Mundie Moms

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Blog Tour/Book Review: Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan


We're the next stop in the month long Fractured Light Blog Tour, hosted by Cedar Fort Books. Be sure to click on the link to find the list of featured blogs whom have all shared their reviews for the upcoming release on Rachel's debut, Fractured Light.

Published by: Cedar Fort Books
To Be Released on: February 8th, 2012
Source: ARC from publisher to review
3 star: It's a Good Read
Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

I’m dying, I thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of ice.

Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After the Vykens killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down. Big mistake.

As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something even bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.

In this breathtaking and romantic adventure, Rachel McClellan delivers a truly mesmerizing story that will keep you guessing to the very end -quoted from Goodreads

I've been looking forward to reading Fractured Light since I read the synopsis. It sounds like an intriguing read and who doesn't love a butt kicking heroine. I definitely do. I really liked the unique mythology in Fractured Light. I feel it adds something new to the YA paranormal/urban fantasy genre. But I've really struggled with my review for Fractured Light, because I'm really torn on my feelings with the book. I had a hard time getting into the first part of the book, I felt the middle part was okay, but I LOVED the way the story ended.

I felt this book was too predictable for me, and I had some issues with the execution of the story line. I took me a good third of the book to really get into it. I felt like there was something missing with the writing and the first part of the book had one too many cliches written into that I almost put the book down. Since I read the ARC, this may be edited before the final book is released, but regardless of that, I'm really glad I kept reading, because the story line picks up, and I found myself more invested in the mythology, I wanted to learn more about Llona's abilities.

The other thing I'm torn on is the main character Llona. I had such a hard time connecting with her and liking her character through out the first part of the book, which surprised me because, I love a strong heroine. I just didn't feel like Llona was that strong of heroine I excepted her to be. I sympathized with her and understood her need to want to shut everyone out of her life, but I also felt that made her vulnerable, and she comes across as uncaring and it made it hard to get to know her at that point. It wasn't till I was little more than half way into the story did Llona really grow into the character I was hoping she'd become. I wanted to yell yes and high five her. It's during this time that she embraces who she is and really grows into a strong, butt kicking heroine. I admire the growth she makes during this part of her story.

The ending really made the story for me. I felt like everything came together and moved into the direction I hoped it would. As I said before, I'm really glad I kept reading Llona's story. Not only does Llona grow into a character I want to know more about, but I want to know what is going to happen to her after the turn of events that play out at then of Fractured Light, I want to know more about her friend May and what may or may not happen with the love interest Christian. I'm glad I didn't put this book down, and I continued reading it. I'm really looking forward to reading the sequel.


You can read about this series by visiting the Fractured Light website.

2011 Mundie Moms Favorites: Love Triangles, Couples & Kissy Scenes


Today is one of our favorite things to talk about in YA books, the fabulously written character chemistry, those swoon worthy kissy scenes, well written love triangles and of course our favorite characters. This year I had such a hard time trying to narrow my list down, because there's been a lot of well crafted romances. Even though my lists were narrowed down, there's many more outstanding romances you'll find through out all the books listed in our 2011 MM's Favorite feature.

Our 11 Favorite Love Triangles/Favorite Swoon-Worthy Character Chemistry:
  1. Will, Tessa & Jem (Infernal Devices, Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare)
  2. Kat & Hale (Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter)
  3. Cassian, Jacinda, Will (Vanish by Sophie Jordan)
  4. Lena & Alex (Delirium by Lauren Oliver)
  5. Tucker, Clara & Christian (Unearthly by Cynthia Hand)
  6. Adam, Juliette, Warner (Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi)
  7. Ash & Megan (The Iron Queen & The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa)
  8. Daemon & Kat (Obsidian) and Alexandria & Aiden (Half-Blood) by Jennifer Armentrout
  9. Kelsey, Ren and Kishan (Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck)
  10. Frannie, Luc & Gabe (Original Sin by Lisa Desrochers)
  11. Elder & Amy (Across the Universe by Beth Revis) and Karou & Akiva (Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor)

Our 10 favorite Kissy Scenes: I swear this was the hardest list, because how can we narrow it down to only 5!?! Here's a few of our favorites that stand out the most to us....

