Torn by Amanda Hocking

Pages - 337
Published by Tor, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers in 2012
Book kindly sent by publisher for an honest review.

When Rhys and I showed up at my 'brother' Matt's houws at eight in the morning, he was happy... in the sense that he was glad I was alived and hadn't disappeared forever. Despite being angry, he listened while I put together a vague explanation, glaring at me the whole time with mystified rage. 


Goodreads Summary
When Wendy Everly first discovers the truth about herself—that she’s a changeling switched at birth—she knows her life will never be the same. Now she’s about to learn that there’s more to the story…
She shares a closer connection to her Vittra rivals than she ever imagined—and they’ll stop at nothing to lure her to their side. With the threat of war looming, her only hope of saving the Trylle is to master her magical powers—and marry an equally powerful royal. But that means walking away from Finn, her handsome bodyguard who’s strictly off limits…and Loki, a Vittra prince with whom she shares a growing attraction.
Torn between her heart and her people, between love and duty, Wendy must decide her fate. If she makes the wrong choice, she could lose everything, and everybody, she’s ever wanted…in both worlds.

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This is the second book in the Trylle series. To read the review for Switched, the first book, please click here. If you haven't read the first, I would probably stop reading now as this review may contain spoilers. 
This book sees a new love interest for Wendy arriving on the scene in the form of Loki, a Markis from Vittra, who appears in the book after successfully kidnapping her for the King of Vittra, who turns out to have a rather personal interest in Wendy. Loki is rather cute, and knocks Finn out of the picture as far as I'm concerned. Finn was really annoying in this book; the way he tried to avoid Wendy was so over the top. 
It was interesting to see a change in Wendy in this book. It seems like she has finally accepted who she is meant to be. She is definitely ready to take on her future role as Queen of Forening. I love her sassy nature; the sarcastic comments that she dishes out really increased my liking of her. Her brother Matthew appears a lot more in this book and I was surprised to see such a change of character in him. He seemed more preoccupied with other interests than protecting his sister from any harm. I am not sure whether I liked this version of Matthew or not. 
The ending surprised me. I was really expecting a  cliff hanger and it wasn't there, so hat's off to Amanda Hocking for that. 
I do love the setting of the book. It really does seem like a magical  and more adult version of The Princess Diaries. I really enjoy the way Amanda writes; I love the humour as well as her descriptions.  I am so glad to have discovered her books. This book did have a middle book kind of feel about it, which is setting it up for the finale, however there was enough going on it, with a lot of shocks and surprises to make this book stand out far better than many other books sitting in the middle of a series. 
Looking forward to the final book to see what happens in the triangle between Wendy, Finn and Loki! 

Setting The Scene with Rosy Thornton

Not long after I first started blogging, I read a book called Crossed Wires by a wonderfully entertaining UK author called Rosy Thornton. It was one of the most memorable books I have ever read and still three years on one scene still sits in my mind and I can almost quote it word for word. With that in mind, I was over the moon when Rosy asked me if I would be interested in reading her new book Ninepins. I told Rosy I would happy to, before asking her if she would like to appear on the blog. She quickly whipped up this fabulous post for me. So I will pass you over to Rosy Thornton.

The place where I live shouldn’t really exist. Or rather, it shouldn’t exist as habitable land, because it ought by rights to be under water!

I live in Cottenham, a village in the Cambridgeshire fens: a swathe of country stretching north from Cambridge towards King’s Lynn and the Wash. Until a few short centuries ago, the whole area was marsh and wetland, useless for agriculture and much of it impassable except by boat.

Then, in Cromwell’s time, with the help of engineers recruited from the Netherlands where they understood these things, the land was drained, the water pumped out from the earth into a series of ditches and cuts (known locally as ‘lodes’) which still criss-cross the fields. From a boggy, barren waste good only for fishing, the land was transformed into acre upon acre of rich, black soil, ideal for arable farming.

It remains on first acquaintance a strange, unwelcoming place – flat and featureless and bleak. The Great Level, they call it: nearly fifteen hundred square miles of flatland of which my own corner is just a tiny part.

This landscape was not one I would particularly have chosen to inhabit. In fact, when my partner and I moved out from the beautiful old city of Cambridge sixteen years ago in search of village life, we agreed that we would come anywhere but here. Both of us hailed from parts of the world where there were woods and trees, and valleys and rolling hills; we thought we’d find the fens depressing. And then I think we must have taken our eye off the ball for a moment: forgotten where Cottenham was, perhaps, or mixed it up with another village. Because the next thing we knew we had looked at the details of a house and fallen in love with it – and found ourselves to be fen dwellers.

