Title: A Haunted Twist of Fate
Author: Stacey Coverstone
Release: December 16, 2011
Pages: 280
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Grief can do strange things sometimes, thinks Shay. But even though she is indeed grieving the loss of both of her parents within the last six months, she knows that this isn’t what she is experiencing when she feels the dead cold hands grip around her throat. But that isn’t the only thing strange that is happening around her. The big question is, why?
Shay came out to Hill City, North Dakota because she wanted a fresh start and a new life. Life in the big city of Chicago just held bad memories for her, of two failed romances she would rather forget and the loss of parents she bitterly misses. She isn’t sure why the badlands of North Dakota called to her, but when she arrived in Hill City and saw the Buckhorn Saloon, she knew that her inheritance had found a home. The people seemed really friendly, especially that really nice-looking realtor Cody that helped her find the place. But something or someone was acting strange in the saloon and what was worse they appeared to be ghosts.
When the first night brings Shay a ghostly visitor asking for help, she is more than relieved to find her handsome cowboy realtor at her door because someone told him they saw water pouring from her now bone-dry walkway. As Shay and Cody try to get to the bottom of the ghostly invasion, they begin to feel something build between them. The adventure of finding out just what happened around a hundred years ago to leave these spirits so restless is only part of the story, as a romance blossoms that will heal both their hearts.
This is a wonderful romance wrapped up in a ghost story that is both charming and thrilling at the same time. Cody is the kind of cowboy gentleman you wish there were more of in this world. He is the hero who opens doors for ladies and yet faces the fearful things in life head-on. He meets his perfect match in Shay, a big city gal who was meant to live in this quiet western town. Together they have adventures that twist and turn with each new clue, discover the romance they each thought they had lost forever and create a new life. I didn’t think a paranormal western romance was possible, but with A Haunted Twist of Fate author Stacey Coverstone has pulled it off with style.
Title: The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion
Author: L. J. Smith
Release Date: December 26, 2007
Pages: 528
Genre: Young Adult Vampire
The third and fourth books in the Vampire Diaries series, The Fury and Dark Reunion, are combined into one novel and it concludes the series that brought a young high school girl, Elena, into a complicated triangle with two vampire brothers who both want her as their own but for very different reasons – one loves her completely and one just wants to own her.
In The Fury, Elena has become the same as the brothers – a vampire. As she adjusts to her new life as one of the “undead”, an unknown danger appears to be bearing down upon Fells Church which threatens them all. As a newly turned vampire, will Elena be able to help out not only her friends but also save the whole town? Or will she sacrifice her immortal life to protect the ones she loves?
Dark Reunion brings the group back together to conclude the story line as they face the biggest evil they have ever come up against. And it’s an evil so immense that even the Salvatore brothers are out of their depth. Without Elena to bind them all together, can the group learn to trust each other enough to overcome their fears and stand against the oppressive evil that’s overshadowing Fells Church.
These last two installments of the Vampire Diaries series bring to a closure L. J. Smith’s story of a vivacious, young high school girl who is in the middle of an unbelievable position, yet the author makes it quite believable. Elena is so engaging and her love for Stefan and her friends keeps you pulling for her through both stories. The conflict with Damon just adds to the spice and keeps the love story from becoming clingy and boring. The Vampire Diaries books are well written and never boring – which is a testament to L. J. Smith’s skill. Add The Fury and Dark Reunion to your vampire library.
I loved that we finally got to truly see the story of the love affair between the Prince and Snow White. The movement between FairyLand and the town was much smoother this time; they seem to finally be getting those sequences done in a way that makes them much easier to follow.
This time around, we see things like Snow White and Red Riding Hood are friends and Miss Hood is not some little girl either. Just what did Snow do to help her out, though? Could it be that it wasn’t a local “huntsman” that rescued her from the Big Bad Wolf but Snow instead? They do have a way of tweaking the old fairy tales in this show that keeps you guessing.
