Random Acts of Senseless Kindness, Free eBook

Things start to spiral out of control for Gomez when he tries to win back his ex-girlfriend during a very strange New Year's Eve party.

Clinical studies have shown that reading the "Random Acts of Senseless Kindness" eBook is not only likely to make you more attractive to the opposite sex, it will also elevate your random luck by about 9.5%**
So, that's a nice bonus right there.

(**These statements have not been evaluated by anyone of consequence!)

You can find the eBook: here

Bio:

Graham Parke is responsible for a number of technical publications and has recently patented a self-folding map. He has been described as both a humanitarian and a pathological liar. Convincing evidence to support either allegation has yet to be produced.

No Hope for Gomez! is his fiction debut: Boy meets girl. Boy stalks girl. Girl already has a stalker. Boy becomes her stalker-stalker.

Random Acts of Senseless Kindness, Excerpt:

Blog entry: Arrived at the store late, found a homeless guy sleeping in the doorway. Hicks was already inside but gave no indication he’d noticed. I nudged the homeless guy and asked, “How are you doing down there, fellow? You okay?”


The homeless guy grumbled something in his sleep.


“It’s getting pretty cold,” I said. “Don’t you want to come inside?”


“Inside?” He coughed and opened his eyes.


I pointed out the store, not convinced he’d actually noticed where he’d crashed the night before. “This is my antiques store,” I told him. “We’ve got the heating on inside, shame to waste it on just two people. And it looks like it might start to snow soon.”


The homeless guy gave me a suspicious look. “You want me to come inside? With you?”


“Sure, if you’d like.”


“Is that because you think that if I come inside with you, I’ll let you touch me?”


“What? No!”


“Okay, because I can tell you right now, that’s not gonna happen.”


“Well, I suppose it is good to get those kinds of things clear beforehand. But no, I was just thinking you might enjoy the warmth, maybe a cup of cocoa.”


“A cup of cocoa you say…” He scratched his stubble. “And you’ll be charging me for this cup of cocoa?”


“No, the cocoa is free.”


“I see. So, are you operating under the assumption that if I come inside with you, and I drink your free cocoa, that I will touch you?”


“What? No!”


“Okay, because I can tell you right now, that’s not gonna happen either. Just because a guy is down on his luck, that doesn’t mean he goes around touching people in exchange for cups of cocoa.”


“I understand completely. And thanks again for pointing that out. But no, my friend and I noticed that you were sleeping in our doorway and, well, we’d like to invite you inside.”


The homeless guy turned and peered through the window in the door. He made eye-contact with Hicks, who panicked and went looking for his broom. “That your friend?”


I followed his gaze. “Yeah, that’s Hicks. He’s a bit peculiar, but he’s okay.”


“I see.” The homeless guy pulled on his collar. “And this friend of yours, will he be drinking cocoa also?”


“I suppose. I’m not entirely sure, but it seems likely.”


“I see.” The homeless guy considered this. “So,” he said, after a long moment, “will this friend of yours be expecting me to touch him?”


“No! There is no touching involved in any of this!”


“Okay, calm down,” the homeless guy said. “There’s no need to get all homophobic!”


“I wasn’t!”


“You sounded homophobic to me.”


“Me? You’re the one who can’t stop talking about touching people!”

I noticed people stopping in the street to stare at us. This made me very uncomfortable.

Download Free eBook here.

"Angelfire" by Courtney Allison Moulton

From Goodreads: "This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action.

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember."

I have read a number of reviews of this book where the reviewer goes on and on about how superficial Ellie is (ie. all she cares about is how cute her car is, designer clothing, and whatnot) and I will be the first to admit that my superficiality meter (as I like to call is) goes off pretty quickly when I read YA books, but I didn't find it going off whatsoever in this book. There were maybe 2 times (at most) where I thought to myself, "Ellie, should you really be all that concerned about wearing make-up when there are crazy reapers trying to kill you?" and compared to a lot of YA books that is minuscule.

