Book Trailers: Vicious, More Than This, Clockwork Scarab, Teardrop

A few recent book trailers:

Vicious by Victoria Schwab


More Than This by Patrick Ness


Teardrop by Lauren Kate


The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason


Super excited for all four of these books!  What do you think? Do these trailers make you more excited to read these?

Becky's View: Rapture by Lauren Kate

 
Rapture by Lauren Kate
♦publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
♦release date: June 14, 2012
♦hardcover, 432 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Fallen, book 4
(my reviews for Fallen, Torment, & Passion)

(spoiler warning: description & review may contain slight spoilers for previous books in the series!)

The sky is dark with wings . . . .

Like sand in an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past they must find the place where the angels fell to earth. Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this—live only to lose Luce again and again.

Yet together they will face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies . . . and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed. And suddenly Luce knows what must happen.

For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her—and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now will be the only one that truly matters.

In the fight for Luce, who will win?

The astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can’t wait any longer.

Review: Writing this review is feeling very bittersweet. I have enjoyed this series all the way through and I am so sad to see it end. But WOW...did it end with a bang. I finished last night and I think I am still trying to catch my breath. The entire series was a whirlwind metamorphosis---from the boarding school dark romance, to a mystery about an otherworldly curse, to a time travel epic through thousands of years, and now this: a journey of timeless love and a girl trying to find out who she is and why these incredible occurances have happened to her and her true love, the angel Daniel.

There was literally not a moment's pause in the adventure of this final installment. Daniel, Luce, and their friends are in a race against time to find the artifacts that, when brought together, will show them how to stop Lucifer from erasing thousands of years of earth's history. Rapture has a completely different feel and seemed much darker than any of the other books in the series. Emotions run deep, there are lots of surprises, and definitely some tears. If you love this series like I do, {spoiler! highlight to read:} you know there is definitely a connection to so many of the main characters and to lose any of them was devastating! The plot wraps itself up in twists and turns, groups change sides, new dangers present themselves---and the things that come to light in Rapture completely blew me away. There were things that maybe I should have seen coming, but they never even crossed my mind until I read them, gasping in shock! It was an astounding and wholly satisfying finale. I know people seem to either love this series or dislike it---but if you are one who loves it and has become completely wrapped up in the fate of these wonderful characters, I'm sure Rapture will blow you away!


Miss Lauren Kate, I will miss Luce and Daniel, Cam and Arianne, Gabbe, Roland, Molly, and the rest of them. Thank you for giving them such an amazing story! I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Visit Lauren Kate: Website • Facebook • Twitter

Purchase Rapture at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound

Trailer:


source: I purchased this one, then received an ARC for review from publisher.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Fallen Edition

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for. For my WoWs, I'll be choosing a Sooner (books released in the next month or so) and a Later (books further out). Here's what I'm eagerly anticipating:

Sooner:

Fallen In Love
by Lauren Kate

hitting shelves January 24th, 2012

description:
Unexpected. Unrequited. Forbidden. Eternal. Everyone has their own love story.

And in a twist of fate, four extraordinary love stories combine over the course of a romantic Valentine's Day in Medieval England. Miles and Shelby find love where they least expect it. Roland learns a painful lesson about finding-and losing love. Arianne pays the price for a love so fierce it burns. And for the first -and last- time, Daniel and Luce will spend a night together like none other.

Lauren Kate's FALLEN IN LOVE is filled with love stories . . . the ones everyone has been waiting for.

True love never says goodbye . . .


Later:

Rapture
by Lauren Kate

hitting shelves June 12, 2012

description:
The sky is dark with wings. . . .

In RAPTURE, the highly anticipated fourth and final novel in the FALLEN series, Luce and Daniel are together . . . but for how long? Can history be rewritten? Or are some punishments eternal?



My thoughts: Ok, so I know readers have a love or hate relationship with this series, but I have to say, I have really adored it so far! Click here to see my previous reviews and features on the Fallen series and author, Lauren Kate. SO relieved to see these two covers live up to books 1 & 2...the Passion cover was such a let-down. As for Fallen in Love, it's a collection of stories, which I don't usually go for, but with it being about characters that I'm already invested in, I'm excited for it! The ending of Passion was pretty amazing, so I can't wait to see what happens next in Rapture!

Review: Passion

Passion by Lauren Kate

publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

release date: June 14th, 2011

hardcover, 420 pages

intended audience: Young adult

previous books in series:
• Fallen (review)
• Torment (review)

rating:


source: from publisher for honest review

Warning!! Description and review may contain spoilers for Fallen or Torment!! If you haven't started this series, stop reading now! :)

description:
"Every single lifetime, I'll choose you. Just as you have chosen me. Forever."

