TLC Book Tours Review The Roanoke Girls, Amy Engel

About The Roanoke Girls

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Crown (March 7, 2017)

“Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.”

After her mother’s suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother’s mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran…fast and far away.

Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.

As it weaves between Lane’s first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girlsshocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart.

“I was immediately drawn into The Roanoke Girls, a haunting and riveting look at one family’s tangled legacy. You won’t stop reading until you’ve unraveled the darkest of Roanoke’s shocking secrets.”
– Laura McHugh, award-winning author of The Weight of Blood

“This is a poised and haunting novel, whose enchanting prose belies its dark and intense subject matter. An evocative modern take on Southern Gothic, with a compelling twist which will remain with you long after the book’s last sentence.”
– L.S. Hilton, New York Times bestselling author of Maestra

“An emotionally compelling page turner, The Roanoke Girls takes you inside the dark world of a twisted family and one woman’s fight to break free from the chains of her own history. This is family intrigue at its very best!”
– Wendy Walker, author of All Is Not Forgotten

My Thoughts:
The Roanoke girls appear to have it all, they're rich, stunningly beautiful and envied by all the townspeople. However, things are not as they seem. Over the course of the book, and as layers are sloughed away we find out what befell the girls in this family saga, and also solve the present day mystery of one missing Roanoke Girl.

Set in a fictional rural town in Kansas, 'The Roanoke Girls' is a deeply disturbing story. It is a complicated mix of sensual beauty with an underlying creepy darkness.  It's a distasteful storyline with manipulative calculating characters.

With a decades old history unfolding as the narrative moves back and forth in time, unpalatable secrets are revealed about the girls relationships within the family and with some of the townsfolk.  Engel has written a perceptively shocking, utterly compelling tale about the many affectations of love; innocent, lustful, cruel, selfish, controlling and warped.  Some of the characters were pretty unlikeable but with the progression of the storyline and revelations about the family's past, it became easier to accept, but not condone, their behaviour and treatment of others.

The interaction between the main character, Lane and 'wild boy', Cooper really resonated with me. Their relationship was electrifying and the sexual tension and pangs of lust were palpable. Allegra and Tommy's relationship couldn't have been more different with the hopelessly infatuated 'wholesome' Tommy being teased and tormented by the more predatory and sexually aware Allegra.

I loved 'The Roanoke Girls' right from the get-go.  Written in a style similar to Emma Cline's, 'The Girls' and likened to Virginia Andrews', 'The Flowers In The Attic', 'The Roanoke Girls' is a fabulous crossover debut for the YA/Adult readership.  Its a tough subject matter to write well about, but with a cracking good storyline I think Engel absolutely 'nailed it', and I cannot wait to read what she offers up next.

My Rating:

Disclaimer: I received a complementary digital advanced reading copy of 'The Roanoke Girls' by Amy Engel from the publisher and TLC Book Tours to take part in the blog tour.

Amy Engel photo credit Trish Brown Photography

About Amy Engel

AMY ENGEL is the author of the young adult series The Book of Ivy. A former criminal defense attorney, she lives in Missouri with her family. This is her first novel for adults.

Connect with Amy

Website | Facebook | Twitter

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TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, March 6th: A Chick Who Reads

Tuesday, March 7th: Booksie’s Blog

Wednesday, March 8th: Bookchickdi

Thursday, March 9th: All Roads Lead to the Kitchen

Thursday, March 9th: Buried Under Books

Friday, March 10th: Not in Jersey

Monday, March 13th: Laura’s Reviews

Tuesday, March 14th: Sweet Southern Home

Wednesday, March 15th: Thoughts on This ‘n That

Thursday, March 16th: Books and Bindings

Friday, March 17th: Rebel Mommy Book Blog

Monday, March 20th: Fuelled by Fiction

Tuesday, March 21st: Kritter’s Ramblings

Tuesday, March 21st: SJ2B House of Books

Wednesday, March 22nd: Write Read Life

Thursday, March 23rd: Luxury Reading

Monday, March 27th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Tuesday, March 28th: A Fantastical Librarian

Wednesday, March 29th: Snowdrop Dreams of Books

Wednesday, March 29th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Nina Is Not OK (Debut) by Shappi Khorsandi

