Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Release Date: October 1st 2012
Series: White Rabbit Chronicles #1
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN
Source: received from publisher for review purposes
Format: Paperback
Collins | Book Depository | Amazon
My Rating: 

Alice Bell has lived her entire life with her father telling her and her sister about the monsters that roam the night time. Her father has always obsessed about the monsters, never letting his daughters out at night from pure fear of them. Everyone thinks that he has lost the plot.

Ali's sister desperately wants to perform in a dance recital. The only problem? It's at night, and her father would never go for it. This is where Ali steps in. For her sister she would do anything. Ali's birthday is coming up and her parents constantly forget, not much changes this year. Ali convinces her mum that it's ok, if they go to the recital. Somehow her parents are convinced and they go. The recital is a great success but now it's night time, and the Bell's are out in the open. 

Review: Pure by Julianna Baggott

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Pure by Julianna Baggott
Release Date: February 8th 2012
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Edition: ARC, 448 pages

My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

From Goodreads: "We know you are here, our brothers and sisters .

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again."

I borrowed an ARC of this book from a friend who wasn't sure if they were enjoying it. So she gave it to me to read to see if I enjoyed it. With this book that is a tough question to answer. It's safe to say that this book is very unique. Pure is not like anything I have ever read before. 

It was hard for me to decide what rating to give this book, it was either going to be 3 or 3.5 stars. I contemplated not finishing this book, the first half of the book was tough for me to get through, it was slow moving and mainly setting up the world the characters live in and giving background on what has happened. I know this was necessary since it's the first book in a new series but I just couldn't get into it. However the second half made up for this. The second half was action packed and twists were revealed that I wouldn't have even thought to expect. I was expecting there to be a love triangle, and here was me thinking 'not ANOTHER love triangle, I can't cope!" But no I was wrong, there was no love triangle... But I won't tell you why, for spoiler reasons! 

Pure follows the story of Pressia, Partridge and Bradwell. They live in a world that has changed drastically. A dome has fallen on their town and unless you were within the dome when it fell like Partridge was, you became literally attached to the closest object to you. For Pressia it was a baby doll, which she now has as a hand. For Bradwell it was birds, he now has birds on his back. This blew my mind. The birds didn't die, they still flap their wings and everything. Pressia and Bradwell were lucky, others not so much. Some people were only close to the ground or glass or something else solid that caused them to die a very unfortunate death.

For those inside the dome life seems perfect, they don't know what goes on outside and most of them see no reason to care. Partridge used to be one of them. Until he breaks out, something that has not been done before. He breaks out and sees what life is like outside and begins to hate is Father who is the equivalent of a mayor for inside the dome. 

Julianna Baggott has succeeded in creating such a unique story that the idea alone is enough to warrant you reading this book. I'm hoping that the second instalment of this book will be more action filled and fast paced. Obviously this first book has to set up the world that the characters live in and that takes a bit of time, now that this has been done, hopefully the second book will pick up the pace!

I did enjoy this book and if this sounds up your alley then you should give it a go!

Have you read Pure? I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it!

Happy reading!
- Amy

Blog Tour: Reveal by Brina Courtney

Hi everyone!!

 I'm very excited to be part of the Reveal blog tour which is stopping by my blog today. Thank you to the lovely Brina for asking me to be part of her tour! For information on the blog tour or more information regarding the author, please visit her blog.

**Reveal is released TODAY 16th of December!**
 Reveal by Brina Courtney
Release Date: 16th December 2011
Format: eARC
Series: Cryptid Tales #1
Goodreads | Smashwords | Amazon

 My Rating 3.5/5 Stars

 From Goodreads: "Shay Tafford is not normal. Being a cryptid is not normal. Seeing ghosts is not normal. Her father’s disappearance is not normal. Lucky for Shay, Hugh isn't normal either. 
 So when he enters her life through her dead best friend, Shay knows he may be her only chance at a normal life. A life she is desperately searching for."

The eARC was supplied to me by the author for the purpose of this blog tour, this in no way alters my review. All thoughts are my honest opinion.

Reveal follows the story of Shay, a high school student that has been through a lot. Her Father went missing when she was a young girl and ever since that night, life hasn't been the same. Shay was close to her Dad and to this day, they don't know what happened to him. Since that night, Shay has been able to communicate with ghosts. Specifically a boy named Jeremy, who we were first introduced to in Ignite. He lived in a orhpanage until someone burnt it down and all the kids inside were killed. Now they are all ghosts carrying out certain tasks.

Jeremy has been Shay's best friend for many years, that is until they have a fight and she unknowingly banishes him. Forced to spend more time with living people Shay makes friends with Olivia, who she now spend the majority of her time with. During their trips to the coffee shop they come across a boy named Hugh. Who she later finds out is like her, he even knows more about it than she does. Shay discovers that there is a whole tribe of people just like her, Cryptids. People who can see ghosts or change into cats. As their relationship grows Hugh's parents realise that they could be the Cryptid couple of the prophecy. The couple that is supposed to defeat the "darkness."

I found the story to be intriguing and pretty unique as stories these days go! I liked Courtney's writing style and found it to be a fairly quick read. The pacing of the book was a little bit fast in parts, a little slow in others, but the other elements of the story definitely make up for it.

Shay is a very like able character. She is a fairly normal teenage girl, here is no mention of her being an outcast or popular, she is just your average girl. This I liked, so often the main character is incredibly 'uncool,' then all these things start happening to him/her and they make friends with one or more of the popular teens. Shay and her family have been darkly effected by the disappearance of their father and husband. Entirely understandable. They are moving on with their lives but there are still unanswered questions that are keeping them down. As the story develops we see Shay discover things about herself and the people close to her that she never knew.

Hugh is the love interest in the story. He's a college boy, while Shay herself is still in high school. As the story progressed I found Hugh to be pretty full on as a character. Shay is the reason he is in town (I won't say much, I don't want to spoil any surprises!) even before Shay knew he existed.

Both Shay and Hugh were left with room to develop both as characters and in their relationship, I look forward to seeing this in the next book in the series.

One thing I will say though - That ending? I did NOT see that coming!! I really thought that it would be your typical happy ending to the first book in a series. Though there were still plot lines that were left open at the point in time of the ending things had died down. Or so I thought. Until the final sentences of the novel! This was very well done! Just when I thought the story was coming to a close, it gets blown wide open!

This is only the second book I have read primarily about ghosts and I was not disappointed! Courtney has done a great job of leaving her readers hanging! I can't wait to find out what will happen next!

Don't forget to stop by the next blog on the tour Word Spelunking for an author Interview!

What do you think? Does this sound like a book you would like?

Happy reading!
- Amy