Claire Stevens's Blog, page 57

Waiting On Wednesday - Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it gives us a chance to highlight books that we're awaiting with thrilled-but-cool interest.

This week's Waiting On Wednesday pick is Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine, due for publication on the 2nd July.

Firstly, we need to check out that cover.  Holy shamoly - now that is the cover of a book that demands to be read in the summer!

Here's the blurb:

Iris's father, Ernest, is at the end of his life and she hasn't even met him. Her best friend, Thurston, is somewhere on the other side of the world. Everything she thought she knew is up in flames. Now her mother has declared war and means to get her hands on Ernest's priceless art collection. But Ernest has other ideas. There are things he wants Iris to know after he's gone. And the truth has more than one way of coming to light.

Intriguing, n'est-ce pas?

I'm having a mermaid-themed summer on my blog, but it's not going to be entirely mermaids, so I think I'm definitely going to have to slot this one in somewhere.

What about you?  What  book are you eagerly awaiting?

Cover Reveal - The Glass Mermaid by Poppy Lawless

Poppy Lawless has today revealed the cover for her soon-to-be-released novel The Glass Mermaid.  It's a romance about the last mermaid and a stranger she meets on the shores of a lake.   Check it out - isn't it beautiful?  I can't wait to get my hands on this book and I think it's going to tie in brilliantly with the mermaid theme I'm planning for this blog over the summer.  Here's the blurb...

The Glass Mermaid  Poppy Lawless
Release Date: 14th July 2015
Love Potion Books

Summary from Goodreads:

Kate
I'm the last mermaid.
I’m back on shores of Lake Erie, but the cold waters are silent. There is nothing here for me but ghosts and the beach glass that litters the rocky shore. Long ago, I lived below the waves. Now, I am the sole survivor, and at long last, my mermaid glamour is leaving me.
Every day, I walk the beach. Every day, I wonder what happened to my people. The little pieces of colored glass that wash ashore give me simple pleasure. They are gifts from the lake, reminders of home. I fashion them into trinkets: necklaces, earrings, bracelets. They are beautiful things. The humans seem to love them.
Every day, I walk the beach. Nothing ever changes, until the day he says hello.

Cooper
I’m dying.
It’s not a question, it’s a fact. The cancer is eating me alive. They told me I have six months to live, maybe less. I came home, back to Chancellor on Lake Erie, to die. The sunsets are vivid there, and I will relish every one.
I've never seen anything more beautiful than a Lake Erie sunset until I see her.
All life is fragile as glass.


What would you sacrifice to save the one you love?

Add to Goodreads

About the Author

Romance author. Cupcake connoisseur. Certified herbalist. Beach bum. Fan of all things Starbucks. Holistic healing advocate. Surfer girl wanna-be. Lost guru. Maker of dandelion wine. Counselor. Paranormal buff. Etsy addict. Secretly Jedi. So not a geek girl. Gifted in sarcasm. Hot wife. Ninja mom. And now, I'm ready to share a whole head full of witty, mouthy, smart, lovely, heart-warming, and hot characters with the world. Are you ready?

Poppy Lawless is the author of the forthcoming series Love & Chocolate releasing in 2015 and The Glass Mermaid. Poppy holds degrees in English and Psychology. She is a counselor in the field of mental health and is a trained herbalist. Poppy's new series blends the best of romance with a Practical Magic or contemporary Bewitched appeal.

Author Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

Cover Reveal Organized by:

The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I’m torn with this book.  Really torn.  In some ways it was a great story but unfortunately there were just too many times when I wanted to throw the book out of the window.  Or jump out the window myself.

The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer had the makings of something really special.  You’ve got Mara, a girl who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with all the machines around her hissing and whirring only to be told that she has just been rescued from a collapsed building where three of her friends died.  She can’t remember anything about the accident and is pretty traumatised, so she and her family move to Florida to make a fresh start. 

Gradually we see her descent into madness as she has vivid hallucinations and questions what’s real and what isn’t, slowly losing her grip on reality.  Intertwined with this are a number of mysterious deaths that Mara seems somehow to be able to predict and a boy who may know more than he’s letting on.

