Bea Turvey's Blog, page 5

Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt Review

5 of 5 stars

Drugs and sex (non-explicit) so I would recommend for 14+ readers if you’re sensitive!  Although, if you are a level-headed 11 year-old it is worth picking up as it highlights the dangers of drugs. Be aware,  the hero is 16 and indulges in ‘hook-ups’ and drinks alcohol.

The storyline is basically what it says on the blurb, but there are several deeper issues involved, namely prejudice against travellers; underage drinking; challenging behaviour and pushing boundaries; living with someone who has bipolar disorder.

The story is lazily sweet.  The hero is what everyone wants – good, hardworking, level-headed, non-judgmental, caring…Prince Charming without the princely title or lifestyle. But he’s lost and lonely and needs someone to rely on because his Mum certainly fails in that department.

Jenna was fairly shallow before the accident and since then has been mentally tied in knots over her disfigurement, unable to allow people to see beyond the scars because she would never have been able to.  Cole helps her to cope and get back into society.  He is her knight in shining armour.  She, in her turn, is his steady rock.

A thoroughly lovely apples and cream, curl up and keep you warm book.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: disfigurement, Laura Jarratt, Reviews, Scars, Skin Deep

For the sake of Fashion

I am a slender, captivating, beautiful woman…unless there is a mirror in front of me then my delusions shatter like glass and the mirror remains intact.

It has been a while since I have had to play dress up but when an event calling for black tie comes around it immediately sets your thoughts jogging on the same old track – why did I eat that last slice of cake; why didn’t I start my diet last week/month/year/decade; why did I cancel my gym membership; why didn’t I use my gym membership…yep, the only treadmill I get near to these days is the one in my head!

So, finding myself unable to don any of my glamorous outfits as they appear to have shrunk from disuse (yes, they can do that!) I have to find an alternative.  I decided to go clothes shopping (something I detest unless I’m with giggly friends).  My daughter was supposed to join me but HRH the Duke of Edinburgh saw fit to hold a training day on Saturday so I was left to pound (yes, I am now that heavy!) the arcades of the Eden Shopping Centre on my lonesome (feeling sorry for me yet?  No?  Just wait).  It was bitterly cold and the snow fell gently – it looked wonderful – and converted my once-sleek head of hair into a halo of frizz.  But, no matter, I didn’t once glance at my reflection as I swanned into Monsoon.  There, I found a beautiful beaded gown on the sale rack marked down from £280 to £40 and in my size (almost).  The reason for the severe mark-down was a small ink-stain and, sure enough, rubbing at it with a tiny drop of water from my hair (melted snow) the ink began to disappear.  Wow!  A bargain – something heart-lifting in the first shop!  Unfortunately, it had suffered the same fate as the gorgeous outfits in my wardrobe:  it too had shrunk while it languished, unloved, on the For Sale rack.  But I was not dismayed and bought it – my goal is to lose enough weight to fit into it by August next year when my husband will take me to the opera at the outdoor theatre in Verona (and a good friend had better direct his eyes to this particular sentence or he’ll be married to one seriously pissed off woman come August 2014).

Where was I?  Oh, yes, one gorgeous dress bought – but the item on my list remained unchecked.  So I strolled into a few more shops – horror!  HMV are having a liquidation sale.  I love that shop.  Can never find anything without assistance,  but I love gawking at the covers.  I digress.  Strolling along…more shops…no more evening gowns (where can they have hidden them?  I ask and am told they are only available online as it isn’t ball season!  Really?)…walk into House of Fraser.  Lovely.  I have to go through the shoe department (okay, I might have taken the long way round…).  Found a gorgeous pair of silver heels to go with the dress I am going to buy, reduced by 75%.  Heart even warmer, I make my way up to the second floor.  Bliss.  Colourful, elegant and tidy – this is what Primark lacks.  To top it there are more sale racks and I managed to pick up three gowns to take to the changing rooms.  There is no escaping the mirrors in there.  I look a wreck.  I am deeply grateful to the assistants for managing to contain their stunned laughter.  Of course, the dresses don’t fit – HOF do not do heffalump sizes – and as I struggled to peel off a shimmering aqua creation the tannoy began to announce a sale of some men’s shirts by a well-known famous designer.  Had I accidentally strolled into Tescos when I walked into the changing rooms?  HOF were actually doing a cheesy Grace Brothers meets Asda tannoy announcement.  The only thing missing was the aisle number!  Disillusionment firmly glued in place, I went to find the dining room.  I managed to resist the Danish pastries.

