Showing posts with label aliens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aliens. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Happy Release Day to Abducted Life by Patricia Josephine!

My friend Patricia Josephine (aka Patricia Lynne) has a new book out! I had the pleasure of beta reading Abducted Life, and I loved how original it was - just like all of Patricia's other books. Plus, would you look at that cover? So beautiful. Read on to find out more about Patricia's newest release, read a teaser, and find out where you can buy the ebook. 


Savannah Janowitz’s perfect life was destroyed the night she and her boyfriend vanished without a trace. When she reappears a year later––alone––she’s a shell of her former self. Robbed of her popularity and her boyfriend, she has no memory of what happened to her. Savannah struggles to move forward as strange, new abilities manifest.

Evan Sullivan never gave extra-terrestrials much thought until the night he and Savannah were abducted. While Savannah’s memory was wiped clean, he remembers every horrific detail. Constantly reminded of the experiments that made him less than human, Evan hides in the shadows and watches Savannah rebuild her life without him. But neither can let the other go.

When their paths cross, Savannah and Evan finally see a glimmer of their old lives return. As they face what happened to them, they soon discover they aren’t safe. There’s more to fear than what’s hiding in the stars.


Patricia Josephine never set out to become a writer. In fact, she never considered it an option during high school and college. She was all about art. On a whim, she wrote down a story bouncing in her head. That was the start of it and she hasn't regretted a moment. She writes young adult under the name Patricia Lynne.

Patricia lives with her husband in Michigan, hopes one day to have what will resemble a small petting zoo, has a fondness for dying her hair the colors of the rainbow, and an obsession with Doctor Who.

You can find her lurking on Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, and Wattpad. Find the latest news at her website or sign up for her newsletter. A link to all her books can be found here.




Want a little teaser from Abducted Life? Read on!


White-hot light stung his eyes. The roar of an engine shook his eardrums, threatening to burst them. His arms and legs were pinned to the cold ground. Above, a massive craft hovered. It was black and sleek, like a giant Porsche with wings instead of wheels. Turbines beat out a frantic rhythm, and yellow lights flashed along its belly. With a low warble, the craft lifted up, vanishing among the stars in a matter of seconds. 
Silence settled over the field. He rose to his feet. His only thought was to reach the girl lying motionless nearby. He stumbled across the flattened grass to Savannah. Her skin was washed white in the moonlight, and her strawberry blond curls were in tangles. She didn’t respond to his touch, but her breathing and pulse were steady. He gathered her into his arms. 
In the distance, sirens wailed. Headlights raced down the road toward them. Panic lodged in his throat, and he bolted up. If they saw him… 
The unconscious girl sprawled at his feet made him pause. He reached for her, but the dark green stripes coloring his arm made him recoil. He couldn’t allow her to see him either. She wouldn’t remember and would be repulsed with what they had done to him. He curled his fingers into a fist and ran to the edge of the field where the trees promised safety. 
Hidden, he watched the police cars turn onto the field, kicking up dust in their wake. They skidded to a stop. Their headlights illuminated Savannah. Officers hurried to her with their hands on their guns. One knelt next to Savannah and placed two fingers on her neck.
“Call an ambulance,” he said. “She’s alive.” 
“Is it her, Jimmy? The Janowitz girl?” 
“I hope so.” 
“But where did she disappear to? It’s been a year since she and Evan Sullivan went missing in this field.” 
The officer beside Savannah shook his head. He stared at the starry sky. 
“Dunno.” 
An ambulance’s red and white lights flashed in the darkness. Its call was mournful. The paramedics tended to Savannah. She woke as they worked. Tears blurred his vision when she whispered his name. 
I’m here, Savvy. 
But he wasn’t. He sank into the shadows of the forest and vanished.

Buy Abducted Life now for just 99 cents!

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Friday, April 26, 2013

Review: Quicksilver by RJ Anderson


Quicksilver by RJ Anderson
Series: Ultraviolet, Book #2
Published: May 2nd, 2013
Publisher: Orchard Books
314 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Young adult science fiction
Acquired this book: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Warning: Will contain spoilers if you haven’t read Ultraviolet
{GoodReads || Buy this book: Book Depository || Amazon || Chapters/Indigo}

Back in her hometown, Tori Beaugrand had everything a teenaged girl could want—popularity, money, beauty. But she also had a secret. A secret that could change her life in an instant, or destroy it.

