Reading Rainbow: Die For Me by Amy Plum

When I first heard about Die for Me by Amy Plum, it was described as a zombie love story. A love story WITH ZOMBIES? Hello, awesome. Admittedly, I was a little scared, because zombies can be scary, yes? But, I ended up falling into this book very easily and loving it.

From Goodreads:

In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life--and memories--behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.

Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant--an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

In this incandescent debut, newcomer Amy Plum has created a powerful paranormal mythology with immortal revenants. The Paris setting comes enchantingly alive as a relentless struggle between good and evil takes place in its streets. Rich with romance, atmosphere, and thrills, Die for Me will leave readers breathlessly awaiting its sequel.

Okay, so the zombies aren't your typical zombies. In fact, they are quite handsome and dreamy zombies. I know at this point you might be looking at me like this....

source

...but, it works! Trust me! In fact, just forget about the whole "zombie" thing because "revenant" sounds so much more romantic. And, hello? This book is set in PARIS, so you cannot get much more romantic than that.

What I really loved about this book was the idea of the revenants and their particular talents. It wasn't something I'd come across before, and I really liked the way it was revealed. I also found the characters to be quite genuine. Kate felt very authentic to me, and I really enjoyed her as a main character.

And if all of that wasn't enough, well, I fell in love with the romance in this book. Lately, I find myself rolling my eyes when The Perfect Man shows up in a book, but for some reason it worked here. Vincent is sweet and endearing, and the love story was one that I could believe in.

So, if you're looking for a little summer romance with some undead characters to make things more fun, definitely pick up Die for Me. Don't let the dreamy zombies scare you off!

Reading Rainbow: Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

I was so excited to finally read Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton. You see, Tessa is one of the Merry Sisters of Fate, along with Maggie Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff. I love their site- especially their conversations about writing and reading- so I was excited to read a WHOLE BOOK by Tessa Gratton. And, happily, I loved it!

From Goodreads:

It starts off simply. Draw a circle ... place a dead leaf in the center ... sprinkle some salt ... recite a little Latin ... add a drop of blood ... Maybe that last part isn't exactly simple. Yet somehow it feels right to Silla Kennicott. And nothing in her life has felt remotely right since her parents' horrific deaths. She's willing to do anything to uncover the truth about her family—even try a few spells from the mysterious book that arrived on her doorstep ... and spill some blood. The book isn't the only recent arrival in Silla's life. There's Nick Pardee, the new guy next door who may have seen Silla casting a spell. She's not sure what he saw and is afraid to find out. But as they spend more time together, Silla realizes this may not be Nick's first encounter with Blood Magic. Brought together by a combination of fate and chemistry, Silla and Nick can't deny their attraction. And they can't ignore the dark presence lurking nearby—waiting to reclaim the book and all its power. Tessa Gratton's intoxicating first novel will keep pulses racing, minds reeling, and pages turning right up to the very last drop of blood.

I think the thing I loved most about this book was that it wasn't WAY out there into the supernatural. You could imagine this actually happening, and the characters are so very genuine, they made it all the more believable. There is also heartache and loss, which makes it more real and tangible - especially in the way Silla reacts to these things. She's an honest character and I loved her for that.

Before I started reading, I was a little bit worried that this book would be scary. (You know me - WIMPY!) But, it's not at all. In fact, I felt like a kid wanting to yell out, "THAT'S SO COOL!" with every new revelation. The ideas are fresh and the story is exciting with some serious romance thrown in. I definitely recommend picking up Blood Magic and getting to know Silla and Nick for yourselves!

Hourglass Giveaway Winner!

We have a winner for our Hourglass give-away! Normally, I would show you the cute little box with the winning number in it from the online drawing, but I have a new Mac and have no idea how to do that now, so.... you'll just have to trust me. :) Our winner was #4! That means Em from Sash & Em is our winner! Em, please email us with your address and we'll get the book right out to you! A shiny, shiny new copy of Hourglass!

I'm in desperate need of another book to read, but I'm holding off until tomorrow when I can download Hourglass for myself! I'm starting to get a little twitchy, but I'm SO excited to finally read Myra McEntire's book! Leigh has only been gushing about it since, oh, forever!

Congratulations to Em! And, thanks to the all of you for sharing your thoughts on time travel. We loved reading them! And don't worry, we'll have another exciting give-away coming up soon!

Reading Rainbow: Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Chances are you've already heard about Hourglass by Myra McEntire. If you haven't, however, then I'm THRILLED to get to be the one to introduce you to it. (In fact, I'm SO THRILLED that I'm using a lot caps. I'm just gonna apologize right now, because I know there are more caps to come.) I was lucky enough to read it a few months ago and could barely contain my desire to shout at all of you to GO PREORDER IT!! RIGHT AWAY!! BECAUSE OMGWTFBBQ IT'S AWESOME!

Since we don't like to make y'all wait too long, I managed to rein in my excitement. I didn't want to be a tease. BUT, people! Hourglass releases June 14th! SO I CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT MY LOVE FOR THIS BOOK.

There are plenty of reasons to love the main character, Emerson Cole. She's smart, funny, and strong. But we expect that in our MC's these days, right? What's new? Well, for starters, she's also tragic and fragile and not in the least bit weak. She's realistically complex. No one is strong all the time, and no one goes through major losses without bearing some scars. Losing your parents at a young age and seeing visions of dead people can do that to a girl.

The dead people is where Hourglass goes from standard YA Paranormal Romance to Awesome New Idea of Shiny Wonder: Emerson isn't seeing ghosts. She's seeing actual slips in time, viewing people and places that have somehow managed to bleed through from the past and into the present. My first thought was "Sci-Fi Time Travel Romance, minus Christopher Reeve? OH HECK YEAH!" (Pardon my Somewhere in Time reference. I feel old now.)

But what of the romance? I have a very well-known bias, and let's just say that there are two specimens of hotness in this book that keep the romance alive as well. First up, there's Michael. I like to imagine that Michael looks like this:

TeamMichaelFTW

Then, there's Kaleb. I like to imagine Kaleb looks like this:

I guess I understand why SOME people are TeamKaleb

Of course, when I imagine these things, I picture Emerson to look like this:

What? WHAT?

ANYWAY, moving on, please just trust me that Hourglass is an amazing read. It's unique, well-crafted, and filled with action and romance. It sucks you in and gets you really invested in Emerson's story. And Emerson has quite the story.

Now, as I mentioned above, I was lucky enough to read this book months ago. I loved it so much that I preordered it anyway! See?

I hear the cover is SHINY. OOOOOH, SHINY EMERSON IS SHINY.

I don't want to keep it to myself, however, so we're having a giveaway! Leave a comment telling me how you feel about time travel (Cool idea? Awful idea? We make our own destinies so it doesn't matter? Only advisable with a Time Lord?) and we'll enter you to win this pre-order! So, hurry up, because you have until June 12th to enter. We'll pick a winner on June 13th. Good luck!!

You can find Myra McEntire here: http://myramcentire.blogspot.com/ (She has some AWESOME giveaways going on, too!)