Friday, September 11, 2015

Review & Giveaway: Gaia by Karen Ann Hopkins


Gaia (Wings of War, #2)
Cover Source: GoodReads.com
Title: Gaia
Author: Karen Ann Hopkins
Series: Wings of War #2
Version Reviewed: ARC, eBook.
*I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review*


GoodReads Summary:
Watchers and Angels are at war. Which side will Ember choose?
Humankind is on the precipice of the apocalypse.

As the Demons grow bolder and the walls between the planes of existence weaken, Ember is forced to develop her powers as quickly as possible, and she seeks out a powerful earth Watcher to continue her supernatural lessons. Her glimpse of the future demands she fight the dark forces spreading across the earth.
But her new mentor has his own agenda, making her question everyone and everything she ever trusted.
When Ember is thrust into the world of the Watchers, she learns of their plans—ones that defy the scripture and make them enemies of the Celestial Host. Ridding the world of evil gets complicated when it becomes impossible to take sides.

As Ember struggles with morality, she soon discovers that there’s something more frightening than anything she’s faced before.
Review:
Gaia is the second book in the Wings of War series by Karen Ann Hopkins. The book takes off immediately where Embers, the first book, ended and I really liked that. These books are action packed and filled with content. By starting the book off exactly where the other stopped, it allows ou to continue the story without skipping a beat, especially if you're reading the books back to back like I did.

In Embers we discovered the world of watchers and demons but, in Gaia,  we're thrown headfirst into the deep end of the watcher world with the introduction of Insepth, Ember's new mentor. Being surrounded by watchers seems the perfect place for Ember but we quickly learn that everyone has their own secrets and that not everyone is who they say - or think - they are.

Aside from Insepth, we meet a lot of new people in Gaia. A mansion full of watchers, angels, demons, growlers, humans. We even get to spend more time with Piper and learn the greater role that she plays in Embers life, something that I had been curious about since the beginning of book one.

This book was filled with a lot of heart and a lot of  pain and an insane amount of action. Gaia is full of battle, power, games and struggle. Ember learns a lot more about herself in this book and finally discovers what she is fully capable of. She's being taught a ton of new things by her mentor but she's also forced into a lot more.

Where Embers was about a human girl entering a supernatural world, Gaia was about a powerful supernatural being leaving the world of humanity behind and embracing the things that make her powerful.

Gaia was a great book and I can't wait to see how all hell breaks loose in the next installment.

Character: Sawyer.
Rating: 4 Stars.


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Tour Schedule
Monday, August 24thBittersweet Enchantment (Review)a Bookish Escape (Review)
Tuesday, August 25thBehind The Pages (Guest Post)Lose Time Reading (Review)
Wednesday, August 26thTaking It One Book at a Time (Guest Post)
Thursday, August 27thSuch a Novel Idea (Review)The Perks of Being a Book Girl (Guest Post)
Friday, August 28thAvid Reader Musings (Review/Guest Post)Books and Things (Guest Post)
Monday, August 31stBewitched Bookworms (Guest Post)Pause Time Reviews (Review/Guest Post)
Tuesday, September 1stA Dream Within A Dream (Review)Addicted Readers (Guest Post)
Wednesday, September 2ndActin' Up with Books (Review)The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club (Guest Post)
Thursday, September 3rdSassy Book Lovers (Review/Guest Post)Fire and Ice (Interview)
Friday, September 4thRead by Amanda (Review)Curling Up With A Good Book (Guest Post)
Monday, September 7thA Book Addict's Bookshelves (Review/Interview)Bumbles and Fairy-Tales (Review)
Tuesday, September 8thThe Cheshire Cat's Looking Glass (Guest Post)
Wednesday,September 9thOn Writing and Riding (Interview)Little Miss Drama Queen (Review)
Thursday, September 10thBook Lovers Life (Guest Post)So Bookalicious (Review/Interview)
Friday, September 11thRainy Days and Pajamas (Review)Her Book Thoughts (Review)
Monday, September 14ththe bookdragon (Interview)God's Girl, Books and Coffee (Review/Interview)
Tuesday, September 15thDon't Fold the Page (Review)Jessie Marie Reads (Review/Guest Post)Sassy & Dangerous (Guest Post)
Wednesday,September 16thMortal Moments (Review/Guest Post)Roxy's Reviews (Review/Guest Post)
Thursday, September 17thThe Forest of Words and Pages (Review)Hearrs Reading (Review/Interview)
Friday, September 18thLiterary Meanderings (Guest Post)
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Thursday, September 10, 2015

