TGIF - Feature & Follow Friday #151

FEATURE & FOLLOW FRIDAY is a blog hop that is designed to provide as much exposure towards other bloggers as well as yourself, and to expand following. It's hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each whom feature a chosen blog for a week, it's also an interesting way to get to know one another bloggers.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
What blogger would you most like to meet in real life? Tell us about him or her. 

Actually I don't really know! In the world of bloggers, I have absolutely no idea on who I would like to meet... I guess I never really considered this... (ahahahha)

Review: The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

Title: The Summoning
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Release Date: !st July 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.

All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost - and the ghost saw me.

Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? it's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House...before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

Detailed Review: Great job, Kelley. You did a great job there. And it's your DEBUT novel. Wow. I was just amazed.

That's what I was thinking the whole time after I read The Summoning. It's too good to be a debut novel but let's just say, the author is talented.

The Summoning is told from Chloe Saunder's POV. (How fitting, my co-blogger is also named Chloe) And I'm happy that it's told from her point of view. Because I know if it's told from the other characters' point of view, I. Would. Die. Of. Boredom. Full stop.

It's the way she tells her story that intrigues me so much. The way she portrays everything as a movie to get over some of her fears and solve problems. How many people do that? None.

When you say this book is paranormal, it totally hit that mark where it says PARANORMAL in big block letters. I'm not adding romance in it because there's none. Sorry, romance lovers.

The other characters in the book were very interesting too. Armstrong has managed to vary all of them so you wouldn't get bored.

So the story?

You see ghosts, people think you're crazy, you get sent to a group home for teenagers with mental illnesses, and then you discover that you ACTUALLY see ghosts and can also raise the dead. And then you find out that the other teens in the house are not normal too. One of them's a werewolf. One of them's a sorcerer. One of them is a poltergeist.

And then you discover a secret you're not meant to know. And then...

I was happy for once after reading a book with a cliffhanger. Yup you heard me right. You know how much I hate cliffhangers and to say that I'm ok with it? Impossible. But I'm making an exception. The cliffhanger provided does make you a squirm with a degree of desperation but does not make you go too over. So the cliffhanger was perfect.

Brief Review: So what can I say? It's just AMAZING. The author topped it off so well that I'm giving her a clap right now at this moment. If she can even make me have nightmares and do silent screams, then you will find yourself doing the same thing.



Final Rating: 5/5 'Totally Amazing'

QUOTE:

Just to honour Chloe (not the blogging one, the character in the book), 

No ghost was every seen by two pair of eyes---- Thomas Carlyle

Your Reviewer:

Waiting on Wednesday: Never Say Goodbye by Bethan Cooper

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by us, that highlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication 'can't-wait-to-read' selection is:

Title: Never Say Goodbye
Author: Bethan Cooper
Release Date: 20th July 2013
Publisher: Bethan Cooper
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Who said life was easy again?

When eighteen year old Ella Stone fell into his arms one July morning she encountered a man who was not only beautiful, but the most caring and loving she had ever met. She is lost in the distance to most and cares about nothing in her life. The only needs she craves is her best friend Jade and her trusty sky blue Ford Mustang. After losing someone who meant more to her than herself, her whole life changed for the worse.

When Luke James lean, beautiful and rich finds a small girl riddled with torment in his arms he can't help but want to put out that dark light inside of her. But when he leaves his high school girlfriend for her, trouble chases them both and the escape tries to break them apart.

On this emotional tormented roller-coaster, we find two people who should of never been introduced, but they are and the inevitable happens, For them both.

I know what will happen after I read this book. I'll probably cry and cry and cry. The cover is absolutely beautiful and the plot is something that would make me go "I'VE GOT TO READ THIS!". Yup, you get the gist.

Review: After Realm by Renee Travis

Title: After Realm
Author: Renee Travis
Release Date: February 2013
Publisher: CreateSpace
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: Hellebella is not your average teenager. She is a demon princess from the underworld. She does, however, have teenager tendencies. She is outspoken, blunt, funny and rebellious. When a final act of rebellion sends her father into a rage, he sends her off to the North American School of Paranormal Princes-sing where he hopes she can learn to become a proper young lady and do something constructive with her life.

Not the only princess being sent away to the NASPP, Hellebella meets a lively bunch of girls from different paranormal kingdoms, including fairies, a vampire and shape-shifters. But not everything is light and happy at school. The girls find themselves entranced by a secret and mysterious club in another realm. There, they are forced to dance every night, and if they do not the consequences are dire. 

Helle, as her new friends call her, must find a way to break them free of the spell holding them hostage, figure out WHO is behind the malicious magic and struggle with her own love for her best friend’s brother. Hopefully she can save them in time, before they become ghosts powerless to stop the magic from harming someone else.

Detailed Review: This book far exceeded my expectations. Usually I expected quite little from self-published books but this book was just written with such amazing writing skills. This writer's words has the ability to transport you to the character's time and place with such vivid descriptions that you find you can't stop reading.