This book is super unique and not like anything I have ever read before (though if I had to compare Ellie's abilities to another book characters abilities I would say that her abilities are somewhat similar to shadowhunters, but Ellie's abilities might just be a bit more bad-ass because she can make her swords appear at any time unlike shadowhunters' steles/ weapons where they have to fumble to grab them whenever they need them) and this may just be the best take on angels I have ever seen before. 

As for the boy of the book, Will? Well, all I gotta say is that I have another boy to add to my list "Book Boys who Avery Swoon's Over". At first it seemed like he wasn't going to have much of a personality because he was quite serious all of the time, but that quickly changed, and it was clear that he was such a caring and sweet guy and that he would do everything in his power, even risk his life, to protect Ellie.

All in all I think that no one will be disappointed by this book. It is clear that Courtney has quite the writing career ahead of her and dare I say it... She may just be the next Cassie Clare! I cannot wait for the next book in the series "Wings of the Wicked"! 


Rating: 10/10

Winner of Sean Beaudoin's "Going Nowhere Faster"!

 Well the results are in and the winner of the signed copy of Sean Beaudoin's "Going Nowhere Faster" is....  

Stephanie Oakes! 

Congrats Steph!

Steph has 48 hours to respond to my notification email. If she does not respond to it before that time is up I will draw a new winner... 

Thanks to everyone who participated and thanks to Sean and Angelo!

On My Wishlist...

On My Wishlist is a great event that Book Chick City runs every Saturday. It's where you list all of the books that you desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. I thought that this was a fantabulous idea so I thought I would join in!
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"Danann Frost Falls From Grace" by Joanne Valiukas 

From Goodreads: "Danann Frost is thousands of years old, yet young for her kind. She is a creature of the Light, an Angel, one of the Seraphim; a race of beings that live beyond our world. She has been cast out of paradise and Fallen from Grace, all for the love of a Dark One - a vampire. The only problem is, Seth did not want her and told her to go and not come back. Danann has made a life for herself amongst the vampires of this world and they protect her fragile nature. She and the vampire Asher live on the fringes of the human world; love and loyalty cannot separate them but trouble and vengeance are on their way. After two hundred years of enduring the crippling punishments of her Fall, Seth walks back into her life but he is bitter and angry and out for revenge. Thank God he is after someone else...or is he? Can Danann escape the dark intentions of her once-beloved for whom she Fell from Grace, or has she put all those that she holds dear in danger? Journey with Danann as she takes the path to taking back her Light and ascending to be Angel once more. Will the Archangel Uriel surrender her Light or will Danann be doomed to walk in darkness forever?"
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"Crusade" by Nancy Holder   

From Goodreads: "For the past two years, Jenn has lived and trained at Spain’s Sacred Heart Academy Against the Cursed Ones. She is among the few who have pledged to defend humanity or die trying. But the vampires are gaining power, and the battle has only just begun.

Forced to return home after death takes a member of her family, Jenn discovers that San Francisco is now a vampire strong-hold. As a lone hunter apart from her team, Jenn is isolated — and at risk. She craves the company of her fighting partner, Antonio: his protection, his reassurance, his touch. But a relationship with Antonio comes with its own dangers, and the more they share of themselves, the more Jenn stands to lose. 

Then Jenn is betrayed by one who was once bound to protect her, causing her to doubt all she had held as true. To survive, Jenn must find the courage to trust herself — and her heart."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"A Beautiful Dark" by Jocelyn Davies 

From Goodreads: "Skye never questioned the story of her life. Her Aunt Jo adopted her after the death of her parents when she was just a child, and together they flip through memories the way some people flip through photo albums.

She never questioned if the stories were true.

Until the night of her 17th birthday, when the arrival of two strangers intrudes on her cozy life. Polar opposites, like fire and ice, Asher is dark and wild, while Devin is fair, cold, and aloof. Skye has no idea what they want—only that their presence coincides with the beginning of some shockingly strange events. Events that Skye, if she dares to think it, might be responsible for causing.

