Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Anna Dressed in Blood
Kendare Blake
Series: Anna, #1
Released: August 30th, 2011
Publisher: Tor Teen
Rating: 4.5 stars
Fright Scale: 5 out of 10
Reviewed by: Mel

Cas Lowood, armed with his late father's athame knife, kills ghosts. In Thunder Bay, Anna, forever 16, drips blood on her white dress from throat slit in 1958, and rips apart anyone who enters her house - except Cas. He makes new friends - high school queen Carmel, jock Will, admiring nerd Thomas and Tom's voodoo grandpa Morfran - to fight this demon.

Who's The Scariest of Them All? Nominations

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest scariest of them all?

Look at what Blythe did! All the orange and black! O_O

As day two of the Halloween month, it is time to get some Halloween reads together and get reading. However, people like me, who don't read much horror/thriller/murder mystery type of books are in deep need of recommendations. So I've decided to create a post for not only just me, but for anyone else out there who is looking for some Halloween-y reads. And for all you people who read Halloween-y books like everyday, you can fill in the form below. This form is just a nomination sheet, there will be a post in around a fortnight of announcing the most nominated Halloween-y reads and then a poll will be up to choose who is the scariest of them all (maybe even a giveaway to go with *wink*. Yes, you can nominate from any main genre such as YA, MG, NA and Adult. Though let's try to stick around YA Halloween-y reads.

If you can't really tell the different between the options of scariest, creepiest and most suspenseful, here's just how I would tell them apart:

Scary= Keep the lights on and hide under your covers and stay there till morning
Creepy= Zombies, ghosts etc. Things that made your goosebumps get goosebumps
Suspenseful= Something that kept you on your toes, craving for more

 

Prepare...for Finding Fright in Books!

Why hello there earthlings!

It's finally October and that means Halloween is coming upon us very soon! Blythe and myself have a horrific month planned ahead for the blog- which for October has been renamed...

Finding Fright in Books!

Very original isn't it? So Finding Fright in Books will consist of book reviews of Halloween-y novels (yes! That's right: I, Melanie, am going to read some horror/thriller books *shudders*), interviews with some of the most awesomest authors, guest posts, competitions and giveaways!

I am not going to give much away as what this 'competition' is and exactly which authors as going to be making an appearance but... *whispers* I'll tell you a few and just pretend to be utterly unaware of it when they pop up in the upcoming weeks.

• Kendare Blake
• Katherine Ewell
• Melissa C. Walker
• Megan Shepherd
  
  

I don't know about you people but I seriously cannot wait to get things going this month!

Everyone, prepare yourselves for Finding Fright in Books! Prepare to find more amazing Halloween reads. Prepare to meet some of the best horror/thriller/paranormal authors in the YA genre. And prepare yourselves for an amazing time!

Review: No Angel by Helen Keeble

No Angel
Helen Keeble
Series: None
Released: October 8, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Rating: 3.5 stars
Word Rating: BAHAHAHA
Reviewed by: Mel

Rafael Angelos just got handed the greatest gift any teenage boy could ever dream of. Upon arriving at his new boarding school for senior year, he discovered that he is the ONLY male student. But what should have been a godsend isn't exactly heaven on Earth.

Raffi's about to learn that St. Mary's is actually a hub for demons-and that he was summoned to the school by someone expecting him to save the day. Raffi knows he's no angel-but it's pretty hard to deny that there's some higher plan at work when he wakes up one morning to discover a glowing circle around his head.

Helen Keeble's debut novel, Fang Girl, has been praised for its pitch-perfect teen voice, and VOYA called it "refreshing and reminiscent of Louise Rennison's Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series." No Angel brings you angels and demons like you've never seen them-complete with the wry humor of Vladimir Tod, sinfully irreverent romance, and some hilariously demonic teenage dilemmas.

Demons and angels and now magic kisses...I didn't ask for any of this.

Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray
Ruta Sepetys
Series: None
Released: March 22, 2011
Publisher: Philomel Books
Rating: 4.5 stars
Word Rating: What do I do with my life now?
Reviewed by: Mel

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

"We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean."

Interview with Lydia Kang (author of CONTROL)

Hey, guys! Guess what? Today on the blog we have another interview for you (did I tell you I was coming back with a bang or what?)! This time I am thrilled to have Lydia Kang, author of the upcoming (and likely-to-be-awesome) Control, stop by for an interview as part of YA Reads' 2013 Debut Authors Bash. I hope you enjoy my interview with Lydia below, and be sure to check out the other posts by bloggers and debut authors participating in this event, as well! 

Control
Lydia Kang
Series: Control, #1
Released: December 26th, 2013
Publisher: Dial BFYR
Genre: Science fiction/dystopian

An unputdownable thriller for fans of Uglies.

When a crash kills their father and leaves them orphaned, Zel knows she needs to protect her sister, Dyl. But before Zel has a plan, Dyl is taken by strangers using bizarre sensory weapons, and Zel finds herself in a safe house for teens who aren’t like any she’s ever seen before—teens who shouldn't even exist. Using broken-down technology, her new friends’ peculiar gifts, and her own grit, Zel must find a way to get her sister back from the kidnappers who think a powerful secret is encoded in Dyl’s DNA.

A spiraling, intense, romantic story set in 2150—in a world of automatic cars, nightclubs with auditory ecstasy drugs, and guys with four arms—this is about the human genetic “mistakes” that society wants to forget, and the way that outcasts can turn out to be heroes.

Once We Were Blog Tour: Interview with Kat Zhang

Hi, guys! Long time, no see. (This is Blythe here, and, as you may or may not have known, I took a break from Twitter, reading, blogging, etc for reasons that are behind me as of now.) However, I like to think that I'm coming back with a bang, because today I have an interview with the lovely Kat Zhang for you guys as part of the blog tour for Once We Were (which is released tomorrow!). And then tomorrow I have another interview for you all! But anyway, if you haven't read Zhang's What's Left of Me yet, you should really get to that because both that, and Once We Were, are really just great. 

Now, let's welcome Kat to the blog!