Review: Archer's Voice by Mia Sheridan

 Author: Mia Sheridan

Release Date: 28.01.2014

Publisher: Create Space Independent Publishing

Series: A Sign Of Love

Pages: 345
Rating: 5 stars

Buy on: Amazon

Add to Goodreads

When Bree Prescott arrives in the sleepy, lakeside town of Pelion, Maine, she hopes against hope that this is the place where she will finally find the peace she so desperately seeks. On her first day there, her life collides with Archer Hale, an isolated man who holds a secret agony of his own. A man no one else sees.

Archer's Voice is the story of a woman chained to the memory of one horrifying night and the man whose love is the key to her freedom. It is the story of a silent man who lives with an excruciating wound and the woman who helps him find his voice. It is the story of suffering, fate, and the transformative power of love.

 

 My Thoughts

This is one of the most heart breaking, heart shattering book I have ever read. Ever. Period. I found this book by pure luck and I am so glad I did.

The feeling that I experienced while reading Archer's Voice changed my point of view towards the world and towards giving people a second chance when they need it the most. I learned that no one is truly lost until everyone tried to bring him back where he belongs...with the rest of us.

From the very first pages I started to care for Bree and Archer. I was captivated by the beauty of the author's writing, the beautiful descriptions of the town of Pelion and how alive it felt to me. Bree was one of the mist beautiful characters crafted out there and Archer too.

We get the story mostly from Bree's point of view but we get a few flashbacks from Archer's memories when he was a child. The feelings...oh my god the feelings are just indescribable , so heartbreaking and sad and gloomy and then you move to happier scenes, scenes that make you swoon and think that your heart is going to explode from anticipation. It was a crazy emotional roller coaster at Six Flags.

The story builts in a good pace, not too fast not too slow, but in a perfect rhythm that had the characters spent quality time together in order to meet each other and fall in love slowly. The conversations between them and their thoughts seemed real, they were down to earth, Bree and Archer dealt with actual problems that any couple like them would face and that made the book amazingly real. I felt like I had all the time in the world to read this book, I didnt feel rushed or had this fear that the book would end soon and I would be left hanging.

The dose of romance in it had me swooning. I think thats how romance should be, thats how it is. It felt original, especially after all those books that I read and every single one seems like a fanfiction of the other. The scenes were beautifully crafted and blended with each other, even went it went from good to bad from soft to rocky everything blended the right way. I felt like I was in love.

Archers Voice is a book about overcoming your fears,discovering who you are, coming to terms with it and taking responsibility and your life in your own hands. Its all about courage. I loved, loved, loved this book.

Note: Although this book is part of the series Sign Of Love it can also be read as a stand alone.

Efterpi

Quintessentially Q by Pepper WInters (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Pepper Winters

Publisher: CreateSpace

Release Date: December 13th 2013

Series: Monsters In The Dark #2

Pages: 376

Rating: 5 stars

Buy on: Amazon

Add on Goodreads  

All my life, I battled with the knowledge I was twisted… fucked up to want something so deliciously dark—wrong on so many levels. But then slave fifty-eight entered my world. Hissing, fighting, with a core of iron, she showed me an existence where two wrongs make a right."

Tess is Q’s completely. Q is Tess’s irrevocably. But now, they must learn the boundaries of their unconventional relationship, while Tess seeks vengeance on the men who sold her. Q made a blood-oath to deliver their corpses at Tess’s feet, and that’s just what he’ll do.

He may be a monster, but he’s Tess’s monster.

 REVIEW:

For those of you that considered Tears Of Tess a dark and twisted book then you should not read this one. This is a much darker, twisted, painful book that you can possibly imagine. I had to stop reading at some parts just to get myself together from the shock, to register the fact that I was actually reading that particular scene or paragraph.

The book continues where Tears of Tess left off, we read one of the hottest sex scenes and I felt like everything would be okay in this book. Everything would turn out alright and Tess with Q would be able to do what they swore to each other.

The writing was great, the author did a great job with the point of view of Q and to be honest with thought and talked the way I had pictured him doing in the first book, so thats a plus for the story, when the author can actually sense what her fans need and deliver it. She also did a really good job with getting my heart ripped out of my chest.

Tess is being kidnapped under Q's nose and I wont spoil anything to you, I will just warn you that what you will be reading is games and fun, love and romance. It's violence to its extreme to the point that I panicked thinking even for a minute what trafficking victims go through. The only thing that I will tell you is that Tess will go through the 9 circles of Hell and back. As for Q, Q broke my heart into a thousand little pieces.

The writing like I said before was so good and this time the author gave Q a rather more animalistic side entwined with love for Tess. It was a scary narration since we see what a human can actually do if he has the means to take back what was taken from him. How can someone lose hope and find it to the weird places, how you shut down emotionally when someone you love is being forced to do the worst of tihngs, things that are no humanly imaginable and how you cope with these thoughts.

This is one great read with more adventure and pain that ever you ,will more than mesmerized by the talent of the author.

Black Box by Cassie Leo (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Cassie Leo
Publisher: Create Space Independent Publishing
Release Date: May 10th 2014
Pages: 394
Rating: 4 stars
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♥️ Three fateful encounters....
♥️ Two heart-breaking tragedies....
♥️ One last chance to get it right.

