Review: A Song for Julia by Charles Sheehan-Miles

A Song for Julia by Charles Sheehan-Miles
My rating: 4 of 5 genies
Published: December 2, 2012
Series: Thompson Sisters #1
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Cincinnatus Press
Source: Purchased
Pages: 376
Format: eBook
Purchase At: Amazon.com

Goodreads Summary

Everyone should have something to rebel against.

Crank Wilson left his South Boston home at sixteen to start a punk band and burn out his rage at the world. Six years later, he’s still at odds with his father, a Boston cop, and doesn’t ever speak to his mother. The only relationship that really matters is with his younger brother, but watching out for Sean can be a full-time job. The one thing Crank wants in life is to be left the hell alone to write his music and drive his band to success.

Julia Thompson left a secret behind in Beijing that exploded into scandal in Washington, DC, threatening her father's career and dominating her family's life. Now, in her senior year at Harvard, she's haunted by a voice from her past and refuses to ever lose control of her emotions again, especially when it comes to a guy.

When Julia and Crank meet at an anti-war protest in Washington in the fall of 2002, the connection between them is so powerful it threatens to tear everything apart.

My Review

This book is all about music and how it transforms lives. The romance at the core of A Song for Julia is realistic and one I found myself relating to, loving, and cheering.

I went in with an idea of what I thought the book would be like: guy meets introverted girl, guy proceeds to woo girl out of her oyster shell...you know the drill. I'm not saying that Sheehan-Miles's novel is revolutionary, it accomplishes much the same of what the traditional (well-written) New Adult contemporary romance novel at least sets out to do. I wasn't blown away by the plot per se, that I could see coming, but the story is worthy of mention. It had substance, and Sheehan-Miles's multifaceted characters were interesting to read about because they got my heart involved. Julia's story made me bawl, Crank made me swoon and Sheehan-Miles officially rid me of my bias against male authors writing romance fiction.

Way to go, man!

Read this book for its dimensions, for the struggle and ultimately, Julia and Crank's triumph. This is New Adult done right, tender and heartfelt written literature that has made me such a fan of the author. I cannot wait to read more of what Sheehan-Miles has in store! I was probably halfway through A Song for Julia when I bought the second book in this series. The idea of writing about the Thompson sisters seems pretty brilliant to me, especially since Alex's journey is next on my to be read list.

You should read this book, if you like a well-written story with funny, conflicted characters in hard situations and romance that leaves you smiling, read this book. It's New Adult so 18 years and older please, the subject matter is mature so keep that in mind. This is a solid 4/5 from my end!

I can't think of a reason not to enjoy this book, it absolutely worked for me, 4/5 genies!

A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest

*A copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review.*

A Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest
My rating: 3.5 of 5 genies
Published: December 14, 2012
Source: Review Copy
Format: eBook
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance

Goodreads Summary

On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.
A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.
She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.
An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.
Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.
Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.
Will she succeed? ...or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

Excerpt from A Shade of Vampire

I’d been meandering along the shore for about an hourwhen I suddenly sensed that I wasn’t alone. Someone was approaching me frombehind. My heart leapt. I was so sure it was Ben, that when a stranger showedup beside me, I couldn’t hide my disappointment.

He must have noticed, because a smirk formed on hislips. “Were you expecting someone else, love?”

I eyed him suspiciously, remembering how many times myfather had told me not to talk to strangers. I looked him over, taking in hisappearance. My eyes widened. I couldn’t find words to describe how fine a manhe was. He was almost beautiful. The first thing I took notice of was how hisblue eyes were about three shades brighter than any I’d ever seen before. Itwas such a stark contrast to his pale – almost white – skin and dark hair.Standing beside me, he was easily more than half a foot taller. His height,broad shoulders and lean build reminded me of Ben, but he had a presence thatwas far more imposing than my best friend’s.

My gaze settled on his face.

I realized that he was inspecting me just as closelyas I was him. His eyes on me suddenly made me feel uncomfortably vulnerable. Igave my father’s advice a second thought, but quickly canceled out all notionsof heeding to his counsel when I reminded myself that he stopped caring a longtime ago.

I straightened to my full height and mustered all thecourage I had to keep myself from running away from this stranger.

Big mistake.

The confident smirk didn’t leave his face for even amoment.

“Like what you see?”

“A bit full of yourself, aren’t you?” I scoffed,annoyed by his audacity.

He stepped forward, closer to me, and leaned his headtoward mine.

“Don’t I have the right to be?”

He knew he looked good and wasn’t about to act like hedidn’t.

“Whatever,” was my oh-so-brilliant comeback.

My shoulders sagged with defeat as I took a step back,unsettled by how close he was now. I rolled my eyes and did a one-eighty, notquite in the mood to play whatever game this stranger was proposing.

