ARC Review: Wither by Lauren Destefano

Series:  Chemical Garden Triology, Book #1

Genre:   YA, Dystopia

Release Date:  March 22, 2011

Publisher:  Simon Schuster

Author Website:  http://www.laurendestefano.com

Format I Read:  ARC paperback

Pages:  368

Source:  Publisher

Reading Challenge:  Debut Author Reading Challenge

Read an excerpt

Book Blurb

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. 

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?

Awesomeness:

Linden looks so piteous and apologetic, standing there.  His three wives are huddled together on the bare mattress, one of them dying; when we’re together, we form an alliance he can’t touch.  He’s scared to even try.

My Thoughts

I have heard so much about dystopian novels and to be honest, I still don’t really know what the heck they are.  But if this book represents the genre, I am now a fan and can’t wait to read more.

In a word, Wither was awesome.  It didn’t have a lot of action and adventure, but plenty of drama.  The story unfolded slowly but held my attention until the very end. I loved the artwork for the cover and I thought the designs on the intro pages were really neat.  The characters are unforgettable and the story was unique.

Rhine, the main character, was a great heroine.  At a young age she found a way to deal with life without drawing too much attention to herself, but constantly plotted and planned to gain her freedom back.

At times, the story had me shaking my head in disbelief, other times it brought tears to my eyes as I sympathized with the sister wives.  The girls went through so much to please their “husband” and to try to find what little happiness they could as their lives slowly wasted away. Through it all, Rhine kept the sisterhood tight and proved to be a very good friend.

Linden, the “husband” was also a good character.  He was very misguided and didn’t know what was actually going on in his house.  I felt sorry for him because all he wanted was a real family.  If he and Rhine had met under different circumstances, I think they would have made a cute couple, but I was secretly rooting for Gabriel.

Overall, I loved this tragic love story and can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Rating

Four flowers of love.  I really liked it and would recommend reading it.

Other Reviews Of This Book:

Goodreads

Shelfari

Review: She Smells The Dead by E J Stevens

Title:  She Smells The Dead

Author:  E J Stevens

Series:  Spirit Guide, Book #1

Genre:  YA, Paranormal, Shapeshifters

Published:  August 2010

Publisher:  Sacred Oaks Press

Format I Read: Paperback

Pages:  168

How I Got It:  received from author

Book Summary:

It's the beginning of senior year and Yuki's psychic awareness of ghostly spirits is threatening to ruin her life. Her ability to sense spirits of the dead isn't glamorous like the ghost hunting on television.

SHE SMELLS THE DEAD.

The smell impressions are becoming stronger. Yuki is being visited in her dreams, and she suspects that her friend Calvin is involved in something strange. To make matters worse her crush on Garrett is going unrequited, Yuki's friend Emma is on a rampage against bee oppression, and Calvin Miller mysteriously disappears.

Will Yuki be able to focus her powers in time to save the lost soul who is haunting her? Meanwhile, who will save Yuki from following the spirits into the light?

My Thoughts

Yuki is a unique teenager.  She has an annoying habit of smelling dead people.  When spirits have unfinished business, they haunt her until she is able to figure out how to help them.  Instead of seeing or conversing with the dead, each one has a certain smell that alerts her of their presence.  With the help of her friends, Yuki is about to be once fierce ghost whisperer.

First of all, I love the cover.  I also loved the storyline.  I’ve read a lot of ghost stories about people being able to interact with the dead and being able to help trapped spirits move on; but none where the dead could be helped without actually seeing or talking to them.  It’s a different twist and I think that’s what made She Smells The Dead so interesting to me. 

The story was a little slow at first, but once I got a sense of who Yuki was and her ability, I did enjoy the story.  I loved her support system.  Although Yuki was considered different to most kids at school, she still had Calvin and Emma by her side to share her secret with and to keep her life normal-when she’s not being haunted.

She Smells The Dead lays the foundation for a great new YA series.  E J Stevens did a wonderful job of introducing this series.  I am very interested to see what will happen next. 

My  Rating

I give She Smells The Dead four flowers of love.  If you love ghosts, Goths, and a little bit of YA romance, you will want to check this book out.