From New York Times best selling author Cassia Leo, comes an epic love story about rewriting destiny.

Over the course of five years, Mikki and Crush cross paths on three separate occasions. Their first encounter changes Mikki's life forever, but their second meeting leaves them both buried beneath the emotional wreckage of a violent attack. Mikki is left with more questions and grief than she can handle, while Crush is forced to forget the girl who saved his life.

Now nineteen years old, Mikki Gladstone has decided she's tired of the mind-numbing meds. She books a flight to Los Angeles to end her life far away from her loving, though often distant, family.

When Mikki and Crush cross paths for the third time in Terminal B, neither has any idea who the other person is; until they slowly piece together their history and realize that fate has more in store for them than just another love story.

Review

Black box its not your typical love story – in fact its so much different and fresh that any love story out there. Written in a masterful way the author promises heartbreak, gloom and sadness and rejoice in a whole other level.

It all starts with Mikki a girl suffering from bipolar and a past full with unhealed wounds that hunt her everywhere. She feels her past everyday, she sees them, breathes them, she changed completely because of them but she never got over them. That memory never erased no matter how many meeting she had with her phycholgist no matter how many times she tried to kill herself. They are there but under the shadow of her scary past lies a mystery, her savior.

Meet Crush a sexy, sad and rich man who tries to hide from his friend death that happened four years ago,a guy who carries a burden and the worst of guilts on his shoulders a guy who tried to find the only person that made him feel and saved him without her knowledge, a girl that he will never forget no matter what...until he finds her in the most weird place – an airport.

It all started there at the airport a journey of two people that were ''strangers'' until they realised that they know each other and they had met under the most gory and sad circumstances. Their separate tragedies entwine to reveal the utmost purpose of fate. While the days the have together they explore themselves and their limits they also become close. Mikki never had so many first in her entire life but within a few days she managed to find herself and love herself for who she is and for what she wants to be. She embraced life and saw hope in the future for the first time.

The book is written really well but what put me off was the insta love and the too many coincidnces that really made some parts of the book cliché. Other than that the writing was really good, we had a double POV which for me was a huge plus since you get the whole story with no loose ends or gaps.

Its a great read that will make your heart ache from sadness but in the end you will rejoice with utmost excitement.

Twisted by K.A. Robinson (book review by Efterpi)

Author: K.A. Robinson
Release Date: May 7th 2013
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 320
Series: Torn #2
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon
Add on Goodreads

Chloe and Drake have found their happily ever after... Almost.

When Chloe's mother comes back into her life with a bang, it sets off a chain of events no one could have ever expected.
Everyone has their demons, and Chloe and Drake's hit them with a vengence.

Sex, drugs, money, a crazy ex, and Rock n Roll.... Can they survive it all?

Things are beginning to feel a bit... Twisted.

Review: 

ARC Kindly Provided by Atria Books

This book had me pulling my hair so hard I thought I would be bald by the end of it. It was amazing.

While we continue with the story of Chloe and Drake we come face to face with their pasts. Chloe has to deal with her impossible mother trying to avoid involving Drake in this abusive relatioship, but once Drake leaves for his tour with his band everything goes downhill.

In a series of events we get to see Chloe unravel in the worst possible way, and while her cousin is trying to help her deal with her problems Drake has to deal with his fears..jealousy, insecurity and drugs mix with his bad boy attitude in a lethal combination.

The second book of the series Torn is much more serious, concentrates on the problems of each of the characters and how they try to solve them without ruining each other. We get to see that understanding and love can heal every open wound and that with communication you get to tame the most horrible beast.

I loved the writing and how Robinson did a good job with the supporting characters as well. Other than that some drama was unnecessary and some scenes seemed a little forced but that was the only drawback. The book itself was an emotional roller coaster that I never wanted it to stop, it pulled me in and by the time the book was done I came up breathless and wanting more.

Cant wait to read book 3.

With the Band by L.A. Witt (book review by Efterpi)

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL.

Author: L.A. Witt
Release Date: March 22nd 2011
Publisher: Loose Id
Pages: 252
Rating: 3 stars
Buy on: Amazon
Add on: Goodreads, Shelfari

Hard rock band Schadenfreude is finally on the verge of the success that’s eluded them for the last several years. With Aaron McClure as their new lead singer, nothing’s going to stop them…except maybe a steamy, secret relationship between Aaron and bassist Bastian Koehler. Aaron knows all too well what can happen when band members get involved with each other. After all, his last band was a casualty of his last relationship, and Schadenfreude forbids band members from dating for that very reason. But Bastian is too hot to resist, and besides, it’s just sex, so what’s the harm?

Bastian has just gotten out of a long relationship with his volatile ex-fiancée when Aaron catches his eye. The sexy singer is irresistible, and in spite of the potential for strife within the band if this comes out, Bastian can’t help himself.

Their passion in the bedroom is rivaled only by their ambition as musicians, though, and pretty soon, it's going to tear them, and Schadenfreude apart, if they can't get back to playing with the band.

Review:

To be clear before we go on with this review ,I have never ever in my life so far read one single book of gay romance or M/M or whoever you guys call it..this is my first and from what I have heard from other bloggers its a really good read in comparison to other M/M novels out there..and it was...it really was.

