ARC Book Review: Lucretia & The Kroons

Book Title: Lucretia & The Kroons
Author: Victor LaValle

Publisher: Spiegel & Grau via Random House Digital
Format: ebook
Genre: Adult Fiction

Cost: $0.99

Pages: 100

How I got it: Publisher via NetGalley

My Rating:★★★1/2
Erotica Rating: N/A
Synopsis:

From one of the most acclaimed young writers of fiction in America today comes a fast-paced and fantastical novella about a young girl's journey into a dark netherworld to find her missing best friend. This eBook edition contains an exclusive excerpt from Victor LaValle's new novel The Devil in Silver, about which Gary Shteyngart raves, "Literary horror just found a new master." Lucretia's best friend and upstairs neighbor Sunny-a sweet pitbull of a kid, even as she struggles with a mysterious illness-has gone missing. The only way to get her back is for Lucretia to climb the rickety fire escape of their Queens tenement and crawl through the window of apartment 6D, portal to a vast shadowland of missing kids ruled by a nightmarish family of mutants whose designs on the children are unknown. Her search for Sunny takes Lucretia through a dark fantasyland where she finds lush forests growing from concrete, pigeon-winged rodents, and haunted playgrounds. Her quest ultimately forces her to confront the most frightening specter of all: losing, forever, the thing you love the most. Lucretia and the Kroons is a dazzlingly imaginative adventure story and a moving exploration of the power of friendship and the terror of loss. This all-new novella serves as the perfect companion piece to The Devil in Silver, a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror that continues the story of Lucretia.

My Review:

"Being young doesn't protect you, horrors come for kids, too"

It took forever to get to this book, and it's one of the few novellas I have read that went as fast as it did.  I've never read this author before, so his writing style was new to me. The story just jumped right into it, now pretense or build up, it just went right to it.

Now this is a very different kind of book for me, a bit of a magical realism, yet very different.  Loochie is a kid who doesn't realize that the world is kind of harsh; her best friend was sick from leukaemia and dying and she still doesn't understand just how bad the disease is.  When her older brother visits just before her friend comes over to celebrate her birthday, he shares with her the story of the Kroons as a way to scare her about being alone in the house for the first time by herself.

I was kind of confused reading this book, what would have happened if her brother didn't tell her about the Kroons?? How would have this worked out?? How comes she didn't hear the sirens and think anything about it?? I knew immediately what was wrong, but she was completely clueless.

I felt so bad for her knowing what was going on and she didn't know.  Then the Kroons happened and I was just engrossed in the story. Holy Crap, I just...WOW.  What a story. I was still confused reading it, the main thing that stuck out to me was the fact that if her brother didn't tell her this story about the Kroons would the rest of it happen??

It's an okay story, engaging while you're reading it. The ending didn't make any sense, why not say ok maybe I was dreaming; but she refused to back down even when it meant she was going to get into trouble.

Enjoy while reading, he's an interesting author.

 Buy on Amazon                        Add to Goodreads

***FTC Rules require I state that I received this as a review copy from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review**** 

Elemental Blog Tour & Giveaway:

Book Title: Elemental
Author: Kelbian Noel

Publisher: Diverse Pages
Format: ebook & paperback

Cost: $2.99 (unknown for paperback)

Pages: 262

How I got it: Author 

Synopsis:

Baltimore Land is a typical teenager whose parents embarrass her completely. She wants nothing to do with her family's beliefs and is convinced their silly rituals only exist to make her life miserable. All she wants is to be normal, but the fact that her parents are witches seriously messes with her social life. She's doing alright, with a boyfriend who seems to like her just the way she is and an awesome best friend who is fascinated by her lifestyle, but she's not the most popular girl in her small Utah town. In fact, she's kind of the town freak. When her boyfriend's ex tries to win him back, Baltimore's emotions get the best of her and she soon realizes her parents' beliefs aren't so silly after all--they're just the beginning.

Why Check It Out??:

One word: Witches, yes yes yes my loves it's got witches!! Why else?? I mean for a book geared towards tween & teens, what I have gotten so far is extremely well written and engaging.  I found myself sneaking to read it while on breaks at work & in between projects. Baltimore is pretty likable from the get go. And of course just check out the book trailer:

And..... there are going to be more books.. say what?!?!?!? Oh yeah, at least four more. And the synopsis for two of them are on the author's blog. Noel's Ramblings.

