The 20 Best Books of 2011 You Should Read Over Winter Break

The 20 best books of 2011 you should read over winter break

Click the title above and you will be taken to The 20 Best Books of 2011 You Should Read Over Winter Break.

The lovely Florine Church thought my you book mad people would love the article. 

I have to agree there are some great book idea's go check it out. 

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2011/the-20-best-books-of-2011-you-should-read-over-winter-break/ 

Saving Daisy by Phil Earle

Saving Daisy by Phil Earle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Daisy is 14 years old and is not coping with her mother's death daisy blames herself for it. Over the coming weeks, she finds herself having panic attacks and using self-harming to clear her head and stop the attacks. Daisy’s dad will not open up and talk to her so daisy is left feeling alone. A mix of heart braking events leave daisy fatherless and broken inside. Unable to open up and talk about what’s going on Daisy is moved onto a place that will help her cope but will daisy open up and trust the people that are they to help.

My review I really don’t know how to start with this- this is not my normal sort of read, and I guess I’ll start by saying... This book was a look into a life that many young children and teens have to live with each day. I found it hard to think of this book as a work of fiction because it was more like a true look into so many lives. The sad fact is lots of kids have terrible lives.

Daisy's story opens the reader into a life that is cracking open with guilt and self-harming. Daisy is drowning in her despair, and the world around her does not seem to notice. I found that I soon cared for Daisy like I would my own children.

At times, there is so much pain and despair that you feel like daisy well never get out of this darkness that seems to have taken over her life for so long. I guess the point of this book is simple to me know don’t give up while sometime life seems so bad, but you need to fight for that light at the end of the tunnel that is there if you look hard enough. I also felt that the author was trying to make people aware of the true darkness and pain in real life. It’s easy to over look the homeless kids and kids in care when your life is simple but stop and read saving daisy it will open your eyes to the stuff that sometimes goes on behind closed doors.

Saving Daisy is a must read. A brilliantly written book that is more fact then fiction about the true horrors of life and the uplifting realisation that there is always hope. This book had more emotion then any I have read before.

5 stars

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2 book give away!!

Winners are picked at random using Rafflecopter. The winner well be called the 2 of January The winner gets both book still water and shattered dreams.  

Still Waters by Emma Carlson Berne 

Hannah can't wait to sneak off for a romantic weekend with her boyfriend, Colin. He’s leaving for college soon, and Hannah wants their trip to the lake house to be one they’ll never forget. 

But once Hannah and Colin get there, things start to seem a bit...off. They can't find the town on any map. The house they are staying in looks as if someone's been living there, even though it's been deserted for years. And Colin doesn’t seem quite himself. As he grows more unstable, Hannah worries about Colin’s dark side, and her own safety. 

Nothing is as perfect as it seems, and what lies beneath may haunt her forever.

Shattered Dreams (Midnight Dragonfly #1) by Ellie James

Sixteen-year-old Trinity Monsour wants nothing more than to live a normal life. But that isn’t as easy as it seems. Trinity is different. She isspecial. She sees visions, and for those she’s seen, it’s already too late.

Trinity arrives on her aunt’s doorstep in New Orleans with virtually no knowledge of her mysterious heritage. She begins settling into life at a new school and even starts making friends. But all too quickly her dreams accelerate; twisted, terrifying visions of a girl locked in a dark room. And when the head cheerleader, Jessica, goes missing, Trinity knows she has no choice but to step forward with what she’s seen.

But people believe that Trinity has information about Jessica’s disappearance not because of a dream, but because she is involved. She iskind-of dating Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, Chase, and Jessica did pull a nasty prank on Trinity. Revenge seems like the likeliest scenario.

Nothing prepares Trinity for the dark odyssey that ensues while searching for Jessica, including the surprising romance she finds with Chase, or the shocking truths she learns, not just about the girl who has gone missing, but the past that has been hidden from her.