Once the book start we get a little background on Aaron, the main character of this book. He is on the way to Seattle, returning from Los Angeles after his band broke up because of him and his boyfriend. Pure drama in my opinion.

Once Aaron meets up with his brother in order to join their band since they fired their singer, he comes face to face with Bastian...German btw. The attraction is instant but the problem is that Bastian is straight so that leaves Aaron alone in the shower masturbating over Bastian. To keep things short Bastian (bisexual) makes the first move and we find both of those rockers in a sequence of pure lust and cheek-blushing sex scenes. So hot I could feel the steam coming off my Nook's screen.
The writer seemed to be doing a great job with the descriptive part of the book but seemed to be doing exactly the opposite when it came to actual dialogues and dropping a little of background info on both of the main characters.

 The good thing with the first page though was the writing, it had me hooked on the book until the end. And after page three or four things went south...really south in a bad way. What struck me the most was the repetition of words and phrases in one single page that made me want to scream from frustation and annoyance. This is Writing 101 there Witt, seriously wasnt that the first thing you learned?

Conversations seemed to circling around the same context of ''How are we going to come forward to our families and friends?'' ,''What will they say?'' etc over and over again it made it tiring and really annoying at times. All the sex scenes started with ''We should stop..'' and ended in pure sex.
Bastian and Aaron didnt seem to be talking about anything else but the situations mentioned above and when they did they cut it short because of more SEX. Seriously?

I also hated how the band responded to the revelation of their relationship and how this thing kept dranging on and on and on. We live in the 21st century for fucks sake, I mean how hard is it to stomach the fact that two people are gay and in a relationship fucking their brains out in secrecy every night?

As for the characters dont expect a lot of depth and a lot of intuition they are just plain. I couldnt even bond with Aaron on Bastian.

The ending was really disappointing because for an unexplained reason it was rushed and cut short.

Three stars it is for the sex scenes and how hot they were.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Jojo Moyes
Release Date: December 31st 2012
Publisher: Pamela Dorman books/Viking
Pages: 369
Rating: 5 stars
Buy on: Amazon

 Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Review:

Once I read the first two pages of the book I immediately understood that this will be a hard book to judge, it is nothing like the books I read before but it is so beautiful and sad and a huge tear jerker.
It starts with a small background story that initially a lot of us may not understand and it moves on in the present with Lou.

An ordinary woman in her mid 20's. A woman with no real interests and no adventurous life but with a scary experience behind her. When Lou loses her job because of the financial crisis she is over herself because her family has it hard. She knows that there is no way that she will find a decent job in order to support herself and her family and she seems to lose hope when she visits the unemployment office the only available job for her is as a carer for a quadriplegic man. She has no experience over this but then again she doesnt have experience in anything at all its the money that she needs and the pay is good that motivate her to go in for the interview.

Once she is hired she comes face to face with Will. A 35 year old man in a wheel chair unable to move from his chest and down. An ex businessman, he used to be encircled by fame, women sex and luxury and now he is being Lou's nightmare on a wheel chair. She is uncomfortable being around him he is making her life a living hell with his attitude and here starts adventure.

While the book moves on we start to see the real reason Will is treating Lou like that. That he is fighting for his right to have a say in his life now that his mother wants to control most of it out of fear that he will attempt suicide. Now that he is unable to take control of his own life by himself, that he constantly needs someone there to help him with everything. Deep inside we see a man thinking of his amazing and adventurous past and comparing it to the dull and full with misery future that expects him. He simply didnt chose this life for himself. Here we experience the great writing of the author. Although the perspective is from Lou;s point of view we get to know Will a lot better.

We get to see Lou getting attracted to him as he is being a little nicer to him, how she tries to cheer him and actually change her life for the best because of him. How she doing a great research on quadriplegics and the effort she puts in making Will's life easier. But to all that there is a reason.

Some of you may be little reluctant when it comes to the subject of the book. Its a really complicated story that evolves in a love story and how a small decision can change your life for ever. We see how a person can change who you are in a matter of a few months. That was the most beautiful part of the book , how I, the reader got to bond with Will and Lou. Their personalities are so alive, so full of life that I laughed and cried with them. They made me see things from a different perspective.
Moyes does not preach or judge of anyones ethics and decisions and she is really going through the stages of life and how an accident can change you. She gives some interesting perspectives on subjects but still she is letting the reader decide what to believe and what to judge. For me this is amazing storytelling.

I will definitely come back to this book again one day. In my opinion this is a book for those who like books that make you think , books that make you cry and books that the ending always leaves a taste bittersweet and for a lot of thought. Definitely worthed it.

Meet Me At The River by Nina De Grammont (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Nina De Gramont
Release Date: October 13th 2013
Publisher: Atheneum
Pages: 384
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

We can't choose who we love - but can we choose to let go?

Stepsiblings Tressa and Luke have been close since they were little - and when they become teenagers, they slip from being best friends to being something more. Their relationship makes everyone around them uncomfortable, but they can't - won't - deny their connection. Nothing can keep them apart.

Not even death. Luke is killed in a horrible, tragic accident, and Tressa is suddenly and desperately alone. Unable to outrun the waves of grief and guilt and longing, she is haunted by thoughts of suicide. And then she is haunted by Luke himself.

