The Grace Year by Kim Liggett @Kim_Liggett @PRHAudio #KimLiggett #TheGraceYear #BookReview

Hello book friends,

I hope you are having a wonderful day, I’m here to bring you a review for a new YA Dystopian read that will be coming to the Big Screen near you soon.

Rumour has it that Elizabeth Banks is directing and producing it so it’s sure to be a hit!

My Thoughts

🅷🅰🅽🅳🅼🅰🅸🅳🆂 🅼🅴🅴🆃🆂 🅺🅰🆃🅽🅸🆂🆂 🅴🆅🅴🆁🅳🅴🅴🅽

🅼🅴🅴🆃🆂 🅻🅾🆁🅳 🅾🅵 🆃🅷🅴 🅵🅻🅸🅴🆂

The Grace Year is a bit like Fight Club, as in, no-one speaks of it, in fact you are not *allowed* to speak about it.

All you know is that when you get to a certain age (16) you start to release your “Magic” and this magic is what lures men to their knees, you at 16 years of age could entrance a grown man from is married bed into yours, just by the smell of your skin! (insert eye roll here)

Because as we all know Men rule the roost and heaven forbid a girl actually grows into a woman and a man can’t keep his hands (and other things) to himself!

And so, these poor girls, in packs have to go and spend a year banished into the woods, so that they can “release their magic” and then come back all purified and shit, to be married off to whomever the men decide.

And this is what happens to our main character Tierney James, she doesn’t want to go, but she has to be seen to be obeying the rules.

But she doesn’t want to go, she’s heard all of the rumours about the poachers out there that hunt the girls, and the last few years some of the girls haven’t even made it back alive!

Escaping poachers is one thing, but what happens when the pack starts to turn on itself?

A really clever YA take on a Dystopian that is in the same vein as The Handmaids Tale and The Hunger Games, it’s sure to be a big hit with many.

🎧🎧

Narrated by Emily Shaffer, who did a great job and has just the right voice for a young teenage girl.

Enjoy

Vicci 📚💛✨

About the Book

Amazon UK*

*Affiliate Link

The resistance starts here….

No one speaks of the grace year.

It’s forbidden.

We’re told we have the power to lure grown men from their beds, make boys lose their minds, and drive the wives mad with jealousy. That’s why we’re banished for our 16th year, to release our magic into the wild before we’re allowed to return to civilisation. But I don’t feel powerful. I don’t feel magical.

Tierney James lives in an isolated village where girls are banished at 16 to the northern forest to brave the wilderness – and each other – for a year. They must rid themselves of their dangerous magic before returning purified and ready to marry – if they’re lucky.

It is forbidden to speak of the grace year, but even so every girl knows that the coming year will change them – if they survive it….

The Grace Year is The Handmaid’s Tale meets Lord of the Flies – a feminist dystopia about a young woman trapped in an oppressive society, fighting to take control of her own life.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman @NealShusterman @audibleuk #AudiobookReview #YoungAdult #SciFi

Hello literary lovers!

I’m super pleased to bring you a review for this fantastic YA book, from the master himself.

Why did you pick it up Vicci? –  Neal Shusterman always seems to write the best books, it always has a little ‘what if’ in there, and he always makes you sit back and think, could this really happen?

My Thoughts 

Another brilliant read by Mr Shusterman, who is becoming one of my favourite YA authors, his stories are always new, unique and interesting.

Set place in the future, us humans have managed to eradicate disease, ageing and even suicide, they have even put a stopper in death itself!

Obviously if you cannot die then the world would become over populated, this is where the Scythes come in.

Scythes are death, they are trained in the art of death, you don’t know when it will be, but one day while you are sitting around the table having your evening meal with your family, or on the way to work on the bus, or driving your car, you will be met, and killed by a Scythe!

But who chooses who is going to die?, well the world is now being run by an AI called The Thunderhead, the Scythes are instructed and they will find you to “Gleen” you, the only way that you can actually die, or they can randomly choose someone, after all they do have targets to meet!

