The Descent
Book Three of the Taker Trilogy
By Alma Katsu
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pub. Date: January 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1451651829
Pages: 352
Buy Links: Paperback, Kindle

Review:

I haven't been more exciting about reading a book than I have been with The Descent; book three of The Taker Trilogy. There was almost a year and a half gap between the second (The Reckoning) and the third book, The Descent, so I was patiently waiting on pins and needles for the release, which finally arrived back in January. Gallery Books kindly sent me a free copy to read and review, but, sadly, a few other books arrived before The Descent did; therefore it sat in the TBR pile longer than I wanted it to. I finally got around to reading it in late February.

There are have not been many books that have grabbed a hold of me within the first few pages, leaving the characters still in my mind years later. Alma Katsu has created a beautiful trilogy full of love, revenge, sacrifice and redemption. There has been an overload of vampire and werewolves books over the years and Alma Katsu gives us a refreshing supernatural love story without blood-sucking demons or shape-shifters.

The Taker Trilogy centers on Lanore "Lanny" McIlvrae, who fell in love with the charming, rich and older, Jonathan St. Andrew, at a young age during the 1800s. After becoming pregnant, her family sends her away to Boston to have the baby (which results in a miscarriage), but within minutes of arriving in Boston she meets the charming Adair, whom forever changes her life, introducing her to a world of immortality.

Princess Ever After
The Royal Wedding Series
By Rachel Hauck
Publisher: Zondervan
Pub. Date: February 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0310315506
Pages: 368
Buy Link: Paperback, Kindle
Blog Tour

Review:
 
There have been a huge surge of wonderful books being released this year, especially sequels. Last month, Rachel Hauck released the second installment in The Royal Wedding Series titled Princess Ever After. Yes, I know this is a romance novel, but if you have followed my blog regularly, then you would know I do like reading romances.

Princess Ever After is a modern day fairy tale, which centers on a simple small-town girl, Regina Beswick. (Isn't Regina the name of the wicked mayor/queen on ABC's Once Upon a Time?)  She is living an ordinary life working at classic auto restoration shop. Let doesn't know that she is actually a real life princess.

Tanner Burkhardt is the Minister of Culture for the Grand Duchy of Hessenberg, who has been assigned the task of hunting down the heir to Heseenberg - the-long-princess, Regina Beswick. It seems Regina's ancestors fled Hesseenberg in the early 1900s and she was never told about her heritage, until now.

Trying to compensate for all the recent French ebooks I am not allowed to buy on amazon.fr because I live in the US [seriously, French authors would make much more money if anyone could buy them, whatever their country of residence], I went to look at my local College library what they had in French. Not much at all!

Where Courage Calls
By Janette Oke and Laurel Oke Logan
Publisher: Bethany House
Pub. Date: February 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0764212314
Pages: 336
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/tyWJH
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/joke

Review:

Author Janette Oke's novels cross my radar after I watched the TV-movie Love Comes Softly on the Hallmark Channel back in 2003. I ended up buying all the books on eBay, including the spinoff  Prairie Legacy books. Over the years, I have picked up a few other novels by the author. I was pleasantly surprised and excited to hear about her new novel Where Courage Calls, which she co-writes with daughter, Laurel Oke Logan.

Where Courage Calls is the seventh novel in the Canadian West series, written fourteen years after the sixth novel, When Tomorrow Comes. The first book in the series, When Calls the Heart, was turned into a TV-movie on the Hallmark Channel, followed by a weekly series.

Where Courage Calls was written as a companion story to the new series, which centers on Beth Thatcher as she leaves the life that she has always known and travels to western Canada for a teaching position, following in the footsteps of her aunt Elizabeth (main character from When Calls the Heart).

Goosebumps Most Wanted - Creature Teacher: The Final Exam
By R.L. Stine
Publisher: Scholastic
Pub. Date: February 25, 2014
List Price: $6.99
ASIN: 978-0545627733
Pages: 160
Buy Links: Paperback, Kindle

Review:

Author R.L. Stine has been scaring kids with his Goosebumps books since 1992. The creepy book series was inspired by the Twilight Zone, in which both usually had a shocking ending, but course Stine's stories involved kids as the main characters. A television series of the same name aired from 1995 to 1998, which most of the episodes have crawled their way onto DVDs over the last several years. The books were so popular that several spin-off series were created, Give Yourself Goosebumps, Tales to Give You Goosebumps and Goosebumps Presents and Goosebumps Series 2000. Stine took a slight break from the Goosebumps world, but returned in 2008 with a brand-new series Goosebumps Horrorland and later followed by Goosebumps Hall of Horrors.

The latest series is titled Goosebumps Most Wanted, where Stine's favorite villains return to haunt a new generation of readers. The newest installment, Creature Teacher: The Final Exam, hit bookshelves yesterday; which is a sequel to 1998's Goosebumps Series 2000: Creature Teacher.

