Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Every Word by Ellie Marney

 

Every Word (Every #2) by Ellie Marney
Publisher: Tundra books
Publication date: September 8th 2015
My rating: 4.5 stars 
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository 

James Mycroft has just left for London to investigate a car accident similar to the one that killed his parents seven years ago...without saying goodbye to Rachel Watts, his 'partner in crime'.

Rachel is furious and worried about his strange behaviour - not that Mycroft's ever exactly normal, but London is the scene of so many of his nightmares. So Rachel jumps on a plane to follow him...and lands straight in a whole storm of trouble.

The theft of a copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, the possible murder of a rare books conservator, and the deaths of Mycroft's parents...Can Watts help Mycroft make sense of the three events - or will she lose him forever?

Sparks fly when Watts and Mycroft reunite in this second sophisticated thriller about the teen sleuthing duo.

My Thoughts:

In Every Word, James Mycroft and Rachel Watts are back for more Sherlock Holmesesque sleuthing. We’re eight weeks in time past the first book.  Mycroft and Rachel are young and in love with Rachel settling more into Melborne, and Mycroft working at a forensic pathology lab.  When news comes through of a carjacking/murder with similarities to his parent’s accident in England, Mycroft flees in the night with just a short text message to Rachel saying ‘Going to UK with Walsh. Don’t’ be mad. Will stay in touch.’  

Rachel is understandably panicked because Mycroft has been known to go off the rails when anything comes up about the death of his parents.  She knows he’s haunted and obsessed with conspiracy theories and determined to get to the bottom of their murder.  Rachel’s also very hurt that he would just up and leave without breathing a word to her beforehand. It’s a punch to the gut, and I couldn’t help but feel her pain.  In a spur of the moment decision, Rachel hops on a plane and journeys to the UK knowing full well Mycroft probably won’t be happy to see her.  Tough, she’s going to be there to support him no matter what.

I was ticked at Mycroft at first, but as you get his side and see how the memories just gut him, it was hard to be mad.  Thankfully, their strong bond carries them through some tough times.  Even with everything going on, their romance was hotter than ever!  Their chemistry would spark and ignite with just a touch or a glance!

Ellie Marney has a beautiful way of writing, talented in making you feel her characters love, lust, pain, and despair profoundly.  There was a surprising amount of emotion and depth considering this was an action/mystery/suspense novel, but it made the characters come alive for me.  

I adored the relationship Rachel had with Mike, her brother.  He’s supportive, sweet, and protective. I’m happy to see how his relationship is developing with Alicia.  I’m again a little put off by Rachel’s mother, although, I guess I shouldn’t be too judgmental, because I’d probably be pretty upset if I were in her shoes.  But hey, after everything that happened I’d like to think I couldn’t hold a grudge like that.

Every Word was more than Every Breath in so many ways.  In a good way, Rachel and Mycroft’s relationship became more intense and, by the end, rooted.  But it was also more heart wrenching, raw, and brutal in parts!  Man these two were put through the ringer, and I know they’ll have a tough time dealing with the fallout.  I’m looking forward to finding out (hopefully soon) how it all plays out in Every Move.

About the author:

Ellie Marney was born in Brisbane, and has lived in Indonesia,Singapore and India. Now she writes, teaches, talks about kid’s literature at libraries and schools, and gardens when she can, while living in a country idyll (actually a very messy wooden house on ten acres with a dog and lots of chickens) near Castlemaine, in north-central Victoria. Her partner and four sons still love her, even though she often forgets things and lets the housework go.

Ellie’s short stories for adults have won awards and been published in various anthologies. Every Breath is her first novel for young adults.

 Connect with Ellie Marney:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads 

 A copy of Every Word was generously provided to one Readers Den follower.  The giveaway is open to US or CA residents only.  Simply fill out the rafflecopter for a chance to win.

Review: The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer

The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer
Publisher: Balzer +Bray
Publication date: May 13th 2014
My rating:  3 stars

 

With the intrigue of Pretty Little Liars and plenty of romance, bestselling author Sarah Strohmeyer weaves a story of secrets and lies—set in a funeral parlor.

Growing up in a house of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. She knows that perfect senior-class president Erin Donohue isn’t what she seems. She knows why Erin’s ex-boyfriend, hot football player Matt Houser, broke up with her. And she also knows that, even though she says she and Matt are just friends, there is something brewing between them—something Erin definitely did not like.

