The Inquisitor’s Gift – Sionnach Wintergreen

Thank you to the author of this book for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.

The Inquisitor’s Gift is part fantasy, part romance, part erotica.
The story is about Petal, a mage (holds magical abilities) who works for the government as an inquisitor, her job is to get details out of prisoners, through any means necessary.
Her role is put to the test when a man that she recognises as her ex-teacher and school girl crush, Mage Thronknoll, now simply known as ‘Cinder’ is brought in for betraying the Overfather and helping important prisoners escape.

Through talking to Cinder, Petal’s feelings for him are brought back and begins to see light in his beliefs.

I wasn’t too sure what I’d think of this book. I’m quite fussy with fantasies. I’m so glad that I agreed to read this however because I thought it was gripping.
I loved both characters. Petal had a very strong character that was quite obviously toned down by her to please the Overfathers. Her real personality is shown when she is with Cinder, the quite comically pig headed side of him brings her out of her shell. He almost teaches her that she can be as strong willed as he is.

I would have maybe liked a little more imagery, for example, a bit more description of Cinder’s pet Feliphe. I would have loved to imagine a little more what that would have looked like. However, I know in a lot of fantasies such as this, it is left to the imagination of the reader to create their own vision.

I really enjoyed this story. I thought it was really clever and really interesting to read. I loved both characters, thought that the mature scenes were very creative and quite funny in some cases. the ending almost had me in tears I was so into the story.

Very well written. I’d highly recommend it to adult fantasy lovers.

Overall rating:

4.5 Stars ****

 

Casting Corner:

Petal Brightbone – Parminder Nagra

I imagined Petal to be a little younger than Parminder, however, I imagined her face throughout reading this book. She has that very sweet face but can play a bad girl when she wants to.

 

Girl Within Girl Book 1: Unraveling – S.P. Aruna

Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Girl Within Girl is a story of a woman who unknowingly suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. A case that I don’t think there is enough films/books about because I think it’s fascinating!
Katrina is a quiet and caring nurse, inside her, there is also Cherry – The nymphomaniac photojournalist and Anisa – the assassin. Katrina knows nothing about these other minds until she meets Sean Paisley, a handsome doctor that works in her hospital that has come across her file. When Katrina finds out about her other personalities she is put into grave danger.

It took me a while to get into this book. Once Katrina had found out about the other women though I really enjoyed it. I studied psychology in sixth form and one of my favourite case studies was the three faces of Eve. I liked trying to figure out what the trigger was for each woman and found it really funny when they began to get jealous of each other for Dr Paisley’s attention.

I think the three characters were written very well. I did like being reminded who it was but for most of it, once we figured out the trigger words it was quite obvious who the personality was.

there are erotic scenes but they are very mature, it’s not overly graphic and steamy. Kind of like a ‘people have sex, get over it’ kind of vibe, other than Cherry, who enjoyed it a little more raunchy. I think that style fit perfectly with the story.

Overall I did enjoy this book once it got going. It was a bit of a slow burner for me but it was worth the wait. I will likely seek out the next book soon to find out what happens next.

Overall Rating:
4 Stars ****

Casting Corner

Katrina/Cherry/Anisa – Julianne Hough

Playing the role of three very different personalities will be extremely hard! I’ve seen Julianne in good girl roles and bad girls roles. I’m pretty sure she could pull off this challenge.

 

Story to Script

I’m sure everyone at some point in their life has been told by a book lover ‘Always Read the Book First!’ and has almost felt a little judged when they’ve mentioned that they’ve watched Twilight but never touched one one of Stephanie Myers‘ Books. I am guilty of this too! But has anyone ever noticed how offended book lovers actually get when they finally watch a film and it’s not completely on point with a book

If you follow me on Facebook you’ll know that I’ve been getting majorly excited as it’s been a very good month for some authors that I follow.

Firstly, Coleen Hoover, an author who I’ve only recently read a couple of books for, has announced that the first book of hers that I read – ‘Confess’ is being released as a series on Go90.com (Only in the US 😦 ) on the 4th April.