High up in the mountains of Boulder, Colorado, Skye finds herself caught in the middle of an ancient battle, one that began untold millennia ago. Torn between unpredictable Asher, whom she loves, and the infuriating Devin, who she can’t stay away from, her fate is murky as a starless night. And as the secrets of her true identity are revealed, Skye realizes that her destiny may reside in the Heavens—or somewhere darker."

What's on your wishlist? 

"Entice" by Carrie Jones

From Goodreads: "Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever.  

But that's not quite how things have worked out.

For starters, well, Nick is dead. 

Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla?

And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't just turned...she's Astley's queen."

Almost 100% of the time I am glad when my favourite book becomes a series because who doesn't love to see more of their favourite characters and learn of all of the crazy adventures they get into since the last time you saw them? As such, stand-alone books typically frustrate me. For days after finishing a stand-alone book I will try to think of everything that could happen to the characters and then I get all depressed since whatever I am thinking is clearly not going to happen. However, that is not the case for this series at all. I wish that "Need" had been a stand-alone book. I really, really, REALLY liked it (I rated it 10/10 HERE) and I feel like "Captivate" (which I rated 6.5/10 HERE) and "Entice" are such let-downs and in all honesty they kinda wreck the entire series for me. 

There is just such a mishmash of stuff going on in this later books, almost like the author thought "Let's have pixies, and shifters! And let the shifters shift into whatever animal they feel like! And Good pixies and bad pixies! And queen pixies and king pixies! And sparkles- lots and lots of sparkles! Then let's have some Norse gods, FBI agents, paramedics, and terrorist attacks- The more the merrier right?" Wrong. I feel like all of these recent additions are really retracting from the original storyline, which is a shame because it was really great and had the potential to become even better. I feel like more than a bit of editing was needed. 

And I know that stories where everything works out in favour or the hero/ heroine are kinda boring and predictable, but I kinda wish that this story was a bit more like those. I mean, can Zara not catch a break (I rambled about this a bit in my review of "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins when Katniss was forever being hurt)? She was constantly being beat up, threatened, or on death's door in this book.

I think that the only saving grace of this book for me was Astley (which I found somewhat surprising since in the last book I didn't really know how I felt about him at all). Though he wasn't the most honest person (Er.... pixie) ever and kept some pretty monumental stuff from Zora, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him (cue Avery's love of the underdog character). I mean, the girl that he wants to be with wants to be with another boy and he just wants to see her be happy and is willing to make her happy by saving the other boy, his competition. I just thought that it was really nice to get to know more about him.  

Though I also did think that Valhalla, the land of the gods, was really intriguing. I want to know more about it and I think it would be interesting if there was a separate story/ series told about it.

Rating: 6.5/10  

PS. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway of Sean Beaudoin’s “Going Nowhere Faster”!  (today is the last day to enter!)

"She Said/ She Saw" by Nora McClintock

From Goodreads: "Tegan was in the backseat when her two best friends were gunned down in front of her. Was it an argument over drugs? An ongoing feud? Or something more random? Tegan says she didn't see who did it. Or know why. Nobody will believe her. Not the police; not her friends; not the families of the victims; and not even Kelly, her own sister. Is she afraid that the killer will come back? Or does she know more than she is saying?

Shunned at school and feeling alone, Tegan must sort through her memories and try to decide what is real and what is imagined. And in the end she must decide whether she has the strength to stand up and do the right thing." 

This is a frustrating book to say the least, but only because I am an impatient sort of person and when I want answers I want them now, which this book (Tegan specifically) wasn't giving me. But for that alone it is clear that Norah McClintock is a genius... I seriously could not put this book down. Whatsoever. Stirring pasta and reading at the same time? Yes. Trying to scare the cat off the kitchen cupboard while reading at the same time? Yes. Though I have said numerous times, "I was unable to put this book down!", it is true in the sense that once I start it I cannot really accomplish anything aside from eating, sleeping, and all of those daily necessities, but while reading this book I seriously didn't even want to bother with anything else! I think that the small size of it (211 pages) also contributed to the fact that I was unable to put it down, I kept thinking to myself, "This is so tiny that it should take an hour or so at most and therefore all else can wait... I CAN'T STOP BECAUSE IF I STOP I WON'T GET ANY ANSWERS!".

