Giveaway: Blood on the Moon by Jennifer Knight

UP FOR GRABS....
Blood on the Moon by Jennifer Knight
Published: August 30th 2011

As Faith Reynolds enters her freshman year of college, she is a complete and utter nervous wreck.  With her best friend Derek suddenly pulling out the romance card and her dark, mysterious classmate staring her down at every turn, Faith somehow feels stuck in the middle without dating either one.  And fortune may or may not be with her when a devilshly sexy stranger offers her a welcome escape.Boys, romance, classes, and annoying roommates are all within the realm of the expected for a college frosh.  Trying to solve the mysterious murders of young college coeds near campus is not.  Darkness seems to be creeping into every corner of Faith's life, no matter the hour.  And when she seeks the truth, danger seems to be the only thing that finds her.Faith is well aware of the strange currents in the air, particularly when she sets off static sparks with everything she touches.  Before long, she finds herself entrenched in the deep-seeded battle between werewolves and vampires.  The war has reached the tipping point, and Faith has the power to determine where the scales fall.  But the most important question may be with whom does her loyalty lie?Deliciously suspenseful and immediately addictive, Blood on the Moon features a headstrong heroine and all of the thrills, chills, and otherworldly boys with deadly charm that a human could ask for. - Good Reads

I received another copy of this in the mail today from Running Press. I'm not sure if it was sent purposely or accidentally, but they already sent me a copy... so this extra is up for grabs! I enjoyed this book a lot and you can read my review HERE! 


Unfortunately, this particular giveaway is US only. But I'll be having a 200 Followers Giveaway soon that will include my International friends! 

Review: Blood on the Moon by Jennifer Knight

Blood on the Moon by Jennifer Knight

Release Date: August 30th 2011

Publisher: Perseus Books

Page Count: Paperback, 416 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance

Author: Website, Good Reads, Twitter, Facebook

Buy This Book:  Amazon, Book Depository 

Source: Copy provided by Running Press Book Publishers

 Boys, romance, classes, and annoying roommates are all within the realm of the expected for a college frosh.  Trying to solve the mysterious murders of young college coeds near campus is not.  Darkness seems to be creeping into every corner of Faith's life, no matter the hour.  And when she seeks the truth, danger seems to be the only thing that finds her. Faith is well aware of the strange currents in the air, particularly when she sets off static sparks with everything she touches.  Before long, she finds herself entrenched in the deep-seeded battle between werewolves and vampires.  The war has reached the tipping point, and Faith has the power to determine where the scales fall.  But the most important question may be with whom does her loyalty lie?As Faith Reynolds enters her freshman year of college, she is a complete and utter nervous wreck.  With her best friend Derek suddenly pulling out the romance card and her dark, mysterious classmate staring her down at every turn, Faith somehow feels stuck in the middle without dating either one.  And fortune may or may not be with her when a devilshly sexy stranger offers her a welcome escape.Deliciously suspenseful and immediately addictive, Blood on the Moon features a headstrong heroine and all of the thrills, chills, and otherworldly boys with deadly charm that a human could ask for. - Good Reads

Faith has a terrible time trusting because she's been burned in the past by two people she never would have thought she wouldn't have been able to trust. One of those is her stepfather, who is now in prison and the other is her best friend Derek. Faith and Derek have had their fair share of relationship woes, particularly because Derek made a mistake that cost their relationship and Faith's trust in him romantically. So they're back to being just friends. All the while she is trying to settle into a new university far from home with her best friend slash ex boyfriend trying to re-kindle their fire, which has long been extinguished and worrying about being majorless and having a jerk who acts as if she's the bane of his existence for a project partner. And things steadily get worse and a little more lively as she's introduced to a world she never thought existed full of vampires and werewolves. 


Faith is a truly stubborn girl. She's the type who doesn't get to "fool me twice, shame on me". You cross her once and she's done. I liked that about her and see it as a definite possibility for growth and she does manage to plow through some of her trust issues throughout the book, but she still has a hard time truly forgiving and forgetting those who have done her wrong. I think what I liked most about her is that despite being a little jaded and unforgiving: it doesn't turn her into a total b word. She's still a caring person who is genuinely kindhearted. 


The general story was a little typical. Girls meets mysterious boy, he's a mythical creature and they fall in love after a little struggle. So it's nothing totally new and different, but I still devoured it. I didn't want to put it down and to me that's what counts. I was fascinated by Lucas and yearned to know more about him after I got over the initial 'what a jerk!' stage. He really isn't a jerk at all. And there's so much more to him than meets the eye. Werewolves are also a huge part of this story and while I've always thought of them as something I can't get into, I was proved wrong again  - I really liked it.


I'm smitten with this cover. I think it perfectly fits the main character Faith. Isn't it pretty? After I opened my package I think I admired it for a good minute before I opened it up to read! 


Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book to paranormal lovers and especially to those who love werewolves. Faith is a freshman in university, but I'd still consider this book appropriate for most young adults. There isn't any swearing, there is no sex and little mention of it and the kissing scenes are what I would consider tame.


The ending was a total cliffhanger, so I'm assuming that there is to be a second book, though Good Reads doesn't list it as a series. THERE BETTER BE ANOTHER BOOK! Because I'm dying to know what happens! And I can't wait to see more novels in the future from Jennifer Knight!


                                  4 out of 5 Hello Kitties

Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

Buy This Book | Website 

Release Date: July 12th 2011

Publisher: Scholastic

Page Count: Hardcover, 390 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Good Reads: Link

The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stievater
In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in. - Good Reads

 I peeked at reviews before I read this - really peeked. I had a sinking feeling from some of the negative reviews I read that I wouldn't really like how life in Mercy Falls ends. Now that I finally read it, I'm happy to say that I was satisfied with the ending and I have do not have any regrets going past the first book, which was my one of my biggest fears after reading some of the reviews. 

