Wednesday, 8 August 2012

666 Park Avenue - Gabriella Pierce

Jane thought she was living a fairy tale. Now she has to contend with burgeoning magical powers and a soon-to-be mother-in-law who is a witch ... literally Welcome to New York City, where the socialites are witches.

Jane Boyle has been living a fairy tale. When her boyfriend Malcolm proposes, Jane can't believe her luck and decides to leave her Paris-based job as a fledgling architect and make a new start with him in New York. But when Malcolm introduces Jane to the esteemed Doran clan, one of Manhattan's most feared and revered families, Jane's fairy tale takes a darker turn. Now Jane must struggle with new found magical abilities and the threat of those who will stop at nothing to get them.

Welcome to 666 Park Avenue....


*~*~*

When I first got this book I thought it sounded quite interesting, but being honest, I wasn't hyped as it was an adult book. It was actually a book that has taken 4 months of picking up, putting down and restarting as there was just something not letting me give up on this book, and honestly, I'm glad I kept going!

Jane Boyle meets an extremely attractive art dealer in Paris (where she first lives), and after particularly small worldwind amount of romance over the space of a month of dating he proposes. This is first where I was confused...honestly I wouldn't have accepted after that short time dating (neither would most women I feel!), and this feeling kept with me. Jane keeps wondering what is going on, and I just wanted to keep pointing out she got there herself! This does get made clearer towards the second half of the book, but I spent the first half thinking that Jane was some head over heals in love school girl (which is something I expect from my YA reading, not so much from adult literature). With this then she suddenly picks up her life in Paris and moves to New York to live in his mansion/house/family home, and again something that came across odd to me.

Then we meet his mother...and boy she scares me! I don't think witch is the word to describe her...some other word very very similar would work though, and I felt the character was written brilliantly as it was the perfect amount of "witchiness" (again different word...but since this is a book about witches it works well!) without being over the top, which can happen far too often in some books. As the book went on it dragged for me. It was brilliantly written but I just couldn't get past certain character flaws within Jane and Malcolm and their relationship and how he just kept vanishing. Also be warned there are quite a few graphic sex scenes at the start of the book and then a few towards the middle, which some people may not approve of.

As I mentioned, towards the end of the book this is all explained, but if it had hinted earlier to what was happening then I would have been more interested in the book and finished it sooner! At first, I will admit, I thought it was bad character writing that put me off but once all the witchiness was explained by Malcolm (unfortunately around chapter 37) the little light bulb went off in my head and I began to love the book.

The book ended at a nice point where it is open to so many different opportunities and directions it could go in, and for that reason I am looking forward to reading the second book, just to see what happens and how Jane begins to learn more about her family.


666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce is the first in a trilogy, and was released in the UK on 2nd August 2012. I received my copy from Canvas publishing in exchange for an honest review. 

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Just a quickie...

tinsy tiny little post to wish the most utterly awesome friend I have....

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAIMY!!

If you haven't already then please go check out her blog today, and wish her a happy birthday on twitter =) 

Monday, 6 August 2012

Oh look...she's back again!

Yes...I know...I'm awful...but these 4 months off have been good for me.

When I stopped in February I was feeling down about myself as a blogger...I began to feel jealous of my friends getting ARCs I wish I could read and knew that wasn't something I planned when I began blogging...add into that a change in jobs, a wedding to plan and friends who dragged me out of the house and away from my laptop and books *hugs both furiously*

So I had a think...I stopped reading...I stopped tweeting as much and just relaxed...and still found myself reading and wanting to tell people.

This reminded me why I wanted to do this...so I could share the awesome books with people and increase the amount of books I owned and read. Not so I could care if people were reading, or so I could gain new friends (though I wouldn't change them for the world now I have them!).

A lot has been coming out lately in regards to book blogging and it's scared me a bit how the community is changing. All I know is the group I started with, are all staying out of it and I will be too! It did put me off returning a bit but I'm just going to try and keep out of it all and hope nothing comes out about UK Bloggers!

So I'm back, and this time I truly mean it. I have lots of fun reviews to share, and hopefully some that will interest you!

Thank you for sticking through and still following :)

Love,

Steffikins x

Sunday, 19 February 2012

IMM (#19) 19/02/12


In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren as a way of showing off our addiction to books every week. You can learn more about this here. 


Good morning all!! 


Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday morning, I know I am...I have cinnamon roll pop tarts!! =D its the simple things in life...


Anyway the books from this week...


Won
Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult


The lovely @Tescobooks had a competition on Twitter to win a copy of this...it doesn't come out here for another 2 weeks and she is by far one of my favourite authors! I actually screamed in the sandwich shop on my lunch break, when I got the email...needless to say I won't be going back there any time soon!


For Review
666 Park Avenue - Gabriella Pierce


My sister's boyfriend (Mr John Slavin...he writes about cars here...) told Emily from Corsair and Canvas that I (attempt) to book blog and she sent me this pretty book! 


So this week both books are adult, rather than Young Adult, but can't see why I won't like them! =) 


What did you all get this week?


