Fire Country Birthday & Giveaway

Today, Fire Country by David Estes turns one year old. In the first year since Fire Country was born, so much has happened. David signed with an agent, sold more than 10,000 books, wrote five more books and published a further three). He knew he just had to celebrate and he'd love for you to be a part of it! David owes so much of his support to the blogger community, and he wants everyone to have the chance to be a part of the Fire Country Birthday Bash.

Everyone goes home a winner, simply follow the prompts below and swipe your eCopy of Fire Country from Smashwords. Read and leave a review on Amazon if you enjoyed it. Feel free to share the code with your friends, family, neighbours and literary inclined pets.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/280371

Coupon Code: WH62C

Expiration: March 1, 2014

What's a party without prizes? Yes, David is not only giving everyone a chance to download their own copy of Fire Country, book one in the Country Saga for free, but he's also giving you stuff too. You could win an Amazon giftcard open internationally, U.S residents can win a signed copy of the David Estes book of your choice, or a handful of David Estes eBooks of your choice. Awesome.

Visit David via his Blog • Facebook • Twitter and via Goodreads

Pay Perry the Prickler a visit on Twitter and Goodreads

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Elixir

Elixir (Elixir, #1) by Hilary Duff and Elise Allen

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Pages: 327

Favourite Quotes: "How dare he? After what we did last night, how the hell dare he? If he was my soulmate, my soul needed to develop better taste."

"What are you doing? I can't do that. It's impossible. My hips don't go like that. How do your hips go like that?"

"He always believed that people live up or down the amount of trust you put in them."

Seventeen year old Clay Raymond has felt the glare of the spotlight her entire life. The daughter of a renowned surgeon and a prominent politician, she had become a talented photojournalist who takes refuge in a world that allows her to travel to many exotic places. But after Clea's father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, Clea begins to notice eerie, shadowy images in her photos of a strange and beautiful young man - a man she has never seen before.

When fate brings Clea and this man together, she is stunned by the immediate and powerful connection she feels with him. As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father's disappearance, and they discover the centuries-old truth behind their intense bond. Torn by a dangerous love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fates, together they race against time to unravel their pasts in order to save their lives - and their futures.

I have a lot of respect for Hilary Duff for what she has achieved in her life, despite the constant scrutiny of the media she has to deal with. So, when I discovered that she was writing a book series, I was more than eager to read it and also quite surprised at this potentially risky move. It's hard enough to put your own work out there when you aren't famous. But, when you are? It's like giving people a VIP card to rip you apart. Because of this, I ended up having rather high expectations of this novel, especially after I read the plot summary (and that beautiful cover!). The concept of a mysterious stranger in your photos? Give me. Now.

I think Hilary Duff and Elise Allen did a great job when it comes to the relationship between the characters. I liked the friendship Rayna, Clea and Ben shared. It wasn't the sophisticated kind, like some novels like to create, in the pretense that that's how friend's interact. Theirs was silly, comfortable and real. I also think Duff and Allen did a good job (in the majority) of portraying Clea. It's not easy to write a character that is so clearly privileged without making her seem spoiled. In fact, Clea's social status never seemed particularly relevant in the story compared to who she was as a person. Bonus points, as well, for creating a likable personality for her, without making it unrealistic.

Unfortunately, as a whole, I was rather disappointed with the novel. While I enjoyed many aspects of it, I can't help but be bothered by the strong similarities with Elixir and The Immortal series by Alyson Noël and the predictable story line. I didn't enjoy how the story focused on Sage and Clea's love life when I felt that there were far more relevant and interesting directions the story could have taken instead. I think it would have made far more sense to integrate the romance in a stronger story line rather than let it become the focus.

Of course, there were several strong plot points involved, but I don't think they have been explored to their full potential and I also think that the path the authors took from getting to one plot point to the other was too weak. I think this was most notable given the strong beginning of the story. At first, Clea was easily a very independent and intelligent young woman. As the story progressed however, readers are literally watching her IQ drop as her involvement with Sage grew. I hated that. There was one particular moment, when she stopped questioning her dreams, where you can actually see intelligent Clea being replaced by irrational love-struck Clea.

Finally, what got me the most out of everything in the novel, is Clea's treatment of Ben at the end of the book. If you've read it, you'll know what I mean, and if you haven't, or haven't predicted it, I won't spoil it for you. I just feel that what happened, and the aftermath thereof, was very out of character for both Clea and Ben. It didn't make sense and appeared to be only a crutch to enable a similarity between Clea and the, uh, thing (there you go, still spoiler free). I'm hoping that there will be this sneaky plot-twist in the next book(s) that will explain the necessity for this behavior. Please.

Although Clea's character development backtracked, and I was downright disgusted with her behaviour at the end of the book, I still enjoyed reading through her. She was still a far better YA heroine than a significant others that are out there. This is most clearly seen in her reaction to Sage after he did the avoiding thing, which I won't got into details about to keep this spoiler free. She was upset, sure, but compared to the usual, well, Bella Swan reaction of pinning-after-him-hopelessly-with-no-mind-of-her-own, she actually respected herself (yes, you  heard that right. She's got self-respect, cue back to the 'better YA heroine than a significant others out there') and downright refused to be treated that way.

