Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

Goodreads Blurb

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.

So when you read the synopsis, what's the first thing that pops into your mind? If you're an Iron Fey fan like me, the THE IRON FEY.  And it does sound like it, doesn't it? A lost brother, manipulative fey, fey who consider her a threat, a fey love interest who may or may not be helping her...yeah,. the Iron Fey definitely popped into my head. I was worried that I would be comparing this to my absolute favorite series, and while I did, Treachery is completely different, I'm glad to say! It had it's own story that had no relation, so no worries to any giant fans like me!

The world-building. Was. Amazing. Ruth Frances Long wrote Treachery beautifully and the descriptions were...surreal. The title, I can safely say, fits this book to the core. There were so many stunning creatures and fey, but all of them dangerous in their own way. It was wonderful to discover all these fey lurking in the book, waiting to be discovered and waiting for their secrets to be revealed. I mean, all fey readers, we know how dangerous it can be, and just how beautiful it can be. And Treachery is no exception. But the difference is that, instead of simply Oberon, Titania, and Mab ruling over courts, we're introduced to the May Queen, Jacks, and so much more faery lore then I know, which was wonderful since I was starting to predict a lot of happenings in faery books.

Character wise, I was a little iffy with Jenny. She was so...naive to the world and honestly, you can't blame her. She was thrust into this world, but like I said, I'm a giant faery fan so I always think that everyone should know the dangers of the world, but obviously they don't. So while giant faery fans may find Jenny irritating a bit, she'll get better later as she slowly learns the cautions. To any non-giant fan, you'll love Jenny from page 1! She's stubborn in that good way, she's passionate, kind, smart, all those things you love in a good character! Jenny was a lovable heroine who would rarely give up, unless she was completely crushed (I'm thinking of a certain time here...)

JACK. JACK. JACK. I LOVE JACK. but then, I love most love interests, hee hee. But Jack was just so sweet! He never realized how in love he was with Jenny and when he did...the things he said...it almost made me cry, it was so sweet! He was always thinking how he didn't deserve anything, to be recognized, to be known, and I just wanted to SQUASH HIM IN A HUG. He was so sacrificial and he was willing to give up more than everything just for Jenny. Thank God she didn't take that lightly!

The romance was as sweet as Jack! Jenny and Jack sitting in a tree...or rather, Jenny and Jack running from the trees. Somehow, along this quest, Jack got his queen (metaphorically...) and Jenny fell in love and...well, did she get her HEA? Maybe. But the romance wasn't insta-love, which was the one thing I wanted to say about it!

The plot was as amazing as the rest of the book! While it started out a little slow in the beginning (besides that prologue. Wow!) it quickly sped up so that eventually you'd be flipping through the pages, frantically wondering what would happen next. As the plot unfolded, you could feel the tension thickening until the ending where it basically...exploded, for lack of a better word! The ending was just wow. Let's just say nothing was thrown in just for the sake of it.

The Treachery of Beautiful Things will capture your interest from page 1 and string you along throughout the book. It's as devious and manipulative as the fey themselves and it may sound familiar, but Treachery  is original and fresh, a definite twist on fey lore. This is definitely one to buy if you're a fan of faeries or fantasy! 

Pages: 384

Series: Stand alone

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Publisher: Dial

Release Date: August 16, 2012

Rating: 4.5--->5

Bone Dressing by Michelle I. Brooks

Goodreads Blurb

Time is running out & the Dark that's been chasing Syd for many lifetimes has finally caught up with her.

Sydney Roberdeau lost her parents as a young girl. Waiting for her life to start and the freedom that will come with her eighteenth birthday, Syd spends much of her time haunting the local cemetery. It is there, stretched out among the dead, that she feels most alive, most at home. Until one rainy night when Beau, Sarah and T.J. crash her ghostly sanctuary, appearing out of nowhere, turning her already inside-out world one degree past upside down.

Syd must now revisit past lives, dressing in the bodies of her previous selves & bone dressing. Her only chance to outrun the evil breathing down her neck is to face her own worst nightmares and her strongest desires. But if she can't stay out of trouble in this life, how can she possibly fix mistakes from past lives? And just how many lives has she lived, loved and lost? What is Syd exactly, and what will she risk for the life of a man she doesn't remember, the man she spent a lifetime with, the man she loves? Everything including her very own life?

Bone Dressing, the first in a series of seven books, will carry Syd and Beau on an adventure that transcends life itself.

Okay, when a bloggy friend of mine recommends a book, I WILL read it! So when Shreya (Chocolate Coated Reviews) recommended this, I absolutely HAD to read it! The premise sounds interesting and dark and the cover had that creepy vibe to it...
but sadly, Bone Dressing just wasn't for me.

