Her Dark Angel by Felicity Heaton

Title:  Her Dark Angel

Author: Felicity Heaton

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Publisher:  Alinar Publishing
Publication Date:  28th August 2010

Stand alone or series:

Pages:  124 pages

Book Received from:  Author

First Lines:  The images in the bright pool flickered past Appollyon's eyes at lightning speed but he could see them all, could bring each into focuse and pause there a moment to understand what was happening in the scene. 

*NOTE* Definitely an Adult book. Be wary of My Thoughts  :)

Synopsis
An angel without a mission, Apollyon lives trapped in Hell guarding the bottomless pit. Surrounded by endless darkness, he longs to fly free on Earth once more but his master hasn’t called him in centuries. When the call finally comes, it’s to serve a new master, a beautiful woman he has often watched over, a woman who has always captivated him.
Serenity is shocked when a gorgeous black-winged angel shows up in her city of Paris claiming that she called him when she was only casting a simple vengeance spell. He’s no other than the angel of death! When Apollyon offers to obey her and help her have revenge on her cheating ex-boyfriend, she can’t resist the temptation, but can she resist him? Can an angel as dark as Apollyon ever fall for a mortal woman like her?
Their charade as lovers quickly becomes reality when one dance leads to another and Apollyon proves that he’s as sinful as he looks. His sensual and hungry touch brings Serenity back to life, freeing her from the hurt of being betrayed and reigniting her passion, but she can’t ignore her growing fear. Lost in their moment together, Apollyon realises that there is a reason he heard her call—he’s in love with her.
But will Serenity see past the wings and believe that Apollyon returns her feelings and won’t hurt her? When her ex-boyfriend asks her to forgive him and be with him again, will she take the easy route or will she find the courage to fly away with her dark angel?
Dark, passionate and erotic, Her Dark Angel is a tale of intense desire and deepest forbidden love guaranteed to get your heart racing.

My Thoughts
What can I say?  That cover is Hot! I've read one other book from Felicity so far and I really enjoyed it so I was really looking forward to getting a hold of this.

Her Dark Angel had me captivated from the very beginning.  It starts off in Apollyon's POV and from there I'm sucked into the story.  Serenity is my definite favourite.  She has her little quirks and I love what she can do.  It really puts an interesting spin on the things.

I can't pinpoint what it is about Serenity, but I could definitely relate to her on some level.  She's been burned and bent on revenge but she is not sure that what Apollyon has in mind is the right type of 'revenge' for her.

This one is a great hot and steamy read.  The first part of the book had me going WOW even before there was any action.  The story was well written and had my attention the whole way through.   

I recommend this to those who are looking for a quick hot paranormal read.  It's a good balance without the er.. hotness overiding the main story line which I've found that some paranormals tend to do :)  I definitely enjoyed it.

Across The Universe by Beth Revis

Title:  Across The Universe

Author:  Beth Revis

Genre:  Young Adult

Publisher:  Penguin (Imprint: Razor Bill)

Publication Date:  4th January 2011

ISBN:  97801414333663

Stand alone or series:  Series

Pages:  408

Book Received from:  Penguin Austraia

First Lines:  Daddy said, "Let Mom go first."

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

My Thoughts

I really went in blind with this one, not sure what to expect.  It had a short blurb on the back and admittedly all I read was "Titanic meets Avatar ...."  and I stopped reading since I was pretty much sold by the idea lol.

When I opened the cover I'd read the very first page, which was the synopsis and I couldn't believe I hadn't pushed this one to the top of the review list sooner.

 

Across the Universe is told in first person by both Amy and Elder.  Right from the first chapter I warmed up to Amy and the hard choice she has to make right from the very beginning.  I was very surprised when I got to the next chapter and it was told from Elder.  Two very different characters destined to meet eachother.

 

The first chapter was gripping and left me wanting more.  The story is like this all the way through up until the last page.  I was completely sucked in.  The worldbuilding in this is awesome as well.  I could almost imagine standing in the Godspeed and seeing what the characters show you.

 

All in all, for a sci fi young adult book this is absolutely amazing.  The characters are unique, the story is intense and that sneaky little twist adds up to an unforgettable read.

 

I look forward to reading the next part of this story.  All I have to do is wait :)

Waiting on Wednesday (39)

Waiting on Wednesday was brought to you by Jill over at Breaking The Spine. It's a weekly post for you to share what upcoming books you can't wait for!
This weeks pick is called Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach which will be released in June 2011.

Synopsis

I, Felton Reinstein, am Stupid Fast. Seriously. The upper classmen used to call me Squirrel Nut, because I was little and jumpy. Then, during sophomore year, I got tall and huge and so fast the gym teachers in their tight shorts fell all over themselves. During summer, three things happened all at once. First, the pee-smelling jocks in my grade got me to work out for football, even though I had no intention of playing. Second, on my paper route the most beautiful girl I have ever seen moved in and played piano at 6 a.m. Third, my mom, who never drinks, had some wine, slept in her car, stopped weeding the garden, then took my TV and put it in her room and decided she wouldn’t get out of bed.

Listen, I have not had much success in my life. But suddenly I’m riding around in a jock’s pick-up truck? Suddenly I’m invited to go on walks with beautiful girls? So, it’s understandable that when my little brother stopped playing piano and began to dress like a pirate I didn’t pay much attention. That I didn’t want to deal with my mom coming apart.

Books in the Spotlight (6)

Two dads, five siblings, and goggles!

