Review: White Horse by Alex Adams

Title: White Horse

Author: Alex Adams

Series: White Horse #1

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Publication date: April 2012

Format: ebook (NetGalley)

Genre: Horror - Post Apocalyptic

 

 

THE WORLD HAS ENDED, BUT HER JOURNEY HAS JUST BEGUN.

Thirty-year-old Zoe leads an ordinary life until the end of the world arrives. She is cleaning cages and floors at Pope Pharmaceuticals when the president of the United States announces that human beings are no longer a viable species. When Zoe realises that everyone she loves is disappearing, she starts running. Scared and alone in a shockingly changed world, she embarks on a remarkable journey of survival and redemption. Along the way, Zoe comes to see that humans are defined not by their genetic code, but rather by their actions and choices. White Horse offers hope for a broken world, where love can lead to the most unexpected places.

My thoughts:

My first thought about this read was that it really did pleasantly surprise me - in the spine tingly, horrifying way. It was definitely more towards the creepy side than I expected which made it that much better since I love a good scary read.

 

What I loved most about this book was how intense it was. I loved how I couldn't stop reading and I got little adrenaline rushes at moments where characters were trying to beat the odds. It was an incredibly suspenseful read which had me on the edge of my seat -  always a good thing.

 

The plot was great. It was realistic to an extent too which gave the story a little more depth. The settings of the book and the apocalypse was explained in detail which was great. There's so many zombie-like novels where the settings just start off with loads of zombies and there's no given reason for it - it just happened. This one gives a lot of backstory throughout the whole book which gave a lot of a sense of how desperate the world got at some points.

 

The chapters are split between what happens to the main character in the past (before the apocalypse) and what's happening in the present. It's what gives the plot some backstory which I already said is a good thing but sometimes it got a little frustrating. It made for a lot of suspense when a character is about to die or something just as extreme and then the chapter jumps right back into the past again. It was great in that sense, it made me want to read on to find out what happens as soon as possible. But sometimes, it confused me, especially at the beginning, Something would be mentioned in the present in a way that I thought I should have known about it already - I thought, at times, that I had missed out on something important. Said event would only be explained about three quarters of the way through the book which I didn't really like. 

 

The characters were great. The main character, Zoe, was really relatable. I thought she was written perfectly - she was flawed and she knew it, she was strong and yet had her vulnerable moments and she had these great loveable moments in the story that made me root for her the entire book. I thought the other characters in the book weren't so great though. They were introduced too late in my opinion. It takes a little bit of time to get to know a character, so when the others were introduced halfway through, I pretty much didn't really care what happened to them.

 

The writing was good. I didn't love it, it wasn't the most amazing book ever that blew my mind but it was a good read. I liked how the author made the book to be so intense and full of desperation but I was confused by the writing sometimes. I had those moments where I had to go back and read over a couple of paragraphs because something about them made me feel that it wasn't worded right. Other than that though, it was good.

 

Overall, I like this read and I want to find out what happens next. For those of you who are a fan of creepy novels or zombies, I recommend it. It has an edge to it that I really liked.

 

My rating: 7/10

 

Alex Adams:

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In My Mailbox #38

In My Mailbox is a weekly post hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren where bloggers can discuss the books we got in the mail this week.

 

This week I got:

 

 

 

 

The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...

Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper—and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath. Within days, she's shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite boarding school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath. 

Life at Nekyia has its plusses. Molly has her own personal ghoul, for one. Rick follows her there out of the blue, for another...except, there's something a little off about him. When students at the academy start to die and Rath disappears, Molly starts to wonder if anything is as it seems. Only one thing is certain—-Molly's got an undeadly knack for finding trouble....

Review: All the Broken Pieces

Title: All the Broken Pieces

Author: Cindi Madsen

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Publication date: December 11th 2012

Format: e-galley

Genre: YA - Contemporary 

 Goodreads

 

What if your life wasn’t your own?

Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.

Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?

My thoughts:

I started this read not really knowing what to expect and what I did find was that it was a little bit disappointing to be honest.

The characters always make or break any book for me. The characters of All the Broken Pieces were seriously lacking depth in my opinion. I couldn't connect with any of them so I didn't really care what happened to them or if they were going to get their happy ending. It also made everything that happened so anticlimactic. There were quite a few surprises here and there but I literally found myself not caring, just because the characters didn't mean anything to me. 

The plot was definitely intriguing. I did find myself seriously getting completely sucked under with the plot. I did guess what happened halfway through the book which was annoying but it was still a great plot twist. It was probably the only thing that kept me reading.