Chosen or not, I quickly found that the landscape took hold of me and of my imagination. Much like the water which percolates constantly beneath the surface of the soil in these parts, it soaked its way under my skin and seeped into my blood. Unrelieved by contours as it may be, this is a landscape with a drama which is quite unique. These waterlands lie so low that the outlook is always dominated by the skies – huge, towering, toppling skies – so that the mood can shift with every change of season, of weather or of light.

Setting has always been important to me as a writer, and when I decided to set a novel here in the Cambridgeshire fens, I knew that landscape would play as important a part in the book as characters or story. More than that, I knew that one theme of the book would be volatility: the unpredictable, shifting sands of family relationships.

The novel which resulted – ‘Ninepins’ – is set in an old tollhouse, built on a bank above a drainage lode, and named Ninepins after a corruption of the ninepence toll once payable to cross the water there. It lies on the outskirts of the village of Elswell, which I based very loosely upon Cottenham, but moved (as novelists will do) rather further away from Cambridge and out into the remoter reaches of the fens. There at Ninepins live single mother Laura and her twelve-year-old daughter, Beth, in the carefully controlled cocoon that Laura has built around them. But Beth is brutally asthmatic, lonely at school and increasingly distant from her mother. And into their lives like a brisk fen breeze comes Willow, a seventeen-year-old care leaver with a

mysterious past, together with her social worker, Vince. Laura must decide: what does she want of Vince, and he of her? Is Willow dangerous or vulnerable, or maybe a little of both? And are all Laura’s painstakingly constructed certainties about to come tumbling down like ninepins?

The quicksilver moods both of Beth and of the mysterious teenager, Willow, are the treacherous ground which Laura must negotiate, and their alterations are reflected through similar mood changes in the novel’s fenland backdrop.

At times, all is peace and unbroken sunshine.

“…this year the succeeding days were first clear and cool, then clear and warm and finally clear and hot, as temperatures by the middle of May soared to an unseasonably early high. The vast, open skies stretched in unbroken blue from dawn until dark, shifting through palest aquamarine to rich cobalt and back to pale again with the slow arc of the sun. Every day from mid-morning a shimmer of heat hazed the fields around Ninepins, their surface never dappled by the shadow of a cloud.”

But while the fens can be serene and beautiful, they can also be a place of menace.

“…the damp was a constant factor. It hung on the breeze like smoke; it seeped under doors and soaked through clothing; it trickled invisibly underground and gathered to run in the lodes and drains and ditches, and rose as mist from the wet, black, chocolate-fudge soil. And with the rising water in the earth, as it seemed to Laura, rose also the fluid in Beth’s lungs, narrowing her airways to a needle’s width and leaving her fighting to breathe.”

Breath and breathing; fire and ice; flooding and drowning – the recurring motifs of this novel are a reflection of the elemental nature of its fenland setting. The ‘blurb’ on the back cover sums it up thus: “NINEPINS explores the idea of family, and the volatile and changing relationships between mothers and daughters, in a landscape that is beautiful but – as they all discover - perilous.”

I can't wait to read Ninepins now. Ninepins was published on the 16th April by Sandstone Press Ltd.

To find out more about Rosy Thornton:

Website: http://rosythornton.com/about/about.php

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rosy.thornton

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (International Giveaway)

Pages - 485

Published by Mira Ink in April 2012

Book kindly sent by publisher for an honest review

They hung the Unregistered in the old warehouse district; it was a public execution, so everyone went to see. 

I stood at the back, a nameless face in the crowd, too close to the gallows for comfort but unable to look away. 

Goodreads Summary

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

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I have seen a few posts comparing this to Julie Kagawa's first series, The Iron King. I haven't actually read it, so I can't comment. I felt like I was going into it blind, a whole new world about to open up for me. 

From the first sentence you are thrust into a really atmospheric scene and you wonder what you have let yourself in for.  The tension building was amazing. For the first couple of chapters, as each ended with a powerful hook, I was so caught up in the drama, I held my breath. One day one of these books is going to cause me severe asphyxiation!

A really powerful start to the book that made me rethink my whole opinion of vampires. I was a little dubious to read this to begin with, I mean vampires have been written to death, but Julie Kagawa surprised me with her version of them. If you are looking for the Twilight style human huggers, head straight for the exit, because you are likely to lose a bucket full of blood if you even look at these vampires the wrong way. These vampires are nasty and just love to play cat and mouse! Put them alongside the rabids and you are doomed! I really loved the author's take on vampires, definitely old school.

I loved Alison! She was one hell of a girl. There is no room for naivety in her life, she thinks on her feet and makes sure she survives. I wasn't surprised at all at her decision to become a vampire. She is very strong willed and sensible. She knew exactly what her decision would mean, she wasn't about to blame anyone else, she took full responsibility. Zeke was a just a beautiful soul; the type of guy you always want covering your back.  Katin was a brilliant character too, he was like a cross between Yoda from Star Wars and Brad Pitt in Fight Club. The following quote has to be my favourite in all the book.

