2014 Review Pile Challenge

Welcome to the 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge, hosted by Rachel @ Fiktshun and Reanna @ Phantasmic Reads!

details (Reposted from Fiktshun ) 

• The 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge runs from January 1st until December 31st, 2014
• Sign-ups will remain open until December 31st, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific
• Grab one of the buttons to show off your participation! Parajunkee did a great job with them!
• You DO NOT have to have a blog to join this challenge. You just need to have some books received for review and a place online to review them
• Create a sign-up post announcing your intention to participate and link up below. If you do not have a blog, you can link up to your Goodreads profile that shows your 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge shelf
• Please link back to the hosts in your sign-up posts
• This challenge is to help clear up books you’ve received for review. Any format, or any length, as long as you received the book specifically for review, is allowed
• There will be a kick-off post on January 1, 2014 at both Fiktshun and Phantasmic Reads where you’ll be able to leave your links for any January reviews. (No 2013 reviews.) At the beginning of every month, starting in February, these posts will alternate between both blogs. (See schedule below)
• If you forgot to leave your review link in the challenge month in which you reviewed the book or the linky list closed before you had a chance to leave it, you can leave it in a future month. (No duplicates.)
• There will also be monthly giveaways – make sure you check in each month!
• Use the hashtag #RPRC2014 to share your progress and connect with other participants on Twitter

I'm signing up for the Journeyman Level for now which is 11-20 books .  THIS challenge looks awesome Please join in :) 

Review : The Sharpest Blade

This book is classified as adult but there is major YA crossover potential.

The Sharpest Blade (Shadow Reader #3)

by Sandy Williams 

Torn between two worlds.
Torn between two lives.

McKenzie Lewis’s ability to read the shadows has put her—and …those she loves—in harm’s way again and again. The violence must end, but will the cost of peace be more devastating than anyone ever imagined?

After ten years of turmoil, the life McKenzie has always longed for may finally be within her grasp. No one is swinging a sword at her head or asking her to track the fae, and she finally has a regular—albeit boring—job. But when a ruthless enemy strikes against her friends, McKenzie abandons her attempt at normalcy and rushes back to the Realm.

With the fae she loves and the fae she’s tied to pulling her in different directions, McKenzie must uncover the truth behind the war and accept the painful sacrifices that must be made to end it. Armed with dangerous secrets and with powerful allies at her side, her actions will either rip the Realm apart—or save it.

Source: Netgalley ( Thanks Penguin!)

Links: Goodreads , Review of Book 1 , Review of Book 2 , Amazon

My Thoughts:

I've been dying to read this book. The last book in the series had ended in such a HORRIBLE cliffhanger (in my opinion) that as soon as I saw this book on Netgalley, I had a mini heart attack.

Me when I saw this book on Netgalley

I've been waiting a year for this book . Actually more than a year it's almost 2014 after all . When my request was accepted, I was so happy! 

Now let's talk about the book. Now I was very worried that the whole book would focus just around the love triangle and the triangle is a focus of the book but that doesn't mean that the whole situation in the realm is forgotten. McKenzie comes back to the realm not to counter and face the love situation she does it for other reasons. 

The situation in the realm is not under control and problems keep coming up from left right and center.I loved seeing more of Lena and getting to know her better. The whole world building is amazing as always and some secondary characters are dismissed and some brought to the foreground wonderfully.

Something I really enjoyed in this book is that McKenzie becomes kind of a badass. I mean she's always been strong emotionally and very put together but she was never a fighter. In this book she actually uses the sword that you see in the cover (unlike the rest) .McKenzie stabs people . She doesn't magically transform into Black widow (Avengers) but she gets a little bit of the attitude. 

Aren and Kyol are still integral to the book. None of them are sidelined. There are many more sexy scenes in this book (read sexy as kissing and tension and all that) . I still think this series has less explicit adult content than any new adult book you'll find in the market. 

I didn't think the author would manage to surprise me in this book but she did. There were so many things that happened that I did not see coming .The curve-balls  made me realize how deeply  invested I was  in the book and it's  characters.

I wasn't sure that Sandy Williams would be able to wrap up this series in this book after the issues that came up in the last book but she manages to do so wonderfully. We come to see that the main problem is not the bond between Mckenzie and Kyol but something else. This is a more than satisfactory conclusion to the series. 

Overall, I would suggest this series to people. The Shadow Reader( book #1) is the best book in the series but The Sharpest Blade (Book #3) comes a close to recreating the magic of book 1. If it was the first book in the series I would have easily given it a 5. I cannot wait to read more from Sandy Williams.