Grim Doyle has always known his life was not exactly "normal", and things get even more curious when he discovers a set of stones that sweep him and his family to the fantasy, steampunk world of Verne - a place they had escaped from years ago. Now that they've returned, Grim and his siblings hide from the evil Lord Victor and his minions. And while learning about Jinns, Mystics, and the power of absinth they try to discover who is trying to kill them with the deadly Scourge.
Scourge is the first novel in the Grim Doyle Adventure series by author, David H. Burton. He can be found online at http://davidhburton.com/

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The link to purchase:

Amazon Kindle release is available here: http://www.amazon.com/Scourge-Grim-Doyle-Adventure-ebook/dp/B004AHKCVQ

Print version should be released in 2 weeks time.

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Personalized version of Scourge:
I am offering a personalized ebook version of Scourge at my site. With it comes an autographed dedication page as well as a fun feature where I alter the name of one of the minor characters in the story with the name of the purchaser.
The link to purchase is here: http://davidhburton.com/?page_id=4113
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 http://davidhburton.com/

A Weekend Away...

Hi all,

I'm back online!  Thank god! 

Quick note: I was one of the many caught up in the National Bank disaster where so many people never got paid, and I'm still waiting for my pay to go in. So those of you waiting for your prizes to be posted, it was going to be done this weekend. I'm sorry, but they may be a little later than expected.

As some of you know, my family and I went away this weekend to a 4WD Park in NSW.  Our first camping trip away with the little one.  It was fun!  And a tad stressful. 

It's amazing how much I rely on all four walls to keep Cruzito safe.  Although lately, he's shown that shutting a door doesn't work anymore to keep him out of things, since he can now reach them.

So anyway,  we are almost to the park when I look at my phone and it comes up 'No Service'.  What?!!  Here I was thinking that, yep I'm going away but lucky I have my phone so I won't miss out on emails and what's going on with Twitter.  WRONG!  Yep, I was devastated.  So this is part of the reason I have been MIA.  All was not lost because I managed to pack in a book :)

I really do miss going four wheel driving.  With the car we have now, it looks like a 4wd but that's it.  It's not built for doing the really fun stuff.  So we all jumped into my brothers car and got to play in some mud.

Two things I didn't realise before going on this trip (and really, being Aussie I should have clicked onto it) 1. There are going to be Goannas, 2.  Leeches and ticks.  We only come across one goanna on the way in there so that was alright.  I seen a few leeches attached to fellow camp goers on the first day.  Today however, was a bit different. 

We were heading to the waterfall and because it was a bit slippery we decided turn around.  I'd just got in the back of the car and shut the door.  I was in there maybe five seconds before saying. "For some god awful reason, and call me paranoid, I can almost feel something crawling on me."  I look down completely expecting nothing to be there and OMG there's a bloody leech!  Well I was out of that car in a flying leap, dropped my camera in the mud and proceeded to flick the slippery little sucker off.  I got back in as soon as I calmed down and checked a dozen times that I didn't have pick up any more hitch hikers and then that was that.

You may think I completely overeacted (And I quite possibly did lol) but after the campfire talk and joking about leeches and jumping ants (which apparently there are) I never expected to be dealing with one so soon.  Let me point this out,  they don't hurt but the thought of having something like that on me really freaked me out.

Well, that's all from me.  There will be no IMM this week (See above for why) and I am tossing up whether Sticky Beak will be posted tomorrow.  As you all know there are only 2 more days left of NaNoWriMo and I'm hoping to at least get close to the 50,000 so I'll be putting a bit of time in with that.  But don't worry I will post a little something up tomorrow for you all!

I'll leave you with a few pics I took from this weekend.  Enjoy.

When we came into the Levuka camping Grounds this is the sign we came across.  Absolutely classic!!

Some of the 4WD tracks we played around in.

Cruzito was so tired and the kids were giving him flowers to play with.  Here he is deep in thought lol.  Absolutely love this pic.

Playing in the Test Track.

MBOB: Stieg Larson's The Millennium Trilogy

The Eiffel Tower's Daughter by Bethany Huang

Title: The Eiffel Tower's Daughter

Author:  Bethany Huang

Genre: Children/Teen

Publisher:  Authorhouse

Publication Date: 5th October 2010

ISBN: 9781452076249
Stand alone or series: Stand Alone

Pages: 120 pages

Book Received from: Author

First Lines: 
My Father named me Swanilde because swans are beautiful and graceful, and I was like one when I was young

Synopsis:
The Eiffel Tower's Daughter is a story about love, compassion, family, and life. A girl who has to face it all with no one to help her. She runs away from home the day after her divorced Mother unknowingly marries a spy. Swanilde has to deal with rivalry and vengeance on her way to warn her father and ask for help. Swanilde thinks she's on a quest for truth, but her family reveals all of the secrets and lies they have been hiding from her for years. As Swanilde's world crumbles under her, she realizes how precious life is and how short it is. She tries to deal with all of the obstacles in her way to find who she really is-until disaster strikes and she's running again.

My Thoughts

I am really amazed that such a young writer has written this.  And admitedly, although I'm not one to pick up books that don't have any paranormal aspect, I decided to read this.

The story is about a young girl Swanilde who runs away from her mother and step-father.  She goes to her father for help, meeting her brother who she hadn't seen for a long time.  For Swanilde though, things aren't quite so easy.  Her step father has imprisoned her mother in a ploy to lure her and the rest of her family back.  Secrets long buried surface and Swanilde must deal with this new knowledge the best she can.

I liked how there were various POV's throughout the book.  It gave the story a very realistic feel and let's the reader know how each character perceives what is going on.  I also loved that the story takes place in France, Egypt and Greece giving the reader a feel for each culture.

The age group I think this would fit best would be between 9 - 14.  I really think that for her age she's done brilliantly pulling this novel together and, given time and some polishing of her writing skills I think Bethany will give the top Authors a fair run for their money.