I was also really devastated about the ending. It was so dissatisfying that I thought I'd missed a couple of chapters out of the read. It seemed really abrupt to me and in some ways wrong. It might be just me, but what happens in this book is pretty creepy and I'm sure everybody would agree, but that wasn't my problem. It was the fact that everybody seemed to just forget about it and move on straight away in the story. I didn't like it. 

Cindi Madsen's writing was pretty exceptional. I thought she had a great urgency to her writing at moments where I was racing through the read. It built up quite a bit of suspense in my mind until the big reveal of the huge secret involved. The only problem was, I had already figured it out a long time before it all came unraveled. 

All in all, I was disappointed with this one but it did have its moments. I thought it was a gripping read but I couldn't get my head round the characters and the ending.

 

My rating: 5/10

 

Cindi Madsen:

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Review: V is for Virgin

Title: V is for Virgin

Author: Kelley Oram

Publisher: Bluefields

Publication date: December 11th 2012

Format: ebook 

Genre: YA - Contemporary 

 

 

When Val Jensen gets dumped for her decision to stay a virgin until marriage, the nasty breakup goes viral on YouTube, making her the latest internet sensation. 

After days of ridicule from her peers, Val starts a school-wide campaign to rally support for her cause. She meant to make a statement, but she never dreamed the entire nation would get caught up in the controversy. 

As if becoming nationally recognised as “Virgin Val” isn’t enough, Val’s already hectic life starts to spin wildly out of control when bad boy Kyle Hamilton, lead singer for the hit rock band Tralse, decides to take her abstinence as a personal challenge.

How can a girl stay true to herself when this year’s Sexiest Man Alive is doing everything in his power to win her over?

My thoughts:

I have to say, this was quite a pleasant read. I started off thinking it would just be an average one but it did surprise me in how much I was rooting for the characters. 

I thought that the characters were the best thing about this read. Val was a really great, strong-willed character who eventually learned to stand up for what she believed in, sometimes no matter what the cost. There was always some obstacle in her way (when isn't there?) and she managed to get over all of them in some way or another. I loved the fact that she always stuck to her cause and never wavered at the end of it.

Val tried to spread the word of her 'V is for Virgin' campaign and 'A is for Abstinence'. This book was about being pressured into having sex and being ashamed to call yourself a virgin - it was about choices and standing up for them no matter what anybody tries to make you believe. At the heart of it, I 100% agreed with everything this book was about. At times I found myself so worried that Val would go against her own promise - that would have made me so mad - but she didn't and I was glad. 

 

The supporting characters were great too. I loved Cara at the beginning but not so much towards the end. I found her to be really selfish and sort of full of herself. I think I was supposed to eventually feel that way considering how the story ends but I didn't like her all the same. I loved Kyle all the way through though. He tested Val in all the right ways and how he ended the story was amazingly sweet.

 

My big problem with this read has to be the ending. Throughout the read everything was moving relatively slowly and I was fine with it. Towards the ending though and the epilogue, it felt like someone was pushing the fast forward button and keeping it there. It wasn't just that a few years had passed, but that loads of things happen in a few pages which wasn't the case in the rest of the book. It felt so rushed to me to the point of not liking it at all. 

 

Overall this was an enjoyable read with great, charming characters. I do recommend it as a quick read for people who are fans of this genre. 

 

My rating: 7/10

 

 

Kelley Oram:

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Book Tour & Giveaway: The Scourge

 

 Title: The Scourge

Author: A.G Henley

Goodreads | Amazon

Kismet Book Touring

Seventeen-year-old Groundling, Fennel, is Sightless. She’s never been able to see her lush forest home, but she knows its secrets. She knows how the shadows shift when she passes under a canopy of trees. She knows how to hide in the cool, damp caves when the Scourge comes. She knows how devious and arrogant the Groundlings’ tree-dwelling neighbors, the Lofties, can be.

And she’s always known this day would come—the day she faces the Scourge alone.

The Sightless, like Fenn, are mysteriously protected from the Scourge, the gruesome creatures roaming the forests, reeking of festering flesh and consuming anything—and anyone—living. A Sightless Groundling must brave the Scourge and bring fresh water to the people of the forest. Today, that task becomes Fenn’s.

Fenn will have a Lofty Keeper, Peree, as her companion. Everyone knows the Lofties wouldn’t hesitate to shoot an arrow through the back of an unsuspecting Groundling like Fenn, but Peree seems different. A boy with warm, rough hands who smells like summer, he is surprisingly kind and thoughtful. Although Fenn knows his people are treacherous, she finds herself wanting to trust him.

