#FridayReads If you like #YA I can recommend these books…#amreading

#FridayReads If you like YA then I can recommend this mixed set of books.

Aranka is a moderately normal teenager until those who hold true power in today’s world decide she’s a threat.

The accepted image of the modern world is an illusion. A clandestine force usurps the desires and emotions of individuals, and those who won’t conform must be crushed to preserve the appearance of free will. Aranka and a few others stand in the way, not because they are rebels, just because of the fluke in their genes. Those with power will stop at nothing to protect their supremacy. Aranka is kidnapped and forced to watch as her fellow prisoners are killed one by one.

A small band of outlaws from every corner of the globe fight to free the captives and preserve their own freedom. Kenyen, a young doctor, ventures into the heart of oppression but he can’t stop the terror. He just wants to save one life. In the process he uncovers “the Seed,” the first flicker of hope in a thousand years. Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

A wonderful and terrifying series by a new writer about a young boy training to be an exorcist. Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. The job is hard, the Spook is distant and many apprentices have falled before Thomas. Somehow Thomas must learn how to exorcise ghosts, contain witches and bind boggarts. But when he is tricked into freeing Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the County, the horror begins. Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

 

 

 

Rose comes from the capital of the Confederation of Cities where its citizens live in luxury and the greatest fashion statement of all is being Altered. People change everything about the way they look as often as they do their hairstyle but Rose is different. Her position of privilege has made her an outcast and led her to suspect that something sinister is happening to the citizens and flees the capital along with a past that imprisons her in search of a fresh start in the Land of the Unaltered.

Flynn lives in the Land of the Unaltered and hates the capital and everything it stands for. So when a spoiled capital girl is assigned to work with him, he wants nothing to do with her and is prepared to make her life miserable. But Flynn was not prepared for someone like Rose. She doesn’t fit the mold he expected and finds himself strongly attracted to her. As she continues to surprise and outwit him, they begin to forge a bond that is tested when they discover a secret that could change everything they know about Land of the Unaltered.

Land of the Unaltered is a Dystopian Romance and is the first installment of the The Confederation Chronicles.   Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

High school junior Eris Miller thinks she’s having a bad day when her roommate’s boyfriend catches her stepping out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel. Then she gets abducted by scaly six-armed aliens with a strange fondness for the color blue, and her day suddenly gets a whole lot worse.

Trapped on a spaceship bound for the slave markets of Sirius B, Eris fears she’ll never see her home again. But then fate whisks her away from her reptilian captors and into the arms of Varrin, a fast-talking space pirate who promises to deliver her safely back to Earth. He claims to have her best interests at heart, but Eris soon discovers that her charming rescuer has a hidden agenda.

As they race across the galaxy, outrunning a villainous figure from Varrin’s past, Eris begins to realize that their relationship is putting her planet, her life and her heart in imminent danger. She knows that trusting Varrin could prove deadly … but what other choice does she have? Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Cherry blossom lipstick: check
Smokey eyes: check
Skinny jeans: check
Dead kid in the mirror: check

For sixteen year old Mattie Hathaway, this is her normal everyday routine. She’s been able to see ghosts since her mother tried to murder her when she was five years old. No way does she want anyone to know she can talk to spooks. Being a foster kid is hard enough without being labeled a freak too.

Normally, she just ignores the ghosts and they go away. That is until she see’s the ghost of her foster sister… Sally.

Everyone thinks Sally’s just another runaway, but Mattie knows the truth—she’s dead. Murdered. Mattie feels like she has to help Sally, but she can’t do it alone. Against her better judgment, she teams up with a young policeman, Officer Dan, and together they set out to discover the real truth behind Sally’s disappearance.

Only to find out she’s dealing with a much bigger problem, a serial killer, and she may be the next victim…

Will Mattie be able to find out the truth before the killer finds her? Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Evil is slouching into Providence, crawling into the rotting core of the Elders’ regime, and only a pariah girl seems to care.

Even in Providence, city of eternal night, there are rebels. Deborah refuses an arranged marriage and runs. But more is at stake than her unhappy future. Her destiny is to become the catalyst that brings down the whole corrupt edifice and its creator—Abaddon, dark angel of the bottomless pit.
Deborah runs to find her mother, the legendary Green Woman, who is drawing a host of dreams and heroes from the Memory of the world to defeat the evil that thrives in Providence. But the Green Woman’s strength is failing—she needs her daughter to take up the burden.
In the apocalyptic wasteland outside the city, Jonah, another runaway, is waiting—to give Deborah his help, then his heart. Together they brave the terrors of the desert. Together they believe they can change the world.
A girl, a boy, and a pack of wolf-dog pups search for the Green Woman, but Abaddon has set horrors on their trail that not even courage and boundless love can defeat.

