Try it Tuesday (2)

'Try it Tuesday' is our brand new feature cooked up by yours truely.

Each week myself and Ninfa will alternate turns and recommend a book we think you should try and why we think you should.

This weeks pick is:

"A chalice of wind" by Cate Tiernan

Book one in the "Balefire" series.

After seventeen-year-old Thais Allard loses her widowed father in a tragic car accident, she is forced to leave the only home she's ever known to live with a total stranger in New Orleans. New Orleans greets Thais with many secrets and mysteries, but none as unbelievable as the moment she comes face to face with the impossible -- an identical twin, Clio. Thais soon learns that she and the twin she never knew come from a family of witches, that she possesses astonishing powers, and that she, along with Clio, has a key role in Balefire, the coven she was born into. Fiery Clio is less than thrilled to have to share the spotlight, but the twins must learn to combine their powers in order to complete a rite that will transform their lives and the coven forever.

Why I'm recommending this book:

Cate Tiernan is mostly famous for her "Sweep/Wicca" series and more recently for her "Immortal Beloved" series. The "Balefire" series is not as well known and yet is one of my favourites. It's full of magic, intrigue, romance and it has a dark edge that makes it different from other Young Adult books I've read.
I love books about Witches and "A chalice of Wind" is a great example of how to keep supernatural characters fresh and original.

Five reasons why I love it:
1)It has a great plot that stretches across 4 books that are really easy and quick to read.
2) It's fun in places but has a dark edge that keeps the story fresh and interesting.
3)It's a book about magic, discovery and personal relationships. The two leads, Clio and Thais are your typical teenagers but there's so much more about them that you discover throughout the 4 books.
4) It has some really interesting characters and some twists and turns in the plot that will surprise you!
5) It's about Witches and let's face it, there're never enough books about Witches in ones bookshelves ;)

Who I think would love this book:
I'd recommend it to both young and older readers who like stories about Witches. Also anyone that loves Young Adult Fantasy books, especially people that like Cate Tiernan's "Sweep/Wicca" series, "The House of Night" series by PC and Kirsten Cast, the "Darke Academy" series by Gabriella Poole and others in the same genre.

I hope this encourages you to pick up the book and give it a try and when you do

Come and let me know what you think!

UK vs. THE WORLD! (12)

UK vs. The world is a weekly meme I made up lol.

It's simlair to UK vs. US except the UK covers are battling it out with their foreign counterparts from all over the world, because who doesn't love judging books by their covers!



UK                             vs.                  Australia

Forgotten by Cat Patrick

Mist: There's no doubt here, I'm in love with the Australian cover, the UK one is really interesting and different but I love the colours in the Aus cover and the swirly thing it's got going on around the edges.

Ninfa: Two interesting covers, two different tag lines...The UK does it for me, with the opposite images in black and white and then in colour of the model, the tagline and the simple font for the title it looks very stylish and really catches my attention. The Aussie cover is not bad and the flowers doing the whole hypnotic vortex thing is a cool effect, but I'm not as captured by the tagline and the title font is a little busy. UK wins

UK                          vs.                  Bulgaria

Immortal beloved by Cate Tiernan

Immortal beloved book one.

('Безсмъртна любима' and 'Вечен живот' translates to 'Immortal beloved' and 'Eternal Life')

Mist: I prefer the UK cover here, the flowers around the edge are so pretty and the forest pathway in the middle is simple so it doesn't make the whole thing look to crowded, and I want to know where that path goes. I don't really like the Bulgarian cover, it's very racy but boring at the same time, I do like the heart with the wings though.

Ninfa: The UK cover is jsut so pretty and I love the black and white picture of the forest with the red flowers framing it. It really gives me a feeling of "Forever", of something calm and mysterious that stretches as far as you can see. It took me a minute or two to actually make out what was on the Russian cover, apart form the bad tattoo-like heart there the naked back of a woman. Looks like the cover would be more suited to an Erotic book in my opnion, which I know this book isn't. An absolute UK win for win.

Which do you prefer?

Immortal beloved and Darkness falls - Double review

Immortal beloved by Cate Tiernan
Immortal beloved book one.

Available now.

http://www.hodder.co.uk/

What's it about?

Nastasya has spent the last century living as a spoiled, drugged-out party girl. She feels nothing and cares for no one. But when she witnesses her best friend, a Dark Immortal, torture a human, she realizes something's got to change. She seeks refuge at a rehab for wayward immortals, where she meets the gorgeous, undeniably sexy Reyn, who seems inexplicably linked to her past.

Nastasya finally begins to deal with life, and even feels safe--until the night she learns that someone wants her dead.

My review

Whilst I did enjoy this book and found the back story and history really interesting, I have to say I didn't find it very exciting, it felt more like the set-up for book two (which I'm starting once this review is written!) which I hope will be a bit more fast paced.

I did like Nastasya, though I found her pretty immature at times for a 500 year old woman! As we go through the book we learn about the terrible things she's been through and has been working to block out for a long time and I felt for her more as the story went along, and really feel I'd gotten to know her by the end.

There are a lot of characters to meet in this book though some get more 'face time' than others, I didn't find I disliked any of the characters but there weren't any I'd call my favourite either. I think what I'm trying to say is, this was a pretty avergae book for me, I didn't love it but I didn't hate it either, I'm intrigued to read the next one to find out what happens next and hopefully get some answers to the questions I was left with and the action I think it coming.

My thoughts on the cover

This is a gorgeous cover! It has a dark and eerie forest in the middle, surrounding by gorgeous colourful flower and vine drawings that stand out a mile, the black of the book is also soft to the touch giving it an extra depth, it really sits pretty on my shelf.

Darkness falls by Cate Tiernan

Immortal beloved book two
Available now.
http://www.hodder.co.uk/

What's it about?
Nastasya has lived for hundreds of years, but for some reason, life never seems to get any better. She left her spoiled, rich girl life to find peace at River's Edge, a safe haven for wayward immortals. There, she learned to embrace River's Edge, despite some drama involving the sexy Reyn, who she wants but won't allow herself to have. But just as she's getting comfortable, her family's ties to dark magick force her to leave.

She falls back into her old, hard partying ways, but will her decision lead her into the hands of a dark immortal? Or will it be her first step to embracing the darkness within her?

My review

(2.5)

Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me, I found it to be even slower than the first one and it took me a long time to finish because I just wasn't hooked in and kept putting it down. I loved the use of history and lots of research has obviously gone into it but the story itself I wasn't excited by.

In this addition to the series we see Nas get led astray again by the 'dark' except it doesn't happen until past halfway into the book and even then she doesn't really go as 'dark' as I was expecting from the description. I also found her inner monologue to be quite repetative which got a little annoying at times. I also felt not enough time was spent on the romance side of the book between Nas and Reyn, I struggled to feel her attraction to him because they don't actually really talk much, there's obviously bigger forces at work that have bought the two together but mostly all Nas thinks about is how she hates him but thinks he's gorgeous at the same time and she can't deny the attraction yet she never questions it, never tries to find out what's behind it all. Personally I won't be trying the next book in the series but I would be happy to try more books by the author as I think it's just this particular storyline I don't like and the main character annoys me a bit, but the writing itself is great.

My thoughts on the cover

I like this one even more than the first cover mostly because I'm more partial to blue than red lol I'm not sure what the birds and the nest are all about but they're really cool.

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