Everything is in ruins.
A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.
So what does Araby Worth have to live for?
Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.
But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.
And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her .
The world is under attack from within and society is separated into those who are infected, and those who are not. Araby knows first hand what happens to those who have the contagion, she has lived the same nightmare for three years. Araby's father is a scientist under the control of the Prince, who rules the land with an iron fist. The inventor of plague resistant masks for the rich and powerful in society, while the poor are denied such luxuries.
Araby finds peace within the Debauchery club, with the Prince's niece. The only way to escape is through her next high. When a drug laced drink leaves her unconscious and alone, the handsome young host at the club ensures that Araby lives to see another day. Will has enough on his plate already, caring for two younger siblings.
Vying for Araby's affections is the Prince's nephew Elliot. Elliot is somewhat of a freedom fighter, and enlists the help of Araby, to gain access to her father. Araby finds herself drawn to Will, with his tough exterior and gentle nature, while playing the part of fiancee on Elliot's arm. Mass rioting is destroying any hope of a new world. The reverent is preaching hateful religion in order to gain control, and he isn't working alone.
A new plague is striking the population down, instant death, and it seems face masks are no match for the new bacterial warfare.
This is officially the first 'Steam Punk' genre book I've read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is book is based on Edgar Allen Poe's book of the same name, The Masque of the Red Death, one I have not read I may add. But the world created by Bethany Griffin is magically. Elaborate costumes, masks, extraordinary transportation, I felt as though it was reading a modern dystopian historical novel and I was enthralled.
Masque Of The Red Death
(Masque Of The Red Death: Book One)
Written By Bethany Griffin
Written By Bethany Griffin
Published 24 / 04 / 2012
336 Pages
336 Pages
If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does...
Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.
But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all...
You may remember Beth as one of the supporting characters in Pushing the Limits, now it is her turn to share her story.
Beth is still living with her aunt Shirley, along with Noah and Issah. Her alcoholic mother still needs taking care of, something Beth believes is her responsibility. She still spends her life looking for her next high, how else can she dull her pain and let others get close to her. There is far more to Beth than the rough, foul mouthed girl we seen in Pushing the Limits.
When Beth gets a phone call from the local bar to come and collect her mother... Again, her life reaches a whole new level of numbness when her mother forces her to take the blame for destruction of her abusive boyfriends vehicle. Bailed out of prison by her once absent uncle Scott, Beth is forced under his care. It means leaving Issah and Noah, and no longer being able to care for her strung out mother.
Scott, the young uncle that once vowed he would never abandon her, is back and wants Beth to have the privileged life she would never have been afforded. Ryan is one of the privileged and popular kids. Smart, sexy and a gifted baseball playing athlete. He meets Beth by means of a dare, and when she storms into his world, he doesn't have a change in he'll against the smart mouthed girl from the other side of the tracks.
Not nearly as engaging as Pushing the Limits, but still entertaining and touching. You will warm to Beth and discover there is far more to her character than at first glance. Ryan is engaging but his lack of back bone is frustrating. This book carries on the series theme of two people being complete opposites, finding hope in what looked like a bleak future. Recommended for fans of Echo and Noah, and the third and final book in the series will be Issah's story.
Dare To You
(Pushing The Limits: Book Two) Written By Katie McGarry
Expected Publication 01 / 06 / 2013
304 Pages
304 Pages
ARC Courtesy of Netgalley
A broken and desolate Earth. A young girl struggling to survive. A lost boy with a powerful secret.
A discovery that will change everything.
In the distant wake of a plague that has decimated the Earth's population, humanity is split in two: The rich and powerful live in skycities that float overhead, while those who remain on the ground have gathered in settlements strewn across a dying planet. Eighteen-year-old Terra Rhodon is a terrestrial--a denizen of the barren groundworld--who makes her living as a scav. Long abandoned by her father, her caregivers gone, Terra supports herself and her younger brother, Mica, by scouring the earth for discarded scraps and metals to recycle for profit. One day, while on a routine scavenging run, she discovers something that shocks her home settlement of Genesis X-16. When the value of her discovery is revealed, Terra's world is turned upside down.
Terra suddenly finds herself asking questions no one will answer. Her search for the truth leads her to Adam--a beguiling skydweller unlike any she has ever met. But Adam has secrets and a quest of his own, and with him by her side, the world Terra thought she knew begins to unravel. Soon her discoveries unearth a terrifying conspiracy that has the potential to shatter everything--a revelation that will test the bonds of loyalty, family, and love.