Because of this the Scythes are treated as celebrities, they will never have to wait in line, or pay for their meals, they are waited on hand and foot, presumably to try and get a pardon from them.

After finding a couple of teenagers that Scythe Faraday deem to be suitable for apprenticeships, Rowan and Citre have big decisions to make, do they take the job, do they want to be killers? If they do then they can get immunity for their family, but it is a big gamble to take, because only one of them can be a Scythe, so what happens to the loser?

I loved the world building in this story, and Shusterman always plants the ‘What if’ seed into all of his stories, they make great BookClub reads.

🎧🎧 – Brilliantly narrated by Greg Tremblay, I can’t wait to read the next book in the series

Happy Reading

Vicci x

About the Book

Scythe
By: Neal Shusterman
Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
Series: Arc of a Scythe, Book 1
Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
Publisher: Audible Studios

Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Lets Connect!

Goodreads

Twitter

Instagram

Come and join our Facebook Group

Vicci 📚💛✨

 

Dry by Neal Shusterman & Jarrod Shusterman @NealShusterman #JarrodShusterman #AudioBookReview #YoungAdult #Dystopian

Hello everyone, hope you are having a fabulous day!

I’m super happy to bring you this fantastic Dystopian read from the brilliant Neal Shusterman.

If you haven’t read any of his books before I would highly recommend it, my review for his other book Unwind is on the blog somewhere.

⭐⭐⭐⭐·5 Thirsty Stars

The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbours and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.

My Thoughts

⭐⭐⭐⭐·5 Thirsty Stars

Do you know what’s lovely? being able to go to the tap…turn it on…and water come out of it.
To be able to fill your glass and quench your thirst with a lovely cool glass of water.

To be able to run a bath, or have a shower, an extra long shower at that!

But what would happen if that all of a sudden stopped one day, without even a warning, just stop!

I mean there has been a drought in the area for a while, everyone knows that, and the usual bans have been in place, don’t water your lawn, don’t take long showers, don’t fill your pools…..but this is… different!

You’d check around your area right? Then you’d check the news to see if something was wrong. Then you’d see that there was a “Tap-Out” and the water had been turned off, so you sit and make a plan.

You would obviously then run to your nearest supermarket to stock up on bottled water right?

But everyone else has the same idea, and there isn’t enough water for everyone, so you manage to buy a few bags of ice and get out of the store before the fighting and riots start.

You keep checking the news but it’s not even mentioned on there, just a throw away comment about 3 million people without water.

And even though the government say that water is on the way, there is a heatwave and you are…just…so…thirsty!

And days…weeks later…there is Still. No. Water!

So what would you do for a sip of water?
Ask someone nicely?
Beg someone?
Lie to someone?
Steal from someone?
Hurt someone?
Kill ……….

This is what our characters have to deal with, and there are a lot of characters, we have 4 main ones, but it also jumps between others so that you can see how the Tap-Out is affecting everyone.

After always having the rest of the neighbourhood laughing at him because of him preparing for an Apocalypse, Kelton is the one having the last laugh as he and his overprotective father sit and drink their water from their self sufficient, no-thanks-I-don’t-need-your-electricity-I-have-my-own house.

On the other side of the street however Alyssa and Garrett are not having such a great time, their parents are who-knows-where, and they don’t have any water…

Jacqui is a badass, nothing more needs to be said about her, you’ll love to hate her, she’s a bitch, but she’s brilliant!

The “Water Zombies” are just scary, again because it could be any one of us.

I can’t tell you how many gallons of water i must have drunk listening to this, it just made me so thirsty, and the thought of not having anything, and how quickly this can escalate made me very uncomfortable.

Neal Shusterman is a master at these sort of stories, Unwind was the first series of his i read, and it soon turned into one of my favourites.
He makes you want to discuss the book, they are fantastic for Book Clubs, because even though they are Dystopian reads, they could actually happen!
The fact that he has written this with his son, and that they are looking to bring this to the big screen brings me all kinds of joy.

🎧🎧 Narration – This was a full cast audio, including narration from both Neal and Jarrod Shusterman, now at the beginning it gives the “This is Audible” section, and says that it is narrated by the authors, i was a bit 😨 about that, because in *most* (not all) cases, authors that narrate their books are a bit 😲 So i was shouting “Noooooo” at my phone.