I'm serious. Stop gaping. That actually happened.

In conclusion, while the book was not as great as I hoped it would be, it was actually a pretty decent read. I particularly recommend it if you enjoy tragic love stories and don't mind love triangles (I personally don't like them, which probably contributed to my annoyance at the heavy romance story line). The characters are all great, although Clea has her moments of being ridiculous and Sage was too attractive for my liking, and I again have to comment on the excellent portrayal of friendship until the end/aftermath scenes. This book was definitely a credit to YA books, although it had several shortcomings and wasn't very original. I will be reading the sequels, and if you're into books that take place in various countries, heavily feature romance, sort-of involve the elixir of life and are not too serious, I would absolutely suggest you pick this up.

The Demon's Lexicon

The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Pages: 322
Favourite Quotes: "Get down", he whispered. "I'm way ahead of you", Jamie said from the floor.

On the morning of the fourth day, Jamie tipped a switchblade out of his box of cornflakes. "I think these promotional campaigns have really gone out of hand", he said, freezing with his hand on the milk carton. "One shiny free knife with every packet of cereal bought is not a good message to send out to the kiddies."

Nick and his brother Alan are on the run with their mother, who was once the lover of a powerful magician. When she left him, she stole an important charm - and he will stop at nothing to reclaim it. Now Alan has been marked with the sign of death by the magician's demon, and only Nick can save him. But to do so he must face those he has fled from all his life - the magicians - and kill them. So the hunted becomes the hunter... but in saving his brother, Nick discovers something that will unravel his whole past.

Now this is not the kind of narrator you often get, ladies. Cassandra Clare was on to something when she described this story as "Witty, Dark and Moving". Nick, is your typical bad boy: moody, witty and sarcastic with handsome features and dark thoughts. Oh, and he happens to have a hobby of killing demons too. Bonus points for swords wielding *wiggles eyebrows*.

But really, Nick is a unique cup of narrator tea (aside from the part where, every second page, we are reminded of his unbelievable attractive appearance *rolls eyes*). He's negative, angry, rude and downright hateful towards everything but his brother Alan. He has absolutely no problem with threatening others and cares little about other people's welfare, including his own mother's...  And then there's Alan, who appears to have gotten all the kindness and care and overall niceness for both of them. You wouldn't think they'd make this relationship work... but you'd be surprised.


The relationship between these two characters is unparalleled. There is nothing Nick would not do for Alan and, by the end of the book, you'll easily see that the feeling is mutual. In this aspect, they remind me a lot of the Winchesters... with one key difference that I won't dare mention.

Brennan has this fantastic way of making characters come alive and developing them in the middle of a hostage situation (literally). From the very beginning, it is all hands on and practical, in a pack your shit we're going adventuring theme. Even as a reader, you don't get a break. This book, you don't put down until it's done or otherwise fear that it might go on without you. And let's talk about the way she lets those brilliant characters interact:

The drab brown front of the house made it look as if it had been built from rusty spare parts. Someone always put lace curtains in the windows of dreary houses, and Nick was unsurprised to see the curtains making their attempts in every window of this place. There was a china garden gnome on the doorstep, wearing a desperate, crazy smile.

"It's not so bad", Alan said.

"You never take me nice places anymore, baby", said Nick, and was mildly gratified by Alan's ring of laughter, like a living bell that had been caught by surprise when it was struck.

The author also goes all out on three dimensional secondary characters, which is about the biggest thumbs up I can give to an author. Mae and Jamie are both well developed, in their own clearly defined sibling relationship and personalities. It is very refreshing to find a book that has not only an interesting world, but also strong, interesting characters. Now don't get me wrong; they're not all bad-asses with a license to kill tons of demons. In fact, Jamie is quite the opposite. However, his representation is incredibly strong. He might be easily intimidated and spends an unhealthy (well, probably healthy considering) amount of time curled up on the ground being protected by Nick, Alan or Mae, but he nevertheless is a very strongly written character. Kind of like a geeky version of Neville that becomes more adorable in the same way that Neville gets hotter; slowly and then all at once.

What I loved most about this book though, is the witty dialogue. It's never out of place, yet it always takes you by surprise and never fails to elicit a laugh, at the very least, a smile. It's the most charming aspect of Nick's personality, actually and he pulls it off well.

"You're dressed for dancing", she said in her throaty stage voice.

"Being undressed for dancing occurred to me, but I didn't think Merris would like it."

Of course, we are not going to forget the undeniably unforgettable plot. I won't go into details, since I don't want to spoil the surprise, but let me tell you: this book has one book slamming ending that will send you straight into the line for its sequel (Demon's Covenant, if you're interested).

For the love of witty banter and cantankerous narrators, get on this book. Just try to skip the constant mention of the narrator's incredibly hot appearance, and you'll love the reading experience.