This terrifying tale centers on twelve-year-old Tommy Farrelly, who is not looking forward to spending the rest of his summer at Winner Island Camp, a camp that teaches you how to become a winner. The camp's tag-line is: Winners Are Always Winners. His parents are winners at everything, as well as his younger sister, so he is being sent to a strange camp to learn how to be like them.

Upon arriving at Winner's Island Camp a few days late, Tommy meets Ricardo and Sophie and learns of the camp's terrible secret. Each kid will leave the camp a winner, well, except for one loser - who will be eaten by the "teacher" Mrs. Maaargh, and Tommy happens to be on the bottom of the winners' list.

A Road Unknown
Amish Road Series, Book One
By Barbara Cameron
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Pub. Date: February 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1426740596
Pages: 304
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/tj3vR
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/bcameron

Review:

Yes, there has been quite a few new Amish titles already released this year and it isn't even spring yet. I known I don't have time to read every single book that is released, but whenever I get a chance to review an Amish fiction title crosses my path, I take it.

A Road Unknown by Barbara Cameron centers on twenty-year-old Elizabeth Bontrager. Most Amish girls her age have already been through the "rumschpringe" years, but since she is the eldest of nine children, she couldn't explore the outside world as a teenager as she was needed at home.

Elizabeth is given a chance to step outside of the Amish community of Goshen, taking her to Paradise, Pennsylvania. She moves in with her Englisch pen pal and gets a job at the local country store. The store is owned by Saul Miller and the store sells Amish products to the Englisch community.

She didn't travel to Paradise in search for love, but it seems two suitors are after her attention - a guy named Bruce and her boss, Saul.

Hopeful
Return to Sugar Creek, Book One
By Shelley Shepard Gray
Publisher: Avon Inspire
Pub. Date: February 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0062204462
Pages: 256
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/tacpd
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/sgray

Review:

I grew up reading Goosebumps, Fear Street and other horror novels. Plus, I watched countless horror films, but for some odd reason one of my guilty pleasures is reading Amish fiction. I can't explain it, but it started thirteen or fourteen years ago when I first read a Bethany Lewis novel, who was one of the few authors writing Amish romances at the time. Fast forward to the present day and you can find dozens of Amish fiction titles in the bookstores. It is practically becoming its own genre.

At first Bethany Lewis was the only author I would read writing the genre, but I slowly began reading other authors, whom have all put their own spin on the Amish life. Another one of my favorite authors of the genre is Shelly Shepard Gray, so when I had a chance to review her newest book "Hopeful" through Liftfuse Publicity Group, I instantly signed up to review it.

"Hopeful" centers on Miriam Zehr, who spends most of her time working at the Sugarcreek Inn, a popular restaurant of the town residents as well as the many tourists that stop by the Amish town. From one look at Miriam's lovely smile you would have never guessed that she would rather be somewhere else. She has always dreamed of getting married and starting a family, but she has low hopes that that will ever happen.

The Calling
The Inn At Eagle Hill, Book Two
By Suzanne Woods Fisher
Publisher: Revell
Pub. Date: January 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0800720940
Pages: 336
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/stlG8
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/sfisher

Review:

With all the snow on the ground today, there is nothing better than drinking a cup of hot coffee and reading a book, or in my case writing a review for The Calling.

Similar to other books by the author, this story is set again in Stoney Bridge, but this time the main focus is on Bethany Schrock, who is spending the hot summer months living at the Sister's House, while she reflects on what she wants out of life, which has been a bit rocky. Her mother abandoned her, her father recently passed away and her brother is missing. Plus, she is also trying to get over her ex, Jake Hertzler

Her boring summer that includes cleaning the Sister's House, takes an interesting turn when she meets the newest guest at the Eagle Hill Inn (which is ran by Bethany's stepmother), Geena, who happens to be a Youth Minster, well until she was fired.

Many of my readers already know that I like reading books with a historical setting, but I'm not very found of the WWII era of fiction novels. That being said, I only signed up to review Shadowed By Grace by Cara C. Putman because I liked the cover of the book. Though the author's name does sound familiar, I don't believe I have read any of her books before.

Before there were cell phones, laptop, computers and the internet, journalists and photographers had to put themselves in the actual war to get the firsthand scoop and photographs to send back to the US. Shadowed By Grace centers on on a American photographer, Rachel Justice, who takes a newspaper assignment, which takes her on the front lines of WWII.

During WWII, many of Italy's famous paintings and artifacts were either destroyed, stolen or hidden. A special group of soldiers called the Monument Men were assigned to find these lost treasures. Scott Lindstrom is one of these soldiers, but he has an extra task at hand there, he is assigned to escort Rachel Justice, as his teams advances north.

Many dangers await them on their journey, as Rachel continues her assignments and hopes she will find her long-lost father.

