Cover Reveal: Two Fridays in April by @roisinmeaney

Today I am delighted to announce a cover reveal for one of my favorite authors: Roisin Meaney. 

Two Fridays in April will be released on the 5th of March

It's Friday, April 2. Daphne Darling knows that she should be celebrating her stepdaughter Una's 17th birthday, but it's hard, because the date also marks the one-year anniversary of her husband's death and she and Una just can't seem to connect anymore. Daphne can't turn to her own mother Isabel for advice as their relationship is distant, to say the least, and Mo, Finn's elderly mother, is still grief-stricken at the death of her only son, so she is of little help. But by the end of that day in April, marking the occasion with a slice of cake and a glass of wine will be the last thing on anyone's mind...

Before that Friday, Daphne, Mo and Isabel were all stuck in the past, with their grief and their loss. And then Una takes matters into her own hands, and even though she makes a terrible mistake, she teaches Daphne, Mo and Isabel something about life: that it is to be lived and that, in spite of everything they've been through, happiness can still be a part of it

Cover Reveal :

It's such a beautiful cover. I cant wait till the 5th of March!

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Review: Beware the Night / Deliver Us from Evil by Ralph Sarchie

                  

Published: June 

Publisher: St Martins Griffin

Format: eBook

Ralph Sarchie is an NYPD cop who works as a demonologist and exorcist in his free time. He is a devout Christian and believes that everything happens for a reason, Gods reason. 

According to Ralph people become possessed from dabbling in black arts, being the victims of evil curses but mostly because it's "Gods will". I find it a little fucked up that any god would subject his/her people to things mentioned in this book! Ralph reckons that what happens to these people brings them closer to god but I'm not so sure..

I am one of those people who believed that these cases of demonic possession were actually mental health issues. When you read of cases like annaliese michel you'd have to wonder if she would had survived if the right people had intervened.

At least in this book Sarchie admits that the majority of people claiming to be possessed are suffering mentally and he does urge them to seek medical help.


Sp your probably wondering if this book is preachy? Well yes, it is. As much as Sarchie tries not to be ( he even states so several times) his ideals form the basis for all his opinions. The only way to avoid being possessed is to be a devout believer and go to church weekly and pray daily and if you don't your screwed!


The writing itself isn't great I have to say. It's very repetitive and the pacing is sluggish for for the most part.


Personally I didn't take the religious aspects too seriously and enjoyed the book for what it was: a collection of creepy stories. I actually had to stop reading it at night because it was freaking me out!

Rating:

★★★☆☆

Product review: Kindle Voyage

First Impressions

Its extremely tidy. The screen is the same size as the Paperwhite but with less frame surrounding the screen at the bottom so you can actually hold it in one hand It's also noticeably lighter than the paper white. I have arthritis in my wrists and fingers so this is important to me. I can't even hold a paperback for any length of time anymore but I can comfortably read with this.

Ergonomics

It took me a while to get comfortable with this as the frame is smaller i need to rest my fingers higher up. They still comfortably fit over the page sensors. The seamless design on the front works great I hated the dip in the paperwhite, it was nothing but a dirt trap!

The screen

It is much much sharper than the paperwhite. The font is crystal clear even on the smallest setting. The font and page settings are all exactly the same. It would have been nice to have one or two new ones though.

Page Turns

It might be me but I think it's a fraction slower. The text dissolves rather than fades so this also too a little while to get used to but I don't notice it at all now.

I have to say I hate the page turn feedback. Its is the only feature I don't use. It makes no sense. The vibration on the page turn is jarring and totally takes me out of the world I'm in! It can be turned off though so no permanent harm done!

Light & Brightness

 I find the light in the voyage to be much more even than the paperwhite which was a little blotchy at the bottom

Automatic brightness: I love this new feature and have it permanently switched on. The device is really good at recognisiing how bright or dark the room is and adjust accordingly so no eye strain!

There is quite a price jump from the Paper white to the Voyage but if reading is a big hobby of yours then it's worth it for the ultra sharp screen and page press . It really is the ultimate experience in eReading

Rating:

★★★★★


Buy the Kindle Voyage on Amazon

Review: All the Bright Places by @jenniferniven

                 

Published: January 2014

Publisher: Knopf

Format. Kindle 

All the Bright Places was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review

At first glance I thought all the bright places would be a quirky light read. How wrong I was! This was such an emotional roller-coaster!
Violet and Theo meet under unusual circumstances. Theo is sitting on the edge of the bell tower wondering what it would it would feel like to jump and end it all. Violet is trying to get over the death of her sister. In the cesspit that is the American high school the two unlikely friends form a bond over a school project they are completing together.


On the surface this seems like your everyday  teen read. Yes there are those expected aspects. The angst, the love triangles and the huge problems that are really not that huge in the grand scheme of things.


But it's also much more than that. All the Bright places delves much deeper. We learn that Theo had a hard childhood and struggling with mental illness. In a world where everyone is finding themselves his is struggling with his own identity. Desperately trying to avoid the stigma he constantly tries to become someone else such as cool Finch, Bad ass Finch, and 80's Finch.


Violet has become the one constant in his life but he worries which Finch has she really fallen for and is it even the real him?


In an effort to find themselves they begin a journey of Indiana. A wandering so to speak and in the process violet finds hope in the fact that she doesn't have to be alone. She doesn't have to mourn her sister forever. She can become her own person again. Her future is once again bright.


Finch to her, was to her a once in a lifetime friend . Precious yet fleeting. Almost like a mirage.


It was so easy to get lost in the beautiful writing in All the bright places. This is a book everyone needs to read as it's going to be huge.


A must for fans of Elanor and Park and The Fault in our Stars

Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Mini Reviews: The Children Act and Broken Monsters

                   

Published: Sept 2014

Publisher: Nan A Talese

The Children Act was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review 

This was a strange one. I've been putting off this review for ages because I can't make up my mind as to whether I actually liked this book or not.

I enjoyed the law aspects of the story but the problem for me was that there wasn't enough of it. I think I expected more of a struggle. I thought Fiona's decision would take up more of the book. I think this was a bit of a missed opportunity.

I felt that the trouble in Fiona's marriage didn't really add anything to the story. It's clear that she is a different person inside the courtroom.

After the halfway mark it just got too bizarre for me. I also hated the ending!

Rating:

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

                 

Published: July 2014

Publisher: Harper Collins

Broken Monsters was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review 

For the most part I liked Broken monsters. It's a book that really sucks you in by feeding you bit by bit. The characters are interesting and the writing is believable.

For a YA book the imagery is pretty horrific. It's the sort of Gore you'd expect more from an adult novel. A mad man disemboweling children and turning them into sick twisted taxidermy figures! Hey I'm not complaining I loved to be scared.

For me it was an edge of the seat thriller right until the end when it started to go south much to my anger and disappointment.

Spoiler alert: ** I hated the fact that it turned paranormal out of the blue. It seemed like a cop out ending to me. **Spoiler ends

Rating:

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