Review: The Door That Led to Where by Sally Gardner

Publication Date: January 1^st 2015
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Length: 288 pages

Thanks to Netgalley and Hot Key Books for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

When the present offers no hope for the future, the answers may lie in the past AJ Flynn has just failed all but one of his GCSEs, and his future is looking far from rosy. So when he is offered a junior position at a London law firm he hopes his life is about to change - but he could never have imagined by how much. Tidying up the archive one day, AJ finds an old key, mysteriously labelled with his name and date of birth - and he becomes determined to find the door that fits the key. And so begins an amazing journey to a very real and tangible past - 1830, to be precise - where the streets of modern Clerkenwell are replaced with cobbles and carts, and the law can be twisted to suit a villain's means. Although life in 1830 is cheap, AJ and his friends quickly find that their own lives have much more value. They've gone from sad youth statistics to young men with purpose - and at the heart of everything lies a crime that only they can solve. But with enemies all around, can they unravel the mysteries of the past, before it unravels them?

This one was a quick and enjoyable read that thoroughly sucked me in, but never really developed into anything more than surface enjoyment. Sometimes that’s a good thing to have a story that you can just whip through in one sitting and be taken away for a little while. Sometimes that can be incredibly frustrating and leave you feeling cheated. Luckily I was in the former camp when I sat down to read this one.

It takes a little while to find its feet and really get going, but once it does it trundles along at a decent pace, not offering too much of a challenge in terms of plot or having to think whilst reading, but instead offers a simple story that relies heavily on the intrigue and magic infused within to carry the readers interest. A door that leads to the past, I loved how little time AJ spends having long desperate crisis about how this could be possible and just embraces it whole heartedly. AJ is an interesting protagonist, and I loved watching his story unfurl. The most interesting aspect for me was this idea of these three boys who hadn’t amounted to much in our world making something of themselves through the door. It was such a fascinating idea and I wish we could have seen a little more of its development. However the relationships between the three boys is left a little underplayed. We’re supposed to see that their the closest of friends, but it never really comes across. In fact the relationships throughout a little under developed which was a shame.

The writing is good, and I loved the historical details that are littered throughout. They really help to bring the past to life and to make AJs journeys through the door even more realistic and interesting. However the novel never really lifts from good into fantastic, which is a huge shame, and I felt like the writing let the concept down in several places.

All in all this was an interesting read that was thoroughly enjoyable to sit down with for a couple of hours. I was frustrated that it glossed over some of the parts that interested me the most, but on the whole it was a great stand alone read.

Review: Voyager by Diana Gabaldon

Publication Date: October 26^th 2004 (this edition)
Publisher: Dell
Length: 1072 pages

Their passionate encounter happened long ago by whatever measurement Claire Randall took. Two decades before, she had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth-century Scot named Jamie Fraser. Then she returned to her own century to bear his child, believing him dead in the tragic battle of Culloden. Yet his memory has never lessened its hold on her... and her body still cries out for him in her dreams.
Then Claire discovers that Jamie survived. Torn between returning to him and staying with their daughter in her own era, Claire must choose her destiny. And as time and space come full circle, she must find the courage to face the passion and pain awaiting her...the deadly intrigues raging in a divided Scotland... and the daring voyage into the dark unknown that can reunite or forever doom her timeless love.

The ending of ‘Dragonfly in Amber’ left me with no other possibility than to storm straight into the third book of the series, and it was wonderful to re-immerse myself back into Claire and Jamie’s lives with no delay.
However as each book in the series continues to get larger so does the possibility for frustrations and gripes, so whilst I did really enjoy the third instalment in the series, there were a lot more problems for me than I’ve found with the first two books.

