Spooky Reads Week Round-Up!

Well, we’ve reached the end of Spooky Reads Week, and I really hope you guys have had as much fun as I have! I’ve absolutely loved reading new books and discovering new authors. It’s definitely opened my eyes to more genres and I’ll be much broader in my selections going forward.

Click the books to read my reviews from this week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As well as some fabulous guest posts from Sasha Leigh and S. L. Bynum.

Well done to everyone who took part in this week! There’s one book that shone through as a clear favourite:

The Boy In The Cemetery, by Sebastian Gregory

Here’s what everyone has been reading:

Mandy – The Hidden Girl, by Louise Millar

Candy (Candy’s Bookcase) – The Boy In The Cemetery, by Sebastian Gregory

Isabell (Dreaming With Open Eyes) – The Accident, by C. L. Taylor

Lynsey – The Boy In The Cemetery, by Sebastian Gregory and Because She Loves Me, by Mark Edwards

Ana (This Chick Reads) – In The Blood  & The Whispers, both  by Lisa Unger

Suus (Librarian Lavender) – The Boy In The Cemetery, by Sebastian Gregory; Faery Tales of the White Forest Omnibus, by Danika Dinsmore; Hush by Anne Frasier; and You Wish, by Terry Tyler

Leah (Girls Love to Read) – Last To Die, by Tess Gerritsen

Sophie (Reviewed the Book) – Voodoo Romance, by Janice Horton; Hobb’s Cottage, by Ruth Saberton and The Boy in the Cemetery, by Sebastian Gregory

Rachel (Rachale’s Reads) – The Boy In The Cemetery, by Sebastian Gregory

AJ (AJ Book Review Club) – The Boy In The Cemetery, by Sebastian Gregory; Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn; Twilight and The Host, by Stephanie Meyer

Jenny (Jenny Bee’s Book Blog) – Stitching Snow, by R C Lewis

Danielle (Stories Unfolded) – Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

A special well done to AJ, Suus and Sophie for getting through so many books! Great work, guys 🙂

There’s still a little time to enter the giveaway before the winner is chosen at midnight, so if you haven’t yet, enter now!

Enter the Spooky Reads Week Giveaway.

Book Review: The Boy In The Cemetery, by Sebastian Gregory

This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live…

Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone

…and a boy who cannot die.

The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for…

Book Review: Tristen: The Last Seeker, by Fleur Camacho

Tristen wakes to find a man watching him from the mirror…

A chill runs through Tristen’s body as the familiar robed priest stares at him longingly. The priest struggles to open his mouth; the stitches that lace his lips together slowly rip apart and jut raggedly from his mouth. His bloody lips stretch wide as he leans towards Tristen, trying to suck him into a deep black hole.

Ever since Tristen, a sixteen year old teenager, is assigned to work with Ailey on a school project, his life takes a thrilling and alarming turn. Tristen can’t stop the inexorable pull he feels toward Ailey; just being around her draws him in completely, blindly and with disastrous consequences. At the same time, an evil priest invades Tristen’s dreams and threatens to kill his mom.

Soon, Tristen and his friends find themselves magically transported to Fifteenth Century France and Tristen discovers that he is the last-born Seeker – destined to save the past and the influential figures who shape it. When someone tries to kill him, Tristen must make a choice: embrace his destined purpose and risk loosing everything or be stuck in the past running for his life forever.

This is not a novel about vampires, werewolves or ghosts. This is not your regular romantic, time traveling, coming-of-age story. This is the first book in a magical, paranormal, fantasy series about a regular kid who finds out he is destined to become the new Seeker to save the world from a bloody ending. If Tristen had known that pairing up with Ailey would trigger a magical ancient prophecy ushering in the beginning of the end of the world, he might have stayed in bed that day.

Guest Post: Halloween Memories, by S. L. Bynum

Since it’s Halloween weekend, I thought I’d share some of my favorite moments from past Halloweens so people can learn more about me.