He visits only at night. But when he's with her, it's almost like the accident never happened. Oh, there are reminders, from the way she can only feel him when he touches the scars on her wrist, to how she can't seem to tell him about life since he's been gone. As long as they're together, though, the rest - it fades away.

But during the day it is Tressa who can't grasp hold of the people around her. The same people who never wanted her and Luke together in the first place are determined to help her move on. Determined to help her heal. They just don't understand - one misstep, one inch forward, could leave Luke behind forever.

Reviews:

When I was working at a bookstore I was around 100's of books...between them was this one.

The storyline is simple and cliché – about a girl and a boy , the ''mean parents'' (this reminds me of stuff – probably he is reading this right now and he is either smilling or cursing :) , a weird mother and the boys death. Its a pretty cliché romance BUT (drumroll please) the writing is so beautifuly amazing, so superb and although I wouldn;t read this book the writing alone made me finish it within a day.

Meet Tressa the girlfriend left behind and has to cope with the death of her boyfriend. Meet Luke the dead boyfriend – he is dead I know – but what kind of a young adult novel would that be without the dead coming back to hunt us???? Right. What I have to say next may be confusing for some and not for others. Although Meet Me At The River has a touch of paranormal the whole plot is all about coping with grief and life. Coming of age like. The beautiful writing that I mentioned earlier helped a lot to shape the story.

Its a sad book. I didnt cry but my heart swell from sadness when paranormal and actual real life blended together. Tressa trying to find a way to cope with the loss and Luke trying to help her do it. How the people after an accident see you, how you get special treatment like you are a celebrity or simply because they think you are too fragile that if they push you even a tad you will break into a thousand little pieces.

There is a side story to the whole thing as well. Tressas mother and her adventures. This is the most important of all in order to understand Tressa and what shaped her. Why she didn;t quite fit with the rest and why Luke chose her. Make sure to pay extra attention to the family explaining otherwise you wont understand a thing.

This is a great read and although not The Fault In Our Stars (tears tears everywhere) this is a book worth reading.

Until The Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary by Traudl Junge (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Traudl Junge
Release Date: May 9th 2005
Publisher: Arcade
Pages: 250
Rating: 5 stars
Buy on: Amazon

In 1942 Germany, Traudl Junge was a young woman with dreams of becoming a ballerina when she was offered the chance of a lifetime. At the age of 22, she became private secretary to Adolf Hitler, and served him for two and a half years, right up to the bitter end. Her memoir, written not long after the war but set aside until recently, offers a unique and chilling glimpse of the human face of this man known to posterity as a monster.

Review: 

Being a ww2 history reader and enthusiast I came across this book in the library. The 2004 movie downfall was based on this unique memoir.

This memoir was written by Traudl Junge, Hitlers last secretary. She was in the service of Hitler from 1942 to 1945 and she experienced all kinds of things – from days of happiness and triumph to days of panic and despair to the final hours of the third reich and the final moments of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.

The first draft of the book was composed in 1947 – barely two years after the end of WW2. It is written in that way that the author doesn't even judge, doesn't even comment on the events she witnessed. She just tells us the story, what happened and why it happened. In my opinion for this , for writing this way, is that after all this propaganda and after all the things she witnessed she wasnt fully aware of what exactly happened. Like she could not believe it – thus was not able to fully judge it , like she did in later years with interviews on documentaries.

The most interesting part of the story is the final month in the bunker. Where everything was falling apart, how everyone left Berlin, the state Hitler was in and how this powerful leader now lay in bed weak and alone, all of his followers already abandoned him and tried to negotiate with the enemy. Even his most faithfull men. How he seemed to not know whats going on and how he stopped having military meetings in contrast two years prior that he held military meeting with his commaders and all important people that could last hours with no end. It is interesting to see that Junge and the rest of the people in the bunker actually believed Hitler when he said that there will be one more army that will beat the enemy and that Germania will rise again – till the very last minute everyone waited for this army but nothing happened.

Some people condemn this memoir by stating that Traudl made Hitler appear human and almost feeling sympathetic about him – what most of us forget is that Hitler was a human being and although he was probably one of the most cruel leaders the history ever knew he had a sensitive side. In the book Traudl says that he was a fatherly figure that everyone admired and felt safe around. He was kind and always happy to give advice – he was even overly excited when people decided to get married. Even the movie received mixed reviews when it came to the acting of Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler – he made him too human for some , he made the audience feel sympathetic towards him and thats what I felt. I felt sorry for him, I felt sorry for the people around him.

Hitlers last secretary for him was an amazing read, I understood a lot of things about Hitler himself and how he acted than I did from all the other books I have read about the Third Reich. I recommend that to everyone out there interested in WW2.

The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Wladyslaw Szpilman
Release Date: January 2003
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 224
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

Written immediately after the end of World War II, this morally complex Holocaust memoir is notable for its exact depiction of the grim details of life in Warsaw under the Nazi occupation.

Review:

The pianist is an amazingly well written book by a Jew survivor of WW2. Szpilman starts telling us about his life a few months before the German Invasion in Poland in 1939 and he cuts quick to the chase. Unlike, any other autobiographies based on this particular era we can see how everything started and how situations progressed for the jews and not only. The reader gets the chance to actually read how the newspapers wrote articles about the ghetto and the laws the Germans put out for everyone to follow...laws against the Jews and how absurd all these seemed then. No one believed a word from what was said until the Nazis started killing people in the street for no reason.