While it would seem that Tegan was the victim in this situation and as such she deserved sympathy, I couldn't really dredge any up for her- all of my sympathy was allocated towards Kelly. Though Tegan did eventually do the right thing in the end (in perhaps the wrong way), she only somewhat redeemed her in my eyes. I don't think that she was fully able to redeem herself because of her past transgressions (ie. keeping things to herself, not being completely honest, and whatnot).
 
It did take me a while to adjust to the sudden shifts in narrators/ Kelly's habit of narrating her bit in the form of a script (she is a budding cinematographer), but I soon came to really like the style and found it to be very refreshing. I think that fans of Caroline B. Cooney will love Norah's work. 

Rating: 7.5/10

I received this ARC from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program/ from the publisher and I was not compensated for my review. This book will be released March 1, 2011.  

PS. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway of Sean Beaudoin’s “Going Nowhere Faster”! 

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating...

Title: "Supernaturally"
Author: Kiersten White
Release Date: August 30, 2011

Vampires
I thought I knew how to protect you 

Werewolves
I thought I knew where I belonged 

Faeries
But the world is shifting, things are changing 

Shapeshifters
And the truth is, I really don't know anything at all. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: "Sweet Venom"
Author: Tera Lynn Childs 
Release Date: October 4, 2011  

From Goodreads: "New series, in which triplet descendants of Medusa learn they are destined to guard the door between the world of monsters and the world of men – pitched as a mythological Charmed."







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Title: Crossed
Author: Ally Condie
Release Date: November 1, 2011 

As you can tell there is currently no synopsis. Boo!











What are you waiting for? 

PS. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway of Sean Beaudoin’s “Going Nowhere Faster”! 

"White Cat" by Holly Black

From Goodreads: "Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago. 

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen. 

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love — or death — and your dreams might be more real than your memories."

I am not going to lie, this is the most complex/ complicated book I have read in some time (and by complicated I do not mean "the author clearly does not know how to write/ doesn't know how to convey to the reader what they are trying to say and therefore the story is unnecessarily complicated with big holes in the plot", but complicated as in, "Holly Black is a genius who was able to create a world that no one else has ever imagined before (let alone written about), and was able to flawlessly seam each layer of this world together"). If I had to compare this book is something recent, I would compare it to the film "Inception". Both have plots that are full of twists and turns and both leave you thinking about them/ processing their story line hours, if not days, after finishing them.

I don't often read books where the main character is male and I think that that is a mistake. Cassel is such an interesting and intriguing character and seeing inside his inner thoughts/ working is indescribable. As for the other slew of characters? Well either you love 'em or you hate 'em, but that adds even more to the atmosphere of the story. Take Cassel's grandfather for instance or his roommate, both are such likeable characters whereas his brothers are complete doorknobs. And even though I want to hate his brothers for their actions I can't completely do so because I do sympathize for them. Yes their actions weren't the greatest and overall they were quite shady but the world that they live in is super tough on them and they have to struggle day in and day out to survive within it.

Now parts of this story are quite predictable, I was able to predict two of the largest plot elements within maybe a quarter of the book, but it didn't bother me too much just because there was so much else going on that I was unable to predict. I am very excited to see what the next book in the series, "Red Glove", has in store for us!

Rating: 4/5

PS. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway of Sean Beaudoin’s “Going Nowhere Faster”! 

 

In My Mailbox!

In My Mailbox is a weekly post hosted by Kirsti at The Story Siren as a chance to share the books we've bought or received over the past week.

I haven't had an "In My Mailbox" in forever so it is really nice to finally be able to have one!

