Blog Tour: Review and Giveaway - Of Bells and Thorns (The Rose Master #2) by Valentina Cano

Book info:

Title:  Of Bells and Thorns  
Author:  Valentina Cano
Series:  The Rose Master #2 
Genre:  YA Gothic
Release Date:  November 28th, 2017
Publisher:  REUTS Publications, LLC
 
Readers fell in love with Anne Tinning, a maid in 19th century London, and Lord Grey, the master of a haunted manor.  The Rose Master sequel continues their journey in another hauntingly beautiful tale.

Synopsis:

Rosewood Manor has been ashes for weeks.

Left with no post and no home, Anne Tinning never expected to find herself in a luxurious carriage, dressed in the finest of clothes, pretending to be the wife of Lord August Grey. The search for Miss Bellingham, however, will require them to blend into the very height of London society, a class Anne has only ever served, and which August despises. But August insists that the ruse is the only way. For although they’ve vanquished the wraith that called for August’s life, they will never be safe unless they find a way to stop the woman he scorned.

There are traces of Lily Bellingham the length and breadth of London, but when Anne and August investigate the gruesome disappearances in a factory she has just purchased, they realize that Lily is more powerful than either of them. And she has devised a new way to take her revenge.

With another curse placed upon August’s head, Anne must find a way to defeat Lily, and this time, she will have no help from the young man she has grown to love. This time, the curse is more insidious, twisting him into someone unrecognizable.

This time, August Grey is the one she must fear.

Lush, lyrical, and layered in horror-filled suspense, Of Bells and Thorns evokes the feel of classic Gothic literature, blending the magic of a beautiful fairy tale against the rich backdrop of history.

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Purchase here: http://www.reuts.com/product/bells-thorns-valentina-cano/ 

My review:
My rating: 4 stars

Well, it has been over 2 years since I read the first one, The Rose Master, but I was able to get back into this story pretty quickly, as the way it was begun brought up most of the details in such a way that it wasn't like an info dump, but rather woven into the story perfectly. You will need to read the first book, but I did not need to reread right before in order to jump back into the story.  As with the first book, I was drawn into the story, and had a lot of trouble putting it down whenever I would have to go back to real life for work, or sleep, whatever. 

I wished for maybe a bit more romance between Anne and August, although I'm sure that the way it was done was totally proper for the time period, and of course for a YA book. There is a monster/creature in this story that was extremely scary sounding, I could picture it in my head as I read, and it was something you would see in an extremely scary movie. In fact, the description reminded me a lot of the description of one of the creatures in the novel It by Stephen King, the book, not the movies. It was definitely written as horrifying as anything you'd find in a King novel. 

While the first book in the series had an ending that was good enough for if it had ended up just being one book, this one leaves off at a pretty big cliffhanger, and now I am left hoping that I won't have to wait two more years to find out how our heroes will get themselves out of the situation they wind up in at the final scene.

Definitely a series worth reading if you haven't yet, and a sequel worth picking up if you have read the first one. And once again, a beautiful cover.

About Book 1: The Rose Master:

The day Anne Tinning turns seventeen, birds fall from the sky. But that's hardly the most upsetting news. She's being dismissed from the home she's served at since she was a child, and shipped off to become the newly hired parlor maid for a place she's never heard of. And when she sees the run-down, isolated house, she instantly knows why:

There's something wrong with Rosewood Manor.

Staffed with only three other servants, all gripped by icy silence and inexplicable bruises, and inhabited by a young master who is as cold as the place itself, the house is shrouded in neglect and thick with fear. Her questions are met with hushed whispers, and she soon finds herself alone in the empty halls, left to tidy and clean rooms no one visits.

As the feeling of being watched grows, she begins to realize there is something else in the house with them--some creature that stalks the frozen halls and claws at her door. A creature that seems intent on harming her.

When a fire leaves Anne trapped in the manor with its Master, she finally demands to know why. But as she forces the truth about what haunts the grounds from Lord Grey, she learns secrets she isn't prepared for. The creature is very real, and she's the only one who can help him stop it. 

Now, Anne must either risk her life for the young man she's grown to admire, or abandon her post while she still can.

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The Rose Master on Amazon!

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“In this Gothic fantasy, Cano evokes both Beauty and the Beast and Jane Eyre while creating something new and strange. Cano does a beautiful job of setting mood and atmosphere, and her characters dance around one another with relentless industry and brooding allure, fighting their inevitable attraction. This is a strong, satisfying effort.” ~Publishers Weekly on THE ROSE MASTER

About the Author:

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Valentina Cano is a student of classical singing who spends whatever free time she has either reading or writing. She also watches over a veritable army of pets. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Of the Web.

