Showing posts with label 2011 Debut Author Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011 Debut Author Challenge. Show all posts

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Review: Hourglass by Myra McEntire


Hourglass (Hourglass #1)

by Myra McEntire

One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?


I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally get my hands on this book. I had been reading so many wonderful reviews, chatting with Myra on twitter about the writing and getting her updates and hearing from my friends who had read it. Disappointment was nowhere near me when I finished…. Unless you want to count the disappointment I had that the next book wasn’t waiting on me to read!


Emerson just wants to be a normal teenager… whatever that is. The only problem is she sees dead people. Not in the Sixth Sense idea though. Her parents were killed in an accident right after she started seeing these strange beings and it all went downhill from there. Her brother has tried everything that he can to help her, but it is only when the mysterious Michael shows up that Emerson starts to feel that maybe she isn’t as crazy as she has thought that she was.

Myra McEntire has created a universe where we can travel back in time or to the future, see rips (those “dead people”) and create matter with our bare hands… if we have the right genes. The creativity behind this amazing debut novel kept me glued to the pages the entire read. I loved Emersons quirks and how she had to figure out who she was while falling in love with Michael. Of course… nothing comes easy!


Make sure (before or after you read it) you visit Myra’s blog HERE and follow her on Twitter for fun facts and updates (@MyraMcEntire). Also, make sure to check out the Ash to Nash tour that Myra McEntire, Victoria Schwab (author of The Near Witch) and Beth Revis (author of Across the Universe) will all be going from Ashville to Nashville. Check it all out HERE. I will be visiting them in Spartanburg, SC next Friday night!


Happy reading everyone!!


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Review: Die for Me by Amy Plum

Die for Me (Revenants #1)

Amy Plum

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Pages: Hardback, 344 pages

Publisher: Harper Teen


In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life--and memories--behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art.

Until she meets Vincent.

Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant--an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart,

she may never be safe again.


Don’t you just hate when you read the first to a new series and you get to the end of that novel and realize you have to WAIT for the next one? Well that is exactly how I feel about this amazing debut novel! Debut novelist Amy Plum has shaped a new way for us to view paranormal and her creativity astounds me. Paris definitely comes to life in this novel in a way that is great for those of us poor souls who have never been to the beautiful city. (After reading this novel, though, I definitely want to go!!) The fun with paranormal is that there are so many variations of the genre available, but with the creation of a new realm, Amy will suck you into a world of evil, romance, sword fighting and enchantment before you even realize it.


Kate has been dealt a rough hand when it comes to life. Finding herself suddenly parentless and moving to Paris, she doesn’t think that life will go on. She creates comfort in sitting at café’s on the streets of Paris reading her novels and relying only on herself to stay somewhat away from the complete devastation she could easily find herself sinking into. Finding someone who will help bring her completely out of this place is the last thing on her mind, and yet it is the one thing that she finds sitting there. Of course the relationship between Kate and Vincent couldn’t be a normal one but Kate welcomes its reprieve and finds that it is just what she needs. Vincent brings out in her qualities that she never thought she would find buried within herself and she does the same for him. This amazing debut will leave you breathless at times, amazed by the writing and drooling for more!!


Visit Amy HERE , follow her on twitter (@iHeartRevenants) and visit her on Facebook HERE. She is such a cool chick (hello… raised in the South and now lives in PARIS….)!!


 
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