Sue's Review of More by TM Franklin

I heard of this one because I know the author from her fanfic works. I am a fan of her writing, so getting a chance to read an original work of hers was exciting! I've read just about everything she has put out in fandom; the stories are always unique and well told, and that is what we  get in her debut novel, More.


Ava Micheals used to think she was special. As a child, she fantasized about having magical powers.... making things happen. She felt different from others her age, and just knew she was meant for something important. But like most kids Ava grew up and eventually accepted the fact that her childish dreams were just that and maybe normal life wasnt so bad after all

Now a young college student Ava begins to wonder if there is more to her childhood fantasies than she thought she's haunted by terrifying nightmares of a frightening man chasing her determined to catch her, to take her - a huge hulk of a man with one blue eye and one green. Even during daylight hours, there are moments her hair stands on end with an uneasy prickle of awareness.... and she just cant shake the feeling that she's being watched.

Unable to decide if she is imagining things or just plain crazy, Ava finds an unlikely ally in Caleb Foster A brilliant and mysterious man who comes to her rescue as a physics tutor, but in reality has another mission in mind. What he shows Ava challenges her view of the world shaking it to its very core.

The thing is Caleb is not quite what he seems. In fact he is not entirely human and he's not the only one.

together the duo faces a threat from an ancient race bound to protect humans but only after protecting their own secrets -- secrets they fear Ava may expose. Now they're after her bent on her capture or maybe even her extinction.

Fighting to survive Ava has to lead her through the strange new world opening up before her. a world of magic and mystery where she learns she's not actually normal
she's not even just special
She's just a little bit More.

In this book, there are a few things that mildly irritated me, some cliches that stuck over from writing fanfic. However, since I have also seen these used in other romance writing, I'm gonna say they are more general Romance novel schtick than anything else.  Please note: this is a mood thing for me. Sometimes I find that kind of a stuff sweet and endearing other times I am irritated. I think I need to start tracking when I am reading; I bet there is a hormonal correlation to this reaction.

Here's the story: Ava, average student, average college girl (do not get bored--there are average people out there) is struggling with her physics grade. She needs to do well so that she can keep her scholarship and stay in school.

Enter her physics tutor, Caleb, a run-of-the-mill guy who just happens to be brilliant at physics.(LOVE LOVE LOVE that he is not some super Adonis type)

Add to this story her nightmares about a dude with one blue eye and one green eye, and the fact that she thinks she's seeing people that are able to disappear. To top all that off, she keeps remembering things that feel like nightmares.

Those glasses do not hide the cuteness they increase it

You know that Caleb is something other than what he appears and you want to know what the hell that is, and you want her to find out what the hell that is...and there you are.

Anxious for stuff to happen.

We, as readers, seem to notice something is going on before Ava does, which is kinda sad but good because, well, it makes us feel smart.

I liked the action in this book and I liked that it was more of an action/mystery/romance rather than a romance with some action and mystery thrown in.

There was no 'instant attraction', and considering all of the crap that was going on in Ava's life I'm glad for that. I'm pleased that she was not being all weak "female"; I thought she handed the circumstances in a very realistic way.

These are some pretty extreme fantastical circumstances: car chases and beings that are not quite human but kinda human. They could be considered Angels or Titans; it's possible to see how people from a less sophisticated society would see them  like that.

Some of my favorite parts:

Discussing the veil. It is this trick that 'the others' use in order to blend in better with society at large; if they are going to take part in being around humans these super beings have to be able to hide.

Ava can see through this veil. At times it makes her very confused, because she should not be able to do this. Imagine if you were looking at someone that you know and all of a sudden they start to look all airbrushed perfect and glowing! I would lean more toward the 'I am going insane' line of thinking than the 'wow, there's a race of super-humans living on earth and my friend is one of them!' line.


How can I tell that I really got into this book? Well, for one thing, I started highlighting the stuff I liked and the stuff that was bothering me. I noticed that at about chapter three I stopped highlighting and taking notes. To some this might be a sign that they just did not find anything or they got lazy; for me this means I was I was having so much fun reading that I forgot to stop to mark down stuff I wanted to remember.

And that is exactly what this book is: a fun read.
This is the "sit down on a cool fall day, cuddle under a blanket, and get lost in another world that might actually be our world" kinda book. That is, if you believe that there could be another race living along side us regular normal humans.(and if Autumn can turn that into a sentence it will be a miracle) [Ed note: It took a lot of rearranging, punctuating, and mind reading but I did it.~A]

I love the references to mythology. The whole thing made me think of Greek gods and Superman comic books.

I use the words Greek god just so I can use pics of him

I like that the ending is a good ending and could be open for a sequel or left to the imagination of the reader.
 

