GUEST REVIEW: Infinite Dolls by Emalynne Wilder

Infinite Dolls by Emalynne Wilder
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release date: June 7th 2015

    

       

There was a riot in my heart.
It needed to be heard.

~

Everly Brighton's expected to die before her twenty-first birthday, at the hands of a rare medical condition. Under the watchful eye of her father more is being stolen from her than years. Everly longs for connection and freedom she has never been allowed due to her dad's controlling routine. Time ticking away she begins to defy his rules and make up her own.

One star-crossed meeting grants Everly her greatest desire when she befriends Callum Trovatto, a grief-stricken med student needful of his own blissful upswing in the wake of his mother's death.

When Everly becomes the center of Callum’s class assignment, their fate is tested, as they try to awaken their true selves with the infinite promise of friendship, renewal of faith, and an unexpected love that shakes the charade forever.

INFINITE DOLLS is a story of grief, faith, and how the power of deep-rooted love encourages living in the preciousness of Now.

GUEST REVIEW: True Love Way by Mary Elizabeth

True Love Way by Mary Elizabeth
Purchase: Amazon/Kobo/Smashwords

Genre: YA/NA Contemporary Romance

     

       

Some days are brighter than others, but Penelope Finnel has been taught she can be invisible behind the colored lenses of her heart-shaped sunglasses.

Her mind is her worst enemy, and simply waking up in the morning is risky. For a kid like her, staying in bed is easier, especially when the day has come to start school in a new town with new kids who don’t understand that the clouds are not the only reason everything is so gloomy.

Dillon Decker is a typical boy from a typical small town who radiates light and happiness. Under the hovering glare from her father, Dillon leads Penelope around on his bicycle’s handlebars, hoping he is the cure to her madness.

But when friend turns to lover, and lover turns to caretaker, how much can either of them tolerate before they’re swallowed whole?

A story about moving trucks and rollerblades, candy for smiles, and notes across lawns.

First loves and the struggle to keep it sane.

The true love way.

GUEST REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: Saving Poughkeepsie

Hi everyone! I have Marta's review for you today, as well as ebook giveaway. Keep reading :)

Saving Poughkeepsie by Debra Anastasia

(The Poughkeepsie Brotherhood #3)

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Purchase: Amazon / B&N

GUEST REVIEW: Delinquents by The Elizabeths

Long awaited sequel to Innocents (Dusty #1) has been released today. 

Here is Marta's spectacular review.

Delinquents (Dusty #2)

Written by The Elizabeths

Release date: October 23rd

Purchase: Amazon / B&N

GUEST REVIEW: Reignite by J.M. Darhower

Hi everyone, Marta is back with her guest review of Reignite, 

sequel to amazing Extinguish by talented J.M. Darhower! Happy reading :)

Reignite (Extinguish #2)

Written by J.M. Darhower

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Release date: October 13th 2014

Pre-order: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Synopsis:

The moment the short-lived apocalypse came to an end, life returned to normal. Mortals continued on with their oblivious existences while the earth healed and flowers again bloomed, the devastation instantly wiped away. It was as if it had never happened.

But it did.

Luce knows. He’s cursed to remember every moment, forced to live with everything he has done. Suddenly finding himself out of confinement, he’s faced with a decision: where to call “home”. Free will turns out not to be the freedom he expects when the only thing he wants doesn’t know he exists.

Serah woke up with no memory of where she came from or who she was before that moment. Struggling to adapt to the world as a mortal, she’s haunted by a set of bright blue eyes that always seem to be watching her. She can’t shake the feeling that he could be her salvation… if only she can remember him before it’s too late.

Lucifer didn’t fall from Grace alone. He’s not the only angel with a grudge, nor is he the only one fascinated by his beautiful mortal.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions...

Marta's * 5 STARS * Review:

Because time passes, and memories fade, but a beating heart never truly forgets anything. Never.

I had to start this review with a quote from book one, because this quote, people. This quote. The very last line of book one. It just struck me with so much tragedy, hope and closure, all in one. Extinguish blew me away with its brilliance and when the ending is so perfect, it’s always risky when a sequel gets released. It can either be really good or really bad. I can’t lie. I am a sucker for tragedy and the ending of book one was very tragic, but despite that, I am so glad J.M. Darhower decided to give this story a continuation. And I am so glad the lovely Lucia gave me the opportunity to review this amazing story for her blog

Reignite continues right where Extinguish stops, so it feels like you’re still reading Extinguish and it’s amazing. I had missed being in that world. I don’t have to acquaint you all with the story, I’m sure. If you haven’t read Extinguish yet, I strongly urge you to do so and stop reading this review. You can read my review for Extinguish here.

