In My Mailbox (121)

This is a meme that I first heard about from Kristi over at The Story Siren and immediately wanted to jump on board. I'm always picking up new books, because I never tire of reading, but the other thing I like about this meme is that it gives everyone an opportunity to check out what other book fanatics, bloggers, etc... got for themselves. I've gotten great recommendations from this meme and hope that keeps up in the future.

Here's what I got, what did you guys get this week?

For Review:

Tempt the Stars (Cassandra Palmer, #6) by Karen Chance

 

Being a goddess is a lot less fun than you might think. Especially when you’re only a half goddess, and you only found out about it recently, and you still don’t know what you’re doing half the time. And when you’ve just used your not-so-reliable powers to burglarize the booby-trapped office of a vampire mob boss.

Yeah, that part sucks.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Cassandra Palmer, aka the Pythia, the freshly minted chief seer of the supernatural world. After all, Cassie still has to save a friend from a fate worse than death, deal with an increasingly possessive master vampire, and prevent a party of her own acolytes from unleashing a storm of fury upon the world. Totally just your average day at the office, right?

 

A Phantom Enchantment (Unbound, #3) by Eve Marie Mont (Thanks to Kensington/KTeen)

 

The conclusion to the Unbound trilogy, in which Emma Townsend travels to Paris and gets lost in Gaston Leroux's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

My Name is Rapunzel by K.C. Hilton (Thanks to K.C.)

 

My tale has been told again and again, and I’ve heard each one. Except for my hair, I barely recognize the pitiful renditions. Muddled versions, crafted to entertain laughing children…but the children wouldn’t have laughed if they’d known the real story. It wasn't their fault. They didn't know the truth. Nobody did.

My name is Rapunzel. I will tell you my story. I will tell you the truth.

 

ARC Review: A Touch of Scarlet (Unbound, #2) by Eve Marie Mont

The compelling heroine of Eve Marie Mont’s novel A Breath of Eyre returns to find truth and fiction merging through the pages of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlet Letter…

Emma Townsend is back at prestigious Lockwood Prep, but her world has altered immeasurably since her tumultuous sophomore year. The best change of all: her boyfriend, Gray. And though Gray is leaving for Coast Guard training, Emma feels newly optimistic, even if the pain of her mother’s long-ago death still casts a shadow.

Yet Emma isn’t the only one who’s changed. Her friend and roommate, Michelle, is strangely remote, and old alliances are shifting in disconcerting ways. Soon Emma’s long-distance relationship with Gray is straining under the pressure, and Emma wonders if she’s cracking too. How else to explain the vivid dreams of Hester Prynne she’s been having since she started reading The Scarlet Letter? Or the way she’s found herself waking in the woods? As her life begins to echo events in the novel, Emma will be forced to choose between virtue and love. But can she forge a new future without breaking her heart?

There's growth in this read...it's the main thing I came away with after I finished the last page.  I know a lot of people expect to retelling of an age old classic when they pick this title up, but they'd be wrong.  While Mont uses old stories in her work, its not the same.  Instead she weaves the classics into these fresh story lines in order to deepen the meaning, help her character develop and ultimately create a unique spin on not just her work but also the way readers might view these literature staples.

I'll admit that the series opener, A Breath of Eyre remains my favorite within the series, but I still appreciated where Mont took her characters and readers with this sequel.  There certainly was enough going on with the characters this time around and not just Emma.  I have to admit that I would have liked to have seen and read more about Gray this time around.  I felt like I was experiencing the long distance relationship first hand right along with Emma.

I'm eager to see what Mont brings to the series next in A Phantom Enchantment and must again tip my hat to her for her creativity, fresh outlook and fun characters.  I loved watching the characters grow throughout this installment and look forward to more.

I gave A Touch of Scarlet (Unbound, #2) 3 shamrocks!!!

Review: A Breath of Eyre (Unbound, #1) by Eve Marie Mont

In this stunning, imaginative novel, Eve Marie Mont transports her modern-day heroine into the life of Jane Eyre to create a mesmerizing story of love, longing, and finding your place in the world... Emma Townsend has always believed in stories-the ones she reads voraciously, and the ones she creates. Perhaps it's because she feels like an outsider at her exclusive prep school, or because her stepmother doesn't come close to filling the void left by her mother's death. And her only romantic prospect-apart from a crush on her English teacher-is Gray Newman, a long-time friend who just adds to Emma's confusion. But escape soon arrives in an old leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre...

