Blog Tour & Book Review: Sweet Unrest by Lisa Maxwell + Giveaway!

Title: Sweet Unrest
Author: Lisa Maxwell
Paperback (ebook), 336
Published: October 8th 2014 by Flux
Genre: YA - Paranormal Romance
Source: Netgalley via publisher

A world where souls walk free and dreams become portals to the past…

Lucy Aimes has always been practical. But even her rational mind can't explain her dark and familiar dreams of a time long ago, filled with people she shouldn't know, but does. When her family moves to New Orleans, Lucy's dreams suddenly become more intense. Reluctantly drawn into the old city's mystical undercurrent, she searches for answers about the nighttime visions that haunt her.

What Lucy finds is Alex, a mysterious boy who behaves as if they've known each other forever. They've only just met, and she shouldn't be drawn to him, but she is. As she tries to unlock Alex's secrets, a killer strikes close to home and a century-old vendetta unspools, putting Lucy and everyone she loves in mortal danger.

Purchase @ Amazon | B&N | Flux | The Book Depository | Indiebound

At first glace, Sweet Unrest looked to be a perfect read for this time of year, Halloween. The cover is definitely creepy and very unique with name of the book beautifully designed to fix into the gate which is the main focus of the cover. Going into reading the book my expectations were at a all time high and after finishing it in a mere two days I am glad they were. I fell head over heal in love with Sweet Unrest. It was everything I wanted and more. 

The story begins as Lucy Aimes and her family move to Louisiana because of her Father's job. He was chosen to curate and direct a antebellum sugar plantation outside of New Orleans. Lucy is not thrilled by the move but more so angry at being uprooted. She wanted nothing more than to remain in Chicago and attend an art institute, taking pictures, her one true passion. 

As Lucy and her family get settled in their new home, a large estate which looks to have quite a history behind it. Soon Lucy meets a girl her age named, Chloe. Chloe is the daughter of a women who works for the sugar plantation. Lucy comes to find out that Chloe is into or believes in voodoo and knows a old woman who supposable is a voodoo queen. Lucy doesn't believe in such things, and is determined to show Chloe that these things just don't exist. Although after meeting Mama Legba, Lucy starts to wonder is anything this old lady said is true. 

Lucy has had a recurring dream for as long as she can remember, although as of late her dream has been kept a bay, until now... While walking the grounds, Lucy sees a boy close to her age. He's breathtakingly beautiful and oh so mysterious but when Lucy tries to follow him into the woods he seeming vanishes. Days later "Fate" decides intervene and Lucy gets to meet this mysterious man. She learns his name is Alexander, he's french, and by the way he speaks it's as if he comes from another time.  After meeting Alex, something happens to Lucy. He dreams have gotten worse, and more intense, scarier but what worries Lucy even more is now she is dreaming of Alex. A man she barely knows, a man who holds many secrets...and a woman who surprising looks a lot like Lucy herself. What do these dreams mean and why can't she seem to turn them off. 

Lucy now struggles to understand what her dreams mean, who really is Alex and how voodoo and magic play a large part in it all.... The truth, will leave you breathless...

For me one of the biggest things I loved about the book was the romance between Lucy and Alex, and how the subject of past lives plays into the story. I have always been a huge fan of books about reincarnation, and finding your mate in the next life. It's so romantic. Just seeing Alex and Lucy connect during the course of the book was so raw and emotional for me. The ending had me in a full out crying fest, like seriously balling my eyes out. I loved the all of the characters in the story, even the side characters like Chloe and Mama Legba. Everyone played their part perfectly throughout the book. 

I also really enjoyed the concept of voodoo and magic playing such a large part in the book. I've never read any books with this topic in it and I really think it gave the story such depth and excitement. Sweet Unrest was totally unlike anything I've read before. My only problem I had with the book was towards the middle the pacing seems to slow down some and drag but it wasn't so off putting that I stopped reading.

I would without a doubt recommend Sweet Unrest to anyone who enjoys stories about past lives, ghosts,  magic, and an epic love story which teaches us TRUE LOVE never dies.  

 Totally Awesome! I loved it, would read again.

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About The Author: Lisa Maxwell

Find Lisa @

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

Tumblr / Pinterest / Fourteeners / One Four Kid Lit

Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest (Flux, Fall 2014) and Heartless Things (Simon Pulse, Spring 2016). She has a PhD in English, and when she's not writing books, she’s a professor at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.

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Book Review: The Soul's Mark: FOUND by Ashley Stoyanoff

Title: The Soul's Mark: FOUND

Author: Ashley Stoyanoff
Number of Pages: 276

Published: May 24th 2012 by Ashley Stoyanoff Books

Source: Author (paperback)
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Reading Level: YA
Star Rating: ★★★1/2
Goodreads | Purchase

Anxious to leave her destructive past behind, Amelia Caldwell moves to Willowberg, excited for a fresh start. Once there, she discovers that her birthmark is more than it seems. She has been marked by a vampire’s soul. Not only does she hold his soul, but Amelia is also his soulmate.
After almost a century of searching for his soulmate, Mitchell Lang fears the worst—he is going to lose Amelia to another man. His heart takes over, and his impulsive decision to take away her free will and to intensify their bond quickly turns her growing love into hate.
When they become trapped in the emotional rollercoaster of their souls' bond, open conflict erupts. Amelia has no intentions of belonging to anyone, not even her soulmate, and Mitchell refuses to let her go.
While she frantically searches for a way to escape his grasp, Amelia unlocks the painful memories of her past and uncovers a powerful secret. But before she has a chance to explore her newfound edge, she finds herself caught in the middle of a deadly game of revenge and is forced to realize that YOU CANNOT RUN FROM DESTINY.