Bought: 
"Desires of the Dead" by Kimberly Derting (I already read and reviewed it HERE)
"Angelfire" by Courtney Allison Moulton

For Review: 
"She Said/ She Saw" by Norah McClintock (Thanks to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program)
"The Chimp Who Loved Me" (Thanks to Pump Up Your Books)
"The Unfinished Song: Initiate" by Tara Maya (Thanks Tara)
"In The Arms of Stone Angels" by Jordan Dane (Thanks Net Galley)

Borrowed: 
"Some Girls Bite" by Chloe Neill
"A Blue So Dark" by Holly Schindler
"Empty" by Suzanne Weyn
"Rot and Ruin" by Jonathon Maberry
"The Mermaid's Mirror" by L.K. Madigan
"Across the Universe" by Beth Revis"
"Once in a Full Moon" by Ellen Schreiber (I already read and reviewed it HERE)
"Entice" by Carrie Jones
"Matched" by Ally Condie

What is in your mailbox?

PS. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway of Sean Beaudoin’s “Going Nowhere Faster”! 

On My Wishlist...

 

On My Wishlist is a great event that Book Chick City runs every Saturday. It's where you list all of the books that you desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. I thought that this was a fantabulous idea so I thought I would join in!
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"Candor" by Pam Bachorz 

From Goodreads: "The picture-perfect new town of Candor, Florida, is attracting more and more new families, drawn by its postcard-like small-town feel, with white picket fences, spanking-new but old-fashioned-looking homes, and neighborliness. 

But the parents are drawn by something else as well.  They know that in Candor their obstreperous teenagers will somehow become rewired - they'll learn to respect their elders, to do their chores, and enjoy their homework.  They'll give up the tattoos, metal music, and partying that have been driving their parents crazy.  They'll become every parent's dream."
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"Future Imperfect" by K. Ryer Breese

From Goodreads:  "Ade Patience can see the future and it's destroying his life. When the seventeen-year-old Mantlo High School student knocks himself unconscious, he can see days and decades into his own future. Ade's the best of Denver's "divination" underground and eager to join the heralded Mantlo Diviners, a group of similarly enabled teens. Yet, unlike the Diviners, Ade Patience doesn't see the future out of curiosity or good will; Ade gives himself concussions because he's addicted to the high, the Buzz, he gets when he breaks the laws of physics. And while there have been visions he's wanted to change, Ade knows the Rule: You can't change the future, no matter how hard you try.

His memory is failing, his grades are in a death spiral, and both Ade's best friend and his shrink are begging him to stop before he kills himself. Ade knows he needs to straighten-out. Luckily, the stunning Vauxhall Rodolfo has just transferred to Mantlo and, as Ade has seen her in a vision two years previously, they're going to fall in love. It's just the motivation Ade needs to kick his habit. Only things are a bit more complicated. Vauxhall has an addiction of her own, and, after a a vision in which he sees Vauxhall's close friend, Jimmy, drown while he looks on seemingly too wasted to move, Ade realizes that he must break the one rule he's been told he can't.

The pair must overcome their addictions and embrace their love for each other in order to do the impossible: change the future."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Witch Eyes" by Scott Tracey 

From Goodreads: "Braden Michaels wears his sunglasses at night. And at the movies. And in the shower. Raised by his warlock uncle and taught to use magic, he suffers from a deadly curse: the witch eyes. He sees everything that normal eyes filter out: history and memory; love and pain; magic and darkness. The mind was not meant to process so much information, though, and the power is killing him slowly. The only thing saving his sanity are the sunglasses he always wears.

Then the visions reveal a dark threat on the horizon. Braden runs away to Belle Dam, the city where the threat originated, and is immediately swept up into the town’s mysterious feud. Two rival magical families have divided the town into a personal chessboard of scheming and machinations, and Braden is their latest pawn. As he tries to avoid their manipulations, and see the truth behind his return to Belle Dam, he has a choice to make. One side, or the other. Ignite the feud, or end it. Sacrifice himself, or someone else. Live, or die."

What is on your wishlist? 

PS. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway of Sean Beaudoin’s “Going Nowhere Faster”!