BTW, E J Stevens will be guest posting Oct 25th and giving away a signed copy of She Smells The Dead and swag.

Review: Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young

Title:  Buying Time

Author:  Pamela Samuels Young

Series:  None

Genre:  Mystery, Suspense

Published:  November 2009

Publisher:  Goldman House

Format I Read:  Print

Pages:  414

How I Got It:  Reviewed for Pump Up Your Books

Read an excerpt

Book Summary:

Waverly Sloan is a down-on-his-luck lawyer. But just when he's about to hit rock bottom, he stumbles upon a business with the potential to solve all of his problems.

In Waverly's new line of work, he comes to the aid of people in desperate need of cash. But there's a catch. His clients must be terminally ill and willing to sign over rights to their life insurance policies before they can collect a dime. Waverly then finds investors eager to advance them thousands of dollars—including a hefty broker's fee for himself—in exchange for a significant return on their investment once the clients take their last breath.

The stakes get higher when Waverly brokers the policy of the cancer-stricken wife of Lawrence Erickson, a high-powered lawyer who's bucking to become the next U.S. Attorney General. When Waverly's clients start dying sooner than they should, both Waverly and Erickson—who has some skeletons of his own to hide—are unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail and murder

My Thoughts

Waverly has got to be the unluckiest man ever.  He's about to be disbarred and now he's afraid to tell his gold digging wife that they can no longer afford their lavish lifestyle.  So when a lucrative business deal pretty much falls into his lap, Waverly thinks he can get back on track without any problems.  Then his new clients mysteriously start dying, shortly after meeting with him.  Not only is he about to loose his new job, but he might just loose his life.

When I first received Buying Time, I was immediately intimated by the amount of pages it had, but once I started reading, the pages just flew by.  Before I knew, I had already finished the book.

Buying Time is a story full of greed, scandal, corruption, murder-everything needed for a good mystery.  The story introduces so many characters and subplots that for awhile it’s hard to figure out what’s really going on.  But, as the story progressed, all the events clicked into place and held my attention until the very end.

While I haven’t read a lot of mystery suspense novels lately, I do love the genre and felt Pamela Samuels Young did a great job with this novel.  It was well written and the characters were developed in such a way that made me hang on to every page just waiting to see how the story was going to play out.

My  Rating

I give Buying Time five flowers of love.  If you are a fan of mystery and suspense, I highly recommend this book. 

Review: The Stoker Sisters: Daughters Of Dracula by Kailin Gow

Title: Daughters Of Dracula

Author:  Kailin Gow

Series:  The Stoker Sisters, Book #1

Genre:  Young Adult, Paranormal, Shapeshifters

Published:  October 12, 2010

Publisher:  The Edge

Format I Read: ARC print copy

Pages:  243

How I Got It:  Reviewed for Pump Up Your Book Tours

 

Book Summary:

Two sisters... Born during the time of Jane Austen... Set to marry for advancement, but escaped their fates by becoming vampires. Now vampires in the 21st century, hunted by a sect of rogue hunters, the sisters live in a small beach town of California where they meet Keegan Knowles, a mysterious boy. For hundreds of years they've shared clothes, books, and their home, but will they share the same boy or is it there going to be war?

My Thoughts

In Daughters Of Dracula, Sadie and Alexis Stoker are the last human relatives of Vlad Dracule.  The sisters are complete opposites.  Sadie has always been quiet and reserved, while Alexis has always been wild and carefree.  The girls' sheltered lives are changed forever with the arrival of Lord Ashwin.

Lord Ashwin is a handsome, mysterious traveler claiming to be in town on business.  In truth, he brings darkness and death to their peaceful English town.  On one faithful night, he turns both girls into vampires, and vanishes.

Three hundred years later, the sisters have managed to lead separate lives until Alexis blows into town with hunters in tow and wrecks havoc on Sadie’s attempt at passing for human.

Being a fan of vampires and being intrigued by the myths and origins, there was no question that I was going to love this book.  The book made several references to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which for some reason I have never read, but will be putting on my TBR. 

