Munira @ In Vogue with Books

The only other book I've read from the Steampunk Chronicles series is The Girl with the Iron Touch..and frankly I didn't even took the time to check the order of the books. While I like this one, I would say I like the earlier one better. Both the books have a kind of serious tone to them I would say, but this is definitely a recommended read for those who like steampunk novels.

Mara, The Evolution of Mara Dyer

For those wondering what got deleted, here you go. Screen shots!

I haven't gone through all of the comments, and I assume more has been deleted, but you can get a real sense of what she considers "gangster bullies".   Even Jenny Trout! (WOW!) 

Most of the comments deleted were opposing views about Stopthegrbullies.com (STGRB). Apparently, she simply doesn't care that they use anonymous names, bully authors and reviewers, and play all the dirty tricks she claims to want stopped.

Oddly, there are very few pro comments about STGRB. Why is that? The exception are a few people who have been active in the STGRB all along. So if she can't listen to reason, maybe she should listen to the silence. It speaks loudly. Her fans may support stopping cyber-bullying (as do all of us), but they don't appear to be fans of STGRB either.

Screen shot #1: Full blog post 4/28/2014, early in day - many comments were later deleted

Screen shot #2: Full blog post 4/28/2014, later in day - you can see some of what got deleted

Screen shot #3: Full blog post 4/29/2014 late afternoon

Screen shot #4: Autumn Turner / Misanthropic Bibliophage  thread (1 of 2)  before it got deleted

Screen shot #5: Autumn Turner / Misanthropic Bibliophage (2 of 2)   with final comment (from me!) All deleted.

Screen shot #6: Ole Andreas Imsen comments -- also deleted

Screen shot #7: The now infamous Jenny Trout "Gangster Bully" thread -- also deleted

Screen shot #8: Comments by Elyse Shramm -- also deleted

Screen shot #9: Floras comments to Yvonne before deletion

Screen shot #10: Floras comments have been deleted, Yvonne's still there

And for some fun, do check out Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog post:

 ETA - a list of blogs to read on this topic:

When good authors go to the dark side, by Four Little Bees Writing & Editing

Jenny Trout: Gangster Bully, by Trout Nation

Remixing Anne Rice: Gangster Boogie, Gangster Bully - Let's Rub Some Funk on It

Rachel had a very disturbing life overall. Still, she is not some cry-baby and knows how to face the challenges. What I liked is her determination to go ahead to get rid of her troubles, no matter what she has to face (or even if it means jumping off of a bridge :p) When Jason comes across Rachel, he offers her a place to stay out of generosity or compassion, whatever you say. However, this one small decision changes both of their lives. I think Jason faces more problems after this because he seems to have an almost perfect life, with his family and fiancée and all. But his one decision to help Rachel out, and eventually fall in love with her, jeopardizes all the other relationships he has. He brakes off Lindy's heart, the person he had known since he was 16, because he doesn't feel anything like 'love' for her, and he realizes that all the more after knowing Rachel. While Rachel doesn't consider herself a human being with dignity and respect at all, Jason is the person who looks at her like no one ever has before. All the time, Jason seems more aware of Rachel as a person than Rachel herself. Jason never backs off from what he feels is his responsibility, or his feelings.

Perhaps I was a fool, or a little mad today, but if I was mad today, I was mad for her.

Jason is kind of a perfect guy (which in reality never exists) compared to Rachel, possibly broken in many ways, and yet they seem to fit together so well, like pieces of a puzzle. Even Jason feels the same.

We’re right for each other, we both know it.

It’s really hard to show such chemistry without making it look like he pities her but the author pulls it off so well! I loved that :D The narrative is pov based, where we see Rachel and Jason's thoughts back-to-back. It was a wee bit hard to follow a few times because it wasn't exactly divided into chapters always. I mean, there are chapters or sections, but at times povs of both Rachel and Jason are put into one, so one moment you're reading Jason's thoughts and the other moment you see Jason calling himself out only to realize the narrative has moved to Rachel (sorry as in my writing it sounds more confusing than it actually is!) As the story focuses almost entirely on these two characters, I (totally unintentionally) overlooked others things happening. I’m not much of a romantic person and Rachel and Jason’s story seemed way too sweet to digest sometimes. But since I had knows that it’s basically NA romance read, I could cope up with it. And two of the main reasons are probably the author’s skill and effort, that makes the story so wonderful as a whole. For everyone out there who loves a good NA read, be it romantic, tragic, funny, sweet or hot, I would strongly suggest this book:)

*I had received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.*

Confession time. I have the first two books on my kindle and somehow I jumbled the two, and I'd actually started book 2 BEFORE I read this one. (Could I get any more dumber?) But, I catastrophically managed to stop and start the first one and then come back to the second one all over again (it was a mess really). NO REGRETS though. :D

I'll keep it short and simple. There are things I liked and also things I didn't like. And sometimes, there are things I liked and yet somehow they disturbed me as well. It doesn't mean I disliked the book, because my rating wouldn't have been such in that case. It's just it is hard for me to pass a straight forward verdict on this book, it's still a bit confusing but I'll try to make it as clear as I can.