Extinguish taught me the nuances, and showed me the gray area between the black and the white. Reignite told me the story of how it all came to be, and how venturing over to the gray area might push you straight into the black.

“What’s their purpose?”
“To exist, and to love, and to worship.” 

God had Angels and Archangels to work for him, but he created the Earth and humans with the sole purpose of existing, loving and worshiping. He gave them Paradise and assigned the Angels to protect them. The sin that led to Luce’s venture into the gray and black area was envy. What Luce was the most envious of was free will. Humans were free to do as they chose, free to do good or bad. And would you not rather suffer by choice than be happy by force? Luce had always sought out freedom and fought for freedom. He wanted the choice and demanded it. But when he finally got it, he didn't know what to do with it anymore.

Free will. It didn't quite feel as freeing as Luce thought it would. 

The epilogue of the first book kind of gives us an idea of what happens after it all ends. Serah becomes a mortal and her memory is wiped clean, while Luce continues roaming the earth, doing nothing special, except for watching Serah. He is obsessed with Serah’s heartbeat, he follows her around and loves her from afar, until she notices him. And she always notices him.

He once envied the humans because they were given the Earth, but looking at her, he wondered if maybe Paradise was to be found in a person and not a place. 

While Serah’s slate is wiped clean, Luce’s is not. He is left to face his actions, to live with the knowledge that he manipulated Serah, and most importantly, he is left to live without her. While Serah is desperately trying to remember her life, her past and even her name, Luce is trying to forget.

I wish I could forget everything you no longer remember. 

Lucifer has lost his will to fight and has given up on the war. When another war threatens to break out, he no longer fights for himself, but he fights for her.

Luce’s priorities had changed. He wasn't sure when it happened, or even why, but eventually his fight against the world turned into a fight for one soul, a soul that almost got damned for him. 

Why did Eve eat from the forbidden apple? Why did God’s son turn against him? And who can save him? Darhower has given us her own brilliant version of the answers to those questions. Serah had saved Lucifer once from the pits of Hell, but this time she saves him from the darkness inside his soul.

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” Michael said. “Love never ends”. 

I admit, while reading this, I fell victim to the line of thinking that starts with but why doesn't God just…, but I got my answer without having to stalk the author and ask. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I’m just going to go very cheesy on you and say that God works in mysterious ways.

Once again, I have nothing but praise for this series. The author managed to add so many layers to this fairly short story and had me swooning so bad when I read the epilogue. This is a beautiful and well-crafted story about love and sacrifice. About envy and redemption. About choices and consequences. About an angel falling for a devil. About a devil giving it all up for the angel.

His lips lightly touched hers, barely a kiss, a soft graze, but it ignited something inside of her, rekindling an extinguished flame.

GUEST REVIEW: Jesus Freaks: Sins of the Father

Hi everyone! Please welcome my friend Marta, whose reviews I adore. She graciously agreed to share some of her thoughts and help me with providing reviews of the latest releases for you. Her first guest review is on very intriguing novel by Andrea Randall. 

Happy Reading :)

Jesus Freaks: Sins of the Father

Written by: Andrea Randall

Genre: New Adult Fiction

Purchase: Amazon / Kobo

Synopsis:

Kennedy Sawyer is the valedictorian of her upper middle class, liberal high school.

Roland Abbot is the charismatic, attractive televangelist from New Life Church with a dark past and an illegitimate child.

Ignoring the cautions of her mother and the confusion of her Ivy League-bound friends, Kennedy enrolls at the conservative Christian Carter University where her sights are set on Roland Abbot—her birth father.

Kennedy’s intentions are to learn more about her father than the Bible. However, roommates who are quick to evangelize to strangers, an RA who seems to be hiding something, and friends in the most unlikely places challenge everything she’s ever held as true in the raging battle of us vs. them.

