The Curse Girl

Title: The Curse Girl

Author: Kate Avery Ellison

Publisher:  CreateSpace

Publish Date:  26 March 2012

Pages: 194

ISBN:  978-1461197942

Source:  Bought

Genre:  YA, paranormal, romance

Series:  none

Rating: Really Liked

When Bee is imprisoned in a magical, cursed house because of her father's selfish choices, she has just one plan... escape! But she must solve a riddle and help her fellow prisoners break the curse that binds them all before she can leave, and that is proving more difficult than she originally thought thanks to the bitter young master of the house, Will.

Will wants nothing to do with Bee or her help (and he certainly isn't planning on falling in love with her), but he might have underestimated just how determined and clever--and irresistible--she can be.

Beauty aka Bee, is sent to the cursed house after her father gets in trouble.  This is the only way to help him and her sick step-mother.  She has heard of the cursed house before and has very little faith that she will come out alive.  After she goes through the door, she turn around and finds that her father is no longer “marked” and tries to leave.  This doesn’t happen.

She doesn’t want to like the people in the house.  They have simple names like “housekeeper” because it has been so long that they have been under the curse and don’t remember their real names.  Then there is beast.  Then, one night, she hears something and discovers that there is a prisoner in the basement named Liam.  She can relate to Liam, being a prisoner herself.  After a while, she warms up the people in the house, even Will, even though she doesn’t like him at time.  She is the one who is expected to break the curse that was set upon the house.  That is the only way she can escape.  Will Bee ever be free?

After reading Frost as part of a blog tour, I had to read another book by Ellison.  I liked that this was a new spin on an old tale.  It gave you a new perspective.  The characters in the book were different than the ones that you see in the cartoon, Beauty and the Beast.  Although, Bee calls Will “Beast” at first, she soon softens up and calls him Will.  She only calls him Beast when she is not happy with him.   To be fair, Will calls her “Curse Girl” at first.   I won’t hesitate to read another book by Ellison and would highly recommend her.

I like to go on Goodreads and read other people's reviews of books before I read them.  This was posted under The Curse Girl and I LOVED it.   This review was written by Lylaa Yeaah Oritee ♥ and can be found here.

He glanced up once, eyes bored. “Please stop talking. I’m trying to eat.”

First I was like :
Bee - You are a whiny selfish brat,
Will - You are a self absorbed attractive jerk,
Rose - You weakling,
Liam - Shut up with your screaming,
Marian - You. Are. Amazing. Evil.

Then I was like :
Bee - Make up your mind and please, keep slamming the doors ( you are so mature )
Will - Why Will ? Why didn't you tell her ?
Rose - What the hell is happening to you :O
Liam - It's nice to be able to talk to someone,
Marian - You are crazy, woman !

Now I'm like :
Bee - I'm proud of you intelligent human, I love your determination :')
Will - I think I'm in love with your hair ;)
Rose - You need to get out more ;D
Liam - No comment. You shocked me.
Marian - Haha, shame. You got what you deserved !

Most hated characters go to :
Drew - You selfish ass. I bet if your sister, if you have one, went missing you wouldn't even have cared. I wouldn't mind hitting you in the head with a rotten fish :D

Dad - I cannot believe you sold your daughter out for wife number two. I pity you. No toilet paper for you sir. Good for nothing loser.

Other :
I adored the ending !
I loved this re-write :')
I loved Marians mood swings,
On the edge of my seat much.
More, more, more !

The first chapter of The Curse Girl can be found on Ellison's website. 

Blog Tour: Lucid

Author: P. T. Michelle

Publisher: CreateSpace

Publish Date:  09 July 2012

Pages: 328

ISBN:  978-1478313038

Source:  from author for blog tour

Genre:  YA, paranormal, romance

Series:  Brightest Kind of Darkness (BKoD)

Other books in series:  Brightest Kind of Darkness

Rating: Liked

Once Nara combines her prophetic ability with Ethan’s power to outsmart Fate at his own deadly cat-and-mouse game, she’s more determined than ever to help Ethan learn the meaning behind the raven sword tattoo that suddenly appeared on his back after their confrontation with Fate.

During her quest to uncover the tattoo’s secrets, Nara enlists the help of some new friends and discovers her own surprising connection to Ethan.