We read all these through the eyes of a jewish man who did everything he could do to protect his family, a man who witnessed atrocities of every kind happen to elderly and kids.How the Germans picked out people and executed them in front of everyone ,but also within this dark period we see people who were not that bad. Like a Nazi soldier or lieutenant who helped Szpilman and hide him and gave him food. I felt his hunger when he was looking for food and i felt his anguish as he drank water with bugs in it. The Pianist is a book that gives an insight of how it feels to be the hunted one and why wars like that should be avoided at any cost.

This book does not accuse anyone of anything it only shows that wars happen just because a few people decided on it and not a country as a whole. This book is all about forgiveness and the willingness of one to survive even under the worst conditions.

The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks (book review by Efterpi)

Author: Nicholas Sparks
Release Date:August 1st 2005
Publisher: Warner Books
Pages: 276
Rating: 2 stars - did not finish
Buy on: Amazon

 After thirty years of marriage, Wilson Lewis, son-in-law of Allie and Noah Calhoun (of The Notebook), is forced to admit that the romance has gone out of his marriage. Desperate to win back his wife, Jane's, heart, he must figure out how to make her fall in love with him... again. Despite the shining example of Allie and Noah's marriage, Wilson is himself a man unable to easily express his emotions. A successful estate attorney, he has provided well for his family, but now, with his daughter's upcoming wedding, he is forced to face the fact that he and Jane have grown apart and he wonders if she even loves him anymore. Wilson is sure of one thing--his love for his wife has only deepened and intensified over the years. Now, with the memories of his in-laws' magnificent fifty-year love affair as his guide, Wilson struggles to find his way back into the heart of the woman he adores.

Review:

This book is supposed to be the follow up of the smashing bestselling book The Notebook. To me, not even close. To me this book was a huge let down and a huge failure.Okay, I have to say that I was warned by the reviews of other readers but i did not expect it to be so bad.

Let's start with Wilson the simple husband who thinks he is wrong because his wife grew up with the idea of the ''ideal romance'' in her head and expects him to be the same way her parents Noah and Allie (The Notebook) were...well let me spell it out for you sugar : Not everyones the same way.

I felt like the book was dragging on and on and on with no end. I did not get why we had to read about Wilson and his wife and the wedding of their daughter and the preparation of the wedding...the strokes and heart attacks Noah had and all that s***. The ending was not clear enough for me to understand that yeah, you know what?, every couple goes through a crisis in his life and the point in everything is to understand and try your best everyday. I would never understand that if i never read other books like this..but better.

The whole book is over the top with a main character who tries to please his wife as best as he can and in the end he fails because, simply, his wife is blind and stupid. Anyways, there are people out there that will probably will like this without purpose book but simply its not for me.

So, if you read the Notebook and want something similar to read dont even think of this book. Its exactly the opposite of the love story of Noah and Allie. Try something else like P.S. I Love You or Twenty Boy Summer or ONE DAY.

Torn by K.A. Robinson ARC (book review by Efterpi)

Author: K.A. Robinson
Release Date: May 7th
Publisher: Atria Books
Series: Torn #1
Pages: 268
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

 Chloe hasn't had the best life. With a mother who is gone more often than not, she has had to raise herself. After graduating high school, she leaves to start a new life away at West Virginia University with her best friends Amber and Logan, determined to leave her demons in the past.
On her first day, she meets a stranger who takes her breath away at first sight. Until she met Drake, no one had ever sparked her interest. Now this tattooed and pierced bad boy is all she can think about, no matter how hard she fights it.
Falling for Drake was never part of her plans, but when it happens, things seem to do anything but fall into place.
Dealing with a tragic past, Drake has never cared about anyone else but himself and his band. But when Chloe takes the empty seat next to him in class, things start to change. Instantly drawn to her, he begins to wonder if one girl can take a cold hearted womanizer and change every part of him?
Long hidden feelings are revealed and friendships tested to the brink.

Review:

This ARC was kindly provided by Atria Books through NetGalley.

This book contains a love triangle so I warn you...there will be a lot of hair pulling and a lot of head banging on walls, sinks whatever you find to hit your head from despair.

To be honest Torn follows the tradition of Easy by Tamara Webber and Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire BUT with a huge difference apart from the love triangle - there is a lot of passion and tension in this one and that's what's sets it apart from the rest.

Meet Chloe, a twenty year old whose mother is a junkie and absent through her life, Chloe had to put up with her mothers crazy behaviour through her childhood up to her early teenage years, leaving her with a lot of scars both mentally and physically. As she tries to lead a normal life she goes to college with her two best friends Amber and Logan -and here starts the fun.

Chloe comes across Drake the hot pierced and tattooed guy that sits next to her in her classes and she starts falling for him (i would too), slowly they become friends and start hanging out more and more and here comes Logan in the picture. I won;t ruin it for you so I will leave it here for you.

The plot was amazing, although there are some scenes that you really want to scream a huge Why? to the author I loved this book. The characters are well build and you instantly know who you like and who you don't. For example Logan simply did not cut it for me because I could relate to Chloe being controlled by her boyfriend or best friend -and thats what I consider a great book - the ability of the author to create such characters that the reader can relate to, can actually feel their frustration or happiness and all the emotions in between.