I'm not sure why, but I've actually been in a reading slump, so that may have something to do with this, but the things that I had a problem with was mainly the writing part. There were so many metaphors and while I'm not saying that's necessarily BAD, the metaphors were played on for an entire paragraph and after a while, it kind of got irritating. There were also a lot of description that was just too much sometimes and too little in other cases. It was kind of choppy in a few places, but that can be forgiven! Near the end, I also got a bit confused as to where the plot was going, but then again, that COULD be my fault lol.

Another thing was actually the romance. It was pretty insta-lovey in the beginning (even SYD realizes it!) and that kind of bothered me since they met in a graveyard, and not 4 chapters in she was confessing love.And that...that just really didn't seem right at the time. Later though? Sort of. i'm still trying to figure out that Jesse/Beau part!

What I DID love though, was Syd's sarcasm and how much voice there was! Syd was just a laugh out loud kind of character who just infected you with her emotions, positive or negative. And she was so, so, SO snarky and sarcastic! I absolutely loved it! She had these perfect responses and was so tough! she rarely backed down from anything and while her stubborness was a bit annoying at first, it quickly became endearing and something we'd fall in love with. 

The world-building...wasn't very thorough either. I had no idea where these powers came from, the history behind it, what Sarah an Beau really did, and how they knew about their destiny. It was just a lot of things thrown in in my opinion, so I think that the world-building could use a little work and have more xplanation as to why Syd could do this, why Beau knew that, why Sarah was SO DANG SMART.

Plot wise...I actually enjoyed it, but there was really no sign of the antagonist until the last 100 pages or so, and it felt like the book should've been a bit longer. But considering there are 7 books in this series, I can't really blame her! I just would've liked it to have a bit more current action and a lot less remembering-the-past. 

So while there were many great reviews for this, Bone Dressing just wasn't my type of book and I think I'll give it another chance one day, but we'll see. While the book had a lot of things going for it, I think it just needed an editor and would've been a great book that would've blown me away! But currently, I just didn't like it very much, I'm afraid.

Pages: 360
Series: Bone Dressing #1
Genre: Dark YA/Romance
Publisher: Savaage Enterprises
Release Date: April 20, 2011
Rating: 1.5 ---->  stars

BLOGOVERSARY TOUR: Joint Review with the Craziest Person on Earth

http://fiction-freak.blogspot.com/p/features.html

How it Works

So the workings of my blog (to be revised)
Each year, I only have four 10/5 stars. Those will be my top books of 2012.
Each year, I will also have seven 7/5 stars! these will be my next level of top books for the year!
At the end of each year, I will round up each of these better-than-5-star books and also add on one MEGA ULTRA FREAK OUT star which is like 100/5 stars. Added up, it'll be 12 non-norm ratings, one for each month! I will, sometimes, have less than 12!

Blog Tour: Crewel by Gennifer Albin

HEY GUYS! I'm so excited to be part of the Crewel Blog Tour! So we were supposed to do something PROMO or a review...but I already did a review since I was lucky enough to get an ARC! You can find that here.

So, me being the Nikki I am, will write a letter to Gennifer Albin herself. Here it goes.

DEAR GENNIFER ALBIN:
So you can see how the greeting is in CAPS right? YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? Because CAPS are awesome and so was Crewel! It was just...I have no words to describe how amazing it was. (Ok, lie since I wrote a review. But it doesn't give Crewel justice!) So, as one of Crewel's biggest fans...
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT GIANT CLIFFHANGER THAT MADE ME WANT TO STRANGLE MYSELF AND DIE IN A HOLE ALONE.
Please?
If you, however, do not agree to my terms, I will be forced to track you down, climb through your window, and steal the manuscript of book 2. I'm serious (I think).

Also, I'd love to say that as your Twitter stalker, I also enjoyed the Starbucks Date stalker  retelling. Seriously. Who knew a date could be that dramatic? (AND ONLY ONE RING? GASP). I, personally think you should write a short story about what happened and what happened after. After  you're done with BOOK 2.
"I agree"
*cough* WHO SAID THAT? That person is awesome.

And can I just say LOVE your writing?
And your storytelling?
And the way you explain everything?
And your name choice?
And your characters?
And the love interests?
And Crewel's plot?
And my pretend copy of book 2?
Yes, we're back to that.
PLEASE?

Crewel is a word? I never knew that. I thought that was just you twisting the word cruel. Wow. What better title is there? Something to do with weaving AND sounds like CRUEL which fits the book? I hope you didn't use all your title magic! Save some for book 2!

TRAILER. AMAZING! It just fit the book so perfectly! and when she's ripped? BEST. SCENE. EVER.
Just thought I'd throw that in. not like you'll read it! (At least, I hope not. There are like a thousand other people writing something like this, I bet.)

