Review: Vampire Lies

 
Vampire Lies by RaShelle Workman
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Release Date: March 11, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Once upon a time there lived a vampire with wings and the genie who loved her. Born of the seven magics, Jasmine is different in every way, including the obnoxious wings on her back courtesy of the original Vampires. 

She wants to be normal, to be a regular teenaged girl. When a gorgeous dark-haired boy named Laeddin shows up and promises to sneak her away from all her problems and hide her in the human world, she agrees. 

But an evil lurks in her nightmares, a man with red eyes. It doesn’t take long for Jasmine to realize that no matter how far she tries to run from who she is, he’s only a dream away. He wants her. He needs her. He acts as though he loves her. 

It’s becoming harder and harder to tell the difference between the path that’ll lead to her happily ever after, and the path that’ll lead to her destruction as well as all magic.

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"Vampire Lies" is the sequel to RaShelle Workman's "Blood and Snow". This second story revolves around the character of Jasmine, who is a winged vampire that was born of the seven magics. She's the first vampire to have wings in what seems like forever, so her life is anything but normal. However, she is a teenager and as teenagers are prone to do, Jasmine craves what she doesn't have. While most girls would love to live in a palace like her and be able to fly, Jasmine wants a normal high school experience that any regular human girl would have.

Her dreams seem like an unattainable fantasy until she meets Laeddin, who just happens to be a genie and is willing to grant her wish. Laeddin and Jasmine are transported to the human world where she is without her wings and is ready to go to high school in order to get some normalcy in her life. Of course, things don't go as smoothly as Jasmine might have hoped, and she finds herself in the middle of a mystery as her high school life is anything but normal.

I enjoyed reading "Vampire Lies". I had already read "Blood and Snow" beforehand and had trouble getting into the story, but that problem wasn't present with "Vampire Lies". I was engrossed in the story right away, and kept turning the pages wanting more. Whereas in "Blood and Snow" had our main character start off as "normal" and then venture into the fantasy realm, the opposite is true here. I think having "Vampire Lies" be set in a regular high school is something that the readers can relate to as it's something so familiar.

Review: Blood and Snow

Blood and Snow by RaShelle Workman
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Release Date: March 11, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ Barnes and Noble

Book Description:

Lips red as rubies, hair dark as night. Drink your true love's blood, become the Vampire, Snow White."

EVERY THOUSAND YEARS THE VAMPIRE QUEEN SELECTS A NEW BODY, ALWAYS THE FAIREST IN THE LAND, AND THIS TIME SHE'S CHOSEN SNOW WHITE. 

Snow White lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her dad, stepmother, and her cat, Gatsby. Her entire life she's been teased for her fairy tale name, and the fact that her seven best friends happen to be guys whose names begin with the same letters as the seven dwarves. 

Everything changes two months before her sixteenth birthday. She's bitten by The Hunter, and transformed into a revenant—not quite human, not quite vampire.

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"Blood and Snow" by RaShelle Workman can be described as a "fractured fairy tale". A lot of the characters the story deals with have names that we might all be familiar with such as Snow White, Charming, and Ariel, but the characters aren't the Disney-fied versions that we've come to know and love. Instead, this is a story that deals with the modern day, and our main character is Snow White and she's turning into a vampire. That's right, pure-as-the-driven-snow Snow White is becoming one of those evil monster things that we're taught to fear.

Snow's dilemma is because the Vampire Queen of a magical realm has chosen her to be the next body she takes over (that's how she stays young and powerful forever), and Snow and her friends must find a way to defeat the Queen and learn to deal with the new changes happening to Snow.

It took me awhile to get into the story. It began with mostly describing who Snow White is, what her life is like, her relationship with her seven best friends (who all happen to be the boys who live next door to her), and there's not much that hooks the reader in right away. However, once the action got started, I was able to find myself more invested in Snow's story, and wanted to keep reading.

Book Blitz: Challenging Destiny

Challenging Destiny by Cherie Colyer
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Release Date: March 27, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Logan Ragsdale and his younger sister, Ariana, have been marked, chosen to be unwilling participants in a war between angels and demons.

Logan can sense something's not quite right. Like an unexpected chill on a summer's day, he can feel the unseen closing in. He's had these feelings before and, each time, someone close to him died. He's afraid this time it might just be Ariana.

Logan's fears are soon confirmed when he discovers their new friends aren't human, but rather representatives from Heaven and Hell sent to Earth to ensure he and Ariana accept their roles in an ancient prophecy. Demons want Logan to open the gates of Hell. Ariana has the power to stop them, but if she chooses to side with Heaven to spare the lives of thousands of innocent people, she'll damn her brother for eternity.

Together, they must derail the biblical event if they hope to save themselves and the future of mankind...but what price are they willing to pay to keep the other safe?

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Excerpt:

We went to our favorite coffee house. She ordered an extra-large caramel macchiato. I got an extra-large dark cherry mocha and a bagel with cream cheese and jelly to split. I rummaged around the bottom of my purse for money while we waited to hear the total. All I found were a couple crinkled singles and some loose change. I’d already talked Becca into sneaking offcampus; no way was I going to make her pay for breakfast, too.