The thing that at a time unnerved and interested me was the Nephillims. They obviously aren't cute little angels.And thanks to Cassandra Clare's TMI books, I already had a preconceived notion about Nephillim so when they turned out to be almost 360 degree angled characters compared to that concept (I know I shouldn't have done that) I kind of freaked out. I couldn't approve most of the things they were doing, but I couldn't totally hate them for what they are shown as. SO that is one of my dilemmas.

Then there is Kaiden. He is a lead, so obviously he should be likeable. And yes, I really liked him, in terms of appearance and his accent and his feelings for Anne. But everything else, at times, appeared really disturbing. I know that he is the child of the Duke of Lust so that pretty much explains his job (for the sake of a spoiler-free review I'll leave the details for you to find out). And even though it sounds quite interesting and intriguing at first it started to disturb me after a point (I can't usually accept my heroes doing such a "job" *sniff*). But overall, he is a hero with dark attributes and that is a big turn on ;)

As I mentioned already, apart from the 'disturbing' aspect, It's a drool worthy book. Though Anne seemed way too naive at some parts in the beginning, she evolved a LOT throughout the book. She was a confused girl in the beginning but once she meets Kaidan, her life is never the same again, for good or bad- it's yet to find out. But I liked her. Specially her ability to sense people's feelings and Auras. At least, for me it is better than Kaidan's ability (I feel bad for that guy actually). I wish I could have the same ability as Anna (SO COOL!)

The chemistry between Kaidan and Anna is HOTT (with an extra 't' ;)) Things were steamy enough, but I liked how Wendy portrayed it without making it look like too much of a thing. And being the kind of timid person and pacifist I am, I couldn't be happier seeing the way she had dealt with violence in the book. Thanks Wendy! :D

Lastly, it's a good book. Erm, that sounded lame. But it often happens to me; when I love a book and not sure how much or to what extent, I find myself fiddling with words to come up with a statement that would be apt to express my feelings (and apparently I suck at that too). But seriously, this is a lovely, lovely book. It's disturbing, with things that may often leave you frowning and yet you won't be able to keep it down until you've finished. I usually refrain myself from reading much angel and demon, fallen and guardian angel stuff, not because I don't like them, but because I do and I'm always afraid that I might end up being disappointed with a book. But I'm happy that I took to reading this one. If you are looking for a good paranormal read, specially dealing with good/bad, angel/demon as themes, you might not want to miss this one :)

Among other characters, Lord Byron and Sal were really really interesting to see, though I haven’t been able to swoon over either of the two (maybe because I was so busy noticing Lily all the way :P) To be honest, I haven’t paid that much attention to other minor characters as I was too preoccupied with Lily ^.^

This book is one of the finest NA romance books I’ve read recently. I’d heard a lot of things about it from many of my friends previously. So when the opportunity to participate in its book tour came, I couldn’t help grabbing the chance.

Tally and Lincoln make such a wonderful pair! After reading it may sound like that it’s another mushy gushy fairytale-ish love story, but let me warn you that it’s not. It’s romantic, yes, and not only that; it’s charming, surprising, emotional, touching, heartbreaking and may leave you wanting for more. But it is a standalone and that’s why for those of you who don’t like to delve into NA romance series, it is a really good one to get along with.

Personally, I didn’t like Tally at first. I don’t really like characters with such attitudes and philosophies. But then again, She’d lost her twin sister, and at her age it takes time to heal such wounds. So gradually I got used to it and was okay. Now as I think of it, I believe the author has done a very good job because if Tally was a character acting otherwise, it would have appeared less convincing, at least to me. So yeah, Tally’ is really good, even if she isn’t ;)
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As for Lincoln, he is a great character, with his own qualities and flaws. I really, really liked him ( is that even a surprise:p?) Though in the book there are moments when I felt like throwing something at him still he makes it up to me pretty well :D And I like the chemistry of him with Tally. However, the thing that slightly bothered me is the lack of that ‘X factor’ within their relationship. I mean, at times they didn’t appear as a couple at all and I get sad when that happens to my leads :( They seem to be destined for each other but all other silly things keep coming in the way:

Being together is all we ever wanted.

And as for the ending, I liked it. Though it seems a tiny bit abrupt, I still like it. REALLY LIKE IT. So yeah, I strongly recommend the book for anyone who has a thing for an amazing NA read :D