Fracture by Megan Miranda review

Fracture by Megan Miranda

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Delaney was dead for eleven minutes here brain starved of oxygen. Her heart stopped beating. Decker pulls his best friend Delaney out of the icy lake, but the damage is already done.

To everyone’s shock Delaney beats the odds and lives waking up when she should be dead or in a vegetated state. The doctors explain that she hasuntold damaged in her brain that should make talking and remembering impossible yet Delaney seems fine.

Delaney knows she has come back wrong the shaking in her hands and the tugging from inside leads her to the dying. She does not understand what’s going on then she meets someone just like her does he hold the answers Delaney needs.

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book to review, and I’m so happy to be given the chance to read it. This book was beyond words amazing I read the whole book in less than a day.

From the first few paged your thrown right into the story there were no boring introductions that can sometimes put people off, this book went straight into the action which I enjoyed.

To me, there were three main characters that brought different things to the book while there was lots of other character these main three made the book for me.

Fracture was one of the first books that made me cry at times the book had so much emotion that pulled at your heart strings. There were lots of different relationships going on in the book that had problems and worries. I felt that while this book was fiction, there were lots of real problems like how does a family cope after nearly losing a member of the family the book show that death can sometime pull families and friends apart or other times you can work to stay together. There was also this twist in the book in which Delaney felt pulled to the people that were near death, which put a whole interesting spin on the story. This book was one that really got me thinking about life and death I was really shocked at howmuch the book stayed with me, even after I had finished reading it.

It was a book about life after facing death. An emotion journey to see if life is worth living and how people cope.

I’m giving the book five stars. I would recommend the book to others.
One last thing if you had one day to live what would you do?
All I have to say live each day as if it was your last no mistakes just memories.

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Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey give away!

A thrilling debut story of death, love, destiny and danger

Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.

Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

Halfling by Heather Burth review

Halflings by Heather Burch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Chased by hell hounds, nearly run off the road by a suv Nikki’s life used to be simply now she seems like every bad thing in the world is trying to kill her. With evil ready to strike at every turn Nikki ends up having three beautiful guys watching over her. They call themselves Halflings the offspring of fallen angels. They plan to keep Nikki out of dangers but sometimes that’s not easy to do. New problems arise when Nikki finds herself falling in love with two of her protectors. This comes a big shock as she has never been interested in guys, but now she can’t help but want two but more trouble is ahead than just love because Nikki needs to work out what’s going on before she is killed.

I would just like to say when people I know read books and tell me there is a MASSIVE! Love triangle in the book I normally choose to stay clear but this book was very different. The love triangle in this book was deep and emotional. Raven and Mace are two very different characters at first look I thought of mace as light and caring one and Raven as dark and sexy but there is a whole lot more to these two characters and the book was so much more than just love drama. It’s about family and making the right chooses and the evil that's inside us all it’s our choice to be good or bad and this book really did show that.

Nikki was a really good character. She is a fighter, deep down, and she faces what’s coming head on. As one of the main characters she was feisty and kind and enjoyable to read about. I also felt that there is a lot more we are going to learn about her as the series goes on. I just had a sense that there is a lot of hidden power or potential inside Nikki that’s begging to come out. The story was packed with danger, and Nikki went from a normal life to being on the supernatural hit list. There were a lot of intense moments in the book between characters and sometimes humour the book seemed to find a great mix of everything.

Now I would like to confess that as an avid reader you sometimes fall for the characters you're reading about and raven was one of those characters for me. While at first look you feel his just an arrogant pretty boy, but I felt there more to him, and I feel that over readers will spot that underneath his front, you will see someone different.

A wonderful written story Jam packed with forbidden love, danger and a burning evil that will suck you in.

5 stars

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This is not forgiveness by Celia Rees

This is not forgiveness by Celia Rees

I can’t decide what to do with your ashes. It’s been nearly a year now. Almost summer again. The urn is sitting in front of me on the desk, brown plastic with a ref. number, the date and your name scribbled on a sticky label: Robert Julian Maguire The label has black borders and is beginning to peel at the corners. I smooth the wrinkled paper, trying to stick it back. It has been slapped on crooked by someone who didn’t care a whole lot about the contents. There are all kinds of urns you can have: brass, copper, pewter, ceramic; you can have a wooden casket with engraving on it, but those cost and someone would have to care enough to order one and buy it. I guess yours is the modern equivalent of the pauper’s grave.

