{Review} Storm (Elemental #1) by Brigid Kemmerer

Posted by Donna
Release Date: April 21st, 2012
Finished Date: March 18th, 2017

Publishers: Kensington
Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance
Source: Gifted
Format: eBook

Pages: 413
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo 

 

Becca Chandler is suddenly getting all the guys-- the ones she doesn't want. Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her. 

Then she saves Chris Merrick from a beating in the school parking lot. Chris is different. Way different: he can control water--just like his brothers can control fire, wind, and earth. They're powerful. Dangerous. Marked for death. 

And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca. 

Secrets are hard to keep when your life's at stake. When Hunter, the mysterious new kid around school, turns up with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, Becca thinks she can trust him. But then Hunter goes head-to-head with Chris, and Becca wonders who's hiding the most dangerous truth of all. 

The storm is coming. . . 

The Review: I read this book back in 2014 and since then it’s always been a book I’ve never forgotten. So I decided to re-read the first book with the intention of finishing the rest of the books in the series.

Exciting, dangerous and very intense, Storm is a fast paced read that brings a whole new meaning to elemental magic.

Our main character Becca doesn’t have many friends except her best friend and she shies away from other students because of the nasty rumours that have been spread about her around school. On night after leaving school, Becca comes across Chris Merrick fighting for his life in the car park. Becca does the only thing she can think of and that’s to help run Chris’s attackers off, however, after rescuing Chris, Becca is pulled into Chris’s dangerous world, especially when she finds out he’s connected to the elements and can control water. Becca’s life has never been as dangerous as it is now, and she needs to figure out who she can trust before it’s too late.

The brothers - Chris, Nick, Gabriel and Michael are completely fabulous! With each of them having a different element, it’s safe to say there is never a dull moment throughout this story. It’s captivating and spell-blinding to watch these super-hot guys experience with their super cool elemental magic. They bring a lot of exciting twists and turns throughout the story and it also makes it very unpredictable – in all, I loved the plot.

With Storm being Chris’s story, I really enjoyed getting to know him and watching his relationship with Becca grow. At times, it’s nearly non-existent that I honestly thought they would just remain friends, but the author focuses more on the story rather than the romance and I liked that. It gave the story a lot of suspense and intense scenes. Both Becca and Chris were really great to get to know. I liked Becca; she grew on me through-out the story, but Chris I liked instantly. I think because there was a lot of mystery surrounding him. And together, they were great!

At the moment, it’s pretty hard to pick a favourite brother. There’s definitely something about Nick that I like, so I’m intrigued to discover more in his story, but I’m also excited to read the other books in the series. But I have to say, I definitely enjoyed this story much more the second time around, especially knowing I have the next book ready and waiting.

{Feature Post} Bookworm Candles and Crafts + INT giveaway!

                             

Can you believe it’s nearly the end of March already? We can’t and we can’t believe we’re already to show you the next feature post featuring Bookworm Candles and Craft. Now if you’ve missed the few first posts then don’t worry you can go back and view them by clicking this link: Bookworm Candles and Crafts Previous Posts.

Today we’re going to be highlighting their February Monthly Box and the theme was: One True Pairing – a box inspired by some of our favourite couples! 

So here’s a quick rundown on the items that were featured in this box:

*Moriel – Mor & Aziel love blended candle smelling like Illyrian wings, lily & dreams and its also has a double wick

*Karou & Avika Wishbone Moment Room Spray smelling like climbing ivy, jasmine and vetiver

*Starfall inspired soap 

*Clary and Jace wax melts. Clary smells like cinnamon, coffee and creativity. Jace smells like fighting gear, mangoes and wit

*Three quote badges 

*The Hunger Games quote pendant necklace 

Donna's Thoughts: For me this months’s monthly box is fantastic. I love it because not only did it feature one of my favourite OTP couples but several favourites. All of them in fact. I also love the variety that comes with the box which isn’t just candles but room sprays and wax melts and I know I’ll use every one of these items. Well done Danielle! 

Now March's box is already sold out but you can purchase April's box which is May the Odds be Ever in your Favour which is of course inspired by The Hunger Games! 
You pre-order April's box here: Bookworm Candles Etsy Store and use BOOKPFORLIFE10 to save 10% on all purchases!
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Next to show you today is more from Bookworm Candles and Crafts Blended Range. We’ve already showed you Romione and Belward, this time we have some more of your favourite couples. 

