Guest Post by C.K. Kelly Martin, the author of Yesterday

Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you a wonderful guest post by the talented Canadian author, C.K. Kelly Marin, the author of YA time travel adventure, Yesterday. I have reviewed Yesterday on the blog today, for my review click here .  I really loved this book, it was thrilling, but also thought provoking and moving! Fact-paced and full of unexpected plot twists, it's a book that everyone should read!

I especially loved the fact that it was set in a city that I'm very familiar with - Toronto! C.K. Kelly Martin did such a marvellous job describing all the settings, I was blown-away! And so I asked her to talk about the setting a little bit. Why she chose Toronto for the setting of her book? What are her favourite places there?

Here's a fantastic guest post that explains it all! :) Enjoy and be sure to leave us a comment - it's always MUCH APPRECIATED!! :) 

...In Which C.K. Kelly Martin talks about the setting of Yesterday!

a guest post by C.K. Kelly Martin

     When I was sixteen, back in 1985, I used to feel my excitement level spike every time I approached Toronto’s skyline, leaving behind the suburb where I lived full-time. That same year Glenn Frey had a hit with You Belong to the City and I definitely felt the sentiment, that where I was really alive was the city. It had things that didn’t exist in the burbs – skyscrapers, subways, life that never really stopped. It was the place my favourite bands played when they toured and the spot where I bought music when I couldn’t find the imports and rarer stuff I wanted at the local mall’s record shop.

    The New Year’s Eve after I’d turned seventeen my best friend and I went downtown to hang out with a group of girls we’d befriended while sleeping outside a Ticketmaster box office for Paul Young concert tickets. Someone these girls knew had rented a hotel room and was having a party but my friend and I discovered a better party just down the hall – one a group of actors in their twenties were holding but didn’t seem to mind us crashing. I can’t remember how much time we spent mingling with the actors that night or what the hell we talked about but at the time the very existence of that party seemed to prove Toronto’s superiority. We would never have run into an actors’ party in the burbs!

     Toronto Rocks. Incidentally, Toronto Rocks was also the name of an 80s music video show that used to air on City TV at 4 PM. I used to watch it all the time! One of the terrific things about writing Yesterday was being able to journey back to that point in history in my head while also showcasing a Toronto that was familiar to me then and now.

     Twenty-seven years later I still feel drawn to the city and usually find myself in Toronto every couple of weeks. At the moment I’m looking forward to scoring TIFF tickets and spending hours in movie lines, waiting to watch films I wouldn’t be able to see anywhere else.

     Sadly one of my all-time favourite Toronto places has disappeared – the spot Barenaked Ladies sang about in Brian Wilson: “Drove downtown in the rain Nine thirty on a Tuesday night Just to check out the late night Record shop.” Sam the Record Man was my go-to place for music for so many years – at first for tapes, 45” singles, and later, when they opened their extensive VHS section upstairs I haunted that too. Sam’s staff was so knowledgeable and the music-loving environment such a cool one that I often spent hours there. I still miss it and feel the hole it left every time I walk up and down Yonge Street.

     World’s Biggest Bookstore, another one of my old-time haunts is also slated to close in 2013. In its heyday – pre current warehouse-sized Canadian book chain Indigo/Chapters – it truly was the biggest bookstore you’d find around these parts. There, I stocked up on books that weren’t available in the small, shopping mall bookstores of the 80s.

     However, as some of my favourite places have disappeared, fantastic new ones like the Bell Lightbox and Distillery District have emerged. The Lightbox has been the centre of the Toronto International Film Festival since 09 but shows art-house movies and film-based exhibitions year round. The Distillery District is one of Toronto’s most unusual, picturesquely urban pedestrian areas to visit, full of cafés, art studio spaces and the outstanding Soulpepper Theatre Company (whose plays have pulled me towards the Distillery District even in wintery weather that makes the open area less than hospitable).

