Book Review: Deception by Stacy Claflin

Book Title: Deception

Author: Stacy Claflin

Publish Date: November 21, 2011

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Romance

Series Name: The Transformed (#1)

Plot (from Goodreads):  

Alexis is not the average person because she's exceptionally brilliant. When mysterious things start happening to her, she pursues the truth and learns is that she's been lied to her entire life. She runs into deception at every turn.

What she finds on her own terrifies her and she questions whether she really wants to know the truth about herself...

Until she meets a stranger and they experience an instant connection. She feels that she's known him her entire life, but she has never seen him before. At their first meeting, he knows more about her than she knows about herself. She begins to seek the truth about herself again and what she discovers turns her world completely upside down.

Everything that she believed to be false is suddenly her new reality.

Why I Read this Book: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.  This in no way influenced my review.

 

Review 

I was really torn on how to rate this book in terms of stars.  There were some really great qualities in the book and some things that really bothered me.

The writing style is incredible!  My favorite aspect of the writing style was the way that the world is developed.  The story is told by someone who does not know much about the world; therefore, the world is developed slowly and this made the book a lot more interesting than if all the information was thrown at you all at once.  If it had been given to you all in one chapter, it may have seemed quite overwhelming.

The characters where really complex and dynamic.  I really enjoyed this aspect, but some of the characters really got on my nerves.  I cannot go into details, because this is a spoiler free review.  If you want more details, visit my Goodreads review where I have all the details hidden in a spoiler.

The overall plot was very interesting.  It was filled with action and suspense and also a love triangle.  The romance aspect of this book is one thing that really bothered me.  Once again, I cannot go into details because of spoilers, but feel free to see my Goodreads review if you don't mind spoilers.

 

Final Statements

Recommended Reading Age: 13+ for intense action scenes

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Blog Tour, Excerpt, Giveaway, and Review: Immersed by Jennifer Stewart Griffith

Immersed by Jennifer Griffith

Lisette Pannebaker speaks five languages and has a brilliant business plan—personal language immersion. Clients can hire her to shadow them and speak all day in any language they need to learn for business or travel—whatever.
But there’s a major hitch: she’s far too pretty. Clients with less than honorable intentions sign up just have Lisette at their side. Solution? A make-under. Way under.It works like a charm. None of her male clients show her the least bit of interest.
Until… Erik.
Erik Gunnarsson is charming, kind, and smart—everything she’s ever looked for. Even though he seems to have a secret and she swore she'd never date a client, Lisette is tempted to shed her disguise—even if it means jeopardizing her career.

Amazon

Author Jennifer Griffith

Jennifer Griffith studied French, German, Japanese, and a wee bit of Spanish in her school days. Her grandmother was Norwegian, and Jennifer grew up with lots of Scandinavian traditions floating around, including fabulous cardamom laced cookies called Krumkaker, made on a fancy waffle iron. However, she’d never dream of trying to teach someone any of those languages. And she might botch the cookies. Instead, she writes novels in English, drives her five kids a million places, and laughs with her husband, who came up with the plot for Immersed because he’s just a cool muse like that.

Website * Twitter * Facebook

 

 

Review

This book was one of my favorites in this novella series.  This is about a woman who believes that she is too pretty for anyone to take her seriously so she does a make-under in which she makes herself uglier, but it seems that Erik is falling in love with her even because she is "ugly".  Although the premise of this book does not seem exciting, this story was really well written.  I read this book in two days.  This whole series has been really great.  I would recommend it to anyone who really enjoys cheesy romance stories.  These books are usually quite predictable, but they are written so well that I did not even care.

Rating: 5/5

Blog Tour Giveaway

$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 6/9/14
Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
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Book Review: Chosen by Ted Dekker

Book Title: Chosen

Author: Ted Dekker

Publish Date: April 13, 2010

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy, Christian Fiction

Series Name: Lost Books (#1)

Plot (from Goodreads):

Think with your heart and prepare to die . . . for you have been Chosen.