The beginning of the story (as with the previous two books) has a tendency to lag in places. Having discovered that Jamie didn’t die at Culloden, the race is on for Claire, Brianna and Roger to try and find out what did happen to Jamie. Their efforts are interspersed with chapters following Jamie in his own lifetime so we can witness some of the key events first hand, as well as insights from a new character, Lord John Grey, who was briefly introduced as a very young man in the previous book. All of the information is interesting and I really enjoyed seeing the two timelines juxtaposed against each other, as well as trips into the past as we see more of Claire’s relationship with Frank and what life was like when she came back through the stones. However it did all have a tendency to feel like it was dragging, probably in part because I was so eager to see Claire and Jamie reunited.

Once the timelines all converge into one narrative from Claire again I found myself on more familiar ground and I settled into the novel quickly, enjoying the familiar rhythms and patterns of Claire’s thoughts and adventures. There is never a dull moment, never a peaceful moment either really. I loved the reunion and the small pieces of intimacy between Claire and Jamie as they re-learn each other and re-kindle their love. It’s by no means an easy road, and there are a lot of setbacks along the way, but that simply made their moments of joy and peace that much more rewarding when they appear.

However there were some sections, particularly towards the end where my belief was stretched a little too far. Where I found myself almost rolling my eyes because really?! I know that disbelief must be suspended because this is a story about a woman who time travels, but at the same time I felt like there were one too many adventures and mishaps that made me feel like any credibility was being stretched a little too far. There are also quite a few sections when Claire begins to explore new places and lands where the narrative becomes horribly bogged down in over detail. Whole pages of nothing but detail on vegetation and climate and I found myself growing a little bored and skim reading some sections because nothing was happening for so long. The action is also vastly confined in this book, unlike the previous two books, and so much of the narrative takes place on board ships. Full marks to Gabaldon for finding quite that many subplots to keep things busy on the long voyage, but it did put a strain on the action being confined to a ship for so long.

These gripes aside this was still a very good, engrossing and brilliant book. It’s not my favourite in the series, but it’s still a wonderful instalment and one that moves the story into whole new exciting territories. I adore this series and I cannot wait to continue onwards to see where Jamie and Claire end up next. I don’t think anything will ever re-create the magic I found in Scotland and Paris in the first two books, but this comes a close second and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Review: Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

Be warned for spoilers for the first book and very mild spoilers for the second (although it’s nothing you won’t see in the blurb)

Publication Date: September 2002 (this edition. First published 1992)
Publisher: DellLength: 947 pages

For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland’s majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones… about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ... and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his....
Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ... in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ... and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves....

After starting the TV series for Outlander at the start of the year, I bought and devoured the first book in a matter of days. I then went on to buy the rest of the series, anticipating that I’d spend the next few weeks working my way through all of them.

However real life and other books intervened, so whilst I did start this book shortly after completing the first book, I then put it down again until last week when, on holiday to Scotland for a week, I decided that then was the time to get on and read it.

This delay was due to two things, the first being that it’s a large book and my blogging schedule makes it hard to sit down and work through a tome of this size with so many other books on my urgent to read pile. But it was also due to the start of the novel itself.

We finish Outlander with Claire pregnant and with Jamie in France, preparing to see if they can change the course of history. I expected this book to pick up where the first left off, so I was surprised and a little devastated to find that instead we open the book in Inverness in 1965. Claire is back in her own time, with a twenty year old daughter.

This time jump frustrated me for two reasons. One because it’s incredibly jarring to suddenly go forward and fill in the blanks of what happened before after quite a bit of exposition, and secondly because it destroys a lot of the tension. You know that Claire is going to leave Jamie and come back to her own time and you also know through simply looking at the timelines that Claire’s pregnancy at the end of the first book is going to end in tragedy. It does add a certain sense of foreboding to the novel, but it also leaves you waiting for the inevitable which removes the shock.

As a result the first half of the novel feels more like a waiting game than a thrilling second book in a series. If you aren’t interested in a slower moving historical novel then this will seem incredibly frustrating, but if like me you really enjoy the day to day bits of historical novels then you’ll love it. However I know that for a lot of people that jarring opening section, the slow paced meandering part set in Paris and the sudden introduction of a new perspective in the form of Roger Wakefield may be a little too frustrating and make you want to abandon the novel before you’re half way through.