The first book in debut author Gretchen Powell's anticipated Terrestrials series, Terra catapults you through a story filled with blood-pumping action, intrigue, and surprising twists that will both wrench and warm your heart. As the hidden truths of this world unfold, new dangers that loom on the horizon are sure to leave you waiting breathlessly for the sequel.
Terra is an 18 year old ground dweller, a guardian, a scavenger, a sister, a provider... She is a terrestrial. Born into this dying world, Terra lives on the dissipated earth, each day scavenging through the dry barren conditions outside of Sixteen to support her younger brother Mica. Everything on earth now is scarce, recycled and reused. So when Terra stumbles across a strange contraption that she assumes has fallen from one of the Skycities, and hope that it can be exchanged for enough credits so that the siblings have enough for food and Mica's school supplies. Come collection day, the whispers surrounding her unusual find are deafening, once the people of Sixteen find out that the machine has earned Terra enough to live comfortably off for months.
Something isn't right... Why are the guards and collection officers refusing to answer any of her questions? What was it that she found? Terra returns to the site of her find to look for answers when she stumbles upon raiders. Now running for her life, she stumbles upon a strange world below the contaminated ruins of cities gone by... And into the arms of Adam.
With eyes too blue, Adam must be a sky dweller. He has headed to ground level to conduct research and gather data, but seemingly separated from his group and now lost. He convinces Terra to help him with his research throughout Sixteen, her settlement. Adam sees her world with a strange awe, rather than shy away from the strangers that sky dwellers tend to steer clear of, Adam marvels in their company, he interacts. Adam immerses himself into Terra's world, but she can't fall for him, she simply wont. She knows all too well what happens when sky dwellers fall for groundworldians, her own father was a sky dweller and left her and Mica after her mother died. Adam will only break her heart.
When her world is in chaos, Terra discovers a secret so devastating, her life before Adam will become a distant memory.
I loved this book! Gretchen Powell created a world so unique to escape to, it was devastating. Terra is the true star of this book, she reminded me of Katniss Everdeen, a strong heroine. She is independent and selfless with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Well written and even funny at times, I loved Terra's hostility and sarcastic remarks. By far the best dystopian based book I've read in a while. Eagerly awaiting the next installment.
Terra
(Terrestrials: Book One)
Written By Gretchen Powell
Published: 12 / 12/ 2012
286 PagesYou can read the first TWO chapters of Terra by clicking HERE
Buy in Paperback from Amazon Kindle Edition B & N Kobo Books
First, the virus took Kaelyn’s friends. Then, her family. Now it’s taken away her home.
But she can't look back—the life she once had is gone forever.
A deadly virus has destroyed Kaelyn’s small island community and spread beyond the quarantine. No one is safe. But when Kaelyn finds samples of a vaccine in her father's abandoned lab, she knows there must be someone, somewhere, who can replicate it. As Kaelyn and her friends head to the mainland, they encounter a world beyond recognition. It’s not only the “friendly flu” that’s a killer—there are people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the vaccine. How much will Kaelyn risk for an unproven cure, when the search could either destroy those she loves or save the human race?
Megan Crewe's second volume in the Fallen World trilogy is an action-packed journey that explores the resilience of friendship, the ache of lost love, and Kaelyn’s enduring hope in the face of the sacrifices she must make to stay alive.
Kaelyn has returned in the sequel to The Way We Fall, picking up the story with Leo's return, the island on the verge of being wiped off the map, and news from the deteriorating mainland... The virus has spread.
Kaelyn is mourning and Drew is still missing, when Kaelyn discovers something that may change the world. Forced to flee to the mainland in search of a hospital or research centre, the group quickly discovers that the world is now quiet and unsafe. With vigilante groups gunning them down, can they find help in time... Before the virus claims one of their own.
Absolutely brilliant. Not often do we have the pleasure of reading a sequel that outshines it's predecessor, but it is pure genius from cover to cover.
I can't figure out why this series isn't more popular, I would even go as far to say that I enjoyed it more so than The Hunger Games. The story flows and there are no awkward lulls I'm the action. If you love basic young adult end of the world type books, this series will keep you well entertained.
The Lives We Lost
(Fallen World: Book Two)
Written By Megan Crewe
Written By Megan Crewe
Published 12 / 02 / 2013
288 Pages
288 Pages
It starts with an itch you just can't shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.
