BLOG TOUR: Creed by Trisha Leaver & Lindsay Currie [REVIEW + GIVEAWAY]

HEY EVERYONE!! Hope you're all doing okay, it's getting pretty cold out there >.< but no better way than to get warm with a nice book, right? So I know I've been neglecting the blog but I'll come back just have some faith in me :) Today I'm taking part in the blog tour for CREED, keep reading for my review and a giveaway. Click the banner above to follow the tour and as always comment!! <3

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Title: Creed
Authors: Trisha Leaver & Lindsay Currie
Published Date: November 11th, 2014
Publisher: Flux
Format: ebook
Genre: YA / Thriller / Horror
Source: review via Netgalley
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Three went in. Three came out. None even a shadow of who they once were.

When their car breaks down, Dee, her boyfriend Luke, and his brother Mike walk through a winter storm to take refuge in a nearby town called Purity Springs. When they arrive, the emergency sirens are blaring and the small farming town seems abandoned. With no other shelter, they spend the night in an empty house.

But they soon discover that not everything in Purity Springs is as it seems. When the town's inhabitants suddenly appear the next morning, Dee, Luke, and Mike find themselves at the mercy of the charismatic leader, Elijah Hawkins, who plans to make Dee his new wife.

Elijah's son, Joseph, offers to help them escape . . . but the price of his help may be more than Dee and her friends can bear.

Normally I don't read horror but when I read the summary for Creed, I don't know it just intrigued me so much. I HAD to read it and after reading it, it was so worth the read. As I said I'm not much of a fan of the genre but I did end up enjoying the thrill. I was glad that they all made it out alive (I mean in movies only one comes out) but as it said in the summary, there was a price.

Now, I really liked that the story took me through a lot of mental benders, normally i would stop because I couldn't take the suspense but in this book i really just wanted to plow through and know what was going to hit me next. I liked the characters but overall i didn't connect with them much. I understood there situation and felt bad for them but not much I can relate to. One thing I LOVED was that at the beginning we can get a picture that Dee came from a hard childhood and man, i wish Dee's story of overcoming that and finding love would be it's own novel because it so deserves one.

As I was saying this book was a thrill and the ending was a bit open but that just means we can make our own conclusions, which let me think and I love it when a book makes my head work ;) This was also my first book with crazy clan-like leaders and even though he was made whacked out, i think I like these kinda books now :) Overall I ended up enjoying this book. I would definitely recommend this if you like thrillers, mind twisters, and horror. This is a great ook to read on a cold, wintry night with a nice cup coffee. So 3 gorgeous roses from me!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Trisha Leaver lives on Cape Cod with her husband, three children, and one rather excitable black lab. (He is actually half dalmatian so that could explain a bit of the excitability.) She's spent most of her childhood living inside her own mind, creating characters and stories that only a child's imagination could dream up. Trisha now spends her days breathing life into those characters, writing realistic fiction for young adults.

FIND MORE ON HER: WEBSITE | TWITTER | GOODREADS | FACEBOOK | BLOG

Lindsay Currie lives in Chicago, Illinois with one incredibly patient hubby, three amazing kids, and one adorable, but irreverent Bullmastiff named Sam. She graduated from Knox College in the heart of the Midwest and has been writing for as long as she can remember. Today, Lindsay is an author of young adult and middle grade fiction. She is a proud member of SCBWI, The Horror Writers Association, The YA Scream Queens and OneFourKidLit, a community of authors with debuts upcoming in 2014. Her debut novel, CREED (co-authored with Trisha Leaver), releases from Flux on November 8, 2014. Her second co-authored novel, HARDWIRED, releases from Flux in Fall of 2015. She is represented by Kathleen Rushall, of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. Any inquiries regarding her work should be sent to her attention.

