Review : Blood Song (Lharmell #1) by Rhiannon Hart

When her sister becomes betrothed to a prince in a northern nation, Zeraphina’s only consolations are that her loyal animal companions are by her side – and that her burning hunger to travel north is finally being sated.

Already her black hair and pale eyes mark her out as different, but now Zeraphina must be even more careful to keep her secret safe. Craving blood is not considered normal behaviour for anyone, let alone a princess. So when the king’s advisor, Rodden, seems to know more about her condition than she does, Zeraphina is determined to find out more.

Zeraphina must be willing to sacrifice everything if she’s to uncover the truth – but what if the truth is beyond her worst nightmares?

First Line:

I was thinking of blood again so I went to practice my archery.

Zeraphina is the princess of Amentia, younger daughter of Queen Renata. When her sister is betrothed to a prince of a prosperous nation in the North, she is ecstatic. Her yearning to go North, to be finally able to discover why something from there calls to her so deeply is finally being fulfilled. To be able to find out about the disease she contracted that changed her appearance. To know more about the unspoken lands of Lharmell.

My Thoughts : 

I'll admit that the premise of the book sounded rather intriguing. I can't resist a book set in a different realm or universe and the cover, the blurb all hinted towards a dark, mystic storyline, yet another thing I can't resist. Also, I loved the new names. Lharmell. Zeraphina. Again, very very mysterious. 

I got into the book pretty quickly. The first few chapters were probably the best in the whole book. The eerie phantom in her room, the North calling to her, a  promise of something dark to come - it was all there. There's little that I want in a book if all those aspects are present; but soon, it just wasn't enough. 

Zeraphina went North, spent a good amount of time in the palace there, yet discovered nothing. It wasn't as if she wasn't looking for information, nope. Rather, it's quite strongly strongly portrayed that she's quite desperately looking for something that will lead her to answers. Yet, her search seems entirely futile. I couldn't see a pattern or basis for her searches and her instant dislike of Rodden -  who seemed like nothing more than a somewhat-creepy, not too friendly guy -  threw me off.  I felt like there was something lacking or there was some part if the story that I was entirely missing. I couldn't figure out reasons behind Zeraphina's thoughts, why she was so fixated on the feeling that Rodden had something to hide.

I don't know what exactly to make of this book. Yes, I liked the it. The writing was excellent and the world was entirely different, curious concept. The idea was excellent. The creatures aren't anything like you would have read before. All in all, it has all the makings for a wonderful, enthralling read. There first couple of chapters drew me in and held me there. It was intriguing. It was compelling. And then slowly, things seemed to deflate. I just couldn't figure things out. A t the end,(which, by the way, seemed really abrupt and a huge torrent of information that should've probably been explained in bits throughout the book), I couldn't make out what had happened. Uh, I should stop saying that.

Maybe it was all me, and I wasn't reading closely enough to see something that was probably staring me right in the face, which would've been a very  "me" thing to do. My thoughts about this book are rather conflicted, but all things considered, it was a good read.

   

About The Author:

Rhiannon Hart

Rhiannon Hart remembers writing before she could read, puzzling over the strange squiggles in Jeremiah and the Dark Woods by Janet and Alan Ahlberg and putting her own words in their places. Her first love was Jareth the Goblin King at the tender age of eight. She wrote fan fiction in high school but she'd never admit to it out loud, so don't ask. When she's not reading or writing she is belly dancing, chasing after other people's cats, or putting the pedal to the floor at her sewing machine. She grew up in north-western Australia and currently resides in Melbourne, where she works in marketing. Rhiannon has been published in the Australian Book Review, Magpies and Viewpoint and blogs at http://rhiannon-hart.blogspot.com/. She is currently writing further books in the LHARMELL series.

  

Cover Reveal : Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Yayy! The cover for the much anticipated Insurgent is finally out! Yes, I'm sure you've seen it in a dozen other sites but I just couldn't resist putting this up! The symbol on the cover is that of the faction Amity with a background of Chicago city, while the first book had the fiery symbol of the Dauntless faction!  Isn't it great?

The tagline for this book is, "One choice can destroy you." while the tagline of the first book is "One choice can transform you."

This is what Author Veronica Roth had to say about Insurgent from the interview up on Entertainment Weekly here.

I can’t say much because there’s very little I can reveal without spoiling everything. But I will say that the factions there were not featured in Divergent will have a more prominent role in Insurgent, and that readers will learn more about Tobias’ history. But essentially, the book is about consequences. The repercussions of what Tris did, and what Jeanine did at the end of the first book, in particular.

