Thursday 28 November 2013

Review: Searching for Someday

Searching for Someday (Searching For, #1)
Title: Searching for Someday (Searching For #1)
Author: Jennifer Probst
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

Kate has given up on love—at least for herself. She is both blessed and cursed with the ability to sense a romantic connection between two people—a gift that her family passed down for generations. When Kate launches her own matchmaking company, Kinnection, with her two best friends in a cozy New York town, she has to put aside her own romantic disasters to make her business a success.

But when a furious man stalks into her office and accuses her business of being a scam, Kate is given the ultimate challenge to prove herself. Slade puts himself in her hands and asks Kate to find him love. Enraged at his arrogance but stubbornly eager to prove herself, Kate agrees, dedicating herself to the journey of finding him love...only to find herself falling for him along the way.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Mini Reviews: A Love to Live For, The Transfer & The Baby Bargain

A Love to Live For
Title: A Love to Live For
Author: Nikita Heart
My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon

Joseph is dying of brain cancer.

The moment Rebecca hears this news from her father, a preacher in the small town of Continental, Maryland, she rushes to the side of the friend she knew since kindergarten, hoping to console him and offer him her support. What he asks of her, however, leaves her completely in shock.

Will she go out with him?

Confused and flustered because she has never been asked out by a guy before, Rebecca flees but after some thought, decides to grant Joseph’s request, only telling herself that she just needs to keep herself from falling in love with him so she won’t end up getting hurt. Surely, she could manage that, couldn’t she?

Wrong.

With his sweetness and concern, Joseph slowly captures Rebecca’s untrained heart and after spending time with Joseph, it becomes clear to Rebecca that she is falling in love with Joseph. Hard.

She wonders if she should stop seeing him, afraid to lose another person she loves just like she lost her mother nine years ago, and just when she has made up her mind, she is faced with a different predicament.

After coming home from a trip, Joseph has changed and he won’t say why. Rebecca suspects that Joseph may have less time remaining than he thought, and is afraid to confront the fact, but the truth is something Rebecca did not see coming.

Will Rebecca be able to handle the truth or will it create a wedge between Rebecca and Joseph’s frail hearts for good?

Thursday 21 November 2013

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine, #1)
Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine #1)
Author: Ransom Riggs
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather— were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

Thursday 7 November 2013

Review: The Naturals

The Naturals
Title: The Naturals
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides— especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own.

Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Review: Fangirl

Fangirl
Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD


Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?