A Court of Mist and Fury Inspired Love Blended Candles - Feysand - Feyre & Rhysand. 
This candle is inspired by this gorgeous couple that we’ve all come to know and love and their unique blend has been created to turn two amazing characters into one candle. 
Feysand smells like mates, jasmine and peach and is a fruity floral accord along with an added rainbow to the top. 

Each lovely candle comes with a gorgeous push on lid and comes with Bookworm Candles and Crafts signature touches including a crochet band and a F & R charm along with a two toned wax to represent this beautiful couple!

The Infernal Devices Inspired Love Blended Candles - Jessa - Jem & Tessa

This candle is inspired by this lovable couple and smells like notes of time, burnt sugar and honey this candle has a sweet, gourmand scent. 

Each lovely candle comes with a gorgeous push on lid and comes with Bookworm Candles and Crafts signature touches including a crochet band and a J & J charm along with a two toned wax to represent this beautiful couple!

Mortal Instruments Inspired Love Blended Candles - Malec - Magnus & Alec
This candle is inspired by Magnus and Alec smelling like notes of shadows, ylang ylang and iris. The fragrance has a deep floral accord and even has a glitter top. 

Each lovely candle comes with a gorgeous push on lid and comes with Bookworm Candles and Crafts signature touches including a crochet band and a M & A charm along with a two toned wax to represent this beautiful couple!

Now each candle jar is big and holds 300ml of wax. If the big sized candle isn’t to your liking or if you want to try a smaller version you can also purchase it in a normal 4oz tin. Either way, you don’t want to miss out on these amazing blended candles! Prices are either £6.00 for the tin or £14.50 for the large jar. 

You can take a look at the selection of blended candles here: Bookworm Candles Etsy Store and use BOOKPFORLIFE10 to save 10% on all purchases!
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Next to show you a product that Bookworm Candles and Craft are rebranding and that’s their wax melts! Now I know there is a lot of confusion when it comes to wax melts, people don’t know what they do or how they’re used. Wax melts are pieces of scented wax that you melt in a burner. The wax melts are placed on the top of part of your burner and a little tea light goes underneath to melt the wax. There you have it! Your home will be scented through-out. You can purchase wax burners from companies like Amazon, Argos and even some of your local shops. 

So now you know a little bit about wax melts and their burners, here is the first new release from Bookworm Candles and Craft and it’s one of our favourite characters of the Throne of Glass series – Aelin! 

These wax melts are inspired by the Queen of Terrasen herself and they smell like jasmine, lemon verbena and embers. Each piece of wax should last around a week but it’s completely depends on how strong you want the fragrance flowing through your home. You can burn two pieces at a time for a stronger scent if you like. 

Each package comes with six wax melts and have a crochet band. 

You can purchase it for £3.00 or you can buy 3 for £7.50. Bookworm Candles and Craft will be releasing more soon so keep your eyes peeled. They will be available to purchase from the store soon!

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Now it's time for our monthly giveaway and this time it's perfect for you A Court of Mist and Fury fans. 

This time we're giving away a mini tin of Feyre and Starfall. If you've read the books then i'd definitely recommend you being excited over these candles and if that doesnt sway you let me tell you about each candle: 
Feyre smells like oakmoss, daisies & rainbows and 
Starfall smells like stars, surprises & hope. 
As you can see pictured to your right that these candles look amazing! 

To enter complete the entry form below and good luck!

Entry-Form

{Blog Tour} Forever Geek (Geek Girl #6) by Holly Smale

Forever Geek (Geek Girl #6) 
by Holly Smale
Release Date: March 9th, 2017

Publishers: HarperCollins
Genre: YA, Contemporary Romance

Pages: 400
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo 

 

My name is Harriet Manners and I’ll be a geek forever…

Harriet Manners knows almost every fact there is.

Modelling isn’t a sure-fire route to popularity. Neither is making endless lists. The people you love don’t expect you to transform into someone else. Statistically, you are more likely to not meet your Australian ex-boyfriend in Australia than bump into him there.

So on the trip of a lifetime Down Under Harriet’s to-do lists are gone and it’s Nat’s time to shine! Yet with nearly-not-quite-boyfriend Jasper back home, Harriet’s completely unprepared to see supermodel ex Nick. Is the fashion world about to turn ugly for GEEK GIRL?

It’s time for Harriet to face the future. Time to work out where her heart lies. To learn how to let go…

Holly Smale’s Soundtrack to the Geek Girl series 

Music is enormously important to me, and fundamental to my imagination: I can’t write at all without it. But I did tend to pick similar tracks while I was working on Geek Girl, which meant a lot of instrumental, Icelandic artists and piano or violin. Anything that I both loved and also felt like Harriet: optimistic, delicate and thoughtful, with a few fun and uplifting tracks thrown in for good measure. Although frankly I hadn’t realised until I made this list quite how many animals, insects and birds were involved. Perhaps Harriet’s impact on my subconscious was even stronger than I thought! 