See?  It sounds awesome, doesn’t it?  And really the parts describing Mara’s craziness, her self-doubt and some of the things that happen to her are well-written and genuinely spooky.  The author has also done a decent job of fleshing out the supporting cast so you get a real feel for them as people.  The setting is very apt, too.  I’ve only been to Miami once, but the author’s done a really good job of summing up the claustrophobic humidity and the Everglades, which added to the general spookiness.

Really there were just two things I didn’t like about The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer, but unfortunately those two things were Mara and Noah.

God, those two irritated me.  If I was American, I’d call them douchebags, but I’m not American, I’m English and I can’t use words like dude, asshat and douchebag without sounding weird.

Okay, let’s start with Mara.

Mara Dyer has to be the whiniest character I’ve ever come across in a book.  Ever.  She bangs on constantly about her parents being overprotective of her and I’m not going to go on a huge rant about all the thousands of teenagers who have spent their lives being shunted around the system being given only the most perfunctory care and support and how many of them would sell their right bollock (or ovary) to have two capable, loving parents looking out for them at all times, but I will say this: Mara, you just had a building fall on your head.  Your parents are entitled to worry.

Mara has just undergone a tragedy that claimed the lives of three friends and is now hallucinating regularly and admits to herself that she has PTSD. But she doesn't want to see a therapist, or be medicated or talk to her psychologist mother about it. Of course not. Because mental health issues are well documented for going away on their own if you just ignore them. 

And she’s a sociopath.  She seems genuinely unfazed by the fact that she’s killed five people and is now planning to kill another:

With Mabel, Morales - I did everything the right way; calling Animal Control, telling the principal.  But nothing worked until I did it my way.

Here’s a heads-up - Mara's 'way’ is to kill these people.  Like, actually kill them.  She kills her Spanish teacher for giving her a failing grade in her class.  And when she realises what she’s done, she doesn’t give a stuff.

And Noah.  Oh my lord.  What a dick.  The whole trope where a bad-boy/man-whore spends all his time shagging around before meeting our Special Snowflake protagonist who managed to be the girl to change his slutty ways is something that I’m not a huge fan of, but I know some people adore that kind of thing, so I’m going to let that one slide. 

The thing that really confused me was this:  All the girls at school find Noah deeply attractive, yet despite knowing that he’s not interested in a relationship, the girls who hook up with him are so distraught when he dumps them that one girl actually attempts suicide.  Suicide!  Seriously, what has this boy got going on?  Is his penis made of crack or something?

So then Mara joins their school and she’s only been there for two nanoseconds before he decides he’s going to be her stalker.  He cuts his own classes and sits in on hers (the teachers are fine with this, by the way), and sits staring at her for the whole lesson.  And then he seems to pop up wherever she is and eventually rounds off his creepy behaviour by announcing to a group of classmate-bullies that Mara is his girlfriend without consulting her first.  Also, he goes to a costume party not wearing a costume (knob) and tells Mara that he has a dark and mysterious past (double knob). Mara is charmed by this behaviour, but that’s mainly because Noah plays the Hot Guy Get-Out Clause.

What’s the Hot-Guy Get-Out Clause, I hear you ask?  Well, let me tell you.

Whenever I think a female character is putting up with unacceptable behaviour just because the guy perpetrating it is hot, (Edward sneaking into Bella’s bedroom to watch her sleep; anything Christian Grey does, ever), I ask myself the following question:  What would her reaction be if the person behaving like this was a 50-year-old guy with a hairy back and halitosis?  The usual answer is: She’d go to the police.  Except she doesn’t, because he has the Hot-Guy Get-Out Clause.  You see, they’re only a stalker if you don’t fancy them back.

So instead of getting a restraining order out (like she would if it was the hairy 50-year-old) Mara simpers and sighs and calls him an asshole without any real conviction and goes on with this tedious internal monologue about how hot he is.

Well, at least they didn’t fall in instalove.  Oh, wait...

So yeah, Mara and Noah are idiots.  Hey, maybe that’s why he only stays with girls for a few days.  Maybe he’s just sorting through all of them to try and find someone as unpleasant as he is.