The book has a lots of ups and downs so get ready for a crazy and emotional roller-coaster, most of you will be torn between Drake and Logan, some of you will chose whose team you want to be in from page one and yeah thats the nice thing about love triangles - you don;t know who will end up with who. Where's the fun to a simple book with no love triangles, no teary eyes, no heart breaking moments and no make up sex?

This is a book that every romance fan will love to read and probably read again. Can't wait for the second book.

Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic (book review by Eleni)

Author: Zlata Filipovic
Release Date: February 1st 1994
Publisher: Viking Penguin
Pages: 208
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

In a voice both innocent and wise, touchingly reminiscent of Anne Frank's, Zlata Filipovic's diary has awoken the conscience of the world. Now thirteen years old, Zlata began her diary just before her eleventh birthday, when there was peace in Sarajevo and her life was that of a bright, intelligent, carefree young girl. Her early entries describe her friends, her new skis, her family, her grades at school, her interest in joining the Madonna Fan Club. And then, on television, she sees the bombs falling on Dubrovnik. Though repelled by the sight, Zlata cannot conceive of the same thing happening in Sarajevo. When it does, the whole tone of her diary changes. 

Review:

In my opinion you can really review a diary, a diary written by a little girl that had her childhood stolen from the cruelty of war. A lot of people have compared this diary to the Diary of Anne Frank and I have to agree to that. It's pretty much the same situations but different times, and that makes you think how can things like that happen today? How people go into war without even thinking of the consequences that it will have on children, to their country, to their world?

We see Zlata writing in her diary before the war broke out and all you can see is a happy kid, a kid listening to Michael Jackson, and Madonna, going to her friends homes , watching MTV and dreaming of rock stars and pop stars, we see a kid that he utmost concern is homework and all that change in an instant with the declaration of war.

War transforms a person from kind to cruel, from soft to hard, imagine the impact that it has to a 12 year old child, the damage it can create. Suddenly, Zlata changes and starts thinking about politics and worry about things that kids their age should not, either because they are too young to comprehend or because simply they have other fun stuff in their minds. We see Zlata growing up and get more serious, more worried about her family's safety and her own and its heart breaking.

Although, most of us can only read diaries like these we should try and prevent situations similar to what Zlata and Anne Frank went through to occur again. 

Breathe Into Me by Sara Fawkes ARC (book review by Eleni)

Author:  Sara Fawkes
Release Date: April 8th 2014
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 288
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

How did my life get so broken?  It’s a question Lacey St. James asks herself every day.  Stuck raising her little brother in a trailer park while she works a dead end job at a grocery store, she has a stalker exboyfriend, a bad reputation, and no way out.  

And then, she meets Everett, who changes her entire existence.

Everett is an outsider who’s housesitting his family’s mansion off the coast, and for reasons Lacey can’t understand, he’s completely transfixed by her. He seems determined to show her that life can offer more than she’d ever hoped for, if only she believes in herself.  She desperately yearns to trust him, but what happens when she finds out that everything he’s told her is a lie? 

Review:

I received this e-book as an ARC on NetGalley from St. Martin's Press and I totally loved this book.
Although, there is not a lot to say without spoiling anything to anyone, Breathe Into Me had my attention from page one.

This is just not any romance book out there, its a story about self discovery, self-appreciation and the journey of finding yourself and the power with in you. The book itself it was so good written, the characters so well developed that I instantly liked the laid back conversations between Lacey and her friends, I could actually relate with Lacey ,I felt her happiness and sorrow ,her ups and downs, because honestly this book is an emotional roller-coaster and the ride is hard.

Coming from a broken home, with a dead father and a retired from life mother Lacey can only help her little brother. As she tries to find a way out of her abusive relationship and her ''friend'', she decides that she needs to change. Coming across Everett helped her a lot and he helped her too.

I loved the conversations between them and I appreciated that the author actually took her time developing their relationship slowly that it was almost a torture but the outcome was rewarding. You can actually see the attraction growing between them and you can actually learn a few things about them because the characters have depth, the have emotions and thoughts and that makes them awesome.

What made this book more interesting was the unexpected plot twist that seriously I didn't see coming, once I thought that everything is perfect bam! everything changes, from then on the book becomes a little more serious and the story comes packed with revelations that will everyone speechless. I was actually turning the pages like crazy.

The ending was really good and although I dont know if we will have a chance to see a second part of Breathe Into Me , I am more than interested to read one.

Night by Ellie Wiesel (book review by Eleni)

Author: Ellie Wiesel
Release Date: January 1st 1958
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Series: Night #1
Pages: 120
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family...the death of his innocence...and the death of his God. Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary Of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

Review: 

While doing an experiment on reading books of WWII Death Camp survivor's accounts and memoirs I came across this little book and to be honest, this is the most memorable in comparison to the rest.

Like every autobiographical book, it starts with a little background on the authors life at the time and fast enough it progresses to the main events of the book - at this point the story turns into Nightmare.  Young Ellie was taken to Auschwitz - Birkenau in train vagons that were for animals - he and his family were treated like animals. Once in the death camp he is being separeted from his family and stays with his father and thats because an inmate warned them by telling them to lie about their ages.