When I was writing the final third of Forever Geek I played Jonsi, We Bought a Zoo, on loop, so it’s kind of secretly woven silently into the book. It’s amazing how powerful that connection is now for me. I can’t hear it without feeling both incredibly proud and incredibly sad at the same time: it feels like it sums up Harriet’s entire journey through Geek Girl, in one track, so whenever I miss her I’ll just need to play it really loudly. 

Dissolve Me - Alt-J

The Planets (Jupiter) - Holst

Fireflies - Owl City

Carried Away - Passion Pit

Nuvole Bianche - Ludovico Einaudi

The Lark Ascending - Ralph Vaughan Williams

Hoppipolla - Sigur Ros

Metamorphosis II - Philip Glass

Arrival of the birds - London Metropolitan Orchestra

Where’s My Love - Syml

We Bought a Zoo - Jonsi

AUTHOR BIO:  

Holly is the Number One bestselling, multi-award winning author of the GEEK GIRL series. She fell in love with writing at five years old, when she realised that books didn't grow on trees like apples. 
A passion for travel, adventure and wearing no shoes has since led her all over the world: she has visited 27 countries, spent two years working as an English teacher in Japan, volunteered in Nepal, been bartered for in Jamaica and had a number of ear-plugs stolen in Australia, Indonesia and India. 
Holly has a BA in English Literature, an MA in Shakespeare, and currently lives in London or at @holsmale. 

{Review} Forever Geek (Geek Girl #6) by Holly Smale

Posted by Donna
Release Date: March 9th, 2017
Finished Date: March 10th, 2017

Publishers: HarperCollins 
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Source: For Review
Format: Hardcover 

Pages: 400
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo 

 

My name is Harriet Manners and I’ll be a geek forever…

The FINAL book in the bestselling, award-winning GEEK GIRL series is here!

Harriet Manners knows almost every fact there is.

Modelling isn’t a sure-fire route to popularity. Neither is making endless lists.
The people you love don’t expect you to transform into someone else.
Statistically you are more likely to not meet your Australian ex-boyfriend in Australia than bump into him there.

So on the trip of a lifetime Down Under Harriet’s to-do lists are gone and it’s Nat’s time to shine! Yet with nearly-not-quite-boyfriend Jasper back home, Harriet’s completely unprepared to see supermodel ex Nick. Is the fashion world about to turn ugly for GEEK GIRL?

It’s time for Harriet to face the future. Time to work out where her heart lies. To learn how to let go…

The Review: It’s over! Forever Geek is the final book in Holly Smale’s geektastic and loveable Geek Girl series and I for one am so sad this is the end for Harriet and the gang but I’m also very happy with how the series ended. It was just perfect! 

This time around we see Harriet take on a new modelling job – or so she thinks – but this time she’s going to Australia. The timing is a little off seems as Harriet has just started a little romance with Jasper but they’re not quite at the boyfriend-girlfriend stage just yet. So Harriet jets off with her Gran and best friend and tries not to think about whose country she’s actually travelling to – her ex Lion Boy. But as well all know Harriet, her trips/modelling jobs are never simple and easy and soon Harriet finds herself trying to take charge of her own live but can she make the right choices? 

I’m so glad I started this series. It was always a series I wasn’t sure if I was going to like because although it’s YA, Harriet is quiet a young character but once I started it’s been impossible to forget her. She’s such a loveable character – one with so many interesting, quirky and strange facts. She’s literally like a walking encyclopaedia that knows so much stuff that no other person her age would know. Tell a lie – I’m 31 and I don’t even know half the stuff she knows, so as a reader it’s really interesting to see what facts she’ll tell us. 

As the series has progress Harriet has grown up, she’s made mistakes and learned from them and even in Forever Geek she’s constantly learning new things about herself and how to be a better person. I love that. We’ve seen her change through-out each book and apart of myself is sad to now part ways with her and with all the secondary characters too. Now I’m a romance girl through and through and one of the reason’s I fell in love with Harriett’s story was because of her relationship with Nick aka Lion Boy and it’s the one thing I wanted to see wrapped up in this book. And Holly Smale didn’t disappoint. I don’t want to say too much but I loved the way it ended. It was just what I wanted.

