Review: Stargazer by Claudia Gray

Bianca goes to school at Evernight Academy. Bianca is a vampire-to-be, and her parents are both vampires. Vampires cannot have babies, so Bianca soon discovers the agreement made between the wraiths (ghosts) and her parents, so that she could be born.  I found it interesting that the vampires are the body, while the wraiths are the spirit.

At the Evernight Academy vampires are taught how to adapt to modern life and Bianca is trying to discover the reason why human students are allowed to attend this exclusive vampire academy.

Balthazar and Bianca pretend to have a relationship so that Bianca can sneak away from the Academy to meet Lucas, who is a vampire hunter and a member of Black Cross.

Bianca meets Charity and although Bianca feels at first that she can trust Charity, this is soon proved wrong and Charity deceives both her and Balthazar.

I loved Balthazar and felt that he honestly loved Bianca, so I was very disappointed when it ended it way it did. Was there even an end?

I did not read Evernight and I started this series with Stargazer. Although I enjoyed reading the story, when the story ended (or are to be continued) I was seriously put off when the question, What would happen if Bianca decides not to become a vampire by killing someone? was not answered. I can honestly say that I hate it when questions remain unanswered, books in a series should be able to stand on their own.

To buy your own paperback copy at Amazon (here is a link to the book page)

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New Release: Only in my Memories

Every night for the last two months Rebecca has the same recurring dream, until the day the man in her dreams talk to her and now her recurring dream is starting to intrude into her real life.

Only in my Memories is a short story and is being offered for free until the end of March 2012, so please download freely at Smashwords

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All Over Again Statistics Page

ALL OVER AGAIN

has been downloaded 30,394 times

All Over Again was first published to Smashwords.com on the 30th of August 2010 for FREE.

It was published for free because Recycled Souls was meant to be a simple love story - a story of discovery that even through many lifetimes, many mistakes and many different choices, we always end up where we are always supposed to be...

In the initial draft of Recycled Souls, Elizabeth met up with Devlin when she regressed back across the years. However, when it was time for Elizabeth to come back to the present day, Devlin kept following her. This would have turned Recycled Souls into a paranormal romance. She could have broken up with Jared because she could always feel the presence of Devlin with her.

The problem was how to get rid of Devlin again, without losing the heart of the story. And so All Over Again became a separate short story all of its own!

All Over Again was then distributed through Smashwords' channels to:

• Barnes & Noble: Sales Rank at Barnes and Noble is 3,409 (as at 24th February 2012)
• Apple iTunes
• Diesel eBooks
• Sony eReader Store
• Kobo

I submitted All Over Again to KindleBooks South Africa and it was accepted and added to their online store in August 2011.

  

In August 2011, I also decided to publish All Over Again to Amazon. I completed the information about a lower price being available elsewhere and so it was offered for FREE on Amazon.com

  

On the 17th of August 2011, All Over Again reached #1 in the top 100 free books in Children's Love & Romance Literature

On the 14th of October 2011, All Over Again reached #1 on Amazon.fr in the top 100 free books in Fantasy Anthologies

As at 24th February 2012, the Current Sales Rank on Amazon.com is 2,080 in Kindle Store and #19 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Children's Fiction > Literature > Love & Romance

All Over Again has remained in the top 2,500 downloads for 6 consecutive months. The 'dip' (hereunder) is when Amazon was charging $0.99c per download instead of the recommended RRP of $0.00.

As at date (24th February 2011) the sales rank for All Over Again on Amazon.es (Spain) is: -

Clasificación en los más vendidos de Amazon: n°5.699 Gratis en Tienda Kindle (Ver el Top 100 Gratis en Tienda Kindle)

n°64 en Tienda Kindle > eBooks Kindle > eBooks en idiomas extranjeros > eBooks en inglés > Fantasía, terror y ciencia ficción > Fantasía

n°68 en Tienda Kindle > eBooks Kindle > eBooks en idiomas extranjeros > eBooks en inglés > Infantil y juvenil > Literatura y narrativa

As at date (24th February 2011) the sales rank for All Over Again on Amazon.fr (France) is: -

Classement des meilleures ventes d'Amazon: n°6.775 des titres gratuits dans la Boutique Kindle (Voir le Top 100 gratuits dans la Boutique Kindle)

n°7 dans Boutique Kindle > Ebooks Kindle > Ebooks en langues étrangères > Ebooks en anglais > Teens > Literature & Fiction

n°8 dans Boutique Kindle > Ebooks Kindle > Ebooks en langues étrangères > Ebooks en anglais > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies

The above numbers does not include sites where All Over Again is available for online reading.

