Covered - Fury by Rebecca Lim

I am seriously LOVING the cover for Rebecca Lim's Fury! It's just as beautiful as the others and fits the whole theme. Cannot wait until it releases. What do you think?

Heartbreak. Vengeance. Fury. 

Mercy is an exiled angel cast down to earth and forced to live out thousands of different lives for her own protection. Betrayed by her eternal love, Luc, Mercy burns with fury. The time of reckoning is here and now she must wage open war with Luc and his demons. Ryan’s love for Mercy is more powerful than ever, but loving an angel is mortally dangerous. As their two worlds collide, Mercy approaches her ultimate breathtaking choice. 

Hell hath no fury like Mercy ...

Five Reasons Why Friday - Hunting Lila & Fated by Sarah Alderson

So what is Five Reasons Why Friday? Well it's a new meme I'm starting. Have a review you can't write, maybe you just don't have the time or you want to remind people about an awesome book , Five Reasons Why are the top 5 reasons why someone should read the book you've just read. I am behind on a few of my reviews and wanted a way to catch up, so the meme was born. Here is the first Five Reason Why Friday!


I've chosen Fated and Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson because I feel I can't put into words how absolutely freaking awesome these books are!

17-year-old Lila has two secrets she's prepared to take to the grave. The first is that she can move things just by looking at them. The second is that she's been in love with her brother's best friend, Alex, since forever. After a mugging exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust - her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organisation called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they've found them. In a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realises that she is not alone - there are others out there just like her - people with special powers -and her mother's killer is one of them…


1. Her writing is amazing. She tells such compelling stories that wrap you up, so that when you read the last sentence you're left with such a sense of longing you need the next book now!


2. Her heroines Lila from Hunting Lila and Evie from Fated are completely different yet they're both strong, independent, likeable and relateable. I don't think they have one demeaning trait. 


3. Sarah has created two of the most sexy, swoon worthy boys I have ever read! Alex from Hunting Lila is a 22 year old special forces hottie that Lila's been in love with her whole life. He'll have you drooling over every scene he's in. Lucas from Fated is a half human half Shadow Warrior spunk who, even though he's sent to kill Evie he somehow manages to fall head over heels for her. Both these guys will do anything for their girls!


4. The scenes between Lila & Alex and Evie & Lucas are so steamy you'll need a fan to cool yourself down! You'll also wonder how the pages aren't catching fire. 


5. Full of edge of you seat action, spectacular fight scenes, great secondary characters and loathsome bad guys you won't be able to put these books down for anything!!

What happens when you discover you aren't who you thought you were? And that the person you love is the person who will betray you? If your fate is already determined, can you fight it?

When Evie Tremain discovers that she’s the last in a long line of Demon slayers and that she’s being hunted by an elite band of assassins –Shapeshifters, Vampires and Mixen demons amongst them – she knows she can’t run. They’ll find her wherever she goes. Instead she must learn to stand and fight.

But when the half-human, half-Shadow Warrior Lucas Gray - is sent to spy on Evie and then ordered to kill her before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy, their fates become inextricably linked. The war that has raged for one thousand years between humans and demons is about to reach a devastating and inevitable conclusion. Either one or both of them will die before this war ends.

If your life becomes bound to another’s, what will it take to sever it?

Thanks to the lovely Caroline Payne from Simon & Schuster for my review copies! What are your 5 reasons why someone should read Losing Lila & Fated? If you haven't read them, have my reasons given you the incentive to pick them up?

Waiting on Wednesday - Something Strange & Deadly by Susan Dennard

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill @Breaking the Spine! This is where we share upcoming books that we are desperately waiting for.

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There’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release date: July 24th 2012

I'm really liking the influx of Zombie books lately and hopefully this one won't disappoint. 

I know there are plenty of YA books with girls in pretty dresses, but when they still look great why not? This one is not as vivid as the others, and I love the gothic look to it. I think it looks rather mysterious too. What do you think and what are you waiting on this week?