But i am happy to say that 1. There is a full cast of narrators, and they do it brilliantly, and 2. Neal and Jarrod Shusterman are FANTASTIC narrators!!

If you like a Young Adult book then you should get this. If you like Dystopian books you should get this. If you like a great story, well you should get this book!!

Drink Up!

Vicci

Folsom by Tarryn Fisher and Willow Aster #ExcerptReveal @DarkMarkTarryn @WillowAster #endofmen #fisherandaster #riseofthewomen #folsom

We are super excited, and very proud to bring you a little snippet of the bound-to-be-brilliant new book from Tarryn Fisher and Willow Aster.

Get it added to your TBR, it’s going to be massive, this will be like The Wicked Witch and the Good Fairy wrote a book together 😂

#WhoWonTheWorldGirls

FOLSOM

Release Date:

May 29, 2018

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39934742-folsom

Synopsis for FOLSOM:

The nation as we know it is a thing of the past.

With the male species on the verge of extinction, a society called the End Men is formed to save the world. Folsom Donahue is one of twelve men whose sole purpose is to repopulate the Regions. The endless days spent having sex with strangers leaves Folsom with an emptiness no amount of women, money, or status can fill.

Until Gwen.

Gwen has wanted a child for as long as she can remember, but when she finally gets a chance to have her own, she uncovers a long hidden truth. The injustice she sees moves her to help save the men whom no one else believes need saving.

A forbidden love, grown in a time of despair, ignites a revolution.

Folsom and Gwen, torn between their love for each other and their sense of duty, must make a choice. But some will stop at nothing to destroy them.

Folsom is book one of the End of Men series.

Folsom by Fisher & Aster – Cover Reveal – @DarkMarkTarryn @WillowAster

Good morning and Happy Friday to you all.
Today I am super excited to reveal a new cover for one of my favorite authors.

Tarryn has joined forces with Willow Aster to release a new bound-to-be-brilliant book, I can’t wait to read it 😍

We are so excited to reveal the cover for Folsom by writing duo Tarryn Fisher and Willow Aster coming on May 29th!

The nation as we know it is a thing of the past.

With the male species on the verge of extinction, a society called the End Men is formed to save the world. Folsom Donahue is one of twelve men whose sole purpose is to repopulate the Regions. The endless days spent having sex with strangers leaves Folsom with an emptiness no amount of women, money, or status can fill.

Until Gwen.

Gwen has wanted a child for as long as she can remember, but when she finally gets a chance to have her own, she uncovers a long hidden truth. The injustice she sees moves her to help save the men whom no one else believes need saving.

A forbidden love, grown in a time of despair, ignites a revolution.

Folsom and Gwen, torn between their love for each other and their sense of duty, must make a choice. But some will stop at nothing to destroy them.

Folsom is book one of the End of Men series.

Coming May 29th

Contemporary Romance with a side of Dystopian

Cover designed by Hang Le

Tarryn Fisher is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of nine novels. Born a sun hater, she currently makes her home in Seattle, Washington with her children, husband, and psychotic husky. Tarryn writes about villains.

Website: www.tarrynfisher.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authortarrynfisher

Instagram: https://instagram.com/tarrynfisher/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@DarkMarkTarryn

Willow Aster is the author of True Love Story, In the Fields, Maybe Maby, Fade to Red, and Lilith. Willow loves nothing more than writing the day away—anywhere will do. Her husband and two children graciously put up with her endless daydreaming and make fun of her for reading while cooking.

Website: www.willowaster.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/willowasterauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willowaster1/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WillowAster

Flashback Friday Featuring – Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer – #fbf #young adult @susanbpfeffer #Sci-fi

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Stock up on tinned goods stars

Synopsis

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all–hope–in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

Review

This one my first (of now many) YA books I loved this series, but this one will hold a special place in my heart for the introduction of other fantastic books.

I was quite worried about re reading this as this was my first YA book that I read a couple of years ago and it holds quite a nice little place in my heart, however I was not disappointed phew !