In all, Forever Geek is the perfect end to a series that I’m sad to leave behind. But I’m hoping the author will re-visit Harriett in the near future. 

Thank you to HarperCollins for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. 

{Review} #Famous by Jilly Gagnon

Posted by Donna
Release Date: February 14th, 2017
Finished Date: November 16th, 2016

Publishers: Harper 360 
Genre: YA, Romance, Contemporary 
Source: For Review
Format: ARC

Pages: 384
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo 

 

Debut author Jilly Gagnon bursts onto the scene with a story equal parts bite and romance, perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Jennifer E. Smith, about falling for someone in front of everyone. 

In this modern day love story: Girl likes boy. Girl snaps photo and posts it online. Boy becomes insta-famous. And what starts out as an innocent photo turns into a whirlwind adventure that forces them both to question whether fame—and love—are worth the price…and changes both of their lives forever.

Told from alternating points of view, #famous captures the sometimes-crazy thrill ride of social media and the equally messy but wonderful moments of liking someone in real life.

The Review: Famous is a story about Rachel who finds Kyle attractive and so she takes a picture of him and posts it online and overnight Kyle becomes famous. It’s a YA contemporary read that is perfect for any fan of the genre. It’s fun, flirty and although it touches on some serious issues, it’s definitely a great read - one that you know you can read in one sitting and have a good time reading it. As a reader it gives you the chance to explore the back lash that sometimes comes from social media website – if you’re not already aware, but it could also be an eye opener to the younger readers who aren’t that familiar with social media.  

Told from dual perspectives this story offers both characters points of view which if you’re like me, you love. I love it in books because it means I can connect to both characters and with this story it fits so well. And Rachel and Kyle are really fun characters to read about. 

The story was fun to read even somewhat predictable but that didn’t stop me enjoying the story. It was just the right type of book I needed a the time and the happy ending was a perfect end to the story.

Thank you to Harper 360 for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. 

{Review} Defiance (The Courier's Daughter Trilogy #1) by C.J. Redwine

Posted by Donna

Release Date:  September 6th, 2012

Finished Date: February 26th, 2017 

Publishers: Atom 

Source: Bought 

Format: Paperback 

Pages: 403 
Buy : Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

Rachel’s world is confined to the protective walls around her city. Beyond them are violent wanderers, extreme terrain, and a danger straight out of legend: a beast called the Cursed One that devastates everything in its path.

When Rachel’s father goes missing, she is desperate to search for him. But her attempts to flee the city bring her to the attention of its overbearing ruler. His efforts to control her make the world within the walls seem as dangerous as that outside.

Her only chance at escape is Logan. Once her father’s apprentice, and now her only protector, he feels that helping her might mean losing her completely. But if he can put his feelings aside, they might be able to save more than Rachel’s father. They might be able to break down the walls, and set their people free.

The Review: Rachel lives in a city where everything is confined. She's not allowed to wander on her own without a protector and nor is she able to show people her true nature. Her true nature is all thanks to her father - Jared Adams, who instead of allowing her to become a helpless women, trains her into becoming a deadly warrior. But when Rachel's father doesn't return home from a mission, everyone assumes he is dead and therefore Rachel is appointed a new protector and guardian - her father's apprentice, Logan. As much as Rachel hates Logan, deep down they have a connection that they keep hidden but, she knows he's the only one she can trust to help get her father back. But with the Commander taking interest in Rachel and The Cursed Ones who destroy everything in their wake making more appearances, can Rachel and Logan really take on this big a task of going into the Wasteland and rescue Jared Adams?

Defiance is one of them books that once you start reading, you don't want to stop. It captures you from start to finish and even when you're finished, you want more. Author C.J Redwine did a brilliant job creating a very unique and enthralling read, one that will have you melting at the brilliantly written point of views. Defiance is told from both Rachel and Logan's points of view. I find it very rare to have both male and female points of views in a book like this. Usually it's more in YA contemporary books but for me this is why this book is so special because you get both two very, very awesome characters points of views, both who take two very different journeys. And I absolutely loved it!

Now talking of the characters, they were great. Rachel and Logan have some many lovable qualities, it's hard not to love them. Both of them are strong, stubborn and determined - both very good warriors and fighters, and both care about their loved one's more than anything. I think this is why they have such a good relationship because they can rely on one another and not only that but, they can see affection and love from the other.

I really loved this book in total, it's a breath-taking read, one that is full of heart-pounding and exhilarating scenes and definitely an unforgettable journey and even the second time – yes I’ve just re-read it so I can continue with the remainder of the series – it was just as good!