     Being right on Lake Ontario is a major advantage for the city and I’m also a big fan of the Harbourfront area, where you can shop, stroll, eat and/or cruise, and Centre Island (click to look at some of my pictures from the island) which offers a great getaway from the city cement and bustle while remaining within its borders. I couldn’t possibly write about Toronto without mentioning my eternal fondness for Massey Hall (first finished in 1894 but since renovated) – in my opinion the city’s very best venue. If I had my way every concert I attend would be held here and every movie I’d see would be at the majestic Elgin Theatre (currently films are only screened there during the TIFF).

     Other Toronto spots I love include Queen Street (for strolling, people watching and Doc Marten buying), the ROM (the museum Freya visits before she first spots Garren in Yesterday), the Royal York Hotel and its cozy Library Bar (scrumptious food there too) andBrookfield Place whose architecture always takes my breath away.

    All of these places I adore and what the city has meant to me over the years is what made me set Yesterday in Toronto- that little fluttery feeling I still get when I hear The Tragically Hip sing, “that night in Toronto with its checkerboard floors…” or the Barenaked Ladies croon about the TO record store I will never stop missing.!

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About the author:

Most of my time spent at York University in Toronto was as an English major, not the traditional way to graduate with a B.A. in Film Studies but a fine way to getC.K. June 09 a general arts education. After graduation I headed for Dublin, Ireland and spent the majority of the nineties there in forgettable jobs meeting unforgettable people and enjoying the buzz.

I always thoughts I'd get around to writing in earnest eventually and I began writing my first novel in a flat in Dublin and finished it in a Toronto suburb. By then I'd discovered that young adult fiction felt the freshest and most exciting to me. You have most of your life to be an adult but you only grow up once!

As a writer, I'm naturally crazy about good books – but also good movies and good music. My recommended reading list is available on this site, along with a collection of literary and general interest links and other assorted favourites. An avid interest in web site design prompted me to design my first writer's site, The Start of Something.com, which was named one of the top ten in Writer's Digest 2001 Best Web Site Competition. The C.K. Kelly Martin web site is now my main site – every inch designed and maintained by me.

Currently residing near Toronto with my Dub husband, I became an Irish citizen in 2001 and continue to visit Dublin often (although not as often as I'd like!) while working on teen novels..

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Connect with C.K. Kelly Martin!
Twitter | Facebook | Website

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About the Author

Evie is the Blogger behind Bookish. She enjoys reading many different genres, especially YA, Paranormal, Contemporary Fiction and Fantasy.

She loves talking to authors and is always happy to welcome them for interviews, and guest posts. She also likes spreading the love for awesome books and  chatting with fellow book-worms.

You can find Evie here: Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Shelfari | The Library Thing

Yesterday by C.K. Kelly Martin (Review)

Genre:	Young Adult, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Publication.Date	September 25th 2012
Pages:	368
Published By:	Random House | Doubleday Canada
Website	C.K. Kelly Martin |
	Yesterday- Goodreads
My review copy:	A copy of the book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Where to get:

THEN: The formation of the UNA, the high threat of eco-terrorism, the mammoth rates of unemployment and subsequent escape into a world of virtual reality are things any student can read about in their 21st century textbooks and part of the normal background noise to Freya Kallas's life. Until that world starts to crumble.

NOW: It's 1985. Freya Kallas has just moved across the world and into a new life. On the outside, she fits in at her new high school, but Freya feels nothing but removed. Her mother blames it on the grief over her father's death, but how does that explain the headaches and why do her memories feel so foggy? When Freya lays eyes on Garren Lowe, she can't get him out of her head. She's sure that she knows him, despite his insistence that they've never met. As Freya follows her instincts and pushes towards hidden truths, the two of them unveil a strange and dangerous world where their days may be numbered. Unsure who to trust, Freya and Garren go on the run from powerful forces determined to tear them apart and keep them from discovering the truth about their shared pasts (and futures), her visions, and the time and place they really came from.Yesterday will appeal to fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner, Veronica Roth's Divergent, Amy Ryan's Glow, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Ally Condie's Matched.

