Review: Frostbitten

Frostbitten by Heather Beck
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: June 23, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Great beauty hides dark secrets...

Seventeen-year-old Anastasia Lockhart has never led an easy life, but when she starts getting into serious trouble, she’s sent to live with her grandparents in Cedar Falls. 

The small, picturesque town hasn’t changed since she visited four years ago, with one exception – the presence of a handsome, mysterious boy named Frost. 

Despite warnings from her grandparents and friends to stay away from Frost, Anastasia can’t deny their attraction, and the more time they spend together, the deeper in love they fall. 

Unfortunately, Frost has a secret that is beyond Anastasia’s wildest imagination, and she soon finds herself in the midst of a supernatural legend that has haunted Cedar Falls for years.

Can Anastasia and Frost’s love really overcome anything, or are their fates much darker?

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Frostbitten follows Anastasia Lockhart who at the beginning of the story is being shipped off to her grandparents in Cedar Falls because her mom can no longer deal with her teenage antics. Anastasia used to spend her summers in Cedar Falls with her grandparents when she was younger and she had fond memories of the people and town. She’s hoping this will be a chance for her to start over and get back to the person she used to be.

Heather Beck created an amazing setting and I really loved the town of Cedar Falls, but the thing I loved most about this story was how well written it was. I liked how strange everyone was acting and how you know right away that something isn’t quite right between the people in the town. I also really liked how there’s this kind of rivalry mixed in with mystery. I thought that whole angle was great.

Review: The Landfill

The Landfill by Kevin Hopson
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Horror
Release Date: April 2, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ Barnes and Noble

Book Description:

Billy, a high school senior, has lost a lot in the past year, including his younger sister, Sara. Billy lacks excitement and purpose in life until his curiosity takes him and his best friend, Connor, to an old, abandoned landfill along the river.

Connor would rather forget the experience, but Billy can’t help but feel invigorated by their findings.

Taking it upon himself to uncover the mystery, Billy finds his life coming full circle – but is that a good or bad thing?




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"The Landfill" is a short story by Kevin Hopson. Now, normally I don't make a habit of reading a lot of short stories (at least not since they were assigned in college) since I'm mostly a novel and series kind of girl, but the description for this story seemed creepy enough to rouse my interest. And I'm pleased to say that it did maintain that interest while I was reading it.

Obviously, since it is a short story it's a very quick read. "The Landfill" totals at a little over 30 pages, and I was able to read it all in one sitting. The language Hopson uses is clear and direct, which also made it an easy read.

Review: Unbound (All Good Things #1)

Unbound (All Good Things #1) by Georgia Bell
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: November 2, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

After her father dies, Rachel realizes she is scared and stuck. Scared of heights, of cars, of disasters harming the people she loves. Stuck in a life that is getting smaller by the minute. Stuck with a secret she has kept all her life: Someone has been watching over her since birth. Someone who tends to show up when she needs him the most. Someone she believes is her guardian angel.

Eaden is a 1,500-year-old immortal who wants to die. Drained by a life stretched too thin, he has requested his final reward – a mortal sacrifice bred specifically to bring him death. But something went wrong. Rachel’s ability to grant death has mutated in ways that threaten to upset the uneasy alliance between mortals and immortals. And utterly beguiled, Eaden discovers that although Rachel is the key to his death, because of her, he no longer wants to die. And he will do anything to protect her.

Swept into a world of legends, caught between the warring political factions of immortals, and carrying the future of mortal kind in her flesh and bone, Rachel must risk everything to save her world and the man she loves.

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Unbound by Georgia Bell follows Rachel, a shy 18-year-old, who lives with her mom and grandmother and works at a library. She has one friend, Lacey, and doesn’t really have much of a social life. That being said, she does have a secret. Ever since she was a little girl, Rachel has known someone was watching over her. But she doesn’t know who or why.

Honestly I have mixed feelings about Unbound.  The story is incredibly well-written and I really enjoyed the plot. It’s rare to have an immortal in a book who isn’t a vampire, so that was a really nice change in pace. I also loved the lore or mythology of how the immortals were created. The way most of the immortals lived sort of reminded me of the Observes from Fringe before they went super power hungry and evil. It was awesome.

Review: And All the Stars

And All the Stars by Andrea K. Höst
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Release Date: September 30, 2012
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Come for the apocalypse. Stay for cupcakes. Die for love. Madeleine Cost is working to become the youngest person ever to win the Archibald Prize for portraiture. Her elusive cousin Tyler is the perfect subject: androgynous, beautiful, and famous. All she needs to do is pin him down for the sittings.

None of her plans factored in the Spires: featureless, impossible, spearing into the hearts of cities across the world - and spraying clouds of sparkling dust into the wind. Is it an alien invasion? Germ warfare? They are questions everyone on Earth would like answered, but Madeleine has a more immediate problem.

At Ground Zero of the Sydney Spire, beneath the collapsed ruin of St James Station, she must make it to the surface before she can hope to find out if the world is ending.

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Come for the apocalypse. Stay for cupcakes. Die for love.

I’m not going to lie, outside of the amazing artwork for this cover I decided to read And All The Stars by Andrea K. Höst for that line alone. I love me some apocalypse and cupcakes. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting from a summary line like that, but it definitely wasn’t what I got. Now here me out, I am a huge supporter of indie authors. I love them and feel a lot of indie books are ten times better than the crap being published by publishing companies. But as much as I wanted to, I just could not get into this book.

I don’t know if it was the incredibly slow pace or the fact that I had no clue what was happening that did it, but it took forever for me to read. Madeleine seemed so naïve to me and it was hard for me to picture her as a teenager. I didn’t love her character, but I did love Noi and the boys. Höst does a really great job of bringing her characters out of their shells and showcasing everyone’s uniqueness.