I would soon realize that I was about to play his gamewhether I liked it or not.

He grabbed my arm and turned my body to face him. Thismotion alone made every single internal alarm I had within me go off in afrenzy.

This man was danger and I knew it. I tried to wriggleaway from his touch, but I was no match for his strength.

“Tell me your name,” he commanded.

I was about to refuse, but was horrified to findmyself blurting out my name in response.

“Sofia Claremont.”

As soon as I revealed my name, his eyes lit up with akind of sinister approval. Then he reached for my face and traced his thumbover my jaw line.

“Hello, Sofia Claremont. You’re one stupid girl fortaking a walk alone at this time of night. You never know what kind of evil apretty little thing like you could happen to come by.”

I found myself wondering exactly what kind of evil hewas. But I was suddenly overcome by the sensations that were surrounding me. Mysenses took in everything at once. I heard the waves, felt the sand, smelledthe ocean salt, tasted the flavor of cherry and saw the stranger’s manicappearance as he stuck a needle to my neck. The effect was instant. I wasbarely able to gasp, much less scream. I went from sensing everything tosensing absolutely nothing.

My last consciousthought was that I may never see Ben again.

My Thoughts

I was approached by the author to write a review for this book at a time when Goodreads seemed to be blowing up with A Shade of Vampire updates. Every status from my friends reading it seemed to be positive, and almost every reader was enthused with the YA Paranormal novel. Needless to say, I may have squealed like a little girl when Bella Forrest asked me to read it.

This is a great, sweet story. I don't know exactly what I was expecting going in, maybe a short read and some romance, but this book certainly does pack a punch. A fascinating New Adult Paranormal novel, I really enjoyed getting into the story and its mechanics, primarily the Shade. The beginning did not immediately rapture my audience, but the latter half completely drew me in! I grew to adore Sofia and Derek, they are a cute couple, and I like that she makes me love him more.

At first Derek came off as a sulking, brooding prince, afraid to take up his responsibility, and I thought that if I had to hear him complain again about his being awake, and not in his prior four hundred year old slumber, I would put the sleeping spell on him myself. Then he meets Sofia, recently abducted and forced into life as the Prince's slave at the Shade. She changes everything for him, provides Derek with reason to stay awake, and really just makes him a better person. Not going to lie, I'm still not swooning hard for him, but I do like his character and think that there is much left in store for Derek.

Sofia is an empathetic heroine, sensitive and easy to read about. She has a deeper connection to her senses, something that doesn't really make sense at the beginning. I kind of asked myself why it mattered that she was so in-tune with the senses, but the author's reasoning behind this particular character trait clicks halfway through the book. I will not spoil the surprise, but let's just say that it makes sense and does work out.

The main conflict in the book is between the Hunters and Vampires, Hunters hunt Vampires and Derek is supposed to save his race from extinction, a weighty role when you consider that Derek himself was once a Hunter! I liked the inner turmoil, and how every character had some drive. There are dark themes in this book, slavery and mentions of torture and bondage; kids 16 and under shouldn't read this without some consent from an adult. The overall mood is dark and haunting, the story switches from both Derek and Sofia's perspective, affording readers a more personal encounter with the characters. I couldn't help but feel that amidst the dark lushness of the Shade, Derek and Sofia's affection for each other shone beautiful and warm.

I liked this book and recommend the read to fans of the Paranormal and Romance genre. As I mentioned, the story isn't massive in length and I felt that it didn't immediately take off, and at times it felt like not much was happening since the characters stayed primarily in the same place. In the end though, that is a minor concern and my experience with A Shade of Vampire is positive; I have my hands itching for the sequel!

A great début, 3.5/5 genies!

LINKS:

Buy A Shade of Vampire from Amazon:

USA,paperback or USA,eBook

UK,paperback or UK,eBook

Add A Shade of Vampire to your Goodreads shelf!

That's all, Loves! Take care!!

XX

My Favorite Mistake by Chelsea M. Cameron

My Favorite Mistake by Chelsea M. Cameron
My rating: 1 of 5 genies
Published: September 29, 2012
Pages: 416
Publisher: Createspace
Source: Purchased
Format: eBook
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Goodreads Summary

Taylor Caldwell can't decide if she wants to kiss her new college roommate or punch him.

On the one hand, Hunter Zaccadelli is a handsome, blue-eyed bundle of charm. On the other, he's a tattooed, guitar-playing bundle of bad boy. Maybe that's why Taylor's afraid of falling in love with him, or anyone else. She doesn't want to get burned, and even though her other roommates adore him, she wants him gone before it's too late.