From that point on we see the everyday life in Auschwitz - the nightmares those people had to go through, the starvation and the treatment they were receiving.The most important of all in this book is how a person changes - how war can change a human being from good to bad, from ethical to unethical. 

At some point in the book we actually read how Ellie wished his father was dead so he wouldn't bear his burden, how he was disgusted at himself a second later for thinking of it and how he realised that he was changed so much within those few months he was in the camp, but anyone would think that way, especially when you try to survive, when life becomes a struggle about your life and when you are willing to do anything to survive, sacrifice everything just to get alive from this nightmare.I felt so sad after reading this paragraph, so guilty for a reason I cannot comprehend.

The reason I gave this book 4 stars is because of the way the book is written, although I know that is is an abridged version of the book in comparison to the original one which is only available in Yiddish (the full version). I think the publisher went too far with cutting out shocking scenes from the book that it severed a lot the content and especially for those who wanted to read more and wanted more insight of Auschwitz. 

It;s a great account of the Holocaust that everyone should read.

For Colored Girl You Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuff by Ntozake Shange (book review by Eleni)

Author: Ntozake Shange
Release Date: September 1975
Publisher: Scriber
Pages: 85
Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy on:Barnes and Noble

From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange's words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by The New Yorker for "encompassing...every feeling and experience a woman has ever had," for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world.

Review:

  When I watched the movie For Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuff I loved the way the plot flew and the poems...oh the poems were amazing. Two years later I picked the book expecting to find poems in it but what I found was a play. This particular book is not available in Greece so I read it last month in the USA. 

   I am not really good with reading plays and sceenplays, a reason I never really liked reading Shakespeare, but what I liked was the words. Written freely and with misspelled words and other errors I would consider it a waste of time, but no...the book is meant to be performed and not read, its meant to be seen and not read but above all this play has a story to tell, a very painful one.

   ''Reading'' about five different girls with the colors of rainbow I saw the difficulties of life, the pain of love and the pain of loss, the crash of hope and the ray of hope through the tunnel in an era of hatred and racism towards black women. This book is art, while reading you can actually visualize and you can hear the songs and see the dances but above all the author asks you to FEEL. 

    I loved every word of this book and although I had to re-read a few parts in order to comprehend through the slung and errors that did not stop me from finishing this play.

50 Shades of Grey by E.L James (book review by Eleni)

Author: E.L. James
Release Date: May 25th 2011

Publisher: Vintage
Series: Fifty Shades
Pages: 385
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

This book is intended for mature audiences.

Review:

   So, I made the mistake and read The Crossfire Trilogy first instead of this one...mmmm...i think i liked the crossfire a lot more because it was so mature and a little more realistic than this one. 

Christian is a psychopath with a lot of anger management and control issues. As for his sexual preferences let me tell you this: I have read a lot more kinky and weird stuff that what is being described in the book. I dont even know how it got the label of weird and sexually twisted or whatever , in my opinion is not that bad. Actually, to me 50 shades is a love story, a little weird but still a love story, i mean you can see how Christian adores Anna. 

The book left me confused and wondering what is the book about. I cant decide if its a story about a guy that likes BDSM or about a guy;s childhood abuse and the impact it had in his adult life and not only. Its not clear and I am interested to find out in the second book or third. It;s not because Ana since day one clarifies that she doesnt want him to go all kinky and shit with her and that she actually wants a 'real relationship'' BUT then she goes all crazy when Christian plays good..so i dont know what the hell the author plans to do. 

The writing is addicting and although its not a great book i couldnt put it down because i really wanted to know what will happen to them as the book progressed. Thus the 4 stars.

50 Shades Darker by E.L. James (book review by Eleni)

Author: E.L. James
Release Date: September 15th 2011
Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House
Series: Fifty Shades
Pages: 532
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Buy on: Amazon

Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house.
But desire for Christian still dominates her ever waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.
This book is intended for mature audiences

Review:

Okay, this may sound crazy but i liked this book more than the first one and thats rarely a case with me. It seemed more mature and more serious that the first and i think that in this one you get to see the actual relationship between Christian and Anna. 

Although, you will notice the repetitive and often annoying inner goddess and the constantly exlamation of Holy Shit, Holy Crap and all tones of crap and holyness, you will also notice how different the sequel of the series is. 

I liked that you get an insight of Christians fears and demons and how he actually tries to work things out with Anna, he is not a heartless bastard after all. I dont have a lot to add on this one due to the fact that it is an erotica book...but what i want to say is this: Fifty Shades Darker is not BDSM and Disturbing, actually i dont even know how it got this label. I think its just a little more extreme erotica than usual. Anna is such a chicken so she doesnt try out anything and that is lame.

That's all that i have to add on this book.

A Beautiful Wedding by Jamie McGuire (book review by Eleni)

Author: Jamie McGuire
Release Date: December 10th 2013
Publisher: Atria Books
Series: Beautiful 2.5
Pages: 160
Rating: 4 stars
Buy on: Amazon , Barnes and Noble

You know that Abby Abernathy unexpectedly became Mrs. Maddox. But what do you really know?

Why did Abby pop the question?
What secrets were shared before the ceremony?
Where did they spend their wedding night?
Who else knew about it . . . and didn’t tell?