(Goodreads)

But you can't unsee something once you've seen it. Not without a memory wipe anyway.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. Winston Churchill's making pronouncements in my head again, like when I woke up from my first dream about the blond boy.

What I want to do is sit quietly by myself and churn it all over in my mind until I figure it out. Peel back the layers and unravel the core mystery of what happened today. 

      
      With unique premise and absorbing plot line, C.K. Kelly Martin's Yesterday is a great time travel adventure! The intriguing cover instantly drew me in, and the fast-paced, thrilling and fascinating storyline kept me well entertained and captivated all the way through. Not to mention that I just love books set in places that I'm familiar with!

      Taking place in 1980's Toronto, Yesterday tells the story of one girl's quest to discover the truth about her past, her family and herself. A quest that is just as thrilling as it is dangerous, and just as thought-provoking as it is moving. Freya Kallas has just moved to Canada from Australia and she seems to have trouble acclimatising to her new surroundings. Her memories are blurry and illusive, no matter how hard she focuses, she can't recall the details. It's almost as if they're not real... Nothing about her new life in Toronto feels right. Is it just a bad case of home-sickness, or is there something more to Freya's headaches and weird dreams? And things get even more weird when she meets Garren, a strangely familiar teenager who claims that they've never met before. And when they stumble across some well-protected, shocking secrets, they find themselves running for their lives. Everything they thought they knew, every memory they believed to be true - all that crumbles to pieces right before their eyes, and they'll have to fight to find out the truth about their pasts. 

     First of all, I have to say that C.K. Kelly Martin did a fantastic job capturing the spirit of 1985 Toronto! Through famous quotes and various pop-culture references, she managed to really breathe life into the places and people of the time period. 1985 is the year I was born in, so I guess you can say it was personally meaningful to me that she got it all right! The atmosphere was amazing and I could easily picture all the scenes, conversations and settings. Her depictions were spot-on accurate and very vivid, and the overall effect was wonderful, charming, and quite convincing! 

     I thought the premise was really great. I love twisty time-travel stories and mind-bending mysteries. Yesterday is both - and more! The pacing was good, there was never a slow or boring moment, and though I did get slightly confused at times, I can honestly say that I enjoyed this book a lot. I've seen people complaining about the prologue, they say it gives away too much, killing the surprise factor. Well, yes - the prologue isn't the best one I've seen in my life, but can you really imagine the story without it? I can't. The story would be even more confusing, and I probably would not know what on earth was going on. So, while I wasn't the biggest fan of the prologue, I did recognize its importance to the plot as a whole. 

     I liked Freya, though I can't say that it was love at first sight. Some aspects of her personality I liked and admired, others - not so much, but in the end she grew on me and I found myself caring about her, her quest to uncover the truth, and her relationship with Garren. She had some really great qualities, she was persistent and mentally strong, she didn't give up easily and even in very hard situations she found it in herself to push trough and continue her search for the answers. Most importantly, she grew as a person, and that is something I always appreciate in YA characters. Additionally, the first-person narrative made it easy for me to connect with her and get a good idea of what she was going through. C.K. Kelly Martin's writing was raw, emotional, insightful and thoroughly absorbing. Some of the passages were almost poetic, and they spoke straight to my heart. I loved it!

     Overall, Yesterday proved to be just as good as I hoped it would be. I can't wait to read the sequel and find out what Freya and Garren will do next, what dangers they'll have to face and if they'll manage to find what they're looking for!

MAKING HISTORY with Victoria Schwab : The Archived VLOG tour + GIVEAWAY

Hello pretty faces!!! :) We're here today to listen to Victoria share with us one of her earliest childhood memories (a very scary and dramatic memory, too!). Why?! Because we're celebrating the upcoming release of her absolutely phenomenal book, The Archived (I've read it and let me just tell you one thing: YOU ARE GOING TO FLIPPING LOVE IT!!!!)

