Friday, September 30, 2016

THE WOMEN IN THE WALLS by Amy Lukavics | Review

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Title: THE WOMEN IN THE WALLS

Author: Amy Lukavics
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Genre: Young Adult Horror
ISBN: 0373211945 (ISBN13: 9780373211944)



Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're inseparable—a family.

When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for generations.

Friday, September 9, 2016

The Baby by Lisa Drakeford | Review




Publisher: The Chicken House
Publish Date: October 26th 2016 (1st published: July 1st 2015 UK)
Page Amount: 256 Pages
Price: $17.99 Hardback
ISBN: 0545940273 (ISBN13: 9780545940276)
Learn more about the book on Goodreads here!



When Olivia opens the bathroom door, the last thing she expects to see is her best friend Nicola giving birth on the floor – and to say Nicola is surprised is an understatement. She’s not ready to be a mum, and she needs Olivia’s help. But Olivia has her own problems – specifically her bullying boyfriend, Jonty, and keeping an eye on younger sister Alice. And then there’s Nicola’s friend Ben, who’s struggling with secrets of his own …

I'll be honest, when I looked at the summary for this book, it didn't seem like it fit my taste of books. I thought that the summary was a little bit "weird" and that this book would take me places I didn't necessarily want to go. I wasn't sure that THE BABY was a good fit for me, and I strayed away from this book, until it appeared on a fellow book blogger's blog.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

My Favorite TV Shows! | Top Ten Tuesday

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is TOP TEN TV SHOWS or a variation on that theme, because of Fall TV shows. For this week, I thought I would share some of my favorite TV shows with you. I blog an awful lot about books and I figured that this would give you a better opportunity to get to know me!

Here we go!

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Tell Me Something Real by Calla Devlin | Mood Board, Blog Tour & Giveaway!






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ABOUT TELL ME SOMETHING REAL:
Three sisters struggle with the bonds that hold their family together as they face a darkness settling over their lives in this masterfully written debut novel.

There are three beautiful blond Babcock sisters: gorgeous and foul-mouthed Adrienne, observant and shy Vanessa, and the youngest and best-loved, Marie. Their mother is ill with leukemia and the girls spend a lot of time with her at a Mexican clinic across the border from their San Diego home so she can receive alternative treatments.

Vanessa is the middle child, a talented pianist who is trying to hold her family together despite the painful loss that they all know is inevitable. As she and her sisters navigate first loves and college dreams, they are completely unaware that an illness far more insidious than cancer poisons their home. Their world is about to shatter under the weight of an incomprehensible betrayal…
 



ABOUT CALLA DEVLIN:
Calla Devlin is a Pushcart nominee and winner of the Best of Blood and Thunder Award whose stories have been included in numerous literary journals and in anthologies, including Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers Reflect on the Mother-Daughter Bond, for which she was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Magazine. Tell Me Something Real is her first book.
LINKS: Website | Twitter



Instead of answering the "typical" questions that I would for a mood board like this one, I wanted to just take a minute and chat about my mood board, and what I wanted to incorporate in my mood board. 

From scouring Goodreads, I learned that each of the three sisters has their own way of coping with this news. One of the sisters turns rebellious and has a bit of a swearing problem. She also learns to draw in order to release her emotions. Another has a deep connection to the piano, and she invests more of herself into music as the situation with her mother gets worse. The youngest sister develops an obsession with Catholic Saints. The father of the three girls is seemingly absent, because he pours himself into his work. Each of the characters in this book has an extremely unique way of coping with the situation in front of them. I wanted to do the best that I could to capture that in a mood board, because I do believe that it speaks loads about the characters themselves. 

The other pictures in the mood board tell the basic story. The three sisters who have their hair braided together lets you know that the story follows three sisters. Sure, the focus of the book is on the middle sister, but there is a very large amount of importance and stressed placed on familial relationships, hence why all three girls are included. The hospital beds clearly represent the clinic that the mother has to go to for her treatment (and yes, I did try to find a picture that was historically accurate!). Lastly, the tears and hugs represent the emotions of the characters and just the fact that they are trying to cope in and of itself. 

I had a blast making this mood board! In fact, I didn't even speak about why I am so interested in this book to begin with! (I might as well do that now, because I feel like it didn't come across as much as I would like in the mood board. Hannah had pitched this book to me as a dark historical fiction, and yes, it is historical! It takes place in the 1970s, while also dealing with something that is still close to home today. I thought that was an extremely interesting combination and I knew it would hook me right away. Not to mention the mystery surrounding the lies within the family, and a big secret that is revealed in the book!

Overall, I really enjoyed making this mood board! I love being able to share "new-books-to-me" with my readers, because I do hope that these books will interest you and/or you will want to learn a little bit more about them! I'll definitely have a review for this book later on my blog, but for now, I want to share a little treat with you all!

GIVEAWAY
(3) Three Finished Copies of TELL ME SOMETHING REAL! (US only!)

Hannah from Irish Banana Tours and the publisher have happily sponsored a giveaway for all of you! This giveaway is tour-wide and US only (sorry, international people!). 

By entering this giveaway you acknowledge that I Turn the Pages is not responsible for and cannot be held accountable for any part of this giveaway. This includes the shipment of the prize, notification of a winner, etc.!

Click below to enter!

Don't forget to stop by the other amazing blogs on this tour to learn a little bit more about Calla Devlin and TELL ME SOMETHING REAL! Just like the sisters in the book, we all have our own ways of sharing information and being a part of a great tour! Plus, why not familiarize yourself with some other amazing blogs? The tour schedule is listed below for your convenience, and you can click the name of each blog to be taken to their website. :)


Tour Schedule:
Week 1:

Week 2:
9/1: I Turn the Pages - Mood Board  <-- That's me!!

Again, I just want to say a big thank you to Hannah from Irish Banana, Calla Devlin and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to be a part of an amazing blog tour for an amazing book!