Saturday, April 24, 2010
An Announcement!
I found out! The author did an interview with Entertainment Weekly which also features the cover for the new book, Misguided Angel, which will be released on October 5, 2010. If you have read these books and find them intriguing as I do, then you will love this article.
Melissa De La Cruz Interview
My own opinion, this is my favorite cover of them all. The most beautifully crafted anyway. And she is one author that I want to walk up to and say, "Where did these ideas come from?"
Enjoy!
The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz
![](http://www.mobileddl.com/files/image/The-Van-Alen-Legacy-ebook-2010-02-04.jpg)
Schuyler and Oliver are on the run from the Wardens and Venators (truth finding vampires--much like their own FBI), all over the world they have fled them.
Bliss isn't herself, and her little sister, Jordan is missing. What is mysterious is how Bliss can't really remember the last part of her trip to Brazil. Or how she got home. Or whatever happened to the last year of her life?
Mimi is on one of the Venator teams with Kingsley Martin as lead. They are on the search for Bliss's missing sister who can lead them to what is really going on in their world.
Everything is amiss and everyone is scrambling to find truth in everything else. But as Revelations seemed to be more of a "character building" story, The Van Alen Legacy is more of the "plot building" story. I had a harder time reading through this one, possibly since it wasn't as character driven as the last one. However, there were times when I wanted to know what happened next. But not like the last book where I read it in a day. This one took me about three weeks to complete.
Sorry, this is a short review. I don't want to spoil more of this story, but this one does leave its' mark on the whole of the storyline of the Blue Bloods. I suspect the next one will be character driven once again and I'm thoroughly excited for it. Melissa really did a number on this story leaving a cliffhanger in her epilogue. Squeeze every ounce of yourself to get through this story, but really, just remember it is not going to be as great as the last book. Moreover, it is important to the whole of the storyline.
Revelations by Melissa De La Cruz
This continues the story of Mimi Force, Schuyler Van Alen, and Bliss Llewellyn in their socialite society and learning more and more who they were in their past lives and fighting those who seek to destroy the New York Coven of Blue Bloods.
The search for the Silver Blood is on as a new boy shows up at school, Kingsley Martin. He's a knockout, a competitor for Mimi's twin brother and soulmate, Jack Force. Unlike the blond, respectful, Jack, Kingsley likes to play on the wild side. His dark looks give him away as possibly the one who is behind all the attacks on young Blue Bloods at Duschesne.
What I love is the character development in this book. This one has shown us more into Schuyler and her learning the ways of the vampire life, although she is just a half blood. Half human/half vampire. Her grandfather teaches her quickly and efficiently because he knows something she doesn't. Her feelings get in the way of everything as she is conflicted between loving her best friend and conduit, Oliver, more than she ought to, and having a relationship with the forbidden one, Jack Force. When I read Schuyler's point of views, I really feel sorry for her that she is stuck in the middle of everything and the weight is all on her to live up to her family name. But I also feel like she doesn't really care much for what is going on and who she is. She just doesn't want any part in it and that part makes me angry at her character. But we are all like that in some way aren't we?
I don't know why, but I always love reading Bliss's point of view. It's more mysterious than the rest of them. She can't remember who her real mother is, she can't focus on who she was in the past. So she really is searching and wanting to learn who she is. I love the self discoveries that characters go through.
For this book, I really suggest you start at the beginning to get the full throttle of this storyline. But this one, really gets you sitting on the edge of your seat. I read it in a day. I couldn't put it down. This is just one part of the climactic point of the story. There is more. That's in another review.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
![](http://hotlibrarytech.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/shiver-final-cover.jpg)
Here is what the back cover says. (And I will only put what the back cover says and then let you read what you want to in this review to let you decide if you'll want to read it or not.)
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Neverland: Book Trailer and Competition
![](http://perseuspromos.com/images/covers/medium/9781593155414.jpg)
So, Neverland, a novel by Douglas Clegg is being released tomorrow.