However at the half way point things pick up. We return to Scotland, the plot kicks up several notches and history starts snowballing in a most alarming fashion until you’re left gasping and reeling in the final act. Dragonfly in Amber suddenly finds its footing and returns to the roots that Outlander fans fell in love with and as a result it shines.

Upon the conclusion of her story of the past, we then return to the present of 1965 where things continue apace as some events come full circle and new surprises will leave you gasping. The second half of the novel is beautifully constructed and more than made up for the sometimes slower sections in the first half.

I loved this novel for a lot of the same reasons as I loved the first, but also whole new ones. We see a whole raft of familiar faces in one way or another, something I hadn’t been expecting with the shift to France, but something I absolutely adored. We also get to see a lot more of the world with the shift to France, particularly Paris, as well as Edinburgh and more of the Highlands. Since I was reading this book whilst in Edinburgh those sections were particularly wonderful because Diana Gabaldon excels at research and bringing her stories to life in the most realistic and wonderful ways.

Whilst the Paris sections may frustrate some, I loved them. I loved the detail, the glimpses not only of life at court but also in the city. The gossip, the scandal, the fashion. There’s less of the uncertainty of the first novel and more of Claire embracing this life she’s been thrown into, and that is a wonderful sight to behold. There is less of the uncertainty and determination to escape and so Claire feels more grounded and settled than she did in the first book, allowing the reader to take their time exploring the new surroundings rather than be in a constant state of will she/won’t she escape back to her own time.

It also explores new depths to the relationship between Claire and Jamie. I loved watching the two of them discover their feelings for the other and build their relationship in the first book, so to watch those feelings deepen and evolve over the course of this book is truly wonderful, and really cements their status as one of my favourite fictional relationships.

So if you read and loved Outlander, this book is a must read. Be warned about the slightly jarring opening section and slow first half, but know that the second half more than makes up for any frustrations you may find in the first. It has everything readers loved about the first book and builds it into a truly gripping tale, one that cements the series as a classic of fantastic storytelling.

Review: The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster by Scott Wilbanks

Publication Date: August 1^st 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Length: 400 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark  for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Annabelle Aster doesn’t bow to convention—not even that of space and time—which makes the 1890s Kansas wheat field that has appeared in her modern-day San Francisco garden easy to accept. Even more peculiar is Elsbeth, the truculent schoolmarm who sends Annie letters through the mysterious brass mailbox perched on the picket fence that now divides their two worlds.
Annie and Elsbeth’s search for an explanation to the hiccup in the universe linking their homes leads to an unsettling discovery—and potential disaster for both of them. Together they must solve the mystery of what connects them before one of them is convicted of a murder that has yet to happen…and yet somehow already did.

So that blurb left me pretty eager to get stuck into this one, time travel, a feisty heroine and a murder mystery? I was definitely intrigued.
Which is why it was such a shame that the first half of the novel (for me) didn't live up to the promise of the blurb (it's an entirely different kettle of fish for the second half though). The pacing was a little off, there was too much extraneous detail, too many plot threads that weren’t going anywhere fast enough and were building up to several twists and reveals that were unfortunately obvious for me.

I kept putting the book down and having to really push myself to pick it back up again – my motivation was shot. There was so much attempting to be crammed into this 400 page novel. As soon as I started to become invested in one story line, we’d skip to another one (either a new one or a previously introduced one) and there was just so much happening without enough time given to develop it thoroughly.

But then at around the halfway point everything starts to pick up and I found myself becoming more invested in the story and enjoying it immensely. It was wonderful seeing all the characters converge and the threads start to make more sense as they tie together and provide a much more cohesive whole.

I began to care more about the characters and I loved seeing how the time paradox kicked in and watching events from the first half of the book play out again from different angles with different pieces of fore knowledge in the second.