I went to the funerals. They held them one after another. I don’t think they meant them to be that way, but the crematorium was busy that day. Yours was second. Not much like the first. No orations, no weeping school mates clutching single blossoms to put on the coffin, sobbing out rubbish verses that they’d written themselves. No inky hand-printed notes on the flowers: R.I.P., C U in Heaven, Gone but not forgotten. No fl owers at all. Hardly anyone there, either. Only the bare minimum for decency. Police and immediate family. Some of your mates, but not many. Just Bryn and a few others, wearing uniform. The priest was sweating. He kept dabbing at his forehead with a big white handkerchief and stumbling over his words, scratching about to find something to say, stringing it out until the time came for the rollers to engage. You would have pissed yourself. Nobody sang the hymn, there was just this tinny recording. Nobody cried or even looked sad. The congregation seemed relieved to see your coffin going, as if it wasn’t a body on its way to the furnace but some dangerous biohazard. They couldn’t wait to get out of there. I was the one who went back to collect your ashes. That’s how I’ve got them here. Mum doesn’t like it. She keeps nagging about ‘disposal’ and ‘closure’. Keeping you here is morbid and probably unhealthy. I don’t see it. The Morgans had their granddad on the mantelpiece for years and years. She wants rid, but what’s it to do with her? You were my brother. She doesn’t have to come in here. ‘It’s upsetting for your sister,’ she says. I know for a fact that Martha couldn’t give a monkey’s fat one. Anyway, she’s not even here, so what does she care? I can see Mum’s point of view. What you did was pretty disruptive. I had to move schools. I couldn’t go back there, could I? Mum wanted to move house. Move towns. After what happened, she wanted to make a fresh start. You’ve made the place toxic. But in the end, we didn’t do that. We’d have had to move Grandpa. Not that he’d notice. He’s still alive, just about, but Alzheimer’s doesn’t get better, does it? It wasn’t really that, either. What happened has changed her. At times, she blames herself. Somehow it must be her fault, that’s what she thinks. If she’d just done this thing, or that thing, then it wouldn’t have happened. She spends a lot of time sitting around thinking about that. She’s there but not there when she’s like that. She moves from that to being very, very angry. Mostly with you.Maybe getting rid of you would give us closure, as she puts it, but I don’t think so. The brown plastic kind of contains you. Without it, you’d be everywhere  – like a genie. You don’t deserve to be liberated yet. I’ll decide the time and place. It could be tomorrow, it could be years from now, but until the day comes, you are staying right here, with me.But this is not forgiveness. Don’t think that

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi review

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Aria lives in a place called the reverie like most teens she spends her time hanging out with her friends but rather than going out all she does is look through her smarteye which takes her to different realms. Life is sweet and easy until Aria is kicked out for something she did not do. The world outside the pod is feared Aria’s people the dwellers call it the death shop. Once outside things take a funny turn she learns about the outside world that is nothing like what she was led to believe, and it's the people inside the pod that are liars. She soon runs into Perry the person that was there the day of her so called crime it was him that saved her life. While Perry and Aria are very different from one and other Aria had the easy life and Perry the hard-working hunter but due to a run of strange events Perry and Aria have to work together and help one and other to find out what happened to Aria's mum? And why was Perry nephew snatched by Aria's people?

The journey will change Perry and Aria life forever.

From the very start, this book blew me away. I found it so brilliant and exciting imagine planet earth has been divided into two parts one side you have the reverie where people live in a kind of electronic fantasy world. It was like a weird computer run future. At first glance everyone seems happy and calm, but it’s a big front. Now the other part of the world is like the past with tribes and hunting for food, living of the land. These people are born survivors and fighters. Two completely different worlds stuck on one planet the whole idea excited me and glued me to ever word in the book. The world the book is based in alone will have you in a reading frenzy but there is so much more to the book.