A Miracle of Hope
The Amish Wonders Series
By Ruth Reid
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pub. Date: December 31, 2013
ISBN: 978-1401688295
Pages:  352
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/sABNg
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/rreid

Review:

Most of my blog readers know that I love reading Amish fiction, but there are so many authors in the genre, it is hard to keep up with all the new titles every month, so typically I only read the authors I have either previously read or have at least heard of. Author Ruth Reid wrote the Heaven on Earth series, which is an Amish supernatural book series (no vampires, werewolves - just angels). I enjoyed reading the three books in that series, so I quickly agreed to read A Miracle of Hope, book one in the Amish Wonders series, by the author.

The plot of A Miracle of Hope follows a similar clichéd plot found in many Christian novels (Love Comes Softly comes to mind), in which a man (mostly likely a widower and has at least one young child, which happens to be case in this tale) and a woman (most likely pregnant, which happens to be the case for this story) have an arranged marriage.

The mother-to-be is Lindie Wyse who ties-the-knot with widower Josiah Plank, who happens to be the father of a deaf eight-year-old daughter, Hannah. Like I said above, the marriage was arranged. Lindie was shunned by her community and her brother arranged a marriage for her to his best-friend, Josiah.

Josiah loved his late-wife dearly and doesn't believe he can fall in love again, let alone get remarried, but his daughter needs a mother figure, therefore, he agreed to marry Lindie. Of course, Lindie, agreed to the marriage, as she didn't have much a choice or anywhere else to go. Life throws the newly wedded couple several ups and downs, all of which only strengths their relationship and opens their hearts to possibly loving each other as a family.

Pages:  218
Genre: Historical fiction
Goodreads

Shaking Behind The Microphone
Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking
By Jill Ammon Vanderwood
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pub. Date: November 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-1490941219
Pages: 156

Review:

I don't read very many non-fiction titles, mostly because I'm too busy reading the fiction books stacked up on my desk, but when I saw Shaking Behind The Microphone: Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking was available to review, I became interesting in reading it.

As many of readers know, I do suffer from anxiety, which isn't quite as bad now, but it was pretty bad during my childhood. Of course with anxiety, there was noway I could speak in public settings. It was bad enough when I had to give an oral book report during class, but speaking in front of strangers wasn't ever going to happen. I did my best to avoid crowded situations, but there were a few times during a class event in high school where I had to speak in public and lets just say it didn't turn out very well.

The author, Jill Ammon Vanderwood, had the fear of speaking in public too, but she found ways to overcome this. She wrote the book to help everyone with the same problem be able to speak in public.

In 1979, readers were engulfed in the one of the most guiltiest pleasure novels ever written - Flowers in the Attic, followed by three sequels and a prequel. Even teenagers became interested in the novel, though they most likely hid their copy under their mattress. Sadly, V.C. Andrews passed away just over twenty-seven years ago, and ever since then a ghost writer has taken over series. At first nobody knew who the writer was, but now it is public knowledge that author Andrew Neiderman is the ghost writer.

Unlike most readers my age, I didn't start reading V.C. Andrews until I was around twenty-years-old, when I bought a hardback copy of Flowers in the Attic (missing a few page though) at a thrift store. Shortly after, I was given my grandmother's (Sadly, she passed away in 2009.) V.C. Andrews collection, as she had lost all interest in the books. The collection was missing a few books, which I quickly bought the missing books at a book store and on eBay. I have continued to collect each new release, though I haven't read the most recent series'.

The newest novel, The Unwelcomed Child, was released last week, just a few weeks after television version of Flowers In the Attic broke rating records on Lifetime. After recently rereading Flowers in the Attic (here is my review for it), I became eagerly excited about reading The Unwelcomed Child, which is a stand-alone novel.

Similar to Flowers in the Attic, this tale has a young girl, Elle Edwards, living with her grandparents, but, no, she isn't being forced to hide in an attic. Elle's rebellious mother left her to be raised my Grandmother Myra and Grandfather Prescott. She's doesn't know much about her father, except for the fact he had raped her mother, resulting in her conception.

Grandmother Myra is very religious and believes because of her daughter's sinful life, Elle was born without a soul. She doesn't want Elle to be influenced by the wicked ways of the world and has sheltered her from everything. Elle doesn't attend public school, but instead she is home schooled. She isn't allowed to listen to any current music and is only allowed to watch television programs that her grandparents approve of.

The Headmistress of Rosemere
Whispers On The Moors, Book Two
By Sarah E. Ladd
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pub. Date: December 31, 2013
ISBN: 978-1401688363
Pages: 320
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/sgVC4
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/sladd
 
Review:

Yes, I'm a guy who likes to read romance novels, mostly in the historical western genre, anything on Amish and a few Harlequin thrillers. I don't read much of the Victorian type books, but I did read The Heiress of Winterwood by Sarah Ladd last year and I did enjoyed reading, which is one of the reasons why I signed up to review its sequel.

