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One moment can change your life forever…
For Violet Lee, a chance encounter on a darkened street draws her into a world beyond her wildest imaginings, a timeless place of vast elegance and immeasurable wealth – of beautiful mansions and lavish parties – where a decadent group of friends live for pleasure alone. A place from which there is no escape… no matter how hard Violet tries.
Yet all the riches in the world can’t mask the darkness that lies beneath the gilded surface, embodied in the charismatic but dangerous Kaspar Varn.
Violet and Kaspar surrender to a passion that transcends their separate worlds – but it’s a passion that comes at a price…

I first heard about this book when I saw the author, Abigail Gibbs, on BBC Breakfast a few months ago. I’ve wanted to try it out since then but had forgotten the name of the book, but a week or two ago I saw a review on another blog about this book which reignited the need to buy it. I was really excited when seeing it in a shop and immediately bought it. 

After starting this book yesterday, I couldn’t put it down. I would have read through the night if I could! I finished it earlier and, I must say, it is up there in my favourites list. Abigail Gibbs started writing this when she was only fourteen years old and has said that Twilight inspired her. Let me just say that I think that this book is ten times better than Twilight. I’m even going to be bold and say that I think that this is the best Vampire book I’ve ever read.

I loved the plot. When Violet Lee, the main character, is left alone in Trafalgar Square on a night out she doesn’t expect to be kidnapped, let alone by a Vampire prince! I haven’t read a book about Vampires so far that hasn’t truly been about blood-thirsty Vampires. They’re all too nice! But this really shocked me in the fact that it was completely unique and not like other books at all!

I really liked the main character, Violet. She had a spark in her that was admirable, especially in the situation she was in. I also loved a lot of her sarcastic, witty comments, which made me laugh on numerous occasions.  Some main characters can really irritate me, but I didn’t feel this with Violet and I felt comfortable reading parts of the book in her point of view.
Now on to Kaspar! Move over, Edward Cullen; there’s a new vampire in town! He was actually very cruel at the start but I just couldn’t hate him! He was completely irresistible! The only problem I have is that not much of the book was written in his point of view and I would have liked to have seen more of him.
I think that the characters of Fabian and Lyla really added something, especially Lyla. I also really loved Thyme, who was just so sweet and adorable: I wish she was my sister!

I really love the cover, with it’s dark writing framed on a light background. I also liked how there wasn’t much red, as a lot of Vampire books look the same. It stands out and I instantly picked it up when seeing it.

Overall, I really enjoyed enjoyed this book and would definitely say it was one of my favourites of this year. On the cover it says that it is ‘the sexiest romance you’ll read this year’ and I definitely agree!

RATING: 5/5
-Favourites shelf

Yay! The third book in the amazing Benedicts series! I am in love with these books. I think I am about to scream and hit my head on my keyboard about one thousand times in frustration about the fact that the Benedicts ARE NOT REAL. I loved Finding Sky and Stealing Phoenix and so I was so pleased when I bought this book for my birthday. I finished it really quickly and I think I had a huge grin on my face throughout.

Since finding out that this book was to be written about the third brother, Xav, I was super excited. He’s been my favourite brother since the first book and, let me just add that I wasn’t disappointed! He is just so funny and some of the things he said made me laugh out loud! My view still stands: he is by far the best Benedict brother!
I wasn’t sure if I would like Crystal at first as she was different to Sky and Phoenix, the other two soulfinders, and I really loved them, but she grew on me and by the end of the novel I loved her as much as I loved them. She was quite stubborn at the start which added suspension and it was really interesting to know that she really didn’t like Xav as the other two were quite quick to accept their soulfinders.
I didn’t like Crystal’s sister, Diamond, very much and found her quite annoying. She didn’t really care for Crystal and was more interested in her soulfinder than her own sister: this really irritated me.
It was nice to see some new characters, and ones that weren’t Savants, as in the last book it was filled with Savants and not many normal people like me!

I really loved the plot as it carried on from the previous book a little, although you could read them separately if you wished. It was nice to be able to see the consequences of what they did in London and know that, actually, even though they’re doing the right thing some people are annoyed and want revenge. The main plot didn’t really start until the middle of the book and I liked this because you got to see the developing romance between Xav and Crystal as well as the one between Diamond and Trace.

I love the cover and am super protective over it! I may cry if it even gets a mark on it! I love the heart and the writing at the bottom. The title also stands out really well and, on the whole, is eye-catching. Why wouldn’t you want to buy this book?!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am praying that there is a fourth one: I can’t live without the Benedict brothers!

RATING: 5/5

At the end of this year and throughout next year there are going to be a lot of books being made in to movies. And I am extremely excited! Here I’ll be showing you the trailers and talking a little bit about them.

I haven’t actually read this book but I’m looking forward to watching it, nevertheless. I’ll be reading it before and enjoyed reading Twilight so I’m sure it will be great! I can’t say much about the casting due to the fact that I haven’t read it but I’m sure they are great choices!

