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Review: Stripped by Brooklyn Skye

Image Received from YA Bound

Image Received from YA Bound

Title: Stripped
Author: Brooklyn Skye
Publisher: Self Published
Publication Date: 11 May 2013
Source: Review Copy – Ebook
Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis from Goodreads

“I like you.” His voice is low and soft, which I don’t deserve. I look away, down the rutted parking lot.

“Don’t…waste those words on me.”

He touches my cheek. “You just need someone to show you.”

“No.” I ease back again. “I don’t. So please, Torrin, stop trying to swoop in and save me. I don’t need saving.” 

College freshman Quinn Montgomery will do anything to avoid the mistake her sister made—killing herself over a boy. But when she is forced into nude modeling at a local college to support her family after a bankruptcy, she begins to crack, just enough to let Torrin, the university’s top varsity oarsman, see that the real Quinn is not as feisty and unapproachable as she wants everyone to think. But letting someone in comes at a steep cost and, it turns out, Torrin is connected to Quinn’s family in more ways than she could ever imagine.

REVIEW 

Told in first person narrative from Quinn’s point of view. Her life has been drastically altered in the space of a year due to events outside her control, yet they have a powerful impact on her. Quinn is under the impression that her sister committed suicide over a break-up with her boyfriend. She tries to guard herself against love at all costs, hooking up with the worst kind of guy as a way of keeping nice guys away from her. She carries a lot of guilt of her sister’s death and feels she doesn’t deserve happiness because of it.

Further disaster strikes when her father is removed from his position within the university due to unethical conduct. Family friends and the lives of more than one person are affected by these circumstances. All of the clues are peppered through the narrative and quite easy to pick up on, this really is a character driven story with Quinn confronting uncomfortable truths about herself and her actions, coming to terms with the events in her life and moving on from them in a positive manner.

As love and lies collide the story proves that there is always 2 sides to every story and a single perspective will be biased. Keeping secrets causes far more problems than telling the truth ever would.

This is one of those books that desperately needs an epilogue as you become so invested in the characters it feels vital to know what happens to them next.

Spotlight and Give-Away: Stripped by Brooklyn Skye

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Image Received from YA Bound

Image Received from YA Bound

Stripped

by Brooklyn Skye

Release Date: 05/14/13

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Summary from Goodreads:

“I like you.” His voice is low and soft, which I don’t deserve. I look away, down the rutted parking lot.

“Don’t…waste those words on me.”

He touches my cheek. “You just need someone to show you.”

“No.” I ease back again. “I don’t. So please, Torrin, stop trying to swoop in and save me. I don’t need saving.”

College freshman Quinn Montgomery will do anything to avoid the mistake her sister made—killing herself over a boy. But when she is forced into nude modeling at a local college to support her family after a bankruptcy, she begins to crack, just enough to let Torrin, the university’s top varsity oarsman, see that the real Quinn is not as feisty and unapproachable as she wants everyone to think. But letting someone in comes at a steep cost and, it turns out, Torrin is connected to Quinn’s family in more ways than she could ever imagine.

About the Author
Image Received from YA Bound

Image Received from YA Bound

Brooklyn Skye is just your average awkward girl who’s obsessed with words. She grew up in a small California town where she quickly realized writing was an easy escape from small town life.

Website / Twitter / Goodreads

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Review: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Image from Author Website

Image from Author Website

Title: The Shining Girls
Author: Lauren Beukes
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 25 April 2013
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 3/5

Synopsis from Fantastic Fiction

The Time Traveler’s Wife meets The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in this story of a time-traveling serial killer who is impossible to trace–until one of his victims survives.

In Depression-era Chicago, Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women, burning with potential. He stalks them through their lives across different eras until, in 1989, one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives and starts hunting him back.

Working with an ex-homicide reporter who is falling for her, Kirby has to unravel an impossible mystery.

THE SHINING GIRLS is a masterful twist on the classic serial killer tale: a violent quantum leap featuring a memorable and appealing girl in pursuit of a deadly criminal.

REVIEW BY BETH

The Shining Girls has a fantastically creepy premise which is executed well but it didn’t amaze me or blow me away. It’s an exciting combination of Sci-Fi and Thriller which features a time-travelling serial killer set up against his one surviving victim, Kirby, who is determined he is caught, or revenge is sought at the very least.

Beukes writing style is captivating and the short snappy chapters kept me reading but it all fell down with me with the murderer’s time travelling – it seemed to be simply a narrative device to make the novel stand out as different but it wasn’t explored deeply enough for me.

I found all of Beukes female characters fascinating, even though I only met them for a few pages each time before they joined his collection and they’re much more enjoyable and believable than the killer himself.

The killer could be a fascinating character, there could be a deep meaning behind his compulsion to kill but unfortunately there isn’t. I know that this is the way of some killers, it’s simply a compulsion but I would have liked to have more of an understanding of the killer’s motives, aside from the fact that all the girls ‘shine’. This ‘shining’ seems to allude to a sense of potential, ‘bright young thing’ spirit in each of the girls he chooses – that idea itself is fantastic but again I was still left wanting more.

A fast-paced thriller with some gritty murder scenes and an interesting positioning of killer and victim between Kirby and Harper. Recommended to anybody who loves a good thriller, with a touch of sci-fi.

