Sunday, June 30, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
After Daybreak Review
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| 336 pages |
Dawn returns from L.A. with terrifying news: In his greed for power, the maniacal Day Walker Sin is raising an army and infecting his followers with the Thirst—a rabieslike disease that will turn them into mindless killers. To stop him, Dawn and Victor will have to convince humans and vampires to work together before it’s too late.
Review:
All I can say is I absolutely LOVED this novel! This is such an amazing vampire series that builds up to an amazing end. Dawn is the ideal heroine, strong and smart, despite everything she has found out that has the potential to completely change her life. Victor continues to be the strong supportive guy I'm sure we all love. I liked the fact that we get to see more of the inner workings of the vampires in this novel. There is a lot of action and excitement as Dawn and Victor travel trying to save everyone they love. All of my questions are answered at the end of this book although I do wish we had been able to see if Dawn experiences any physical changes after what she's discovered. This whole series has been a mass of adventure and danger and this last novel wraps it up neatly. I definitely recommend you read this novel if you like vampire and dystopian fiction, but make sure to read Darkness Before Dawn and Blood-Kissed Sky first.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Movie Monday: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Trailer
By now I'm sure we've all heard of The Hobbit and if you're an avid reader, probably read it as well. If you haven't read the book you should definitely go pick it up. The movie makers decided to split the book up into three movies. The first movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was amazing! And now finally the trailer for the second is out. I absolutely cannot wait all the way until December for this movie to be released!!!!!
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Dance of the Red Death Review
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| 336 pages Release date: June 11th, 2013 |
Review (ARC):
Well this was interesting. By interesting I mean not really exciting but captured my attention long enough to finish it. The one thing about this series is that the world created is so bleak and full of despair that you just don't know whether anything the characters do will make it better. Araby has grown a little but not by much, as she still has a certain weakness that I don't like to see in heroines. The whole love triangle between Araby, Elliot, and Will is just downright depressing at times since it seems like everyone is using Araby for one reason or another. Prospero is supposed to be this big bad villain but he mostly does some strange things and I feel like the confrontation between him and Araby isn't as exciting as it should be. Despite all of these small issues, the story itself is one full of danger and action with an ending that will either satisfy you or upset you depending on who you want Araby to end up with. I would recommend this to those who have read Masque of the Red Death, but if you haven't, this isn't really a must-read.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
Fall of Night Review
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| 352 pages |
Claire never thought she’d leave Morganville, but when she gets accepted into the graduate program at MIT, she can’t pass up the opportunity. Saying good-bye to her friends is bittersweet, especially since things are still raw and unsettled between Claire and her boyfriend, Shane. Her new life at MIT is scary and exciting, but Morganville is never really far from Claire’s mind. Enrolled in a special advanced study program with Professor Irene Anderson, a former Morganville native, Claire is able to work on her machine, which is designed to cancel the mental abilities of vampires. But when she begins testing her machine on live subjects, things quickly spiral out of control, and Claire starts to wonder whether leaving Morganville was the last mistake she’ll ever make...
Review:
This is the fourteenth book in The Morganville Vampires Series and it continues to bring excitement and a fresh storyline! I'm actually amazed at how the author continuously comes up with new material to keep this series alive. Once again this series has evolved to be told from different character perspectives, in this case Claire and Shane. Claire has grown so much from the shy character in the first novels and as she steps outside of Morganville, she brings her new attitude with her. Although you would think its safer outside of Morganville, there are more hidden dangers than Claire actually realized. Shane has also grown, becoming a more mature individual, and its interesting to see what he goes through having to be apart from Claire for a while. There are so many new things introduced in this story, that you just have to wonder what other surprises will be thrown our way as this series continues. The ending threw me off of a cliff and now all I can do is hang there, impatiently anticipating the next novel in this series. I definitely recommend this novel, especially if you're a fan of the Morganville Vampire series. Make sure to check out the other novels in this series if you're unfamiliar with it and looking for a new series to get into.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Icons Review
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| 428 pages |
Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting. Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid. She's different. She survived. Why? When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy. Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.