Daughters Of Dracula was a great change of pace from the other vampire books that I’ve been reading.  It’s a story of two young women that do their best to blend into society despite being vampires. They run into new and old acquaintances and have a hard time trying to figure out who to trust. Through it all, they remain loyal to each other and continue to learn more about their heritage and why everyone is being so damn secretive.

I liked both main characters.  Although Sadie is compassionate, and Alexis can be a serious bitch, I couldn’t decide who I liked more.  I didn’t like the fact that both girls fell for the same guy twice, but I loved the drama that the triangle brings.

I’ve often stated that I’m not a big fan of YA because most young adult books do not hold my attention well, but Daughters Of Dracula keep me interested.  Although the plot and characters did remind me of The Vampire Diaries show, I will be picking up the next book.  The story leaves you with a felling that all hell is about to break loose and you want to be there when it does.

My Rating

I give Daughters of Dracula four and a half flowers of love.  I am a new fan of Kailin Gow’s work.  If you love Vampire Diaries and Twilight, you’ll love this book.

1/2

     

Review: A Rogue's Pleasure by Hope Tarr

Title:  A Rogue's Pleasure
Author:  Hope Tarr
Series:  None
Released:  August 16, 2010 (originally released in 2000)
Genre:  Historical Romance
How I Got It:  ARC ebook from Net Galley

Book Summary:
Miss Chelsea Bellamy is desperate

Her beloved brother is being held for ransom! Impoverished after the deaths of her parents, Chelsea doesn't have five shillings, never mind the five hundred pounds the kidnappers are demanding. With no one to turn to, she resorts to highway robbery to raise the sum.

Lord Anthony Grenville is bored

Viscount Montrose's coach is overtaken by a highwayman—who turns out to be no man at all! Anthony hasn't been this intrigued by anything, or anyone, since his return from the war. And when he catches the flame-haired thief breaking into his London house to further fill her coffers, he comes up with a plan to rescue her brother—and resolves to seduce her into his bed!

Their passion is mutual

Chelsea accepts Anthony's aid, but she'll never become his mistress—even if the thought of it fills her veins with liquid fire...

My Thoughts:
This is my first book by Hope Tarr and I love it.  I haven't read a lot of historical romances, but this book is making me rethink that choice.

The romance between Chelsea and Anthony was pure drama and funny as hell.  I was rooting for Chelsea to have a HEA with him even though he didn't really deserve her.

Chelsea was a very likeable character.  She was feisty at times and did what she felt was necessary to survive.  Other times she was very naive and got caught up in situations that she should have seen coming.  I hated the fact that she felt like she had no one she thought she could depend on to take care of her.    And Anthony certainly wanted to take care of her, just not in the way she really needed him to.

Despite his rakish ways, I loved Anthony.  I wanted to hate him so bad, because he was so full of himself.  He treated women like playthings and plotted to get keep everything in his favor.  He even got pissy when his so called "services" were rejected.  I was glad when he did the right thing and redeemed himself.  Although I do not approve of his methods (looking the other way), he did a good job of worming his way into Chelsea's heart.

My Rating:
I give the book five flowers of love because it sucked me in from the beginning.  I enjoyed it and could not put it down.  It's funny, romantic, and involves a crude but sexy manwhore.  This book is a new fav for the bookshelf because I will want to read it over and over.

Read an excerpt

Review: Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas

Title:  Comfort Food
Author:  Kitty Thomas
Series:  None
Genre:  Dark Erotica
Released:  March 21, 2010
How I Got It:  Free ebook download from author and Smashwords

Book Summary
Emily Vargas has been taken captive. As part of his conditioning methods, her captor refuses to speak to her, knowing how much she craves human contact. He's far too beautiful to be a monster. Combined with his lack of violence toward her, this has her walking a fine line at the edge of sanity. Told in the first person from Emily's perspective, Comfort Food explores what happens when all expectations of pleasure and pain are turned upside down, as whips become comfort and chicken soup becomes punishment.

My Thoughts
How do I even start this review?

First, let me say that Kitty Thomas is an awesome writer.  Had this book not been highly recommended by several other bloggers, I would have never read it.

