Mark This Book Monday: Symbiont by Mira Grant!!!

Hello guys!

I'm back after my wee tiny bit of a break! I'm starting this week enjoying some days off and tonight is the night where presents are delivered on Twelfth Night, though in my family we exchange gifts after dinner insted of in the morning of the sixth, so I'll let you know how my loot is!

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have a book that I've loved, but took me a while to read. I started it as a buddy read with Faye from The Social Potato and Jeann for Happy Indulgence, even if both me and Faye got stuck for a while and Jeann finished before we did! I finally finished and loved it, and cannot wait to hear what Faye thinks!



Symbiont by Mira Grant

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read Parasitology last year and loved it, loved the science and the amazing premise of the different "kind" of zombies and the starting of the apocalypse.

After the ending and revelations I was really looking forward to reading Symbiont, the sequel and I'm very happy to report that it didn't disappoint at all!

Symbiont started with Sal dealing with the revelations of Parasitology and even if Sal keeps having her doubts and is somewhat paralized, she does a pretty good job at figuring out what really matters about who or what she is.

Sal is not a heroine in the more traditional sense of the word, she is not strong or a natural leader and she finds herself very much over her head in many occasions, and she even proves unable to present a serious opposition even at times when her life is in danger BUT she is always ready to try and do what is right, asks herself hard questions and isn't scared to sacrifice herself for those she love.

If I had to choose one word to describe the book, the first one that pops into my mind is "creepy" and if you think it is because of the thought of parasites taking over my body by migrating from my gut to my head, nope, that's not it! All the science and the tapeworms and ethical issues were simply fascinating and made me love the book so much! Nope, the reason for my to think of the book as creepy is because of two characters: Sherman and Dr Banks, two guys that appear to be on opposite sides but that have more in common that you'd even expect at first. Both simply are monsters, stopping at anything to achieve their goals, however different they are, the ways they go about it are disturbingly similar.

The apocalypse has started, everything seems to be collapsing and no one knows how to react or how to stop what's happening, and to complicate things, these are NOT your regular zombies, they are not who they were before but could they be considered people with their implants? Are chimera people? What defines a person? are humans better just for the mere fact of being human? The amount of food for thought and ethical questions this book raises is amazing and I cannot help but highly recommend it to everyone that wants some deep substance in their books but also want some action and creepiness and zombies!

Also, as a dog lover having them fight and ensure both pups were safe and cared for was something that I simply loved! And I love how Sal actually said to Dr Banks that to her Beverly was more of a person than he was.

I'm finding it hard to say much more about the book without spoiling something or revealing something, so I'll just say that I highly recommend this book and the entire series and I cannot wait till Chimera is out next year! So excited because that damned ending was quite jarring!

Very much deserved 4.5 stars!



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It's My Birthday Week: Today I'm giving away The Girl With All The Gifts!!

Hello again dears!

So, Tuesday is here and continuing with the birthday celebration, I have another book to give away today! And it is, of course, open internationally!

Today I'm gonna be giving away a paperback copy of The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey! This one came highly recommended by Wendy from The Midnight Garden and when Kristen from My Friends Are Fiction and myself did a buddy read for it, we both absolutely loved it! It has a very interesting take on the zombie phenomena and it's full of surprises on each page you turn! You can read my review for it HERE!

So if you want to win this one, go enter in the rafflecopter below!


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Xpresso Book Tours Book Blitz & Giveaway: The Last Mission of the Living by Rhiannon Frater!!

Hello everyone!!

Welcome to release week's Book Blitz for The Last Mission of the Living by Rhiannon Frater, organized and hosted by Xpresso Book Tours!

Let me introduce you to the book and author and remember there's a book blitz wide giveaway going on!

The Last Mission of the Living of the by Rhiannon Frater

(The Last Bastion)
Publication date: August 28th 2014
Genres: Adult, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Zombies

Synopsis:

Humanity teeters on the brink of extinction…

Vanguard Lindsay Rooney has faced the undead hordes of Inferi Scourge and lived to tell the tale, but she has also suffered horrible losses. Like millions of other civilians, she had hoped that The Bastion would recover after a team of modified soldiers eradicated the undead hordes of Inferi Scourge that infested their valley. Yet the city still crumbles around them, along with any chance of survival.

Lindsey’s growing friendship with Torran MacDonald, an officer with the Science Warfare division, is her only solace as the decline of the city continues. When food riots fill the streets, martial law is enacted, and the upper echelons of government battle for control of the city, Lindsey is conscripted by her superiors to embark on a dangerous mission into the dead world beyond The Bastion. To add even more complications, Torran and the SWD join the squad.

