Reaper's Novice Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

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Synopsis:
17- year- old Ana Maria Tei’s life has always been perfect: loving parents, good grades, and a future so bright it outshone the sun. But now words like “separation” and “divorce” are sending her world plummeting to hell. Determined to keep her family intact, Ana plans a family-bonding trip from Vienna to Tuscany. Except fate has other plans. Ana’s parents and siblings are killed in a car accident on their way to pick Ana up from school.

Enter Grim, aka Ernest. He promises to relinquish the four souls if Ana agrees to trade her soul for theirs and serve a lifetime as his novice. In order for Ana to graduate from her Reaper’s Novice station to a Soul Collector graduate, Grim puts her to test. To her horror, she finds out becoming a Reaper’s Novice didn’t happen by chance. It was preordained, and she is forced to make a choice: save her family’s souls or come to terms with who she really is and complete the task set for her.

My Review:

    Although, the premise of this book wasn't absolutely promising, once I got into the story itself, it was surprisingly good. This is my first time reading a book with reapers but to be honest, I didn't really like the whole reaping idea at first and it was what kind of ruined the book for me but then, you could say that I got used to it and even enjoyed it along with the whole storyline.


   The writing style was generally okay but the use of obscuration didn't work very well at the beginning of the book but I have to praise the author's work in adding some small twists and happenings that added a flavour to the story. Unfortunately though, the story itself was slow-paced which maybe a major turn-off for some people, it wasn't until about half of the book that you can actually start to enjoy the story and understand the other world thingie that Ana had to join - so try to be patient, I personally never imagined myself liking the book at first but I did ;) But you see here, this story was epic - in a good way - but ya know still epic. However, most of the characters were well-developed and some were down to earth but overall, the characters were good, I mean, I really did like Ana's character and was able to feel for her but she didn't reach the level of perfectness in characters. 

  Overall, Reaper's Novice was an enjoyable read, it may not be a favorite of mine but I liked it enough. The storyline was packed with a whole lot of stuff, incidents, characters and some internal interactions with some minor characters and just stuff off of the main line in the story - which not everybody is going to see as an addition - but for me, it wasn't a problem, it kinda added to my connection with Ana, the world and the story. The book though, had one of those cruel cliffhangers and now, I cannot wait to read the next book!

Title: Reaper's Novice

Author: Cecilia Robert

Series: Soul Collector #1

Release date: 5^th December 2012
Source: Review Copy from Bog Tour
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Rating: 3.5/5

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Giveaway #1

Enter for the chance of winning one of two e-books of Reaper's Novice! (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway #2

Enter for the chance of  winning one of two Amazon gift cards! (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway #3

Enter for the chance of winning a Swag! (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author:

Cecilia Robert lives in Vienna with her two children, has an incurable obsession with books, anything romantic, TV and medieval architecture. When not working in her full time job, catching up with her two children, writing or reading, she can be found, knitting or crocheting, taking photos of old buildings.

Social Media Links:
Twitter | Blog | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads

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Happy Reading!

xoxo, Mariam

Check out the rest of the tour stops!

Feature & Follow Friday #16

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by 

Alison Can Read and Parajunkee where they choose a featured blogger every week along with a question for everybody to answer! It's an awesome way to meet new book bloggers and share the follower love :)

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Q: Who is your favorite villain from a book?

Well, right now I can only think of Damon from the Vampire Diaries  but to be honest I have never read the books but I guess he could still count for a villain from a book, right? :D Plus, I really need to catch up on the series, I am still in episode 6 - Yeah, I know kill me ;)

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So what about you? Leave me a comment down below or a link to your own post which I'll be sure to check out ;) And did you watch yesterday's episode of The Vampires Diaries because I sadly didn't - as I said up there - I still need to catch up :/

But Happy Reading!

xoxo, Mariam

How To Date An Alien Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

Hey guys! And welcome to my tour stop in the How To Marry An Alien Blog Tour! In my stop, I'll be featuring my review of book 1 in the series ( How To Date an Alien ) as well as a giveaway! Enjoy and good luck winning :D

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Summary:
High school senior Alex Bianchi's estranged father gets her an internship at Circe Operations Center to pad her college applications. But Circe isn't your typical military base. It's an alien-run operation center and not all of the aliens are friendly, especially the one that tries to kill Alex on her first day. When Ace, a dark-eyed Caltian, enters and saves the day, she can't help but be drawn to him. Can these star-crossed lovers survive when they're on the brink of intergalactic war?