Hunter himself has been been burned before, but the fact that Taylor calls him out on his crap and has the sexiest laugh ever make him decide maybe love isn't a lost cause. They make a bet: if she can convince him she truly loves or hates him, he'll leave the apartment--and leave her alone. The problem is, the more time they spend together, the less she hates him, and the more she moves toward love.

But when the man who holds the key to Taylor's fear of giving up her heart resurfaces and threatens to wreck everything, she has to decide: trust Hunter with her greatest secret, or do everything in her power to win that bet and drive him away forever.

My Review

This book was not what I expected. The premise of My Favorite Mistake promises a refreshing New Adult contemporary romance, a read that I found myself anticipating. Sadly, I couldn't even make myself finish reading the whole thing. There are a number of emotions associated with this read for me: anger, disappointment, but ultimately, exhaustion, just to name a few.

I got nothing out of reading this, and while I could very well rage about the poor characterization, lack of plot, and endless clichés present in this book, I am done wasting any more of my energy here. In fact, it is most definitely not my favorite mistake. I'll give you the dirty, but my anger is spent. Kind of.


Me neither, buddy.

The Bad.

Have you ever disliked a character so much that a whole book seems to be ruined just because of him/her? If so then you might know how I feel, and maybe where I'm coming from, when I say that Taylor - the female protagonist - completely ruined this book for me. She is just such an unlikable character! For starters, she spends the majority of the book's first quarter sulking around, whining that she ended up with Hunter as a roommate even though the living space at their college IS coed. She and two other rommates, Darah and Renee needed a fourth person and put up a vacancy. Hunter applied, got the spot through the officiates at housing, and one painfully long story short, Taylor flips the shiz out.

She can't handle that the guy flirts with her, even though he flirted with both Darah and Renee two filler characters and neither of them took it nearly as badly as she did. To my dismay, the first couple chapters were spent watching Taylor fight tooth and nail to reverse the aforementioned living arrangement. She lets the world know of her displeasure, and it is during one particularly contrived phone conversation with her mother that I realized things would get a lot worse before they got better.

It is my experience that in life, there are many people who never hear the truth, no cold hard facts plain and simple, from anyone, and Taylor struck me as being of this variety. Mainly because she has a problem, she lashes out when things don't go her way, and instead of people telling her to get her act together, they make stupid freaking allowances.


Sorry, Mary, it seems like everybody is ill here.

You get to know pretty quickly that she hates a lot of things: hates that Hunter flirts with her, she hates that he ended up in their coed dorm, and basically hates that he's a guy. Due to an incident in the past, Taylor is played off as this damaged girl with "issues" and her less than stellar past is supposed to justify this girl's constant griping. Because she's damaged, right? Who hates on damaged characters?


Who wouldn't hate!? She complains about everything.

A lot of the time it was as though excuses were ALWAYS being made for Taylor. Upon their first meeting, she manages to punch Hunter in the face, a true display of totally volatile and over-the-top behaviour. Yet, we are to accept this as part of her nature: oh nuh uh, Taylor doesn't put up with no shit, naw girl. In reality, we are to believe that it is all Hunter's fault that she felt threatened. Taylor was protecting herself. The only problem in this brilliant theory? Even a donkey missing half its brain could put together that there wasn't any real danger to be had from Hunter. If he was going to try something, it would have been during their first night or week living together. I mean why wait, right?

He is incredibly built and I am expected to believe that if indeed he was a rapist he would not have jumped at the chance to pounce on Taylor, because? There's logic missing in that, Cameron. Yes, Hunter is an ass at times, making sexual references and flirting immediately with near-strangers does rank up on the douche scale of existence, but he isn't a bad guy. While his actions weren't exactly shining examples of gentlemanly conduct, Taylor had absolutely no right hitting him.

He takes it well, laughs the incident off, but it did made me sick how double standard it all was. Their situation, if reversed, would have left Hunter riding in the back of a secure van/car headed to the nearest police station for laying hands on Taylor. The girl wouldn't have even blinked before calling the cops, but somehow it is justifiable that she takes out her aggression on him, and he's supposed to be okay with it? She throws tantrums and explodes like an irresponsible child, but everyone just tip-toes around her, giving her space because otherwise that bitch will find you, and then it'll all go to hell.


*sigh* He never saw it coming.*

I refuse to make any excuses for her, and by 35% into the book I just wanted out. You should know now that I most definitely did not finish this book my heart couldn't take it even though I spent money on it Darn it! I tried to get to the 50% mark before calling it quits, but yeah, that didn't happen.

By the time I finally gave up, I just couldn't force myself to read any more. I should have needed to read the story, wanted to engage with characters because good books are supposed to draw you in. Well, My Favorite Mistake did the exact opposite and pushed me far away. I can see where Cameron was going with the storyline: damaged girl meets damaged boy, she can't trust/let people in probably because she is too busy punching and abusing them, and neither can he, but the boy changes her. They fix each other? Aw, true wuv! The end. Someone please kill me now.