Hope you all have a lovely weekend...I'm off to make bread and cookies!


Steffikins 
x x 

Sunday, 12 February 2012

IMM (#18) 12/02/12

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren as a way of showing off our addiction to books every week. You can learn more about this here. 


So yes remember how I said at the start of January:
"I have too many books at the moment so won't be buying any..."


Of course that rule always gets broken when I go to see Raimy...who had also got a whole pile of books from Keris, which are on show here! I unfortunately missed seeing Keris that weekend due to mass piles of traffic...a 2 hour drive took 8 hours...needless to say I cried when I missed food and missed seeing Keris... never mind needing to pee for 3 hours!! But anyway on to the books...


Borrowed from Raimy
Divergent - Veronica Roth
In Darkness - Nick Lake
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson


Borrowed from Keris
Kissing Kate - Lauren Myracle
Pretty Bad Things - C.J.Skuse


I've been working on getting through Pretty Bad Things which is amazing so far...I did read Oranges are not the only fruit around 5 years ago in College but I feel I need to re-read it. 


Also today...The wonderful Emma from Book Angel Booktopia asked me to review Wonder and I did for her. It will be up today so run and have a look....especially at the rest of her blog as it's amazing!


What did you all get to read this week?

Monday, 16 January 2012

Kill All Enemies - Melvin Burgess

Everyone says fourteen-year-old Billie is nothing but trouble. A fighter. A danger to her family and friends. But her care worker sees someone different.


Her classmate Rob is big, strong; he can take care of himself and his brother. But his violent stepdad sees someone to humiliate.
And Chris is struggling at school; he just doesn't want to be there. But his dad sees a useless no-hoper.


Billie, Rob and Chris each have a story to tell. But there are two sides to every story, and the question is ...who do you believe?


Kill All Enemies is a very thought provoking story and made me think a lot back to when I was their age.


My Secondary school was one of the worst in the town and often had kids that were refused in other schools due to behavioural problems and attitudes. The book helped me see into their side of the story and what may be contributing to how the act at school...possibly not something everyone would notice (my Psychology brain was going into over load reading this!) but I really believe this is a book many teachers should read as well as kids so that they can understand more why the kids are acting this way. 


Melvin Burgess has written other novels, and I loved Junk and found Kill All Enemies so different...but still just as brilliantly written! 


At first the novel took a while to get into because of all the different story lines, I was also trying to read quickly and find out more and more...which can be very detrimental and meant I often had to reread pages because I was in such a rush!! 


The question of "Who do you believe?" really made reading the book take so much longer because I kept stopping to sit and think which side was correct...was Billie correct in her way of thinking or was she actually the troublemaker that the social workers and police think she is? Part of her story made my heart break when she finally got to see her sister and brother again. 


It really is a book that makes you feel so much for the characters and you can't help but emphasise with them, but then something happens and Burgess gives you the choice of whether to continue emphasising with the kids, or side with the law and the social workers...which for me made the book more enjoyable and really made me want to read more and find the next step. 


I really advise this book, as it really makes you rethink how you look at kids with anti-social behaviour

Sunday, 8 January 2012

IMM (#17) - 25/12 & 1/1 & 8/1

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren as a way of showing off our addiction to books every week. You can learn more about this here. 


So it's been very busy, with all the holidays and celebrations (I hope you all had a great time!!) so I apologise for this massive massive list!!! It's just been piling up lately...




Gift
The Watch Series (7 book collection) - Terry Pratchett
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
The C-word - Lisa Lynch (From Aliix)
Sisters Red -  Jackson Pearce (From Vickie @ Comacalm)
His Dark Materials - Philip Pulman


I have lovely people who send me books <3 All the fantasy ones are from ESP for Christmas...I don't read fantasy so this could be interesting!! Maybe I'll find out I love it more than YA....(as if...). Both Aliix and Vickie are super lovely people to send me pretty books! I've been eyeing up these books for months so very happy to get them =D


Bought
Marcelo in the Real World - Francisco X. Stork
Hidden - Miriam Halahmy
Inside Out - Maria V. Snyder
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher
Torn - Cat Clarke


So just after Christmas I began raiding the sales on Amazon...teehee...I've heard some great things about some of these books...then others I haven't heard anything about yet, so I am hoping to find another treasure like 0.4! Then of course I had to buy Torn!! Think that may get started this afternoon =)


Borrowed/Review
Wonder - R.J. Palacio
A Guide to the Harry Potter Novels - Julia Eccleshare


Wonder sounds AMAZING! Emma received this for the Book Tours and asked if I would read it for her...of course I'll say yes! =D i was eyeing up the guide to the Harry Potter novels at Nikki's Christmas party...and then she let me borrow it and its really interesting...well if you enjoy looking at the background of everything and being critical! 


I now have over 40 books to read and review...and some are getting close to the dates (I'm a procrastinator...) so I may not be posting IMMs for a while as I will not be buying!


Can't wait to see what you all got!! 


Love Steffikins


xxx