Nina Is Not OK by Shappi Khorsandi

Publisher: Random House/Ebury Publishing (28 July 2016)

Source: Publisher/Netgalley
Pages: 352

Genre: New Adult, Older Teen, Adult, Teen Issues

Rating:

Disclaimer: Thankyou to the Publisher for the D-ARC

in exchange for my unbiased, honest review

Synopsis:
Nina does not have a drinking problem. She likes a drink, sure. But what 17-year-old doesn’t?
Nina’s mum isn’t so sure. But she’s busy with her new husband and five year old Katie. And Nina’s almost an adult after all. And if Nina sometimes wakes up with little memory of what happened the night before , then her friends are all too happy to fill in the blanks. Nina’s drunken exploits are the stuff of college legend.  But then one dark Sunday morning, even her friends can’t help piece together Saturday night. All Nina feels is a deep sense of shame, that something very bad has happened to her…
A dark and sometimes shocking - coming of age novel from one of the UK’s leading comedians. NINA IS NOT O.K. will appeal to fans of Caitlin Moran and Louise O'Neill.

My Thoughts:

I am so excited about this one...This is going to be big ... big !

Sometimes an author can get writing about troubled teens so wrong.  For instance, characters are written to be way too angsty and antagonistic with explicit, and sometimes laughable sex scenes, and using a barrage of crass language just for shock value can really be a turn off for a mature reader; or writing in too literary 'a style', again may put off its intended Teen/YA audience by boring them half to death with preachy dialogue.

Shappi hits it right on target every time with just the right balance of crude, lewd behaviour from its rebellious, antagonistic (inwardly desperately confused and unhappy) teen for both an Adult and Teen/YA reader to want to read.

We first encounter Nina, in a seriously drunken state, in a taxi with her knickers in her hand.  Nina cannot remember very much at all after being thrown out of a club for giving a 'blow job' to someone at the bar.

I only intended to peruse the blurb to find out about the book. I finally put it down two days later after I'd finished it.

Nina was like watching a car crash, I wanted to look away but just couldn't do it, I had to keep watching as she spiralled into a never ending whirling dark hole.

At times I thought out loud 'no Nina don't ...oh too late you did', and 'O.M.G. I can't believe you just did/said that'

The second half does ramp up on the emotion side with things becoming rather more darkly disturbing. That said, 'Nina Is Not OK' is full of hope, forgiveness and surviving to maybe screw up another day, but luckily Nina has some great friends and with support from people who love her hopefully Nina Will Be OK.  With wit and humour laced throughout, with one or two cringe worthy laugh out loud moments, and considering the subject matter, Shappi has written a positive uplifting tale about an out of control teen learning to live with, and respect herself and to not allow others to treat her so badly.

In 'Nina Is Not OK', Shappi's writing style is full on hectic and I wondered if she could sustain the pace without it becoming monotonous, but she did and it didn't. It was brilliant and fabulously written and I loved it !

I know it's probably not going to be for everyone due to the sexual content and bad, very bad language and lewd situations but because of the seriousness of the subject matters involved including, slut-shaming, alcoholism, and social media bullying, to mention just a few, it's one I'd wholeheartedly recommend for anyone who is or ever was, or just needs a reminder of just how difficult it is to be, a teen.

Favourite Character: I absolutely loved the 'too honest for anyone's good' Trish, the hopelessly tactless 'stand-by' friend of Nina's

Least Liked Character (understatement !) : ALEX !

MONSTERS : The ASHES Trilogy - Book 3

AMAZON com Link:

Monsters: The Ashes Trilogy

Ilsa J. Bick

Pages: 688

Publisher: Egmont USA

Publish Date USA: September 10, 2013

Source: (digital ARC) Publisher via NetGalley

Genre: YA / Teens/ Dystopic / Zombie / Horror

ISBN: 9781606841778

Rating: DNF / Unrated

Amazon Synopsis: 
"The Changed are on the move. The Spared are out of time. The End...is now.

When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse--until the doctors found the monster in her head.

She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death.

Now, with no hope of rescue--on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quit--she discovers a new and horrifying truth.

The Change isn't over.
The Changed are still evolving.
And...they've had help.