Luce would die for Daniel. And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way. . . .

Luce is certain that something—or someone—in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime . . . going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel . . . and finally unlock the key to making their love last.

Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history.

Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames . . . forever.

Review: Throughout the great wide book-reviewing blogosphere, I see readers who love this series and people who...don't. It's just one of those things. Me...I don't know if I can pin-point the exact reason...but I absolutely adore this series. And with this latest installment, it has only gotten better.

Passion is this expansive, breathtaking race through five thousand years of Luce's reincarnations as she is desperately trying to find the answers she needs: what is the reason for her and Daniel's curse? Is there a way to break the curse? And most importantly, whether or not their love is real or just some torturous trap they are compelled to fall into lifetime after lifetime. She jumps from time to time, witnessing their love and her death over and over, trying to understand what it all means. It was fascinating to see who she was in each lifetime and how Daniel found her each time. We're swept along through Russia, Italy, France, England, Tahiti, Egypt...so many places and each one felt like it's own fascinating mini-story. I can't help but try to imagine the insane amount of research that went into making each time and place come to life. It's fast-paced all the way through, the tension builds just perfectly, leading up to an completely explosive ending! I can tell already that the next book is going to be intense and very exciting!

All my favorite characters are there again---Daniel, of course, as he chases Luce through their past lives; we get to see Cam periodically and understand him a little better. Luce's character has evolved so much from the first book, she's much stronger and determined to take the whole curse situation into her own hands. Arriane, Roland, Gabbe...we get to see them only briefly but its fun to run across their characters in different time periods. There is the addition of a new character, a gargoyle named Bill. He is a sort of guide that Luce runs into inside her announcer (for those who don't remember, the "announcers" are the shadowy portals to other times and places). He plays a very big part in the whole story. It's funny but when he was first introduced I couldn't stop thinking of him as a "jiminy cricket"-type character, even so much that when he spoke I heard a very jiminy-like voice. :)

For those of my fellow readers who love this story like I do---I hope you are as completely blown away as I was by Passion!! For those of you who haven't tried this series out yet, I highly recommend it!

Visit Lauren Kate's site here.

Purchase Passion at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound

Trailer:

Book Trailer: Passion by Lauren Kate

Just a few short weeks til' Passion!!! In the meantime, check out the lovely trailer!!

Cover Story Special Edition: a chat about PASSION

OK, guys. Let's chat. Just know, the following post will be my own personal opinion, so agree with me, disagree with me,... but I'd love to hear what everyone has to say!

If you've been a reader here for awhile, you know how much I love the Fallen series, and how I adored and practically drooled all over the covers for Fallen and, especially, Torment. Well, as most of you probably know, the cover for the third book in the series (there will be four, as far as I know) was released just last week. Take a look:

So? What do you think? I have to admit, this is my least favorite of the three. In my opinion, it's pretty but it just doesn't have the same amazing, romantic, almost tortured-love feel as Fallen and Torment, and with the story going back through the past, 5,000 years of Daniel and Luce falling in love and having it end in tragedy, I can imagine that a "tortured love" is exactly what we're going to get in this one!
Here are a few of my honest to goodness thoughts on this cover:

~I don't really like that you can see her face. It was, strangely, one of the things that I loved about the first two covers. Left Luce a mystery and we each got to build up our own little image of her in our heads! If anything, I wish a reveal of Luce's face would have been left for the final book.

~I loved the gorgeous, muted, kind of monotone color palettes of the first two. I kind of understand the addition of more color in this one, as the story "heats up", but I think I would have liked to see it stay with just the pop of color in the flower. The strange brown clouds in the back? Not a fan.

~Speaking of the flower, as I've seen the lovely Juju point out, it definitely should have been a white peony. It was mention is both book 1 and book 2 that white peonies are Luce's favorite flower. I know, picky, picky. :)

Ok, so now, I'm going to share with you a few of my alternate choices that I would have loved to see on this book. They are all, of course, chosen from the gallery of the wonderful artist who created all the covers, Fernanda Brussi. All of her work is simply amazing!! All images below have been posted with her permission, and each one links back to her gallery so you can get a better look.

<<<
This is the original of the art that was chosen for the cover. I kind of wish they had left it like this: her face more covered, no brown clouds in the back, and just that pop of red in the flower. Perfect! Plus the dress looks more flowy and soft because it was left lighter, the one on the final cover is kind of hard and stiff looking.

