Becky's Book Reviews

So a huge, huge thank you to everyone who entered the House of Sand and Secrets Giveaway.  I must say I wasn’t expecting the lovely responses to the giveaway, but I really enjoyed reading every single one of them. With the launch of the book today (Happy Book Birthday Cat), what better way than to celebrate by announcing the winners of the giveaway today? Also, because there can only be two winners, I thought I’d give everyone a shout out by sharing everyone’s responses in this post (Ha, and no, I’m definitely not surprised that Hogwarts made it onto this list). So, without further ado, here are your responses. Winner details follow below: Alex: The realm I'd love to visit would have to be the Discworld and Ankh Morpork especially. A tete-a-tete with the patrician, Rincewind and Sam Vimes would probably be the highlights of such a visit. be no difference. Another Librarian: I would like to visit Middle Earth specifically a fact-finding mission to Mordor to determine if the regime c...

Today I have the awesome honour of revealing the cover of the book that I’ve been looking forward to ever since I found out it was a sequel to my favourite South African fantasy novel, When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen (who might I add, is one of the most awesome authors I’ve ever known – both online and in real life) Most of you should have read WTSIRR by now, but just in case you haven’t you can check out my review of the book to find out what it’s all about. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads TBR too! And while you’re at it, you should definitely go out and grab yourself a copy, because in today’s cover reveal post, I, with special thanks to Cat and Brianna (the cover designer for House of Sand and Secrets ) are also giving you the chance to win 1 of 2 e=book copies of HOSAS. And I would highly recommend that you do read When the Sea is Rising Red first. So, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, are you ready to check out the cover of House of Sand and Secrets? Che...

Today I’d like to welcome Elena Perez, author of the YA novel, The Art of Disappearing, to my blog today. It’s been a while since I’ve had time to sit down and compile a Q & A, so I’m super thrilled to have Elena stop by on my blog. In this interview, I chat to Elena about issues such as identity in YA (Her book, The Art of Disappearing, is very much centred around this theme), ask for an introduction to some of the characters featured in her as well as sharing a sneak peek from the book. But, before we kick off, here’s some more information about the book (How awesome is the cover by the way?).   About The Art of Disappearing Delia can see the future . . . but can she change it? All Delia wants is to be popular. She has the perfect plan: join the cheerleading squad with her best friend, Ava, and rule the school from the coolest table in the cafeteria. But everything changes the day she watches a boy die—before it actually happens. After dreaming about a classmate’s demise, she...

A girl trying to escape a cursed world, an enticing and dream-hopping Goblin King who'd do anything to keep her in his world and a dark power threatening to undo them all. Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs (Entangled Teen)   When I first came across Greta and the Goblin King , I remember being immediately intrigued by the title. While I was deciding on whether or not to add this to my books-to-read pile, I came across a review describing it, and I quote, as "Hansel and Gretel meets Alice in Wonderland meets Labyrinth" (I’d add Peter Pan to this description as well). Now being a fan of fairy tales - and having loved David Bowie's role as Jareth, the Goblin King in Labyrinth - my interest in this book was pretty much guaranteed.   Besides, with the promise of supernatural characters that, as much as I love them, aren't vampires, angels or werewolves, I was interested to see what the world described in the synopsis would be like. Thankfully, Greta and the Go...

Another coloumn I’ve written a while ago which I’ve decided to post here too. Incidentally, since the time I wrote this (which was last month), I’ve still been doing a lot of Harry Potter fan fic reads. Which reminds me, I definitely need to write a piece on my obsession with fan fiction and non-canon pairings. For now though, I wax lyrical about one of my beloved Harry Potter characters.  For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been taking a break from my regular reading and have been revisiting the worlds and characters from some of my favourite books, as told from the perspective of fans. That’s right. I’ve been devouring an obscene amount of fan fiction; paying a particular amount of attention to Harry Potter (I'll tell you a little more about my obsession with fan fic in an up and coming column). Now, it's at this point that you might be wondering: just why on earth would I need to go online to revisit a book universe, when I can just go back to the original novels in order to...