Guest Post: Stuart R West

Aine, thanks for having me on your blog to blather on about the Tex, the Witch Boy series. It’s a trilogy of YA, paranormal, thriller, mystery, comedic romance books. More importantly, the books tackle tough topical issues teens face daily. I want teens to know they’re not alone in their trauma, let them know there’s hope and better things on the horizon.

Tex is an ordinary teen. Awkward in his own skin. Bullied, unsure of his future, no idea what he’s doing. Worse, he’s inherited his late mother’s witchcraft powers, definitely not his choice. He’s aided by his mother’s mentor, a blue-haired, old woman. She’s fast with a head-slap, faster with her cigarette lighter. The girl he likes, Olivia, is a warrior. She takes down the high school’s scariest bully with a fire extinguisher. Then there’s Elspeth, the mysterious punker girl who’s introduced in Tex and the Gangs of Suburbia. I can’t tell you about her because she’s shrouded in mystery and then I might have to kill you. You’ll have to read the books. Really. It’s for your own safety.

Tex and the God Squad, the third and final book in the Tex series, wraps everything up. It’s about teen suicide, gay issues, religion (although, it’s not a religious book), and, of course, bad cooking from Tex’s father’s girlfriend. Ghastly. Possibly the scariest part of the trilogy. I mean, honestly, wait ‘til you hear about her recipes. Talk about horror.

Now, I must admit, I’ve already come under fire about the controversial nature of Tex and the God Squad. The bad guys—the ”Clarendon Baptist Church”—are a thinly veiled portrait of the, sadly, very real Westboro Baptist Church. I can’t make up heinous villains like this. Wish my writing skills were that good. But they’re very real. And very despicable.

Living in Kansas, I feel I must apologize for the WBC as they’re an unfortunate byproduct of my state. Sorry, sorry, sorry. But I’m doing my part. Read the book and see how Tex takes these idiots down.

Tex and the God Squad (third book)
Tex and the Gangs of Suburbia (second book)
Tex, the Witch Boy (first book)
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Tex, the Witch Boy Book Trailer:

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Book Review: Star Cursed

Cahill Witch Chronicles...

With the Brotherhood persecuting witches like never before, a divided Sisterhood desperately needs Cate to come into her Prophesied powers. And after Cate's friend Sachi is arrested for using magic, a war-thirsty Sister offers to help her find answers—if Cate is willing to endanger everyone she loves.

Cate doesn't want to be a weapon, and she doesn't want to involve her friends and Finn in the Sisterhood's schemes. But when Maura and Tess join the Sisterhood, Maura makes it clear that she'll do whatever it takes to lead the witches to victory. Even if it means sacrifices. Even if it means overthrowing Cate. Even if it means all-out war.

In the highly anticipated sequel to Born Wicked, the Cahill Witch Chronicles continue Cate, Maura and Tess's quest to find love, protect family, and explore their magic against all odds in an alternate history of New England.

I loved Jessica Spotswood's Born Wicked so much that I bought Star Cursed the day it came out and devoured it!

Oh my gods! It was so good. I didn't believe there was any way for this book to be better than the first. But I was wrong. I laughed. I cried. I screamed and yelled and cursed one particular character.

I need the final book, Sisters' Fate now. But I'm forced to wait until August 13. Eight more months!!! It's gonna be torture waiting. Trust me, you want to read this series. Star Cursed is definitely one if the best books I've read this year.

If you're like me, and eagerly awaiting the next book, be sure to check out Jessica Spotwood's website for fun extras, and be sure to drop her a note on how amazing you think her books are.