Interview with Lee Nichols

Welcome to Cotton Candy Reviews Lee. It’s great to have you here.

Thanks for having me!

There are some people out there who may not have heard about you or your books. Could you give potential readers a rundown?

The Haunting Emma series is about seventeen-year-old girl who discovers she can see and control ghosts and while a lot of them are good, some of them are out to kill her.

I have read both Deception and Betrayal in your Haunting Emma series (& loved them), how many books are planned for this series?

Surrender is the final book in the series and I think will be available in the UK and Australia in April.

I really enjoyed the ghostkeeper aspect of the Haunting Emma novels. How did this idea come about?

I set out to write a sort of contemporary Gothic mystery, which to me means an old house and ghosts, but to keep it fresh I decided Emma Vail, the main character, would discover she could see and control the ghosts, and that there would be this whole ghostkeeping world and society that was protecting regular people from evil ghosts.

You write both YA and Adult books, where did you begin and why do you dabble in both demographics?

I started writing women's fiction for adults and will probably go back to that in the future. The original idea for the Haunting Emma series was an adult novel, but I kept making the character younger and younger until I realized she was better suited to a YA novel. I really love both demographics.

When you go to the movies, is there one type of junk food you have to have?

If I'm going to have anything, it has to be popcorn.

Have you ever thought about who could play your Haunting Emma characters if the books were to be made into a movie?

Deception, the first book in the series, is being optioned for television. I'd love for Diana Agron from Glee to play her.

Are you working on anything new that you could give us a sneak peak at?

I can't give you a sneak peak at anything I'm working on, but here is a short excerpt from Surrender the final Haunting Emma novel:

I’ve never liked bad boys. On TV shows, when the girl is torn between her sweet best guy friend—who is not-so-secretly in love with her—and the stand-offish bad boy, I always root for the best friend.

But standing in Bennett’s attic room, my arms twined around him, I finally saw the appeal. I shouldn’t have been there. Shouldn’t have let Bennett’s drug-stained fingers stroke my neck, shouldn’t have lied to Simon about him. And I definitely shouldn’t have been kissing him when I was supposed to be downstairs with the rest of the team, trying to figure out Neos’s next move.

Yet I barely protested when Bennett nibbled my neck. “I—I should—oh—”

He pinned me with his piercing blue eyes. “Yes?”

“Um …” I licked my lips. “I forgot what I was going to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. Just keep making those little noises.”

I let out a sound I didn’t recognize, as he traced my spine with his finger.

“Yeah, like that,” he whispered.                                 

Oh my God. How could I have been so wrong about bad boys? Forget the best friend, I wanted this—the unpredictable charm, the danger, and the heat. Did anything else matter? I closed my eyes and ran my fingers through his hair in the spinning darkness—then stopped when I heard a cough from the doorway.

My eyes snapped open and I caught a glimpse of someone standing at the top of the attic stairs. It was Simon, peering inside.

“Simon!” I yelped. “Go away!”

“Emma …” he said. There was something weird in his tone, something more than just I’ve caught you with your drug-addled boyfriend who shouldn’t be here.

“What?” I asked. “What’s happened?”

Before he answered, two people stepped into the room. Well-dressed, faintly familiar, and completely unamused.

And Bennett said, “Mom … Dad?”

Waiting on Wednesday - Taste by Kate Evangelista

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill @Breaking the Spine! This is where we share upcoming books that we are desperately waiting for.

Published by: Crescent Moon Press

Release date: TBA (unfortunately)

At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Yuri has other plans. 

When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Yuri the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.

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I read a 'taste' of this months ago and fell in love. I have been waiting for this book ever since! And how awesome is that cover? Tell me what your waiting on this week? 

Review: Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Title: Born Wicked (The Cahill Witch Chronicles Book 1)
Author: Jessica Spotswood
Age Group: Young Adult
Release Date: January 25th 2012
Publishers: Razorbill AU
Available from: Amazon
Amazon UK
The Book Depository
The Nile
Source: Penguin Aus


Our mother was a witch too, but she hid it better.

