Book Giveaway WINNERS

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

Stella from Ex Libris  - won Jane by April Lidner

Dalma from Sweapstake lover - Book Chick - won Emily the Strange

Email will be sent to you, you have72 hours to respond from the time you recieved an email.  If you do not respond another winner will be chosen.

Thank you everyone for entering!

Marry Christmas Everyone

Wanted to wish Marry Christmas to everyone. 

Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice/Wardstone Chronicles #1) by Joseph Delaney

Description:

Young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, starts work as an apprentice for the village spook, whose job is to protect ordinary folk from "ghouls, boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties." (from Goodreads).

My Thoughts:

When I started reading this book I was not really sure about it. But from the first page I was drawn in and had hard time putting it down. I think it only took me a day to read this book.

This was a very original story line and very engaging. There were no parts were the story dragged, it was fast paced, action filled and mysterious. Story takes place in England and author uses a lot of folklore creatures and legends; witches, boggarts , ghosts, ghasts and others. Characters are well developed and very likable. I really liked Tom, he struggles with the idea that he will be next Spook, and at first he is not even sure if he wants to be one. Spook was an interesting character and I wish that we get to learn more about him in this book. But I get it; author does want to keep some things for the next books in the series. Tom’s mother was another fascinating character, and I am sure that we will see more interaction between her and Tom in other books. I kind of find it funny that Tom has not clued in about his mother. Even with all the information that the Spook presents him with. Alice was I think one of my favourite characters, she was such intriguing characters. I like the fact that she was not bad or good, but rather an individual with many shades of gray.

Overall this was a very enjoyable read; well written, rounded and engaging characters. Book was intended for middle grade kids, but I think quite few adults would enjoy it. I give this book 5 out of 5.

Dead Beatiful by Yvonne Woon

Description:

On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder.

After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.”

It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems.

Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life.

My Thoughts:

I found this book in my local book store; I was drawn in by the cover; which I do like very much. The story sounded very intriguing and I ended up buying it. I found out few days later that I actually did mark this to be read on my Goodreads account.

I am having a hard time writing this review, something about this book was off for me. I read it in few days and when I was done I was still undecided if I liked it or not. I was very much indifferent as to what happened to the character. I did not exhibit much of emotional reaction like I usually do when I am reading a book. I am usually loving the book, or hating it, or annoyed with it, or angry, or combination of different emotions; however with this book there was nothing. I found this strange, because I cannot really say that this book was terrible, because it was not. I think it was more so me than the book. It just did not click for me. I had no connection with the characters; I think that the only thing that kept my interest was the actual story line and not the characters itself. I really did enjoy the story line, it was very good and mysterious, and with few interesting twists.

Renee’s character I found to be very much one dimensional, she had no spunk; I found her to be boring and very slow sometime. I had no emotional connection to her, I really did not care what happened to her, and usually that is strange because as a reader I always get very much so involved into the main characters life. Her reaction to the loss of her parents was fake and forced and not very convincing. The author does not really convey what she is feeling when she loses her parents, but rather she tells you. Those are two different things. This was not the case just with the death of the parent, but also with Renee’s relationship with Dante and other characters.

Overall, I am on fence with this book, it is neither here nor there. So I give this book 3 out of 5.

Giving thanks....Contest!

Head over to  Ramblings of a Teenage Bookwarm, she is having this awesome book giveaway.

You get a chance to win 3 YA (2011) books, winner gets to pick three titles out of bunch pf different titles. 

Contest is open Internationally and it runs till January 1, 2011.

Please click on the link below to see more details:

http://fayeflamereviews.blogspot.com/2010/11/giving-thankscontest.html

Teaser Tuesday (1)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

I cam across this meme which sounds so intriguing.  You take your current read, randomly open it and share a sentence or two.  Make sure that the sentence is not a spoiler, you do not want to ruin other readers experience. 

This is my first Teaser Tuesday post, I hope you like it.

"I peered into the well.  The hole was dark and narrow, just large enough for a body to fit through.  A warm draft emanated from somewhere inside its recesses.  I couldn't see to the bottom.  "Is there still water in it?""

This Teaser comes from Deadly Beautiful by Yvonne Woon
Page 240

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Description:

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

My Thoughts:

I have seen the reviews of this book on several blogs and quite few people liked it. I do not blame them, book was very good. After reading these reviews I completely forgot about this book. I was at my local book store several days ago, when by accident I came across this book. It was just laying there on the chair and there was no one around, so I picked it up. I actually read few chanters in the story, because they have these great comfortable chairs. I bought the book, even though I should not have, since I have like at least fifty books on my TBR pile. Oh well…

This book was awesome, it touched on lot of issues that young teenage girl goes through.  Love, self-esteem, family problems, friend drama, sex, denial and few other issues. What I really likes about this book is that it did not shy away from these issues, especially sex. This book recognises fact that teenagers are having sex whether adult approve of it or not. Author explains why Bianca is having sex, it was not because she wanted a boy to like her. Which I was glad to see; lot of other books you see teenage girls having sex because the boy wants to have sex and not because she wants to. It was rather opposite, Bianca was sexually active because she wanted to be, because it felt good and because it gave her an escape from all other issues she was dealing with at the time, even though it was temporary.