Now she’s left everything from her old life behind,
including her real name and Alison, the one friend who truly understood her. She can’t escape who and what she is. But if she wants to have anything like a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unusual...talents.

Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears and gives Tori some bad news: she hasn’t escaped her past. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-cop turned investigator for a genetics lab.

She has one last shot at getting her enemies off her trail and winning the security and independence she’s always longed for. But saving herself will take every ounce of Tori’s incredible electronics and engineering skills—and even then, she may need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.

 
Quicksilver picks up where Ultraviolet left off, but instead of getting Alison’s point of view, we now get Tori’s perspective. She and her family have left Sudbury and changed their names (Tori is now Niki) and Niki has to keep a low profile to avoid being found not only by the police and doctors who would like to test her strange DNA, but also from Mathis, the villain in Ultraviolet.

After really enjoying Ultraviolet, I had high hopes for Quicksilver, and while I won’t go so far as to say I was disappointed, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did its companion. I found Alison’s story more compelling and mysterious, and I was fascinated as we learned about her synesthesia. There was something about Alison that drew me in, even though I couldn’t really relate to her, and I didn’t feel that as much with Niki.

That being said, I thought Niki was a great character. She was tough and brave, and, like Alison, she learned a lot about herself and the people around her through the course of the book. Anderson has a knack for writing very well developed, original characters. Neither Alison nor Niki were your typical heroines, and I loved that. The secondary characters are also well fleshed-out and unique. I was glad to see Faraday return, even though I spent most of the book trying to figure out whether to trust him or loathe him (but I loved that - the not knowing; it kept me on my toes). The little bits of Alison we saw made me very happy, and it was nice to see her get some closure after the hell she went through.

I guess my main issue with this book was the pacing. It’s not necessarily that it’s slow, I think it’s more the content that made it a slow read for me personally. I’m not the least bit scientifically-inclined and I know next to nothing about engineering, so those parts (which make up a good portion of the book) were kind of tedious for me, and my attention would start to wonder, and then I’d get confused because I didn’t really understand what Niki was trying to do.

The last quarter of the book, however, was anything but slow. There’s a certain incident that really kick-starts the action, and from that moment on, I was captivated. It was a shame that it came so late in the book, but it ended up changing my overall feelings toward the book (for the better), and I finally became invested in what was going to happen. I’m talking edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting tension that alternately makes you want to scream in horror and squeeze Niki tight for being so incredibly brave and selfless and stupid and brilliant all at once.

Ultraviolet and Quicksilver are unlike anything I’ve ever read. I suppose you could say they were both a step outside my comfort zone, and I’m glad I took that step. Even though I didn’t enjoy Quicksilver as much as Ultraviolet, they’re both books I won’t soon forget. And you know what? Most of the people I know who have read this book have nothing but glowing things to say about it, so don’t take my word just because I didn’t love it. If you’re a fan of very original, well-thought-out stories with plots that keep you guessing, and kick-ass heroines paired with other fantastically three-dimensional characters, give Quicksilver a try. I’m sure you won’t regret it. 

 
 
{Read my review of Ultraviolet}

Have you read Ultraviolet or Quicksilver? What did you think? Do you have any recommendations for books that you would consider genre-bending?


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Review: Ultraviolet by RJ Anderson


Ultraviolet by RJ Anderson
Series: Ultraviolet Book #1
Published: June 2nd, 2011
Publisher: Orchard
303 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Young adult science fiction
Acquired this book: From the library
Warning: May contain spoilers
{GoodReads || Buy this book: Book Depository || Amazon || Chapters/Indigo}

"Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her."

Sixteen-year-old Alison wakes up in a mental institution. As she pieces her memory back together, she realizes she's confessed to murdering Tori Beaugrand, the most perfect girl at school. But the case is a mystery. Tori's body has not been found, and Alison can't explain what happened. One minute she was fighting with Tori. The next moment Tori disintegrated—into nothing.

But that's impossible. No one is capable of making someone vanish. Right? Alison must be losing her mind--like her mother always feared she would.

For years Alison has tried to keep her weird sensory abilities a secret. No one ever understood—until a mysterious visiting scientist takes an interest in Alison's case. Suddenly, Alison discovers that the world is wrong about her—and that she's capable of far more than anyone else would believe.