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Review: Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

AN AMAZING BOOK!!!!


Trella lives in a big rectangle. She is small and she grew up as a scrub. Because of her size, she gets the job of cleaning the ventilation systems and heating ducts. This enables her to explore the entire rectangle. With propaganda, the Pop Cops (Population Control Police) keep all the scrubs in line. Scrubs work every day and they keep the Inside clean so that the Uppers can live their lives in comfort. Thousands and thousands of scrubs walk the corridors, and Trella likes to escape into the pipes. Her friend, Cog, believes there is something better outside of the Inside and although Trella never believed this, resigned to her fate, she cannot help hoping when she fetches the discs from Broken Man’s rooms. 


What an awesome read!! I read this book in one sitting, because I could not tear my eyes away from the pages. I just had to know what the Outside was. The story develops well and keeps you wondering about the Outside until the bitter end. No matter how much my mind raced ahead to figure out what the Outside could be, in the end the Outside was not what I thought it would be.


Inside Out is available at Amazon


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Review: Soulstice by Simon Holt

Reggie Holloway is able to go into the fearscape and rescue souls, which have been ‘kidnapped’ by the Vours. Vours are demons who posses your body, but they are only able to do this on the Winter Solstice. However, they have a human helping them, who are conducting experiments underground near a mental hospital. Soon the Vours will be able to possess your body at any time of the year.


I decided to read this book based on this awesome poem on the back cover:
“Beware the darkness and the light.
They will steal your soul in day or night.
In summer’s warmth and winter’s cold
Your life will end when the Vours take hold.
In the fearscape no-one can hear you cry,
And in its depth your soul will die.”


The descriptions of Reggie’s journeys into the fearscape are spine-chilling. The images are vivid and dramatic, and you can see every detail in your mind's eye of what it would feel like within the mind of a lost soul.


Although the end was abrupt, (I suppose it is leading up to a sequel), and I did not enjoy this story as much as I thought I would, it was still a very good scary read.


Soulstice is available for purchase at Amazon

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The Dark, Dark House Statistics Page

The Dark, Dark House 

has been downloaded 8,108 times

The Dark, Dark House was first published to Smashwords.com on the 25th of September 2010 for FREE.  Reviews for The Dark, Dark House on Smashwords.com

The Dark, Dark House was subsequently distributed through Smashwords' channels to:

• Barnes & Noble: Sales Rank at Barnes and Noble is 14,951
• Apple iTunes:  The overall ratings at iBooks is 15 
• Diesel eBooks:  Sales Rank at Diesel eBooks is 3363

(Above rankings as at 6th February 2012)

I submitted The Dark, Dark House to Kindle Books South Africa and it was accepted and added to their online store in August 2011.


In August 2011, I also decided to publish The Dark, Dark House to Amazon. I completed the information about a lower price being available elsewhere and so it was offered for FREE on Amazon.com


On 14th August 2011, The Dark, Dark House reached #3 Top 100 Free books in Amazon

As at 6th February 2012, the Current Sales Rank on Amazon.com is 1,300 in Kindle Store and #18 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Short Stories


The Dark Dark House has remained in the top 1,800 downloads for 5 consecutive months. The sharp decline (hereunder) is when Amazon was charging $0.99c per download instead of the recommended RRP of $0.00

Reviews from Amazon.com 

The Sales Rank for The Dark, Dark House as at February 6, 2012 on Amazon.co.uk is #138,843 Paid in Kindle Store


The above downloads does not include other sites where The Dark, Dark House has been read online.

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Ednor Scardens by Kathleen Barker

Through the testing of allegiances, moral temptations, inevitable gathering of courage, and the everyday crucibles that a young heart must endure, readers will fall in love with 11 year old Kate Fitzgerald.

Bestselling coming of age drama from Fantasy Island Book Publishing through Amazon

When the boob fairy makes an early visit in sixth grade, eleven-year-old Kate Fitzgerald is unprepared for the repercussions. 

Her puppy-love relationship with classmate Gabe Kelsey quickly blossoms. But her carefree days in Catholic school darken with the arrival of Father John O'Conner, a predatory priest with a hidden past. 

Life becomes even more tangled when Kate falls hard for Gabe's darkly handsome older brother, Michael. The Kelsey boys couldn't be more different: one is shy and self-effacing; the other is tall, athletic, and confident.

 As the brothers battle for Kate’s affections, how will she choose without tearing their family apart? When she silently witnesses a frightening scene between Gabe and Fr. O'Conner, Kate is unaware that she is O'Conner's intended next victim. 

With her mother distracted by the strain of providing for her daughter, and a grandmother uncannily tuned in to her feelings, Kate struggles to navigate the unwanted attention from older boys and men, while trying to sort through the questionable counsel of her too-worldly best friend, Anita. 

Comical adventures lend relief to Kate’s dark struggles, especially when friends share their refreshingly naive observations about growing up. The tragic death of a classmate brings the group face-to-face with mortality, shattering their facade of invincibility.

Paperback: 320 pages
Publication Date: October 16, 2011
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0615539218

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Review: Last Seen Wearing Trainers by Rosie Rushton

Katie’s mom is a drunk and abusive. Her mom shoves her down the stairs, but still Katie convinces herself that her mom loves her. One day, after a violent fight, Katie runs out of the house and this is when she meets Joe. Joe convinces Katie to run away with him, so that her mom can be punished and mend her ways.

Katie has a younger brother, Tom, who is autistic and although he knows what has happened to Katie, he cannot find a way to tell anybody.

In the middle of the story, you understand why Joe convinced her to really run away, even before Katie does, but this does not deter from the story, because it isn’t dragged out.

All this time Katie’s mom has been running away from her past and taking her guilt out on Katie.

This story was written from the point of view of four different characters and is such a sad, sad story. Last Seen Wearing Trainers is written in such an emotional, powerful manner that at times I could not help crying.

I have to face it - the secret’s out; the secret I have spent the last fifteen years trying to hide. Fifteen years in which I’ve avoided going anywhere that He might be, fifteen years of lying and pretending and praying that things will be all right.

But God always has the last word, doesn’t He?

Book Description:

A gripping teenage novel from this provocative and best-selling writer, now available in paperback. It all seemed like such a good idea at the time; a plan that would punish Mum for what she'd done and make me happy for the first time in ages. I should have realised; the warnings were staring me in the face. But it's funny what you don't notice when you want so very much to believe in something and someone. You can go on kidding yourself for ages - until that moment when you realise that your life is on the line. That's when you discover the real meaning of love - and sometimes it's not at all what you expect.

Available at Amazon.com

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SUBJECT FWD: New Cover

Are you brave enough to delete a spam mail that promises death when you delete it?

Marlene never gave it a second thought and that night she had an uninvited visitor.

A race against time starts to stop the evil that will kill everyone who deleted the message.

Subject FWD is a Horror Fiction about spam emails that promise you wealth and fortune when you forward them, heartache and despair when you delete them.

You can buy a copy for download to your device at

Smashwords
Amazon.com

(The wheel is still turning, so it should be available at Kobo, Apple iBooks, Diesel ebooks, Barnes & Noble (Nook Books) and Sony Reader Store by next week)

Awesome review at www.bookstackreviews.com

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Recycled Souls: The Evolution of a Book Cover

In 2009 I published Recycled Souls with Lulu in paperback. In 2009 e-book(ing) was not so popular as now, and was still in its infancy. I sold 16 copies of this paperback copy (sadly not one of them was bought by my family or any of my friends)

In 2010 I discovered Createspace, Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards and the wonder of the e-book. I proceeded to publish Recycled Souls to Kindle and re-published in print with Createspace. Recycled Souls by now grew with 20,000 words and had to be re-published. 

With this edition, Recycled Souls reached the quarterfinal stage of ABNA 2010 and can proudly stand amongst the top 250 entries from 5,000 in the Young Adult Category.

In 2011, I published to Smashwords and decided that the cover needs updating. This cover brought in a steady growth of e-book downloads over a period of six months.

In August of 2011, Fantasy Island Book Publishing approached me and offered me a publishing agreement. The cover was changed to the following in anticipation to the new paper book which would have been available within a couple of months. However, circumstances beyond anybody's control prevented this from happening (and you know me - everything always happens for a good reason) This cover was created and designed by the talented Claire Chilton (Author of Whatever became of the Squishies).

Although I own the copyright to the cover below, it was decided by my publishing company that the cover be changed.

Then in December 2011 the current cover was launched and this will also be the print book cover and Kindle / Nook cover. The cover was designed and created by the creative Ceri Clark (Author of Children of the Elementi). 

The copyright is owned by Fantasy Island Book Publishing.

As I am also still self-published through Smashwords 

(to make available other popular e-reader applications world-wide) I have kept the cover separate from that of my publisher Fantasy Island Book Publishing. This cover was designed and created by a student from Design School South Africa, TSDesigns (as she likes to call herself) and I own the copyright exclusively.

With all the changes in covers, it is difficult to keep up with all my own editions (on Goodreads it is reported that I have 20 editions *gasp*) and here is hoping that these last two covers will remain

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