Between The Lines by Tammara Webber

For Review: Penguin
Published: 14 February

From Goodreads: When Hollywood It Boy, Reid Alexander, arrives on location to shoot his next movie, his goals are the same as always—film another blockbuster hit and enjoy his celebrity status to the fullest while doing so. His costar is a virtual unknown with whom he had blazing hot chemistry during her auditions. The universe is lining up nicely to grant whatever he wants, as usual, until he’s confronted with unexpected obstacles on location like a bitter ex-girlfriend and a rival for the first girl to spark his genuine interest in years.

Emma Pierce just got her big break after more than a decade of filming commercials for grape juice, department stores and tampons, and more recently, bit parts in made-for-TV movies. Nailing the lead role in a wide-release film sent her agent, father and stepmother into raptures, and should have done the same for her. The Problem? Emma is experiencing a building desire to be normal, and starring in a silly, modernized adaptation of one of her favorite novels—opposite the very hot Reid Alexander—isn’t going to advance that aspiration.

Graham Douglas doesn’t fear playing the part of a nerdy dimwit; when it comes to choosing film roles, if it pays, he’ll do it. Besides, his friend Brooke Cameron snatched up the role of the bitchy hot girl and could use his help as a buffer, because her ex is the star. Graham has no problem keeping a handle on the situation, until he finds himself attracted to Reid’s costar, Emma, the girl Reid is pursuing full-throttle with his standard arsenal of charm, good looks and arrogance.

Having absolutely adored Easy when I read it last year I had high expectations for this one!  While this has a different feel to Easy, everything I loved about that book is present here too.  I really enjoyed it.  And I really liked the setting.  Being completely obsessed with TV and films this was definitely my kind of story.

The story is narrated by Emma and Reid. Got to love dual narration!  Emma I loved straight away, Reid took a while!  I'm not sure that he completely won me over but there is definitely something there - something intriguing and something promising I think.

The story for me was really Emma's story.  Even Reid's narration seemed to focus more on her - although it does touch on his home life which goes some way in explaining why he is the way he is.  But it felt, to me at least, as if the focus was more on her. 

I loved Graham!  Totally and utterly (and even more at the end!)  I also really liked Brooke - and how first impressions of her are not what she is like at all! Oh and Tadd!  Loved him.  In fact, I loved them all!

I have seriously high hopes for this series.  I can't wait to read the next book (more Graham!) and am looking forward to (I believe) Reid's story in book 3.  And do I spy a book 4 on Goodreads? I hope so!  I think I'm addicted!

I want to read that...

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

From Goodreads: It’s 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.

It sounds great,  doesn't it?  I really can't wait to read this!  It's published soon so that's great:) It's published 7 March (in the UK) and is avaliable now for those (lucky peeps) in the US.

See below for a video of Ruta Sepetys talking about the book.

Infinite Sky by C J Flood

For Review: Simon & Schuster
Published: 14 February 2013

From Goodreads: Iris Dancy’s free-spirited mum has left for Tunisia, her dad’s rarely sober and her brother’s determined to fight anyone with a pair of fists.

When a family of travellers move into the overgrown paddock overnight, her dad looks set to finally lose it. Gypsies are parasites he says, but Iris is intrigued. As her dad plans to evict the travelling family, Iris makes friends with their teenage son. Trick Deran is a bare knuckle boxer who says he’s done with fighting, but is he telling the truth?

When tools go missing from the shed, the travellers are the first suspects. Iris’s brother, Sam, warns her to stay away from Trick; he’s dangerous, but Iris can no longer blindly follow her brother’s advice. He’s got secrets of his own, and she’s not sure he can be trusted himself.

Infinite Sky is a family story about betrayal and loyalty, and love.

I had the feeling when I picked this up it would be good, and I'm pleased I was proved right!

I really enjoyed the way the story was told. I loved Iris' voice - her personality shines through and you really feel everything she feels. I also thought the way we know something bad happens to one of the characters (but not who it was!) from the onset worked well - it added tension to everything that happened. I needed to know who Iris was referring to!

All the characters in this really come alive. It is where the book truly excels. I fell in love with Trick, Iris' brother Sam and her whole family. All the choices that are made, by all the characters,  seems to lead up to what happens in the end. It makes for very interesting (and heartbreaking!) reading.

Really, really good and it has made me very excited to see what C J Flood writes next!

Infinite Sky Blog Tour

I am really pleased to be part of the UK blog tour for C J Flood's novel Infinite Sky.  For today's stop we have an exclusive snippet from Trick's point of view...
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I do a lot of freewriting to try and work out what the story is when I’m writing. It isn’t always the best prose, but it helps to work out what each character wants, and to find the natural points of conflict between characters. It’s a lot rougher than the stuff that makes it into the novel, but I hope you get the idea of what I am trying to do. Here is a little bit of writing from Trick Delaney’s point of view. Trick is Iris’s friend/love interest in Infinite Sky. He is an Irish Traveller with a history of bare knuckle boxing, but he tells Iris that he is desperate to give this up.

Work with me da’s not so bad. We have a laugh. People like him, he talks a lot, nothing like what he is at home. They call me little Paddy or Paddy’s boy. They reckon we’ve got the same eyes. He’s alright at home at the minute. Ma’s happy.

I like most of the lads at work. We eat our sandwiches together. They’re all older than me, and they read The Star and The Sport and they turn them round to show us the pictures.

Afterwards, me and Da go down the tip to see what people have thrown away. Sometimes he lets me come in the pub with him, gets me half a shandy and we share a bag of beef and onion crisps. He never drinks whiskey in there. Not while I’m there anyway. He knows I’d tell Ma if he did. Even now I’m working with him.

She knows I go out at night sometimes, she hears me leave. I thought she knew, but wasn’t sure, and then the other night she caught me, one hand still on the caravan door.

“You’re a good person, Patrick, aren’t you?” she whispered to me, from the dark of the living room, and I froze where I was, cool air giving me goosepimples.

I turned to her, and nodded, thinking she meant I should stop disobeying me da, take my flip flops off, and come inside, but she checked my eyes then, the way she does, one then the other, searching, and she smiled at me, just a tiny curl of the lips up at each side.

“We brought you up right,” she said, pulling her dressing gown tight around her, and standing up to go to bed. “Didn’t we?”

I jumped out the caravan then, I was so relieved. Still, I shut the door as quietly as ever, even though she knew all about it, and Dad wasn’t back from the pub.

She trusts me, but she doesn’t know about Iris. I’m not sure what she’d say about that. She’s always asking what I get up to, and I want to tell her, but I can’t quite make myself.

I will though. Next time she asks me, I’ll just say it. See what she says.

Tell her she hasn’t anything to worry about.

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Thanks C J!

Make sure to check out the rest of the tour - details are below.

Cover Wars: The Catastrophic History of You and Me

Previous Covers

New Cover

There have been a few different covers for this book - but I REALLY love the new cover being published!  I love how pretty it is and the font used for the title.  Really catches my eye - more so than the previous covers (which I also like but I much prefer this new one!)

Which reminds me I should really read this!!!

What do you think?