The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Hardcover, 336 pages

Expected publication: January 22nd 2013 by Hyperion

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.
Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.
Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous--it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hardwon redemption.

Here's an awesome introductory video in which Victoria tells us all about the tour, how it works, where you can see the videos and what to expect! :) 

And here's the video that Victoria recorded for my stop on the tour! 

Isn't that an incredibly emotional memory? WOW, what a traumatic experience! The way Victoria talks about it gave me goosebumps! I don't think I have any memories that would be equally scary, but I do recall one day when I was about 7 (maybe 8), and me and my mom were waiting for my dad. He drove to the store to pick up some groceries for our picnic/BBQ (a family thing we used to do every Saturday in the local park). We were waiting for him.. and waiting.. and then a neighbour came by instead, and he told us that my dad had a car accident and he was taken to the hospital. Thankfully, it was nothing serious, just a couple of scratches and bruises, but I'll never forget how scared I was that day. My mom was shaken, we were both crying, it was so emotional! Scary AND emotional. 
So yeah, that would be one of my earliest memories, and one that I will never forget. Every time I think about it now, I realize how important my family is to me. 
What is the memory that you recall most vividly from your early childhood??? Be sure to leave a comment and then enter the giveaway!!
GIVEAWAY!!!
The fabulous Victoria prepared something very special for you guys!!! Here's a SWAG bag we have up for grabs today!
This giveaway is open to International entrants! 
Additionally, I am hosting a pre-order giveaway of one beautiful copy of The Archived - also International!!
The giveaway ends: October 20th

Please enter through Rafflecopter below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to visit Page Turners to see Victoria's first video, in which she talks about her most impactful memory!!!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Crusher by Niall Leonard (Review)

Genre:	Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery
Publication.Date	September 13th 2012
Pages:	384
Published By:	Random House |
Website	Niall Leonard |
	Crusher- Goodreads
My review copy:	A copy of the book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Where to get:

To catch a killer,Finn Maguire may have to become one....

Everything changed the day Finn found his father in a pool of blood, bludgeoned to death. His dull, dreary life is turned upside downas he become's the prime suspect. How can he clear his name and find out who hated his dad enough to kill him?

Facing danger at every turn, uncovering dark family secrets and braving the seedy London underworld,Finn is about to discover that only the people you trust can really hurt you....

(Goodreads)

His eyes were open and his glasses had fallen off. There was blood coming from his mouth and clotting in his beard, and pooling on the table, and he was dead. And the house was empty and silent.

Dad used to say that the best stories came from the horse's mouth. 

      Niall Leonard's YA debut, Crusher, is a solid, well-written mystery/thriller featuring a character that breaks the mold, a murder case with an unexpected conclusion, and a whole lot of action in between. Fast-paced, easily digestible and quite entertaining, it's a book that will appeal to fans of noir and crime fiction suitable for the young adult audience. 

     While the premise of this novel is a rather simple and unoriginal one, all the unforeseeable plot developments definitely keep things fresh and spicy. A dyslectic teenager named Finn comes home to find his step-father murdered in his office, with his laptop and some of the scripts he's been working on missing. When he becomes the prime suspect of the crime, and realizes that the police isn't going to look for the real murderer, Finn decides to take matters into his own hands. His secret investigation will put him right in the middle of the local crime-world and the things he'll discover will change his life forever... 

     While the story is undeniably fun to read with nearly non-stop action and unexpected plot twists, it's also not very stimulating, nor is it especially challenging. This book is what I call a spoon-fed mystery, one that presents you with all the facts instead of making you work to piece all the clues together. There's no sense of urgency, no guessing and wrecking your brain to figure out what's going on. A lot is happening on the pages of Crusher, our lead character goes through some seriously dangerous (and wildly improbable) adventures, and I definitely enjoyed all that. At the same time, though, this book didn't pull me in as much as I hoped it would. I found myself indifferent to Finn's fate (mainly because he himself seemed so withdrawn and emotionally unavailable), and only mildly interested in the murder mystery. I wasn't bored, but I wasn't emotionally invested nor intellectually stimulated, either. To me, this book was the literary equivalent of breakfast pancakes - it was enjoyable, but not necessarily memorable. 

