Review: Firelight by Kristen Callihan

Title: Firelight
Author: Kristen Callihan
Source: Grand Central Publishing via Netgalley
Date Released: 1st February 2012
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository
Sapphired Dragon Rating: ****

Synopsis ( via Goodreads):
London, 1881
Once the flames are ignited . . .
Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family's fortune decimated and forced her to wed London's most nefarious nobleman.

They will burn for eternity . . .
Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it's selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can't help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn't felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.(less)


Review:

Like the Firelight of this book's title, this book started at a slow burn and slowly built up intensity and light drawing you into the story bit by bit the till the light was shining full force and you were hooked on the story and anxious to find out how irt would conclude.

Callihan lays the setting well, painting a convincing portrait of England in the late 19th Century and from the beginning introduces her main characters of Miranda and Archer well so you are in their corner from the beginning of the book.

This is not however a straight forward tale. Callihan tells the story from a number of different viewpoints that it adds to the mystery rather than takes away from it until you find yourself wondering along with Miranda what lies behind Lord Archer's mask and what is the story behind it.

Between the mystery that is Archer's past and the mystery unfolding around the two leading characters including gruesome murders that some how tie into Archer's mystery past, Callihan creates a tale that will keep you on the hook till the final page.

A tale definitely worthy of 4 stars.
Sapphires Dragon xx

Teaser Tuesday #18

Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays.


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:


1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too muchaway! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My current read is Firelight by Kristen Callihan and my two lines are  :


"She had brought him back from London and so she would live. For now. "

Purchase:  Amazon | Book Depository |

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

Review: New Girl by Paige Harbison

Title: New Girl
Author: Paige Harbison
Source: HarlequinTEEN via Netgalley
Due out: 31st January 2012
Pre-Order: Amazon | Book Depository
Sapphired Dragon Rating: ****

Synopsis (via Goodreads):
They call me 'New Girl'...

Ever since I arrived at exclusive, prestigious Manderly Academy, that’s who I am. New girl. Unknown. But not unnoticed—because of her.

Becca Normandy—that’s the name on everyone’s lips. The girl whose picture I see everywhere. The girl I can’t compare to. I mean, her going missing is the only reason a spot opened up for me at the academy. And everyone stares at me like it’s my fault.

Except for Max Holloway—the boy whose name shouldn’t be spoken. At least, not by me. Everyone thinks of him as Becca’s boyfriend but she’s gone, and here I am, replacing her. I wish it were that easy. Sometimes, when I think of Max, I can imagine how Becca’s life was so much better than mine could ever be.

And maybe she’s still out there, waiting to take it back.

Review: 


You know there is something special about a book when you start it on the train home at approximately 6 pm at night and don't manage to put it down until you are finished in the wee hours of the following morning.  This is one of those books. 

This story is not about one new girl but two.  First there is Becca, who wants to be the 'IT" girl, that girl that all the boys want and all the girls want to be and the second, the girl who comes to Manderley the following year after Becca mysteriously goes missing and has to deal with trying to fit when all the other students see her as the girl trying to take Becca's place. 

Hardison expertly weaves the tales of the two girls together into a story that keeps you hanging on each word until the end trying to piece together the puzzle of what happened.

This story surprised me in that I didn't know too much about it when i started reading it so wasn't not expecting to get as caught up in the tale as I did.


I definitely recommend this book and give it a Sapphired Dragon rating of 4 stars! :)

Sapphired Dragon xx

In my Mailbox #17

Welcome to  In My Mailbox, a meme run by The Story Siren where each week over 200 bloggers post on their blogs the books they have bought, received to review or won in the past week.

To find out more information, get involved yourself or see what's in other bloggers mailboxes this week head over to The Story Siren or to find out what is in my mailbox this week, keep reading.

Don't forget to comment and post your IMM link or just let me know what's in your mail box this week

Had a great week this week and got some awesome books.  the first of which are for review:

Goddess Interrupted (Goddess Test #2) by Aimee Carter   Pre order: Book Depository | Amazon
Spellcaster (Spellbound #2) by Cara Lyn Shultz   Pre order: Book Depository | Amazon

 The Goddess Test and Spellbound were two of my favourite books of 2011 so I was incredibly excited to get these through Netgalley to review.  Can't wait to read them!