My shopping day ended with a lovely pair of shoes (to match a gown I didn’t own), a gown I couldn’t fit into and hair that looked as though it had been hit by its own personal Hurricane Katrina.  Had my daughter been with me none of those things would have happened.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: ball gown, dresses, Eden Shopping Centre, Fashion, House of Fraser, Monsoon, shoes

Never Too Far Review

Thank goodness for Smashwords otherwise I’d have had to wait another week to read this!

Synopsis: this is book 2 and Blaire finds herself in another situation, like her mother’s illness, where she appears to have no-one to rely on her but herself.  But she isn’t alone and help comes from unexpected quarters – well, unexpected for Blaire who has been let down so many times she daren’t rely on anyone anymore.  But there is one person she isn’t sure she wants help from and that’s Rush, because she isn’t sure she can trust him to put her needs first.

Well, I was desperate to read this book and first may I just say huge thanks to Abbi Glines for her teasers, quick turnaround and sticking to the expected publishing date.  However, I think that in a bid to achieve the latter she may have compromised on storyline for the end felt a little rushed.  I wanted to see more grovelling!!!!!

***************SPOILER ALERT*********************

I didn’t like Rush so much in this one because he kept doing what he promised over and over again he wouldn’t do – hurt Blaire; put his family first; not consider her needs…  And she accepted his lame arse excuses every single time – but then she wouldn’t be the sweet girl she is if she hadn’t.  She was enabling him as much as he ever enabled his bitchy sister.  But that last humongous error – yelling at her and then refusing to talk to her for ten days – was too much.  Blaire was far too soft on him – see what I mean about it feeling a little rushed? (no pun intended)

Another great book.  Teeny-tiny errors that I’m sure loads of people will have emailed about already and a new version will probably be loading as I type (the wonders of the digital era).  But then, we did ask her to hurry up and get the book finished.  I can live with them quite happily to have the book so quickly.  Thank you, Abbi.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: Abbi Glines, Fallen too Far, Never Too Far, Reviews

Silence by Natasha Preston Review

Oakley doesn’t speak through sheer willpower because if she does it will destroy her family.  Cole, her best friend since they were toddlers, is one of the only people to accept her as she is.  Their friendship slowly evolves into something more but Oakley isn’t sure she can, or should, allow those feelings to develop.
It is pretty obvious from the very beginning that a traumatic event led to Oakley’s silence, and most readers will be able to guess it is because of sexual abuse but the details behind it are a shocker.
It  needs editing (hence the four stars), but it is a tale that handles this delicate subject with sensitivity.
I’ve already marked the next book as to read.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: abuse, Natasha Preston, review, Silence

The Girl (Guardians #1) Review

Let me just start by saying, and this may seem weird considering I gave it 4 stars, I wish I hadn’t read this book.  It has left me feeling extremely uncomfortable.  The book is about the age-old war between heaven and hell (although the author has renamed all the main characters and places and ideas). 

I object to the morals in this book.

************SPOILER ALERT****************

The heroine, Emmie, is the current clue to finding ‘the bridge’ which will be the key in enabling the devil to overthrow the human race.  Yes, it is that big of a deal. 

Six guardians (angels) are sent to destroy secret that locates the bridge, so they are keen on getting to Emmie first; they succeed.