     Finn was a very interesting character in many ways. At first I was fascinated by his cold appearance and emotionless reaction to his father's death. I assumed he was trying to keep it together, internalizing his struggles and not letting himself fall apart while the murderer was still at large. But no, that wasn't the case. He was cold, disconnected and withdrawn all the way through, and it wasn't until the very last page (the very last paragraph!) that he finally broke down and cried. And while I found it refreshing and intriguing to study his emotional responses (or the lack of them), I was also starting to feel uneasy, disturbed, and wondering what exactly was wrong with that kid. In the end, though, he did show some human emotions and I was very grateful for that brief peek into his heart and soul. 

     The action side of the story was really good. I must say I had a lot of fun following Finn's adventures, though at times the pacing seemed a little bit uneven. There were moments when we'd go from a dynamic knife fight to lengthy passages describing Finn's work at a restaurant. I appreciated all the glimpses at his private life and I really enjoyed getting to know him better, but I also wished the transitions from action to slower moments would be smoother. The choppy pacing resulted in me being slightly confused and unable to get entirely absorbed in the story. Just when I'd finally start to get a good grasp of Finn's personality, the story would suddenly jump into some crazy action, but before I'd get fully pumped up by the exciting events, the tension would deflate and we would suddenly have Finn dealing with funeral arrangements. Niall Leaonard's writing style was really great, though! It was just so easy to absorb and dynamic, it felt more like watching an episode of some popular crime drama than reading a book. At the same time, though, I wished the author would let us explore Finn's psyche a little bit more, as well as the relationship between him and his mother. Finn was undeniably a wildly fascinating character and I'd love to get to know him on a more personal level. 

     Overall, this was a good read and I enjoyed it quite a lot. It might not be the most complex or intensely gripping murder mystery out there, but it's certainly easy to devour, thrilling and entertaining read. If not for anything else, read it for its jaw-dropping conclusion and I'm sure you won't be disappointed! Niall Leaonard shows a lot of promise as a writer and I'm very excited to find out what else he has in store for us!

     (Additionally, fans of Fifty Shades series will be interested to know that Niall Leaonard is E.L. James' husband).

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About the Author

Evie is the Blogger behind Bookish. She enjoys reading many different genres, especially YA, Paranormal, Contemporary Fiction and Fantasy.

She loves talking to authors and is always happy to welcome them for interviews, and guest posts. She also likes spreading the love for awesome books and  chatting with fellow book-worms.

You can find Evie here: Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Shelfari | The Library Thing

Between The Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer (Review)

Genre:	Young Adult, Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Publication.Date	June 26th (US/Canada)/July 5th (UK)2012
Pages:	384
Published By:	Simon Pulse (US/Canada)/ Hodder & Stoughton (UK) |
Website	Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer |
	Between The Lines - Goodreads
My review copy:	A copy of the book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Where to get:

What happens when happily ever after…isn’t?

Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.

And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.

Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.

(Goodreads)

“I’d much rather pretend I’m somewhere else, and any time I open the pages of a book, that happens.”

“He’s not your typical prince, more like a square peg in a round hole, kind of like me. He’s the sort of guy who wouldn’t mind reading side by side on a date.”

“Just so you know, when they say "Once upon a time” . . . they’re lying” 

“Can you imagine what it would be like to know that your life was just going to be a series of days that were all the same, that were do-overs?”