But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.

So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily's and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship—which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous—makes them both suspects.

As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.

My Thoughts: 

Lily Graves lives amongst a family of morticians and plans on becoming one as well.  Add in her dark, gothic sort of wardrobe and it’s no surprise that she’s regarded as a freak in school.  This doesn’t bother her at all. 

Life gets complicated for Lily when Matt, a jock and part of the popular crowd, asks her to tutor him in History.  They form a friendship and more through their tutoring sessions, but Matt has a girlfriend, Erin. Erin is part of the popular crowd as well, and she’s far from nice to Lily or anyone not part of the “Tragically Normals”.  Matt breaks things off with Erin and Erin hunts down Lily to confront her, which turns into an ugly meeting. Soon after Erin turns up dead and all eyes turn to Matt and Lily in suspicion.

The Secrets of Lily Graves was a mix of mystery, romance and some suspense.  I had some fun with the mystery, but I had some trouble with the romance. I wanted Lily and Matt together of course, but I never really felt the mega swoon factor.  There weren’t any moments I really felt a strong chemistry or longing come through, so their romance never conjured strong emotions in me. 

A couple of things didn’t make sense to me either (highlight for spoiler): I didn’t get why Erin went ballistic on Lily in the opening scene after discovering Erin’s status with Matt.  Also, how did Erin not know the true situation with Matt’s History grade when they were all in the same class and sitting next to each other? How did he justify the tutoring sessions?  Maybe I missed a few things, I don’t know.  I also felt like I missed out with these two in the end because things felt rushed.

I liked the side characters but no one besides Lily was really fleshed out, IMO, not even Matt.

I will say the mystery was fun.  I had suspicions and there’s enough clues to keep the reader feeling engaged and part of the sleuthing.  With some fun suspense and a dangerous reveal, I enjoyed this part of the story.

 

Connect with Sarah Strohmeyer:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Review: The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication date: May 7th 2013
My rating: 3 stars

On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.

Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.

My Thoughts:

The Summer I Became a Nerd was a cute, flirty, and fun romance.  It’s also about being true to our self no matter what other people think.

Maddie has been scarred by exposing her nerdiness in the past, so she buries love of comics, sci-fi addiction, and love of all things geek.  She puts years of crafting her popular identity by becoming cheerleader and dating the high school quarterback.  All this starts to unravel when she jeopardizes her reputation by going into The Phoenix, a local comic book store in search of the newest release of her favorite comic book series. The anticipation and lusting over its release trumps her fears of being outed as the nerd she is.  Her undoing is Logan, the hot and geeky clerk at The Phoenix who she’s drawn to for all kinds of reasons.  Soon they’re hanging out, gossiping comic stories, and LARPing (Live Action Role Play).  But Maddie wants the best of both worlds and tries to have it by leading a double life and thereby risking everything good about both.

I was a little conflicted over Maddie.  I understand up to a certain point why she was nervous about sharing her love/obsession of things she considered nerdy or unpopular.  But after it became clear over the summer that she LOVED her life without the popular façade, I wondered why she kept sneaking around.  I didn’t like that it took her so long to embrace her true self when popular persona did nothing for her. She did eventually grow up a bit, but still.  On the other hand, I loved Logan!  The minute he slipped on his geeky black rimmed glasses and lent Maddie his comic book, my inner nerd was sold and swooning!  He was sweet and it was easy to see why he’s hurt by Maddie’s bouts of hot and cold.  The gradual build of their romance was sweet and dreamy and gave me a few butterfly flutters in my stomach!

This was a cute, quick, and fun story that put smiles on my face throughout.  It was a welcome change from all the drama filled books I’ve been reading lately!  I would’ve breezed right through it in one sitting had life not gotten in the way.