While Nara digs deeper into the mystery, her desire for answers leads her down a dangerous path full of powerful and ruthless enemies. Swept into an age-old battle, Nara quickly learns that keeping one’s enemies close can be a necessary evil, making an intangible enemy she can control far more preferable to the human enemies she can’t.

**WARNING: Spoiler alert if you have read Brightest Kind of Darkness**

What happens to Nara now that she doesn’t have to worry about Fate anymore?  When will Ethan come back to her?  These are questions that plague Nara in Lucid.  Ethan had left to go to Michigan to be with his parents to try to salvage that relationship.  This is important to him.  He feels that he can go and do this because Nara is “safe.”  Nara doesn’t like that he is gone and misses him terribly, but she understands why he needed to go.   She doesn’t want to tell him the truth about what is going on because then that will pull him away from his current mission.

While he is gone, Nara is engrossed in figuring out what the ravens and Ethan’s feather tattoos mean.  She does a lot of research and writes everything in Ethan’s journal.   She even has kinda “adopted” a raven she calls “Patch,” who shows up at her window every morning.  She hasn’t told anyone about her special gift except her Aunt and Gran.  She hasn't even told her best friend, Lainey, that she dreams what will happen in the next day.  She has learned not to interfere, but sometimes that cannot be helped. 

There are some new characters in Lucid.  First, there is Harper.  She is a student at Nara’s high school who previously was home schooled.  I’m not too sure about her character.  At times, she seems too eager.  Then there is Drystan, who is a Welsh foreign exchange student.  He figures out that Nara has some sort of power, but doesn’t know what.  He also figures out that she is in danger and saves her life on multiple occasions. 

What is going on between Nara and Drystan while Ethan is away?  Will Ethan and Nara get back together?  Why is Nara is danger?  Why doesn’t Ethan want her to do any research on his raven tattoo?  There are multiple plot points in Lucid and many things are going on at the same time.  I never felt that it was too much to keep track of though.  I like Ethan and was kinda sad that he wasn’t in the majority of the book.  Even though Nara is the main character, I wanted to see more of Ethan.  Having said that, I fell for Drystan.  He is nice, has an accent and helps Nara.  I thought that the writing was easy to follow.  The end of the book made me want to read the third book and I cannot wait until that comes out.

You can find a link of the blog tour here.  This tour not only has reviews of Lucid, but Brightest Kind of Darkness as well.   There is a lot of stops on this blog tour, so check them out to find out a lot of good information about this series. 

Tour Schedule

September 24th
Confessions of a Bookaholic  – Review (Lucid)
Nothing Better Than a Book  – Review (BKoD)
Jelly Loves Books  – Review (BKoD)
Deea’s Journal  – Review (Lucid)
Some Like it Paranormal  – Featured Post (Random Trivia about the BKoD series)
Beauty & the Bookshelf  – Excerpt
The Bookish Babe  – Guest Post + Review (Lucid)
Better Read Than Dead  – Review (BKoD)
Hope, Faith & Books  – Review (BKoD)
I’m a Book Shark  – Featured Post (All about Parkour)

September 25th
The Bookish Brunette  – Featured Post (Ethan & Nara character interview)
A Buckeye Girl Reads  – Review (BKoD)
I Read Indie  – Review (Lucid)
Readers Live A Thousand Lives  – Review (BKoD)
Vendea’s Dream World of Books  – Review (BKoD)
Seeing Night Reviews  – Review (Lucid)
Fictional Distraction  – Review (Lucid)
Creative Reads  – Review (BKoD)
K-Books  – Review (Lucid)
A Book Vacation  – Featured Post (Ravens)
Stories of My Life  – Excerpt
Winter Haven Books  - Review (Lucid)

September 26th
Mundie Moms  – Review (BKoD)
I Heart YA Books  – Review (Lucid)
Serenity’s Lovely Reads  – Review (Lucid)
Book Nerd  – Review (BKoD)
Simply Infatuated  – Review (BKoD) + Excerpt
Books Over Boys  – Featured Post (Playlist)
Step Into Fiction  – Review (Lucid)
Nomalicious Reads  – Review (Lucid)
Reader’s Antidote  – Review (BKoD)
Primrose Musings  – Featured Post (BKoD: The Movie)
Panda Reads  – Review (BKoD)