     Between The Lines was a surprisingly sweet and delightful read, and not at all what I initially thought it would be. I suppose I should start by saying that this was my first book by Jodi Picoult, but, although I haven't read any of her previous novels, I had a pretty good idea what they were about (who doesn't?). While it was obvious to me that Between The Lines was not going to be yet another melancholic, harrowing, and profoundly meaningful read (in other words: not the usual Jodi Picoult's type of book), I did expect it to be a slightly lighter contemporary romance/drama aimed at the Young Adult audience. Needless to say, I was wrong. Oh, so wrong! Not only is the book more of a romantic fantasy than a contemporary novel, it also reads more like a MG than a typical YA. Filled with gorgeous illustrations, adorable characters, wonderful settings and breath-taking adventures, it is a book that is just as entertaining as it is innovative, and one that has something for everyone on the age spectrum. 

     Between The Lines is a magical and beautifully written tale about true love, following your dreams, the power of imagination, and finding your own happily-ever-after. It's a wonderful story, and one with a beating heart. To someone like me, who grew up reading fairy tales and watching Neverending Story (over and over again), reading this book was a fantastic, uplifting experience. I enjoyed everything about it, from the imaginative premise, interesting characters and sparkly dialogues to the colorful illustrations. It's not a demanding read, you won't be biting your nails in anticipation of what happens next, nor will you come out of reading it with a tear-streaked face and a whole lot of emotional trauma. No, you're more likely to giggle, sigh in amazement, and clap in excitement. At the same time, though, the authors offer the reader something to think about, too, as they don't shy away from more serious issues, such as abandonment, growing up with only one parent, fear of rejection, and social awkwardness. And they tackle them in the most graceful and subtle way. Ultimately, the real magic of this book lies in the ingenious concept and its magnificent, breath-taking execution. Jodi and Samantha ask many great questions: what do characters do when no one is reading the book? What happens to them? Do they have their own, somewhat more real lives outside the story? And what if the characters are tired of playing the same old scenario over and over again? What if they want out? What happens then? I thought the concept was downright brilliant and I had a whole lot of fun following Oliver's adventures as he was trying desperately to escape the imaginary world of Between The Lines (yes, the book in the story has the exact same title). It was very entertaining! 

     I liked the characters a lot. Both Oliver and Delilah were likeable, cute, and quite convincing. While I didn't think that the characters were exceptionally fleshed-out, I also didn't think them necessary to be. After all, it's more of a fairy-tale than a typical boy-meets-girl contemporary novel, and definitely a plot rather than character driven one. I liked how Jodi and Samantha handled the dynamics between the protagonists, their dialogues were funny and seemed real - as real as a dialogue between a girl and a character from a book can be, that is. However, as much as I enjoyed the adventure part of their story, I can't say that I felt the chemistry between them. And that's one of the reasons why this book felt more  middle grade than young adult to me. The world building was rich and exquisite, and I absolutely loved all the fantasy elements, but at the same time, I thought that the romance part was a little bit lacking. Maybe it's the whole concept of a girl falling in love with a character from a children's book that I had a problem with, or maybe it's just the fact that the story focused mainly on getting Oliver out of the fairy-tale novel he was stuck in, and not on the young couple's feelings - I don't know. All I know is that I wanted a little bit more sexual tension between these two, because to me they acted more like really good friends than teenagers in love. 

     That's not to say that I didn't love the book, because I did. I absolutely and utterly loved it. It was fresh, sweet, funny, and just so deliciously readable. I loved exploring the imaginary world from Oliver's book, but I also liked reading about the world Delilah lived in. Like I said before, I liked both Oliver and Delilah, but these two were not the only memorable characters. I loved some of the side-kicks, too, especially Delilah's best friend, Jules. She was hilarious! And Oliver's side-kick, Frump, was too. And while they didn't play essential roles in the story, their presence added a lot of flavor to it. 

     All in all, Between The Lines is a brilliant work of fiction with a provocative and engaging theme: life is but a story and the happy ending we get (and whether we'll get it at all) is entirely up to us. Nothing is set in stone. We hold the power to shape our future, all it takes is just a little bit of faith and persistence. To me, Between the Lines is a book with a timeless appeal, and one that I will be re-reading time and time again.