Those are just a few of the movies I’m looking forward to! What are you hoping to see?

I picked up quite a few books this week and also got some great postcards!

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare- I can’t wait to start reading this series! I love Cassandra Clare!

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare- Yes! After finishing City of Glass the other day, I can’t wait to get started on this!

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare- I’m going to start this one after finishing City of Fallen Angels! I can’t wait!

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman- I was going to read this for a book club but still haven’t made up my mind. It looks good though!

Geek Girl by Holly Smale- I got sent this in the week by Scholastic (thank you!!) and I’m loving it so far! I’ll be posting my review as soon as I’ve finished it!

I got these awesome post cards from the cinema! I have no idea why they were in there but I don’t really care! They’re so amazing! And so pretty! Yay!

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter- I’ve wanted to read this for ages! And so I bought it on Kindle and read it within a few hours! It was amazing! (Review coming soon).

So that was this weeks book haul! I’ll be posting reviews as soon as I’ve read them!

There were a number of inspirational sources for Blood To Blood. The first one was Aaliyah. She was gorgeous and had a clean-cut, youthful energy; nothing sleazy which she easily could have done because she had an amazing body. But with all the clean-cut girl next door vibe she had this dark little undertone, an edge you couldn’t really identify. It was a seductive sort of dark that maybe, if she had lived longer would have developed into something even more brilliant. And she definitely had secrets. That whole marriage to R. Kelly when she was 15, that was a serious skeleton in the closet. The big difference is Angel’s got a much more powerful range (more like a cross between Beyonce, Mariah and Whitney) than Aaliyah’s soft soprano. Either way, she was the inspiration for Angel’s character back in 2001 when I first got the idea for Blood To Blood. Back then I was working in television, and right after Aaliyah’s heart-breaking death the story of a young singer who goes against all odds to follow her dream came to me as a television series. The Cosby Show also served as an inspiration for Angel’s family, and the old Dark Shadows series inspired the dark side of the family and the supernatural secrets they have.

2. When thinking up the characters in Blood to Blood, did you base them on real people?

 Beside Aaliyah, there were a couple other real people who inspired my characters. Sawyer Creed was inspired by Robin Thicke. Before Robin became famous he had this long hair and a kind of skater vibe. It was very sexy, especially when he started hitting those soulful, falsetto notes. Angel’s mom Cleo was inspired by Phylicia Rashad who portrayed Clair Huxtable on the Cosby Show. I just see her as the epitome of “mom;” super-duper, larger-than-life, holy Moses mom, to be exact.

3. Do you have any inspiring words of advice to future authors? 

Keep writing. Never stop. Don’t let anything get in the way of you getting the words out of you. There will always be obstacles, life, that gets in the way of just sitting down to write. Go with it. Explore how technology can help maximize your time. For example, I love how speech-to-text makes it easy and quick for me to get all my ideas out in a way that I can review later, no matter where I am. For some reason, a lot of my ideas come to me in my car while I’m sitting in traffic, so recording these ideas on the fly works really well for me as part of the writing process. I would encourage writers to take advantage of all available means to save, gather and flesh out ideas; and definitely take classes that will help you with the technical aspects of writing.

4. Have you always wanted to write YA fiction?

 I was a music journalist for a long time, and also wrote for stage and television. Novel writing seemed to be a natural progression. But in terms of the specific genre, it wasn’t a goal of mine really. The thing I was compelled to do was tell the story in the way that made the most sense, the way that served the story the best, and whether it was one medium or the other, or one genre or another, didn’t matter to me. It took years to discover that Angel’s story wasn’t a television series—that it was really a series of books. Once I had that realization, the writing of it came so easily; it just happened to fit into that particular genre. Once I started writing it as YA, it felt like second nature, the voice came so naturally it was almost eerie, as if her character had been waiting all that time for me to get a clue. I personally love writing in the genre of YA and look forward to writing much more. To me it’s very exciting to connect with younger readers about universal topics that transcend genre such as morals, family and social responsibility.

Amazon | Author Website | Author Twitter | 

I had quite a big library haul last week and a big charity shop haul again this week so I’m doubling them up together and have created this massive book haul post! 

I go to the library most weeks to get books and was particularly lucky last week as I got some great books!

Wither by Lauren DeStefano- I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages and am so excited to finally be able to read it! I love the cover!

Lola and the Boy Next Door- Yay! I loved Anna and the French Kiss, and after starting this book the moment I got it, I can gladly say that this one is just as good! (Review coming soon!)

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson- I’ve heard such amazing things about this book (Kyra!) and was excited when seeing it at my library! I can’t wait to start it!

Legend by Marie Lu- I really love Dystopian fiction and I can’t wait to start this! 

Torn by Cat Clarke- I’ve wanted to read one of Cat Clarke’s novels for a while now and this one looks great! 

Across the Universe by Beth Revis- After getting this at the library I then forgot I had it and bought it this week! So I have two copies now! I love the cover!

Rumours by Anna Godbersen- I absolutely loved The Luxe and can’t wait to start the second one in the series! More boys to swoon over!