16 yr old Miranda gives us a blow by blow account of her life from her diary, and what a life it is.

The strange thing is I’m sure this could happen, I mean REALLY happen, and that is what scares me, I’ve read some reviews that are shouting about the size of the meteor and the trajectory of it etc. but it’s a book, a fiction book but I mean it could happen !

So, everyone and his dog are watching a meteor hit the moon in a ‘Sky at Night ‘ kind of thing.

Everyone is outside watching, there are parties and picnics  – however when it hits IT HITS !!!!!

The moon gets moved off its axis and comes a little bit closer to earth.
The scientists did not really do their math correctly and didn’t realise the size of the meteor, (as I said it’s fiction obviously if the moon was going to be hit by a meteor I would hope that scientists would be able to tell the size of the thing!)

Anyhoo the moon controls our tides and things right?

So after the now mahoosive moon is hit, the world starts going all weird, like tidal waves and tsunamis, volcanoes and earthquakes, you know the usual Saturday night out in town!

Soo most of the world seems to be wiped out, BUT because you are only reading Mirandas diary, you are kept in the dark about what is going on elsewhere in the world, and you feel the suffocation as her world slowly gets smaller and smaller until they are all living in 1 room sharing 1 tin of soup between 4 people.

The starving is this one thing that gets to you, I felt really guilty while I was reading this for even drinking a cup of tea !

I will be reading the rest of the series again and the new book is out this year as well so I hope that it continues from Mirandas point of view.

I would thoroughly recommend reading this book – its fab.

Enjoy,

Vicci

Flashback Friday Featuring ~ Starters by Lissa Price

Happy Friday peeps!

My #FlashbackFriday read was a complete accident, i needed a book that was set in LA for a reading challenge, and i stumbled across this little beauty.

I went in completely blind thinking i was going to hate it, and ended up loving it!

Starters by Lissa Price

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Dystopian Stars

Synopsis

HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator’s grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

Review

Sleep on a floor in a derelict house?

Struggle to feed yourself every day?

Are you underweight due to the lack of food you are eating?

Do you hate being unclean and smelly?

Do you want to be beautiful?

Then all YOU need to do is pop down to PRIME DESTINATIONS and we can solve all of your problems.

Small print …….
Prime Destinations will insert a microchip into your brain and hook you up to another person so they can be you, the other person is an “Ender” (an old rich person who age is on average 100 yrs old). Here the Ender will leave their body wired up and enter your body, becoming you for a week/month/year……however long you signed up to rent your body out for. You will of course be paid well for this “donating” and we will also make you beautiful again. Your new body user will sign a contract to make sure that they use your body in the best possible way without damaging it at all

Come on down to PRIME DESTINATIONS to make your dreams of being rich a reality.

Callie is aware of Prime Destinations (the body bank for short!) Her and her brother Tyler are starving, and he is really ill, she finds that she has no choice but to donate her body for a time to get money to pay for her little brothers treatment, and to get enough money for them to maybe buy a home for them both… This was a bad mistake, she knew it as soon as she leaves Prime Destinations, she knows it as soon as she starts to black out, she definitely knows it when she wakes up with a gun in her hand!

Good book with a story that kept me engaged all the way through, a couple of good twists too that I didn’t see coming, I will definitely look out for the 2nd book in the series to find out what happens.

🎧🎧Great narration by Rebecca Lowman, a new-to-me narrator, she did a great job🎧🎧

Choose Wisely,

Vicci

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Noisy Stars!

WOAH! !!!!!!!!! 6 Stars ♡

Synopsis

Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee — whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not — stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden — a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

Review

Hang on there a minute…….

This book was sooo good I can’t explain.

This has loads of good stuff in it including spacemen and a talking dog!! I know right, sounds like a complete disaster but it works

Todd is a young boy, he will be a man soon, he is twelve years and twelve months old, and will be 13 and a man in one months time.

Todd and every other man in Prentistown is plagued by ‘the noise’ where everyone can hear your thoughts, EVERY thought!