Comfort Food is a twisted tale that had me seriously weirded out. Even though I didn't like what was going on in the story, it was told in such a way that held my attention from start to finish.

Seriously, I did not know what to think.  The book started out with a simple kidnapping  but quickly turned  into a master and slave situation.  At that point, I knew the ending wouldn't be good, but I still wanted to find out who this crazy guy was and what he wanted.  Apparently being  rich and handsome doesn't keep you from being  very, very crazy.

When I thought things couldn't get any worse, the story  got darker and darker.  Some of the things that happened in the book, I cringed at.  I didn't know whether to feel sorry for Emily or be happy for her.  For her to have been a self help guru, she broke pretty quickly and was gone from there. She was a survivor, but a weak one.

The ending of the book is what really messed me up.  I started reading this book knowing that it was a far cry from my usual romantic titles, but I did secretly want these two crazies to be together.  I always want an HEA and I was convinced that Emily was going to get hers, just not the one she insisted on having.

My Rating
Comfort Food raped my mind.  I feel totally violated.  The shock of this story has not worn off yet.  The sad part about it is that I loved every minute of it.

If you are looking for something dark and erotic, this book is for you.  But if you are not a fan of bondage and control, I think you need to pass on this one.  I still give it a solid 4.5 flowers of love.

P.S. Thanks, Kitty for making me paranoid and wanting to start back carrying my taser.

1/2

Other reviews:
Ramblings Of A Book Bitch
Love To Read For Fun
Book Of Secrets
Random Musings
Leontine's Book Realm

Dead In The Family by Charlaine Harris

Title:  Dead In The Family
Author:  Charlaine Harris
Released:  May 4, 2010 
Series:  Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series, Book 10
How I Got It:  Purchased ebook

Book Summary
After enduring torture and the loss of loved ones during the brief but deadly Faery War, Sookie Stackhouse is hurt and she's angry. Just about the only bright spot in her life is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman. But he's under scrutiny by the new Vampire King because of their relationship. And as the political implications of the Shifters coming out are beginning to be felt, Sookie's connection to the Shreveport pack draws her into the debate. Worst of all, though the door to Faery has been closed, there are still some Fae on the human side-and one of them is angry at Sookie. Very, very angry...

My Thoughts
Okay, to be honest, parts of this book had me feeling like it should have been called "Kickin' It With Sookie" because it was just that.  Seriously, I felt like killing someone just to get some action going.  I almost put the book down because I got tired of waiting for the action.

The only reason I kept reading was because I didn't want to miss my two favorite characters: Pam and Eric.   I'd gladly read any book where they get more page time.  Whatever they do turns out to be entertaining without even meaning to be.

We also got to meet Eric's maker.  That was a bonus because he brought along Eric's "brother", a thirteen year old psychotic boy toy that wanted to be Jason's BFF.  A psychotic barely-a-teen vamp?  WTF?  He was such a chaotic mess that everybody was glad to see him die.

Another reason I kept reading is because Claude, Sookie's fairy cousin, just appeared on her doorstep all out of the blue and whatnot.  Then he asked to move in.  Now we all know that Claude has not been a fan of Sookie's since his twin, Claudine died in the last book while protecting her.  And then her weirdo fairy great uncle showed up, trying to play all nice.  I knew something was up with that and knew there would eventually be a fae showdown of some sort. The happenings were not what I expected, but it  kept the story interesting.

Oh, and Bill was there too.  And he's got a new honey.  Her presence was unexpected, but proved to add a little spice to a dull tale.  Her presence gave a little insight as to why Bill lied to Sookie about going to see his maker in the earlier books.  Now I kinda understand why he wanted to keep Lorena as far away from Sookie as he possibly could.

Last, but not least, our favorite were Alcide returns.  And of course he returns with more drama to involve Sookie in. The weres weren't a big part of the story, but it was enough to keep you posted on what going on with them.

My Rating
I have to give this book  three and 3.5 stars.  I am a Sookie Stackhouse fan, but I do have to say that this book did not live up to the hype.  I liked some parts, the others were not action grabbers.  It still wasn't a bad book, just expected more.