now?? I think I fell in love with him a little more in this book. :P

As for Sebastian, well it might seem silly, but there were so many times when I just felt like jumping inside the book and beat the crap out of him and other times when I just wished he didn't have demon blood and so much darkness in him. His villain-ness was both interesting and irritating at the same time.

All the other characters (Simon, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus, Jordan, Maia and etc. etc. etc.) were just as awesome but for some reason, I don't think I'm ever gonna like their stories better than Jace and Clary's.
I mean, throughout the novel, the story kept shifting from one scenario to another and it was slightly annoying to read what those characters were doing when I was just so engrossed in Clary and Jace. It was like watching your favourite television program and being interrupted again and again with commercials. Not that those commercials weren't good..and if not for them, I don't think the story would've been that nicely executed. But still.

Overall, this book just flew me away and I can hardly keep my excitement for the next book, City of Heavenly Fire Oh man, I want to read this book BEFORE the world actually ends but that's not gonna happen, is it? Thanks to the far, far away publishing date. >:(

PS: Yes, I actually believe the world's gonna end this year.

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Review- Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman

Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Babe in Boyland was a cute, fun read but nothing really new. While I was reading it, it was hard not to smile throughout the story. It was nicely written, had interesting characters and great punch lines.

Natalie was a really awesome character and I liked her throughout the story. She was fun, quirky and not afraid to try something new. When she realized she was actually not helping anybody as Dr. Aphrodite and only telling girls stuff they wanted to hear, she immediately had that spark to get better. She genuinely wanted to help girls out with their problems and I liked that about her.



As for Emilio, he seemed nice but I can't say I liked him all that much. I mean, a hot, smart guy with zero real friends? Yeah, right. And then when his new weird roommate comes, he SUDDENLY feels like he has a friend whom he can "connect with"? Seriously?

Anyway, even though the story had nothing new to offer, it was still a light, enjoyable read. :)


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