The First Guardian (Marcus) and Emmie fall in love…unfortunately.  I say unfortunately because he has already promised himself and married – in angel terms – another guardian.  Because he is a man of his word he remains true to his mate and tells Emmie they cannot be together.

Now, this is where I have a real problem because this puts the star-crossed romance into the realms of pure and simple adultery.  The circumstances of their quest mean Emmie and Marcus continue to cross each other’s paths and, as this is a war of sorts, they are forever consoling/comforting each other.  The book is split into three parts; the second part retells the same story from the first part but from Marcus’ POV – I don’t understand why as all it did was confuse me even more.  He loves Ameana (his mate) and we are treated to a lovely romantic interlude in Dubai.  Apparently he finds it relatively easy to forget Emmie and get it on with Ameana. But then, at the very end of the second section, he reveals he’s been stalking her.  WTH?  It sure didn’t feel like that throughout his POV.  I was seriously p’ed off. 

Emmie – I could not relate to her at all.  She was a spoilt brat who refused to stay away from Marcus.  I accept that she thought they were just boyfriend/girlfriend and those sorts of relationships are transient; no-one bothered to tell her how serious the commitment was, but even so…in fact, when she first kisses Marcus she is in an ague of guilt and confesses to Ameana, asking her for forgiveness.  She even rushes after them to ensure they do not break up over it!  Yet, she continues to hound Marcus for attention!  Aaagh!  Also, she blindly walks into their battles, insisting she wants to help, informing them she is no coward, but she has no weapons or defences.  This, of course, puts them in danger and results in the death of one of the Guardians, but does she feel any remorse for her action?  The teeniest bit guilty?  No – and not one of the other Guardians pulls her up on it either!  The girl drove me mad.  She is unbelievably frustrating.

I was really proud of Ameana – her comeback when Emmie confessed to the kiss, her control when she told Emmie where to get off (third part of the book), even her reaction when Emmie disrespectfully asks Marcus for a date in front of her (yes, you heard right) having first cited that she wanted to be upfront and honest (how could that possibly  justify doing the wrong thing?) was fully in keeping with her character and what any normal woman have done.  Sod the fact that she’s a Guardian, this was not Guardian stuff, this was relationship stuff; the girl walks into her house (her house) and asks her man out?  Tell me what you would do.  Then Marcus has the gall to remove her powers from a Guardian perspective? 

And Marcus – oh, please!  All the lovey dovey stuff with Ameana and then, he tells Emmie he loves her.  He justifies this because (get this) they just cannot waste any more days having her being sad except they spend the next few days playing ball!  Get her to open up and talk to someone you moron!  This is after he has just really enjoyed the fact that Ameana is finally opening up to him – and then he does that to her?  THIS – IS – WHY she had trouble opening up!  Trust, Marcus.  And you blew it big time!

So, that is why I removed one star because that ugly aspect of it made me feel nauseous.  In fact, I’m not going to read the rest of the series for a little while.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: Guardians Trilogy, Lola St. Vil, Reviews, The Girl

Blood-Kissed Sky Review

Wonderful – more vampire wars, more emotional conflicts and Dawn’s position become more precarious.  The only thing missing was…romance.  Okay, we experience a few cuddles and there were a couple of ‘only for you’ sentences, but I really missed the love.

We saw the final twist coming a mile off so it lost much of its impact, and I was a little dubious about the very last scene (fully expecting to hear about their demise), but the dream connection was a great binding tool, I heart Victor and am glad the mother-son duo managed to find a way to keep him in the loop.

‘Dying’ to read the final instalment.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: blood-kissed sky, darkness before dawn trilogy, J A london, review

Darkness Before Dawn Review

Yes! Vampires who are doing what we all know they ought to be doing – controlling the world, corralling humans within walled cities, effectively creating human-blood-bank farms. If you’ve ever wondered why beings with such phenomenal power and ability would do otherwise then this is the book for you. And yes, there is romance and it is believable. Forget the regular high-school scenario of new girl/boy sees their soulmate, this is far more realistic…except, uh, with vampires.

