**QWERTY**

**OMG! I am late for my blog tour post because of the mistake in the banner I made myself. I supposed to post this on Nov 15th. So sorry for the delay.

The Last Witch
by Debbie Dee

For generations the Incenaga Witches have been forced to use their power to fulfill the wishes of others until they are drained of their magic and left to die. Desperate to protect his infant daughter - the last surviving witch - Emmeline’s father escapes with her to the forests where he vows to keep her hidden from the world and from the truth.
Sixteen years later, Emmeline is discovered and finds herself in the grip of a traitor who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means abusing her power until she dies. She is taken to a distant country and told she must marry the Crown Prince or her own country will be overtaken, its people slaughtered. But what sort of prince would marry a witch? And why would she be the difference between war and peace?
As she fights to regain her freedom, she is faced with a choice between a prince who offers a lifetime of security and a common gamekeeper who has no idea of her power, but offers his heart.
But who do you trust when your power can be used against you?

Guest Post

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.
As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

The truth is, I almost wanted to give this book 2 or 3 stars and never continue on with the series.

But by page 286 out of 323, boy I changed my mind. Rachel Hawkins had done the unthinkable by not only providing me with an epic climax that caught me off guard but also supplying another epic climax that left me breathless.

And she did that with only 50 pages left to spare! How cool is that?

Before the climax, apart from a few good laughs, the book didn't impress me too much. Archer is just like a better version of Edward. Elodie and her entourage are the usual, popular hot girls with a mission to be mean to our protagonist, Sophie. And the whole cliche high school drama is completed with the social outcast, Jenna the vampire.

Well, I would like to see more of Cal in the next book. *wink2*

I'm a bit disappointed with Sophie as a character. Yes, she is excellent in making my side cramped with her witty remarks but I feel like the author intentionally molded her character as one of those 'every-girl-can-fit-into her-shoes' kind of characters. I mean, she claimed she got average appearance (crazy hair, freckled skin etc! Ehem, I think freckles are cute), tad clumsy (her spells mostly went wrong), had a crush over the hottest guy in the school...


Oh yes, Sophie is the epitome of this meme.

*sigh* What did I expect anyway, I can't compare her to Katniss, Katniss would be able to sense something fishy was going on. I'd be thankful to the author too if Sophie doesn't have any feelings (or lust) towards Archer or Cal. I don't know...that kind of thoughts made me feel...a bit uncomfortable.

Before I end my review, I would like to share some of the hilarious lines. Yup, I was that entertained.

There were only six adults in the oldest picture, and all of then looked really serious, like they'd probably kicked kittens for fun.

"Say the five words yo begin the ritual." I blinked at her. "Are you freaking kidding me?"

"I'm Beth." and I realized I was supposed to shake her paw. I did, gingerly. "Sophie." She smiled. It was terrifying, but that wasn't her fault.

His eyes were nearly watering, and his lips were twitching. My hand tightened on the stake. Maybe shoving it into his heart wasn't such a bad idea.

I'd been harboring this secret fantasy that he was only pretending to like her so that he could publicly dump her in the most embarrassing way possible, preferably on national television.

"So if you can heal with your touch, why are you working here as like, Hagrid, or whatever?"

One more thing, HOW COULD THE PUBLISHER PUT A CAT ON THE COVER WHEN SOPHIE WAS ALLERGIC TO CATS HERSELF!!! DO NOT EVER

EVER

MISUSE A PICTURE OF A CUTE ANIMAL FOR YOUR PROFIT!



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Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Don’t miss this spectacular new series that will steal your heart and haunt your dreams, Welcome to Shadow Falls camp, nestled deep in the woods of a town called Fallen…
One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.
Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.
Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

This one is like one massive parody of all-things paranormal. I might like it if I was fourteen. The plot is very similar to Hex Hall, at least up until the point where I decided that this just doesn't worth my time.

Annoying, self-conscious, whiny heroine who thinks she's funny.

Her life had toilet-bound stamped all over it.

Suddenly, Kylie started feeling people turn and look at her. Or were they looking at all of them?

Stupid, spineless best friend.

The she recalled how Sara had given in to Brad's "needs"-Brad who was the love of Sarah's life-yet, within two weeks of giving in, the love of Sara's life had dumped her. What was so special about that?
Since then, Sara had dated four other guys, and she'd slept with two of them.

To Sara, fitting in was...everything. If blue eye shadow was rave, you can bet Sara would have blue eye shadow before the week was out.

I didn't read far enough to know how the love interest, Derek and Lucas are like.

Just found out there'll be five books in this series.

May God have mercy for all those trees sacrificed in the making of the remaining books.

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Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.
Sometimes life-ending.
Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Why is this happening with every second book? When I read the first book, I thought, Beautiful Creatures is for me. If I can be a writer, I would write a story like this. More condensed maybe.

Urghh...when I read Beautiful Darkness, I kept telling myself, I have to finish this, I have to finish this. It's pathetic,really. The story got so complicated but very little were being revealed (even after all 500 pages of it). I once thought, am I too stupid for this book?

No.

Urghh...definitely not a pleasant book (except for Lucille...I miss Boo by the way). Ethan still sounded like a girl (I was guessing the authors would appreciate all the comments thrown at their first book, but no, Ethan sounded more feminine than ever). Not even Link's jokes could rescue this book anymore. Lena was so irritating, uninspiring. Ok, she had her reasons, so? Those were not excuses for behaving so weak.

The climax scene seemed so rushed, I could barely get my head around what happened. I understand the book is meant to be in paranormal fantasy genre, but coming back from dead? (this applies not to only one person, but two). LOL! Too much magics, no logical explanations given.

Long story short, I won't be reading the sequel anytime soon with plenty of good books on the market right now.


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Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything

When I read the reviews on Amazon, I quickly requested this book from the library. But the reviews on Goodreads have not been promising, plus the fact that this book is ridiculously long, I thought I might return this book as soon as I borrowed it but since my holiday is about to end soon, I gave this book a try, and I finished all the 563 pages of it.

The story started off pretty well, considering although I've read the synopsis earlier, I couldn't make sense what the book is all about. The jokes were sometimes really funny and I liked the idea how even though Lena was quite pretty, she has no sense of style whatsoever, which somehow made her stylish in her own way. But towards the end, she seemed to give up too easily and kept saying 'there's nothing you can do blah3'. Come on, a female lead should be more inspiring than that.

What I like
- The whole type of Light and Dark Casters, the Siren, the Natural, the Incubus etc. Cool names, but the details of their powers were not being elaborated enough for the readers to fathom.
- The sharing of dreams and visions, and how the smell, the heat, the blood lingered even after the dreams and visions were gone.
- Link is a pretty hilarious character.
- Boo. I silently wished he would not be dead and thankfully he survived.

What I don't like
- The length! OMG, how could the authors force me to read a 563 pages long novel and left me with so many questions even after I finished reading the last page. Save for the sequel of course, but honestly, by reading the synopsis of the following novels and the no of pages they have, I don't think I'll read the sequels anytime soon. Maybe never.
- The story lost pace after about 200 pages or so. Yes, I did finish this book within 24 hours, and as much I was eager to find out what happens next, I can't help but noticing how there were so many scenes that were insignificant and should be cut off from the novel.
- The prejudice against the Southern people. I mean, they can't be that bad, can they?
- The cover. Some people commented it was beautiful but nah, I don't think so. Just average.

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