Soon, Lindsey realizes that her mission is more than what it seems, and there are secrets that could both destroy The Bastion and take her life.

 Amazon 

 About the author:

Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of over a dozen books, including the As the World Dies zombie trilogy (Tor), as well as independent works such as The Last Bastion of the Living (declared the #1 Zombie Release of 2012 by Explorations Fantasy Blog and the #1 Zombie Novel of the Decade by B&N Book Blog), and other horror novels. In 2014, her newest horror novel, The Mesmerized, will be released by Permuted Press. Dead Spots will be published in 2015 by Tor. She was born and raised a Texan and presently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and furry children (a.k.a pets).  She loves scary movies, sci-fi and horror shows, playing video games, cooking, dyeing her hair weird colors, and shopping for Betsey Johnson purses and shoes. 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Blog

Blizt Wide Giveaway!

Paperbacks of both book 1 & 2 in the Last Bastion series (US only - INTL winner will get ebook copies)

Ends September 9th

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Xpresso Book Tour Blog Tour for Recruitz by Karice Bolton!

Hey there everyone! Today I'm taking part in the Blog Tour for Recruitz by Karice Bolton, organized by Xpresso Book Tours!

I will be sharing my review & a Blog Tour wide giveaway, so click HERE for the full tour schedule! But before that, let's get you some more information about the book & author, shall we?

RecruitZ by Karice Bolton
(Afterworld #1)
Publication date: December 27th 2013
Genres: New Adult, Post-Apocalyptic

Synopsis:

Scientists are the new rock stars. The infection has been contained for nearly three months, and the world is celebrating. But humans are still dying. Rebekah Taylor has seen it firsthand. Her husband was killed right in front of her by the very creatures that humans were told they no longer had to fear.

Rebekah is determined to find out who is responsible for the death of her husband and the obvious cover-up. Fueled with revenge, she begins to find answers that lead to one frightening conclusion. The apocalypse might be over, but the battles are just beginning.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

About the author:

 Karice Bolton lives in the Pacific Northwest and is a writer of Young Adult and New Adult books. She loves to read anything and everything. She also enjoys baking, skiing, and spending time with her wonderful husband and two English bulldogs.

Books currently available:
*Beyond Love Series: Beyond Control (Book 1) Beyond Doubt (Book 2) Beyond Reason (Book 3) – Feb. 28th
*Afterworld Series: RecruitZ (Book 1)
*The Witch Avenue Series: Lonely Souls (Book 1), Altered Souls (Book 2), Released Souls (Book 3) Shattered Souls (Book 4)
*The Watchers Trilogy: Awakening (Book 1), Legions (Book 2), Cataclysm (Book 3), Taken Novella (Watchers Prequel)
*The Camp

 Karice would love if you stopped by her blog or FB page to find out the latest news on giveaways and upcoming releases, or you can just send her an email. She loves hearing from her readers and responds as soon as she can.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

My Review

Recruitz was a very intriguing book. Right from the start the action begins and leaves you wondering about what's really going on in the world you've just gotten your first peek at.

Rebekah is trying to deal with the worst kind of loss, having lost her husband in a very inexplicable way just when they thought they were safe, so now she's turned everything into finding out the truth about the incident and getting revenge.

While trying to gather information she infiltrates the underworld where she meets Preston, and although she doesn't trust him fully at first, they become allies on trying to find out what happened to Rebekah's husband and Preston's sister and they find out that there's more to it than either of them really suspected at first.

The setting for this book was very interesting, we're in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak, right when the world seems to be getting back to normal and rebuilding, after a vaccine was discovered and distributed, and although you can still found the odd rotten zombie here and there, they can't turn anyone and so they're not as big a threat. But things aren't as safe as it seems, and someone is using and shaping zombies to suit their needs. As a zombie book, this is definitely very unique!

The plot was quite well weaved and some of the revelations were quite unexpected, and although this is obviously a first book in a series, it has enough plot of its own to not seem just a mere introduction and doesn't only focus on world building, so there's space for that on the upcoming books. With a bit of conspiracy theories, secret societies and corporations taking advantage of an unstable world, there's plenty of plausability.

