Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Review: Angelina’s Secret by Lisa Rogers

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Angelina’s Secret
Lisa Rogers
Release date: February 1st, 2012
by Spencer Hill Press

Goodreads / Purchase

As a child, Angelina spent years in counseling learning that Josie, her imaginary friend, wasn’t real, but it turns out her childhood friend wasn’t imaginary after all.

Now Angelina has to accept she’s either (A) crazy or (B) able to see ghosts. Wanting to believe in her sanity, she chooses (B) and welcomes Josie back into her life. But even Josie can’t help her deal with Shelly, the spirit of a confused teenager, and things go very, very wrong.

When Angelina finds herself in a psychiatric hospital, she faces a choice: she can spend the rest of her life pretending to be someone she isn’t, or she can embrace who she is and take a chance that she may never get to go home.

*A copy was provided by Spencer Hill Press for review purposes*
Angelina’s Secret is not so secret: she can see ghosts, which puts her in a mental health facility. It’s an original plot for this type of story. Angelina is faced with the challenge of having to convince her incredibly skeptic mother that she can, in fact, see ghosts – or can she? One of these ghosts is even her mom’s best friend who died in high school. As you guess, this does not bode well with her mother.

For a ghost book, it’s not creepy at all. The plot is very mild and light-hearted. Angelina is trying to accept who she is when it seems like the whole world is against her. She’s an interesting character; understanding and mature, easy to like, but her reactions seem a bit exaggerated at times. Like you’d see on a bad TV movie. This was the same for the ghosts. Having been dead for a while, they try to talk in modern slang but always end up saying it wrong. It comes off as very cheesy. I still enjoyed the personalities of these ghosts however. They’re a fun bunch that bring life to the otherwise dreary tone of the story. This is also true for the supporting characters that come into Angelina’s life throughout the book. As for her mother, the pure skeptic- is she ever irritating. She doesn’t even try to listen to what her daughter has to say. As soon as Angelina starts talking about her ability, her mother completely shuts down and insists they leave. I understand it’s easier, even expected, to think your daughter is simply schizophrenic, but she could have been a bit more supportive regardless.

With a psychological twist, Angelina’s Secret is a unique sort of paranormal story. We get a more realistic feel of what it would be like to admit you’re seeing ghosts. In the same thought, it’s even a mystery to us until the very end if these ghost are actually real, or if this is all in her head. It’s a charming little story that fits neatly in its 186 pages, which -surprisingly- doesn’t feel too short.  

3 Hot Espressos

Waiting on Wednesday (20)

Posted by on 01/25/2012 • 66 Comments

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.  My pick this week:

Death and the Girl Next Door                                     Darynda Jones                                     Release date: October, 2012 by St. Martin’s Press Add it to your Goodread

Things get turned upside down for sophomore Lorelei MacAlister when the Angel of Death starts high school in her small town. What she doesn’t know is that she has been slated to die. It’s simply her time. And Death has been sent to do the deed. But when she touches him, when she peers into his eyes and reaches into his heart, he realizes she is more than what he was led to believe, and he disobeys his orders. He brings…

Giveaway: Tempest Audiobook (US/Can)

Posted by on 01/24/2012 • 16 Comments

TempestJulie CrossRelease date: January 17th, 2012by St. Martin’s Press

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The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but…

Review: Wasteland by Lynn Rush

Posted by on 01/24/2012 • 21 Comments

WastelandLynn RushRelease date: September 1st, 2011by Crescent Moon Press

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Bound by the blood contract his human mother signed four centuries ago, half-demon, David Sadler, must obey his demonic Master’s order to capture fifteen-year-old Jessica Hanks. But as he learns more about her, he realizes she may be the key to freedom from his dark enslavement.

The only obstacle– Jessica’s distractingly beautiful Guardian, Rebeka Abbott. He must not give in to their steamy chemistry, or he will lose his humanity. But fresh off a quarter millennia of sensory deprivation as punishment for not retrieving his last target, he may not be able to resist temptation long enough to save what’s left of his human soul.

*A copy was provided by Lynn Rush for review purposes*

From page one,…

Dusty Reads (18)

Posted by on 01/24/2012 • 19 Comments

Dusty Reads is a weekly meme, hosted here, featuring a book that has been sitting unread on my home shelf for some time. To participate, add your link at the bottom.  If you wish, you can grab the button and find more information here.

My pick this week:

The Lying GameSara ShepardRelease date: December 7th, 2010by HarperTeen

Goodreads / Purchase 

I had a life anyone would kill for. Then someone did.

The worst part of being dead is that there’s nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It’s enough to kill a girl all over again. But I’m about to get something no one else does—an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now…

Embrace Tour Stop – Review

Posted by on 01/23/2012 • 23 Comments

EmbraceCherie ColyerRelease date: December 20th, 2011by Omnific Publishing

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Sometimes you end up hurting the ones you love. You find you can’t save them or yourself.

Madison is familiar enough with change, and she hates everything about it. Change took her long-term boyfriend away from her. It caused one of her friends to suddenly hate her. It’s responsible for the death of a local along with a host of other mysterious happenings. But when Madison meets a hot new guy, she thinks her luck is about to improve.

Madison is instantly drawn to the handsome and intriguing Isaac Addington. She quickly realizes he’s a guy harboring a secret, but she’s willing to risk the unknown to be with him. Her world really spins out of…

In My Mailbox (19)

Posted by on 01/22/2012 • 105 Comments

“In My Mailbox” is a meme, created by Kristi at The Story Siren, that features books I have received/ purchased/ borrowed during the week.  This was a pretty slow week for me. I thought the mailman had forgotten where I live. But then it’s nice to get a breather to catch up. I started giving a few books away to make more room on my bookcase. *hangs head in shame*. I still got a few awesome reads though, have a look.

I got for review:

I want to thank JA Templeton and Penguin Canada for the review copies.

I bought:

1. Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep 2. Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey 3. Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough Once a Witch has been on my wishlist for…

Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

Posted by on 01/21/2012 • 28 Comments

Time travel is a very tricky subject to get into. (Look at the epic failure of Lost for example). There is the usual paradox of, if we go back in time then what happens must already have happened to make us go back. As well as the endless time loop theories. Tempest battles this with separate timelines. So now my questions are: if we change timeline, then what happens to our self in the original timeline? Does a fake us keep living there? If not, is it as if we never existed there, or do people think we’ve just disappeared? And what happens to our other self that existed before we got to the new timeline?… Yes, my brain hurts too! These were the sort of questions running through my…