Exciting, right? Am I the only one who feels like weeping at the release date on Goodreads? May 2012!!

Book Trailers : September Releases

Vanish by Sophie Jordan :



Witch Song by Amber Argyle :



The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton :



The Daughter of Smoke and Bone  :

This is just the intro trailer to the book. There are four other awesome trailers to this book, I believe, so you should probably go here to see all of them.



After Obsession by Carrie Jones and Steven E. Wedel :

I've heard loads about this book in the past few days and I'm probably going to be keeping away from it because from what I've heard its creepy. Nope, no horror for me, thank you very much. But it's supposed to be an excellent book.



I'm going to deviate from the topic a little here and include a countdown widget. I came across the widget to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkins while looking for its trailer and seriously, I must have been living under a rock to have not seen this widget before! Its sooo pretty! I swear, I must have staring at it, transfixed for a good while before I scrambled to get its code now. And how could have I not realized from the cover that it was supposed to be underwater? Shameful, that it had to dawn on me a dozen days before release.

Review : Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

  

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

First Line:

Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amelie and Moulin Rouge.The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, although I have no idea what the function of either actually is.

My Thoughts:

To those who know me well, this would seem very, very skeptical. Me, reading a YA contemporary-romance novel? Highly unlikely. And that's a huge understatement. Romance is not a genre I'm particularly fond of and the only reason I can read most YA novels of the day - with all these multiple love interests and triangles -  is because it isn't solely focused on the romance. I like a good dose of humor and/or a witty or sarcastic protagonist in the books I read and I can't stand the fluff overpowering the actual story.

Anna and the French Kiss  by Stephanie Perkins has got loads of positive, highly recommended reviews and after a good amount of glowing references, I decided I'd give it a go and boy, am I happy I did.  I loved this book. One page into the book and I was hooked.

Anna is a great character- fun, witty and yet not without her own flaws. She was a simple, funny, completely natural character and very easy to connect with. Etienne St. Clair - the American with the British accent! -  the other main character  was as awesome a character as Anna and just as funny. For one, he's not the standard "tall, dark and handsome" that comes with every novels these days (being no taller than Anna). He's a surprisingly sweet character for a male, and that's in a good way! Stephanie Perkins has done an awesome job writing these two characters. 

The other characters in this book of importance are St. Clair's friends at the SOAP and are all great, wonderful characters and are seamlessly fit into the story. Her camaraderie with St.Clair and the rest of her friends at The School of America was really well pictured and I found myself laughing out loud more often than not at their antics.Of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing - they had their disputes and the usual dose of teenage angst and frustration, but again, it was just right.

What annoyed me the most about this book was Etienne and Anna clinging desperately to their current lives, exactly as it was, unwilling to accept that things had changed and that they had face it and to move on already. And why, oh why, do YA novels have to have a perfect-beautiful-mean-yet-a-pain-in-the-ass blond girl who has to be utterly in luuurve with our hero and has to have a name like Amanda or Tiffany or Chelsea? That said, I was really glad about the fact that St. Clair doesn't utterly ignore Amanda annoying Anna all the time, as most male characters tend to do and actually retaliates and annoys her in turn, though obviously not in such a catty way.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is the perfect, one-sit read for a somebody looking for a laugh-out-loud cozy afternoon read. 

 

Cover Reveal : The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell

I loved the cover to The Vespertine, the first book in the series of the same name, (even if I am yet to read it!)., but I positively adore the cover of the sequel, the Springsweet, the second book in the series, releasing in April 2012.

 

 It’s a long way from Baltimore to Oklahoma Territory. But Zora Stewart will go any distance to put the tragic events of her sixteenth summer behind her. So this city girl heads to the tiny frontier town of West Glory to help her young widowed aunt keep her homestead going. When another Baltimorean shows up in West Glory, Zora couldn’t be more surprised. Theo de la Croix made the long trip out west hoping to court Zora, whom he has long admired from afar.

But Zora has developed an attraction to a rather less respectable fellow: Emerson Birch, a rough-mannered young "sooner" whose fertile land is coveted.

As Zora begins to suspect that there may be more than luck behind Emerson’s good land, she discovers an extraordinary, astonishing power of her own: the ability to sense water under the parched earth. When her aunt hires her out as a "springsweet" to advise other settlers where to dig their wells, Zora feels the burden of holding the key to something so essential to survival in this unforgiving land. Even more, she finds herself longing for love the way the prairie thirsts for water. Maybe, in the wildness of the territories, Zora can finally move beyond simply surviving and start living.