I will say that this book did start out a little on the slow side. The writing was good as always, the pace of the story just seemed sluggish. A lot of moping and thoughtful Sam. I honestly kept putting it down and getting distracted. It did pick up though and by the middle was impossible to put down.

I love Cole and Isabel. Sam and Grace are more smooth and calm as a couple and I think that Cole and Isabel have a certain spice to their relationship and more romantic tension. I'm a sucker for that romantic tension stuff. I am glad that Sam and Grace's relationship didn't have tension though, because they were the steady influence throughout this trilogy and through thick and thin you knew you could count on their love to exist just as steady as ever. And essentially, at the end of the day, that is what made this series. But I still love Cole and Isabel.

Cole was awesome in this book. He steps up to the plate and we definitely see a much better person than we did in Linger. He is a bit of an a-hole in the beginning and he's sarcastic as always, but there is a huge improvement. I think every moment I laughed out loud in the book was because he said something hilariously stupid. My personal favourite Cole quote:

                                              "It's adrenaline, not prom sex." 

I'm actually a little sad this series is over. As I said before, I was satisfied with the ending because I felt that I was given enough closure. It does end a little abruptly though and leaves a little to the imagination. Luckily I have a friendly imagination that sees all of them loving and laughing in a field of tulips and going on to live happily ever after. Ha! Well, Isabel and Cole would probably be arguing in a field of tulips... But at least their making up would be hot!

I definitely recommend this series. At least to try it out - I think it's a series you either love or hate. Fortunately for me, I loved it.

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

Buy This Book | Website

Release Date: August 1st 2009

Publisher: Scholastic

Page Count: Hardcover, 400 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Good Reads: Link

Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will left howling alone at the lonely moon. A stirring supernatural teen romance. - Good Reads

I've waited a long time to read this book. Mostly because some jerk had it checked out at the library for 84 years and I'm job hunting poor at the moment, so buying it was out of the question. It finally came in and I just kept staring at it, admiring the cover and wanting to start, but I was too anxious to. I'm not exactly sure what was holding me back, perhaps I need mental help or maybe I had a lot of expectations. Either way, I finally read it.
At 3 am last night when I finished, I hopped out of my chair, threw the book down and said, "that was such a good book!". All smiles. Unfortunately nobody could share my joy because everyone else had gone to sleep. 

Okay, I'm stalling because I don't even know how to describe this book. It was wonderful. I've read in some reviews that people disliked the way it was written, but I'm guessing we're on opposite ends, because I loved it. It was lyrical and beautiful. I'm probably going to use the word beautiful at least 25 more times. Sorry in advance.

The whole set-up was inventive. The "werewolf" story was different than anything I've read before. The atmosphere of the book was very intense. I felt the cold through the pages and whenever the weather was mentioned I nearly had a panic attack. In fact, I was whining on twitter that I was sure Sam was going to turn into a wolf, so I kept putting it down because I was so anxious about it.

Shiver is a love story. There is no huge plot other than that. There are sub-plots, but the main idea is the love between Grace and Sam. I found their love story to be touching and beautiful. Funnily enough if I tried to describe this book to somebody, it would sound ridiculous and in theory it is, but on paper it grabbed me and made me believe. 

Oh, and Maggie Stiefvater is not a tease. There's a sexy-time scene in this book. Beware! Or in my case, enjoy!

Overall, a very good book. Highly recommended if you enjoy paranormal love stories. I'm definitely going to buy this as soon as possible.

Review: Nightshade (Nightshade #1) by Andrea Cremer

Nightshade (Nightshade #1) by Andrea Cremer

Buy This Book | Website

Release Date: October 19th 2010

Publisher: Philomel

Page Count: Hardcover, 452 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal

Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything- including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice? 

I've been waiting to read this for a long time. Unfortunately I didn't care for it as much as I thought I would, but I didn't exactly dislike it either.

I had two big issues with this book in particular. 

1. Calla the main character and heroine of the book is an "alpha" of her pack, yet I saw so many contradictions to that. I think I wished the author would have been straight forward and say Calla was second in command, because honestly I didn't see her really being the boss of anybody, especially the males. I'll put my feminist ideas aside and honour that their pack dynamics require her to submit herself to the male alphas, but my issue was that I didn't see the use of pretending she was a badass alpha herself, because she didn't come across to me that way at all. In this book Calla is having everything she believed her entire life challenged, so I can understand her confusion and won't fault her for that. I'm trusting that there will be improvement on her confusing personality in the second book Wolfsbane. And hopefully there will be a stronger side to her.

2. I'm not a fan of love triangles where the guy I want to win loses. And I'm almost certain that will be the outcome of this series. That puts me off a little, but I think that is more of a personal issue rather than a real issue with Nightshade. Who knows, maybe Shay will grow on me in the next book!

I have one other tiny complaint and this may also be another personal issue. I like when authors describe the characters to me right away, because I always need to picture them in my head. If they don't, I get confused and then I have to consider how I want them to look and then if they end up giving a description later and it contradicts what I had to come up with, it just confuses me. I'm weird like that. Sorry. 

There were also a lot of characters shoved in. I kept forgetting which side Mason, Dax, Faye and so on were on. It became way too confusing for me to keep track of.

The first half of the book was the most disappointing part. I grew tired of the love triangle fairly quick and that was basically what the majority of the book centered on. It started to get better towards the end when a interesting plot reared up and caught my interest. That will keep me reading into Wolfsbane and I'm looking forward to it. 

On a whole it wasn't horrible, but it isn't my favourite. At least not yet!