Such a shame, because in other respects this is a really awesome book.

I might carry on with this series.  I might.  But unless the first scene of the next book involves a grand piano dropping out of the sky onto Mara and Noah’s heads then I can’t see it going well.

2.5/5

Stacking the Shelves - Mermaid Books

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

This week I have mostly been stacking my ebook shelves with books about mermaids.  It's now 56 days until I go on holiday to the beach (not that I'm ticking the days off until the end of term on my calendar or anything!) and the beach I'm going to in Devon is exactly the sort of place I think you'd find a mermaid.  If they existed.  So yeah, I've got a mermaid hankering at the moment.  So far, I've got:

Flukes by Nichole Chase
The Watersong Series by Amanda Hocking (I think they're actually sirens, though)
Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings by Helene Boudreau
Everblue by Brenda Pandos

And I'm totally in the market for more recommendations, if you have any!

Feature and Follow Friday #7 Favourite Characters

Feature and Follow Friday, hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee, the purpose of the linky party is to find new bookish blogs to follow and for other bloggers to in turn follow your blog!


This week, the featured question is: If you could step into one character's shoes (in a book) and be them for a day, who would it be and why?  Also, if you want to be creative, what scene and why?  Suggested by Seeing Night Book Reviews

Wow.  This is a hard one.  I think if I had to pick any character, I'd like to be Jacqueline from Easy by Tammara Webber.  My reasons are:

1)  She's musical (I am not) and rocks a double bass.

2) She's very strong and independent.

3) Lucas is my ultimate book boyfriend .

As for which scene...  If you've read Easy, you'll know that there are some saucy bits in it, so given the hotness of Lucas, I'll leave it to your imagination which scene I'd like to be in!

What about you?  What literary character would you like to be and why?  Feel free to follow me on Bloglovin', Twitter or Goodreads.

Have a superb Friday everyone! 

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

I read this book last summer and I think I'm going to read it again this summer as well. It's one of those books that's just perfect for taking to the beach. It's the story of Emily, a shy introvert who finds a best friend in Sloane, a confident extrovert and gradually comes out of her shell. Then, one day, Sloane disappears, leaving only a letter behind, detailing thirteen tasks that Emily must complete over the summer. Emily hopes that if she completes the tasks, she'll somehow be led to Sloane.

I really liked this book. It's about friendship and seizing life by the horns and making the most of opportunities. It's also about not letting other people define who we are and making our own way in the world, and it gives these messages without being boring or preachy. It was There's a bit of romance, but it's not overpowering or instalovey. It's just a real feel-good story. 

One thing I would say is that it's kind of a long story. I didn't mind too much as a lot of it was backfilling Emily and Sloane's friendship with anecdotes, but it could put off some people, I guess.


4/5

Waiting On Wednesday - The Boy Most Likely To

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:


The Boy Most Likely To
by Huntley Fitzpatrick

UK Publication Date: 18th August 2015

From Amazon:
Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To find the liquor cabinet blindfolded, need a liver transplant, and drive his car into a house

Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To . . . well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters.

For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard.

Then the unexpected consequences of Tim’s wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn’t all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted . . . but maybe should have.

And Alice is caught in the middle.

Ooh...sounds good, yes?  I think that book might come to the beach with me this summer.

What about you?  What book can't you wait to get your hands on this summer?

Top Ten Tuesday - Hotly Anticipated Books

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by the lovely folk at The Broke and the Bookish, because everyone likes a good list, don't they?  And if the list is to do with books, then so much the better!

Today we are talking about all those books we are anticipating for the rest of the year! 

10.  Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.  It's the first part in a new series and I usually wait until series are finished or at least near the end before I jump on board, but this on looks so good I might make an exception.

9.  This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp.  School shootings generally aren't my preferred reading material, but this one looks pretty special.

8.  This Raging Light by Estelle Laure.  I'm a bit of a sucker for a decent love story and I have high hopes for this one.

7.  Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon.  I actually read an ARC of this a little while ago, but I'm still looking forward to its official release to see what everyone's reaction is going to be.  (I thought it was ace!)

