I'm Going to the London Book Fair!

Most of the time, living in the Netherlands is kind of annoying if you are a book blogger. It means it's pretty much impossible to go to signings, meetings, and other fun blogging stuff. You have to work harder to get publishers to send review copies to you, because let's face it, you're more expensive to ship to. One of the fun parts of living in the Netherlands is that I live just a six-hour train ride from London away.

So when I found out that London is the host of the massive London Book Fair, I was thrilled! It meant I could finally go to one of the big bookish events that all of the US bloggers rave about. It's the BEA of Europe! 

After a little while of discussing and weighing every penny... it is decided that I am going to the London Book Fair! I have no idea what to expect, since this is my first time there, and I can't really find other bloggers that have attended. I believe it's only open for public since a year, so it's a little bit less commercially orientated. What should I wear? Which seminars do I have to attend? I have no idea!

So I'm looking for other European bloggers that are thinking about attending the Fair. Or maybe people that have visited the Fair before! I'm looking forward to hear about your experiences (:

Review: Deadline by Mira Grant

Deadline by Mira Grant
(Newsflesh Trilogy #2)

5 out of 5 stars

Published by Orbit
This review contains spoilers for the previous book in the series

Whoa.

After reading Feed I had pretty high expectations for Deadline. I was pretty sceptical to how I would like the book without leading lady George. I shouldn't have been worried, Deadline blew me away with the power of a tornado.

After George's amplification Shaun is a wreck. He has turned away from his Irwin nature and is a shell of his former self. And oh yeah, he is going crazy. He talks to his dead sister in his head. The only thing driving him is uncovering the people responsible of her death. With his new crew he follows dubious leads and gets caught up in a conspiracy of a size they had no way of expecting.

I would like to compare Deadline to Feed for a bit, so you can get an idea of how this story is like. Where Feed was very heavy on the blogging mechanics, in Deadline ratings aren't important any more. As the story is told from Shaun's point of view, and he really doesn't care about the ratings, they take a background. He's still writing posts, and After The End Times still exists, but there are less massive descriptions of them maintaining their blog. It was a change for the better in my opinion.

I was naive to think Feed had a nice deep story. So, so naive. In Deadline the true digging starts. The conspiracy goes way, way farther than you will ever be expecting. By the end of the book the you-know-what is hitting the fan. I'm getting goosebumps right now by just thinking of it. There is something seriously wrong in the world after the Rising.

Deadline is a very emotional story. Shaun tries to deal with his sisters death, failing miserably. There is actually a little bit of romance, which surprised me. The After The End Times crew is in real danger now. Not just from zombies, but from something way bigger. And these people aren't even afraid any more to sacrifice some innocent bystanders. You just don't know when something bad is going to happen, and how bad it will be. I read the last two-hundred pages in one sitting because I just didn't want to put it down.

I'm thinking about pushing my boyfriend into reading Feed just so I can let him read Deadline, I loved this book so much.

I cannot wait until Blackout is released. That book is going to be so epic.

Blurb

Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn't seem as fun when you've lost as much as he has.

But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news-he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead.

Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.

Other reviews you might be interested in

• Review: Feed by Mira Grant (4/5 Stars)
• Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund (5/5 Stars)
• Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth (5/5 Stars)

More links

• Author page
• Press
• Goodreads

Cover Reveal: Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein

I'm part of the massive Pretty Amy cover reveal! I believe about a hundred bloggers have signed up for this. Pretty Amy is the upcoming release of debut autor Lisa Burstein. Without much further ado, here is the cover and the blurb!

The Cover

Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing.

Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe getting a life only happens once you think your life is over.

Bio

Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She wrote her first story when she was in second grade. It was a Thanksgiving tale from the point of view of the turkey from freezer to oven to plate. It was scandalous.

She was a lot like Amy when she was in high school.

She is still a lot like Amy.

Links

• Lisa's Website
• Goodreads
• Publisher
  

In My Mailbox

It's time for In My Mailbox, a weekly meme by The Story Siren!

I'm glad to announce that my Netgalley slump is officially over! Massive thanks to Macmillian Children's Books for accepting me for three of their upcoming releases <3. Also, Grave Mercy was auto-approved for every Netgalley member, and I definitely jumped on the opportunity! I'm very excited about this week's mailbox (:

Click on the cover to go to the Goodreads page.

For Review: 

Grave Mercy has intrigue, nuns, crossbows and assassins. What more can you ask for in one book? I'm very excited to read this one.

I love how this book looks kind of retro. It's about a girl who has lost her mother and wants to discover how she really died. Her father has a detective agency. It all sounds pretty awesome.

I have yet to read a mermaid book, but Monstrous Beauty sounds like a great story. And I like the cover, I admit it.

I love the tagline of Monument 14: "Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.". I love dystopians and post-apocalyptics so I'm hoping this will be a good read. This is another debut author and so far the debuts I've read this year have been excellent.