There are no women as they all died when they caught the virus when they landed on the new world.

The virus was spread by the Spackle, the alien race that lived there before and who they killed in the war, there is none left.

Todd has a dog called Manchee who is hands down the best character ever, as he is a talking dog!!

When the men caught the noise virus, all of the animals also started to talk, I mean really talk not just woof woof.

It reminded me of Doug from Disneys UP, (I even googled it to see if the book was written after, and guess what….it was BEFORE!)

The 1st paragraph is the funniest ever….

The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say. About anything.
“Need a poo, Todd.”
“Shut up, Manchee.”
“Poo. Poo, Todd.”
“I said shut it.”

Classic!

Todd finds a secret that he wasn’t supposed to and had to run away from the town, he now has to leave where he grew up and everything he knows and find his way, however he doesn’t know where he is going or what he is running from.
All he has is a map and a book from his mother….trouble is, he can’t read.

The audio was brilliantly narrated by Nick Podehl, very funny when the dog was talking and all of the characters were well narrated, it even had a little singing in it.

A fab read with a huge cliffhanger at the end, get ready to queue up #2 straight afterwards!

Prepare to be amazed,

Vicci

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline #FlashbackFriday #bookreview

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

☆☆☆☆☆ Florescent jelly shoe stars!

Synopsis

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

Review

Wow I loved this book.

If you fancy rooting in the back of your closet and finding your old leg warmers, jelly shoes, ra-ra skirts and different colored luminous socks, then this is the book for you.

With references throughout to the 80’s from movies to music and beyond, this book brought out my inner nerd, and I didn’t even know I had one.

Anyway I’d love to chat, but I’m just sticking on my Wham 12″ vinyl and crimping my hair……..everyone sing after me, “Club Tropicana drinks are freeeeeeeee! !! ”

You don’t need any blurb, go on and give it a try ……you might like it.

Excellently narrated by Wil Wheaton of Star trek / Big bang Theory fame, this book is a must for all of you 80’s fans, read it before the movie comes out later on in the year.

Like, Read on Dude!

Vicci

Unwind

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 OMG Stars

Blurb

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child “unwound,” whereby all of the child’s organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn’t technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

Review

Love this series, and the audio narration was fab from Luke Daniels, he managed to capture all of the characters brilliantly.

So this book is a scary look into our future (maybe) if we dont sort our sh*t out!!

Basically there was a civil war about abortion rights and pro life stuff, nobody could agree on anything, and it got kinda messy for a while.

Then someone came up with a brilliant plan and everyone seems to agree with it, thus ending the civil war and begining the age of Unwinding.

Now if i was to say to you go and unwind, you would perhaps grab a book and put your feet up…..not to these kids, this is what they see when they hear the words Unwind.

Basically from the age of 13 until you are classed as an adult at 18, your parents or legal guardians can have you Unwound, legally aborted!!!!

But wait there is more……

Oh yes my friend there is much….much more!

Don’t feel guilty about sending your child to be Unwound, because even though they will not be them anymore, each piece of them will be used in other people, 99.6% of your childs body parts will be re-used, just think, your little Timmy’s hands could be given to a concert pianist, and you could see him performing on a big stage one day!

And don’t worry about them being scared, the pepole in the Harvest Camps look after them really well, there will be a nurse with them every step of the way, because as we all know, by law they have to be awake throught the whole procedure!

Connor isn’t a bad kid, not really, but he has got into trouble more than a few times, and his parents don’t know what to do with him……..so they sign the Unwind order……Connor doesn’t want to be Unwound

Risa is a Ward of the State, an orphan, she is taking up space in the state home, so they sign the order…….Risa doesn’t want to be Unwound

Lev……Well, Lev is a Tithe and he can’t wait to be Unwound!!! It is what he was born for, and has been told about it his whole life, ……….Lev is excited about being Unwound!

We havent’t even touched on other subjects like Storking….

Or even Clappers!

But i think you will have to read the book for that, as everything is not as it seems…………

Drop what you are doing and read this little cracker if a book NOW!!!!!

Enjoy,

Vicci