And then you're dead.
When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. But then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back.
Those still healthy must fight for the island’s dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.
Because how will she go on if there isn't?
Poignant and dizzying, The Way We Fall is the heart-wrenching story of one girl's bravery and unbeatable spirit as she challenges not just her fears, but her sense of what makes life worth living.
Kaelyn is a quiet teen, she's withdrawn and her best friend is no longer talking to her, and that's how Kaelyn tells her story, through the eyes of her journal entries to her former friend Leo, her best friend that she seems to have fallen in love with. Leo has left the island to chase his dream and is now going to school in New York and Kaelyn is determined to change her life, to become the funny and outgoing girl.
After her studying at a friends house, she notices things don't seem quite normal. Kaelyn is used to the gossip and whispers after her family returned to the island, but when she is accosted by a man, coughing, sneezing with no inhibitions or social filter when he talks, things are just too weird... And it seems he isn't the only case.
People all over the island are coming down with the strange virus, but it isn't until the first victim dies, that they realise just how serious this is. The government have quarantined the island, vigilante groups are hoarding food and medical supplies and now the authorities have abandoned them. Why have a small number of islanders recovered, but the majority are dying, and dying loudly.
With Kaelyn's father working around the clock to find a cure, Kealyn takes the opportunity to become that girl that is going to make a difference... Then she meets Gav. Gav has become a leader among their dwindling community, handing out food rations. Together they join forces, they may not be able to save everyone, but ensure some survive the island.
I was hesitant to start The Way We Fall, only because it seemed to be for a much younger audience, but it was fantastic. Although slow to start, it gives us a glimpse of Kaelyn's life before the virus, her relationships and shows us her metamorphose throughout the book. Once the first case of the virus is mentioned, the storyline action begins and you wont be able to put it down.
The Way We Fall
(Fallen World: Book One) Written By Megan Crewe
Published 24 / 01 / 2012
320 Pages
320 Pages
Passionately driven artist, Norah Ross, has been banished from New York to Morewell for her final semester of graphic design at McLaren University. Her move allows her to reconnect with Josh, her best friend, who is more then thrilled at Norah's appearance back into his life.
At the same time that Norah steps back into Josh's heart, she learns that he is in the process of being accepted into McLaren's uber exclusive secret society, the 'Lappell'. Josh takes Norah to the Lappell's glamorous parties in the hope of taking their friendship to the next level, but when Norah meets the handsome and elusive Clint Weston, a leader in the Lappell, he sweeps her off her feet in more ways then one.
Norah quickly becomes caught up in an emotional tug-of-war between the two guys while also trying to deal with her own secrets that follow her every day. When Norah's past begins to intertwine with her present, what unfolds is a series of dramatic events filled with romance, mystery and dark motivations. She quickly realizes the path to real love can be paved in all kinds of lies.
Rather than go into a long spiel about this book, as it does have a few plot twists that I would rather not spoil, but it wasn't for me. I was intrigued by the 'secret societies' and I understand that these characters have been formally educated and born with silver spoons, but the dialogue was just so formal for young characters and I found them all to be obnoxious. Just not my thing I suppose and skipped most of the last half of the book.
No rating
Pieces Of Lies
(Pieces Of Lies: Book One) Written By Angela Richardson
Published 07 / 01 / 2013
230 Pages
230 Pages
Stitch Trilogy Book One
Written By Samantha Durante
Published August 1st 2012
314 Pages
Add to Goodreads
★★★★
Her heart races, her muscles coil, and every impulse in Alessa's body screams at her to run... But yet she's powerless to move.
Still struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her parents, the last thing college freshman Alessa has the strength to deal with is the inexplicable visceral pull drawing her to a handsome ghostly presence. In between grappling with exams and sorority soirees and disturbing recurring dreams of being captive in a futuristic prison hell, Alessa is determined to unravel the mystery of the apparition who leaves her breathless. But the terrifying secret she uncovers will find her groping desperately through her nightmares for answers.
Because what Alessa hasn't figured out yet is that she's not really a student, the object of her obsession is no ghost, and her sneaking suspicions that something sinister is lurking behind the walls of her university's idyllic campus are only just scratching the surface...
The opening installment in a twist laden trilogy, Stitch spans the genres of paranormal romance and dystopian science fiction to explore the challenges of a society in transition, where morality, vision, and pragmatism collide leaving the average citizen to suffer the results.