Of course we also want to hear a little about the author herself:

Kelbian Noel was born on a warm June night in Moncton, New Brunswick. Officially at 11:59pm but registered at 12:01am she technically has two birthdays. Which should mean more cake and gifts, but never really has. 
From a very young age, she loved to read. She found herself engulfed in novels by Janette Oke and L.M. Montgomery, but never seemed to find herself in the pages. At the age of 11 she declared she would simply have to rewrite them, and become the youngest author in history. But life was full of baseball, homework, best friends and boys.
Decades later, having studied writing in college and pursued it as a career, she rediscovered her hobby. She is excited to introduce The Elementals to the world with hopes someone will love the beginning of this epic story as much as she does.
Kelbian lives in Toronto, Ontario with her two children (where, thanks to thick layer of smog, Junes are much warmer than they used to be). 

 How to Find her:u
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog: Noel's Ramblings

and now of what we have all been waiting for: The GIVEAWAY

Courtesy of the author herself, there are earrings, several oils & a Coexist bumper sticker!!! ***This just in, a copy of Elemental is going to be added to the mix!!!!!! Yes, just spoke with the author and she is giving one lucky reader a copy of the book along with all this swag. Now I'm seriously jealous,..oh wait...I have the book and I'm in love....so get your copy too!!!*****

And I'm going to be just as generous and make this TWO winners!!!! Yes ladies and gents, one winner for the book & swag and another for just the book. now there are two chances of diving into this book!!!
Ahh man I so wish I could enter this competition but sadly I can't. Bummer, but you can, so check below for the rules on how to enter:

Rules:
1) You must be a subscriber of my blog or youtube channel. *you can sign up today too*
2) Fill out an entry in the comment section with your name.
3) Have a legit blog name or screen name where I can email you for the prize (Open Id, blogger name, etc)
4) You can gain extra chances to win by Blogging, Tweeting,share on FB about the giveaway, comeback and share the link in the comment section 
5) Comment after you link and let me know which prize your entering for!!


Each comment counts as 1 extra entry. Entry must be submitted by November 14, 2012 at midnight. Winners will be announced on November 15, 2012.  This prizes are open to all. An entry in no way guarantees a winning submission, Winners will be chosen by random.org  No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited.

And...Go!!!! Good Luck my loves

Book Review: South Hills Sidekicks: Uninvited

Book Title:  South Hills Sidekicks : Uninvited Book 1
Author: Leah Speigel

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Format: Ebook

Cost: $ On sale for 0.99, normally 7.99

Pages: 302

How I got it: Shut Up and Read, Read It and Reap Program On Goodreads.

My Rating:★★★★☆
Erotica Rating: 
Synopsis:

When Alley started her senior year at Upper East High in the South Hills area, it was supposed to be the usual drag of hanging out with people who spent more on one outfit than Alley did on her entire wardrobe. That was until Kirsten, a girl in their clique, suddenly goes missing and the only people who seem to care are her friends. All evidence leads to the new comer Shane, a cocky and self-pretentious person in Alley’s opinion, but the police seem uninterested so she and the rest of the girls start a little investigation of their own. But they are nowhere closer to finding Kirsten than when they started and now they had the police’s attention; just not in the way they expected. The girls have to start over and discover that maybe it wasn’t an outsider who took Kirsten, but someone within their own clique who has something to hide; a secret that just might have gotten Kirsten killed.

My Review:
Yes go ahead and give the cover a mean side-eye O_o. when I accepted the book the cover wasn't listed, so I didn't see it. The book premise sounded very much like a Nancy Drew meets Pretty Little Liars so I was all for it. 

When I first started reading the book, Alley actual grated on the nerves, her insistence that she wasn't a member of the group and that she was a hanger on kinda annoyed me. Then the book started moving along and you realized what Alley saw and what really took place were two different things, she very much is an integral part of the group, she's not just Val's friend, they actually know her name and they actually care about her as well. She just doesn't always see it.

Oh my Godh Val??!?!?!? I laughed so hard when she was in the scenes, she just was so funny without trying to be, she wanted so hard to help her friend which means her heart was in the right place but she just went about it wrong which meant there where so many funny incidents all because of Val. That scene where they followed him home, and Val was RIGHT behind him??!?!? I Laughed so hard, she was just too funny. 

Shane was the quintessential bad boy, from jump I tagged him as a love interest and little different from the group, but when the mystery started I didn't know what to do with the new info that was unraveling. Trust the girls to get into the mix of it and get it all wrong.

I haven't laughed this much in reading a book in a good way in a long time, mostly I'm laughing that author would think this is how someone would react but in this book it was at the antics of the girls, much like in a good comedy show i laughed right on cue. I had so much fun reading and will make space on my TBR pile near the top for the other books. Can't wait to read them.