Blog Tour: The Forever Girl Treasure Hunt

The Forever Girl part 10.
IVORY CONVINCED me to join her on the dance floor. The dark music quickened my pulse and one song blended into the next: smooth, enchanting, hypnotic.
A gathering of voices, somehow clearer than the music, swelled around me, reminding me of the real reason I’d agreed to come along. If I didn’t take a break, I’d burn out before I got a chance to talk to Adrian about his books. I hollered to Ivory that I would meet her at the table.
On my way, I passed a group of women piled into one side of a booth, crowding a decent-enough man. Two other men sat across from them. The lady-killer captured my gaze, and a cool sensation, followed by warmth, tingled my brain. For the first time in weeks, my mind grew quiet. But, instead your code is a of the calm I expected, the silence was unsettling.



Welcome to the treasure hunt tour for The Forever Girl!

Here's how it's done:

Each stop on the tour will have a small excerpt with a code hidden it. Visit all the stops to gather the letters, unscramble the phrase, and email it to :

sandra.ashton-holtzman@bookandblogservices.com

The stops list can be found here

The winner will receive a goody bag including:

1 Forever Girl Ring
1 Forever Girl Keychain
1 Forever Girl Necklace
1 Forever Girl Bookmark
1 Forever Girl Candle
1 signed copy of The Forever Girl
1 signed copy of the companion novella, Her Sweetest Downfall

IMMORTALIZATION: The author will also immortalize the lucky winner by giving them a cameo appearance in the next Forever Girl book.

Bonus: If you've already reviewed The Forever Girl on Amazon, include the link to your review along with the unscrambled phrase for an additional entry!



“Sophia's family has skeletons, but they aren't in their graves.

At twenty-two, practicing Wiccan Sophia Parsons is scratching out a living waiting tables in her Rocky Mountain hometown, a pariah after a string of unsolved murders with only one thing in common: her.

Sophia can imagine lots of ways to improve her life, but she'd settle for just getting rid of the buzzing noise in her head. When the spell she casts goes wrong, the static turns into voices. Her personal demons get company, and the newcomers are dangerous.

One of them is a man named Charles, who Sophia falls for despite her better judgment. He has connections that might help her unveil the mystery surrounding her ancestor's hanging, but she gets more than she bargains for when she finally decides to trust him.

Survival in his world, she learns, means not asking questions and staying out of the immortal council's way. It's a line she crossed long ago. If Sophia wants to survive the council and save the people she loves, she must accept who she is, perform dark magic, and fight to the death for her freedom.

The Forever Girl is a full-length Paranormal Fantasy novel that will appeal to lovers of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, witches, vampires, ghosts, paranormal mystery, and paranormal horror.”



This Blog Tour is brought to you by:

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Book and Blog Services is a new website to help fill that gap. They offer affordable book tours, editing, and graphic design. Bloggers can get in on it by signing up as a tour host for a chance to win books and gift cards. There’s something for everybody and a lot more to come, so check it out!

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Review: Imperative By P.A. Wilson

★★★☆☆ Imperative: Book One of the Quinn Larson Quests. By P.A. Wilson

 Urban Fantasy is another of my favorite genres to read, I love the idea of mythical, magical beings living and working side by side with us yet hidden from view of all but a few sensitives. 
Vampires seem to be the most frequently depicted of the UF creatures, and I'm not much of a vampire fan, so I was delighted and intrigued to see that Imperative focused on fairies, sidhe, and magic users rather than vampires or werewolves.

Set in Vancouver Canada, Imperative is told in from the point of view of Quinn Larson, a young wizard (young by wizarding standards at least) who inadvertently witnesses not only the murder of a human by a fairy, but also a strange transaction between the murderer and a hooded Sidhe.
In order to protect the humans from death by fae and to keep them from discovering and eradicating the Real Folk, Quinn takes it upon himself to find out just what's going on and stop it before its too late.
Quinn is aided in this quest, primarily by a pixie named Olan, who had been tasked centuries ago to protect the humans, and later a witch named Cate.

Aside from who I'd consider to be the main characters there is also is a colorful cast of secondary characters, all of which are of the magical persuasion, fairies and pixies, witches wizards, sidhe, spirits and even a goddess or two.  All of whom are well written and three dimensional.  The fairies are depicted well and the lore seems well researched, especially the demeanors and ethics of the sidhe.  That alone warranted a star in this review as I find very little as annoying as when lore is rewritten just to suit a story.