This books is actually a retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses in a gothic twist that is simple and interesting. It is told from Hellabella's point of view, who is one of the Princesses of the Underworld or just known as Satan's daughter. After her father finds out that she has gone lava hopping with her brothers, which he finds really unladylike and not suiting for a princess, he decided to send her to a boarding school, or more precisely, the North American School of Paranormal Princessing.

She is unhappy at being sent there. She meets other princesses from paranormal realms such as faeries and vampires. She finds the school ok but always gets bored of it. Her roommate Lillith also seems to be hiding someone or something from her. And guess who that is?

Lillth's brother, Roarke who according to the author is pretty hot. And Hella just falls in love with him. Love at first sight. How nice.

But then something else happens. Hella has also stumbled upon a doorway in one of the bathrooms that leads to another realm. So one day, all the princesses went there together and started dancing.  They went there every day. Nothing seemed wrong to them.

But there is something really wrong. Their powers are waning. They are not as strong as they were. They try to stop, but something seems to push them to go. They try to tell someone but they end up suffering. Once they did not go to the realm but they fell violently sick.

A conspiracy is forming and they need to do something before they are trapped in After Realm forever.

Brief Review: Equal parts romance, fear and mystery, this book is a great read for paranormal fans. I guarantee that you'll love it from beginning to end. You have my word

Final Rating: 5/5 'Totally Amazing'

QUOTE: 

To the princesses who attended boarding school together:

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.-------Lao Tzu

Your Reviewer:

TGIF - Feature & Follow #150

FEATURE & FOLLOW FRIDAY is a blog hop that is designed to provide as much exposure towards other bloggers as well as yourself, and to expand following. It's hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each whom feature a chosen blog for a week, it's also an interesting way to get to know one another bloggers.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
The #FF is 150 years old! And we want to hear from you! What would you change about the top? What do you like about it? Or just suggest a question to be used next week? 

I don't know what to say except there's nothing bad or but it's really good as it is! I don't it has to change! Love the way it is already :)

Waiting on Wednesday: The Sound by Sarah Alderson

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by us, that highlights upcoming events that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication 'can't-wait-to-read' selection is:

Title: The Sound
Author: Sarah Alderson
Release Date: 1st August 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

When aspiring music journalist Ren Kingston takes a job nannying for a wealthy family on the exclusive island of Nantucket, playground for Boston's elite, she's hoping for a low-key summer reading books and blogging about bands. Boys are firmly off the agenda.

What she doesn't count on is falling in with a bunch of party-loving private school kids who are hiding some dark secrets, falling (possibly) in love with the local bad boy, and falling out with a dangerous serial killer...


This book interested me in a spooky way. I got goosebumps when I read the description. Just imagine falling in love with a serial killer. And what if you're the next person he's targeting? Creepy... And the title and tagline doesn't make it any not scarier.

Review: Wakefield by Erin Callahan & Troy H. Gardner

Title: Wakefield

Author(s): Erin Callahan & Troy H. Gardner

Publisher: MuseltUp Publisher

Release Date: October 5th 2012

Find on: Amazon, Goodreads

Quick Review: Orphans Astrid Chalke and Max Fisher meet when they’re sent to live at Wakefield, a residential and educational facility for teens with psychiatric and behavioral problems. Astrid’s roommate cuts herself with anything sharp she can get her hands on and Max’s roommate threatens him upon introduction. 

Just as Astrid and Max develop a strong bond and begin to adjust to the constant chaos surrounding them, a charming and mysterious resident of Wakefield named Teddy claims he has unexplainable abilities. Sometimes he can move things without touching them. Sometimes he can see people’s voices emanating from their mouths. Teddy also thinks that some of the Wakefield staff are on to him. 

At first, Astrid and Max think Teddy is paranoid, but Max’s strange, recurring dreams and a series of unsettling events force them to reconsider Teddy’s claims. Are they a product of his supposedly disturbed mind or is the truth stranger than insanity?

Detailed Review: <<copy provided by author themselves>>

I found this book to be quite entertaining but it didn't suit my tastes. OK, it kinda did but it didn't... I didn't find this appealing to me but maybe if you are  into those kinda books about insanity, mystery and psychology with a touch of adventure, I was 'pleased' but not satisfied. 

The story about these  kids who are brought to psychiatric and behavioral problems where apparently some of the kids have these "special abilities" where they have to fend for themselves and mysteries start to happen. 

Sorry but I have to cut this short...  this book didn't appeal very much to me! I'm really sorry but I just didn't like it...

Brief Review: "It was not my kinda selection of genre where this was not my type of book. I recommend the authors should continue to improve their style of writing. In the future, I will be happy to review their latest book.

My Rating: 2/5  "It's OK but I didn't really like it"

Reviewer: