Hey my lovelies, this weeks review is Sweet Liar by Debra Doxer, you may remember that I reviewed the first in the Like Candy duology last August, and have finally got around to reading the final one. This review contains spoilers for the first book. I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review thanks to netgalley.

Title: Sweet Liar
Author: Debra Doxer
Publisher: Smashwords
Pub. Date: October 20th 2015
Date Read: Sunday 19th June 2016
Pages: ~
Rating:3.6/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: Sometimes lies are sweeter than the truth. Beauty is alluring; it can disguise the ugliness beneath. But scarred beauty is even more potent to a girl who vowed never to let her heart be broken again. It was an easy vow for Candy to keep until she met Jonah, an arrogant boy with a face that would be too perfect if not for the scar that marred the skin beside his eye. That imperfect boy earned her trust and won her heart, but the ties that bind people together are fragile, especially when lies are told. Trust is also fragile, and once broken, doesn’t heal like a heart. Trust has to be earned again, and Jonah desperately wants Candy’s trust back. But Candy has more than Jonah to worry about. Her father is in trouble, and she intends to help him whether he likes it or not. People tell her he’s a bad man, and that may be true, but he’s not all bad. Deep down, she understands his brand of badness because she’s so much like him. When Candy finally learns the truth, she’ll have to grow up fast, let go of old grievances, and realize that being vulnerable doesn’t make her weak. In fact, opening herself up may be the very thing that makes her whole again.

Sweet Liar picks up where Like Candy left off, Candy shooting at Jonahs dad, this leads us straight into the main question, what does Candy's father actually do for a living. But even though we get the answer to this, it then causes you to have double the amount of questions. I did not enjoy this one as much as the last, as the overall novel was alright for me, however I did not find it anything special and probably would not read it again. One of the things I have always enjoyed about this series is that the plot is completely unrealistic and would not happen at all in real life, as even though I am sure certain plot devices used are real e.g spys, assassins etc. The thought of the father going through all that trouble to inconsistently hide what he does and then allow his daughter to do what he does is completely unrealistic to me. After the events of the last novel Candy has got trapped in her fathers messed up world, which is even worse than she could imagine, as her fathers enemies are now her own, and her own enemies that she never even considered are coming out of the woodwork.

There is a lot of character development for Candy in Sweet Liar, as the first one mainly showed her assertive and aggressiveness towards other people. However, this one mainly shows her growing as a person and realising you can't solve everything with your punch. And as an adult you need to choose when is best to pick the fight. This book also changes your opinions about certain characters completely, so be aware of some plot twists!

I read this book in two sittings, which is quite strange for me as I usually read much larger books in only one, however at certain points I simply got bored of the writing. As for me some chapters were simply too long and caused the story to get dry, which is why the overall rating is only 3.6 out of 5. A huge thank you to Debra Doxer and Netgalley for sending me this ebook for free in exchange for an honest review.

Recommend...

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the first novel, or was willing to read a duology following an eighteen year old girl thrust into her fathers world of espionage.

Book Links

Goodreads ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon US 

Thank you for reading my lovelies, this is it for this week, if you would like to see more of what I am currently reading you can check me out on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter. 

Previous Book Review: Mirror Image by Michele Pariza Wacek

Next Book Review: Zero by Morgan Dark

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Hey my lovelies, today's book review is of Mirror Image by Michele Pariza Wacek, which was provided to me thanks to Worldwind Book Tours and Michele Pariza Wacek.

Title: Mirror Image
Author: Michele Pariza Wacek
Publisher: Love-Based Publishing
Pub. Date: May 28th 2016
Date Read: Wednesday 8th June 2016
Pages: 272
Rating:4/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: Which would be worse, knowing that your dead sister has come back to life and is now a serial killer or that someone else is the killer….and that person is you? Six months after Linda's sister Elizabeth killed herself, Linda has finally gotten her life back to some semblance of normalcy. Until a killer appears who is stalking men ... a killer who resembles Elizabeth ... a killer who seems somehow familiar to Linda.  And, to make matters worse, Steve, her old high school crush and now a detective, is assigned to this case. He's asking Linda all sorts of questions, questions Linda couldn't possibly have an answer to. There's no reason for him to be investigating Linda. She couldn't possibly have anything to do with this. Could she?

Mirror Image follows our main character Linda, who is not exactly having the good life she hoped for. She came from an abusive home, and her sister, Elizabeth committed suicide earlier this year, leaving no body behind. Due to her sister’s death, part of her feels guilt for never noticing anything wrong, and also relief due to the trials and tribulations that she put her through as both a child and an adult. Due to all of this Linda’s health is on a downward spiral, causing her to significantly lose weight and for her mental health to decrease. Which cause her to have blackouts, where hours disappear, causing her to have no idea where she has been or what she has done.  And when men are getting murdered in her town and she starts seeing the dead men in her nightmares, she can’t help but freak out. And when a former friend turned detective arrives back in time and starts asking questions, which Linda doesn’t want to know the answers to, she can’t help but get more stressed.  

Mirror Image is not a long book, however it took me quite a while to get into it, however as soon as I was about 60% in, I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. I loved the tension the book created, as it even left me guessing on what the genre really was. The writing was overall good, and I thought the point of view change on the chapters was quite refreshing, as the book was predominately in Linda’s point of view, however every few chapters there would be a character from different points in Elizabeth and Linda’s life, giving further insight into their lives and what Elizabeth really was like as a child. And another point is that I did not guess the plot twist at the very end, which recently I have been doing an awful lot of.  One of the only negatives I have for this book is that there was some unanswered questions at the end, these could be simply due to me missing the part or it was meant to be left open. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the book as I really enjoyed the writing and hopefully I shall be reading more of Michele Pariza Wacek's books in the future. 

About the Author

When Michele was 3 years old, she taught herself to read because she wanted to write stories so badly.

As you can imagine, writing has been a driving passion throughout her life. She became a professional copywriter (which is writing promotional materials for businesses), which led to her founding a copywriting and marketing company that serves clients all over the world.

Along with being a copywriter, she also writes novels (in fact, she just published her first novel, a psychological thriller/suspense/mystery called “The Stolen Twin” and her second novel “Mirror Image'” is set to be published in May 2016) plus, she is also the author of the “Love-Based Copy” books, which are a part of the “Love-Based Business” series and cover both business and personal development.

She holds a double major in English and Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently she lives in the mountains of Prescott, Arizona with her husband Paul and her border collie Nick and southern squirrel hunter Cassie.

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon  Instagram

Recommend...

I would recommend this to anyone who likes psychological thrillers with hints of the supernatural and a whole lot of suspense. 

Book Links

Amazon ~ Goodreads

Follow the entire MIRROR IMAGE Tour here

Brought to you by Worldwind Virtual Book Tours

Thank you to Michele Pariza Wacek and Worldwind Virtual Book Tours for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Thank you for reading my lovelies, this is it for this week, if you would like to see more of what I am currently reading you can check me out on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter. 

Previous Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Next Book Review: The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker

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Hey my lovelies, welcome to my May monthly wrap up and my June tbr! This month I seemed to have quite a bit of difficulty getting into books, as I started reading a few and then put them down. However, I did go on a short holiday at the end of  the month, so I got to do quite a bit of reading whilst travelling. And because of this I ended up reading a grand total of 9 books.

 

The first book I read this month was The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey, I really enjoyed this book, a lot more than I expected to. Which is why I rated this a strong 5 stars, recently I have gotten a bit overwhelmed with my reviews, and I felt like every book I read I had to review, so I have now scrapped that idea and am only reviewing the books that I want too and ones that I've been requested to read. Anyway, back to the Fifth Wave, if you haven't already heard about the fifth wave, how have you not? The film came out earlier this year and the book is probably one of the most talked about in the ya book blog/booktube community. And it is worth the hype.

The second book I read this month was Verge by Rebecca Bradford, I received this for free in exchange for a honest review. This book was not what I expected it to be, as it went down a different paranormal route than i originally thought it would go down. In order to fully understand what I mean, you can check out my full review of Verge here.

The third book I read this month was Out of Order by Casey Lawrence, I received this as an arc for free in exchange for a honest review, I really enjoyed this book and whilst reading I had tears in my eyes and I honestly felt for the main character Corey so much, which is why I rated it a strong 4.5 stars. To find more information about Out of Order you can read my full review of it here.

After reading three books that were supposedly first books in a series (Two of which the sequels have yet to be released), I decided I wanted reminisce a bit and read one of my favourite book series when I was younger and decided to pick up the Missing/1-800-where-are-you series by Meg Cabot. The first time I read this series I was in Year 4, which is probably slightly too young for the books, but I have always enjoyed her writing and when I realised I had not read anything of hers for awhile. I picked them up and ended up reading When Lightning Strikes, the first book in the series, Code Name Cassandra (book two), Safehouse, Sanctuary and Missing You.

The ninth book I read this month was The Wedding Trap by Adrienne Bell , this was one of them books that I saw was free on kindle, and decided to give it ago, however it wasn't for me and didn't really suit my reading needs, as I am not a fan of insta-love at the moment.

I also began reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor and got 87% through it, before finishing it on June 1st, a full review of this shall be posted on June 3rd.

The first book on my June tbr is Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor, due to me finishing Daughter of Smoke and Bone and wanting to find out why the second book in the series is so amazing. And then to find out how the series is going to end, which is why the second book on my June tbr is Dreams of Gods and Monsters, the third and final book in the series. 

The third book I plan to read is Half Lost by Sally Green, which is bought forward from last months tbr, as I didn't manage to get the chance to read it due to having to read other books in exchange for a review. 

That is it for this months tbr and wrap up my lovelies, I have decided on a small tbr this month, as hopefully it will allow me to actually finish this months and to get through the above mentioned books. 

Thank you for reading, To keep more up to date with what I am reading, you can check out my Twitter, Goodreads and Instagram. 

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Hey my lovelies, today's review is of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, after receiving this series for my birthday, I decided to finally pick it up whilst on a weekend break. And I have to say even though I am writing this review, I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the book. As I did not particularly love it, but I didn't dislike it either. It was simply alright. And that is never really a good thing to say in a book review, as overall I found the book meh. However, I have been told by quite a few people that they didn't find the first book all that interesting, but fell in love with the second book, so I am willing to persevere with the series.

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pub. Date: September 27th 2011
Date Read: Wednesday 1st June 2016
Pages:  418
Rating:3.5/5 stars
Summary: Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.  In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.  And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war. Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Overview

Daughter of Smoke and Bone follows Korou living her life as a art student and as a monsters apprentice, whilst trying to figure out how everything links in her life, as well as who and what she is. To be honest, I didn't think the book was going to go in the direction it did, I thought it was about a girl who was the daughter of a angel and demon, and it was her figuring it out and saving the world, instead it was the opposite and had nothing to do what I thought. 

Writing

For me there was something missing in the writing, I am not exactly sure what it is, but there is definitely something missing. And this has nothing to do with it being in third person, as I personally like third person and prefer it over first. 

Characters

Korou is our main character and has the predominant main role through out the book. She seemed very unsure of herself at the beginning, as she was not very confident when dealing with certain characters, as she almost lied to the reader and pretended like she didn't know what was going on, when she did know what was going on, if that makes sense. This made me feel very deceived as a reader and not in a good way, like some psychological thrillers made me feel that I read last year. This made me distrust the character and then throughout the novel, I disliked more and more of the choices she ended up making. 