>>>
This one is one of my favorites in Fernanda's whole gallery. I love the white dress, and would not have minded at all if they had switched Luce to a white dress...and that little hint of her face, that is about as much as I would have been okay with, LOL.







<<<
THIS would have been my first choice for Passion, hands down. Love how she is looking over her shoulder and back (into the past?:D) Love the whispy strands of foliage and the ravens. And the gorgoeus flowing dress holds its own with the first two book's dresses.









>>>
Just another good choice, I think! :) Kind of fits with the first two.








<<<
This one would have been a fun choice, if you change the girls hair color to black, of course, and maybe kind of darken up the colors overall to flow better with the first two books. I thought with the story jumping back 5,000 years into the past, there has to be castles in the story somewhere, right?? :)






Okay, okay, I know we're not suppose to pay so much attention to covers! But when it comes to this series in particular, I seem to have built up a sort of fangirly obsession with them. Let's just say I'm very "PASSIONate" about it! (ayuck, ayuck...sorry, corny joke!) With all that said, I want to add this: Even though the cover is not my favorite of this series, you can bet I'll still be jumping up and down, first in line at my local book store when this releases!! I adore this series and can't wait for PASSION to release in June!!

Review: Torment

Torment by Lauren Kate

publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

release date: September 28, 2010

hardcover, 464 pages

sequel to Fallen (2009) (see my review here)

intended audience: Young adult

rating:


Warning! The following synopsis and review may contain spoilers for Fallen!
description from goodreads:
How many lives do you need to live before you find someone worth dying for? In the aftermath of what happened at Sword & Cross, Luce has been hidden away by her cursed angelic boyfriend, Daniel, in a new school filled with Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans. Daniel promises she will be safe here, protected from those who would kill her. At the school Luce discovers what the Shadows that have followed her all her life mean - and how to manipulate them to see into her other lives. Yet the more Luce learns about herself, the more she realizes that the past is her only key to unlocking her future...and that Daniel hasn't told her everything. What if his version of the past isn't actually the way things happened...what if Luce was really meant to be with someone else?


Review: I loved this book. I was so excited to read it because I really enjoyed Fallen. And those gorgeous covers! This book had a lot to live up to and I was definitely not disappointed. I think I would even say that I liked this one better than the first!

As Luce and Daniel's story continues, she has been relocated to an exclusive school on the west coast called Shoreline. There are normal kids there, but there is also a very large population of Nephilim there and others who can protect L ...more I loved this book. I was so excited to read it because I really enjoyed Fallen. And those gorgeous covers! This book had a lot to live up to and I was definitely not disappointed. I think I would even say that I liked this one better than the first!

As Luce and Daniel's story continues, she has been relocated to an exclusive school on the west coast called Shoreline. There are normal kids there, but there is also a very large population of Nephilim there and others who can protect Luce. This added a lot of interesting situations, because all of these descendants of angels have grown up hearing the "legendary" love story of Luce and Daniel and it puts Luce at an uncomfortable sort of celebrity status. She is not exactly sure why she is there and Daniel doesn't seem to be telling her anything. This causes a huge strain on their relationship as she just get frustrated and feels like she's being held captive and kept in the dark, and he gets frustrated that she doesn't let him protect her.

Luce kind of infuriated me in this one. Yes, I saw her side of it. She was left completely in the dark about what was going on and she tried to stand up for herself by leaving if she wanted to and try to take some power into her own hands, and that was commendable. On the other hand, I kept thinking, this angel who loves her and has been around for thousands of years is telling her to lay low for her own protection---why would she rebel against him like a petulant child? But maybe that's just the "motherly" way of thinking in me. They did a lot of fighting in this one, needless to say! But they also had a lot of very sweet intimate moments, too. Luce does a lot of looking into her own past once she learns how, and she begins to doubt her future with Daniel and remorse for the pain that their love has caused her countless families in her past lives.

There is so much going on in this one and it gets so exciting. You're constantly trying to guess who can be trusted and who will turn out to be on the side of evil! What I loved about this plot was that it completely blurred the line that separated the angels from the demons. The new characters are all great in this one, and I was so overjoyed that some of the awesome characters from the first book pop up in this one, too. Especially Arriane, who was a favorite of mine in the first, next to Penn---I almost wished Luce would mysteriously start being able to talk to ghosts so we could see more Penn!