I looked at her. She had her head down as she checked her text messages. “I got this. Want to grab some napkins?”

“Sure.” She turned on her heels, fingers flying over the small keypad on her phone.

Book Blitz: Pieces of Olivia (Charleston Haven #1)

Pieces of Olivia (Charleston Haven #1) by Melissa West
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: July 15, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Olivia Warren used to be a normal girl with a bright future. But on one fated night, everything changed.

Hiding the scars of her past up her sleeves, Olivia transfers her enrollment from Columbia University to The College of Charleston, determined to pursue her own dreams for the first time in her life.

She intends to allow herself a bit of alone time to heal… that is, until she meets Preston.

Preston is best friends with her roommate, completely hot, and off-limits. But the chemistry between them is instantaneous—and as the pair begins to spend more time with one another, their feelings for each other build into something undeniable, something powerful enough to heal Olivia’s deepest scars.

Olivia tries to put her own past behind her and trust Preston, but she discovers that his past might be more present than she ever bargained for…

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Excerpt:

“What’s in the box?”

I glanced down at the box like it was poison in my hand. “Rose gave me homework.”

“Oh yeah? What is it?”

“I don’t know. I’m afraid to look.” I closed my eyes slowly, hating the pathetic girl I was becoming in front of him, but somehow with Preston, I didn’t feel that natural urge to cover up my fears and insecurities. I could be myself around him, because I knew he would see through the lie. Like he already knew what I would say even before I thought of my response.

Preston reached out and took the box from my hand, tucking it under his arm. “Come on. I’ll drive you back to Liberty.”

“What about London?” The words were out so quickly that I didn’t have time to register what they suggested.

Preston stuttered, clearly taken off guard. “Uh, what about her?” He cocked an eyebrow at me, his lips angling up a fraction of an inch. But that was enough. He knew what the question meant. Damn it!

Book Blitz: Sinful Rewards 1: A Billionaires and Bikers Novella

Sinful Rewards 1: A Billionaires and Bikers Novella by Cynthia Sax
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Romance
Release Date: July 15, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Belinda “Bee” Carter is a good girl; at least, that’s what she tells herself. And a good girl deserves a nice guy—just like the gorgeous and moody billionaire Nicolas Rainer. He is everything she wants in a man.

Or so she thinks, until she takes a look through her telescope and sees a naked, tattooed man on the balcony across the courtyard. Hawke is mysterious, the bad boy she knows will bring only heartbreak. He has been watching her, and that makes him all the more enticing.

But when a mysterious and anonymous text message dares her to do something bad, she must decide if she is really the good girl she has always claimed to be, or if she’s willing to risk everything for her secret fantasy of being watched.

Is her mystery man the reclusive billionaire with a wild side or the darkly dangerous bad boy?

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Excerpt:

Our third floor condo overlooks a tiny park wedged between three high-rise buildings. Neither the wrought iron fence nor the thick green hedge surrounding the green space impedes my view.

It’s a view any Chicago socialite would trade her string of Tiffany pearls to enjoy. Nicolas Rainer, the condominium complex’s enigmatic owner, sits on the wooden bench positioned closest to our condo, his traditional black wingtips planted solidly on the ground, his finely groomed head bent over one of his tablets.

Papers and electronic devices radiate from the left and right of his long lean body. These are carefully arranged in the same pattern every morning, smallest to largest devices, lowest to highest stacks of paper. Today is Wednesday, which means one of the stacks consists of invoices, printed on thin yellow paper. Tomorrow is Thursday. There’s an additional stack of papers on Thursdays, widening the orbit around him.

Book Blitz: Just Stay

Just Stay by Michelle Abbott
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 17, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ Book Depository

Book Description:

The last place Pia wants to be is on a family vacation in a sleepy Cornish village. She’s anticipating two weeks of mind-numbing boredom. 

Then she meets Trey, a local boy. He’s absolutely gorgeous. The trouble is — he knows it. He’s arrogant and egotistical, and Pia intends to avoid him at all costs.

But Trey is not the kind of guy who gives up easily. When he sets his sights on Pia, her resistance is futile.

It’s just a holiday romance, some light-hearted fun, right? But one of them is about to discover that still waters do, indeed, run deep. When what lurks beneath the surface finally erupts, the consequences may prove to be catastrophic.

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Excerpt:

He stops outside a single storey, whitewashed cottage, and pulls a set of keys out of his jeans pocket. I notice there’s an old blue car parked in the driveway, I guess we’re driving to another town to eat. He’s probably stopping off to pick up his car keys. That’s good, I’d rather go somewhere more lively. He’s standing in the doorway, smiling at me. He gestures for me to go in.

“I’ll wait out here for you,” I tell him.

“Why would you want to stand out there all night?”

“I’m only waiting here while you get your car keys,” I say, frowning at him.

He leans against the door frame and folds his arms across his chest. “Pia, I asked you to have dinner with me, I didn’t say I was taking you OUT to dinner.”