The pacing also works much better in the second half – I found myself desperate to know how it would end, what would happen and breathlessly awaiting the final showdown as the baddies close in on our heroes. There were even a few gasp out loud moments of twists that I hadn’t seen coming which were very well played.

It was a strange mix of things, both good and bad, that luckily picked up so that I really enjoyed the second half and ended up thinking about the story several days after finishing the book. I've found myself feeling melancholy and wanting to go back and revisit the quiet of Annie's kitchen and the solitude that accompanies El's cabin and her back forty. Given that the story and I started on such a wrong foot it's surprising how much I ended up loving the second half. But I did, and it's one that I'm sure I'll come back to. Be warned though, the first half hides the brilliant story that emerges in the second, so if you find yourself growing tired and disenchanted, stick with it, Annie is a fascinating character that you'll grow to love and root for.

Review: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Publication Date: July 1st 2014 (This edition. First published in 1991)
Publisher: Random House
Length: 850 pages

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Unless you have completely avoided the internet for the last year or so, you will have heard the word ‘Outlander’ bandied about at some point. This is due to the insanely popular TV series on Starz that started airing its debut season in August 2014 and is currently airing the second half of the season on Saturday nights.

Based on the series of books by Diana Gabaldon, the novels have suddenly received a new surge of interest due to the tv series as a whole host of people turn to the books to fill in gaps, find out what happens, and generally sate their unquenchable appetite for the incredible love story between Claire and Jamie.

I was one of these people. I watched the first eight episodes and promptly demanded all the Outlander books immediately. Because reasons. I stormed through the first book and it both sated all my Outlander needs and made the wait for the second half of the season to air nigh on unbearable, because this series is incredible.

Let’s start with Claire, the driving force behind the story. She is an incredible heroine – headstrong, feisty, determined and full of love and loyalty. She is a modern woman thrown out of her own time and forced into a time and situation where her gender plays heavily against her. She brings modern thinking and ideas in like a whirlwind and sweeps everyone up along with her. It is because of her that the book is so compelling to read – she drives the narrative and you cannot help but fall in love with her and want to know how she survives and thrives in this alien world she has stumbled into.

And then of course there’s her counterpart… Jamie Fraser has now set a new standard for fictional heroes. He’s young, yes, and filled with the ideas and status quo of the period he has grown and lived in, but he is also loyal and gentle and prepared to listen to Claire as an equal and adapt and grow so that their relationship is a truly modern affair with both of them holding equal power instead of Jamie ‘owning’ Claire. He loves her – that much is obvious – but the depth of feeling and emotion depicted in the book swept me away. He is the epitome of the romantic hero, full of fire and daring and love and whilst he desperately wants to protect Claire he also acknowledges she is a strong and independent person in her own right. They compliment each other perfectly, which serves to make the romance and relationship one of the strongest in fiction and one of the highlights of the novel.

The first section of the novel is a little slow to get moving, but once you are into the bulk of the story and are following Claire through the trials and mishaps of being a very modern woman in a very unmodern time you become completely immersed and swept up in the tale. I couldn’t put the book down and stormed through it in a night. Gabaldon has a rare talent of combining compelling and interesting characters with a well-researched and thoroughly realistic look at life in 1743 Scottish Highlands and all that that entails. The politics, the clans, the day to day existence – it’s all beautifully rendered in a captivating story that thrills along at an incredible pace. It is a world populated with fascinating and realistic characters and I found myself utterly enthralled as it touches on everything from the bigger politics and shifts of a time when Scotland was desperately fighting to regain its independence to the smaller pieces of life, the superstitions and traditions. I love Scotland and this furthered my love of the country and its history and brought it to life for me in a way other fiction and mediums haven’t yet captured. Despite the magical idea of time travel this is a novel very much rooted in real life, and other than that one breach of reality to get Claire back to 1743 the novel feels real, which makes it even more terrifying to experience some of the scenes later on in the book when hysteria and a lack of understanding whip events up into a frenzy of terror.