Reading of Jane's isolation sparks a deep sense of kinship. Then fate takes things a leap further when a lightning storm catapults Emma right into Jane's body and her nineteenth-century world. As governess at Thornfield, Emma has a sense of belonging she's never known-and an attraction to the brooding Mr. Rochester. Now, moving between her two realities and uncovering secrets in both, Emma must decide whether her destiny lies in the pages of Jane's story, or in the unwritten chapters of her own...

"...the same way I could lose myself in a good book...a willingness to surrender to something greater than oneself."

Normally I'm not one to quote from a book I'm reviewing.  No particular reason why necessarily but usually I'm not one to highlight lines of text for a later date.  But this quote above found within the pages of Mont's work I just couldn't pass up.  When I came across this line of text while reading this book I was struck dumb.  I thought to myself, wow, this author gets it!  Not every reader loves to write, and vice versa, but after reading this line of text I realized that Mont must be an avid reader and bibliophile like myself because her description of being able to completely lose yourself while reading a book you enjoy to the point where i can become all consuming can only be understood by someone who has experienced it for themselves.

As someone who had read Bronte's Jane Eyre and while I appreciated the work for the classic it is, I have to admit that it was never one of my favorites.  So because of that I wasn't sure what to expect or if I'd end up enjoying this story but I did.  Mont actually ended up bringing new life to this classic tale and had me looking at it in a whole new light.  Readers are forced to meet the same characters a time or two throughout this book and maybe see them in a different way or through a unique vantage point.  Emma takes readers along with her while she travels back and forth between two worlds while she learns new things, discovers new truths and must make decisions that she might be not ready to face.

I highly enjoyed this series opener and only wish I hadn't taken so much time to give it a try.  I was drawn into the pages immediately and felt myself not wanting the story to end.  Much to my delight it was the only the series opener and Mont has another two books lined up for the series for her readers to come back to.  I can't wait to dive right into the second installment, A Touch of Scarlet, to see how things continue on for Emma and the rest of Mont's stellar characters.

I gave A Breath of Eyre (Unbound, #1), 4 shamrocks!!!!

In My Mailbox (42)

This is a meme that I first heard about from Kristi over at The Story Siren and immediately wanted to jump on board. I'm always picking up new books, because I never tire of reading, but the other thing I like about this meme is that it gives everyone an opportunity to check out what other book fanatics, bloggers, etc... got for themselves. I've gotten great recommendations from this meme and hope that keeps up in the future.

Here's what I got, what did you guys get this week?

For Review:

Glimmer by Phoebe Kitanidis (Thanks to Phoebe Kitanidis)

What if you forgot your identity and had to rely on other people to tell you who you were?

And what if to discover your true self, you first had to unravel a mystery so big and terrifying you were not sure you’d survive solving it?

When Marshall and Elyse wake up in each other’s arms with zero memory of how they got there or who they are, it’s the start of a long journey through their separate pasts and shared future.

Terrified by their amnesia, the two make a pact to work together to find the answers that could jog their missing memories. As they piece together clues, they discover they’re in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls, where everyone seems mysteriously happy, but as Marshall and Elyse quickly learn, darkness lurks beneath the town’s perfect facade. Not only is the town haunted by sinister ghosts, but none of its living inhabitants retain bad memories of anything—not the death of Marshall’s mom, not the hidden shame in Elyse’s family, not even the day-to-day anguish of high school.

Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marsh and Elyse fall into an intense relationship...but the secrets they uncover could be the death of this growing love—and the death of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls.

A Breath of Eyre (Unbound, #1) by Eve Marie Mont (Thanks to Kensington Publishing Company)

Emma Townsend has always believed in stories—the ones she reads voraciously, and the ones she creates in her head. Perhaps it’s because she feels like an outsider at her exclusive prep school, or because her stepmother doesn’t come close to filling the void left by her mother’s death. And her only romantic prospect—apart from a crush on her English teacher—is Gray Newman, a long-time friend who just adds to Emma’s confusion. But escape soon arrives in an old leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre…

Reading of Jane’s isolation sparks a deep sense of kinship. Then fate takes things a leap further when a lightning storm catapults Emma right into Jane’s body and her nineteenth-century world. As governess at Thornfield, Emma has a sense of belonging she’s never known—and an attraction to the brooding Mr. Rochester. Now, moving between her two realities and uncovering secrets in both, Emma must decide whether her destiny lies in the pages of Jane’s story, or in the unwritten chapters of her own…