Test Post

Welcome to my stop on the Once Upon A Second Chance blog tour.

Check out the rest of the stops on the tour HERE

Once Upon A Second Chance by Marian Vere

210 pages

Published November 6th 2012 by Omnific Publishing

Age Group: Adult

Source: eARC from publisher

Series: Standalone

Buy this Book:Amazon

Summary: 

Julia’s life seemed to be falling perfectly into place. She had burgeoning jobprospects in the finance industry, an exciting life in New York City, and a wonderful fiancé,Nick Kerkley, who she was totally in love with. Nick however, while being completelydevoted to Julia, did not have the career potential or financial stability to be worthy ofsomeone like her — or at least that’s what she came to convince herself. Hesitantly, Juliaended the relationship, forcing herself to believe it would all be for the best. Little did sheknow, that one decision would lead both their lives to spiral away from each other, only to converge again.What happens to your fairytale when you let someone else wave the magic wand? Will your dreams of love andenchantment still come true, or will your ‘happily ever after’ pass by without you?Once Upon a Second Chance is a contemporary retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Note: This is an adult book, but it is appropriate for the New Adult or YA audience. The characters are around 30, but there is nothing racy in the book. (Actually all the New Adult books I have read so far, were much more explicit than Once Upon A Second Chance) 

I enjoyed Once Upon A Second Chance. It kind of reminded me of Austentatious, which I loved. It is a total contemporary, but there are glimpses of something that could be magic. When I say glimpses, I mean maybe two or three times in the book. I loved seeing a little bit of a "fairy godmother". Once Upon A Second Chance is just such a cute love story. 

Normally, I like the two main characters pretty much equally. But this book was the exception. I liked Nick way more than I liked Julia. I wanted so badly to love Julia, but she just kept doing things to sabatoge her own life. But she is just so nice and helpful to everyone that it is hard to dislike her for that. I was also disappointed that she hadn't done more in her life career-wise. She was all set to take on the world, and then nothing. Once Upon a Second Chance was a journey for Julia, and the reason that I ended up liking her as much as I did was because she started to wisen up in the second half of the book. Plus, I think anyone would pale in comparison to Nick. I swear, the guy didn't have a single flaw. He was a total sweetheart, smart, and just an all around good guy. He reminded me of a sad puppy when he was hurt. Who could be mean to a puppy?? Nick just totally melted my heart. I loved reading their story. 

I loved how the story was laid out in Once Upon A Second Chance. They start off in present day, right before Julia is about to meet Nick again after not seeing him for 8 years. And then throughout the book you get flashbacks of moments in their relationship so you can see the progression of it and find out what happened between the two of them. I really liked this style and I thought Marian Vere transitioned seamlessly from flashback to present day. The writing was great. If you like cute, contemporary romances, and if you have a little patience with your main character, I think you will really enjoy Once Upon A Second Chance.

3/5 gavels

Marian Vere is a twenty eight year old writer of Women's Fiction. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she received her degree from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in--oddly enough--vocal music performance, only to later discover her love of writing and storytelling. Marian is represented by Carly Watters of PS Literary, and currently lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her Husband, and two daughters.

Marian Vere | Twitter

There are two giveaways for this blog tour. 

The first is US ONLY and it is for (5) swag bags that include a magic wand charm necklace, a magic wand book mark, and custom lip gloss with the book art. Fill out the first rafflecopter to enter this giveaway

The Second giveaway is INTERNATIONAL and it is for (5) ebook copies of ONCE UPON A SECOND CHANCE. Fill out the second rafflecopter to enter this giveaway. 

If you enjoyed this post, please Subscribe to Book Briefs in a reader

Undeadly blog tour test

Welcome to my stop on the Undeadly Tour! 

Check out the rest of the stops on this tour HERE

Undeadly by Michele Vail

Paperback, 272 pages

Expected publication: November 20th 2012 by Harlequin Teen

Age Group: YA

Source: eARC from Publisher

Series: The Reaper Diaries #1

Pre-Order this Book: Amazon

Summary:

The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...
Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper-and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath. Within days, she’s shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath. Who seems to hate her guts.
Rath will be watching closely to be sure she completes her first assignment-reaping Rick, the boy who should have died. The boy she still wants to be with. To make matters worse, students at the academy start turning up catatonic, and accusations fly-against Molly. The only way out of this mess? To go through hell. Literally.

Undeadly is unlike anything that I thought it would be. I was expecting another reaper book, with the main character collecting souls, but it is so much more than that. It is mainly mythology, which is such a nice twist because I love mythology books. And what is even cooler is that it is Egyptian mythology! The Egyptian view of the underworld is one of the most fascinating takes on death and the afterlife, in my opinion. I loved how Michele Vail laid everything out and explained it. Undeadly is a great book and I know The Reaper Diaries is going to be one of my auto buy and auto read series. 

I read a recent review of Undeadly right after I finished reading the book myself and the blogger was saying that she didn't enjoy the language that the characters used. It was very much teenage slang and sarcasm. And for the exact reasons that she didn't like it, I loved it! The writing is one of my favorite parts of Undeadly. I loved the voice of the main character, Molly. She is sarcastic and the way she explains things is hilarious. I caught myself chuckling throughout the whole book. It reminded me of some of the smart ass heroines and writing of Meg Cabot, and she is one of my favorite authors because of her writing style. Michele Vail shares this awesome style. 

Molly is a great mixture of curiosity, kindness and spunk. She is not afraid to speak her mind and she is inquisitive. I loved watching her interact with the various people in the book, mostly because there were so many different reactions towards her. In this world, there are all sorts of things- Zombies, SEERs (which are creepy ghost slaves, that sounds so awful) spirits, ghouls, and even more. Some people are freaked out by these creations but most people seem to accept this as normal. I loved the description of all of this at the start, plus I loved the originalness of the idea. 

Undeadly is such a great read. And hello! How beautiful is that cover? I love it! It lagged a few spots in the middle, but never more than a few pages so it wasn't bad at all. And then it picked right up again in the second half of the book and I didn't set it down at all. I needed to know what was going to happen. There is a lot packed into this one book. I do wish we saw a little bit more of Rath and that the situation with Rick was explained a little better, but I am sure we will be seeing more of Rath in the next book and that makes me really happy. Undeadly is a must read for fans of mythology, zombie, and paranormal books. 

4/5 gavels

Author Bio:

Michele Vail writes young adult paranormal fiction about zombies and reapers. 

She likes reading, dogs, cats, board games, ghost-hunting shows, and Halloween. She believes in magic, in the impossible, and in the restorative powers of chocolate. 

Michele lives happily-ever-after with her Viking and their family.

Official link: http://www.michelevail.com/

twitter: https://twitter.com/michelevail

Fill out the rafflecopter below to enter to win 1 of 5 SIGNED copies of Undeadly plus swag. US only. 

Note: this giveaway is NOT sponsored by Book Briefs and all rules/prizes/conditions of the giveaway should be included in the rafflcopter below. If they are not see the tour page for all the rules. 

If you enjoyed this post, please Subscribe to Book Briefs in a reader