Another issue this book touches on is self-esteem, and this is very big issue for teenagers, actually for adults to. We all feel like DUFF sometimes; sometimes you walk down the street and see a girl and you think to yourself, wow she is so pretty. I wish I was that pretty. However what you do not realise that someone out there is looking at you and thinking the same thing.

Character and story developments was good and all had direction and purpose. Wesley is an interesting character, when Bianca first describes him, you want to dislike him, but the more you get to know about him the more you like him. I like the fact that the relationship between the two of them started out as means of them trying to use each other, to make them feel better. But in the end it turned out to be more.

One last thing that I really liked about this book was the cover. That cover is just awesome. Just looking at it, Bianca is giving off attitude, which she has of a lot. Great work with the cover.

One thing that I really disliked about this book was the swearing. I mean come on, Bianca could not say one whole sentence without at least one swear ward. It was over the top. I get it, most teenagers swear, most people do, but not that much. Swearing in some parts of the book did not even make sense, it was just annoying. However it was still a very good book.

I give this book 4 STARS out of 5 STARS.

Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Description:

Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

My Thoughts:

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for a while now. I actually bought it when it was realised but did not have a chance to read it till recently. Now that I have read it, I can not help but feel somewhat disappointed. I was expecting this book to be, creepy, weird, full of suspense and action. It was nothing what I expected.

First I will start with the things that I like about this book. I really liked the idea or Replacement, it is creepy and very intriguing. I really liked Mackie, actually he was the only character that I liked. But this is all I liked about this book. Everything else was a let down. Everything was so vague, the back story about how the Replacements came to be. I mean author does try to present you with some back story, but it was so very vague and not very well described.

The attempt at the romance between Mackie and Tate, was another letdown. I actually think that this book would be much better if the author did not attempt to write about the romantic relationship between the two. It was so poorly done and it did not add anything to the story.

Character development was very poorly done, all the character were under-developed and one dimensional. Another thing that I noticed, this book barely had any action or suspense. The idea of replacements sounds so creepy, but the author does not use this creepy aspect of the story to her advantage, she doe not even explore it. The only creepy part of the story was when they dug up a grave, but even that was just skimmed over.

Overall it was not very good book. It had a great promise and great idea. But I think that everything was rushed and not enough thought was put into the story and characters.

I give this book 2 STARS out of 5 STARS.

Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows (Harry Potter #7) by J. K. Rowling

Description:

Readers beware. The brilliant, breathtaking conclusion to J.K. Rowling's spellbinding series is not for the faint of heart--such revelations, battles, and betrayals await in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that no fan will make it to the end unscathed. Luckily, Rowling has prepped loyal readers for the end of her series by doling out increasingly dark and dangerous tales of magic and mystery, shot through with lessons about honor and contempt, love and loss, and right and wrong. Fear not, you will find no spoilers in our review--to tell the plot would ruin the journey, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is an odyssey the likes of which Rowling's fans have not yet seen, and are not likely to forget. But we would be remiss if we did not offer one small suggestion before you embark on your final adventure with Harry--bring plenty of tissues.

The heart of Book 7 is a hero's mission--not just in Harry's quest for the Horcruxes, but in his journey from boy to man--and Harry faces more danger than that found in all six books combined, from the direct threat of the Death Eaters and you-know-who, to the subtle perils of losing faith in himself. Attentive readers would do well to remember Dumbledore's warning about making the choice between "what is right and what is easy," and know that Rowling applies the same difficult principle to the conclusion of her series. While fans will find the answers to hotly speculated questions about Dumbledore, Snape, and you-know-who, it is a testament to Rowling's skill as a storyteller that even the most astute and careful reader will be taken by surprise (from Goodreads).

My Thoughts:

This is a second time that I am reading this book. I thought I should read it again since I will be going to see the movie. I am so excited about the movie, you have no idea. I love Harry Potter series, I am kind of sad to see it slowly coming to an end. Actually I might do Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows Part 1 movie review as well. But I have not decided on that yet.

Last book in the series were everything comes to an end, all the secrets are revealed. There are lot of deaths and there are few of my favourite characters that die. I really do not know where to start with this book review. I really loved the whole book; actually when the book was realised I read it one sitting. Reading it second time around I did take longer to read, but still it was no more than 24 hours.

I loved Harry, Hermione and Ron, they were awesome. Ron is my favourite, because he is so funny but unintentionally. I loved how the relationship between the three of them progresses throughout the book. How loyal and how much they care what happens to each of them. Of course there is some romance, which was fun and interesting to read about. Makes you wander with whom your favourite characters will end up. I was rooting for Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione.

I really enjoyed the twist on Dumbledore’s life after his death. It was not what I would have thought his life was like, it was a complete surprise. I am glad that the J. K. Rowling did not make him to be a saint after his dead, but rather a human being who has made some big mistakes.

I was so glad that Snape was redeemed in the end. Because at the end of the book 6 when he killed Dumbledore, there was some doubt in my mind as to on which side he was on. Snape is the character that throughout the whole series I both loved and despised; always drawn to him and wanting to find out more about his life. He is such a complex and multi-dimensional character, he is not an easy character to like.

I do have to say that the ending, the death of Voldemort was bit to easy. I was expecting a big fighting scene and in a way it was a let down. But it did not bother me for long, since everything else was awesome.

Overall, this book was excellent. I might be somewhat biased, because I love this series and I think that there is nothing bad about them. I would recommend this book, or the whole series, to everyone.

I give this book 5 STARS out of 5 STARS.