Dawn (ironic:Vampires have to hide from the dawn?) is the new delegate trying to forge better relations between the vamps and humans. Her boyfriend Michael is training to be a vamp-killer, her best friend Tegan (who all the boys love) finds herself falling for the strange new boy. Then, Dawn meets Lord Vamp’s son – I won’t tell you his name for it will just give the game away.

Ooh, some sneaky surprises are in store towards the end.

I really enjoyed the story, the writing was delightful and not overtly sweet or overtly self-absorbed and the characters were just a teeny bit flawed.

Nicely done Mr/s London. Can’t wait for Bk 2.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: darkness before dawn, J A london, review

Darness Before Dawn Review

Yes! Vampires who are doing what we all know they ought to be doing – controlling the world, corralling humans within walled cities, effectively creating human-blood-bank farms. If you’ve ever wondered why beings with such phenomenal power and ability would do otherwise then this is the book for you. And yes, there is romance and it is believable. Forget the regular high-school scenario of new girl/boy sees their soulmate, this is far more realistic…except, uh, with vampires.

Dawn (ironic:Vampires have to hide from the dawn?) is the new delegate trying to forge better relations between the vamps and humans. Her boyfriend Michael is training to be a vamp-killer, her best friend Tegan (who all the boys love) finds herself falling for the strange new boy. Then, Dawn meets Lord Vamp’s son – I won’t tell you his name for it will just give the game away.

Ooh, some sneaky surprises are in store towards the end.

I really enjoyed the story, the writing was delightful and not overtly sweet or overtly self-absorbed and the characters were just a teeny bit flawed.

Nicely done Mr/s London. Can’t wait for Bk 2.

Filed under: New Author Tagged: darkness before dawn, J A london, review

I’m Learning How To Use GIMP

I’m not an artist; the visually creative side of my persona is critically anorexic.  Heck, I can’t even dress myself in anything other than boring jeans and T-shirt without someone wanting to hurl me into a bin before they throw up.  I’m just glad I don’t have to look at me.

Okay, that was an exaggeration but my goal this morning was to get the phrase ‘throw up’ into the blog, so with one tick off my to-do list I can continue.  After a few frustrating months (I’m talking a year and bit ago) where my ideas of my book cover and the publisher’s designer’s ideas of a book cover didn’t gel, I decided to play around and give them an approximation of what I wanted.  You can see the end result (although if you’re reading this after the cover has changed once again then this sentence is redundant).

So, I thought, what a nice little skill to pop under my belt for 2013 if I learn how to Photoshop.  This, of course, was before I saw the price for the software, added on the cost of a course and the amount of time required to attend the course (including driving there and back + homework) and very nearly packed it in (I’m very decisive when it comes to giving up).  Then I remembered GIMP – a piece of software I’m always telling the students to use at home – and decided that I may as well see what all the fuss was about.

GIMP, as I’m sure you already know (otherwise why would you be reading this post?) is a piece of software that allows to manipulate and create digital images.I am going to share my journey with you in the hopes that if I have to record it I am less likely to give up!  I’m going to ignore your reminders about the gym and weight watchers!

I downloaded the software.  Great.  Clicked onto a tutorial in YouTube that immediately launched into brushes and layers and tools and …..what?  None of this was helpful.  I needed something more basic, primarily someone to tell me exactly what the heck all these different things were and why they were.  I believe wholeheartedly that if you explain ‘why’ while you’re explaining the how then it makes more sense and the lesson will stick like glue otherwise we’re talking post-it notes and heavy winds (and  now I know you’re thinking of telling me about that film where that guy had post-it notes all around his room and a tornado lifted them, but just shut up and let me go with my simile because I have to get to work in half an hour). So:

LAYERS: Every image is composed of LAYERS.  Have you seen those greetings cards which are layers of transparencies, each transparency with a different image, so when they are all laid on top of each other they make one picture and it looks slightly 3D?  Well, this is the same.  You create layer upon layer – each with its own unique name.  Let’s take an example:

I will put a picture in here at some point

The blue of the words is one layer; the black outline is another layer and the shadow effect is another layer again.  Now, why?  Well (please remember this is pure speculation and maybe those in the know would care to correct me politely) I think it is to make it easier to manipulate the image at a later date – the shadows can be lengthened, the outline thickened, colours changed, etc  Because each layer exists separately from the others and can be manipulated it makes it easier to alter the picture, fine tune it.  It also means you can add in layers and they can be moved to sit between other layers.  For example, if I wanted to add in a sparkle I would place it between the outline and shadow layer.

You can take a photograph and separate it into layers…more about that later as I don’t know how to do that yet!

BRUSHES: These are fabulous once you’ve added more.  You know all those wonderful flames, icicles, scratches, scars, swirls and curls and curlicues, edges and feathers and leaves that look so fantastic?  I always thought they were painstakingly done pixel by pixel, or even dragged in from other photographs, but no!  They are brushes!  Now, this is where I was completely blown away.  Go to Deviant Art and type in GIMP Brushes in the search field.  You will find a whole array of different things.  Click on the one you want and on the right you’ll find a download button.  Make sure you open and save (look to Windows tutorials for directions on downloading, opening zip files, saving, etc) to the brushes directory (in my case it is user/user/gimp 2.8/brushes).

When you next open gimp and click on brushes (bottom of the Layer panel) you’ll find them all sitting pretty.

http://www.junauza.com/2009/10/25-awesome-gimp-brush-sets-1000-free.html - list of someone’s fav brush sets.

PATTERNS:  Just like the brushes you can download a whole load of different textures and backgrounds.  This time on Deviant Art search for GIMP Pattern and make sure you save the download to the pattern folder.  Again, they won’t show until you exit and reopen Gimp.

These patterns can be used for backgrounds or to enhance the texture of an object (eg a word you want to appear all cracked…sample to appear soon)

GRADIENTS:

TOOLS:

One of the best tutorials I have come across (and I’ve watched loads!).  This chap is concise, no stutters or vagueness and the screen shots are very clear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY6fzWOYtdU

Filed under: New Author Tagged: digital imaging, GIMP, how to, photoshop

Purity (Cursed #3) Review

 Let me start by saying I really enjoyed the other books in this series.  In fact, that last one had me in begging desperation for this one and I scanned the webpages weekly for a publication date.  But I have to say I was disappointed.  The writing quality is the same, the characters are the same, but the big pulling romance just twanged.  In the last book we left Perdita and Nathan released from the curse.  Supposedly, their obsessive connection had disappeared and we were given the impression that their love was the curse and nothing but the curse.  However, in this book, from almost the beginning, we are disabused of this idea.  The couple are still soulmates and as the book progresses it discloses Nathan’s desperate feelings which made me ask ‘Whaaa..?’ when it came to the scene on the patio.  Seriously?  ‘Could he do this?’   Why would he want to?  Why would he even ask the question?  That moment there, when I’d been desperate for more connection just destroyed the anticipation.  Then, as a sucking counterpoint we get few measly paragraphs of togetherness.

Then, there is the big

******************SPOILER ALERT***********

abduction and we are left hanging once more.  Their connection, the compulsive adoration, the long looks and heart-wrenching avowals of affection made the books for me. 

Also, and this is my final negative comment, the ending – talk about draggggggg.  If you’re going to have a long ending in a series like this please make it about the couple.  We needed more.  I needed more!  Feeling seriously short-changed in the romance department.  Perhaps if I’d left it a day before reviewing I’d have given it 4 stars, but I’m feeling glum and pouty.

View all my reviews

Filed under: New Author Tagged: book review, Claire Farrell, Cursed series, Purity