As their forest community teeters on the brink of war, Fenn and Peree must learn to work together to survive the Scourge and ensure their people’s survival. But when Fenn uncovers a secret that shatters her truths, she’s forced to decide who and what to protect—her people, her growing love for Peree, or the elusive dream of lasting peace in the forest.

 

My thoughts:

I can honestly say that this read pleasantly surprised me. I found it to be a really nice, sweet read that was mostly character based but for some action with plenty of zombies.

What I loved most by far, was the characters. They were incredibly loveable and relatable. I fell in love with Fennel the moment I started reading. I also fell in love with Peree from the second he became involved in Fenn's story. The characters are incredibly transparent in a really refreshing way. The moment a thought came to any of them they just came out with it - it did make the read slightly predictable but it wasn't in a discouraging way. 

 

I thought it took a little while to get going in terms of the plot but once it did I found it hard to stop reading. The plot wasn't altogether amazing but since I loved the characters I found myself rooting for them the entire way regardless of what they were doing.

 

The ending for me was quite a bit rushed. It felt really out of place in some parts - it could have done with a lot more detail in the last chapter or so.

 

To be honest, I actually don't have anything more to say. This book isn't brilliantly written and it could do with a lot of work in terms of predictability and the ending, but the characters  were so wonderful to read about - really well-rounded and full of depth.

 

I think anybody who is a fan of dystopian reads should give this one a go - it gave me a nice surprise since I couldn't stop reading.

 

My rating: 7/10 

 

About the author:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

 

 

A.G. Henley is the author of the young adult novel, THE SCOURGE. She is also a clinical psychologist, which means people either tell her their life stories on airplanes, or avoid her at parties when they’ve had too much to drink. Neither of which she minds. When she’s not writing fiction or shrinking heads, she can be found herding her children and their scruffy dog, Guapo, to various activities while trying to remember whatever she’s inevitably forgotten to tell her husband. She lives in Denver, Colorado. Learn more at www.aghenley.com

 

  

So on to the giveaway!

 

30 daily winners can win an eCopy of The Scourge! You can enter with the Rafflecopter widget below:

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

 

Book Lover's Giveaway Hop

 

Yep, it's that time of year again. I'm glad to say I'm taking part in this giveaway hop for the second time.

This giveaway hop is hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Chapter by Chapter.

 

As I did before, I'm offering up one book of choice worth up to £10 from the Book Depository.

This contest is open to anybody the book depository ships to - you can find the list of countries here. You can enter with the Rafflecopter widget below.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Review: Crescendo

Title: Crescendo

Author: Becca Fitzpatrick

Series: Hush Hush #2

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication date: October 2010

Format: Hardcover - 432 pages

Genre: YA - Paranormal

 

 

Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it: a mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous angel. But, despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever and, even worse, he's started spending time with Nora's arch-enemy, Marcie Millar.

Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Patch hadn't been acting so distant. Even wth Scott's totally infuriating attitude Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feeling that he's hiding something.

Haunted by images of her murdered father, and questioning whether her Nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations as she searches for answers. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts.

My thoughts:

This is another book that I'm kicking myself for not reading sooner. I read the first in the series, Hush Hush, when it came out but I left this one till ages after. I just recently bought the last book, Finale, so I wanted to get caught up since I loved Hush Hush so much. 

As always, there was a little bit of apprehension starting the second book of a series. Especially one where I loved the first book. I was a little anxious as to whether I would like all the old characters in the same way as I did before and if I would like the new characters at all. Safe to say I loved all the characters just the same so this book in no way disappointed me.

I think the only problem I had with this book (get it over and done with first) was that there were moments where I thought nothing was happening and my attention started to slip a little. It was moments where characters were supposed to be figuring each other out and moving the plot forward. I suppose I just felt it didn't move fast enough at times - but that could also be me just wanting to find out what happens as soon as possible.

Something I enjoyed more than I did in Hush, Hush was the writing. I think Fitzpatrick did a fabulous job in this one purely because of how the plot turned out without me guessing any of it. Where she wanted Patch to be suspected, i suspected him.  It was such a relief to get towards the end and have no idea what was going to happen.

Speaking of which, the ending was something else entirely. I'm so glad I have the next book waiting in my cupboard because that was a real shocker and completely unexpected.

My rating: 8/10

Becca Fitzpatrick:

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