I cannot recommend this book (and subsequent series) enough. Coming to the series now you’re also spoiled for choice as the Starz production of the first book is lovingly brought to life with an incredible cast and absolutely stunning scenery. It’s such a faithful adaptation that satisfies long term fans as well and offers a second entry into the imaginative and captivating story that Gabaldon has created. If you’re still not convinced, check out my article detailing five reasons why you should watch the tv series here.

This is an incredible book, one that became an instant favourite and one that I will return to again and again. It is so many things and not just a romance, but the love story at its heart is one that will stay with me forever.

Review: Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Release Date: 25^th October

Huge thanks to Random House for sending me a copy to review

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.
As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

When a book is compared to an all-time favourite of mine I tend to get a little bit nervous. ‘Time Between Us’ was billed as a young adult tale for fans of ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’, which I loved, so I was a little bit nervous going in as to whether it would live up to the hype and such a huge comparison. I shouldn’t have worried, Time Between Us is a beautiful, layered tale that more than compares to the heady comparison of The Time Traveller’s Wife.

It’s a beautiful tale that draws you in and weaves this gorgeous, soft and at time utterly heart breaking love story around you. Once I started I couldn’t put it down, it was such an engrossing story with a brilliant concept and a host of really well developed characters.

It’s in some ways a very slow and quiet story, but that in no way diminishes the impact the story will have on you. I found myself thinking about the concepts and the characters for days after I read it, and wanting to go back and re-read key passages.

Anna was a fantastic heroine, I loved her from the start, for her sense of self and determination, and I fell in love with Bennett along with her as she uncovered more about him, and as their bond deepened.

The time travel is unique and explained piece by piece to the reader the further into the story we got. I loved gradually unwrapping this mystery along with Anna and seeing how Bennett’s gift worked. I also loved that there were consequences, and whilst they weren’t quiet as gore and destruction filled as my imaginings of them, they were still powerful and heartbreaking. There was method to it and order, but that in no way diminished the emotional impact and my heart broke on several occasions whilst reading this book.

‘Time Between Us’ is a gorgeous standalone in a world that is peppered with series and trilogies. It’s filled with passion and love and a desperate struggle to overcome obstacles to find happiness. Quite simply put, I loved it, and I cannot wait for more people to discover it once it’s released in two days’ time.

Books I'm Squeeing About in October

Oh my, how on earth is it October already? This year is passing by in a haze of fantastic books, and soon we'll be into Christmas - but before that, October is my birthday month! So expect a giveaway later on in the month to celebrate! In the mean time, here are some of the books releasing this month which have me incredibly excited and desperate to read them! October is also a fantastic month for pretty covers, as evidenced by the pretties below...

2^nd– Ironskin by Tina Connolly

Published by: Tor Books

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask. 

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin. 

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help. 

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey. 

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

So we have a retelling of Jane Eyre, and after that blurb I am more than a little curious. Particularly to see how it can stand up as its own story whilst leaning on the original.  That and it has a gorgeous cover, which always suckers me in...

5^th– Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Published by: Mira Ink

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

Oh, hell, yes. Alice in Zombieland? Seriously? This appeals to the same bit of me that squeed about assassin nuns, and it sounds like it's going to be a pretty awesome ride. This has been a book I've been looking forward to for months, I just hope that it lives up to the hype!

11^th– Mystic City by Theo Lawrence

Published by: Corgi

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself. 

I'm in the middle of reading Mystic City at the moment, and I am completely hooked. It's a fantastic world and premise and I'm loving every minute of it - definitely a recommended read, and review to come soon!

25^th– Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Published by: Doubleday

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

Billed as a young adult tale reminiscent of 'The Time Traveller's Wife' this is bound to pull in a lot of readers. From reviews I've seen already it more than lives up to this comparison, and I can't wait to read it and see for myself.