I miss her.

To me, the magic feels like a curse. According to the Brothers, it's devil-sent. Women who can do magic-they're either mad or wicked. So I will do everything in my power to protect myself and my sisters. Even if it means giving up my life - and my true love.

Because if the Brothers discover our secret, we're destined for the asylum, or prison . . . or death.

********* 

I’ve just finished reading Born Wicked. It’s a fantastic book that I read in one sitting, I couldn’t put it down. The story evoked quite a lot of emotion in me and I’m still reeling from the ending.

Cate Cahill is a witch. Her mother died and left her with a huge burden she has been carrying around for years. I haven’t found a character so likeable in a while. Cate is strong and independent, almost to a fault. She loves her sisters dearly and will do anything to keep them safe; from the insidious Brotherhood who would trial them as witches to the seemingly bland Sisterhood. Both orders want the sister’s but for vastly different reasons. Each of the girls have vital roles to play in a future that could destroy the Brotherhood or help put the Sisterhood back in power.

I loved the setting of turn of the century America, with an alternate history. The Brotherhood rules over everyone with women having almost no rights. They are made to choose a husband or declare themselves to the Sisterhood. Cate feels stifled by society and the choices that are thrust upon her. Several mysteries are revealed that shake Cate to her core and make her doubt her decisions regarding her sisters and their entire lives. I enjoyed how everything is revealed and felt Cate’s pain and frustrations. I admired her throughout the entire novel, finding her refreshing compared to a lot of vapid and weak characters.

I know I’ve been getting annoyed with all the YA books that have love triangles, and there is a small one in Born Wicked with Cate having two suitors. Paul is her best friend and Finn is a local boy she’s never really spoken to. Although there are two boys, Cate knows who she wants even though propriety discourages it. The development of the romance between them is seductive, and had me cheering for their happiness! You will love this couple so much!

Born Wicked is slow to start but it picks up quickly and the last few chapters are when the story really gets going. I was captivated entirely, only putting it down to stuff my face, then running back to pick it up. It’s an incredible book that you have to read to understand just how great it is. I love it!

5/5

Girltank & Catching Suki

Our goal: Find 10,000 young women social entrepreneurs, innovators and heroes.

We want to show the world that young women from every region of the planet are making powerful contributions to society and leading social change. We want to tell your stories!

So send us the names of the best examples of young women innovators from Chicago to Hong Kong to Capetown to Buenos Aires. Then spread the word to your networks!

As a thank you, each entry will receive a copy of “Catching Suki,” a short story by U.K.-based author Sarah Alderson (Hunting Lila and Fated).

And we will raffle off these prizes:

• $25 Amazon gift card
• $100 self-care package from LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics
• Apple iPad2
• An all-access pass to TED Global Conference 2013

Visit Girltanks Facebook page to nominate a young woman who is making a difference in the world. How cool is it that you get a copy of Catching Suki for free!! 

Waiting on Wednesday #3 - The Alchemy of Forever & The Immortal Rules

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill @Breaking the Spine! This is where we share upcoming books that we are desperately waiting for.

People say 'love never dies'… but love might be the death of Seraphina. 

Seraphina has been alive since the Middle Ages, when her boyfriend, Cyrus, managed to perfect a method of alchemy that lets them swap bodies with any human being. She doesn't want to die, so she finds young people who are on the brink of death, and inhabits their bodies. When we meet Sera, she has landed in the body of a girl named Kailey who was about to die in a car accident. For the first time, Sera falls in love with the life of the person she's inhabiting. Sera also falls for the boy next door, Noah. And soon it's clear the feelings are returned. Unfortunately, she can never kiss Noah, because for her to touch lips with a human would mean the human's death. And she has even more to worry about: Cyrus is chasing her, and if she stays in one place for long, she puts herself -and the people she's grown to care for - in danger.