Also, one of my favourite authors Rebecca Donovan has just finished a fundraising campaign to turn my favourite books, the Breathing Series, into a series for the television screen!

This brings me to my point of this blog…Books VS Screen!

Some books have to be changed when being made visual, for different reasons. I will hold my hands up and say that I will often watch a film before I read the book, that way, I won’t be offended by all the cuts and changes that have been made. I’ll then be blown away when I do read the book.

One huge example of this would be J.K.Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’. Mainly because if you haven’t heard of Harry Potter, you’ve likely been living under a rock. I will hold up my hands and say that I HAVE NEVER READ ALL OF THE HARRY POTTER SERIES…I know…blasphemy. But having a mother and partner who have completed the Harry Potter books numerous times I am aware of the many cuts and changes that have been made in the films due to them being mentioned every single time we watch a film:

Obviously, in this case, the Harry Potter books were HUGE. If a director had taken on every single scene in this series, the films would still be going on with a 27-year-old Harry.
Plus, with the highly established actors they had in each film, I’m guessing they were pretty comfortable letting them just do their own thing. Michael Gambon doesn’t need to keep calm…he’s Dumbledore.

The first book/film transformation that I was majorly disappointed about was The Duff by Kody Keplinger. I somehow go this book free on Amazon while The Duff film was being shown in the cinemas so I decided to read it before the film came out. Being a huge click flick fan I knew that I’d like the film regardless. I got absolutely hooked on this book and its storyline. It had a nice twist to the ‘unpopular girl likes popular boy, they end up together’ kind of theme. When I finished the book, the film was out on DVD and I couldn’t wait to watch it. I bought it, used food to bribe my boyfriend to sit and watch it with me, grabbed a blanket, switched off the lights and eagerly settled down to watch it.

 
I was mortified at what they did!!
Westley was a next door neighbour who knew Bianca from a young age,
Toby was an asshole,
some bitchy girl called Madison appeared out of nowhere
and
they swapped and alcoholic dad for a career driven mum.

I could understand why some bits were changed for this film. It was developed for a teen audience and in the book. If you haven’t read the book – Bianca and Westley begin as ‘popular’ and ‘unpopular’, with the mutual dislike that comes with it. They then become secret friends with benefits while Bianca chases her crush, Toby, who is actually a genuine and nice person and ends up dating Bianca but lets her go when he realises that she’s developed feelings for Westley. I could understand that that specific relationship was scratched out. When it was for a younger, impressionable audience it would have been slated if the FWB relationship was used. But did they really have to make them neighbours? And WHY WHY WHY did they ruin Toby??

One book that isn’t really changed by a film, however, is ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’ by John Boyne. I watched this film in school and loved it. Always having an interest in history like this. A friend of the family offered to lend me to the book a few years later and to be honest, I was a little apprehensive because I loved the film so much and didn’t want it to be ruined for me. It wasn’t at all. There were barely any differences in the book, other than the film had a little more dramatic effect. I was so relieved.

I can see why people always like to read the book first. I know after watching the Hunger Games, I wasn’t in much of a rush to read the book. But after one of my friends told me about some differences between book and film for that I am pretty tempted to read it at some point.

So, as I said, personally. I will often watch the films first if they are already out, mainly because I take an eternity to read and if it’s in the cinemas, it won’t be by the time I’ve finished.
I actually enjoy seeing the differences in books to films (like Savage Peten Pan beating the lost boys…pretty grim J.M.Barrie).
There are a number of books that I read which I’d love to see being made into a film, and I cannot wait to see the upcoming series’ when they are complete. I think the main reason I’m so excited is because I know and love the stories. I will now say that I much prefer reading the book first.

Heart of Stone – Debbra Lynn

Thank you to the author of this book for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.

Heart of Stone follows the story of Caleb Stone, a Detective Inspector who we met in the first book of the Hollywood Lies series – Beyond the Red Carpet. The story goes alongside its first book and shows how Caleb fit into the story of Marcus and Sophia, and how the high ranking Detective Inspector came to plot the death of Sophia’s paranoid and mentally abusive husband.

