Mundie Moms

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Lisa McMann's 2nd Annual Freaking Huge Contest-o-Thanks!


The fabulous Lisa McMann is hosting another contest to thank her readers and help spread the word about her WAKE trilogy.

She's giving away not one, not two but THREE advance copies of the final book in the series. The actual release date for GONE is February 9, 2010 so imagine getting it early???

The details are all on Lisa's web page, here.

Here's a snippet from GONE -

OPEN YOUR EYES
Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she'd made her peace with it. But she can't handle dragging Cabel down with her.

She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He's amazing. And she's a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves--she has to disappear. And it's going to kill them both.

Then a stranger enters her life--and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she'd ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out...


He reaches toward her, his fingers black and bloody, his eyes deranged, unblinking. Janie is paralyzed. His cold hands reach around her neck, squeezing tight, tighter, until Janie has no breath left. She's unable to move, unable to think. As his grasp tightens further around Janie's neck, his face turns sickly alabaster. He strains harder and begins to shake.

Janie is dying.
She has no fight left in her.
It's over.


Plus, everyone's truly a winner because you can still download a free gift from Lisa - Cabel's Side of the Story, here (look for the Magic Widget on the right hand nav bar). Now go on, enter the contest!

Review - Tempted (HoN) by P.C Cast and Kristin Cast


Publisher: St Martins Griffin
Published: 27 October 2009
Order on Amazon here
3 out of 5 Stars

So…you’d think after banishing an immortal being and a fallen High Priestess, saving Stark’s life, biting Heath, getting a headache from Erik, and almost dying, Zoey Redbird would catch a break. Sadly, a break is not in the House of Night school forecast for the High Priestess in training and her gang. Juggling three guys is anything but a stress reliever, especially when one of them is a sexy Warrior who is so into protecting Zoey that he can sense her emotions. Speaking of stress, the dark force lurking in the tunnels under the Tulsa Depot is spreading, and Zoey is beginning to believe Stevie Rae could be responsible for a lot more than a group of misfit red fledglings. Aphrodite’s visions warn Zoey to stay away from Kalona and his dark allure, but they also show that it is Zoey who has the power to stop the evil immortal. Soon it becomes obvious that Zoey has no choice: if she doesn’t go to Kalona he will exact a fiery vengeance on those closest to her. Will Zoey have the courage to chance losing her life, her heart, and her soul?


Tempted starts off where Burned ended. Zoey and her friends have just exiled Neferet and Kalona, and are in the safety of the nuns to whom they run to for safety from the raven mockers. Zoey and her friends are trying to deal with the aftermath of the attack and trying to work out how this affects their future. Should they try to find Kalona and stop him one and for all, or wait for him to hunt them down again?

This book is told totally different from the other HoN books; this time it’s told from six different perspectives. I will admit, it was nice to see other peoples POV’s, but I think the authors could have connected more with the fans if they just stuck to two or three perspectives. Most of the time the writing of the other characters seemed forced and not really essential to the plot line. If more time was spent on the actual plot rather than the character telling the story, this book would have taken pride of place as my favourite HoN book.

The pace of the story moved at a sluggish pace and only picked up in the last 30 pages. Also, not much happened, the first 200 pages were like a recap of what we as readers already know and more of the same “bullpoopie” from Zoey trying unsuccessfully to juggle three boys. A lot of romantic scenes were built up between Zoey and/or Heath and Stark, which resulted in an anticlimactic end. What’s the point of having a female lead that has three boyfriends if there’s no hot make out sessions?!

I expected some ground breaking character development, considering the events in the other 5 books, but my wish wasn’t granted. The only character who developed enough for me as a reader to notice was Stark. He is the only character in the book who displays a level of maturity. I think he’s my favourite character, but he wasn’t give the spotlight to shine in this book, which is a shame because of all the issues he has to deal with since being sworn as Zoeys Warrior.

In the last 30 pages the gang travel to Italy to see the Vampire High Council, which is dealt with quite quickly in the book, the authors could have out more time into this and made it an outstanding scene. The ending was quite rushed, with a build of around 5 pages, which is not enough for what actually happens at the end. I cried, I seriously cried at the end, I was not expecting that to happen (it was shock more than anything, if there was a good build up no snot would have been involved!). The book is basically a big set up for the next book in the series, so if you’re after a quick read and want to stay faithful to the series.....just read the last 50 pages, you gather all you really need to know.

So, I have stayed a true vampire fan girl and stayed with this series right from the beginning. Am I going to read the next book Burned? Sure I am, but no with as much anticipation as I thought I would. Yeah, the ending is a cliff-hanger, and I’m wondering if the title to the new book gives an indication that one of the red fledglings will quite literally burn. But, I can patiently wait for its release, without the nervous anticipation and excitement, which normally comes with waiting for a books release (for me anyways).

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