Just another Vampire novel? No, not one bit. This book brings Vampires into a whole new light. (..well figurally speaking..) When you think of Vampires the whole blood sucking, creatures of the night thing comes to mind. Well at least to me it does, but what if one of them happens to be your soul mate. 

When Amelia moves to a new town because of a free ride school scholarship she won she is determined to start anew and make friends. A way to leave her haunted past behind and find happiness but when things are seemingly to good to be true Amelia starts to question the people around her. Why is everyone being so overly nice? Why are her roommates treating her like royalty? And why does everyone in the town of Willowberg acting like she is so special? The answers to her questions lie within her dreams, a rather a certain recurring dream Amelia has every night. From the day her parents were brutally murdered in front of her this dream or rather the guy in the dream has keep her safe and feeling loved. But when a simple dream become a reality, Amelia is faced with a whole new world and someone who claims to be her soul mate, her love. To find out what happens to Amelia and the secrets she now posses you will have to read "The Soul's Mark: FOUND".

I found the plot and the overall uniqueness of this book to make for a fast and interesting read. I do feel vampires novels are very overrated and sometimes cliche'. That's why I was happy when I found one unlike any I have read before. Although the book is short with less than 300 pages it really does make a good impression on the reader. The characters are very likable but I did feel like Amelia was very down on herself at times and had a bad habit of questioning everything. I wished she could have just let things fall into place and not want an answer right away for anything that seems off or strange to her. I also felt like I wanted to know more about the main characters, their past and who they really are. The pace or flow of the authors writing was easy to read and understand but at the same time slowed down a bit during certain area's of the book. I was really torn between giving her book a  solid 4 star rating or 3.5 stars but in the end I choose 3.5. I did enjoy the story and would definitely read the next book in series, but felt it could use a little work. So all in all, I found the book to be very likable but did not love it. I do very much recommend the book to my readers and I feel it should be given the chance. 

Thank you for reading and be sure to check out the links above for more into about this book and it's author, Ashley Stoyanoff.

--> Book Review: Remembrance By Michelle Madow <--

Title: Remembrance

Author: Michelle Madow

Number of Pages: 270 (e-book)

Published: Published July 25 2011

URL:  http://www.michellemadow.com

Buy Remembrance here:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords

I was contacted by Michelle Madow the author of  Remembrance and she asked me to read and review her book for my honest opinion. Remembrance is a Young Adult novel that is a great read for any age.  After reading the short summary of Remembrance that was sent by Michelle, I knew I would love to have the chance to read this book.  So here is my review of her book. Thank you so much, Michelle for the book and a chance to review it for you.






Goodreads Info: 

New Hampshire high school junior Lizzie Davenport has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England ... but she doesn't know it yet. 


Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie's school at the beginning of the year, and she feels a connection to him, almost like she knows him. She can't stop thinking about him, but whenever she tries talking with him about the mysteries behind her feelings, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her. Reaching him is even more difficult because she has a boyfriend, Jeremy, who has started to become full of himself after being elected co-captain of the varsity soccer team, and her flirtatious best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew soon after his arrival. So why can't she seem to get him out of her mind?


Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, the pair of them soon find that fighting fate isn't going to be easy.




My Thoughts: (I gave the book 4 Stars)


I feel completely in love with this book from the start. I am such a suckers for a sappy love story and Remembrance is just that with a twist. The book starts out where a new boy, Drew joins the school where Lizzie the female lead character attends. Drew Carmichael just transfers from a school in NY and meets Lizzie on his first day. Lizzie feels strangely drawn to Drew like she knows him from some where even know she has never meet him before. After that day weird things start happening to Lizzie. She has a project for class to draw a scene from Pride and Prejudice - But once Lizzie looks up from what she was drawing she was amazed of what she saw...(I won't spoil it).  She starts to feel not connected to her long time boyfriend anymore and every time she is near Drew she feel so oddly more connected to him but does not understand why she keeps feeling this way even thought Drew is pushing Lizzie away. One of the main reason why is because he is dating Lizzie BFF, Chelsea. More and more Drew keeps away for Lizzie and she does not understand what is going on.... she feel like there is more than he is telling her. Besides all of this going on, now she is having flashes of memory from a past or of her past? Lizzie cannot be sure of anything anymore, why she is remembering things in the past that are not her memories and why she feels so drawn to Drew, but mostly why he acts so cold towards her. Well the answers lie within this amazing novel written by Michelle Madow. I adored this book and I think it would be a fast, fun and exciting read for any age group. There were parts where I just wanted to smack drew or cry for Lizzie. I loved being able to feel so many different emotions during the process of reading Remembrance. I just love stories of past lives they are so unique and refreshing to me to read.  I really enjoyed reading it and I think my readers will to. I would love to applaud Michelle for such a brilliant novel and I am glad I had the opportunity to read and review your book for you!