Two Book Reviews: Strings of DNF

The First Book

The Chicken Chronicles: How Chickens Ruined My Reputation

Author: Jennifer Mervine

       Never before has the dark and twisted psychosis of the backyard chicken been revealed...until now.
       Forget everything you think you know about chickens. You only know part of the truth. No one speaks of their sexual deviance and dark unknowable rituals. Flock keepers have remained silent on chicken's potential to disrupt familial harmony through sleep deprivation, needy behavior, binge eating and random acts of violence.
       This tale is the recollection of one woman's desperate struggle to hold on to her family, her friends, and her very sanity after she stumbled into the trap of urban chicken keeping.

        The author contacted me to review this book. Her presentation of this book was really funny. I got a grasp of her humor and I had a desire to read this book. When I started this book, I thought it was a bit of a mish-mosh. The thoughts were scattered and everywhere. I imagined this person using a lot of hand gestures speaking loudly and quickly. This person is also ranting and going on a tangent. That's pretty much the description of the writing. I couldn't relate to the book. It talked about taxes, wages being cut, etc. I'm fourteen-I know this is shocking because I act incredibly childish for my age. I'm still in school and I don't know what adults have to go through. I don't focus on politics because Donald Trump is everywhere. Since I couldn't relate to this book, I became disinterested. This book has been added to my long list of DNFs.

Second Book

Soul Mate (Immortal Love #1) by Anna Santos

       Annabel is a bad-ass hybrid hunter, seeking revenge from the vampire who killed her parents and put her brother in a coma. Arriving in a new town with an undercover identity to protect and the mission to find a pureblood vampire to save her brother’s life, the last thing Annabel needs is to fall in love with the sexy, persistent werewolf who thinks she’s a helpless human in need of a knight in shining armor.
       Shane is a dominant werewolf who also happens to be the local sheriff. He has almost lost hope of finding his better half. So when his beautiful soul-mate shows up and rogue vampires try to kill her, he does what any smart wolf would do: he saves her and takes her home, hoping to convince her that they belong together.
       When sparks fly between them, Annabel has to decide if she tells him who she really is or runs the other way to protect her secrets.

        I couldn't find a picture on google without a promo on the cover.....
       Anyway, I was contacted to review this book too. You can see that review requests is one of the motifs of this post.
       I was REALLY excited for this book because the author said, "0 stupid alpha males and leading girls." I literally squealed. I started crying because someone made the impossible possible. But, some things are too good to be true. EVERYTHING DISAPPOINTS ME.
       The first scene takes place at a bar. No judgement there, unless you're a thirty/forty-something-year-old man drinking vodka with cranberry juice through a straw. 

       You think that's bad? Well let me weave a little story for you, dearie. By story, I mean summarizing what I read, which was really little.

       A man who has lived multiple human lives (I think, I don't remember shit because I was honestly physically repulsed) is at a bar. This bar is full of vampires and shifters, WHOOOHOOO! Then, THE GIRL walks in. The man is utterly transfixed and decides to imprint her. #twilight-reference. He promises himself that he'll make her panties drop, she'll be his and only his, and to get in her leather suit. Whonderfewl... The man isn't the only one feeling attraction. Did I forget to mention that both characters are Mary Sue/Gary Stu.

       Yeah...Gary Stu/Mary Sue and Insta-Love/Insta-Lust are the ban of my existence. What do you know! They both make an appearance. The moral compass' of these characters need a lot of fine tuning. If a girl leaves a bar, you do not follow her out, even if there are vampires that want to kill her. If the girl faints, you do not bring her to your house. You attraction is distracting you from doing your job. If you wake up in this random person's house, without your clothes on and don't remember a thing about last night, get your fucking ass out of there. Do not stay for breakfast. It was so unrealistic. If you're including romance, take the time to develop it and have a good, plausible background/foundation.

The First Review in Forever

The Rose Society (The Young Elites #2)
Author: Marie Lu
Publishing: Putnam on October 13, 2015

         Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.
         Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.
         But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness?

Celebrating Halloween: Murder (Giveaway & Interview)

The Insanity Series by Cameron Jace

Insanity (#1)

          After accidentally killing everyone in her class, Alice Wonder is now a patient in the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. No one doubts her insanity. Only a hookah-smoking professor believes otherwise; that he can prove her sanity by decoding Lewis Carroll's paintings, photographs, and find Wonderland's real whereabouts. Professor Caterpillar persuades the asylum that Alice can save lives and catch the wonderland monsters now reincarnated in modern day criminals. In order to do so, Alice leads a double life: an Oxford university student by day, a mad girl in an asylum by night. The line between sanity and insanity thins when she meets Jack Diamond, an arrogant college student who believes that nonsense is an actual science.

~Free on Kindle~Amazon~B&N~Goodreads~

Figment (#2)

          After her encounter with the Cheshire Cat, Alice Wonder can hardly tell reality from imagination. But when kids have their head chopped off and stuffed in watermelons all over the city, it's clear that another Wonderland Monster has arrived, possibly scarier than the Cheshire. Alice, along with Professor Pillar, have to solve the killer's puzzles before a horrible event threatens the death of millions. Then Jack Diamonds appears again. This time, Alice must know who he really is.