FIND MORE ON HER: WEBSITE | TWITTER | GOODREADS | FACEBOOK | BLOG

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

WHAT DID YOU THINK? HAVE YOU HEARD OF CREED? EXCITED FOR IT TO COME OUT?
LIKE MY REVIEW, THEN LEAVE A COMMENT! AS ALWAYS <3 YOU ALL - LISSETH ^3^

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[QUICK BEAUTIFUL ART] A MANGA REVIEW OF THE AMALFI BRIDE BY MARITO AI & ANN MAJOR

Title: The Amalfi Bride
Authors: Ann Major (Author), Marito Ai (Illustrator)
Published Date: February 11th, 2011
Publisher: Harlequin Comics
Format: ebook
Genre: manga
Source: bought
Series: None (Standalone)
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One night during a solitary trip to Italy, the straitlaced Regina spends the night with a dangerous gigolo!

She can't believe a smart lawyer like herself would give herself to a man she just met... This was how daringly irresistible this man Nico was to women.

Nico seems to be somewhat of a celebrity in his hometown. But Regina didn't know that he is actually a renowned prince!

This was a 3 for me, I really enjoyed it but it really was like a small treat because it felt really short.I still don't know what to call this, I know it's a manga but it says "comic" so I never picked up the harlequin comics before but it's the same thing really. Just that there's a written book you could also read instead of the manga.

Now the story was okay, i guess if i had read the book I would have liked it more, but contrary to many, i still liked it. The whole plot of confusing a prince for a gigalo wasn't so bad, and yeah there were sad parts and parts that kinda scratched my heart. But again if the story was more developed I would have liked it more. There were also parts with Regina, the MC, not feeling loved, her sister taking her fiance, her losing her job, not being able to find a guy, getting a "sperm donor" and all but i felt like it wasn't connected well enough in the manga. So I wasn't very connected to her.

I did however LOVE Prince Nico, he had a sad story; his first wife died, he was being forced to marry a princess he didn't love. He was a nice guy and I think when he was angry about something Regina kept from him, I liked the "cold" Nico because it moved my emotional part that hadn't been moved yet in the entire book.

Now onto the art, since it's a manga, art is super important for me. I LOVE good drawings and this one had them! The people weren't hideous hags and it was top notch drawing :) For which kinda made up the fact that this plot was kinda rushed. Also just in case you were wondering there are no nasty drawings since this was an adult book turned into a manga, it's pretty much 99.9% clean :) [see pictures below]

Overall I ended up liking this quick read. I would definitely tell you read it, since the art was better than most out there, though the plot was okay just a bit too rushed. So 3 gorgeous roses from me!

WHAT DID YOU THINK? HAVE YOU HEARD OF HARLEQUIN COMICS? ALREADY READ SOME?
LIKE MY REVIEW, THEN LEAVE A COMMENT! AS ALWAYS <3 YOU ALL - MINNAH ^3^

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[UNEXPECTEDLY LOVED] AN ARC REVIEW OF SING SWEET NIGHTINGALE BY ERICA CAMERON

Title: Sing Sweet Nightingale
Authors: Erica Cameron
Published Date: March 4th 2014
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Format: ebook (ARC)
Pages: ---
Source: via publisher on Netgalley
Series: The Dream War Saga #1
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Mariella Teagen hasn't spoken a word in four years.

She pledged her voice to Orane, the man she loves—someone she only sees in her dreams. Each night, she escapes to Paradise, the world Orane created for her, and she sings for him. Mariella never believed she could stay in Paradise longer than a night, but two weeks before her eighteenth birthday, Orane hints that she may be able to stay forever.

Hudson Vincent made a pledge to never fight again.

Calease, the creature who created his dream world, swore that giving up violence would protect Hudson. But when his vow caused the death of his little brother, Hudson turned his grief on Calease and destroyed the dream world. The battle left him with new abilities and disturbing visions of a silent girl in grave danger—Mariella.

Now, Hudson is fighting to save Mariella's life while she fights to give it away. And he must find a way to show her Orane’s true intentions before she is lost to Paradise forever.