I loved Caleb, the switching from his past to his present was really helpful in understanding his character and why he became so protective over Sophia. I think I preferred this book to the first one as it had a lot more relationships and romance in it. I also felt a lot more connected to Caleb, maybe it was because we read about him growing up and what he’d been through. I don’t really know, but in the first book, I didn’t really care either way if Sophia ended up escaping or going to jail, yet I really wanted Caleb to get away and finally get a happy ending.

I can’t wait to read Debbra’s next book when it comes out and learn more about Caleb’s partner Keller.

Thanks again to Debbra for letting me read this brilliant book!

Overall Rating:

4.5 Stars ****

 

Casting Corner

Caleb Stone – Hugh jackman

I’m not going to lie…Hugh is like my ultimate celebrity crush…even though he is closer to my mother’s age than mine.
While reading Caleb, Hugh was the first face that popped into mind while he was being described. Although I’m pretty sure at one point Caleb was mentioned to be blonde.
Caleb is in his 40s and has always had the intention of protecting others in mind throughout his life. Caleb seems like a generally laid back, genuine person. Quite similar to how I imagine Hugh actually is. Yet when he gets angry, he could tear people apart. I don’t think anyone can argue that Hugh can act angry perfectly!!

Beyond The Red Carpet (Hollywood Lies Book 1) – Debbra Lynn

Thank you to the author of this book for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.

‘Beyond The Red Carpet’ is a story of fame, fortune and murder. It begins with Sophia Donovan, a successful column writer, shooting her husband, Hollywood director, Marcus. Followed by her best friend Cat. The story flips in time in each chapter, one chapter would look at the past, that showed how waitress Sophia met her husband and best friend and how the relationship developed. The next would come to present time and show Sophia dealing with the murder, police investigations and events that followed.

I wasn’t too sure about this time flip while I went through this book, mainly because by about 20% through I’d figured out the reason that Sophia had killed the two, what Sophia’s relationship with Marcus was really like and what the police’s verdict would be. It was very relevant in most chapters, however, there was an obvious theme as to something in the past that made Sophia act like she did in the present, or an obvious memory that related to the current issue. Knowing what was going on I did find my attention drifting a little. That was my only grumble about the book, however.

As a person who is really into celebrity gossip and can be a bit of a wannabe dreamer, this book was perfect for me in the sense that it had plenty of Hollywood dramas and scandal. I liked that Sophia’s character didn’t really have much interest in being famous, she wanted to make her own living and have her own success in writing, the fame just kind of came along with the husband. Sophia was a pretty grounded character and quite likeable.
Marcus was really well written. His thought processes were really interesting to read, especially how he was so adamant that Sophia was doing him wrong when it was actually him doing wrong but couldn’t see that. It was almost like he saw himself as kind of a martyr who would do no wrong.
The abusive relationship was also really well developed. Although Marcus only actually got physical with her once or twice, his mental abuse was so well written that I was seething in my seat when reading it, just wanting to reach into the book and slap him into next week. It was a good explanation of why strong willed Sophia ended up being quite submissive until she cracked.

The final few chapters were actually a bit of a surprise for me, but I really liked it. Without going into too much detail and posting spoilers, I was rooting for something like that to happen. But the last line…horrible cliffhanger! I had to start the next book straight away because I was so intrigued! Cruel author.

Overall Rating:

4 Stars ****

Casting Corner:

Sophia Donovan – Dakota Johnson

I’m going to throw my hands up in a kind of unrelated point and say that I HATED Fifty Shades of Grey. I read the first book and gave up after that because it just annoyed me. I’m a smut book fan but I just couldn’t bring myself to read the trilogy of Fifty Shades. Mainly because I can’t stand Mr Grey.

My best friend, on the other hand, adores it, she’s not much of a reader but she read the whole series of Fifty Shades and dragged me to the cinema to watch the current two films. Dakota Johnson has shown in these films (and a few others that I’ve seen her in) that she can play a fairly strong woman but also one that can tend to be a bit of a wallflower. She’s the kind of character that would shock you if she commited a double murder!