But yeah...I think I'm done.

Except, oh. BOOK 2?!?!?!

Have fun, writing.

-Nikki.

Hunt Time!!!!!!

Directions: There are a list of links below that are your key to finding the answers to the questions in the scavenger hunt. Please answer all the question that are listed for the hunt and the winner that answers all of them correctly will win the awesome prize of a box set full of Fierce Reads titles!

Questions:

1. Whats Gennifer Albins favorite thing to drink?

2. What is the last phrase in the Crewel Trailer?

3.  What's Gennifer Albin's favorite number? Pick a number between 1-100.(Guess!)

4. What do the Spinsters weave? Be specific(it is mentioned on Gennifer's  blog)

5. When was the Crewel trailer released? 

                                         Prize: One LUCKY winner will get.......

    

                                   - A box set of ARC Fierce Read Titles!

  

Entry Form: When you have found all the answers click HERE and fill out the form to qualify!  

Rules: 

- If chosen you must reply to the email within 48 hours or another winner WILL be chosen. Open to the US ONLY(SORRY). 

-Must answer each question correctly to win. Winner will be chosen randomly through random.org

-Must provide a working email address in the form!

-You have until October 18th to enter!

LINKS:  Goodreads Synopsis

               Crewel Trailer 

               Gennifer Albin's blog 

These links shall guide you on your quest to a Crewel World.

  

                    Weave Wisely.

Crewel Blurb

Incapable. Awkward. Artless.

That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.

Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.

Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

Short Author Bio

Gennifer Albin holds a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Missouri. During her student years she served as an editor for Pleaides and The Missouri Review, and since then she’s founded the tremendously popular blog theconnectedmom.com.  She lives in Kansas with her ridiculously supportive husband, two small children, and a Tuesday cat.

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Website
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Blog Tour: Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Character Guest Post: Emma Atkins (Anna’s best friend)

Want to hear a secret? Come here. 

Oh, please... I don't bite, closer. Anna hates it when I talk about people behind their backs, and since this little anecdote is about her, I'm pretty sure she'd call my behavior "inexcusable" and stop talking to me or something.

Okay, here goes: If you'd told me three years ago that Anna Greene was going to turn out to be my best friend, I never would have believed you. Seriously. Never. 

I remember the day we met. It was the near the end of the first day of school freshman year, and I was walking The Donut when I spotted her fumbling with the latch in her locker. Tallish. Gangly legs. Hair? Out to here. And wearing that horrible Westlake jumper. I thought I should be nice and politely inform her that no one ever wears the jumper. No one. Ever.

So I walked up to her and introduced myself. But before I could tell her the bit about the jumper, she smiled and reached out to shake my hand. She had a nice smile, the sort that makes you smile along without realizing you’re doing so. I can’t remember what she said exactly, but I remember that she made me laugh right away. She didn't seem to be that impressed by my keen sense of style or taken by my accent, and I liked her immediately.

And just like that, I was inviting her over after school.

Frankly, the more we talked that day, the more I realized how little we had in common. She didn't care much about clothes and makeup and I would never in a million years run through mud and hurdle logs “just for the fun of it”. But then we started talking music and neither one of us could shut up. Turns out, she knew the owner of the record store in town so we headed over there and spent the day wandering through the aisles and looking through the wooden bins of CDs. She made me buy the Gin Blossoms and I made her buy the new Screaming Trees. We’ve been best friends ever since.

It's odd, but I occasionally feel this intense need to protect her. And not because she’s weak or anything—on the contrary, she's one of the strongest people I've ever known—but sometimes the instinct kicks in and I can't seem to stop myself. Ever since this guy, Bennett, came to town, I've felt it more than usual.

Bennett. At first I thought he was a creepy stalker, but now that I've gotten to know him better, I admit, he's growing on me. Still, I can't shake the fact that there's something off about him. Like he’s hiding something.

But Anna’s never been happier, and best friends are supposed to support each other, right? So yes, it makes me feel like a bit of a prat that I'm not one hundred percent behind this relationship.

Still, I can't help but think this isn’t going to end well.

Time Between Us Blurb

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett’s unique ability to travel through time and space brings him into Anna’s life, and with him, a new world of adventure and possibility. As their relationship deepens, they face the reality that time might knock Bennett back 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—and what consequences they can bear in order to stay together.

Author Bio

Blissfully married. Occasional superhero in the eyes of two remarkable small people. Animal lover. Avid reader. Gadget freak. Music addict. Dreadful cook. Happily stuck in the mid-90s. I write young adult fiction about fun stuff like travel, music, romance, and normal people with extraordinary talents.

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Time Between Us Website

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