I have done a wee bit more purchasing on my kindle:

The Universe Parallel by Traci Harding                      Purchase: Amazon

The Ancient Future by Traci Harding                          Purchase: Amazon

Being of the Field by Traci Harding                            Purchase: Amazon

So in preparation for the Light-Field coming out on Feb 1 and because my paperback copies are currently packed away, I purchased the first two books of the The triad of beings series on my kindle and as my two paperback copies of the The ancient future are also packed away and I am in the mood to read it again, I got this also :)

Next up, and awesome offer from my favourite author Traci Harding and Harper Collins Voyager.  To celebrate the release of Traci's 15th & latest book The Light-Field on 1st February 2012, between the January 9 and March 1, readers can download an e-copy of one story per week for 6 weeks, each of the 6 stories from Traci's print book Ghostwriting to to be published as an e- book in March 2012.  This offer is available on Kindle, Nook and Itunes but I think it may only be available to Australian readers or readers with a registered Australian address.

For more information, go to www.traciharding.com

This week's free story was :

Purchase: Amazon 

And then I won a giveaway at Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me and Harper Collins Australia which arrived also this week:

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Only one book from the library this week and would you believe I read it in just a couple of days? :

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Totally awesome book and I will be posting my review later this week :)

So what was in your mailbox this week?

In My Mailbox #16

Welcome to  In My Mailbox, a meme run by The Story Siren where each week over 200 bloggers post on their blogs the books they have bought, received to review or won in the past week.

To find out more information, get involved yourself or see what's in other bloggers mailboxes this week head over to The Story Siren or to find out what is in my mailbox this week, keep reading.

Don't forget to comment and post your IMM link or just let me know what's in your mail box this week

So a slightly slower week this week which is not necessarily a bad thing as it gave me some time to catch up on my reading :) This week for review:

Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel       

Pre order: Book Depository | Amazon

I also did some more purchasing on my kindle.  Got paid this week so bought:

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand           

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Next up, and awesome offer from my favourite author Traci Harding and Harper Collins Voyager.  To celebrate the release of Traci's 15th & latest book The Light-Field on 1st February 2012, between the January 9 and March 1, readers can download an e-copy of one story per week for 6 weeks, each of the 6 stories from Traci's print book Ghostwriting to to be published as an e- book in March 2012.  This offer is available on Kindle, Nook and Itunes but I think it may only be available to Australian readers or readers with a registered Australian address.

For more information, go to www.traciharding.com

This week's free story was :

Purchase: Amazon 

And then there were some Kindle Freebies:

Slumber by Samantha Young

Blood will Tell by Samantha Young

Smokeless Fire by Samantha Young

Every Last Kiss by Courtney Cole

Lastly, now that I have read all the Sookie stackhouse novels,  I returned these to the library and have borrowed the first book of the Harper Connelly series ( also by Charlaine Harris) and a couple of other books:

Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

My Love Lies Bleeding by Alxandra Harvey

Blood Feud by Alxandra Harvey

Out for Blood by Alxandra Harvey 

So what was in your mailbox this week?

Teaser Tuesday #17

Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays.


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:


1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too muchaway! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
4. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My current read is The Hollow by Jessica Verday and my two lines are from page   :


"The shop itself looked like it had once lived a past life as a grand old turn-of-the-century house, complete with gingerbread trim, floor to ceiling windows, and a gabled roof.  The outside was painted in several varying shades of green and magenta that complemented each other wonderfully, and I knew this was the type of store I wanted to own one day."

Purchase:  Amazon | Book Depository |

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

In My Mailbox #15

Welcome to  In My Mailbox, a meme run by The Story Siren where each week over 200 bloggers post on their blogs the books they have bought, received to review or won in the past week.

To find out more information, get involved yourself or see what's in other bloggers mailboxes this week head over to The Story Siren or to find out what is in my mailbox this week, keep reading.

Don't forget to comment and post your IMM link or just let me know what's in your mail box this week

So given that January is Netgalley Month, I have received a few more books from Netgalley to read and review:

Ghost Music by Graham Masterton

Katana by Cole Gibson
Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey
The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
Scarlet by A C Gaughan
The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry
Firelight by Kristen Callaghan

I also did some more purchasing on my kindle :):

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

I am anxiously awaiting next payday to buy the sequel Hallowed :)

And then there were some Kindle Freebies:

The Legacy of Kilkenny by Devyn Dawson

Raven by Suzy Turner

Seed by Ania Ahlborn

Lastly I seem to have acquired an addiction to Sookie Stackhouse novels so i have been stalking my library to borrow ( and read) all of them in the last week or two.  Along with a couple of other books, here is what I have borrowed this week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

The Hollow by Jessica Verday

Reckless by Cornelia Funke   

So what was in your mailbox this week?