Aria the dweller that’s lived her whole life in the pod playing in fantasy worlds and singing ends up being dumped into the outside the death shop. Perry a born hunter with night-vision eyes and heighted smell his a bit barbaric at times, but he does care. He just hides it well. No way would you think mixing these two very different characters together but when the author throws Perry and Aria together the book really takes on a life of its own in a way you would not believe.

The author’s writing is simply magical she wrote something so fresh and mind blowing that you can’t help but wonder how someone could think up something so dark yet beautiful. The book will reach out to anyone who loves action, love and the book is nonstop survival pushing the characters to their limits.

Prepare yourself for the ride of your life under the never sky will electrify you and have you begging for more.

Five stars

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Incarnate by Jodi Meadows review

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In a world where each soul has lived a thousand lives, each soul knows each other. Everyone has many talents and life is like a never-ending circle once one body dies the soul is reborn into the next. The people fight dragons and protected them self from the shadow sylph.

Ana is the only new soul her body was meant for another soul but Ana's soul new and fresh was born. People hate her from being new going against what they believe in. Ana has sent the last 18 years with a mother who does not love her and in truth she makes Ana's life hell, and her dad went and left them when she was a baby. Now an adult Ana plains to leave and head for heart, she hopes to find answers to why she is different. Why was she born what happened to the other soul she has so many questions that need answers but things go horrible wrong? Sylph's come for her the day she leaves and ends up nearly drowning when Sam saves her, and together they make it safely to heart but the place is not welcoming people fear and hate Ana before she can find the truth someone tries to kill her and Ana and Sam are left in danger.

Ana is the main character the book follows in a world where everyone knows each other Ana really is the outcast the new un-useful soul. Now I really loved getting to know Ana she started off as a very guarded and untrusting character fearing that everyone hated her like her mother did. I felt that watching and learning how abusive her birth mother is to Ana helps you understand why Ana was the way she was. In a world where no one helped or saved Ana from this woman who got pleasure out of Ana’s loneliness and upset. Over the course of the book, you watch Ana grow into a more powerful character, and you saw a whole new side of her that made her more loveable to the reader. Now Sam is another character you follow in the book and from the very first time I meet him. I could not help but love him. He showed Ana that people do care, and he was so kind and something I felt even though he lived some many times he was just as lost as any new soul.

The world the book was based in was like nothing I had read before the concept was brilliant with all the old souls and then introducing a fresh new soul really did suck the reading in. Then, there was the bonus of these wonderful creatures like dragons and sylphs that added this dark dangerous feel to the outside of heart. There was conflicted between some characters and the council of heart seemed to care more about keeping secrets than the well-being of their people the whole story was fantastic. . It was a beautiful world that the author thought up, but she added lots of danger and darkness that readers will love!

A magnificent start to a new series.





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The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan review

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another brilliant book from Rick Riordan. Percy Jackson has to be one of my favorite male characters his so funny and brave with the fact his been dumped in the Rome camp with no memory you would have thought he would be a bit down and lost but his personality really shine no matter how bad thing get.The story is brilliant like all Rick books its action pack, danger and lots of gods and monsters mixed in and it makes for another amazing book. I'm really hoping that he'll have another book written for the series soon because i dying to know what will happen next. Rick's books always leave you wanting more each book always seem better then the last and every page is packed fall of fun and survival.

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Unleashed (Wolf Springs Chronicles #1) by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié Review

Unleashed by Nancy Holder

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Katelyn McBride’s life changed the day her mother died. Forced to move away from her home Kat goes to live with her only other relative her granddad. Once she gets there, she finds that Wolf springs is not only cut off from the outside world but the people that live; there are guarded, they don’t trust outsiders. Kat learns that strange things are going in Wolf springs what creature is hunting young girls in the woods and why is everyone acting so weird.