Heres a hint about the premise of the book:
“If you look at the literature of childhood, from the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm to the wizard world of Harry Potter, you find a massively confusing world of adult rules, deception and mendacity. Child heroes stumble through this darkness, virtue and purity their only tools of defense against the big, bad world of adulthood. Sometimes this world is Wonderland. Sometimes it is a gingerbread house…In Douglas Clegg's newest book he calls this world Neverland. ..While the adults in the story teeter around drunkenly unaware, the children are waging a battle. Like childhood itself, it is a battle where the rules are unknown and the damage is unfathomable. ..Neverland is a mix of Southern Gothic, horror and coming-of-age story--a chilling adult bedtime story for those not afraid of the dark.”
—Shelf Awareness
To celebrate and publicise the event Douglas Clegg is having an amazing competition at his website www.douglasclegg.com . So I highly recommend everyone hops over to the site as they could be in for the chance at the Grand Prize of either a Kindle or a Nook (if you're in the U.S.). You’ll also be able to check out exclusive, limited-time ebooks, and special bonus content including upcoming goodies such as a special videogame!
I'm really excited to start reading this book, especially after seeing the trailer. I think it's one of the best trailers I've seen in a very long time. Gave me a severe case of goosebumps and a chill down the spine, so if this is any indication, the book should be excellent (and also scary as hell - i'm thinking row row row my boat will never be the same for me!!!)
( heres the link)
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Fallen - Lauren Kate
![](http://smellslikescreenspirit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/fallen_bookcover.jpg)
So, I've been very slow in my fiction reading lately, amazing what a three hour delay on a train will do to help that!!!
Luckily for me, I happened into Easons before I got on my train and bought 3 for 2 books - one of which was Fallen by Lauren Kate.
Fallen, is a story about a girl called Lucie who is being 'reformed' after a terrible incident by being sent to Swords & Cross. There she meets a lot of strange young people, including two love interests Cam and Daniel. As the story progress, Lucie begins to realise that things aren't as normal as they seem, and that something is very different but comforting/familiar about Daniel.
Ok, so essentially Fallen follows the YA paranormal template, where Lucie is a new girl with something special about her who arrives at a new school and meets this strange new guy, who she is absolutely infatuated with and becomes obsessed with finding out his secrets.
This is what YA paranormal usually consists of, so I'm not going to go on about originality etc. as the way I see it, there is always a general pattern in all genres. Also I don't think it does this book justice to make comparisons.
*Spoiler Alert*
Back to Fallen, I really liked this book. I started reading it as a distraction on a stuffy warm train and it helped the time fly by for me (which is saying something). Once I was home, I had to keep reading.
I think Lauren Kate did an amazing job with this story and her characters, especially IMO Cam. It would have been so easy to cast him as the villain of the piece, but you really don't get to see this side of him till the end of the book. Seriously, although I read of the back of the book, I felt more drawn to Cam as the romantic lead (I honestly don't know what that says about me) - he was charming, perfect etc. yet you got hints that although Lucie felt something for him, there was a tinge of something darker attached.
The book is also nice and suspenseful, the pacing is perfect. I never felt that she was a] rushing the tension/love plot (till the end) or b] dragging it out. She just got it exactly right, so that I just kept turning the pages and was pulled into this world.
Like I said before, this story contains the YA template but it does have other suspenseful elements and can be dark in places. Lucie is not a perfect character, she is flawed and is full of guilt and fear over her past, but she is relatable and likable. I liked the minor characters as well such as Penn, whose death I felt was unnecessary. I imagine she would have made a nice human/grounding character for the future books, essentially someone to crack a joke or help Lucie remember being half normal.
I enjoyed that there is a bigger story behind the love story, that there is actually something bigger to be revealed as I continue with this series and that we don't (like Lucie) get all the answers by the end of the book. I'm really fascinated by Cam and Daniel's relationship and how this will all play out.
I give this book 8/10 though, because I felt that 'the shadows' explanation Daniel gave was a bit blah, I'm hoping that something more will be revealed here as I thought they were more than just demon gossips, especially with what happened to Trevor and Todd. I felt that the Sophia character was just a bit *there*, like she was thrown in as a twist and I didn't think she was exactly necessary. Lastly, 7/8ths of this books is excellently written and page turning good, but I felt that the action parts and the last chapter were not up to the standard of the rest of the book.
But I absolutely loved the epilogue, and am completely intrigued by where this story is heading and what Lucie's place is in relation to both Daniel and Cam.
So I do recommend you give this a read. It's fun, dark and romantic but with a dash of something bigger to come.