Release date: 1/03/2012

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Aus

I'm really looking forward to this one and I don't have to wait too long either! I only saw the trailer for The Alchemy of Forever the other day and it was pretty cool.

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You will kill. The only question is when. 

In the dark days since the insidious Red Lung virus decimated the human population, vampires have risen to rule the crumbling cities and suburbs. Uncontested Princes hold sway over diminished ranks of humans: their "pets." In exchange for their labor, loyalty and of course, their blood, these pets are registered, given food and shelter, permitted to survive. 

Unregistered humans cling to fringes, scavenging for survival. Allison Sekemoto and her fellow Unregistereds are hunted, not only by vampires, but by rabids, the unholy result of Red Lung-infected vampires feeding on unwary humans. One night, Allie is attacked by a pack of rabids, saved by an unlikely hero...and turned vampire. 

Uncomfortable in her undead skin, Allie falls in with a ragtag crew of humans seeking a cure, or cures: for Rabidism and for Vampirism. She's passing for human...for now. But the hunger is growing and will not be denied. Not for friendship—not even for love.

Release date: 24/4/2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

I loved the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa, so I am really looking forward to see how she writes vampires. They seem to have fallen by the wayside, but hopefully she can breathe some new life into them.

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What are you waiting on? Are you looking forward to either of these titles at all?

Review: Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Title: Sweet Venom (Medusa Girls book 1)
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Age Group: Young Adult
Release Date: October 1st 2011
Publishers: HarperCollins
Available from: Amazon
Amazon UK
The Book Depository
The Nile
Source: Received from the publisher


Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster. 

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though. 

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters. 

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

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Sweet Venom is the first book in a new trilogy featuring triplets that are descended from the Gorgon Medusa. The don't know about each other until the fates bring them together. I really enjoyed everything about this book. The three girls have such distinct personalities, each adding a different dynamic to the story. Grace is the mediator; she's very down to Earth, quite shy and an introvert. Gretchen is very brash and headstrong; she says what's on her mind and is the strongest of the three. Greer is the perfect one. She has the perfect life, the perfect boyfriend and her life is all mapped out. But all that's on the surface. She like's to control everything and the appearance of her 'sisters' blows her plans away. I enjoyed reading from each girls perspective, they had their own expressive voices making this a delight to read.

Watching the girls as they come to terms with the discovery of their sisters is great, learning about each other as they try and figure out their history and what they're supposed to do. You can't forget the addition of Grace and Gretchen's admirers. Milo is Grace's brothers new friend and you can't help but miss the underlying feelings between them. Gretchen on the other hand has no time for boys, but the new boy at her school is beyond persistent. I loved reading  about how Nick would go out of his way to get Gretchen to admit she has feelings for him. Greer's boyfriend is a whole other story. She's only with him because of his future promise, but he is not on the same page. I can say I didn't really like him too much.

The Medusa myth is quite different in Sweet Venom and I really like how the original was tied into the story. This is a light, fun read with action and suspense that will keep you wanting more. Looking forward to book two.

3.5/5

Covered - Disharmony: The Telling by Leah Giarratano

A psychopath … an empath … a genius.

Three siblings who will save the world – or destroy it.

They know nothing of each other. They know nothing of the Telling.

But they'll need to learn fast if they're going to survive…

A gripping new series about a collision of worlds, the power of destiny, and the darkness in us all...

May 23 - When worlds collide 

Disharmony: The Telling

I took this from Penguins BTL site. What do you think? Another book for the TBR.

Waiting on Wednesday #2 - Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill @Breaking the Spine! This is where we share upcoming books that we are desperately waiting for.

Release Date: 24/04/12
Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

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So I just went trawling for books and found this gem by Bethany Griffin. I haven't heard anything about Masque of the Red Death, but it's definitely being added to my TBR. How awesome is the cover? Have you heard of it before and has it been added to your TBR?