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ASTERIX AND THE PICTS

 
ASTERIX AND THE PICTS
by Jean-Yves Ferri
Illustrated by Didier Conrad
48 pp. Orion Children's Books. £10.99. (Ages 10 and up)

ISBN
9781444011678

Rating: 4.5 Stars


             This story starts with Asterix and Obelix finding a Pict man stuck in ice. Quickly, they call all of the Gauls to help them free the Pict man.  Together they take the Pict man to Getafixi's hut.  Suddenly the Pict man pops out of the ice and starts to walk. The Pict man sees a tiny man with a stone tablet talking to him and also writing things down on his stone tablet.  As the Pict man can't speak he tells them his story in actions and carves the way to his land on one of Obelix's menhirs.  Then the Gauls decide to have Asterix and Obelix take him back to his land: the land of the Picts. While on the boat the Pict man gets his voice back and tells them his name is MacAroon. 
              If you didn't already know this book wasn't written by the same writer then you wouldn't notice the difference.  However, if you did already know then you would notice small differences like how each character seems to get a more equal time in the spotlight.  Even though these books might be meant for young children, we still never cease to be amused by them. The reason for this is that our favourite character, Obelix, plays a great part in all the books and we are pleased to see that the new writer still gives Obelix a big role to play.
              We think all ages that can read should definitely read this book.  For all off the Asterix and Obelix books we give five out of five stars, for this book by itself we give four and a half stars.    

also on Guardian Children's Books Site

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Gratitude Giveaway Blog Hop (INTERNATIONAL)

Today I'm excited to participate in my first blog hop! What's up for grabs? Winner's choice of one of a premade design from Avery's Designs (plus installation*, for those who require it)!

What exactly is Avery's Designs? It's a blog design service that I recently launched which focuses on making blog design easy and affordable! 

Here are some examples of designs that the winner can choose from: 

Don't have a blog/ not in need of a blog design? Have no worries! The prize can be substituted for the winner's choice of a book $10 USD or less from The Book Depository! 

To enter, simply follow Avery's Designs in some way: on Facebook, GFC, or Twitter! Once you've followed, enter into the Rafflecopter below: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Installation only for Blogger blogs

Don't forget to enter all of the other amazing giveaways!

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ANIMAL FARM

ANIMAL FARM
by George Orwell
140 pp. Signet Classics. $8.99. (Ages 13 and up)

ISBN
9780451526342

Rating: 5 Stars


    This was a very strange but brilliant book. It really made me think about our world, as in how the government always try's to make a new start, create a better place, but making it work is hard. After a while, sometimes, bad people will take over and ruin it, making it just as bad as it started. Are all revolutions like that? This book made me think of the Hunger Games. They are both about revolutions where the new leaders end up being just as selfish as the old ones.
    This book was about a farm where the animals were angry with humans for imprisoning them, treating them badly and then killing them when they grew up. Finally they chased out the farmers and put the pigs in charge (as they were the cleverest). Snowball and Napoleon were both leaders and disagreed with each other on everything. Snowball was actually the good leader because he did everything for the good of everyone instead of being selfish like Napoleon. One day Napoleon became sick of Snowball and let 6 hounds, that he had secretly been training, loose on Snowball. This forced Snowball to flee, leaving Napoleon in charge. Will Snowball come back and create the place everyone wishes for? Or will Napoleon create a place even worse than before?
    I think this book is for ages ten and up because you need to be quite clever to get the true meaning of the story. This book definitely deserves five out of five stars. My parents told me it is a classic, and I can see why.

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"Rogue" by Gina Damico

Release Date: September 10, 2013
Publisher: Graphia
Pages: 326

From Goodreads: "Lex is a teenage Grim Reaper with the power to Damn souls, and it’s getting out of control. She’s a fugitive, on the run from the maniacal new mayor of Croak and the townspeople who want to see her pay the price for her misdeeds. Uncle Mort rounds up the Junior Grims to flee Croak once again, but this time they’re joined by Grotton, the most powerful Grim of all time. Their new mission is clear: Fix his mistakes, or the Afterlife will cease to exist, along with all the souls in it.　

The gang heads for Necropolis, the labyrinth-like capital city of the Grimsphere. There, they discover that the Grimsphere needs a reboot. To do that, the portals to the Afterlife must be destroyed…but even that may not be enough to fix the damage. Things go from bad to worse, and when at last the fate of the Afterlife and all the souls of the Damned hang in the balance, it falls to Lex and her friends to make one final, impossible choice."