6.  Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway.  Another love story and it's going to be out in time for beach reading!

5.  One by Sarah Crossan.  The story of conjoined twins trying to adapt to mainstream schooling.  The blurb warns that there are 'heart-wrenching decisions'.  Another good beach book, I think. 

4.  Another Day by David Levithan.  I loved Every Day and I love David Levithan, so to see the story from Rhiannon's POV will be awesome.

3.  Pretending To Be Erica by Michelle Painchaud.  A heist book with a girl pretending to be a missing heiress.  Gotta be good.

2.  Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee.  I'm nervous as hell to read it, because I'm wondering how it could possibly be as good as the original, but I'm going to give it a whirl anyway.

And my most hotly-anticipated pick is...

1.  Winter by Marissa Meyer.  I'm not going to go on a massive rant about how much I love this series.  Suffice to say that I'm marking the days on my calendar for this release.

What about you?  What books are you counting down the days to?

Please Take Note...

Family, please take note: I have serious reading time pencilled in for tomorrow.

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Tales of the City is the first in a series by Armstead Maupin.  It’s set in the mid seventies in San Francisco and follows an intertwined group of characters, some of whom rent apartments in a building on Barbary Lane, and others who are affiliated with an advertising agency. 

I enjoyed this book a lot and I think what makes it so special are the characters.  The author uses his words really sparingly but you get a true sense of who all these people are.  Although Mary-Anne is supposed to be the main character (I think), everyone gets equal airtime and their personalities are fleshed out well.  I loved Anna Madrigal, the wise landlady, and Michael Mouse on his eternal quest for true love. 

You also get a real sense of time.  I wasn’t around when the book was set and I’ve never been to the west coast of America, but the whole story was very evocative of this time and place.  In some respects it was quite seedy – there’s a whole lot of drugs and no-strings-attached sex – and in other ways it’s really very innocent and naïve.  Most of the characters are looking for love, in one way or another, and it was set in a time before AIDS and HIV had appeared.

The book doesn’t have a definite plot as such; instead it’s presented as a series of vignettes, tiny glimpses into the characters’ lives and their interactions with each other.  Each chapter is only two or three pages long and gradually they build on how one person’s actions affect other.  It kind of feels like a gossip column at times – kind of fluffy and escapist – but still manages to be a good read.

Also it’s worth mentioning that this book was pretty groundbreaking for the time it was written in, featuring characters of a variety of sexualities and gender-identification in a matter-of-fact way.

One of the things I thought was, if not annoying, then certainly bizarre, was how all the characters were intertwined.  They don’t start off as friends, or knowing each other at all really, but gradually they all connect through a series of chance meetings and coincidences.   The coincidences seemed a bit contrived in some cases.  I’ve never been to San Francisco, but I’m assuming that because it’s a city, it’s … you know … big.  And that a lot of people live there.  So really, what are the chances that

Another thing that I found difficult to get on with was the dialogue.  Personally – and this is only my opinion - I like to read dialogue interspersed with some actions to make it seem like a real scene.

Okay, here’s what Armistead Maupin does:

“What about San Francisco?"
"What about it?"
"Did you like it?"
She shrugged. "It was O.K."
"Just O.K.?"
She laughed. "Good God!"
"What?"
"You're all alike here."
"How so?" he asked.
"You demand adoration for the place. You're not happy until everybody swears undying love for every nook and cranny of every precious damn --"
"Whoa, missy."
"Well, it's true. Can't you just worship it on your own? Do I have to sign an affadavit?"
He chuckled. "We're that bad, are we?"
"You bet your ass you are.”

This happened a lot and I had no idea how much this would irritate me, but it really does!  It didn’t feel like a real conversation; it was more like reading a movie script.

I’m not sure if I’ll carry on with this series.  I really liked the characters and the plot was left in a good place without a cliffhanger, so I don’t feel any burning need to see what happened next.  I also think that some of the innocence and naivity that I liked would, necessarily, be lost in further books because it won’t be long before HIV and AIDS and yuppies rear their heads.  Maybe I’ll just leave it where it is.

7/10