Saturday, September 15, 2012

Tour Review: Chasing McCree by J.C. Isabella (Giveaway)

Title: Chasing McCree
Author: J.C. Isabella
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: J.C. Isabella
Format: PDF, 256 Pages
ASIN: B007UASYB0
Release Date: April 14, 2012
Source: Tour Host {YA Bound Book Tours}
Rating: 5/5

Tagline(s): ~NONE~

Summary: Briar Thompson had it all. The right clothes, the right friends, the right car. Being popular was all that mattered. Her parents were rich and treated like royalty throughout the community. She thought her senior year of high school was going perfectly, until the night her drink was spiked at a party by one of her so called friends.

That was the night she met Chase McCree.

Chase wanted to go back to Montana. To the ranch and the wild, wide blue sky that went on forever. He wanted nothing to do with flashy cars or spoiled rich kids. But he found himself head over boots for the quirky cheerleader who turned her back on her social status. She befriended him when no one else would.

Shunned and hurt by the people who were once her friends, Briar flees with Chase to his family ranch in Montana. There she discovers another world, and apart of herself she never knew.

The cowboy wasn’t like anyone she’d ever met. The cheerleader wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met. Apart their lives didn’t seem to make sense, but together, they were chasing forever.

Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13602913-chasing-mccree

Review: 

Chasing McCree switches between the perspectives of Chase McCree and Briar Thompson, although while I was reading I felt the main POV was Chase's. The story begins and finished with Chase.

Chase and Briar couldn't be from two more different worlds than they are. Chase is a cowboy from Montana, ready to inherit his family's ranch, trying to live with his mother in Florida. It's not that he doesn't love his mother, but he misses ranch life and doesn't like city life in Florida. Briar is a cheerleader and one of the popular crowd at her high school. But when she stumbles upon Chase in a park one night, drunk and injured, everything changes. She sees how superficial and shallow her life has been and decides to just be who she really is, instead of who others want her to be. A summer in Montana with Chase sounds like just what she needs.

You know, it really annoys me when rich kids judge those who aren't like them. They call Chase a hick and basically trailer trash, but what they don't know is that Chase is probably richer than all of them put together, he just doesn't flaunt it around. What I like about Briar is that, just like Chase, she has a lot of money but doesn't really care about it. And it's just awesome how she defends Chase when he's verbally attacked by his classmates. Then there's Briar's parents who think that Chase is just using her to get their money. It was priceless when they found out just how much Chase is worth. That really shut them up!

Another thing was how no one believed that Briar could possibly love living on the McCree Ranch. Is it so inconceivable that a city girl could love ranch life? I mean, seriously. Just because they don't like it doesn't mean that someone else from the city wouldn't. For someone who loves animals and wants to be a veterinarian, the ranch is the perfect place for Briar.

But living on a ranch can be dangerous too, with all the buyers out there wanting a piece of Chase's 50,000 acres. They even go so far as to hire Chase's ranch hands to scare Chase into selling by setting fires, breaking and entering into his house, shooting his cattle, and desecrating his family's memorial site. But nothing they do will ever make Chase sell the ranch--no amount of money can entice him when he has more than he knows what to do with, and any kind of vandalism or violence just makes him angry. Chase's love for his family's ranch, his family's legacy, is matched only by how much he loves Briar.

One of my favorite characters, besides our main couple, is Briar's grandmother. She's quirky and funny. She doesn't sugarcoat anything, she says it like it is. And she 100% there for Briar when her parents aren't.

I absolutely LOVED Chasing McCree. It has become one of my favorite contemporary young adult reads!


About this Author:

I'm J.C. Isabella, and I love to write. I've been writing for about ten years now. Mostly it was just for fun, for me. But my friends liked my work, so I decided to self publish. I hope you enjoy the rest of my site, and the books I have written.

The reason I chose to write romance, is because I love a happy ending. In YA there are so many lessons to be learned, so many firsts to be had. Why not write about first kisses, first crushes, or trying to explain to your father you were bitten by your boyfriend, who happens to be a werewolf?