~Kindle~Amazon~B&N~Goodreads~

Circus (#3)

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...
          There is a loose rabbit with a ticking bomb in the streets of the London.
Come closer, you won'd believe your eyes...
          Alice & the Pillar follow a set of clues, meticulously weaved by the most mysterious Wonderland Monster of all.
Here is the Maddest Show on Earth ... The Circus!
          Where Alice's most unexpected secret will be revealed.
          A secret that will turn tables on good and evil, and complicate Alice's struggles with life, love, and sanity. Will Alice regain part of her sanity back? Catch a bigger monster? Maybe find love in the most unexpected places of all?

 ~Kindle~Amazon~B&N~Goodreads~

Hookah (#4)

A Plague Scarier than Death 
          Alice and the Pillar have to stop a Wonderland Monster who'd lashed out an incurable disease onto the world. Their biggest challenge is that the world loves this monster so much.
A Cure Larger than Life 
          The only way to save the world is to travel to the other side of the globe, and peek into one of Lewis Carroll and the Pillar's darker pasts.
A Truth Madder Than Fiction 
          This time, the price of saving the world is too high. Alice will have to live with the consequences of the maddest logic of the world surrounding her.
          Will Alice find who the Pillar really is? What he wants? Is she brave enough to handle the one Wonderland Monster she'd thought was a good friends? And even so, is the world ready the truth?

~Kindle~B&N~Goodreads~

About the Author

          Cameron Jace is the bestselling author of the Grimm Diaries and Insanity series. A graduate of the college of Architecture, collector of out-of-print books, he is obsessed with the origins of folk tales and the mysterious storytellers who spread them. Three of his books made Amazon's Top 100 Customer Favorites in Kindle 2013 & Amazon's Top 100 kindle list. Cameron lives in California with his girlfriend. When he isn't writing or collecting books, he is playing music.

~Twitter~Goodreads~Facebook~Blog~

1. When I read this book, I learned A LOT about Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll. You obviously did a lot of research. Where did you find all of this information?
        Well, I have been a fan since long, and like in the Grimm Diaries I have always been interested in the authors who wrote long lasting books. But when I started to right the searches the research was hectic. I started with book on Lewis Carroll, interpretations, both mine and others, then I began asking British people who lives in Oxford and London. Those, by far, gave the meat of what I was looking for.

2. How did this book come to be? What inspired you to start the book?
        I hadn't planned to become a retelling/folklore storyteller when I first started. But after the success of the Grimm Diaries I thought I'd give it a try. I had an idea for the Wizard of Oz, but I wasn't passionate about it. Then I read an article one day, a blog actually, about a teacher saying her students told her "this Carroll guy must have been on drugs when he wrote this." It's a funny article, and I agreed to Carroll's beautiful madness, so I thought to start a series where he is in asylum, but thought Alice in a  asylum is much better.
  
3. Your characters are so complex and intriguing. (I know this is more of a statement than a question.) They all had interesting back stories. Did you have trouble building their past?
        Usually, character building takes time, but in Carroll's story I always seem to see through easily. I mean the Pillar is definitely out of his mind, always guiding Alice in gibberish and coded words, without giving away his own past. That's enough for a character study for me:)   

4. Was there anything that was difficult to write?
        This series is the most difficult I wrote. It's tight. Fast paced. Informative, and entangled in long and short-arch plot, so it's not easy. But I love it so much.

5. What part was your favorite to write?
        Frankly, I love the Pillar and Fabiola. Alice, too, but not as much. Lol. I write the Queen, Duchess, and the Cheshire in a very objective way. But what I love even more than all of this are the Wonderland Monsters in the beginning of every book, let alone the commentary on how mad our real world is.

6. What are you currently working on right now?
        A thriller. It's been taking a long time, but for a fantasy story, the shift isn't easy. But I've always wanted to write adults thrillers.

7. Would you want your book to become a movie adaptation? If so, who would be in your dream cast? (I want Johnny Depp because he was in the Alice in Wonderland movie and he's a great actor.)
        Of course! Hmmm... The best Alice I was told was Emma Watson. I don't why, since I am not really a Potter fan. The Pillar would be someone like James Spader, but then I discovered he has a similar role, if not as crazy, in the Blacklist TV series. You'd be surprised if I told I am imagining Michael Fassbender, given we can make him look a bit older.

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AHS: Hotel Premier

Yes, I know I'm late with the whole AHS review. I just finished watching it and I'm trying to delay writing my AP essay.

Celebrating Halloween: Ghosts

         The book Rose and I are featuring today gives me nostalgia. It's one of the first few YA books I read and it sparked something. There's an interview and a giveaway!!!!! The ebooks are international and the physical copy is US only.

And the featured is...

Celebrating Halloween: Vampires

       Hello Readers! I teamed up with Paranormal Books again to celebrate a holiday. This is so vague. We'll be celebrating paranormal books and we have a grand giveaway for you to enter. You should expect posts from me on: October 2, 7, 12, 17, 22 and 27  12:00 P.M. EST. Today we're featuring....