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TWINMAKER BY SEAN WILLIAMS

30/12/2015

55 Comments

 
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Clair lives in a world revolutionised by d-mat, a global teleport system that allows people to transport themselves instantaneously around the world. When a coded note promises improvement – the chance to change your body any way you want, making it stronger, taller, more beautiful – Clair thinks it’s too good to be true, but her best friend, Libby, is determined to give it a try.

What starts as Libby’s dream turns into Clair’s nightmare when Libby falls foul of a deadly trap. With the help of Jesse, the school freak, and a mysterious online friend called Q, Clair’s attempt to protect Libby leads her to an unimagined world of conspiracies and cover-ups. Soon her own life is at risk, and Clair is chased across the world in a desperate race against time.

Twinmaker: Jump is a high action packed science fiction that will remind you that not everything is what it seems... – Abooktopia.
Clair lives in a world revolutionised by d-mat, a global teleport system that allows you to transport yourself anywhere across the world simultaneously. When a new meme known as improvement surfaces, the tables start to turn. You write a code on a piece of paper and list all the things you’d like to have changed, and take the note with you through d-mat, and supposedly it happens. You can make yourself prettier, smarter, taller, whatever. Do it enough times and you’ll be… Improved. Clair thinks it’s too good to be true, but her best friend Libby is more than determined to give it a try if it means that she can finally remove her hideous birthmark, that no one else seems notice but her. But something goes askew. Libby’s not herself. With the help of the mysterious Q, who contacts Clair through the Air (an advance technology based on the internet) and Jesse, a stainer who doesn’t trust d-mat, Clair must stop improvement from spreading worldwide, and save her best friend from losing herself. Soon Clair is chased around the world in a race against time.

Clair Larhonda Hill truly cares about her best friend Libby, and would do anything to save her from Improvement. I really enjoyed how Clair and Jesse’s friendship began to grow, as they combined their differences together. One of the main differences between both their characters is that Clair has always grown up to rely on d-mat, whilst Jesse has been taught to despise the system. Jesse’s lifestyle is very different from Clair’s. Where Clair can fabricate anything she wants, Jesse has to work hard to earn what he has.

For those of you who hate sappy romances that take over the entire plot, this is the perfect novel for you! Romance was realistically non-existent. The novel was reasonably slow paced, and an enjoyable read, whilst the subject matter was entertaining, and well thought out. The only downside was the lack of character development, which will hopefully improve in the next two installments.
***I received a copy of this book in return for an honest and unbiased review***
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#1 New York Times bestselling Sean Williams lives with his family in Adelaide, South Australia. He’s written some books--forty-two at last count--including the Philip K. Dick-nominated Saturn Returns, several Star Wars novels and the Troubletwister series with Garth Nix. Twinmaker is a YA SF series that takes his love affair with the matter transmitter to a whole new level. You can find some related short stories over at Lightspeed Magazine and elsewhere. Thanks for reading.


Twinmaker by Sean Williams:
BOOK 1: Twinmaker: Jump
BOOK 2: Crashland: Crash
BOOK 3: Hollowgirl: Fall
55 Comments

THE WITCH HUNTER BY MICHELLE KRYS

15/12/2015

58 Comments

 
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If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.

Indigo Blackwood is your average cheerleader, or so it seems… She couldn’t be happier with Bianca, her best friend since grade school and Devon the captain of the football team as her boyfriend, by her side.

Things change drastically when Indie and her next-door neighbour Paige witness a guy plummeting to his death from up above. But that’s not all… The boy was carrying a rumpled piece of paper with the address of her mom’s voodoo store, written on it. What was this stranger doing with her mom’s store address? Where did he come from? Most importantly, what happened to him? Was it suicide or homicide? Thoughts and questions run through her mind.

When a stranger in a leather jacket suggests that she should go home to check upon on her mother, Indie becomes suspicious. After many unanswered calls to her mother, Indie races home only to find her mother almost crushed under a bookshelf. Unable to stop the bookshelf from crushing her mother, the stranger lifts up the bookshelf before disappearing into the night. With her mother now safe, and the police question her about what happen. After those events, she finds her mother’s bible missing. The Witchcraft’s Bible that her mother is overly protective of. The one her mother is desperate not to allow from falling into the wrong hands. Promising that she knows exactly where it is, Indie must find the Witchcraft’s Bible and bring it back.

Her only clue is the stranger in the leather jacket. Dragging Paige, her next-door neighbor, into the foreboding night to find this mysterious boy, she recounts what happened. After hopelessly searching for the stranger, she receives a startling knock on her car window. It’s the boy who’s been following her, and he will only answer her questions in a private location. Accepting his over, she agrees to his terms.  

It turns out on her 200th full moon; she has a 50% chance of becoming a witch. In a world where witches and sorceress are long-term enemies, she learns that her mother’s bible is more important than she could have ever imagined. It gives any sorcerer the power to kill witches, without them losing their powers. It unbinds the curse placed many generations ago by a witch, to prevent the two sides from killing each other.

I really loved Indie’s character development as she went from the girl who was balancing herself on the line of popularity, to being herself, as she finds out the truth about herself and her heritage. As for Bishop’s character… Watch out Patch Cipriano, ‘cause there’s a new hottie in town, and his name is Bishop. Bishop is a warlock who is there for Indie throughout the story as he teaches Indie about her inheritance and how to unleash her powers. Overall, this novel was undeniably phenomenal and addictive. It had you entertained right from the start to the finish. I would highly recommend this novel to all fans of Hush, Hush and Fallen alike. I cannot wait so get my hands on Charmed and to learn what happens next!

***I received a hardback copy of this book in return for an honest and unbiased review***
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Michelle Krys lives with her husband and son in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. She has an identical twin called Brandy who is also a writer! She is the author of the YA novel HEXED, out now from Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books, as well as the sequel, CHARMED, and a separate, standalone novel called DEAD GIRLS SOCIETY. She works part-time as a NICU nurse and spends her free time writing books for teens. She is repped by Adriann Ranta of Wolf Literary. Michelle is probably not a witch, though she did belong to a witchcraft club in the fifth grade and “levitated” people in her bedroom, so that may be up for debate.


The Witch Hunter by Michelle Krys:
BOOK 1: Hexed
BOOK 2: Charmed
58 Comments

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