Stitch is the story of Alessa. The former perfect grade A student, until her life was thrown into chaos. Both her patents were tragically killed in a car accident during her senior year of high school and naturally it has left Alessa broken. Starting college is daunting enough, so when she is assigned a campus sorority, thankful not having to live in the lifeless standard dorm rooms, until she sees what appears to be a ghost... Or is it?
On a mission to discover the history of the house and the connection to the ghost who wears turn of the century attire, Alessa's entire existence is blown apart and life as she knows it may not be the reality that she quite expects.
Well written and the plot twists will not only surprise you, they'll blow you away.You can't give this book the review it deserves without giving away the surprising, yet shocking, storyline.
Written By Mathew Quick
Adult, Mental Health, Romance
Published 2008
302 Pages
Add to Goodreads
★★★
An enchanting first novel about love, madness, and Kenny G. The Silver Linings Playbook is the riotous and poignant story of how one man regains his memory and comes to terms with the magnitude of his wife’s betrayal.
During the years he spends in a neural health facility, Pat Peoples formulates a theory about silver linings: he believes his life is a movie produced by God, his mission is to become physically fit and emotionally supportive, and his happy ending will be the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. When Pat goes to live with his parents, everything seems changed: no one will talk to him about Nikki; his old friends are saddled with families, the Philadelphia Eagles keep losing, making his father moody; and his new therapist seems to be recommending adultery as a form of therapy.
When Pat meets the tragically widowed and clinically depressed Tiffany, she offers to act as a liaison between him and his wife, if only he will give up watching football, agree to perform in this year’s Dance Away Depression competition, and promise not to tell anyone about their “contract.” All the while, Pat keeps searching for his silver lining. In this brilliantly written debut novel, Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat’s mind, deftly showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective. The result is a touching and funny story that helps us look at both depression and love in a wonderfully refreshing way.
This is the journal of Pat Peoples, beginning with the day he is released from the mental hospital, in which Pat refers to as 'the bad place'. Pat is in his thirties, married, and medicated.
After an incident in which Pat's estranged wife was unfaithful, Pat was committed for his angry outbursts and to protect his own mental health, and those around him. His mind suppresses the incident and thinks he's been gone mere months, but it's been a little longer than that. All he knows that is he is determined to start afresh with his now estranged wife, and hearing Kenny G causes violent and tearful meltdowns.
Trying to get his life together, Pat meets Tiffany at a dinner party. She's abrupt, rude and propositions him when he walks her home. Pat realises that the newly widowed Tiffany isn't firing on all cylinders.
Though a shared routine of a daily run, Tiffany stalks Pat. Waiting for him each day and running a few paces behind, always silent. Pat tries to mend bridges with his aloof father, who barely speaks to him apart from on game day. He takes his medication as to not upset his mother, and reads classic novels and exercises religiously, all part of his journey to reunite with Nikki and learn to be a better husband.
So with the retaining order still in place, Tiffany offers to act as a liaison between the two, once husband and wife... But not without something in exchange. She needs a partner for a dance competition, and who better than the now sleek and strong Pat, the only other condition...
To give up watching the bonding football experience with his friends and family.
But hey, anything for Nikki right?
Tiffany, not without problems of her own, tries to snap Pat out of his delusions, but Pat only ever sees the silver linings and Tiffany is determined to change that.
This book wasn't at all what I expected. I assumed it would have been practically the same as the film adaptation, Silver Linings Playbook with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, but it had a completely different feel.
The book isn't a funny, romantic comedy. It's quite depressing and sad. Pat's mental health is never discussed clinically, apart from his aggressive tendencies and angry outbursts, you never truly know what the prognosis was that landed Pat in the mental hospital for years. The book also outlines the issues surrounding how people diagnosed with mental illnesses are treated and the effect of the support network. The main theme of the book is relationships, mostly strained. That between Pat and his father, Pat's parents, his therapist, between Pat and Tiffany and with his estranged wife. Pat's inner dialogue isn't that of a man in his thirties, you will find yourself wondering how old Pat really is. At times it is extremely childlike and frantic, almost borderline hyperactive. It felt more as though Pat might have had a cognitive disability, than mental illness.
Basically, if your looking for a fun romance, this isn't it. There is no romance, only unrequited love, from several parties. An intelligent read, but sadly not for me.
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