This was a very easy read, though it seemed to get a bit choppy through the last quarter of the book, and I didn't care at all for the way it ended, I would be interested in reading more of Quinn's adventures.

Quinn reminded me a bit of Harry Dresden, though he's doesn't have that accidental hero aspect that Harry does. I enjoyed Quinns quips and sarcasm, both internalized and vocalized.

One thing that I was taken aback by was the fact that Quinn is male, even though Quinn is repeatedly referred to as a wizard I spent almost half the book I was incredibly surprised when he made mention of going to the barber for a shave, Yes, Quinn is male, but because I'd read him as a female for so much of the book, it took a conscious effort for me to think of him as male through the rest of the book.  I'm not sure how I made the mistake, though I blame it partially on only ever knowing Quinns that were women, and that the previous book I read of Ms. Wilson's had a female protagonist.

I gave this book 3 stars instead of 5 for a number of reasons.  Though the characters were very well done and the book was easy to read I found it easy to put down as well.  It felt at times like I was missing something, and found myself having to go back to see if I really had missed a page.

Quinn referrers to himself as a Real Folk throughout the book and I was left confused as to what wizards and witches are in that world. Quinn is not a fairy or a Sidhe or anything else not human, yet he considers himself to be separate from humans.  I'm not sure if its just magical human vs. mundane human or if there is something intrinsically different between wizards/witches and humans in Quinn's world.  Hopefully this will be dealt with in later books, but I found it confusing.  More back history on Quinn would have been nice too, He seems reluctant to talk about himself and I felt like I never really got to know him on more than a surface level.  The ending seemed rushed, it left me hanging and not in an enjoyable way, more of a "that's it?" kind of way, but I will attribute that to the ongoing nature of these books.  They aren't so much separate stories featuring the same characters but more of a continuation of events from book to book.

I do plan on giving Compulsion a read at some point but I think I'm more interested in Ms. Wilson's mystery series than I am in the urban fantasy.


(DISCLOSURE: I received Imperative as a gift from Ms. Wilson in exchange for an honest review, the preceding review is just that, my honest opinion of the book. Also the cover image and link contains my Amazon Affiliate link, if you purchase the book via that link I make a small commission.)

Review: Unenchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 1)

Unenchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 1) by Chanda Hahn

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

From Goodreads:  Mina Grime is unlucky, unpopular and uncoordinated, that is until she saves her crush's life on a field trip, changing her High School status from loser to hero overnight. But with her newfound fame brings misfortune as an old family curse come to light. For Mina is descended from the Brothers Grimm and has inherited all of their unfinished fairy tale business. Which includes trying to outwit a powerful Story from making her its next fairytale victim. To break the fairy tale curse on her family and stop these deadly events, Mina must finish the tales until the very Grimm end.

I found this little gem in the free section of Amazon's kindle book section, and I have to admit, I was thoroughly surprised at how good it was. I was immediately drawn by the synopsis of the book, and although it seemed a little slow going at first, the remainder definitely made up for the beginning. In fact, I was upset at how abrupt the ending was as I was not ready for it to be over yet!

I do have to say that the two male "leads" in this story reminded me a lot of two characters from the Twilight series. Brody (who reminded me of Edward) is a rich (although popular) boy, who falls for a clumsy unpopular girl, and he drives with her too fast after she is attacked. The other main boy Jared (who reminded me of Jacob), rides a motorcycle and is described as "dangerous". That is where the similarities end however, and the fact that these two did remind me of Twilight characters did not take away from the overall plot of the story as there were more than enough differences to set the two apart.

I loved this book overall, and cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of Book 2! 

My final thoughts on Unenchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 1)

NEGATIVE:
-  I found it very hard to believe that a teenage girl in this day an age did not know what "tweeting" was.
- One very interesting scene suddenly seemed ridiculous by the inclusion of a "donkey in a hat".

POSITIVE: 
+ The overall plot begins to pick up and become more interesting in Chapter 5, when Mina finally learns the  truth about who she is.
+ A fresh, imaginative take on the original "Grimm Brothers" fairy tales.

The book is still currently available for download for FREE by clicking the link below:

UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale)

{The above link to the book on Amazon does contain my Affiliate link. By purchasing this book through my link, I make a very small commission that goes towards the purchase of more books for review. You are under no obligation at any time to click on one of my Affiliate links.}

Rina's Reviews: Bzzagent Book Review: The Dark Monk

 Since this book was read and reviewed as part of a BzzAgent campaign the review is posted at my personal review blog rather than here. But please feel free to comment here on it if you are inclined to comment.