All in all, I recommend getting this one. It is a good first outing for this author. Thanks to TM Franklin and to TWCS for letting me read it. I give it a 3.5 stars round it up



Go buy it and set up an afternoon for some adventure!



 
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Sue's Review of More by TM Franklin

Sue's Review of Ghostwriter by Lissa Bryan

Ghostwriter

by

 Lissa Bryan

After being laid off from the newspaper where she worked as a journalist, and losing her boyfriend in rapid succession, Sara Howell is looking to downsize before her dwindling savings run out. Things are finally starting to look up when she lands a job ghostwriting the biography of a popular politician and rents an isolated island house which turns out to have once been the home of her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared in 1925.

But when strange things start happening, as objects break, or go missing, and terrifying visions appear, Sara begins to wonder if Seth ever left, or if she is losing her mind.

What happened to Seth is a secret closely guarded by the family to this day, a family that seems to exist under a terrible curse. Through an old trunk of letters she discovers in the attic, Sara unravels the mystery and becomes caught up in a tale of greed, lost love and the horrors of WWI.

When Sara realizes she is not going crazy and that Seth Fortner’s spirit still haunts her new home on the isolated island, she begins to draw him out of his shell bit by bit. She will discover what happened to the idealistic young writer who went to the battlefields of France to save lives, and to his beautiful bride to destroy the love between them, and what led Seth to make a terrible choice which would have consequences that would echo for generations.

They gradually fall in love in their world of dreams, dreams which swiftly become more attractive than reality, as Sara learns from a ghost how to truly live. Will she be the one to break the “Fortner Curse” by helping Seth conquer his demons, and heal both of their hearts in the process?

I give it 4 stars

Have you ever read a book and liked a character so much you wish he was real so you could look him up and find out more about him?

That is how I felt about Seth, the character that Lissa has created for this novel.

I even googled his name to see if he was real,
and why? Because the fascination of his own fangirl, Sara, was enough to make me want to be a fan as well.

All of this was before I even got to know him as a character--I was driven by the main character's obsession with this author and the mystery surrounding him!

This is a love story, but it is also a mystery / supernatural book. I have enjoyed Lissa's writing in the past, and this is no different. She is very descriptive and puts you right in the center of the world she creates.  I love how she take this isolated woman, who seems to be everyones doormat, and puts her on an island alone. This is where she is going to write the political autobiography she was hired to write. It's not something she wants to write, but she needs the paycheck.

Lissas choice as Seth--he is stunning

The time alone on this island gives her a chance to grow a backbone before she finds romance, before she falls in love with Seth (or rather, more in love with Seth).

The question eventually becomes, "What is real?" This girl is experiencing head aches, and she dreams of Seth. Is it her imagination? Is she actually talking with a man who has been dead for many years?

I enjoyed Lissa's writing style in fanfiction. I think that was a good way for her practice her story telling. She has a neat way of crafting a complicated story that is easy to read, and her images really stick with you.

In this book, I see Seth: I see his letters, I see him sitting on a sand dune waiting to talk to her, and then I wonder, is he real or is he part of her imagination?

That is what I love most about Lissa's work; there are images that stick with you. I had this happen with her fanfics as well, but to see her write an original story and find that her gift of crafting interesting characters has carried over is a gift.

Things I really liked about this book: yes, Seth is great and everything, but I really liked Sara. I like how she grew as a person. I like how she changed and got stronger emotionally. I like how I questioned her sanity. In many ways, parts of this book reminded me of the movie Somewhere in Time, where the main character goes into a dream to be with the person he loves

That sort of happens here. Seth is the ghost of an author that Sara admires. She can see and talk to him in her dreams, and he can appear to her in this plane (but it wears him out).

I REALLY love the letters that Seth wrote to his wife while he was serving in WW1. Sara finds them and reads them, and that hooked me--there is nothing greater to me than a well-crafted letter (this site has tons of them they are fantastic to read).

Ghostwriter officially released today, 10/11/12, so go on out and give it a read and then come back and let me know what you think of Seth and Sara! 



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Sue's Review of Ghostwriter by Lissa Bryan

Sue's Review of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox

About Last Night

by

Ruthie Knox 

Cath Talarico knows a mistake when she makes it, and God knows she’s made her share. So many, in fact, that this Chicago girl knows London is her last, best shot at starting over. But bad habits are hard to break, and soon Cath finds herself back where she has vowed never to go . . . in the bed of a man who is all kinds of wrong: too rich, too classy, too uptight for a free-spirited troublemaker like her.

Nev Chamberlain feels trapped and miserable in his family’s banking empire. But beneath his pinstripes is an artist and bohemian struggling to break free and lose control. Mary Catherine—even her name turns him on—with her tattoos, her secrets, and her gamine, sex-starved body, unleashes all kinds of fantasies.