The Dark Citadel is the first volume of The Green Woman series, an epic story of evil, heroism, bravery, treachery, hatred, and the invincible power of love. Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.

Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.

Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life. Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

 

The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney

The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s the Spook’s job to protect the County from such things as ghouls, boggarts, and witches. He’s getting on in age and needs to train an apprentice to take over. Tom Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and that makes him special, he’s Mam’s gift to the County.

The Spook takes Tom on for a months trial, first they deal with the Ghasts at Hangman’s Hill, fragments of souls that have moved on. Next Tom must last a night in a haunted house. At the Spook’s home in Chipenden, up near the fells, Tom begins his lessons. First he must learn about boggarts and how to bind one. He’s also told not to venture into the garden after dark and to stay away from Mother Malkin who is kept in a pit in the garden.

Tom is warned to also stay away from girls with pointy shoes and his first big mistake comes when he is rescued from bullies by Alice. When the Spook is called away to deal with the witches of Pendle Hill, Tom falls into a trap laid by Bony Lizzie who intends to release Mother Malkin. Fearing the Spook dead, Tom takes on the evil witches, but it takes a lot to kill off a witch as strong as Mother Malkin as Tom is about to find out.

This is the first in the Wardstone Chronicles, written for older children. If they can cope with Harry Potter then this will be fine. The warning on the back on the book says “Not to be read after dark”. There certainly are some chilling pages which make me shiver as an adult. I’ve loved re-reading these books as an adult and shall continue with the series.
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Good Deeds Week 23rd – 29th March

Welcome to my weekly roundup of my year long challenge to do one Good deed a day for a year. This challenge began back in April 2013 and is still going strong, I’m now entering my twelfth month. My inspiration came from reading “A Year of Doing Good” by Judith O’Reilly. Here is what I’ve been up to this week.

March 23rd – Took my daughter out for a driving lesson this afternoon, ended up helping my Mum on her computer while my Dad volunteered to do the driving lesson. It was great for my Dad to be able to spend some time helping his Granddaughter, it made him feel really useful.

March 24th – Sent my son to school with money for the Sports Relief collection.

March 25th – Sent off my book recommendation copies for the May issues of Fleet Life and Elvethan Heath Directory. Really early copy deadlines due to the Easter holidays.

March 26th – Traded help on the computer for another driving lesson today for my daughter and everyone was happy.

March 27th – Dropped some coins into the Diabetes charity pot whilst at the Supermarket, I feel it’s been a while since I last made a voluntary money donation. See how natural it’s become part of my life? I look back at Monday’s line and see I gave money only a few days ago. When you make a conscious decision to donate more “It’s only money, you can’t take it with you when you leave this life” It removes the guilt/ selfish factor which likes to yell “But it’s mine I earnt it”. Yes but giving some back to others sends out hope into the world.

March 28th -Read a really great article this morning which has been trending on Twitter by Elyse Salpeter. It talks about a bit of a change on Twitter that’s taking place where people are looking to interact more with followers rather than posting AT them. We all know the biggest turn off are tweets which basically just shout “Buy my book, buy my book”. This turning over  a new leaf and treating people once more as humans is following a re-curing theme this week. Yesterday I finished 2 books, The Rubicon Effect by Roy Dimond which talks about a grounds up revolution to help solve our worlds destruction by taking back our rights to choose “Politicians are not the solution to the problems”. That should raise some eye-brows!

My second book was “Sugar Coatin’ is for Candy and Pacifyin’ is for kids” by Nonnie Jules. Apart from having a serendipity moment while reading her book on the back of Roy’s, she too has some great advice on interacting with your readers and followers. Her short book is a collection of her best blog posts and at 77p or $1.27 it is good value for money.

Set some of these new ideas into motion with some better wording of my own tweets. What type of Tweets do you re-tweet? What Tweets appeal to you?

Launched a Spring Reads collection on the blog today. Just some of the books that I’ve recently been really impressed by and I included one about Iceland for a good friend who reminded me of Iceland today as he is there on Holiday for a few days. Here is the link to the post. http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-536

March 29th – A bit of a strange day, the internet struggles to hold on to just one open page at a time, let alone the multitude of tabs I usually have open all at the same time. So instead I got on with my reading and chuntered under my breath in frustration. Finished reading Reborn by Cherie Reich, read a short story called One Chance by Rishika Sitlani and began re-reading The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney, it’s such a good series that it deserves more exposure. Agreed to help an author Paul Collins out with his request to have an author interview here on the blog in May.

My book reviews in Print

So proud of my first book reviews in print. Find them in the January issue of Fleet Life. The books I reviewed were; Contented Dementia by Oliver James, The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney, Thrift by Phil Church, Tender Flames by Stephanie Hurt and Theodore Boone by John Grisham