Akiva is the love interest of Karou, and has a few chapters with him in the main role. I personally found him quite annoying as I think he was made to make us sympathize with him, and even though we get to know his backstory, I felt I didn't get to know him and his personality, which I would have much preferred. 

I personally thought that a few characters seemed to get dropped as soon as they were found uneccesary and then never mentioned again, which I didn't like, as I now have no idea why they were added to the book in the first place. Examples of this include the the best friend and the ex-boyfriend. 

Relationships

In preparation of what to write in my review I have checked out various other reviews and most of them didn't think that what Karou and Akiva had was insta-love, but for me it definitely was, and they went from practically trying to kill each other to wanting to be together, and to me that is simply insta-love and right now, I am not a fan of it. As a lot of the books I have been reading recently have had it, and I personally love a good slow burn story, where the characters only get together later on once everything is fully developed. 

Conclusion 

Overall, this book is a strong 3.5 to me, mainly because I didn't dislike it or particularly love it either, so I'm going to stick it in the middle and hope for the best with the rest of the trilogy. 

Would I Recommend this....

Yes, mainly because I have been told that the sequel is amazing. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys books with the classic angel vs. demon/devil story line.

Book Links

Amazon UK ~ Amazon.com ~ Waterstones ~ Goodreads

Please note that some of these opinions could change once I have read the rest of the books in the series, as these could make some of the decisions made in the book make more sense, and could cause me to enjoy the book more. Thank you for reading my lovelies, this is it for this week, if you would like to see more of what I am currently reading you can check me out on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter. 

Previous Book Review: Out of Order by Casey Lawrence

Next Book Review: Mirror Image by Michele Pazia Wacek

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Hey my lovelies, this month has not been a good reading month, I have only read a total of five books.

I have been in a reading slump this month, and after reading Ugly Love at the beginning, I couldn't get into any other books. This was not because Ugly Love was a bad book, in fact the opposite. It was really good, but just one of them books where you can't be bothered to read any other books because the last one you read was so good.

The second book I read was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, this was also another good book, but I don't think it had the full impact on me due to me taking large break periods of a couple of days between picking the book back up.

The next three books I read this month I was sent as arcs, thanks to netgalley. They were The Sham by Ellen Allen. Suicide notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten and The Stellow Project by Shari Becker.

That is it for this month my lovelies, To be more up to date on what I am reading and buying follow me on my twitter, instagram and Goodreads.

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Hey my lovelies, here is this months TBR! Due to last month I didn't read as many books as I wanted. I have only chosen five books to read this month and any more are an added bonus.

The first book I plan to read is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I have wanted to read this for ages, but only picked it up from my local bookstore earlier this week. Hopefully there should be a review coming out for this.

The second book I want to read is The Enemy by Charlie Higson, I am not usually much for apocalyptic zombie books but it was only a £1 so I figured I would give it a go. There should be a review of this, once I have read it.

The third book I am going to read is To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han, this is going to be the seventh book by Jenny Han I have read (Burn for Burn series and the summer trilogy). I have immensely enjoyed all of Jenny Hans book so far, as I have previously completed two of her trilogies already. I believe this is set to be a trilogy and the sequel has already come out, which I will buy if I enjoy this.

The fourth book I plan to read is Talon by Julie Kagawa, Who wouldn't want to read a book about dragons? I wanted to read this book for awhile now and I recently saw it in my local stationary shop under 3 books for £5.00, so I figured why not?

The final book I plan to read is Panic by Jeff Abbott. This was one of the books I chose for the offer above. Normally I would not be interested in a book like this, but I figured I would give it a go, as it had a similar summary to the Abduction film starring Taylor Lautner and Lily Collins, so I picked it up.

That is it for my June TBR my lovelies, these are the main books I plan to read, but hopefully I will read more books, but only time will tell!
To be more up to date on what I am reading you can follow me on Instagram, Goodreads and Twitter.

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