All in all, a fantastic addition to this trilogy! There are still questions that need to be answered and it's going to be a long wait for the third book! It already sounds like it's going to be an exciting chase through 5000 years of Luce and Daniel's past!!

Visit the gorgeous website for this series here!
Visit Lauren Kate's website here!

Contest Reminder and Applause for Lauren Kate!!

Just poppin' in with a few random things!

First off, today is the last day to enter my Book Birthday contest for a chance to win a copy Linger, Shadow Hills, Sleepless, or Siren!! I'll be cutting this off at tonight at midnight PST. Click HERE to enter before it's too late!

Secondly, I want to give a huge shout out to one of my favorite authors who is using her powers for good!! :) Lauren Kate, author of Fallen and the upcoming Torment (can't wait!!) is running the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training in two months! Now, as most of you who have been reading my blog for awhile have heard me mention before, I'm a leukemia survivor myself---okay, well, still fighting the fight,...but I'm almost there and determined to win!! So, seeing my own favorite writers participate and give back with things like this strike a particularly special chord with me. :) AND you'll never believe what she came up to help raise money for her fundraising goal: She is auctioning 40 signed copies of her books to the first 40 people who donate (actually I think she tweeted that she's got 20 more books to add to that!). She's even including a few copies of Torment!! Check out her post about it here, and I definitely encourage everyone who can to donate to this awesome cause---I know my life would be very different without organizations like the LLS and Team in Training and all the money they raise for leukemia and lymphoma research! And to Lauren, thank you so much for what you're doing!

Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

Fallen by Lauren Kate

publisher: Delacorte Press

released: December 2009

hardcover, 452 pages
intended audience: Young adult

rating:


Description for bn.com:
Seventeen-Year-Old Luce is a new student at Sword & Cross, an unwelcoming boarding/reform school in Savannah, Georgia. Luce’s boyfriend died under suspicious circumstances, and now she carries the guilt over his death with her as she navigates the unfriendly halls at Sword & Cross, where every student seems to have an unpleasant—even evil—history. It’s only when she sees Daniel, a gorgeous fellow student, that Luce feels there’s a reason to be here—though she doesn’t know what it is. And Daniel’s frosty cold demeanor toward her? It’s really a protective device that he’s used again . . . and again. For Daniel is a fallen angel, doomed to fall in love with the same girl every 17 years . . . and watch her die. And Luce is a fellow immortal, cursed to be reincarnated again and again as a mortal girl who has no idea of who she really is.

Review: I really liked this one. It was darkly romantic and incredibly edgy, fast-paced and mysterious. In the prologue you meet Daniel and Lucinda for the first time in the past, and it's definitely important because it explains that his cold demeanor toward her when they meet in the present is put on just to keep her safely away from him, otherwise you might think it's not at all romantic, he's just being an ass! (That's not a spoiler! It even says this right there in the book description!) The story gets alot of cool edginess from being set in a reform school rather than just a regular boarding school. With that fact, you get alot of characters with sordid pasts and clashing attitudes, makes for lots of interesting conflicts. My favorite was Penn (Pennyweather Van-Sykle Lockwood..I love it!) and Arriane, who definitely keeps you guessing about her loyalties through the whole book. As a matter of fact, this can really be said about quite a few of the characters, and I love a story that keeps you guessing! Still, while I know this is going to be a series and alot of juicy details have yet to be revealed, I would have like to have a few things explained in this first book---like why the"thing" that happens to Luce and Daniel happens if they end up together. (Sorry for the vagueness--trying not to spoil anything!!) And I will say, the Epilogue left me wondering what the heck is going on???

On a side note: I listened to most of this story on audio book and read the last third of it. I found it a little hard to absorb as much with the audio book. I can't say I particularly like the voice it was read in, especially for this story. The reader's voice seemed a bit unsuited to this story at times. And I haven't listened to many audio books, but I'm finding that it bothers me when a female reader puts on a deeper voice when she's reading the male dialogue. It was also read a smidge on the slow side, which was slightly frustrating. I actually ended up playing it at a higher speed which I thought would annoy me at first, like being read to by one of the Chipettes...but it turned out sounding a little more like the actress Kristen Chenoweth, who I love! So that worked out better and it still is incredibly convenient to be able to listen while driving and while doing my book mending at work. :) So, lesson learned, it the future I will have to be a bit more picky about my audio books. I would hate to think less of an awesome book because I am distracted by the performer!

Anyhow, with all that said and done..I can't wait to read the second book! Torment hits shelves on September 28th, 2010!!