Review: Embers by Karen Ann Hopkins

Embers (The Wings of War, #1)
Cover Source: GoodReads.com
Title: Embers
Author: Karen Ann Hopkins
Series: The Wings of War #1
Version Reviewed: Finished, eBook.
*I received this book for free from the author for review*


GoodReads Summary:
There are descendants of angels walking among us. Ember is one of them.
Embers is an epic paranormal adventure/romance about a seventeen year old girl who discovers that she's immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents. Following a violent episode with her aunt's boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember's exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she learns that she's a Watcher, a descendant of angels. While Ember is instructed about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two teenagers who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the young men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it's cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war that's been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil, and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She may be one of the few champions willing to make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.
Review:
I'm gonna start off by saying that I love this cover.  It's so super pretty and it fits so well with the story! It's not just some random cover.  Like, it actually has something to do with the story line and makes sense.

Starting this book off, I thought the idea for it was simply awesome.  It was something that I hadn't read before.  I've read books similar to it but not quite the same.  This one had some little twists to some overly done character types that you see in a lot of YA paranormal/supernatural right now.  The whole angel and demon thing has been done so many times that it's pretty much right up there with vampires for me. But Karen Ann Hopkins gave them just the right amount of creativity and uniqueness to make them all her own. And I loved the book for that.

The characters were likeable and were really easy to read. There were a few cliches here and there, a few things that seemed a little similar to a certain popular YA book that was made into a movie and takes place in a town opposite of Spoons. But, in all honesty, this was easy for me to ignore because I think a lot of people write those similarities and don't even realize that they're doing it.  It's just become that much a part of young adult literature now. And, honestly, even though it had some similarities, the rest of the book definitely outweighs those parts. Aside from what I just said, Embers is it's own book, it's own story.  It is not a replica of any other story and it really is great.

It was neat to discover Embers powers with her and see, really, what she was capable of. It was exciting to figure out Sawyer's role in the book and how, exactly, he was going to be a part of her life.  He could have so easily been the bad guy but it was interesting to see how he grew as a character.

Let me also say that I think that the setting of this book is absolutely amazing. Ember is from Ohio (where my husband is from) and Sawyer is from Kentucky (where I'm from) and the story itself takes place in the mountains of Tennessee, which is where I lived when I was younger.  Though it wasn't one of the best times of my life, I will never, ever forget how beautiful it was there and I would honestly love to live there again.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed the book and I can't wait to continue the story with Gaia, the second in the series.

Favorite Character: Sawyer
Rating: 4 Stars.
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Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Blitz & Giveaway: A New Season by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle



Title: A New Season
Author: Sydney Aaliyah Michelle
Publication date: September 8th 2015
Genres: Adult, Romance, Sports


Synopsis:
Dark deception has pushed Emma past her limits. She has no choice but to run again.
Back home, she falls in the arms of her childhood crush, sweet and sexy Jaken Tanner, NFL quarterback and publicly all around nice guy.
Emma is desperate to put her sordid past behind her and become the kind of woman worthy of the pure and passionate love Jaken offers.
Despite their immediate attraction and Jaken being the man of her dreams, Emma is afraid to get sucked into his famous guy life and lose herself all over again.
If only she could erase the last few years. If she could forget the pain and shame of her actions, Jaken is her second chance.
Will her past destroy her chance with the perfect guy or will Emma realize she may be perfectly created by her past to build a future with her one true love?
A New Season contains explicit scenes of a sexual nature and is not suitable for readers under 18 years of age.



About The Author:
Sydney Aaliyah Michelle is a New Adult Contemporary Romance writer, a voracious reader and movie fanatic who hails from Texas.
After surviving 5 1/2 years living in China, she had the courage to finally pursue her passion and become a writer.
Sydney has been blogging at sydneyaaliyah.com for three years, where she interviews people about their tattoos, discusses her favorite movie quotes, reviews books (New Adult & only the ones she loves) and journals about her writing and editing process.
An active tweeter, she is also a JuNoWriMo (2x) and NaNoWriMo (2x) winners who notes the sci-fi action flick "The Matrix" as the best representation of her life in the past. She is blessed to be awake now and doing what she loves.
She can recite the entire script for the 80's teen comedy/drama "The Breakfast Club" and loves any and everything associated with the Avengers Movie, especially Tony Stark.
When it come to books, Sydney reads many different genres, but some of her favorite writers are Stephen King, Cora Carmack, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Cassie Mae & Emily Bronte. The Great Gatsby, Under the Dome, Losing It, CassaStorm, Switched, & Wuthering Heights are her favorite books.




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