One thing I will always promise in my books is a happy ending. I've always hated getting to the end of a really great novel, and feeling let down because it didn't end the way I thought it should. So about ten years ago, I decided to write a book. I remember it was about these kids who hijack a boat to find buried treasure in Mexico....

Needless to say, my writing has come a long way since my teen years, and I know I have room to improve, but I feel guilty having these books sitting in my computer, with no one to read them. So I'm putting them out for the world to see!

I try not to take myself too seriously. I'm not an editor, nor am I a total wiz when it comes to grammar or language. I try my darndest though, and I hope to give people an enjoyable read that is nice a break from reality.

I put a lot of work into what I do, and I appreciate people reading my work. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Author Links:

Website: http://www.jcisabella.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jcisabellabooks
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/JC-Isabella/249262975154372
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5158465.J_C_Isabella

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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Review: Darkness Before Dawn by J.A. London

Title: Darkness Before Dawn
Series: Darkness Before Dawn #1 
Author: J.A. London
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Supernatural Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
Elements: Vampires  
Publisher: Harper TEEN, Harper Collins
Format: Paperback, 342 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-202065-9
Release Date: May 29, 2012
Source: Borrowed from Wentworth Library
Rating: 3.5/5

Tagline(s): Only sunlight can save us.

Summary: We built the wall to keep them out, to keep us safe. But it also makes us prisoners, trapped in what's left of our ravaged city, fearing nightfall.

After the death of my parents, it's up to me--as the newest delegate for humanity--to bargain with our vampire overlord. I thought I was ready. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the monsters. Then again, nothing could have prepared me for Lord Valentine . . . or his son. Maybe not all vampires are killers. Maybe it's safe to let one in.

Only one thing is certain: Even the wall is not enough. A war is coming and we cannot hide forever.


Review: 

Dawn Montgomery lives in a world ruled by Old Family vampires. As the delegate between the citizens of Denver and Lord Valentine, Dawn negotiates the blood supply to the vampires, and ensures the protection of the people living behind the wall. The VampHu Treaty was created to protect the humans within the walled cities, but it also serves to imprison them in those cities. Any vampires within the city are fair game and can be killed by the Night Watchmen. But when Dawn meets Victor, she learns that not all vampires are the monsters she thought they were.

Darkness Before Dawn depicts a world ravaged by war, a war that has left the vampires in charge, and the humans broken, fearful, and angry. Most dystopian worlds I've read about were brought to that state by a zombie attack, so the use of vampires in Darkness Before Dawn was new for me. Another interesting thing about the vampires in this series is that creativity eludes them. In every vampire books I've read the vampires have always been extemely talented ans creative, but not so in this one.

The deaths of Dawn's parents and brother have influenced her view of vampires. She doesn't know how her parents died exactly, only that they were ash by the time the Agency got to them. Her brother Brady's death was more traumatic. A vampire attacked their home and Brady put Dawn in a closet to protect her. His final words to her were, "Don't be afraid of the dark," and then all she heard after that was his screams. So you can see why Dawn views vampires as bloodthirsty monsters. But Victor slowly shows her that not all vampires are like the one that killed her brother.

In the prologue we see Dawn's parents before their eventual deaths and the assassin asking, "Does your daughter have any idea about her true heritage?" This leaves me wondering, is Dawn more than human? Dawn mentions how the sunset calms her. This makes me think that she has some vampire in her. Lord Valentine mentions his other son turning her into what she was always meant to be. What is Dawn meant to be? These questions aren't answered in Darkness Before Dawn, but I hope that was get even just a little hint in the sequel, Blood-Kissed Sky.

Stand Out Quotes:

"You're not what I thought"

"I think you're the closest thing to a sunrise I'll ever see."

"You're not a monster, Victor."

"I think I can actually hear my heart breaking. Once again because of a vampire." 