*REVIEWED BY KARINA*--> When I first started this book I wasn't too thrilled. I did not think this book would capture my attention. A few chapters in and I couldn't put it down, I loved how the author hinted at the epic romance in this novel, and she didn't overdo it.

This book is filled with betrayal that almost reminds me of the betrayal in Othello. Where the betrayer (Iago) takes everything he possibly can from Othello under the pretense that he is his loyal honest friend. Of course in this book the betrayed doesn't partake in a homicide suicide. No in this book the betrayer, Mariella was strong and vengeful. I think maybe a little too strong.

The author does portray her as strong willed upon introducing her but i believe that even the strongest of us would have a little more than a breakdown a after we find out that everything we know is a lie. She however was not my favorite character. Mariella was the character you scream at for her ignorance.

The author brilliantly uses dramatic irony that will keep you from putting the book down. My favorite character was Hudson. Our hero was brave, comic, and had no idea what he was doing. I liked how the author gave him black eyes. Usually we see the bad guys as giant black-eyed monsters. This was refreshing. So 5 STARS from me :)

WHAT DID YOU THINK? HAVE YOU HEARD OF SING SWEET NIGHTINGALE? ALREADY READ IT?
LIKE MY REVIEW, THEN LEAVE A COMMENT! AS ALWAYS <3 YOU ALL - KARINA ^3^

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[EMOTIONALLY BREAKING] AN ARC REVIEW OF HEARTBEAT BY ELIZABETH SCOTT

Title: Heartbeat
Authors: Elizabeth Scott
Published Date: January 28th 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Source: via publisher on Netgalley
Series: none
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Life. Death. And...Love?

Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with.

But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her.

Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma-the one who exists in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is her best friend Olivia-New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge.

Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death-and maybe, for love?

OH LORD THE FEELS!!!! *calming down to actually review* I could not put this down. I didn't know how this was going to play out but I was NOT expecting to break out in tears in parts and FEEL SO dang much! I LOVED THIS BOOK x Infinity XD Although this was not the cover I had thought would be picked in the end. I still like it and the tagline is really clever :)

The story was heartbreaking, raw, emotional, and unique! It reminded me of why I LOVED Elizabeth Scott's books so much in the past. She can truly weave real stories that you will hate to love because they make you feel so much and make you fall in love. The story dealt with a really hard issue of whether a pregnant woman whose brain-dead should be kept alive for the baby.

I loved reading about Emma, our main MC, and how she coped with the semi-loss of her mother and the struggle she had within. At first I didn't really understand what she was going through but I could connect to her loss. I would be a little messed up if I had to see my "dead" mother still alive. On top of that she had to come to terms with the hate she had towards her unborn half-brother & stepfather. The whole thing really kinda twisted her. She remembers the happy times when her mom was pregnant but she kinda tends to only see the bad parts. I loved seeing her slowly change her perspective on the whole situation.

With this sad story I wasn't sure how the romance would play out, if there would be insta-love or something. Thankfully the romance was so sweet, captivating, and pulled at my heart too! Even though Emma was going through something tough Caleb was also going through a hell all his own. Caleb is labeled the "bad-boy" and in part that was true but he was so much more too. He was damaged and broken, when you read his story with his sister you'll understand him SO MUCH MORE. Caleb & Emma both helped each other mend the broken pieces they had and become whole. They had to learn to deal with there pasts; before they can open up and let love in. There relationship was simply gorgeous, touching, and done really well :D

THE ENDING!! Gah why?! I understood it had to happen but gah, I was crying like a baby and yet i was still happy with it. It was utterly beautiful and heartwrenching. I LOVED this book so much and to me it was one of perfect emotional books. It had the hard, the intense, but it also gave you the warmth and the redemption. For me it was a 100% 5 stars!

WHAT DID YOU THINK? HAVE YOU HEARD OF HEARTBEAT? ALREADY READ IT?
LIKE MY REVIEW, THEN LEAVE A COMMENT! AS ALWAYS <3 YOU ALL - LISSETH ^3^

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