Rina's Reviews: Bzzagent Book Review: The Dark Monk: The Dark Monk: A Hangman's Daughter Tale, By Oliver Pötzsch ★ ★ ★ ★☆ Blurb from Amazon:  1660: Winter has settled thick over a sleepy...

Findings: How to Write a Sex Scene

First of all, if you haven't read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, I highly suggest that you do. Don't let the size of the books scare you - they are rather long but trust me, it's worth it.

All of that aside, this was posted on Facebook on Miss Gabaldon's page. It was written by her earlier this year and I have to say that I love all of the points that she makes. So check it out!

Review: Beauty by Lisa Daily

Beauty by Lisa Daily
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



View all my reviews


Via Goodreads:

What's it like to be the most beautiful girl in the world?

Molly desperately wants to be beautiful. And that's what she tells Dharma, the mysterious portrait artist who sketches her face at the town fair just minutes after she's humiliated in front of Hudson, the guy of her dreams. When Molly wakes up the following morning, she's the most beautiful girl in Miracle, Ohio. Babies coo in her arms, her house fills with flowers from dozens of drooling boys, and she's chosen to be a model for the hottest store in town. Best of all, Hudson finally falls for her.

But Molly soon discovers that beauty--and her wish--comes with a price. She's faced with an impossible choice: Will reclaiming her true identity mean letting go of Hudson for good?

I know that you've probably wondered the same thing before. I know that I have. How would people react to me if I were the prettiest girl in the city? Would things be different for me? Would people treat me differently than they do now? Would I get more attention?

In this book by Lisa Daily, she shares just what happens to one girl when she wishes to be the most beautiful girl in the city.
  
The Characters:
The main girl in question in Molly. She's the one that wished to be the most beautiful girl in Miracle. From what I gathered, she was a typical ugly duckling before - frizzy hair, pimples, an dis-proportioned face. I related with her at first as I myself was that girl in high school (okay, so I didn't have pimples but I had braces) and found myself wondering the same thing. My biggest problem with Molly was that she didn't really evolve much until the end of the book. She started off with really low self esteem, even when she was suddenly beautiful, snuck around trying to hide her face from her parents and turned into a typical mean girl in an attempt to get people to like her.  It was only once she had lost almost everyone that she realized what she truly had become. And whereas I was happy that she did finally come to that realization, it seemed like a last ditch effort.

Her friend Hayley made me want to strangle her. She started off as a mean girl at the beginning of the book despite not being in the popular crowd. To me, she came off as really needy and clingy and showed horrible signs of jealousy when the spotlight wasn't on her. The lengths she went to for attention were just worthy of a good head shake (or possible full body shake - hers preferably). And in the end, it didn't seem like things were really worked out with her - we were left hanging on what happened to Hayley.

Kemper was the truest character in the entire book. She's the one who seemed to have a level head on her shoulders despite everything going on around her. She's the one who managed to stay the true friend despite being constantly pushed to the side and ignored. I think if everyone had a good friend like Kemper, they'd be much better off. She ended up being my favorite character in the book.

I wasn't sure what to think about Hudson. I was happy to see in the end that he liked Molly for who she was on the inside rather than the outside but it didn't really settle with me. I can't really put my finger on why. Hudson was a mere "meh" character for me. He didn't stand out at all or make a lasting impression on me.

As for the rest of the characters, the students of the school came off to me as a bunch of sheep. They all were clambering around for a chance to be near Molly. It almost made me think that none of them could think for themselves. And whereas I knew they were teenagers, it seemed a bit overdone.

5 out of 10.

The Plot:
I have to admit that the plot was definitely one that caught my eyes as I've thought the same thing before. And to be honest, I think that Miss Daily definitely took the most thought about solution to what would happen if this really did occur. Amongst the pages of teen angst and mean girl-itis she did manage to lay out a good lesson - beauty is on the inside and outside. You may not think you're beautiful but someone else does.

I do think the students were a bit overdone in their reactions although the way they reacted upon finding out Molly had "plastic surgery" was pretty spot on as many teenagers these days tend to fluctuate depending on the day of the week. And I know that it was probably meant to be overdone a bit to prove a point but it was a bit headache-inducing after a while.

All in all, I give it a decent score, mostly because it was a lesson that could be used in life.

6 out of 10. 

 I won't say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was an easy read and had a decent, if not Mean Girl-esque storyline. I feel as if it were rushed a bit and that it was more dramatic than it should have been but I would give it a thumbs up for a light read over the weekend, especially for those who enjoy happily ever after stories.