My Review:

     I surprisingly enjoyed this book although the premise wasn't at all promising. And woah! Aliens. Yup, definitely touchy ;) However, I have to admit guys that the aliens in this book aren't as creepy as they should be. You see, when I think about aliens usually what comes to my mind is something absolutely peculiar and eerie but here, they were just equalled in treatment with lets say.. vampires! but they were still aliens, I don't know, I just didn't liked how the aliens were portraited in the story :/ And let me just say, the cover - not a fan at all.

   

    One thing that annoyed me the most was the protagonist, Alex. Her actions provocative me throughout the whole book and I just couldn't think of anybody any more naive than her. But hey! that was just one thing - a major and one of the main keys to enjoying a book but generally speaking, the book was okay, I liked it and most importantly, I liked the romance between Alex and the alien, Ace - whom I think if hadn't been an alien, I would have developed a crush on because he was cute but was also still the obsessive type of guy that we see a lot.

   Aside from that, I think that the world-building was good and different but could have been better. But what I really noticed though was that I still able to feel some kind of a connection even after finishing the book which I don't think was because of the characters but maybe because of the writing style and the world-building together - kinda - which, the connection, is a good thing of course.

   Overall, I enjoyed reading this book despite it's flaws. However, I really cannot see myself reading the sequel just because for me, this book as a stand-alone is much better. I REALLY enjoyed the aliens touch though, it was a unique thing and was just away from all the vampires and witches but still all paranormal. A sci-fi romantic story which I think sci-fi lovers will definitely enjoy but for those who aren't all too sci-fi, this isn't much of complicated read, it can kinda keep you entertained enough. However, I can say too that this book is definitely not for everyone.

Title: How To Date An Alien
Author: Magan Veron

Series: My Alien Romance #1

Published: December 6th 2011 by CreateSpace

Source: For Review Purposes ( From the blog tour )

Links: Goodreads | Amazon

Rating: 3/5

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About the Author:
Self-proclaimed geek-to-glam poster child who channels her inner geek by writing science fiction for teens, even though she slept with a night light until she was in middle school for fear of alien attacks. She now lives with her husband, daughter, and dog in central Illinois where she still sleeps with a night light...just in case.

Author Links:
Facebook | Website | Twitter @MaganVernon

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Reading!
xoxo, Mariam

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♥ My 2012 Favorite Books ! ♥

Well, I can't really believe that 2012 has already ended. Hoping for a much better year #2013 for all of us so Happy New Year guys!!! Also, upon seeing thousands of top reads in 2012, I thought I could one myself instead of just saying a Happy New Year to all of you and so here are my favorite reads in 2012! :)

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#1 Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire ( Review )
#2 Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry ( Review )

  

#3 Delirium ( Delirium Trilogy ) by Lauren Oliver It's just not the first book in the trilogy but also the second Pandemonium. The two books were utterly perfect!! - so it's a two in one

#4 The Host by Stephanie Meyer

          

      

#5 Entwined by Heather Dixon

#6 Divergent by Veronica Roth

        
#7 Shiver ( The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy ) by Maggie Stiefvater Again, not just this book but the trilogy as a whole was amazing.

#8 The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

#9 Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

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Those are just mostly my absolute favourite books that I read in 2012 but I'd love to know about your own favorites in 2012. So link me up or leave a comment telling me!

Happy New Year!
xoxo, Mariam

PS: I haven't been posting as much lately because I have been super busy with everything but mainly school so I'll try to post as much as I can but I will be fully back on 24 Jan and untill then I'll be posting a couple of reviews and blog tours and I'll try to post my Feature & Follow Friday post every week too :D