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About the Author

Evie is the Blogger behind Bookish. She enjoys reading many different genres, especially YA, Paranormal, Contemporary Fiction and Fantasy.

She loves talking to authors and is always happy to welcome them for interviews, and guest posts. She also likes spreading the love for awesome books and  chatting with fellow book-worms.

You can find Evie here: Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Shelfari | The Library Thing

BLOG TOUR: Quarantine by Lex Thomas (Review, Guest Post, Giveaway)

Genre:	Young Adult, Thriller, Horror
Publication.Date	July 10th 2012
Pages:	416
Published By:	Egmont USA |
Website	Lex Thomas |
	Quarantine - Goodreads
My review copy:	A copy of the book received from via the Kismet Blog Touring

Where to get:

“As original as The Hunger Games, set within the walls of a high school exactly like yours.” – Kami Garcia, New York Times best-selling co-author of the Beautiful Creatures novels

It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school. 

In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.

"Take Michael Grant's Gone and Veronica Roth's Divergent, rattle them in a cage until they're ready to fight to the death, and you'll have something like this nightmarish debut...Thomas' whirlwind pace, painful details, simmering sexual content, and moments of truly shocking ultra-violence thrust this movie-ready high school thriller to the head of the class." - Booklist (starred review)

(Goodreads)

   

     The first book in The Loners series, Quarantine, is a wild and explosive cocktail of scary, fun, and gore. Page after page, chapter after chapter, this book is made of action, tension and almost unbearable chaos of a world turned upside down by a deadly virus - a contagious, parasitic virus that thrives only in bodies of pubescent teenagers and destroys everyone - adults and children alike - in their path.

     Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies (the two talented writers behind the pen name Lex Thomas) don't waste time on polite introductions, nor do they dwell on abstract descriptions. They get straight to the point, throwing the reader right into the centre of mind-popping action. You might want to consider attaching a seat-belt to your favourite reading-chair, cause the way these two tell the story is more intense than the scariest roller coaster ride you can imagine. All the events described in this book take place at McKinley High - a totally ordinary high school that's just unfortunate to be located near Mason Montgomery Technologies. MMT is a weapon manufacturer and there wouldn't be anything extraordinary about it if not for the illegal biological weapons they've been secretly testing on kidnapped teenagers. The first day of a new school year also happens to be the day when the government sends their troops to investigate the illegal activities at MMT. Long story short, something goes wrong, one of the infected teenagers escapes and makes his way to McKinley High. The government - in hopes of minimizing the casualties and getting everything under control - blows up half of the school. Needless to say, that doesn't help. The virus spreads all over the school in - literally - seconds, and in a blink of an eye all the students turn into walking bio-bombs, lethal to everyone who comes in contact with them.

     And so the Quarantine begins. Cut off from the rest of the world, the infected students of McKinley High are now on their own and forced to fight in order to survive. Gangs form, tension raises, fights break out and the situation quickly escalates into a full-blown gang-war, with people who used to be your friends turning into your most deadly enemies. Friendship? Morality? Decency? Mutual support? Forget about it! Survival is all that matters. The good news is: as the puberty leaves the body, the virus disappears. The bad news? You then lose your immunity and within 24 hours you end up dead. Thankfully, the military set up an automated testing station, designed to scan the blood for an active virus and then release the virus-free students into the outside world. It's kind of like graduating from high school, only in this situation it's more like graduate or die trying.

     This book was... WOW, I don't even know where to begin! It was insanely intense, but not at all in a subtle-kind of way. More like in a right-in-your-face, what-the-hell-just-happened and I'm-never-going-back-to-high-school kind of way. It certainly isn't a book for the faint-hearted, there are scenes of violence and abuse. And I don't mean a fist fight or spitting someone in the face, either, I mean seriously cringe-worthy stuff. If I was watching a movie instead of reading a book, I would be hiding under a blanket and covering my ears. Lex Thomas did a really great job painting a very grim, disturbing vision of a society that broke under pressure and crumbled to pieces. People turning into savages, thievery, rapes, oppression, injustice, even murder - that's the new reality at McKinley High, and it's only getting worse with every passing day.