Katelyn or rather Kat I found to be a really interesting character. I loved seeing the change in her as she spent more time with her granddad and the fact that the town seemed to bring out a different side in her. When you first read about her, I thought she was going to be a bit snotty but that was not the case the shock and upset of losing her mum and then having to move to the middle of nowhere meant she had to change and adjust to her new life. While she still at times tried to hold onto to that past life, she soon understood that LA was behind her. I loved getting to know Kat and understanding what went on in her head.

The storyline in this book was simply brilliant it starts off with lots of emotional. This poor girl has lost both her parents and has now been dragged to the back end of nowhere with her granddad that did not even turn up to her mother’s funeral. Not only is Kat really mad at her granddad for not being there for her, she is also anger that his making her stay in a place stuck in the middle of the woods. Kat has to start at a new school and find new friends which is not always easy but thankfully Kat finds two people she can talk to, but she feels that her friend is hiding things and then there are the weird sounds in the woods and sometimes at times Kat feels like something is watching her. It really is a lot for one already emotion character but Kat steps up you see a lot of change in her.

I felt that the book built up well with enough action and drama to keep your attention. There was brilliant family drama between Kat and her granddad but there is also weirdness with Kat’s friend family. There is also this great mystery hanging over the town that Kat is slowly picking up on. I was really glad the book was so long and unrushed because it gave you time to get to know the character and the town and learn to love them and feel a closeness to the people you are reading about. I felt the authors wrote a brilliant book with lots of romance, pain and danger all mixed up into one fabulous book. It gripped you and by the end, I was breathless for more.

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Fiction express

fictionexpress is launching a new interactive e-book today

Author: Jenny Ryan

Title: Falling backwards

Synopsis:

When a stranger takes the seat next to Leah on the plane to Mexico and unburdens her unhappy story, Leah finds herself involved in someone else's life in a way she'd never thought possible. Can Leah help April correct the mistakes of her past and find peace at last? Will she risk losing herself in the process?

"This is one of those books where you know from the start it is going to be your new favourite." 

Zoe, Bookhi blog

"I've had a sneaky peak at chapter 1, and I can tell you it's brilliant." Jenni, Juniper's Jungle blog

please check out Fiction Express website http://fictionexpress.co.uk/en/home

e 4 new dystopian fiction novels for 2012 and 2013

Starters by Lissa Price

Starters by Lissa Price an American screenwriter, publishing in April 2012, is an action-packed

thriller set in a world where eternal youthfulness can be had – at a price. One girl has the ability to

bring it all tumbling down . . . RHCB acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Heather Shapiro at

Baror International and will be launching globally alongside Random Inc for a truly international

campaign.

NO BOOK COVER

Struck by Jenifer Bosworth

A post- apocalyptic Los Angeles is the setting for Struck by Jenifer Bosworth, publishing in July 2012.

After the city is devastated by an earthquake, Mia Price finds herself in the middle of a power

struggle between two fanatical cults; one that wants to save the world and another that wants to

destroy it. RHCB acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Alex Webb of the Rights People, acting

on behalf of FSG.

NO BOOK COVER 

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna’s

Sangu Mandanna’s debut The Lost Girl publishes in early 2013 and centres around Eva, a feisty teen

girl who technically has no true identity of her own. Eva is forced to abandon everything she's ever

known and loved, finding herself torn between two worlds. RHCB acquired UK and Commonwealth

rights from Sarah Malloy of A.M. Heath acting on behalf of the Elizabeth Kaplan agency.

NO BOOK COVER

ACID by Emma Pass

And finally, children’s librarian  Emma Pass, releases  ACID in early 2013. This action-packed novel

introduces us to Jenna Strong, a truly kick-ass heroine who is serving time in an all-male prison for

the murder of her parents. Set one hundred years in the future in a Big Brother style society; Britain

is now under the control of ACID – a terrifying all-seeing police force. RHCB acquired world rights

from Carolyn Whitaker of London Independent Books