My Rating:

4/5

Blog Tour: Being Kali (PROMO post) + GIVEAWAY

At nineteen, Kalli Perkins has never been in love and doesn't ever intend to be. She has her issues handled. She's managed to keep the secret of what happened to her nine years ago from her mother, although her mother's usually high anyway and barely notices Kalli or her little brothers.

One night at a party, Kalli makes a bet with her friend, Nate, that could change everything. But she didn't count on him. Nate's very capable of satisfying her, not only under her clothes, but in her heart, too.

She just doesn't know it yet.

*** Recommended for mature readers due to explicit content. This book is published in Australian English and includes relative diction. ***

ADD TO GOODREADS

Rebecca Berto writes stories about love and relationships. She gets a thrill when her readers are emotional reading her books, and gets even more of a kick when they tell her so. She's strangely imaginative, spends too much time on her computer, and is certifiably crazy when she works on her fiction.

Rebecca Berto lives in Melbourne, Australia with her boyfriend and their doggy.

FACEBOOK

WEBSITE

TWITTER

GOODREADS

AMAZON US

AMAZON UK

ENTWINE

AMAZON US / AMAZON UK

PULLING ME UNDER

AMAZON US / AMAZON UK

DROWNING IN YOU

AMAZON US / AMAZON UK

PRECISE

AMAZON US / AMAZON UK

a Rafflecopter giveaway

India ONLY giveaway

Hey Guys! 

So I wanted to giveaway something for Christmas/New Year on the blog so I bought some books. Original idea was to make it INTERNATIONAL but I've not got that much money. 

Also, There is a fun event planned for January/February 2014 and the giveaways for that ARE AMAZING . 

Most of them so far are US/Canada (They're so awesome that I'm SUPER jealous of you guys) so I thought I would spread some love domestically.

Also I finally made my Facebook page so I wanted to giveaway something to celebrate that as well.

BASICALLY I wanted to giveaway stuff .

Cause I'm awesome

GIVEAWAY

There will be TWO winners.

First winner gets two books

Second winner gets one book.

INDIA ONLY

Choices

1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
2. Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
3. Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires #1) by Rachel Caine

These are all books that are not easily available and are not that well known but I can personally vouch that Cinder and Glass Houses are great books. Unfortunately haven't read Strange Angels but it looks interesting.

Glass Houses is an interesting spin on vampires (according to me ) I had read it at a time when vampires were considered cute and hot and frankly I was a little fed up of the vampire hype. This book was different because vampires were horrible and the main characters were human and I liked that.

Cinder is basically a slightly badass version of Cinderella. Imagine Cinderella to be a cyborg and having a better backstory than the fairy tale version. 

Here's a blurb of Strange Angels (Can't comment because I haven't read it )

In Strange Angels, Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called “the touch.” (Comes in handy when you’re traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.)

Then her dad turns up dead—but still walking—and Dru knows she’s next. Even worse, she’s got two guys hungry for her affections, and they’re not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone. Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever—or whoever— is hunting her?

Oooh almost forgot .... First winner gets first pick!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

JRreadathon is BACK! Link Up post and Introduction

Hey Guys!

So a lot of us suddenly have some free time now and we decided to do a readathon again. 

For those of us who are new to JRreadathon we had one June 10th to June 17th . 

You can check out the link up post for that readathon here .

JRreadathon is short for Just Read Readathon! 

If you're behind on your reading this is an excellent opportunity to catch up before the year ends and the holidays begin. 

• Aim

Just Read whatever you want and as much as you want! 

• Duration

It starts on 10th December (today!)  and I'll update this post with details about when it ends (tentatively 20th Dec) . You can join in whenever you want!

• What to do to join in?

Just read!

We all would love it if you would link up to your blog/goodreads/twitter/Facebook/any other place in the linky below so that we know you're participating but it's not mandatory.

We'd love to say Hi to fellow bibliophiles !

You can use the hashtag #JRreadathon on twitter while tweeting as we'll be checking the hashtag.

If you blog, we'd love it if you did an introductory post with your goals and aims for the readathon on 10th or 11th  and then a post at the end of the readathon with how much you managed to read!

• Hosts 

Krazzyme@Young Reader    , Twitter : @kadburytweets

Sarika @ The Readaddicts  , Twitter @SarikaP8

Janhvi @ The Readaddicts , Twitter @justjanhvi

Ankita @ Booklok Coffee  , Twitter @ankita0112

You can tweet to any or all of us with your progress.