     I loved the idea of gangs - certain people sticking together, joining forces to fight for supplies at weekly food-drops organized by the government. And I thought it was a cool idea to have the kids dye their hair a gang-specific colour, though I'm not exactly sure if you can actually dye your hair using Kool Aid (and if you can - I'm never drinking that stuff again!). The main character, David, is an outcast. He doesn't belong to any gang, because no gang will take him in. He and his brother, Will, are forced to run and hide, to avoid run-ins with the Varsity (strongest gang made up from the members of the school's football team). And it wouldn't be all that impossible - there are many loners like them keeping to the shadows, surviving on scraps - if not for the simple fact that the Varsity's leader want's David dead, and he won't stop at anything to achieve that.

     The writing was very dynamic and I had so much fun reading this book. This novel has everything I like in YA horrors/thrillers: a mind-blowing creep factor, dynamic action, plenty of unexpected plot twists, and overwhelming intensity. It was a thoroughly gripping novel, and though at times I felt very disturbed by the horrid events and vividly painted scenes on its pages, I couldn't bring myself to put it down. For the most part of the story I was under the impression that the authors wrote it with a future movie adaptation in mind (this book already has a movie-deal!). The way the scenes played out and how the story focused more on action than the characters' thoughts and feelings kind of made this book read more like a movie script than an actual YA novel. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, since there are so many angsty, thought-provoking YA dystopians, thrillers and post-apocalyptic novels already out there. I didn't really need another one, and I was grateful for this pure action-packed thrill ride. Any attempts at exploring the internal struggles of the characters and presenting the reader with their inner monologues, fears, worries and reflections on life would take away from the intensity and breath-taking quality of this book. That's not to say that this book is entirely free of all that. We do get a good glimpse at David's and Will's personalities, their past and their feelings, but it's done more through what they do than what the narrator tells us about their thoughts and feelings. It's more show than tell, and I liked it way better this way.

     Overall, this book really knocked my socks off. I had a blast reading it and can't believe I now have to wait till summer 2013 to find out what happens next! The cliffhanger ending - while totally fantastic and exciting - really killed me. I'm literally dying to read the next book and am so happy to have discovered this creeptastic new series! If - like me - you're into the scary and creepy, be sure to add this book to your reading pile, it's a real winner!

Lex and Tom share their TOP 5s! 

LEX’S TOP 5

Book: Deliverance
Sport: Is canoeing a sport?
Musical instrument: Synthesizer
Fast food: Breakfast sandwich
Place to escape: A country drive


TOM’S TOP 5
Book: You Can’t Win by Jack Black. (The hobo criminal Jack Black, not the funny one)
Sport: MMA
Musical instrument: My throat? I like karaoke.
Fast food: Bagel and cream cheese with salt, pepper, and tomato from a local cafe.
Place to escape: Monterey, CA.!

About the authors:

website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads
Lex Thomas is the pen name for the writing team of Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies. Their first novel, QUARANTINE: THE LONERS, earned a starred review from Booklist, and Huffington Post Books called it “one of the best books that I have ever read.”

Lex received a BA in Drama and English from the University of Virginia and has worked as an actor, director and writer. Thomas graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and now writes, and exhibits his realist oil paintings in Los Angeles.

Lex and Thomas met in a writers’ group in Los Angeles. Their friendship developed as they tried to blow each other’s minds with clips from bizarre movies. In 2005, they became a screenwriting team, and found that writing with a friend is much more fun than doing it alone. Visit them at www.lex-thomas.com.

For more information about Quarantine and the upcoming movie adaptation please visit its Facebook Page and follow its Twitter account!

Two lucky winners will have the chance to win a personalized, autographed copy of Quarantine!

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