Fire Baptized sounds like a promising urban-fantasy. Even though I've been kind of neglecting my UF series lately, I'm looking forward to dive into a book promising vampires, shifters and fairies all in one book!

So, that's it for me! What do you have in your mailbox this week? Leave a comment! (:

Review: Curbchek by Zach Fortier

Curbchek by Zach Fortier

3 out of 5 stars

Self-published
Review copy received from the author

When the author asked me to review Curbchek, I had no idea what to expect. It's completely out of my comfort zone. I had nothing to compare it to. And the reviews I read didn't make it any clearer for me at all. So for once, I started reading a book without any prejudices at all.

And it turns out that is what saved the book. Had I expected convoluted plot twists, I would have been disappointed. A psychological thriller about a cop wrestling with his job and personal life? I probably would have been disappointed. Massive action? Nope, that's not it either.

So what is Curbchek? The only way I have of describing it is this: imagine a gruff fifty-something guy in a bar, talking about his life as a cop. He tells you about all of the things he came across while on the force over a beer.

The stories are mostly one to three pages long, written in first person past tense, with a broad variety of subjects. There are drive-by shootings, robberies, gang wars, domestic abuse, murders galore... Our cop Zach has seen it all.

Because I had no idea what to expect, and by not making wrong assumptions, I had fun while reading Curbchek. I had the feeling I was learning a bit about how being a cop works in the US. I learned what SWAT teams really do. I mean, we don't even have those guys over here. It was interesting.

But I did miss an overarching plot. The stories weren't really going anywhere. The first and the last could have been swapped and no one would notice the difference. I like to have something to cheer me on through the last fifty pages, but it was just Zach and me, on our bar stools.

The writing is simple, but does contain quite a bit of cussing. There are some pretty dark stories in here, that might not be for the faint of heart. If you want to spend an evening with Zach, try Curbchek. He has a lot of stories to share.

Blurb

Curbchek is the story of a damaged cop, Zach Fortier. Fortier worked in the police department for the city where he grew up. One foot in the world of the cops, courts and legal system. The other in the world of gangs, drugs, thugs and street violence. Where the laws and rules are made by the strongest, the schemers and the most brutal. Read about the transformation of Fortier from a green rookie to a damaged paranoid veteran seeing danger in every situation. Follow along as he walks this tight rope. Trying to make difference, breaking the laws he promised to enforce. This is a story of law and order uncensored.

Other reviews you might be interested in

• Review: Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy (4/5 Stars)
• Review: The Angelic Mysteries by James Sanderson (2/5 Stars)
• Review: Hard Day's Knight by John G. Hartness (4/5 Stars)

More links

• Author page
• Goodreads

RCC Challenge: Show Off Your Pile

Hi everyone, and welcome to our first Review Copy Cleanup Challenge! For those of you that haven't signed up for the Review Copy Cleanup yet, you still can! Just go here and add your name to the Linky.

The Show Off Your Pile Challenge is very simple. Share what you are planning to read (or have read already!) this month during the Review Copy Cleanup. Feel free to take a photo of your TBR pile you are aiming to devour this month - or if you don't have a camera at hand or you're reading ebooks, just make a list of your books or post the cover image. Not only can we then spy on you what you're reading, but you can also win some very cool books in the first giveaway of the Cleanup!

What's up for grabs?

3x ebook Curse of Ancient Shadows by Rod Tyson

1x ebook Hard Day's Knight by John G. Hartness (my review)

1x ebook Ethereal Influence: The Birth by Lana Bradstream

Five lucky winners will get to choose from the three ebooks listed above. It's first come, first serve - which means that the first winner will get to choose first, the second winner chooses next, and so on.

Challenge Guidelines:

• Be signed up in the Linky here (Sign up ends Thursday, March 15)
• You have to follow both this blog and Books, Biscuits & Tea in order to compete for the prizes
• Leave us a direct link to your challenge post in the Linky below (this is not the same Linky as the sign-up one!)
• You only have to enter your name into the Linky on one of our blogs
• The challenge ends on Thursday, March 8 - the winners will be contacted by email and announced during next week's challenge

This competition is now closed.

The five winners are:

Aleksandra @ Aleksandra's Corner (Hard Day's Knight)

Sharonda @ Salacious Reads (Curse of Ancient Shadows)

Carina @ Fictional Distraction

Nicole M @ The Reader's Antidote
Melissa @ Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf

Congratulations! (:

RCC Challenge: Showing Off My Pile!

So here is my own entry for the Show Off Your Pile Challenge (find the challenge here). I hope that next to hosting this event, I can actually get some reading done myself. I'm aiming for five books! All of them are Netgalley ebooks, except for Ugly to Start With.

Click on the covers to go to the Goodreads page.

They all look so good... Can't wait!