25^th– Emailing Allie by Julie Lawson

Published by: Cyder Press

My name's Julie Lawson - I'm an HR Manager at BMT Publishing. Nearly six months ago my est friend, Allie Rainsbury, left the business.

Recently our MD sent a memo asking all BMT employees to clear their Inboxes and, since I had access to Allie's emails after her departure, I set about reviewing hers.

Her adventures were so entertaining that I didn't want to stop, let alone destroy them forever - instead I am determined to share her story with you.

As a new year dawns, Allie needs various questions answered. Among the most urgent are: Where is her future leading? Why are relationships so complex and confusing? Can she get through a day without five cups of tea? Hilarious, touching and unique, Emailing Allie delves into the life and loves of 31-year-old Allie Rainsbury. Through emails sent to her best-friend Julie, the smooth-talking David Marshall and the enigmatic Scott Cooper (to mention but a few) we are taken on an frenetic, funny and uplifting journey that charts her daily challenges both inside and outside the office.

I finished this book yesterday, and it was completely unexpected - I loved it. It's a fantastic format, Allie's story is told through her email exchanges to her colleagues, family and friends, and it completely pulled me in. It's funny, it's poignant, and it's absolutely fantastic. A quick and brilliant read, and I can't wait to see what more people think of it!

But enough about my excitements, what are you looking forward to this month?

Release Day: Fracture by Megan Miranda and Tempest by Julie Cross

The day has finally arrived when two very exciting débuts hit the shelves!
'Fracture' by Megan Miranda and 'Tempest' by Julie Cross are both released today, and are the first two books of a host of awesome ones set to release this year.


One involves sensing death, and the other time-travel - what's not to love?!


So go out and buy them now! Available from Amazon and book stores.


And congratulations to both Megan and Julie for writing some of the strongest début novels to kick off 2012! Happy Release Day! 


Fracture by Megan Miranda

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?


Tempest by Julie Cross


The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.
That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.
Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.
But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.
Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

Books I'm Squeeing About in January

A new year, a whole new load of books that I can't wait to get my mitts on. And after the slow pace of the Christmas holiday, these are some fabulous new books that will shake you right out of the turkey and champagne stupor and have you on the edge of your seat. Desperate for plenty of twists and shocks galore? Then go ahead and order this bunch of delights that are waiting to ensnare you this month...

5th– Fracture by Megan Miranda

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

A strong debut from an author to watch, Megan creates a brilliantly real world with some incredibly drawn characters – some of them a little too evil for my tastes which coloured my view of the book. But otherwise it’s a fantastic debut with some brilliant writing and a fresh plot that will keep you guessing right up until the end.
You can read my mildly spoilery review here.

5th– Tempest by Julie Cross

The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.
That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.
Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.
But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.
Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

At last, a time travel book for young adult that doesn’t stick to the stereotypes or preconceptions. I loved Jackson, I loved the concept, the plot and the secondary characters. It’s a brilliantly fresh novel that will get your year off to a fabulous start.
You can read my review here!

19th– The Book of Blood and Shadow

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.  When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love.  When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark. 
But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead.  His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.
Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

This is a brilliantly fresh book in young adult with a complex, twisting plot that will keep you on your toes until the very end. Told through letters and Nora’s own experiences the two different tales interweave until all the characters are bound to a fate they could never have imagined.
You can read my review here.

31st– Midnight in Austenland

When Charlotte Kinder treats herself to a two-week vacation at Austenland, she happily leaves behind her ex-husband and his delightful new wife, her ever-grateful children, and all the rest of her real life in America. She dons a bonnet and stays at a country manor house that provides an immersive Austen experience, complete with gentleman actors who cater to the guests' Austen fantasies. 
Everyone at Pembrook Park is playing a role, but increasingly, Charlotte isn't sure where roles end and reality begins. And as the parlor games turn a little bit menacing, she finds she needs more than a good corset to keep herself safe. Is the brooding Mr. Mallery as sinister as he seems? What is Miss Gardenside's mysterious ailment? Was that an actual dead body in the secret attic room? And-perhaps of the most lasting importance-could the stirrings in Charlotte's heart be a sign of real-life love? 