The Headmistress of Rosemere is set in Darbury, England in the early 1800s and centers on twenty-five-year-old Patience Creighton, whom finds herself as the headmistress of Rosemere School for Young Ladies. She grew up living at the school her family ran and after her father's death, she steps up to run the school. Neither her mother, who is suffering from depression and her brother, whom headed off to London to settle a few "family affairs" six-months ago, can handle the responsbility of running Rosemere, therefore everything lies on Patience's shoulders.

Rosemere doesn't exactly belong to Patience's family. It, along with the surrounding land, actually belongs to the Sterling family. Over the years the Sterling family have been wonderful landlords, but William Sterling is not like his father or grandfather. He has been going through somewhat of a rough patch, mostly gambling. He owns a hefty sum to creditors and is assaulted by the creditor's henchmen while returning home from a local tavern. Wounded with no other choice, he ends up at the doorsteps of the Rosemere School.

My Name is Rapunzel
By KC Hilton
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pub. Date: November 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1492863007
Pages: 322
Buy Link: Print, Kindle

Review:

I believe almost everybody has read or has at least heard of the Grimms' fairy tale called Rapunzel, but many people probably don't know that the Grimm's version isn't the original. It is actually remake of Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force. The fairy story has become more popular thanks to Disney's recent computer-animated film, Tangled.

Author KC Hilton recently published a modern day version of the classic tale, titled My Name is Rapunzel. I enjoyed reading the author's children novels, The Magic of Finkleton and Return to Finkleton, so I was eagerly agreed to review her take on Rapunzel.

The book's narration is from Rapunzel herself, as she explains how she was cursed with immortality by the witch, Gretta, when she was a child. In 1763, she fell in love with a young man named Henry and they became engaged, but Gretta intervenes and their happily ever after bliss never occurs.

With Henry gone, Rapunzel has to accept that she will never find love, though her parents have tried to help her find another love, she can never fully forget Henry. Years fly by, her parents age, but she never does; she even outlives her mother. She moves with her father to the family's castle, but old age has caught up with him too, but he make sure Rapunzel is always protected by leaving the witch Gretta as her guardian.

It seems like most fairy tales are aimed for a female audience, but I have to admit I do like watching Once Upon A Time and reading Grimm's Fairy Tales, so when I saw the cover of Doon, I thought I would give it a try. Plus, it has a Scottish setting and I have ancestors from Scotland.

In Doon, Veronica jumps at a chance to get away from her complicated life when her best friend, Mackenna, invites her to spend the summer in Scotland. This isn't a two week vacation, it is for a few months.

Before going on vacation, Veronica had been seeing a strange blond boy, whom magically appeared almost everywhere she went. She thought traveling to Scotland would get her away from whoever he is, but she was wrong. The boy had followed her. Or maybe he is leading her somewhere.

While in Alloway, Veronica and Mackenna stumble upon a set of rings and a mysterious letter that was left behind by Mackenna's aunt. This all leads them to the fairy tale land of Doon; full of princes, enchantments and mystery, but just around the corner lies unthinkable danger.

Flowers in the Attic
The Dollanganger Family Series
By V.C. Andrews
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pub. Date: January 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1476775852
Pages: 400

Review:

It’s hard to believe the guilty pleasure novel Flowers in the Attic is over 34-years-old! I wasn't even born back in 1979 when Flowers in the Attic written by newcomer V.C. Andrews was published. The book about four siblings being locked up in a bedroom and attic for over three years was a huge success, but there was major controversy involving the incest theme involving a teenage brother and sister. The book has been banned from libraries and schools because of this, though over time some have put the book back on the shelves, it is still banded in some locations.

The book is told from the point-of-view of Catherine Leigh "Cathy" Dollanganger and centers on the there and half years when her siblings, Chris and twins Cory and Carrie, are hidden away in the vast Foxworth mansion. After their father died in a car accident, their mother, Corrine, drags them to live in her parent's house, where they are locked in a bedroom by their wicked Grandmother.

Their mother had been disinherited years ago when she married their father Christopher, and now the only way to get back in her father's grace is if she never had any children with her husband, so the Dollanganger children must be  away in a bedroom, which has access to the attic, until their grandfather dies.

During the first year their mother visits them on a daily basis, but as she starts to establish herself back into society, she distance herself from her children. Meanwhile, Chris and Cathy become less like brother and sister to the twins and more like farther and mother, as they take care of them and continue their schooling (well as much as they can). They’re fearful of their Grandmother, whom will give them severe punishment what she considers sinning. Being locked away has put stress on the twins and they are physically becoming ill. As for Chris and Cathy, they are starting to have intimate feelings for each other, despite the fact they are brother and sister.