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold- This book has been popping up all over the place in the last few weeks and I took it as a sign and picked it up straight away!

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens- I’m learning about Charles Dickens at school this term and have written a short review on the opening of the novel. I’m also really keen to start reading some of the classics.

The Secret Cirlce by L. J. Smith- I’ve wanted to read some of this authors novels for a while now and was pleased when I picked this up.

The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs- I had seen the author talking about this book on television earlier in the year and have wanted to pick it up since then. I’ve already read it and it is definitely going on my favourite’s list! (Review coming soon!)

Shadowland by Alyson Noel- I’ve read the other two books in this series and wasn’t going to read the rest but I think I will now after buying this book.

Checkmate by Malorie Blackman- Please, anyone reading this, buy me a box of tissues before I start reading this book! The other two in the trilogy have nearly made me cry and I don’t think this one will fail in doing that job, either! 

Yay! I went to the Stonewylde book signing yesterday and managed to get my books signed as well as this awesome badge and bookmark! I had such a great time!

As you may have noticed, that is a lot of books to get through! I’ll try and post reviews on them as soon as possible!

I haven’t been posting as much these last few weeks as I’ve started back at school but I will be posting reviews and memes once again and I am also keen to start writing more discussion posts. School takes up a lot of time so my posting may not be regular but I will try my best to get reviews out as soon as possible.

♥Lucy♥

First, can I just say how much I loved the cover on this book? I couldn’t- and still can’t- stop staring at it! The picture above really doesn’t do it enough justice! Breathe was really making it’s way around the blogosphere before it’s release. I was one of those really excited people who couldn’t wait for it’s release. I was just so ecstatic!

This was another one of those books that made me squeal when I picked it up. Once again, let’s hope that nobody saw me!

Breathe is a really great example of Dystopian fiction. It’s well-explained and I loved the plot. I haven’t read any Dystopian fiction quite like this one, which is good because there are so many Dystopian novels on the market now, especially after The Hunger Games. This really stands out as one of my favourites.

I really liked the rotating point of views in this book. Some people find it confusing, and I agree, in some books it is. But this was easy to read and go along with. Out of the main characters, I think my favourite was Alina. She was completely different to Bea and Quinn and I felt sorry for her. She belonged to the Resistance and believed strongly in what she was fighting for.

I didn’t like Bea as much and found her a little annoying at times, although most of the time this didn’t bother me. She was sweet, but I much preferred Alina. 

I felt like I had to love Quinn, but sadly I didn’t. He was okay, but he irritated me a little. It was so clear that Bea loved him and I was actually rooting for Quinn and Alina. They just went better, in my opinion. He wasn’t an amazing male lead but he was bearable and added something to the plotline.

I loved the way in which Breathe was written. It was a very comfortable style and kept me hooked and wanting to read on throughout. It was a book that made me think a lot about the world around me and what would happen to the planet if something like this were to actually happen.

Overall, I really enjoyed Breathe and will definitely be reading the next novel in the series! It was a great book for deep-thinkers and anyone that loved the Dystopian aspect of Divergent or the romanctic aspect of Shiver will completely fall in love with this book!

RATING: 4.5/5

11/03	page 292		51.0%	“AHHHHH”
11/03	page 124		22.0%	“BRING ON THE MOVIE! Seriously, how can someone write such an amazing book?!”
11/02	page 64		11.0%	“Have to force myself to put it down”
11/02	page 38		6.0%	“THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!”

-My Goodreads progress

I loved how it was written in Ethan’s point of view. I haven’t read many books solely written in a boy’s perspective so I was a little wary, but it was refreshing and a nice change. If it were written in Lena’s POV then we wouldn’t have been left guessing and it would have been quite boring. Ethan was totally clueless and didn’t know anything about Lena, which made it even better.

It’s a very bone-chilling, creepy book and it sent shivers down my spine at many different points in the book. It was nice not to have to read about vampires, werewolves and other popular mythical creatures and I loved reading about the Caster world, which I knew nothing about. 

Lena was very mysterious and I really liked her because she wasn’t your typical YA main female character. This girl is no Katniss Everdeen, no Kat Bishop, no Bella Swan. No, she is a completely new type of YA character. She’s unique and I really love her (in a sisterly way, of course)! 

Now let’s move on to Ethan Lawson Wate (the name! eep!). It says it all in the name. I loved how much he loved Lena, even before they met. And he never gave up on her, either. I am practically crying just thinking about the fact that he is a fictional character. Why can’t he be real?! 

I really love the cover! The trees are so spooky and title instantly jumps out at you. I was wondering throughout the book why the book was actually called Beautiful Creatures. I found a quote on Goodreads but if I hadn’t seen the quote I would still be clueless. I love the title but it was a little confusing to me. 

Overall, I really loved this book and I’ve added it to my favourites shelf on Goodreads. I loved it so much and can’t wait to read the next one in the series, Beautiful Darkness. Bring on the movie!