I loved ‘Austenland’ and couldn’t wait to get back there when I heard that Shannon was writing a sequel. And not only does it live up to the first book, it surpasses it in some ways. We know the world and can sink straight into it, the characters are brilliantly crafted and the wit is fabulous. I cannot wait to get my hands on this!
You can read my spoiler free review here!

Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

Amazon publication date: 5th January 2012

Jackson Meyer is hiding a secret. He can time-travel. But he doesn't know how he does it, how to control it or what it means. When Jackson, and his girlfriend Holly, find themselves in fatal danger, Jackson panics and catapults himself two years into his past, further than he's ever managed before, and this time he can't find a way back to the future. All the rules of time-travel he's experienced so far have been broken and Jackson has no choice but to pretend to be his younger self whilst he figures out a solution. Jackson is tearing himself apart with guilt and frustration, wondering if Holly survived. He's also become the target of an unknown enemy force and it seems even his dad is lying to him. Jackson is racing against time to save the girl he loves, but to do that he must first discover the truth about his family and himself.

I wasn’t entirely certain what to expect with ‘Tempest’ – I went into it with no preconceptions or knowledge of the basic plot. And I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised.

First off, it’s narrated by a boy. There are far too few young adult books narrated by convincing boys at the moment, so it was a refreshing change to 

see something from a male perspective.

And second it was a really exciting, unique and fresh plot. And that in itself is impressive. It doesn’t follow the stereotype that you might expect from a book about time travel. Similar to ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ in some respects, it really took the time to develop Jackson as a person, giving him clear and well defined motives for everything he does. He’s a very believable, likeable character who really evolves over the course of the book as he’s subjected to more and more awful things as he’s trying to protect the people he loves.

The relationships were beautifully explored. Jackson and Holly, in all her different time lines was gorgeous. Whilst he was learning about the 2007 version of Holly (her younger version) and she was falling in love with him, we’re treated to not only him wooing her in that time frame, but how it happened in his own time frame in 2009. The flashbacks and moments between the two of them were beautiful and made for a really special and believable romance.

Jackson and Courtney, his twin sister, was another really well constructed relationship. We learn about her through Jackson’s memories but then we get to see him interact with her in some of his travels into the past. It’s a beautiful thread of the story that really pulled at me, and made me cry at several points.

And Ms Cross gets major points for the relationships, not just the two that I’ve mentioned but the others as well, because to create such a plethora of different types of relationships with the characters and to make all of them believable and realistic whilst making interesting storytelling is an impressive feat on its own.

However, this didn’t quite make the top rating because of a few problems. When Jackson starts to really develop his abilities, they all start manifesting very quickly with little to no explanation until later. All of a sudden he knows new languages, has a photographic memory and can use self defence and shoot weapons. It all just felt a little bit too convenient that it all came to him as he needed it.

Whilst the first half of the book develops quite slowly, the second half really goes to town. Now in a way this is good because the tension keeps getting notched up and the stakes are high. However, everything starts being splurged out and all of a sudden you have new rules, and you don’t know who to trust and who not to, and then look, more confusing back story! And then there’s some fight scenes and some more explanations and confusion and then hey, look, he’s a member of the CIA. It all just seemed too rushed, everything got tossed into the pot at once, and as a result I was left staring at the page going ‘what the hell just happened?’…

I wanted all of it to happen (although maybe some of it could be explained better because it does get awfully confusing in there) I just wanted it to unfold over a longer period of time. That way my brain doesn’t implode from an information overload.

So in all in all this is one of the ones to watch for the start of 2012. It’s got romance, beautiful relationships of the romantic, familial and friend kind. It’s got time travel, the CIA, and a mind boggling array of back story, plot and incredible story telling. I’d go pre-order it now, because Julie Cross is going to be one to watch.

Check out other fabulous reviews here!

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