With this final volume of The Ashes Trilogy, Ilsa J. Bick delivers a riveting, blockbuster finish, returning readers to a brutal, post-apocalyptic world where no one is safe and hope is in short supply.

A world where, from these ashes, the monsters may rise."

My Thoughts:
My 13yr old daughter and I absolutely loved Ashes, and Shadows and eagerly awaited the final instalment of the trilogy. However, I was rather disappointed. I found the writing style to be jumpy, leaping from one scene and character to another, sometimes it seemed mid sentence. This was far too disorienting for me to want to continue and I regretfully did not finish this one.

Ashes in my opinion was by far the best and told the story focusing on, Ellie, Alex and Tom's points of view. Shadows, not packing as much punch as Ashes, but still a great read, concentrated on a greater cast of characters perspectives. Monsters has too many voices, with the main cast and secondary characters jostling for attention. It also became tedious at times with so many long drawn-out action scenes that I began to skim read, and ultimately abandoned it.

Maybe it's been too long between reads, about a year since Shadows but I just found it hard work to keep up and just wasn't enjoying having to put such effort into a YA/Teen book. There is a section at the back summarising some events and characters from the previous books which I feel would have been better placed at the front, but even this wasn't enough for me to want to persevere.

Don't get me wrong Monsters is very well written and I would still recommend it to anybody who has already invested in this trilogy, but just not to expect any wrapping up of the series as it certainly didn't answer any of the questions raised in Ashes, like who or what was behind the EMP for starters.

My daughter is still reading it and thoroughly enjoying the story line, all be it very gory. She does say that it's very confusing with all the different characters but she is determined to finish it. I will include her final verdict in due course.

I received a digital ARC from the publisher through NetGalley and would like to thank them for the opportunity to review this title.

GIVEAWAY 3. Paperback ARC of EARTH STAR by Janet Edwards

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Viral Nation by Shaunta Grimes

Amazon UK Link

Viral Nation was very promising from the few pages I managed to get through but the format from my ARC e-copy download was so bad that I was unable to continue reading it.

On my 'To Buy' List.

THE POSTMAN THIS WEEK

EARTH STAR by Janet Edwards AMAZON UK LINK

EARTH STAR by Janet Edwards

I received a promotional copy of Earth Star by Janet Edwards from the Publishers this morning for a 'Giveaway' prize on my blog which I will put up very soon along with my review.

Thank you so very much to Rosie Bathurst at HarperFiction/HarperCollins. I was thrilled to receive your email and this offer.

Amazon Synopsis:

The highly anticipated follow-up to Janet Edward’s sensational YA sci-fi debut, Earth Girl.

18-year-old Jarra has a lot to prove. After being awarded one of the military’s highest honours for her role in a daring rescue attempt, Jarra finds herself – and her Ape status – in the spotlight. Jarra is one of the unlucky few born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Derided as an ‘ape’ – a ‘throwback’ – by the rest of the universe, Jarra is on a mission to prove that Earth Girls are just as good as everyone else.

Except now the planet she loves is under threat by what could be humanity’s first ever alien contact. Jarra’s bravery – and specialist knowledge – will once again be at the centre of the maelstrom, but will the rest of the universe consider Earth worth fighting for?

The Postman This Week

The postman knocked twice this week and the rest of my books were either Amazon purchases or library borrows, and just a few books from my backlog in 2 large containers which are awaiting me in the loft. 

I was so thrilled to receive an advanced review copy of Angel City, courtesy of September at Transworld Publishers, and I devoured it within the week.

I will be putting this one up very soon as a Giveaway. It is due for release in September 2013. 

The New Books Magazine mailed me, the Trader of Saigon by Lucy Cruickshanks,  which I'm thoroughly looking forward to reading and again will offer up as a giveaway in the future.

Today I just had to get, Alif The Unseen by G Willow Wilson, Running The Rift by Naomi Benaron, and Kalifah by John Elray

These are just a few of my backlog. Not sure when I'll get round to reading them as I keep being mailed review copies I just can't refuse.

Library borrows are,  Pure by Andrew Miller, an historical novel set in Paris in the 18th Century; Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, a classic in my opinion of religious excess and human obsession; and Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick a YA novel based on a boys life in the Khmer Rouge.