REVIEW: Morning Star - Pierce Brown

Title: Morning Star
Author: Pierce Brown
Series: Red Rising #3
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Source: Review Copy and purchased
Publication Date: 8th January, 2016

Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society's mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within. Finally, the time has come. But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied - and too glorious to surrender.  

REVIEW: Golden Son - Pierce Brown

Title: Golden Son

Author: Pierce Brown
Series: Red Rising #2
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Source: Purchased
Publication Date: 8th January, 2015

'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.'
Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope. Until Darrow discovered that it was all a lie, and that the Red were nothing more than unwitting slaves to an elitist ruling class, the Golds, who had been living on Mars in luxury for generations.
In RED RISING, Darrow infiltrated Gold society, to fight in secret for a better future for his people. Now fully embedded amongst the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his dangerous work to bring them down from within. It's a journey that will take him further than he's ever been before - but is Darrow truly willing to pay the price that rebellion demands?
Hic sunt leones.
A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown's continuing status as one of fiction's most exciting new voices.

 

BLOG TOUR: Dumplin' - Julie Murphy

Title: Dumplin'
Author: Julie Murphy
Series: None
Publisher: Harper 360
Source: Review Copy
Publication Date: 15th September, 2015

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back. Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all. With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

BLOG TOUR: Review The Silver Witch - Paula Brackston

Title: The Silver Witch
Author: Paula Brackston
Series: Shadow Chronicles #3
Publisher: Corsair, Little Brown Books
Source: Review Copy
Publication Date: 3rd December, 2015

My mind is like the willow; it flexes and springs. My heart is a knot of oak. Let them try to wound me. Let them try. One year after artist Tilda Forwells loses her husband, she is finally ready to move into the secluded Welsh cottage they were meant to be sharing together. In the valley below her mountain home is a mystical lake which inspires a strange energy in her. She starts to experience potent dreams, visions, presentiments which all lead her to Seren, the witch and shaman who legend has it lived on this lakeshore in Celtic times. As Tilda explores the lake's powers and her own, her connection to Seren grows stronger. And when she comes under grave threat, she must rely on Seren and this ancient magic to save her.

REVIEW: Beautiful Broken Things - Sara Barnard

Title: Beautiful Broken Things
Author: Sara Barnard
Series: None
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Source: Review Copy
Publication Date: 21st January 2016

I was brave She was reckless We were trouble Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.

REVIEW: A Girl's Best Friend - Lindsey Kelk

Title: A Girl's Best Friend
Author: Lindsey Kelk
Series: A Girl #3
Publisher: Harper Collins
Source: Review Copy
Publication Date: 5th November, 2015

A festive treat from the author of the bestselling I HEART series First Tess was a girl with a plan. Then she was a girl with a dream. Now she’s a girl who’s come back to earth with a bump. When the opportunity arises to join her best friend, Amy, in New York for Christmas, Tess jumps at the chance. The only fly in ointment is that Nick, the man who broke her heart, lives there. And Charlie, the man she turned down, has just started talking to her again. And she has just four days to take a photo for a competition that could save her career. But aside from that, everything is going to be great: it’ll be the best Christmas ever. Won’t it?

BLOG TOUR: Guest Post - A Girl's Best Friend by Lindsey Kelk

Today I have the amazing Lindsey Kelk on my blog to talk about why she loves cats. Stay posted for my review of her latest novel A Girl's Best Friend.

Top Ten Reasons a Cat is a Girl’s Best Friend

Ever since I got my kittens, Belle and Anderson Cooper, back in May, I’ve become something of a nightmare. My phone is full of photos of them, my Facebook feed looks like a KiteKat commercial and I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve been late for something because one of them was being too adorable upon my person to leave the house. I’m a disgrace. But I digress. Everyone is super keen to tell the world how a dog is a man’s best friend but who’s standing up for the cats? Me, that’s who.

1. They have taken over the internet.
And I love the internet. No other animal has captured the heart of the information highway in quite the same way and for that, I applaud them.

2. They weed out undesirable suitors.
‘Oh, you have cats? Are you a crazy cat lady?’
‘No but you’re going home on your own, douchebag.’