Katie:
  1. Will & Tessa (The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare)
  2. Jem & Tessa (The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare)
  3. Alex & Aiden (Half-Blood by Jennifer Armentrout)
  4. Marcello & Gabi (River of Time series by Lisa T Bergren)
  5. I adored the scene stolen kiss scene with Kaleb and Emerson in Hourglass by Myra McEntire
Sophie:
  1. Lola and Cricket (Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.)
  2. Emerson and Michael and that wrought iron fence. (Hourglass by Myra McEntire)
  3. Marcello and Gabi (River of Time series by Lisa T. Bergren)
  4. Braden and Trey (Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey)
  5. Lizzie and Will (Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg)

Our 10 favorite couples from 2011: Again, this was so hard for us to narrow our lists down to only 5. There's a lot of couples we fell in love with this year. Here's our list of our all time favorite couples from this year:

Katie:
  1. Kat & Hale (Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter)
  2. Adam & Juliette (Shatter Me by Tahereh Maffi)
  3. Max & Charlie (The Pledge by Kimberly Derting)
  4. Dimitri & Lia (Circle of Fire by Michelle Zink)
  5. Karou & Akiva (Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor)
Sophie:
  1. Braeden & Trey (Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey)
  2. Lola & Crickett (Lola & The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins)
  3. Sophie & Archer (Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins)
  4. Nathaniel & Zora (The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell)
  5. Emerson & Michael (Hourglass by Myra McEntire)

Who were some of your favorite couples? Did you have any favorite swoon-worthy moments you loved? Please leave us a comment and let us know.

Thoughtful Thursday: Thank You



I really wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU! I'm going to warn you, this post will have a lot of thank you's in it and it may seem sappy, but I'm truly grateful for all of you and for all the support you've been to Mundie Moms. Before you ask, no I'm not hormonal. I really do just want to say thank you. This has been such an amazing year! There's been a ton of fabulous releases, book/author events, blogger meet ups and milestones that were made this year.

Thank you to all of you who take time out of their schedules to visit Mundie Moms. For reading the posts, reviews, making comments and attending our live authors chats. I truly appreciate it. It's been such a blast getting "to know" many of you through email, twitter, facebook, tumblr and here on the blog. Thank you for your RTs on twitter, spreading the word about our chats, and other events we've had on the blog. THANK YOU for all your continued support!!

Thank you to the bloggers who continue to be our affiliates, our friends, visit our blog, help promote our chats and other events and love chatting with us about books. You guys seriously ROCK! Keep up all your great work. I love visiting your blogs to read your latest reviews, and to get inspired by all you're doing. A big thank you to the bloggers I've had the chance to meet in person this year. You guys are simply amazing! I'm looking forward to getting to meet up with you again in 2012.

Thank you to all the authors who've taken time out of their busy schedules to stop by the blog this year. I really appreciate the time you've taken to come chat with us this year, have allowed me to interview you, host your blog tours, have meet up with me when they're in Austin, chat with us on Twitter and continue to allow us to read your books. I truly appreciate all your support!

Thank you to Cassie! Honestly, it's because of her I even started MM's. I'm seriously grateful to all the support she constantly gives MMs. THANK YOU for all you do and for always taking the time to do fun posts with us, chat with us, and so much more.

Thank you to the publishers who's support has been tremendous this year. Thank you for the books you send for us to read and review, for supporting many of our giveaways, taking the time to send & answer emails, working with me on blog tours and so forth. I truly appreciate it!

Thank you to Sophie, Shandra and Cynthia. Sophie does more than she admits. She's my sanity when things are crazy busy on the blog. Shandra does so much behind the scenes on the forum, and without her and Sophie our forum wouldn't be what it is. Thank you to Cynthia, who along with Sophie took time to share their reviews through out the year on MMs. THANK YOU so much for you guys have done.

I'm sure I've bored you guys with how many times I've said THANK YOU, but really, I don't feel like Thank You is enough. I truly, truly appreciate all the support you guys have given to my blog. It's meant a lot. It's been such a fun year and one with a lot of growth. I'm really looking forward to all the happens in 2012.

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