Review:
I liked the storyline of this novel but I can't really say the same about the characters. Something about the relationships between Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas just didn't seem very real. Dol is an interesting character but her personality quickly becomes tiring in all of its general moodiness. Ro is just angry most of the time so I'm not his biggest fan. I really liked Lucas since he seems to have the potential to be an amazing guy, but his mommy issues turned me off a bit. Tima is smart with an amazing ability and maybe if she was the main character I would like her, but that isn't the case. There is a love square here and I'm curious to see how it all turns out since it seems to be confusing at times. The story itself is full of adventure, some weird bad guys, and a society controlled by aliens. I loved that everything wasn't obvious from the start, and we had to actually figure out the connection between Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas as the story went on. I also like the fact that we don't know a lot about the aliens so it probably won't be easy for the main characters to defeat them as well. Although I wasn't necessarily satisfied at the end of this novel, I'm hoping for more development of the characters in the next one. I would recommend this if you like science fiction type novels with strange aliens.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Ms Book Queen Attends BEA 2013
Last week I had the pleasure of attending BEA for the first time. It was extremely overwhelming yet wonderful. There was a large buffet of different activities going on at once such as author signings, special events, and of course giveaways of free books! All of the biggest names in publishing were there as were some major authors. Although it wasn't overly crowded, the lines to see favorite authors and get exclusive copies of books were exceptionally lengthy at some points. Some of the lines just to get a bag to carry things in were insane, and it was especially hard to get your hand on Mc Graw Hill Education's awesome red bags.
Attending one of the Spencer Hill Press' Author Breakfasts was an amazing experience. It was great getting to meet some wonderful authors and the team over at Spencer Hill. We were able to hear about the author's upcoming and current projects as well as enjoy some great food!
One of the things that I've learned for next year is that it is very important to get to your desired locations early or you'll be stuck waiting on a long line forever. Also if you plan on picking up more than a few books it's a good idea to bring along a rolling suitcase. The suitcase can be checked in, and you can walk back and forth dropping books off throughout the day.
I'm definitely looking forward to attending BEA next year and I'm glad I got a chance to experience such a fun event! Check out some of the fun Ms Book Queen had at BEA below and be on the lookout for some book giveaways next week!
Attending one of the Spencer Hill Press' Author Breakfasts was an amazing experience. It was great getting to meet some wonderful authors and the team over at Spencer Hill. We were able to hear about the author's upcoming and current projects as well as enjoy some great food!
One of the things that I've learned for next year is that it is very important to get to your desired locations early or you'll be stuck waiting on a long line forever. Also if you plan on picking up more than a few books it's a good idea to bring along a rolling suitcase. The suitcase can be checked in, and you can walk back and forth dropping books off throughout the day.
I'm definitely looking forward to attending BEA next year and I'm glad I got a chance to experience such a fun event! Check out some of the fun Ms Book Queen had at BEA below and be on the lookout for some book giveaways next week!
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| Ms Book Queen with R.L. Stein |
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| Spencer Hill Press Author Breakfast Ms Book Queen with Editor Trisha J. Wooldridge and Authors Kelly Hashway and Sarah Guilty |
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| Spencer Hill Press Author Breakfast |
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| Lines for the author signings |
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| Alethea Kontis with her new book Hero |
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| Lines on the show floor |
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| Lines on the show floor |
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| Author Richelle Mead signing her new book Gameboard of the Gods |
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| Authors Kimberly Miller and Elizabeth Langston |
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| LEGOS! |
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| Ms Book Queen's place of rest! |
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| Ms Book Queen with Olivia the Pig! |
Monday, June 3, 2013
Movie Monday: Catching Fire Trailer
Are you ready for the second movie based on The Hunger Games series? I sure am! Check out the trailer below and make sure to pick up Catching Fire if you haven't done so already!