Final Thoughts

No. Just no. My Favorite Mistake lacks in several areas, the want most apparent in its poor characterization and weak story structure. Furthermore, I get that this is a college based story, New Adult means a higher level of sensuality and cussing of some sort, but would it kill these characters to actually speak intelligently? For once, without the meaningless cursing? The way they go about spouting profanities every second word really made me cringe. I respect an individual's right to speech, heck cursing is fun sometimes, but there is a problem when all the characters talk like they might have been recently displaced from the great Seven Seas. I especially hated God's name and "Jesus" being flung around. I've read New Adult, and loved it before, but never was the language so deplorable.

So there you have it. This book has me talking like my grandmother, "deplorable," really? and I leave ultimately disappointed. The angry girl meets "perfect boy" set-up didn't work out for me. Taylor is too obnoxious and full of it, and Hunter never felt real. He's too perfect, a great singer, cook, and accomplished guitarist, along with other things. I imagine that if My Favorite Mistake had even an ounce of his supposed brilliance, it would be a better book, and this, a very different review.

.5/5 genies: Utterly irredeemable, there was not a thing I liked about this book, a total miss.

Hey Guys, Meet Tookie!

Hey Guys!

Today I thought I would introduce you - formally - to someone pretty special. I talk about her a lot and for the past year and a bit, she's been the love of my life. Sort of. If you count my fictional boyfriends, then maybe not. Meet Tookie! I got her for my 18th birthday a year back and she's been a loyal eReader ever since, the very best a girl could ask for. Now I know that she isn't fancy shiz, she doesn't glow in the dark or anything, but she's sure as hell special to me! Keep in mind, she is a hard one to keep quiet.

**Disclosure: The captions are entirely Tookie-Peregrine Fisher's doing, a.k.a. Tookie.**

Awe, Yeah! I look so GOOD.

The Introduction

**I apologize for her language!**

Me: Say Hi, Tookie.
Tookie (waving): What up, Gangsters?
Me: Ugh. I told you, you've got zero swag!
Tookie (shrugging): Yeah. I try, though.
Me (hugging Tookie): I know, hun. I know.
Tookie: What the hell? Homie, that is too close for comfort. Ain't nobody got time for that!
Me: I thought I would introduce you to everyone, since you got a new cover today. You look so pretty now!
Tookie: Lazy bum. I was naked for too long!
Me (shakes head): You had a case, dear, it was just less flashy than this one.
Tookie: Woman, I was a fashion disgrace, hence why my previous cover will not be shown. Hide your kids, hide your wife.
Me (laughs): I don't think you mean that.
Tookie (serious): Does Daemon Black make the sun look like melted ice cream? Do Warner and Akiva's level of intensity make the rest look like little Marmalade punks?
Me (shakes head): Dang. I guess someone was paying attention.
Tookie (smugly): Damn straight!
Me: Tookie-Peregrine Fisher, mind your language!
Tookie: No can't do, J-thang. Don't change me, sucka. I is how I is. Okay, just kidding, I speak English! (It's in my programming), but you still can't change me.
Me (exasperatedly): I know, trust me, I've tried.
Tookie (gasps): Oh hell no. WHAT WAS THAT?!?
Me (nervously): Nothing, hun. Oh, I guess that's all we have time for. Do you want to say anything else to the readers before you leave?
Tookie (pumps fist): Yeah. Stay real, guys, fly your pimp flags high and--
Me (quickly puts her away): I guess that's all we have time for, say bye, Tookie!
Tookie (muffled): I will get eReader protective services on your sorry--

-------FIN---------

*Sigh* I told you she could be a handful. Hopefully y'all enjoyed meeting her, I really do love my little Reader to bits. Here is the case we ended up getting for her, I love that it's a nice pretty torques green and that the lettering is engraved in gold. The Wuthering Heights cover is also an excellent touch.

It's about time I got some proper clothing!

Tookie Facts:

- She has about 681 items, and counting. I stock her up whenever I can and she's there for me when the world is not nearly as interesting. 

- She's a year old, and turned one last December.

- She loves television. Could you tell?

- She has mad crushes on Daemon and Kaidan from the YA universe and will kill me 20 different ways for telling you. Say what?

- Her favourite thing to do is to be read. Like for reals, this girl loves being held. 

- She likes long walks on the beach while sipping diet pepsi and munching on Pizza. Kidding! She'd much rather prefer coke :P

And that is basically it. I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and at least now many of you will know who I'm referring to when I say "Tookie." *Grins* Do you have an eReader of your own? Are they nearly as crazy? I would love to hear about it!

Take care Lovies,

XX