When blue blood mixes with bad blood, can a couple that is definitely wrong for each other ever be perfectly right? And with a little luck and a lot of love, can they make last night last a lifetime?

She is a good girl, formerly a bad girl. How does she do it?

By doing the opposite of whatever her instincts tell her.

I love finding stuff by people I probably never would have looked at without a little push. Twitter, for me, is how I find authors and books that I want to read and that is how I found out about this one.

Ruthie Knox writes us a fabulous story about a woman, living in London, who has been through a lot in her young life and sees everything she's done so far as mistakes. Her way of ensuring that she does not fall into the trap of her former lifestyle is to chose not to do anything:

NO dates.

NO going out.

NO fun.

Just work and exist.

She is a charming female character that is not whiny and is spunky and just fun !

Enter the main male (whose name I will not reveal because it might spoil the fun of the start of the book). He is perfect! Sweet, charming, hot, sexy, flattering--it gets to the point where after a while you wonder if this guy has any flaws...then you get to meet his mother.

What I like about this book: oh, there are so many many things!

Great characters, an interesting story line, sex that makes you wanna beg her for more--
just an overall good, sweet romance that makes you sigh with happiness throughout.

So who would love this book?

IF you like a good sweet romance without a ton of angst.
IF you like a good guy who is hot and sweet (sorry, Sarah, this one is too nice for your tastes).
IF you like a spunky female character who has some growing to do.
IF you are looking for a hot read.  

This one's for you!


This is one of those books that lives up to its reviews. Everyone I know that has read it says, "OOOHH, I loved that one! It's really good !"

Then they say go read her other book, Ride with Me (and that is another review for another day *fans self*).

Sue's Review of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox

His Very Own Girl by Carrie Lofty

His Very Own Girl

by

Carrie Lofty

As always, we can thank twitter for this one. I was kinda cruising around, stalking peoples conversations because I am creepy like that, and I saw mention of this new book coming out. I had to have it!

Female pilot

WW2

Romance

set in Britain

Has nothing to do with this book I just like the pic

An American medic who is very handsome

Did I mention a female pilot in WW2?

With all of the talk lately about women's rights and things, I want to talk briefly (meaning ramble on for a while) about why I find WW2 so incredible.

Many people talk about the battles that men went through but what always fascinated me is what the women did and how they dealt with it. All over the world women took on the jobs that the fighting men of their generation normally would have done, instead of just being nurses and teachers. Women went to work in the factories; they became the police force; they became the work force of the world, not just building the war machines but also running the domestic world while the men went off to battle. Women ran the homes and they made paychecks.

Lets, talk about the real start of a revolution:
these women got a taste of things that their mothers never had AND they were vital to the war effort. They were an essential part of the allied victory.

Now what I like about this story:
First, the characters grow. These two are both strong-headed, independent people with very set ideas about how they want their lives to be after the war. Both have lived life, they have pasts; they are adults and it shows.

Next, the insecurities they have are realistic and fitting with who they are and where they are in their lives and the circumstances of war.

Finally, this book made me laugh and it made me cry. I really enjoyed it.

The thing I did not like:
My family demanding to be fed and paid attention to and such. I had to stop reading to go do things for them. Silly, demanding children.

I loved the tension between Joe and Lulu and the way their relationship built up naturally, not to mention the love letters between them. It has been said before: a good historical romance requires a LOT of research and this one is fabulously done. 

OK my favorite quotes (those little things that I had to highlight while reading; these made me smile for whatever reasons):

"Jesus, his imagination had no manners."

"The faint aftertaste of mint flavored tooth powder lingered in her mouth. Joe wanted to gobble her up like a peppermint stick."

"We all have work to do."

"Fly safe, Louise."

Now, why do I like that last quote? This bit killed me every time it was brought up in the book because of the life-and-limb situation she and her girlfriends were in. They did not say goodbye using nicknames; instead, they made it a more formal occasion and used their full names.
I love how Joe describes her as having a "quiet kind of vengeance". 

There are more, but if I put them up here I will end up spoiling too much of the story, and then you'll say, "I don't have to read it because SUE told me the whole thing already!"

I'm giving this one 4 stars. I really enjoyed this book--it was a damn good read and made me tear up in places. I loved the steamy romance and only rolled my eyes at a couple of things that pulled me from the story.

This review comes to you special this week because

Friday and Saturday we are doing a read a long AND a give away!
If you have not already entered via Facebook, Twitter, or here on the read-a-long tab, you can enter below by leaving a comment.

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN WIN:

E-copies of all 3 of Carrie's books!

So you can have a copy of His Very Own Girl to give away to a friend!

We will have one winner each night and winners will be announced here on the blog, on Twitter, and on our Facebook page.

GOOD LUCK, AND HAPPY READING!

His Very Own Girl by Carrie Lofty