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Showing posts with label Amanda Hocking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amanda Hocking. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
My Blood Approves - review
My Blood Approves
Author: Amanda Hocking
Release Date: currently available
Publisher: lulu.com
Publisher: lulu.com
also available in Kindle format from Amazon
My Blood Approves Series Book #1
My Blood Approves Series Book #1
ISBN: #0557364639
Genre: Paranormal Young Adult
NOTE: An e-copy of this book was given to me by the author for review purposes.
From the author’s website:
Seventeen-year-old Alice Bonham's life feels out of control after she meets Jack. With his fondness for pink Chuck Taylors and New Wave hits aside, Jack's unlike anyone she's ever met.
Then she meets his brother, Peter. His eyes pierce through her, and she can barely breathe when he's around. Even though he can't stand the sight of her, she's drawn to him.
But falling for two very different guys isn't even the worst of her problems. Jack and Peter are vampires, and Alice finds herself caught between love and her own blood...
What I’m talking about:
Alice is your average high school Junior, with a best friend that likes to party and a younger brother who is more of a parent than her mom. She likes to hang out, sleep all day, text her friends, etc. Then she meets Jack. He’s cool and different, and Alice likes to spend time with Jack. He takes care of her, but leaves Alice in a world of confusion when he refuses to explain the “strange” things that she notices about him and his family.
We spend the first half of the book reading how Jack and Alice become friends and learn to trust one another. But I just don’t know WHY Alice would ever trust Jack. He never once answers her questions - always avoiding the truth. Yet over and over she says she trusts him and wants to be with him and his family. I didn’t buy it. And, I have to say, I spent the first half of the book comparing Jack and his family to another famous literary vampire family: The Cullens. Jack and his family are unbelievable gorgeous, his family is wealthy and he has a fondness for driving fast in fancy cars. He even saves Alice from a car wreck. Mae was the perfect “mom” figure and doted on Alice. I have to say that there were so many similarities, I found it a bit distracting.
However, the story changed pace for me about halfway through the book. Once Alice FINALLY figures out the truth and the family opens up to her, I became engrossed. I wondered what the secrets were and wanted her to figure them out. The pace of the story picked up and the writing captured me. Also exciting was the interesting love triangle that Ms. Hocking is developing between Jack, Alice and Jack’s brother, Peter. The mythology of this vampire world says that Alice and Peter are “soul mates,” yet when she isn’t in Peter's thrall, she has true feelings for Jack. The family is baffled about the situation, and I find it exciting. Alice and Jack share a moment - a kiss - that just blew me away and left me wishing it didn’t end.
The story ends rather abruptly and I am left wanting more. I look forward to finding out what happens next in Alice’s world... (The second and third books of this series - Fate, Flutter - are currently available.) This is an enjoyable, easy read, especially after the storyline develops and the character development intensifies. It looks like Ms. Hocking may have a hit series on the horizon!
My Rating:
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Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Author Interview - Amanda Hocking
Today I have the privilege of bringing to you Young Adult and Urban Fantasy author, Amanda Hocking. At age 25, she has already published three YA books, with a fourth to be released in August 2010. Her series, My Blood Approves, is based in her home town of Minneapolis, MN. She currently has a full-time job working with people with disabilities, but would love to be a full-time writing some day. Please welcome Amanda Hocking to my blog.
Twimom: Hi Amanda! Welcome to That’s What I’m Talking About...
Amanda: Thanks for having me here.
Twimom: You currently write YA and UF books, what are your favorite genres to read?
Amanda: I prefer Young Adult and graphic novels. And, I don’t know how to classify Kurt Vonnegut, but I enjoy whatever he writes.
Twimom: Other than writing, what do you like to do?
Amanda: When I’m not writing, I enjoy making collages, reading and watching movies, but writing takes up a lot of my time.
Twimom: I bet it does! You are getting ready for the release of your fourth novel! And I think I read on your blog that you have 12 other books written and waiting for publication. Are any of these books part of the My Blood Approves series?
Amanda: Only one of my unpublished novels is part of the My Blood Approves series, and that's Wisdom, which will be released in August.
Switched and its sequel Torn, which is the series I'm releasing next, is YA urban fantasy about a changeling. When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn't until eleven years later that Wendy finds out her mother might've been telling the truth. It's like Princess Diaries, but with a much harder edge and a paranormal slant.
I also have Honalee, a YA series about witches, and Hollowland, an urban fantasy about zombies.
Virtue is complete fantasy, kind of a fairy tale. Lily is a young princess set to be kidnapped by her wicked stepmother, and Lux is the guy hired to do the job, and falling for each other is only the start of their troubles
I've written a few other books that aren't paranormal in nature, but most of them aren't fit for publication. Lost Without You is about teenage girl going missing, and the frantic search her friends and family go through to find her. Clandestine is about a girl who gets involved with an older man.
Twimom: WOW! You really have been busy! I can’t wait to read more of your books. Can you give me and my readers a little more insight into your inspirations for the My Blood Approves series?
Amanda: When I was five years old, I saw Purple Rain for the first time, and I’ve been in love with Minneapolis ever since. I spent the next year or so writing “intense” fantasy stories about unicorns and Peter Pan having misadventures in Minneapolis and doing bad cover versions of “When Doves Cry.”
Since then, I’ve mostly worked through my Prince phase. But to me, Minneapolis will always be the definition of urban fantasy. When you walk through the streets, with the skyscrapers towering and glittering above you, your eyes can’t seem to fathom the distance. That makes it all feel kind of unreal, but it’s just concrete and metal.
It’s that combination of beauty and surreal and reality that inspired me to write My Blood Approves.
I wanted vampires that were palpable – that seemed to be real people, that could walk amongst us without a second glance. But at the same time, they’d have some indefinable ability to pull you in, possessed by their own magic.
In My Blood Approves, Alice Bonham struggles with the constant juxtaposition between reality and fantasy, between what her heart wants and what her blood demands.
Twimom: Amanda, thank you so much for stopping by to tell us a little more about yourself and your books.
And for more on Amanda’s books, please stop by tomorrow when I review My Blood Approves.
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