The interplay between Snow and Mary Margaret – how they both want to find a way to just forget the man they love so it will stop hurting, was great this episode. First Snow goes to Rumpelstiltskin to find a remedy (how did Red know about him?) and then Mary Margaret walks around town wishing she could get over David. Plus the whole scene with David and his wife about trying to make it work was very believable. She just wants him back. Too bad that she isn’t the one he loves – although he doesn’t quite say that to her. Of course, you know that bad things are going to come from Mary Margaret and David doing the lip-lock in front of Regina.
But the best part was when Snow was in the prison and Grumpy starts talking to her. You just want to shout for joy, because you know that somehow he, and the rest of the crew, are going to be the ones responsible for her finding her true love again. The scene where they walk down the road and each of them looks like one of the Disney dwarfs was just too precious!
All in all I think this episode finally started moving everything forward again. The mysterious stranger turns out to be a writer; could he be someone with the last name of Grimm? Even so- he wouldn’t be a fairyland person then, so why can he come into town? I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Title: Masquerade
Author: Cambria Herbert
Release: December 7, 2011
Pages: 360
Genre: YA Fantasy
Heven should have been the happiest girl in school. She was smart, popular and had scads of friends. Of course, that was her life before. Her life before whatever had happened that left her with a hideous scar across her face and her life in ruins. That was the life she had before that dreadful and somehow unremembered night, when everything changed. Now all she wants to do is somehow get through the day with her hoodie pulled up to hide her face, her golden hair that she once proudly showed off now a curtain pulled around her face to hide behind.
Masquerade is a wonderful first novel, pulled from an amazing little story called Before that seems to be quite well known around the web. I saw several people mention it and there are quite a few book review members on Amazon who have read it. In fact, although you might want to check out Before (it is free on Amazon as a kindle download) prior to reading Masquerade, you don’t need it to understand and appreciate the story. It is a gently fable, of love and hate, good and evil and has an ending you won’t quite be expecting.
The story begins with Heven’s presentation of life now – after the event that was to change her life. We follow her day, get introduced to her friends, and see her torment about the scars. But the story takes an abrupt turn when we begin to be introduced to different points of view. That begins after she meets Sam, the new guy in town. Not only is Sam the new guy that is unbelievably hot, but he seems to only have eyes for her. He perseveres in becoming her new friend, and she begins to wonder if he could be more.
From there the story introduces us to some shadowy characters, beings of evil that seem intent on returning to finish what they began when they left her scarred. As the plot unfolds, Sam is there to protect her and give her the strength he knows she holds inside. But who he really is, and what that means for Heven is the real story here. And one that you will need to read and find out for yourself. As with so many YA books, there is a moral here, but it doesn’t overwhelm the story. It just makes Masquerade a more meaningful book, and one well worth the journey.
Game of Thrones Season 2 Episode 1 will air on Sunday, April 1st!
And no, that’s not an April Fool’s joke, it’s the real deal. HBO has confirmed this date.
The second season of this awesome TV show will pick up where season one ended. To recap, here’s what happened:
-King Joffrey (Queen Cersei’s evil son) sits on the Iron Throne.
-Ned Stark (The Hand of the King) is dead.
-Arya Stark (Ned Stark’s youngest daughter) is traveling with a caravan disguised as a boy.
-Lady Catelyn has captured Jaime Lannister who just confessed that he did indeed push her young son Bran off the tower, thereby crippling him for life.
-The diminutive Tyrion heads to Kings Landing where he’ll serve as The Hand of the King to his half-nephew King Joffrey.
-Daenerys has killed her husband, Khal Drogo, who was lingering in a near-death vegetative state.
-Jon Snow decides to stay with the Night’s Watch and protect The Wall from white walkers and other “things”.
-Daenerys walks into her husband’s flaming funeral pyre and comes out ALIVE the next morning! Also, her 3 petrified dragon’s eggs have hatched!
Game of Thrones Season 2 will focus on the second book in the series “A Clash of Kings”.
Are you as excited as I am to see Game of Thrones Season 2?