Review: Being Friends with Boys by Terra Elan McVoy

  Title: Being Friends with Boys

  Author: Terra Elan McVoy

  Publisher: Simon Pulse

  Publication date: May 1st 2012

  Source: Simon & Schuster Galley Grab

  My rating: 3 stars

  “Don’t forget who your real friends are”

Charlotte has always hung out with the boys; she practically grew up with Oliver and when Trip moved to their new school, they’ve been inseparable since. Over the summer they grew even closer when they started messing around in Oliver’s basement, what started off as fun and a bunch of laughs soon developed in a four group band (with Abe) called Sad Jackal. You had Oliver singing and messing around on guitar, Trip being the heart and soul of the group, Abe on the drums and Charlotte bringing the lyrics. Everything seemed fine that is until Trip drops the bombshell that he’s left the group. Charlotte doesn’t understand it; they had the best group dynamics when they worked together, now that Trips left it would never be the same. They would probably have to recruit new members and there would always be that awkwardness around Trip. Charlotte and Trip were extremely close friends, closer than Oliver and Charlotte. Trip and Charlotte had a special bond which couldn’t be explained, they understood each other, were totally open with each other, (shared their feelings with one another in a notebook they passed to each other several times in the day). Charlotte didn’t want the band to come between their friendship, but she had a duty to the rest of the band members too.

Being Friends with Boys started off great, it was fun; seeing Charlotte’s interactions with boys, how they treated her like she was one of them, heartfelt; the messages and notes she shared with Trip. But then things started getting complicated; with two new band members being recruited; Eli and Fabian. Charlotte had less time she could spend with Trip, with the school dance just around the corner the band had to practice more often especially so that they could click together as a group. Charlotte could sense it was a strain on her relationship with Trip, but there’s nothing she could do about it.

Things however started to getting a little too complicated and farfetched for my liking; Charlotte was in a flutter over who she wanted to be with, who wanted to be with her and who she rumoured to be with!!! Her life kind of turned into a wrecking ball with other groups wanting her to join their groups, and ex-best friends wanting to know her all of a sudden.

However the thing that surprised me about this book was that characters I had originally liked, kind of showed their true colours and left me disappointed in the end and characters I’d completely overlooked and had thought little of had the backbone to stick with Charlotte through the tough times. I guess you could say the opening line of my review is true; your true friends will always be around you no matter what.

However I did have a few minor irks with this book; Charlotte especially for the second half of the book made me want to pull my hair out, she kept on trying different things even though knowing it would be the wrong thing to do. And lately I’ve realised I don’t have the patience with characters who keep faffing around, it was clearly obvious who she was meant to be with, but it took her until 2/3 of the book to realise it. Also I love my music themed books; and this book did bring it to the forefront; getting the right song, jamming out together, but all the lyrics Charlotte was writing I would have loved to have seen them, we were told the titles of the songs, what influenced her in writing them but we never really got the chance to hear or read them.

Despite these irritations I did relatively enjoy this book; it was cute, funny, a decent music themed book and full of charming characters.  

Review: Where it Began by Ann Redisch Stampler

   Title: Where it Began

   Author: Ann Redisch Stampler

   Publisher: Simon Pulse

   Publication date: 6th March 2012

   My rating: 2 stars

I was truly suffering from a brain funk after finishing Where it Began. It wasn’t that the book was complicated, so I had a lot to get my head around. But it was just the long winded path the book well more specifically the main character Gabby took to finally discovering the truth! Seriously Gabby kind of made your head spin in exasperated circles.

Gabby wakes up near the remains of her boyfriend Billy’s battered car with no recollection of how she got there, when in hospital she still can’t remember a thing, it takes her a while for things to slowly make sense. She was driving and ended up slamming into a tree and smacking her head. Her blood level showed she was way over the limit and consequently the smack to her head has left her with retrograde amnesia. The only thing that she remembers was that Billy Nash her boyfriend was with her in the car, but she doesn’t know what happened to him after that. Did he manage to escape? Is he hurt? Is he still alive? No one’s telling her anything, her mum just flips her off, and she won’t let her friends come to visit her either. She’s more concerned with making sure Gabby’s looking perfect physically, not the least concerned about her mental state. On top of all that Gabby also has the police breathing down her neck.

I really enjoy reading books dealing with memory loss, I’ve come across some okayish ones in the past but Where it Began started really well. You’re thrown head first into Gabby suffering from a head trauma, and you have all these questions flying all over the place, what are they not telling Gabby? Where’s Billy? Is the fact that he’s not got in contact with her and everyone’s tight lipped about him mean he’s dead? Why’s Gabby’s mum so selfish? Will we ever find out what really happened? Would Gabby get her memory back?