Author Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

 

Giveaway:

 

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Blog Tour Organized by:

 

Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros

I have to say, this is one of the first chick lit books I have read in a long time that I was dog earing the pages that had things I wanted to talk about when I blogged. The first one I'd literally laughed out loud over and over as I was reading it. I don't think I've ever read a book by Teresa Medeiros before. I seem to only remember her books in the romance section. And believe it or not, I usually don't read those books, preferring my chick lit from the straight fiction section at our store. I am now intrigued enough to read more of her books.

I decided to read this book because it was told in mostly all tweets, you know, like on the social network Twitter. And I was hooked right away.

This is the story of an author who had a bestselling, critically acclaimed first novel, and it trying, but stuck on her 2nd novel. So her agent suggests getting on Twitter like many authors are these days. (Authors on Twitter are my favorite people to follow!) When she first joins, she is immediately tweeted by an English professor on sabbatical. It's fun reading as they get to know each other and flirt (I must find the "tweeting" name for flirting) through Twitter. I understand the flirting part, did a bit of that myself in the past, not that it turned out well for me, but still, it was fun at the time.

Anyway, I didn't see the twist towards the end coming. So I will say you won't be able to expect what is coming, but it is a good twist. And now, onto the things I had to bookmark.

First, as I myself follow Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie, I love that one of her tweets was about her. Right after that, she learns about hashtags, and they do one on How2Lose Followers. And I love that they point out insulting any president as being a way to lose followers, as I've unfollowed certain celebs that I didn't want to hear their political rhetoric anymore. I also love that the main character is a fan of Sean Astin, who is one of my childhood crushes!! Even after his turn as a hobbit.

In chapter 5 she is on the treadmill and talks about how she prefers to walk outside, which is also me. I love to walk outside, I could walk all day outside if I had the time. She thinks Heathcliff is a misogynistic asshole, as do I. She talks about Edward Cullen and being Team Jacob. (I'm Team Switzerland myself.) She talks about Stephen King's It, one of my favorite books ever, also the one that made me scared of clowns. She's a Spike woman as opposed to Angel, me too. I LOVED all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer bits. Like her cat is named Buffy the Mouse Slayer. Later on she talks about a New Kids on the Block lunchbox. I love NKOTB.

Later on in the book she starts thinking in Tweets. I do that too. The problem is that by the time I can then get to my twitter, I forget the really creative things I had to say.

So that's just a bit of the things in the book that I enjoyed, but the whole thing was good and I highly recommend it.

Last thought. I'm debating, a lot of bloggers rate the books. 4 out of 5 stars, etc. I have so much trouble rating. I have to really hate something to give it a 1, and usually if I hate something that much I won't finish reading it. So, I end up with lots of 3's and 4's. So, I might start rating, but we'll see.

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Finally finished all 1074 pages of this huge novel. Really, it's actually about the size of another Stephen King novel, It, my favorite King novel of all time. It's longer than Breaking Dawn, or any of the Harry Potter novels as well. It was good once I got into it, and it isn't that it was hard to read that took me so long, just that it was so hard to hold! As I got halfway through I got to the point where I wanted to be reading it during commercials and not just at the table when I was eating. I even brought it to school one day this past week to read during my lunch break. The story was really good, and I didn't think that the early on hints that it was aliens would actually be what it turned out to be. I kinda thought maybe the "Chef" guy who ran the huge secretly town funded meth lab would be some kind of inventor who created that. And the thing about a Stephen King book is that every time you think, finally a break for the good guys, nope, there's a bad guy/thing there ready to spoil it and close that door. You just keep going and going and the last 400 pages are like htat over and over it seems.

So, I definitely recommend this. It reminds me a bit of one of his other alien books, what is the name of it, um, The Tommyknockers. Just because of the whole alien bit. I liked all the attention to what would happen inside the dome from no fresh air, or water, and the pollution and all that. Anyway, if you like Stephen King, go ahead and jump into this huge tome. It'll be worth it.

Now, a note, at my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday morning, our leader talked about seeing Julie and Julia and how she decided to do something similar and cook all the way through a WW cookbook. I'm thinking of doing something similar. But I will only cook the things I want to eat. If I do it, I'll just go straight through the book and cook what I'd actually eat. So I'll let you know when I get started with that, and maybe blog about that too. Right now I'm at a point where even though I have tons of books that I haven't read, sitting waiting to be picked up, when I go to decided what to read next, I have trouble finding anything I think I want to read for sure. What I've picked to read have all turned out good, it was sometimes just getting started.