Everything about Abby and Travis’s elopement was top-secret . . . until now. Fans of Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster will get all of their questions answered in this whirlwind tale of the wedding day (and night!)—and as with all good stories, this one will definitely have been worth the wait.

Review:

Well finally, finally, finally, i get to write the review. Agh. Usually I don't like novelas because after i finish the book i want more but this is not the case here.

   I loved this one because you get an insight of the situation Abby and Travis got married under. Abby had her reasons for proposing and to be honest I couldn;t agree more with her. You actually feel the anguish and the agony to save him from whatever's coming for him and you get to see a sweeter and more loving side of Travis. He broke my heart and made me love him more.

Although, a lot of people didn;t like the idea of marriage after a year of being together this book justifies the reason it happened...the factors that led them there and what impact it had on both of them. How it changed them within a day and how that made their love even stronger. 

No this story is not  a 100% happy one. Its not about flowers and hearts and angels but its all about the sacrifice you are ready to do for a person you love and care for even if it breaks your own heart.It made me think of my own marriage and what i would sacrifice for my husband if it came to a difficult situation.

I think this book will please everyone who read Beautiful Disaster and got disappointed with the lack of the marriage description and why it led them there.

Time After Time by Tamara Ireland Stone (book review by Eleni)

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Release Date: October 8th 2013
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Series: Time Between Us #2
Pages: 368
Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy on: Amazon , Barnes and Noble

Calling Anna and Bennett’s romance long distance is an understatement: she’s from 1995 Chicago and he’s a time traveler from 2012 San Francisco. The two of them never should have met, but they did. They fell in love, even though they knew they shouldn't. And they found a way to stay together, against all odds. 

It’s not a perfect arrangement, though, with Bennett unable to stay in the past for more than brief visits, skipping out on big chunks of his present in order to be with Anna in hers. They each are confident that they’ll find a way to make things work...until Bennett witnesses a single event he never should have seen (and certainly never expected to). Will the decisions he makes from that point on cement a future he doesn't want?

Told from Bennett’s point of view, Time After Time will satisfy readers looking for a fresh, exciting, and beautifully-written love story, both those who are eager to find out what’s next for Time Between Us's Anna and Bennett and those discovering their story for the first time.

Review:

These days its hard to find a really good book to read and lately i have been reading a lot of boring books. I expected a lot from this book due to the fact that the first one was indeed amazing ,this one lacked the enthusiasm of Time Between Us and somehow the narrative seemed slow and boring. Maybe because it was from Bennett;s point of view?

We have the classic love story with the distance of a decade in the middle of everything and that should make the whole plot a lot more intriguing and have more feeling in it but unfortunately I didn;t feel the rush at all. I want a book where I can feel the characters , i want to be able to develop feelings for them and want them to do certain things. In the first installment of the series I couldnt wait to have Bennett and Anna fall for each other, in this one I should have felt the urge to see them together..and I didn't and thats because of the writing.

The plot was great it had a lot of doubt and frustation and sadness but not in the detail a reader should expect..something which ruined the book for me. Other than that it was an okay book , it had equal amount of drama and fun in it ,lots of stupid stuff too and the classic i-dont-want-to-do-this-but-i-have-to-because-you-think-its-right-for-me-to-be-a-{insert word here} . Its a teen book like all the rest and besides the fact that it was boring in a level of apathy i read it because I wanted to see what will happen in the end ,seriously I will read book three because i think it will be great but i pray that someone intervene with the author and make her do some great changes in the development of the characters.

Crossed by Allie Condie (book review by Eleni)

Author: Ally Condie
Release Date: March 13th 2011
Publisher: Speak
Series: Matched #2
Pages: 367
Rating: 3 stars
Buy at: Amazon , Barnes and Noble

The Society chooses everything. 
The books you read. 
The music you listen to. 
The person you love. 
Yet for Cassia the rules have changed. Ky has been taken and she will sacrifice everything to find him. 
And when Cassia discovers Ky has escaped to the wild frontiers beyond the Society there is hope.
But on the edge of society nothing is as it seems...
A rebellion is rising.
And a tangled web of lies and double-crosses could destroy everything.

Review:

Personally, I wasn't so impressed with this one. And that's why it was so hard to rate this book. I didn't know if it deserves two stars or three but in the end i decided with three so the following reasons.

It's not an amazing book lets be clear about that. It is more like a cliche boy loves girl , girl loves boy, they risk everything for each other and one of them ends up doing something he considers wrong just to please the other person.

I expected this book to be a little more adventurous than the first one but in the end it was blant and boring. It was really really really predictable and for not even a second I didn;t doubt my guesses...and in the end I was right. But the writing was really good and although I wanted to drown myself, I continued reading because at some point I felt something for the main protagonists of the book. It was not strong but it was there so I finished the book.

As with all the young adult books , this one is not an exception of the rule , it follows the pattern of every second book - the couple loses each other and they both begin a journey of finding each other and themselves. Lame but what can we do. 

The characters were okay and the descriptions were really good too but the plot needed a little more adventure and action and also the characters needed stronger targets. Stronger motivations for doing what they were doing.

Other than these I don't have anything else to say about this book. It wasn't exciting and I expected a little bit more than that.