Book Review: Fate’s Exchange, by Sasha Leigh

Death wants her. Fate has already claimed her. Angels protect her.

What if Death didn’t mean you had to die? When Alyssa Frank dies trying to save herself from a brutal attack, she finds that second chances do exist. Now, reliving the final week leading to her death, can she discover the right choices in a sea of wrong? Or will her circumstances never change?

Death always meets its quota, and Alyssa has just made Death’s list.With new love brewing and friendships on the line, what happens when chances run out?

Can she survive?

Guest Post: 8 Magical Questions for World-Building in Fiction, by Sasha Leigh

Magic is common in novels. Fantasy isn’t just for sci-fi fanatics who love quoting Spock anymore. It isn’t just vampires, witches, demons, and gods/goddesses, but whole new worlds. Places where it would be weird if you didn’t see a unicorn walking down the street because the myths we grew up hearing stories of are so believable, they are real to readers. Superheroes, angels, demons . . . anything goes.

So how does an author make this so believable?

Book Review: The Happy Ever Afterlife of Rosie Potter, by Kate Winter

Falling in love is never simple. Especially when you’re dead.

When Rosie Potter wakes up one morning with what she assumes is the world’s worst hangover, the last thing she expects is to discover that she’s actually dead. With a frustrating case of amnesia, suspicious circumstances surrounding her untimely demise, and stuck wearing her ugliest flannel PJs, Rosie must figure out not only what happened last night, but why on earth she’s still here.

Slowly the mystery unravels, but there are many other secrets buried in the quiet Irish village of Ballycarragh, and nobody is as innocent as they first appear. Aided by the unlikeliest of allies in her investigation, Rosie discovers that life after death isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, particularly when you might just be falling in love . . .

In this hilarious, life-affirming and romantic journey through Rosie Potter’s afterlife, she shares the ghostly tale of how she lived, she died, and she loved (in that order).

Spooky Reads Week Recommendation: The Boy in the Cemetery

The Boy in the Cemetery by Sebastian Gregory has been a popular choice for Spooky Reads Week.

Candy and Lynsey have been reading it and they both love it, and Librarian Lavender has it lined up! You can read Candy’s review here.

I think it looks great, and will definitely be trying to squeeze it in at the weekend. Either way, it’s right near the top of my TBR list!

The Boy in the Cemetery was released on 29th of October 2014 by Carina UK.

***

The Blurb:

This is the story of a girl who didn’t want to live…

Carrie Anne is desperately unhappy. Tangled in a web of abuse, she seeks solace in the cemetery that backs onto her garden. But something creeps between the gravestones. Carrie Anne is not alone

…and a boy who cannot die.

The cemetery is home to a boy. He has guarded these forgotten bones since meeting a gruesome end two hundred years ago. Neither dead nor alive, he has been watching for a long time. And now, he finally has the visitor he’s been waiting for…

***

Book Links:

Goodreads – Amazon UK – Amazon US

 

 

Book Review: Grim Crush, by S. L. Bynum

Can love overcome Death?

1. Do not interfere with someone’s death. 2. Do not become emotionally involved. 3. Do not show yourself to the living.

As a grim reaper, seventeen-year-old Xia has to follow these Rules. But when she meets Shilah, a Native American boy who can see reapers, she figures the rules don’t apply. To find out why he can see her, she pretends to be human, since carrying a scythe probably isn’t the latest teen craze.

Things become unnerving as she begins experiencing first-time affection with Shilah, but she’s irreversibly drawn to him. Suddenly Xia finds herself breaking Rule Two, even while collecting dead souls behind Shilah’s back. It isn’t long before she is caught red-handed by the Angel of Death himself, and then not only is her relationship at risk, but also Shilah’s soul. And this leaves Xia wondering: can love overcome Death?

Book Review: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

Who are you? What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy’s friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn’t true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren’t made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick’s beautiful wife?