September 27th
Kindle Fever  – Review (Lucid)
Always YA at Heart  – Review (Lucid)
A Dream Within A Dream  – Review (BKoD & Lucid)
Rampant Readers  – Review (BKoD)
Book Briefs  – Featured Post (Top 10: Little known facts about Nara)
Michelle Chew Writes  – Review (BKoD)
Into the Hall of Books  – Review (Lucid)
Book Passion for Life  – Excerpt
Rhi Reading  – Featured Post  (Building a World)
Shortie Says  – Featured Post (How Dreams Can Inspire…)
Jean BookNerd  – Review (Lucid)

September 28th
Refracted Light Book Reviews – Featured Post (The RL girls discuss Ethan & Drystan)
Once Upon a Twilight  – Review (BKoD)
Vamps and Stuff  – Review (BKoD)
Young Adult BookReviews  – Review (Lucid)
Sparkles and Lightning  – Review (Lucid)
Books With Bite  – Featured Post (Top 10: Little known facts about Ethan)
Little Hyuts  – Review (Lucid)
Books 4 Juliet  – Review (BKoD)
Rants ‘N Scribbles  – Review (BKoD)
The YA Sisterhood  – Excerpt
Random Acts of Books  – Review (BKoD)

P.T. Michelle has posted an excerpt of both Brightest Kind of Darkness and Lucid on her website.  Just click on the links above to see those.

Here is the book trailer for the first book in the series, Brightest Kind of Darkness.

Awaken Me

Title: Awaken Me

Author: Emily Gossett

Publisher: iUniverse

Publish Date:  Revision – 20 October 2011

Pages: 208

ISBN:  978-1-4620-3826-8

Source:  bought

Genre:  werewolves, vampires, romance

Series:  Connected

Other books in series: Capture Me (Sept 2012)

Rating:  liked

After witnessing the horrific murder that was committed by her fianc just days before their wedding, Aimee immediately flees from the life she knows. Lost in Greece, Aimee is inevitably and uncontrollably thrust into a supernatural world where she is terrified to learn what she really is. Crouching at every corner lies a new confusing memory that torments her from her previous life, while her feelings of love cease to die, but awaken more deeply for the mysteriously handsome stranger, who wants to rescue her. Battling the man, who she mistakenly still loves is a bigger conquest than imagined, but can she free her captured thoughts from the man who owns her? Facing the ultimate decision, to lose all humanity by becoming the weapon the Rogues desire most, or to destroy the creation of love. Can Aimee make the sacrifices needed to overcome deceit, love and her power that is irrepressibly blood thirsty?

What will Aimee do when she realizes that what she has been told is a lie?  Aimee was in an “accident” several years ago.  Since then, she has been with Derek and his family.  They have loved her and treated her as one of them.  Aimee is Derek’s fiancée.  While they are celebrating their upcoming nuptials, Aimee catches Derek killing her best friend.  That is something that she never thought he was capable of. 

She leaves the boat that they were having their party on and flees to Greece to get away from him.  She doesn’t know why, but he is dangerous.  She meets a handsome stranger on the docks while she is fleeing.  He tries to help her, but she doesn’t want help.  She wants to get away from Derek.  She doesn’t have a lot of money on her and realizes that she cannot use any of her credit cards because then he will know where she is. 

She finally goes to a hotel and has someone bring her clothes.  When she realizes that Derek has tracked her to the hotel, she accepts help and ends up in a place she never dreamed of.  There she learns a lot of truths and finally understands why Derek wants her so badly.  Aimee learns so much in such a little time. It is difficult for her.  Then there are the flashbacks.  What will Aimee do with all this knowledge? 

I first started to read this book on a website, I don’t remember which one, and I was hooked on it.  I was waiting for it to come out and somehow forgot.    In the preview, you got to read the first chapter and all I remembered was that I wanted to read the book where someone was killed on the boat and she jumped off of it.  I expected the book to settle down after the first chapter or so, but it never did.  I thought that the book ended in a good spot.  It was so easy to read.  I never felt like it was work to read and the book flew by too quickly.  I want to know what happens next, mind you, but it was a good ending nonetheless. 

This is one of those books that I read where I am not crazy about the cover, but love the book anyway.  If I don’t read an excerpt or synopsis of a book before I see the cover, then the cover has huge input on whether or not I will like it.  I’m glad I read the excerpt before seeing the cover on this book.