 
Ultraviolet grabs the reader’s attention immediately by starting off with a confused sixteen-year-old girl waking up in a mental institution, unable to remember how she got there or why she’s there. As Alison slowly remembers not only the incident that put her there, but also flashbacks about her cold mother and less-than-stellar childhood, we get a sense of who Alison is, and it’s hard not to sympathize with her because she seems so broken.

The book starts out as one thing - seemingly a contemporary YA ‘issue’ book dealing with mental illness - and morphs into something completely different and unexpected. I won’t say too much, because I think people who don’t really know the premise of the book will be pleasantly surprised with the twists and turns this book takes as it slowly transitions into a genre-bending tale that incorporates elements of the paranormal, real life issues, and romance.

I really liked Alison. Even though she was hard to relate to, there was something about her that drew me in and fascinated me. She was so terrified - of herself, of hurting others, of her strange abilities - and it made her withdraw into herself. As she lives in the mental institution, it’s not her therapy sessions that help with her personal growth, it’s the other patients. She discovered that not only have people always misjudged her, she’s also misjudged them. She’s been so busy worrying about herself and what’s wrong with her that she didn’t look beyond her own little world long enough to learn about other people. It was interesting watching her growth, especially as she learned that what she thought was wrong with her wasn’t actually a bad thing.

Ultraviolet was a fascinating look at mental illness, and what is mistakenly perceived as mental illness. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’d never heard of Alison’s condition before, and now I’m quite interested in learning more. The descriptions were done in a way that made me able to picture it, and the bits that were explained by both Alison from a sensory perspective, and Faraday from a scientific perspective were very well done.

Speaking of Faraday, the secondary characters were all great. Anderson did a good job of fleshing them out and making them come alive, from the doctors to the patients and everyone else in between. I particularly liked Faraday and what he represented for Alison, and how his presence added to the whole mystery of the book. I also enjoyed the little hints of romance, but appreciated that it never took over the story.

My only issues are small ones. The paranormal/sci-fi part was quite short and while it didn’t feel rushed, I wish there had been more of it. Some of the parts where Alison was in the hospital dragged a bit - not enough for me to lose interest, but once or twice I wished she would just move on and that something new would happen.

Emotional, mind-bending, and captivating, Ultraviolet is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s always fun when a book takes you by surprise and flips around into something completely unexpected, and that’s exactly what Ultraviolet did. I would recommend this one for fans of science fiction and books that defy traditional clear-cut genres. 

Have you read Ultraviolet? What did you think? Have you ever read any books that start out one way and then shock you by turning into something completely different?
 
 

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Book Review: Cicada by Belle Whittington


Series: Cicada, Book #1
Published: September 13th, 2011
Publisher: Self-published
113 pages (ebook)
Genre: Young adult science fiction
Acquired this book: From the author in exchange for an honest review
Warning: May contain spoilers
{GoodReads || Purchase this book: Amazon}

Summertime for Blair Reynolds and her friends had always been carefree and fun... until the summer they happened upon something that was not human. As they band together in a fight for their lives, Blair's true love becomes something more than human. Something unnatural. And their survival depends entirely upon their ability to keep a secret.




I liked the concept for Cicada. This was my first alien book, and I thought the idea behind it was interesting. Unfortunately, the execution left a lot to be desired.

Cicada was a short book - only 113 pages in e-format - but it took me almost a month to read, because I had so much trouble getting into it. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and didn’t feel that any of them really grew or had any depth. The dialogue was often stiff and unnatural, and while swearing doesn’t bother me, it, too, felt unnatural - like it was thrown in for the sake of making the characters appear stressed or as if they were acting out of character. I also found the story quite repetitive - Blaire’s thoughts, especially.

A lot of questions were raised surrounding the aliens, the death of Blaire’s dad and brother, and what was going on with her other brother and her love interest Everett, but I didn’t feel like any of the questions were actually answered. Instead of answers, there were just more questions. The book ended really abruptly, and although I realize this is a trilogy, it felt like an odd ending, and I’m - unfortunately - not really curious enough to read the next book to see what happens.

As always, if this book sounds like something you'd be interested in, I encourage you to give it a try and see what you think. I know people who have enjoyed it, and just because I wasn't one of them doesn't mean I don't hope you will be. ;-)

2.5 stars

Have you read Cicada? What did you think? Have you read any other alien books?

 
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