'Sometime in you life, Alison Sekemoto, you will kill a human being. Accidentally or as a conscious deliberate act. It is unavoidable. The question is not if it will happen, but when. Do you understand?'

Just brilliant! Fight Club all over again!

I really enjoyed the way the author showed the contrast between Alison's life before and after becoming a vampire.  It gave such a clear indication of her true character. 

I did find the book dragged a little in the middle; I found myself wanting to speed the action up a quite a bit. However the ending definitely made up for it. I have to admit that I never imagined that the ending would occur in that way when I began reading the book. 

I can't wait to read the next book in the series. It really made a refreshing change to see a female vampire as the lead character! Ten brownie points awarded to Julie Kagawa!

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If you would like to win a copy of The Immortal Rules, then please enter your details in the Rafflecopter below. The competition is international and will close on the 5th of May.

Non Fiction Friday - Write A Great Synopsis - An Expert Guide

I have been meaning to start up a post like this for ages. I do like to read the occasional non fiction book and I wanted to try and feature them more on my blog. I used to love doing Trish's Non Fiction Five Challenge which  really got me reading books out of my comfort zone. So I wanted somewhere to share the non fiction books I have read either for research purposes or pleasure. This isn't a post that will occur every Friday, just on occasion when I read  a book I want to share

Published by Crabbit Publishing on 17th January 2012
Book purchased by myself.
Kindle edition.


The function of the synopsis is not to make people cry or laugh or be as terrified as a terrified thing. It is to show the decision-makers that you do actually have a book that hangs together and doesn't just get off on a stunning start and an amazing concept; and to show what sort of book it is. A good synopsis shows that your book works, from beginning to end. 
Goodreads Summary
Most writers hate writing synopses. They need dread them no more. In this short ebook, Write a Great Synopsis – An Expert Guide, Nicola Morgan takes the stress out of the subject and applies calm, systematic guidance, with her renowned no-nonsense approach and laconic style. 
Write a Great Synopsis covers: the function of a synopsis, the differences between outlines and synopses, dealing with requirements for different agents and publishers, finding the heart of your book, how to tackle non-linear plots, multiples themes, sub-plots and long novels, and it answers all the questions and confusions that writers have. Nicola also introduces readers to her patent Crappy Memory Tool, explains the art of crafting a 25-word pitch, and demonstrates with real examples. Gold-dust for writers at all stages.

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Well if I am reading this type of book, then it is clearly obvious that I have reached the stage of sending my finished manuscript off; which I did. However I couldn't send it off without writing the dreaded synopsis. I was so against writing this, I put it off for three whole weeks! I feared writing my synopsis more than have all my teeth extracted without anaesthetic! Seriously I couldn't think of anything worse. 

Everything I read about writing a synopsis left me confused. Luckily my wonderful Twitter friends were on hand with some friendly advice and they gently nudged me in the direction of Nicola Morgan's book, Write a Great Synopsis, and oh my, what a God send it was. 

From the first page, I fell in love with her writing style. I felt like I was in the company of a master craftsman who knew exactly how to slash word counts to create a concise writing companion without losing any of her humour. I found myself giggling all the way through and watched my fear fly out of the window. It wouldn't have been any easier if the author herself had held my hand through the process. This book is THAT GOOD!

The ideas are extremely organised; the instructions are easy to follow, with plenty of examples to show you what not to do. As the book is a Kindle edition, it had direct links to posts featured on the author's website, giving me even more useful information.  I actually came away feeling strong enough to take on the mighty synopsis and within a day of reading it, I had written my first very own synopsis.  I could almost see Nicola Morgan cheering with a glass of champagne in one hand and a pompom in the other as I pressed send on my PC, crossing that finishing line and fondly watching my brave little synopsis take on the world. 

This book is a must have accessory for any writer's bookshelf. An excellent resource designed to make the writer's life easier. 

HOT BOOKS for May

It is that time again already! I know I can't believe it myself, this year is shooting past. Let's take a look at what the publishers have to offer this month. As per usual, each picture is linked to either the Goodreads summary or the Amazon information.

ATOM

Headline

Random House Children's Books

HarperCollins Children's Books

Indigo

Hodder Children's Books

Black and White Publishing

Bloomsbury

Abrams and Chronicle

Macmillan

Simon and Schuster

Catnip Publishing

Jinny at Finmory - The Magic Pony

Electric Monkey

Piatkus

Chicken House

Arrow 

MIRA Ink

Walker Books

Orion Children's Books

Feiwel and Friends

Flux

Tor

Berkley UK

Enjoy!