 Marta's * 4 STARS * Review:

I know this book seems like one you don’t think you want to read. I, for one, absolutely love Andrea’s writing, but had doubts about reading her new book. The topic of religion just generally makes people uncomfortable. It does me. I’m not a believer. I try understanding and accepting people that do believe, but I personally just can’t. And it makes me uncomfortable when people talk religion to me (read: preach to me) or blatantly push their beliefs on me. I like Christians just fine and I am perfectly capable of being good friends with them, as long as we steer clear of the religion topic. So yes, you could say I was hesitant to start this book. And the reason why I ended up writing this review is because I don’t want you to be. Trust me on this, guys. This book is not what you think. Whether you’re Christian, agnostic, Muslim, Jewish or atheist, you can get something out of this story. Yes, religion is a huge aspect, Evangelical Christians in particular play a big role, but it’s not that kind of story.

There are a lot of things I can say about religion, and all of them have been said and thought before. This story has proved to be very thought-provoking, which is part of why I gave it 5 stars, but I won’t waste my time on the religion talk. We all have our opinions, beliefs and faith. Life is not about making sure everyone shares the same opinion, belief and faith. Nope. It’s about respecting people, even though they’re different. It’s about respecting their differences and withholding judgment.

Now we are all quick to judge. I won’t believe you if you tell me you never judge. We are quick to call people “weird”, even I am. There were some kids in my neighborhood that didn’t have TV at home for religious reasons. I judged, because, how weird. My Christian friend exclusively listened to Christian music and I judged, because, how weird and why would you. My classmate all of a sudden decided to cover her hair for religious reasons and I judged, because, why would you and what’s the point?

Now back to the story. Evangelical Christians are pretty devote. If you didn’t know that, now you know. They’re devote and there’s a big group that’s also very conservative. Now imagine you’re a regular girl who was raised Christian, but in a very liberal way. Your mom is an activist for women’s rights, your church has a gay bishop and you have a lip piercing. But you’re a Christian, because despite all of that, you do believe in God and go to church weekly. You have a stepdad and you see your biological dad once in a long while because he’s been mainly absent in your life. Your birth father is a celebrity among Evangelists. He is a televangelist and a famous and well-loved preacher.

You’re basically the daughter of the King of Modern Evangelical Christianity. 

Imagine you’re 18, just graduated high school and you got admitted to Yale. Do you go to Yale? Nope. Why? Because you’re kind of lost. You don’t know what to do, what you want, who you are. You want to get to know your biological father better (you’ve been stalking him from afar online) and you want to get to know yourself, but that’s secondary right now. The only way to get close to your father is to join Carter University (aka CU), the strict Evangelical university with God-fearing and Jesus-loving kids. Your father preaches at the New Life Church which is connected to the CU. So you do. You join CU, despite your mother’s protests and jokes about weird Jesus lovers. Imagine suddenly being surrounded by everything you ever judged as weird. They are weird. You are normal. But now you are being judged for your lack of Bible knowledge, for not being baptized as an adult, for cursing, for having a lip piercing (good thing they don’t know that part yet) and for so many things that to you are normal things, but to them is weird. And for the first time in your life, you are the minority. This is what happens to Kennedy as she tries to find herself and her father in an environment that’s so different from her own. She becomes fast friends with a few people, including her roommates, but the internal judging is still there. Both parties, in some sense, think they’re better than the other.

I’ve been walking around thinking that the people around me think they’re better than me in a spiritual sense, and I’ve been doing the same thing back at them. 

The power of this story that Andrea crafted is that it doesn’t preach, it doesn’t try to convince, it just tells and shows that there is no such thing as weird. That it is all a matter of perspective and that they have as much reason to judge us as we do them. Even better; there is no them and us. There doesn’t have to be a distinction. We are all humans and we are all different in our own ways, but there should never be a battle that requires a distinction between them and us.

I know that CU isn’t necessarily what’s “normal” when placed in the scope of the entire United States, but – as Roland so helpfully pointed out – it’s normal for here. 

So if you are afraid of starting this book, because you think you will be spoon-fed Jesus, fear not. That is not what will happen. In fact, the main character is probably much like you and is equally skeptical of the Jesus Freaks as you are. She internally makes jokes about them that will crack you up. I didn’t expect to, but I laughed a lot while reading this. Seriously, it was hilarious. And the main character is just so easy to relate to. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. If it weren’t for work, I would’ve finished this story in one day.