Spotlight and Give-Away: The Forgotten Ones by Laura Howard

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The Forgotten Ones 
The Danaan Trilogy 
Book One
 
Allison O’Malley’s plan is to go to grad school so she can get a good job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She has carefully closed herself off from everything else, including a relationship with Ethan, who she’s been in love with for as long as she can remember.

What is definitely not part of the plan is the return of her long-lost father, who claims he can bring Allison’s mother back from the dark place her mind has gone. Allison doesn’t trust her father, so why would she believe his stories about a long forgotten Irish people, the Tuatha de Danaan? But truths have a way of revealing themselves. Secrets will eventually surface. And Allison must learn to set aside her plan and work with her father if there is even a small chance it could restore her mother’s sanity.

Image Received from YA Bound

Image Received from YA Bound

About Laura Howard

Image Received from YA Bound

Image Received from YA Bound

Laura Howard lives in New Hampshire with her husband and four children. Her obsession with books began at the age of 6 when she got her first library card. Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High and other girly novels were routinely devoured in single sittings. Books took a backseat to diapers when she had her first child. It wasn’t until the release of a little novel called Twilight, 8 years later, that she rediscovered her love of fiction. Soon after, her own characters began to make themselves known. The Forgotten Ones is her first published novel.

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Review: Rule by Jay Crownover

Image from Fantastic Fiction

Image from Fantastic Fiction

Title: Rule
Series: Marked men #1
Author: Jay Crownover
Publisher: Self Published
Publication Date: 30 Dec 2012
Source: Bought – Ebook
Rating: 4/5

Synopsis from Fantastic Fiction

I loved Rule Archer since the first moment I ever laid eyes on him. He was everything I shouldn’t want and the only person I went out of my way to not try and please. He only saw me as a brat, as an entitled, stuck up princess but worse than that all he saw when he looked at me was his deceased twin brother’s girl. It broke my heart because as much as I had loved Remy Archer there was never anything romantic between us and no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that loving Rule was a terrible idea, my poor heart just wouldn’t listen. We tolerated each other, barely. We forged an uneasy alliance until one night I had too much to drink and changed the way we were forever. Suddenly life long secrets were no longer hidden and the one thing I always wanted for myself seemed obtainable as long as I was willing to go through hell to hold onto it.

Shaw Landon was a class act and I had no idea what to do with her. She was tied to my family, tied to the person that was my other half so I tolerated her and her haughty attitude because I didn’t have any other choice. What I didn’t know was that a short skirt and too many cocktails on her birthday was going to change my outlook on her for the rest of my life. Some people thought I hid behind all my tattoos and piercings, that I tried to distance myself from my dead twin, Shaw saw through it all and wasn’t scared of what was underneath.
We weren’t supposed to be together, weren’t supposed to be anything except uncomfortable acquaintances but that all changed in the blink of an eye. Now I had to figure out just how a girl like her and a guy like me were supposed to be in love without destroying each other. Add in her custom made ex and two disapproving sets of parents and the whole situation sounded to me like it was more trouble then it was worth.

Recommended for mature readers due to sexual content, language and drinking.

REVIEW 

Told in dual first person narrative; Rule is very head-strong, independent and stubborn. He has always been this way even as a child causing friction in his family relationships. Relations with his mother further deteriorate following the death of his twin brother. Rule exasperates the problem by his natural inclination to rebel, appearances suggest that Rule enjoys irritating people. Rule is far deeper than people give him credit for.

Shaw, on the other hand, does everything to try to please people even if it isn’t what she wants. Her parents, while wealthy, are cold people and she lacks affection and a nurturing environment. Best friends with Rule’s twin brother, Remy, since they were 14 but in love with Rule from the same age. Everyone assumed Remy and Shaw were a couple and they did nothing to dispel this assumption as it provided a form of protection for the both of them.

The way in which Rule’s mother treats him as a result of the depression she suffers with the grief of losing Remy is truly heart-breaking. Rule feels he is unworthy of love and pushes anyone away that tries to get close. He also carries a lot of guilt over Remy’s death.

Shaw’s capacity for love shines through the narrative, its almost as if she has enough love for the both herself and Rule. The description of her feelings was so powerful it felt like a physical blow to the stomach. Knowing she loved Rule for so long and all the things she has had to witness as a result pulls at the heart-strings.. You feel just how confused she is regarding her feelings for Rule and how hurt she has been by his actions.

The way in which both of them have grown-up together has shaped their lives; the memories that are woven into the story bring the characters to vivid life within the imagination.

The peripheral characters are all wonderful and really add depth to the story; proving that you can make your own family by surrounding yourself with the people that not only suit you but they understand and accept you without judgement.

Both narrative voices really stand out, they both lack confidence in themselves at a fundamental level and the ingrained belief they have that they are basically unlovable is tragic to witness. The narrative shows that emotional trauma suffered as a child leaves internal scars on the adult we become.

The plot is multi-layered combining romance and thriller with the portrayal of grief tearing both individuals and families apart. The character development is the main focus and is quite stunning in its fruition. Proving that no matter what you should just be the person you want to be and not try to please everyone else. People who genuinely love you will do so without you having to change a single thing about yourself.

The story provided a wonderful sense of optimism. The idea that love can provide comfort and security and therefore build self confidence (happy sigh).