Despite starting off well, I had several problems with this book and thus my 2 star rating. Initially the book had the constant need to flit back and forward between time spans, so one minute you’re in hospital with Gabby, the next she’s recalling a memory of when she first started dating Billy and then you’re thrown back into the hospital and then back into the past, and so on, at times it was utterly mind boggling. I know it was there to establish the back story about Gabby’s huge make-over; finally becoming noticed, becoming part of the popular crowd and everything she remembered up until the accident. But at times I really wanted to shout would you please get on with it! I really didn’t give a toss about the back story; I just wanted to know what really happened. It was also hugely frustrating when Gabby kept constantly yammering off the point.

However what truly grated me about Gabby’s character was her infatuation with Billy. It’s like she had blinkers on throughout the entire book he was loving, caring, good-looking, everything he said was right, he was doing everything for her, basically she thought he was perfect. I don’t know if when Gabby banged her head that she knocked the part of her head which was for common sense too, but ugh some of the drivel she spouted about Billy I really wanted to slap some sense into her. Gabby’s parents were also another major annoyance in this book, like seriously does no child have decent parents anymore? Gabby’s mum Vivian honestly made my blood boil, first her daughter has suffered a major head trauma, she’s lucky to be alive, but all she’s concerned with is how she looks, instead of remaining by her bedside, she goes shopping whilst she’s in hospital for make-up so she can spruce her daughter. Obviously because that would be Gabby’s number one concern right now her appearance?

“You were so beautiful, you were”
“It kills me to see you like this.”

What a way to boost her daughter’s confidence, whilst she’s lying in bed cut off from her friends and the outside world, not having a clue what’s going on and suffering from a head trauma. Gabby’s dad was just the invisible parent, wandering aimlessly in the background making occasional appearances or just drinking himself away.

Basically Where it Began started off as a highly anticipated read but ended up being a big disappointment. The book went around in maddening circles and frustrated me to a no end with two faced and pathetic characters.

Favourite quote;

“I thought she knew” argghh!!”

Review: Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman

   Title: Jersey Angel

   Author: Beth Ann Bauman

   Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books

   Publication date: 8th May 2012

   Source: NetGalley

   My rating: 1 star

Where shall I start with this book? Well the blurb was what drew my attention to the book in the first place. I read it and thought a perfect summer read, this is just what I need. I thought it would be along the lines of Jenny Han’s Summer series, but my assumptions couldn’t have been more wrong

Angel is having a break from her on-off boyfriend Joey, Angel doesn’t want to be tied down with a guy for too long; she likes to be care free and having fun. So after Angel’s had enough fun, she decides she wants Joey back, but this time Joey decides to put his foot down, he’s sick of Angel running from one guy to another, he’s sick of the breaks, he genuinely loves Angel and he wants her to his girlfriend, so he refuses to take her back. Angel finds herself in a dilemma she wants to be with Joey; he understands her, whenever she needs someone she knows she can turn to him, he’s a reassuring presence but she’s unsure whether she loves him back and she’s still so young there’s plenty of time to settle down.

I had several issues with this book, and thus my reason for giving it 1 star. First the characters lacked depth; they were flaky with no idea what was going on. Angel just kept flitting back and forth from one guy to another, she had the perfect guy who wanted to be with her, openly admitting his feelings for her, standing right in front of her, but Angel was so caught up in her own little world that when she realised what she wanted it was a little too late. Her messing around with her best friend’s boyfriend aggravated me and her continually going back on her word aggravated me. That by the end of the book I was so utterly fed up with her that I couldn’t care less what she did.

I also couldn’t connect with the secondary characters at all, they were under developed in places, were at times like back ground noise; completely unnecessary. Inggy the best friend was clueless and couldn’t see what was going on in front of her, Cork Inggy’s worthless boyfriend; who knows how many girls he was playing around at the same time? The only character I initially liked was Joey; he was strong, put his foot down when Angel came wallowing back. But then his decision at the end kind of tarnished the impression I had of his character.

The plot kind of went round in endless circles, Angel unsure of what she wanted so hooked up with a guy, Joey still turning her down so she hooks up with someone else and so on. I thought that when a life changing situation did happen that Angel would take something from it, but no the story continued to trundle along its same tortuous pointless path.

I really wished I liked this book and had more positive things to say about it but it really wasn’t my cup of tea.