About this Author:

J. A. London is the mother-son writing team of Rachel Hawthorne and her son, Alex London. Rachel has written many novels for teens, including the popular Dark Guardian series. Alex, a recent graduate with a degree in Historical Studies, enjoys combining history and fiction to create unique worlds. The Darkness Before Dawn series is their first joint project.

Tour Review: Flight by Alyssa Rose Ivy (Giveaway)


Title: Flight
Series: The Crescent Chronicles #1
Author: Alyssa Rose Ivy
Genre: New Adult Fiction, Supernatural Fiction 
Elements: Shapeshifters, Werewolves
Publisher: Alyssa Rose Ivy
Format: PDF, 255 Pages
ISBN: 9781478292845
Release Date: August 16, 2012
Source: Author {Alyssa Rose Ivy}
Rating: 5/5

Tagline(s): Sometimes you just have to take flight.

Summary: A summer in New Orleans is exactly what Allie needs before starting college. Accepting her dad’s invitation to work at his hotel offers an escape from her ex-boyfriend and the chance to spend the summer with her best friend. Meeting a guy is the last thing on her mind—until she sees Levi.

Unable to resist the infuriating yet alluring Levi, Allie finds herself at the center of a supernatural society and forced to decide between following the path she has always trusted or saving a city that might just save her.

Goodreads Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13570162-flight

Review: 

When Allie receives an invitation from her father to work in his new hotel in New Orleans, she sees it as a chance to experience something new before heading off to college. Allie is looking for a summer of adventure and excitement--what she gets may be more than she ever expected. After breaking up with her boyfriend before leaving for New Orleans, Allie swore off men. But when she catches the eye of Levi Laurent in the lobby of the Crescent City Hotel, everything changes--for better and for worse.

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who could relate to Allie. She has her life planned out and anything that doesn't fit into that plan she immediately dismisses. But then a wrench is thrown into her plans--in the form of Levi--and she's left floundering. I figure it this way: When your life is all planned out, the way Allie's is, there is no room for change or surprises, and because of that you could miss out on something truly great and, for Allie, life-altering. Although there is also the chance that the change coming your way is not so great and you're left lost and wondering what went wrong. Change is a double-edged sword that can cut both ways, and in Allie's case, Levi--the wrench in her plans--caused her great happiness, but also great hurt. But it's the way you bounce back that counts.

Levi Laurent is arrogant and very persistent. And let's face it: No one that gorgeous can be human. And he's not. Levi is a Pteron, a race of shapeshifter that long ago used to turn into crows, but now are more of a hybrid--they remain in human form, except for massive black wings that sprout from their backs. Allie is the first and only girl Levi has ever flown and shared his secret with. I think that Allie's introduction and acceptance was a little too smooth, and that's where the problem started. Allie accepted what Levi and his friends are, but not their culture. Although, in Allie's defense, Levi was too close-lipped about how things work in their society, and Allie had to learn about it secondhand from someone else. Because of this, Allie got into a situation that caused her great hurt--mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Levi's massive screw-up basically brought their relationship to a screeching halt. I can't blame Allie fro being furious with Levi, she has every right to feel the way she does. But I do believe in second chances. Though Levi was stupid, he did what he did out of fear of losing Allie, and he truly loves her. I believe that he should be given one more chance, if only to try to make things right again. The fact that Allie still loves him, though she'll deny it, gives me hope that time might heal her hurt and her love for him will be strong enough to survive the coming challenges.

Flight is an engrossing read--I never wanted the story to stop! With the way the book ended, I'm dying to know what happens next for Allie, Levi, and the Pterons.

About this Author:

Alyssa Rose Ivy is a Young Adult and New Adult author who loves to weave stories with romance and a southern setting. Although raised in the New York area, she fell in love with the South after moving to New Orleans for college. After years as a perpetual student, she turned back to her creative side and decided to write. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two young children, and she can usually be found with a cup of coffee in her hand.

Author Links: 

Author Website: http://www.alyssaroseivy.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AlyssaRoseIvy
Twitter: @AlyssaRoseIvy, https://twitter.com/AlyssaRoseIvy


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