Thomas Hunter, supreme commander of the Forest Guard, has seen a great evil decimate much of his beautiful world. With a dwindling army and an epic threat, Thomas is forced to supplement his fighters with new recruits ages 16 and 17. From thousands, four will be chosen to lead a special mission.

Unknown to Thomas, the chosen four are redirected to a different endgame. They must find the seven lost Books of History before the Dark One. For these seven books have immense power over the past, present, and future, controlling not only the destiny of their world . . . but that of ours as well.

Why I Read this Book: I love Ted Dekker novels.  This book is a re-read for me.  I have read the first 4 books in this series, but I have not read the last 2 books in the series.  I intend to re-read this first 4 books in order to refresh my memory in preparation for the last two books in the series.

 

Review 

Full of action and adventure, Ted Dekker's books never fail to deliver.  There is a slight minor plot that involves romance, but the major plot is full of adventure, excitement, and fighting.

There is also some comic relief present in the form of the rouch, Michal and Gabil.  I talked about this some in my epic bookish battle royal for the Bout of Books read-a-thon.

I also like the Christian allegories that are present.  Most of the time, these allegories are very subtle.  One of the main allegories is to God through Elyon who is the loving God in this series.  Although there are Christian allegories, I believe that this series would be great for anyone who loves fantasy, action, and/or adventure.

One last comment: the cover.  Have you seen the new covers for this series?  They are gorgeous.  I cannot keep my eyes off of them.  The original covers were not bad, but the new covers are AMAZING.  Here is a peek at the old covers:

The new covers are so pretty and not as plain as the old covers.   I also think that the new covers appeal more to both males and females; whereas, the old covers appeal more to a male audience.

 

Final Statements

Recommended Reading Age: 13+ for intense action scenes

Overall Rating: 5/5

Write On Review-a-thon Wrap Up

 

I am participating in the Write on review-a-thon.  Here is the blurb about it from the website:

The Write On review-a-thon is a monthly event created and hosted by Brianna at The Book Vixen. It’s 2 days dedicated to getting reviews done, whether you have one review to write or 30+. This edition of the review-a-thon takes place all day Friday, February 28th and Saturday, March 1st. Let’s get those reviews done!

I was busy yesterday (Friday, May 23) and was unable to write any reviews.  On Day 2 (Saturday, May 24), I was able to review a good number of books.  Here are the reviews that I have written and the days that I have them scheduled to appear on my blog:

1. My Name is Chloe by Melody Carlson - Sunday, May 25
2. Chosen by Ted Dekker - Wednesday, May 28
3. Immersed by Jennifer Stewart Griffith - Friday, May 30
4. Deception by Stacy Clafin - Sunday, June 1
5. Gaither Homecoming Bible - Wednesday, June 4

I also finished writing reviews on Goodreads and Amazon for the books that I have read and published reviews for on my blog.  This was around 5-8 books.

Write On Review-a-Thon Participation Announcement

After completing the Bout of Books read-a-thon.  I am going to have a good number of reviews to write, so I am planning on joining the Write On review-a-thon.  Here is the official blurb about the review-a-thon:

The Write On review-a-thon is a monthly event created and hosted by Brianna at The Book Vixen. It’s 2 days dedicated to getting reviews done, whether you have one review to write or 30+. This edition of the review-a-thon takes place all day Friday, May 23rd and Saturday, May 24th. Let’s get those reviews done!

Below is a list of all of the books that I hope to write reviews for during the review-a-thon:

1. Thrive by Mark Hall
2. Chosen by Ted Dekker
3. The Gaither Homecoming Bible
4. Deception by Stacy Claflin

I also hope to finish a few books during the upcoming week for which I will also need to write reviews.

I plan to publish these reviews not only on my blog, but also on Goodreads and Amazon.  I might also start to put my reviews on other sites such as Barnes and Noble.  Another goal that I have for these two days is that I will go through all of the books that I have reviewed on my blog and make sure that I have reviews on Goodreads and on Amazon.  Sometimes, I get so excited about the book that I forget to publish my reviews on places other than my blog.

Are you planning on participating in this review-a-thon?  If so, leave a link to your goals in the description.  I would love to hear your plans.