What didn't work for me in this book was the romance between Rebekah and Preston...Rebekah seemed to be so wrapped up in her husband's loss and then she finds out about something and then she seems ready to move on? I liked how they worked together as a team, but maybe for my own personal reasons the romance seemed to move along too fast. It started feeling wrong for me, and it costed the book quite nearly a star just because of that. Probably not something other readers will have an issue with, but I did.

All in all, a very interesting read, well deserving of 3 stars.

Giveaway

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Friday Reads: Reboot by Amy Tintera!

For the final entry this week on Friday Reads another dystopian that manages to not be just another dystopian.


Reboot by Amy Tintera

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Reboot was one of those books I had on my TBR list for quite a while before I decided to read it. The premise seemed different enough to be an interesting read, and I love dystopian & postapocalyptic stories, but I was scared that there would be too much romance of the insta-love category and it'd end up dampening my book experience.

I'm glad that I decided to read it anyways, cause even if it didn't blow my mind, the book was very entertaining and I'm surely awaiting the sequel!

The premise for Reboot is that humany has been falling prey to this virus that kills but not permanently, at least in some cases, so after some time the person comes back to life, changed, stronger, self-healing and depending on the time it took them to come back, less human. At first humanity looked at it as boon, no more fear of death! but after seeing how different the Reboots could be after their change, there was a war: Reboor versus humans and the aftermath of said war is the world where the story takes place.

A Reboot does sound a bit like a zombie, since seems like they reanimate and are undead, only way to kill them is blowing their heads off... but Reboots are not exactly zombies, but much more. Adult Reboots are killed upon reanimation, but any under 20 is taken into special facilites to be trained and controlled and turned into efficient fighters and killing machines to do the dirty work of humans, the perfect special forces that don't question orders.

Wren 178 (number refers to the minues you've been dead before reanimating) is the most perfect of those special forces, she had been training and taking missions for a long time, and she's drilled herself to not feel and to just do her job. Along comes Callum, a mere 22 minutes that make him almost human, a new recruit that starts turning things upside down for Wren by not settling into the routines and challenging the status from small to big ways. Add an ugly situation with Ever, Wren's room mate and even when ever did not show it, her only friend and all hell breaks loose.

I was glad that the romance that started between Wren and Callum was not the only motivator for Wren's change, but also her relationship with Ever and what happens to her is what makes Wren realize she won't just take orders anymore.

For some reason I can't pinpoint exactly the later third of the book didn't kept me as engaged as the first half of it, so it lost a little of steam for me... maybe having them running wasn't as compelling as the build up for me, but the end of the book really was something! And will be the reason I will make sure I'm NOT missing out the sequel!

Still unsure if I'll give it 3 or 3 and a half stars, so I'll leave it as 3 and a quarter stars!



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Rocky Van Gory camera bag!!!

Hello everyone!


We're again at the beginning of a new week, in the sometimes dreaded Monday. Not for me, since I'm happily having it off after working night shift!


Today, I'm finally working a long overdue blog entry about an amazing collaboration between two amazingly talented ladies that I love to bits: Rhiannon from Rocky The Zombie and Brooke from Brooke Van Gory designs!


For every photographer, and even more for every female photographer, there's this hunt for the right kinda bag, that you can take around without it being too obviously a camera bag but with enough space for everything you'd want to carry around, and that will protect your camera! And in my case, you have to add more space in there, so I can use it as carry on luggage!


The search for the perfect bag to take my camera and gadgets and carry on luggage was over when I saw Brooke working on camera bags (branching out from her awesome purses and diaper bags) and when Brooke & Rhi got their heads together and started working on bags with Rhi's amazing lil zombies hand painted or screened onto them!





After much thought and pondering, I decided to go with the Zombie with Cupcake design, and both ladies got onto work! Bag was made with two of my fave colours, Royal Blue & Black, and the zombie design was screened on silver ink. Super cute! Brooke gave it an adjustable strap made out of a car seat belt, so it's very tough and durable! And being able to wear it messenger style is really convenient when you have to go through airports and trains (and even more when you get stuck in London for 5 days and have to drag around hand luggage and suitcase everywhere!).








I'd totally recommend that if you're looking for a cool, durable bag with loads of packing space maybe it be a camera bag, or a purse or a diaper bag, go check Brooke's shop on Artfire to see what styles she offers and check her facebook fan page to check her previous bags, and of course, don't forget to go check Rhiannon's Etsy or Artfire shop for even more cute Zombie goodness!

My faithful Rocky Van Gory bag in Reading's B&B during my "trapped in the UK, blame the snow" stint!