Title: Between Season
Author: Aida Brassington
Release: October 30, 2011
Pages: 244
Genre: Urban Fantasy
This is a ghost story like nothing I have ever read before. It begins within a few paragraphs of the first page with Patrick’s death. We watch him watch it, and we almost immediately feel how likable and absolutely ordinary this kid was. And really, that simple ingredient is the key to the whole story. Because this is not some scary ghost story of things that go bump in the night, though I guess to an outsider that is exactly what Patrick is. But to the reader he is a real honest-to-goodness 19 year old kid who has the bad misfortune to die by accident at that young an age.
But the real story, of course, is what happens after. Because that is what we witness as time unfolds in fits and starts and we watch Patrick watch the world go by. Here it becomes an almost bitter sweet tale as we see him go through discoveries about what it means to be a ghost, to have your life end and everyone else’s goes on. It goes on without you. There is sadness in this one scene, where his parents leave because his mother can’t stand to be in the house where he died any longer. So they pack up the house and move out, leaving him behind. And he is heart-broken, as is the reader as you watch him collapse in the pain of being left behind.
Did I mention that Between Season is no ordinary ghost story? So what happens when after all that waiting and longing to belong, someone moves into “your house” that is just goofy and maybe by some definitions “broken” enough for you to fall in love with her? How do you ever reach out to someone, when you are dead? Because just to make this a bit more tragic, and yet lovely, this ghost story is a tender love story too. I am not going to go into details. So much of what happens to Patrick, our 19 year old ghost with the tender heart and Sara who needed to love again should be discovered slowly and savored. But trust me, this is one that will do the same to you as it did to me. I closed the book at the end going, “Oh wow!” and sat and savored the wonderful feeling it gave me. Enjoy.
It was fun to have the storyline back in FairyTale land a bit more this week, and the Hansel and Gretel story was actually really well told. But then, this show seems to have the best handle on the FairyTale Land stuff, with the plain old real world, or as real as it gets here always seeming to take second fiddle.
But the story started out pretty good with the scene in the candy store, gave everyone a pretty good hint that the brother and sister must be Hansel and Gretel. Having Emma pick them up, and then find out that they are living alone since their Mother died was a great connection to her childhood as an orphan. I had actually forgotten about this ability of hers to tell when someone is lying. That should come in handy for a Sheriff, don’t you think?
Of course, being an orphan herself she doesn’t want them to be placed in foster homes – and wanted to find the father. We get another little glimpse of how Mr. Gold seems to be working both sides, when the camera reveals that the pawnshop ticket for the compass didn’t actually have the Dad’s name, he just knew who to send her to. Makes you kinda wonder just what Gold is up to.
The whole scene with Dad – how he didn’t know they were his kids and didn’t think he would make much of a Dad anyways was very true feeling. And since her ends up taking the kids in the end, we get to see him become a good guy, just like the woodcutter in FairyTale.
Speaking of which, back in FairyTale, our little Hansel and Gretel get the short end of the stick, even if their Dad did give them a compass to find their way back home again. No breadcrumbs for these two! Loved the way Gretel used the compass as a slingshot type weapon against the Bad Old Queen. Hats off to the show crew for the creation of the Gingerbread House for the Blind Witch (who was awesome). Just looking at that house made me hungry! No wonder Hansel couldn’t control himself and just had to eat something.
Back in town though, Emma and Henry seem to have plenty of time for those little heart to heart talks, like the one where she lies about his Dad to him. Says he was a hero, and then confesses to Mary that she lied. You know that one is gonna come back to bite her. But in the end, though she is supposed to take the two kids to Boston, somehow the car stalls on her and Michael (the Dad) comes to their rescue. Of course, he rescues more than just their car – he agrees to take the kids. Big tear jerker scene there, but it was a good one.
But who is the hot looking guy on the motorcycle that arrives in town at the end? He has to be a creature of FairyTale, or as Henry points out, he couldn’t get in. Could he be the Big Bad Wolf? What are your thoughts on which fairtytale person he is? Hmmmm….