"Croak", the first book in this series, was one of those books that completely took me by surprise, I had expected it to go one way, but it went in the complete opposite direction. However, I wouldn't have had it any other way- I think that it is extremely refreshing for the world of paranormal YA, especially for what we've seen from Grim Reapers stories thus far. That being said, I do think that a lot of magic from the first book was lost on the second, "Scorch". I thought that it was a bit too "out there" for my liking, making it extremely unrealistic and unrelateable. Though that didn't deter me from picking up this book, thinking that I was just suffering from a small bout of 'second book syndrome'. However, while a bit of magic was restored from the first book in the series, it wasn't as much as I would have liked.

My biggest complaint about this book was, again, how much was going on, especially within the first couple of chapters. Despite not having read the second book all that long ago, I, for the life of me, couldn't recall anything that had happened in the previous (because, again, so much occurred in it). It took me a LONG time to finally situate myself in this, being disoriented/ struggling to regain my bearing for much of it. It isn't often that I think that the first chapter of a book should recap what happened in the previous, however, I think that this series is the poster child for that.

That being said, the character growth in this series (especially this book) and the ending redeemed the book in my eyes more than I would have ever thought possible. While I had never expected this book to end the way that it did, I do think that it is perfect (plus, I love how there was a spark, no pun intended, of hopefulness). Furthermore, it's something that we don't often see in YA especially and, for that, I applaud Gina immensely.

All in all, I highly recommend this series for those looking for something different in YA paranormal- something which more so focuses on quirkiness and humor than tradition (though which does know how to be serious when the situation calls for it). I personally cannot wait to see what Gina has up her sleeves for us next (namely which paranormal beings she will tackle next).

Rating: 3/5

I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.

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"Perfect Ruin" by Lauren DeStefano

Release Date: October 1, 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 356

From Goodreads: "On Internment, the floating island in the clouds where 16-year-old Morgan Stockhour lives, getting too close to the edge can lead to madness. Even though Morgan's older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. She tries her best not to mind that her life is orderly and boring, and if she ever wonders about the ground, and why it is forbidden, she takes solace in best friend Pen and her betrothed, Basil.

Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially when she meets Judas. He is the boy being blamed for the murder — betrothed to the victim — but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find — or who she will lose."

While I only consider myself to be a mild fan of Lauren's "Chemical Garden" series (liked "Wither", hated "Fever", LOVED "Sever"), I was beyond excited for this. Why? Because Lauren's way with prose is like no other (I do, in fact, measure all other prose against hers) and because she is able to create worlds never seen before. That being said, that excitement did admittedly begin to wane the further and further I got into this novel.

I think that this book's biggest pitfalls were it's pacing, it's overall world building, and it's main character. It took me near a week and a half to get through this book (something that is almost unheard of before me, typically able to finish one or two books a day). Why? Because I found the plot to be so drawn out, almost coming to a complete standstill at times. I found that the book only really started to pick up towards the last 3/4 (if not 5/6). Additionally, I thought that the world created in this novel was a tad too similar to her "Chemical Garden" series for myself. I would LOVE to see Lauren branch out from dystopian, truly stretching herself as an author/ putting her talents to work- perhaps a hardcore science fiction or fantasy (or *gasp* a contemporary)? My largest complaint with the main character, Morgan, was that I found that she had little to no personality and, at times, leaned too much on others around her.

That being said, I LOVED the character of Basil. He is, without a doubt, my most favourite of Lauren's characters to date (out of both male and female characters). He was just so gosh darn good and you couldn't help but be swept off your feet by him. Furthermore, I did really like Morgan's brother, Lex, and his wife. While their relationship wasn't perfect, it was extremely relateable.

All in all, despite my complaints, I do believe that I will continue on with this series as I'm sure that, like her "Chemical Garden series, each book in this series will get progressively better and better.

Rating: 3/5

I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way. 

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