All are welcome to join in!

Excerpt+GIVEAWAY: Hunt For The Horseman

Hunt For The Horseman

by Gita V. Reddy 

No dead parents; no ghosts, vampires, witches; no violence and bloodshed.

What then?

HUNT FOR THE HORSEMAN has a young girl, Sandy, visiting her extended family, in her ancestral palace, in India. She meets scads of cousins, scores of uncles and aunts, and had great fun in the palace because it has amazing hidey holes built into it by a queen who had a great sense of fun. 

Sandy joins in the century old game of trying to find the horseman (a toy) hidden in one of the many secret compartments.

Where is the story? Where are the bad guys?

Believe me, they are very much there. Dangerous mafia men are out to grab the palace. Only a miracle can save the palace. And a miracle takes place....

ADD TO GOODREADS

EXCERPT #1:
The first room they entered had a lot of paneling. Avi stood on his toes and tapped a panel that was very high up. The cane was heavy and he was not holding it tightly. It swung to one side, hit a carved figure on the head, slipped from Avi’s hand, fell on a stone table and rolled on to a brass footstool. A compartment opened in the wall below a window!

“What did I do?” Avi asked, his mouth open in amazement.

They spent an hour trying to find what had opened the compartment. Though they tried the panel, the picture, the table and the foot stool again and again, they could not shut the compartment. “Maybe I broke it but it was a mistake,” Avi said but he didn’t sound sorry. He picked up the heavy cane to continue the search. Meghana was careful to stay as far away from him as possible because she did not want the stick to land on her head by another ‘mistake’. By the end of the day, they found another new hiding place and also finished checking out the ones listed.

EXCERPT #2:
Sudesh landed with a splash and went down into the black waters like a stone. He was filled with blind panic. He couldn’t breathe, his lungs were bursting with the need to breathe. He felt his heart hammering. He was going to die!

He needed to come to the surface. As he struggled, the panic receded. “I have to survive,” Sudesh told himself and begun using his swimming lessons. He made strokes to push down the water and came up to the surface and stayed there, treading water. He filled his lungs with air and turned on his back, all the time staying afloat.

The walls of the well rose high around him. It was scary. He again experienced panic. What would happen if the rest of the wall crumbled in? He would be buried in the well. He had to think of escape. He had to find a way to climb out. Until then he would have to stay afloat.

Sudesh saw footholds in the sides of the well but he would not be able to climb out using them; they were too far apart.

Liking what you've read so far?

ENTER TO WIN

One of FIVE kindle ecopies of this book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Young Readers is FINALLY on facebook!

So I finally bit the bullet and decided to make a Facebook page for this blog.

Go like it and you'll get updates on Facebook as well . 

Review + GIVEAWAY : Pawn by Aimee Carter

Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion #1)

by Aimee Carter

YOU CAN BE A VII. IF YOU GIVE UP EVERYTHING. 

For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country. 

If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked—surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family, she will be famous. She will be adored. And for the first time, she will matter. 

There's only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered, the same one that got her killed …and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that's not her own, she must decide which path to choose—and learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she's only beginning to understand.

Links: Goodreads ,Amazon

Source: Netgalley (Thanks Harlequin! )

My Thoughts:

I was very wary of this book . Aimee Carter is an author I wasn't sure of because I didn't like her book The Goddess Test . The blurb of this book was so interesting that I couldn't resist but I didn't expect much. I was nicely surprised!

Pawn is an interesting novel with lots of unpredictable twists and turns. It had me exclaiming in shock in a lot of chapters and some plot twists came out of nowhere! This book has given me faith in this author. The world that Carter introduces to us is one of the best things of this novel apart from the unpredictable plot twists. There are similarities to other dystopian novels but I think by now it has become almost impossible to come up with a dystopian concept that hasn't already been used in other novels.I enjoyed the world building and became thoroughly engrossed in the story of this novel.

I think the weakest link of this novel is the love triangle .I just didn't feel it. The book would have been fine without all the love triangle angst . I want to see more rebellion and less angst over the guys in the sequel.I think I would have liked Kitty much more there hadn't been a love triangle.She's tough, she's got guts but get a guy in front of her and she looses some brain cells (I'm exaggerating , I just wanted her to REBEL throughout the book ) 

Overall, I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel and am now not an Aimee Carter hater. 

My Rating:

3.5/5

GIVEAWAY

MiraInk was kind enough to offer a copy of Pawn for giveaway. 

I personally love the UK cover more than the US one. What about you?

INTERNATIONAL. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway