Teardrop is out NOW!!!!

The wait is over...Teardrop was out in ebook YESTERDAY and the hardback is out TOMORROW!

To celebrate we have two fab clips to share with you!:

A Teardrop inspiration video from Lauren: 

An audio extract from Soundcloud: 

Double Teardrop Tuesday special!

Okay, first and foremost, our apologies for not posting last week's Teardrop Tuesday. I'm am currently in Year 11 and am bombarded with assessments and exams so I spent all this time revising! But no worries, I found time again to post a review and a double special of Teardrop Tuesday :D.

Last Week

Ever wonder what Eureka will be like? Here she is, the very own star of Teardrop!

This Week's Teardrop Tuesday:

Wohoo! Only a week left until the publication of Teardrop! This week's post is all about the new fan/blogger trailer of Teardrop, and to go with it is a wonderful competition to win a sterling silver teardrop necklace and a signed copy of Teardrop!

It's all in here: http://laurenkatebooks.co.uk/index.php/when-did-you-last-cry/

Good Luck!

Teardrop Tuesday (Thursday....Friday?)

Okay, okay! So it wasn't posted on a Tuesday as it was supposed to be so it was moved to Thursday but I've been so busy dealing with school that I missed that one too. Sorry!

So what's the news this week? Get this, the brand spanking new finished copies are now in and they look BEAUTIFUL!

Check it out again!

Teardrop Tuesday! (3)

Okay it's just four weeks left until the release of Teardrop of Lauren Kate and this week is the release of the US Teardrop trailer!

Are you guys ready?

Pretty exciting for a book trailer eh?

Teardrop Tuesday! (2)

It's the second Teardrop Tuesday and there's only 5 weeks to go until the publication! So what's the latest in the installment? Well, this week, we are celebrating the brand new Lauren Kate UK website!

Check it out: http://www.laurenkatebooks.co.uk/

So.... What do you guys think

Have you noticed the b-e-a-u-tiful Teardrop banner splashed across the page? It's making me all the more excited! I'm totally gonna read it soon!

Teardrop Tuesday!

It's Teardrop Tuesday! Who's excited for Lauren Kate's brand new series? From now on until October 24 2013, we will be posting new exciting content - yep, you guessed it - every Tuesday!

First up is a sneak peek at the prologue & chapter one for all those people not lucky enough to have got their hands on a limited edition proof of Teardrop: http://www.scribd.com/doc/164830988/Teardrop-by-Lauren-Kate-Sneak-Preview

What do you think? Are you as excited as we are? We have a brand-spanking new ARC we cannot wait to get our greedy hands on - *drool*

Passion Blog Tour: Lauren Kate on Running Down a Plot!

Welcome to the penultimate day for Lauren Kate's Passion blog tour! Today here at Girls Without a Bookshelf, Lauren is going to share her other hobbies, apart from writing. Check it out -

Years ago, I went to a bookstore in Manhattan to hear Joyce Carol Oates read from her first YA novel, Freaky Green Eyes. From my view of her frail, birdlike physique, I found it hard to believe Oates when she spoke of running six miles everyday. She said running was this magical time when she plotted all her novels. At that point, I really didn’t believe her. Who could do anything while running other than count the seconds until you were going to be finished running?

I was not a runner then. But sometime in the years between leaving my hectic job at a publishing house in New York and beginning to write Fallen, I took up the sport. I found myself living on a tomato farm in Northern California. It was their first time in my life I’d lived somewhere with that much open space around me. One day, I started to run the boundaries of the tomato plots. I hated it at first. I hated it for months. I definitely did a lot of counting down the seconds until my run was up. But the seed of a dream to run a marathon someday had been planted in me, so I kept up the running.

I remember one day during the summer I wrote Fallen, I woke up worrying about Miss Sophia. Something about her character wasn’t all the way there. I got dressed for my run, laced up my shoes, went out the door into the hot California sun. I took off through the tomatoes vines. When I think of them now, I can smell their precise aroma in the morning—spicy and velvety at the same time. I ran a few miles and didn’t realize I wasn’t counting down the seconds, I was thinking about Miss Sophia. I was resolving what was wrong with her character. At one point, I stopped in the middle of the field and I knew with absolute certainty that Miss Sophia was not good, as I’d written into my first

draft. She was pure evil, one of the most evil forces in the book. I don’t know when my mind would have worked that out if I had not been running. Joyce Carol Oates had it right all along.

The plotting run became an almost daily ritual. I live in Los Angeles now—less space but still some beautiful trails—and I rely on those morning runs—with my dog, Milo, these days—to clear my mind and unlock the scene I plan to write that day. This morning, I realized something new about Cam about a mile and a half into my run. I came home ready to hit the keyboard and transcribe the scene. I still haven’t run that marathon, but I did a half-marathon last summer. Maybe I’ll save the marathon training for my next series when I have a whole new set of mysteries to work through on the trails.

Thanks Lauren! I've always wanted to run a marathon myself, but I'm too lazy to train. Whoops, lazy me :D

Are you excited about Passion? Check it www.ihavefallen.co.uk for more about the series, connect with fans at the facebook page www.Facebook.com/FallenNovels and check out the squee-worthy trailer below!




And don't forget to head over to Writing from the Tub on the last day of the Passion blog tour tomorrow!

Finding Sky blog tour + Torment trailer and widget!

I'm excited to announce the schedule of the UK blog tour for Joss Stirling's Finding Sky! Check out the dates and the respective stops below, and do help us spread the word by promoting the banner where possible.

Here at Girls Without a Bookshelf, I will be interviewing Joss about all things romance, and will be giving away a copy of Finding Sky to one lucky UK entrant. So do check back here on Thursday, 21st October!

In the mean time, check out the trailer for Torment below!



When I first saw this, I very distincly remember thinking: Less is more. Agree?

To those who haven't read Torment yet, I'm guessing you're anxious for it. Check out the widget HERE to read the prologue and the first chapter!

Crescendo Trailer plus Free Torment Poster!

The eagerly awaited trailer of Crescendo debuted last Saturday, courtesy of Fallen Archangel. The official fansite has a brand new look (which I love) by the way, so head over and check it out!

In the mean time, if you haven't seen it yet, here's the Crescendo trailer:

Do you want a free Torment poster?

I was not very pleased with Torment, but I know a lot of you are or are still waiting for it, so this should be a gem! Amazon is currently having a promotion in which you can buy the book for £6.49 and get a free poster!

I'm not sure if it's available to other countries outside of the UK but I think for the rest of the EU, yes. I'll leave the link below, have fun!

Torment (Amazon Exclusive Poster edition)

Book Review: Torment (Lauren Kate)

How many lives do you need to live before you find someone worth dying for? In the aftermath of what happened at Sword & Cross, Luce has been hidden away by her cursed angelic boyfriend, Daniel, in a new school filled with Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans. Daniel promises she will be safe here, protected from those who would kill her. At the school Luce discovers what the Shadows that have followed her all her life mean - and how to manipulate them to see into her other lives. Yet the more Luce learns about herself, the more she realizes that the past is her only key to unlocking her future...and that Daniel hasn't told her everything. What if his version of the past isn't actually the way things happened...what if Luce was really meant to be with someone else?

Fallen left me disoriented and grappling for answers, so I expected Torment to ease my confusion. In fact, I was pretty excited for it since I loved the idea of Luce and Daniel's enduring love across time.

Unfortunately, Torment just left me more frustrated.

There's a difference between leaving readers wanting more and leaving them in a totally disorienting limbo of confusion. What Torment did for me was dump more rather than answer some of the questions that was left hanging by the end of Fallen. There is a lot question rising up in this book that only made the whole series a little too overwhelming. While I like complex world building, sometimes there's just information overload. So, rather than marvel at the intricacy of the plot, I just found it too complicated to entangle. I won't even start on how frustrated I am to have to wait for the third book to (hopefully) find the answers I am looking for.

Hidden away at a school for Nephilims called Shoreline, Lucinda Price begins to question a lot more about her past, herself and why Daniel insists on her recluse. Feeling trapped, clueless and still racked with guilt about Penn's death, she explores more of her surroundings, which in turn places her in danger. She disregards Daniel's instructions and often other's too, choosing instead to find answers of her own accord. While I like this stronger, more courageous Luce, her erratic behaviour annoyed me. Her stubbornness got to me, and I found it hard to symphatise with Luce. Of course, a big part of the blame lies with Daniel, who - even more than Luce - is just a tad too distant to my liking. I found it hard to connect with Daniel in Fallen, but in Torment he becomes a lot more elusive. He keeps Luce in the dark and evades her questions, and then fails to understand why she uses her own devices to find the answers that she wants. There is a lot of misunderstanding between these two in Torment - it gets quite tiring.

I love the romantic aspect of Torment best, and I did love Daniel and Luce's interactions, no matter how quick and fragmented they come and go. There is something so endearing about their love story and general, and despite my dislike of the details surrounding it, I'm holding on and hoping the next book(s) will elaborate more on their destinies. One other part of this book that I like are the new characters introduced, some of whom wriggle their way between Daniel and Luce, and present one very good option at that. I enjoyed Luce's experiences and adventures with her new friends, who seem to understand her best. The best part is towards the end, when the angels and nephilim appear side by side. The ruckus and tension they caused is quite thrilling. I hope these characters play their parts in the next book, as I'm looking forward to them a lot!

Most of the action is centered towards the end of the book, although tension also heightens at many parts within the novel. Like Fallen, Torment has a very good action sequence, one which can make you feel as if the characters are trapped without a way out. It ends with a very frustrating cliff-hanger though, and that deprived me of fulfillment. I have been expecting something explosive as the blurb suggests a big discovery of some sort about Luce and Daniel, I guess. The book just did not live up to that.

Maybe some can gain a lot more from Torment than I did, so I won't necessarily say skip this sequel. However, I didn't think it was a good sequel. It seems to be the type of book I'd consider to be set between book one and book 2 of a series, and hence missable.

Two Stars.

Book Review: Fallen (Lauren Kate)

What if the person you were meant to be with could never be yours?

After the mysterious fire, 17 year-old Luce's parents send her away to reform school. The grim, harsh, run-down Sword and Cross is a world away from her previous wealthy school, full of high-flyers & socialites.

Luce finds herself instantly & inexplicably drawn to Daniel - gorgeous and intelligent - but she can't help thinking he hates her half the time. Meanwhile there's the charming Cam, who can't do enough for her...

Without realising, Luce is being lured into grave danger. She has no idea of the world which exists in parallel to her own, but is about to find out...

When I saw the cover of Fallen I knew I just had to get this book. And that was just the cover - the blurb was promising, intriguing and definitely falls under my cup of tea. I have been spending too much on books so I decided to borrow this from the local library instead of buying it. So with a lot of expectations already on board, I started, and was teeny-weeny bit disappointed.

Firstly, I loved the prologue. It was very captivating and was for me the most exciting part of the book. It is probably one of, if not the best prologue I have ever read. Brief, romantic and very enthralling.

I didn't particularly enjoy the setting - I cannot relate to Swords and Cross at all. I think it was a brave choice of setting for the author and I applaud the originality. I also think it underscores much of Luce's characters and the fact that she is different. However, although it was easy to delve into the setting I didn't really feel it. The grimness of the whole setting contributed - together with the element of darkness surrounding the fallen angel theme I thought it was a little too much. 

However, I did greatly enjoy the characters. Most of them. I loved Penn personally, Arriane and Roland Sparks. I thought they were all well-developed characters even if you don't see them in every page. The only flaw I found was in Daniel and a little in Luce. Daniel seemed so dead in the book - for me comes alive only after the fight with Cam in the library. He hardly shows emotions and the moments when he does, I don't feel it's enough. I almost screamed for more interactions between Luce and Daniel. Easily explained at the end though, because being distant is in fact Daniel's way of saving Luce from an inescapable fate. Still, I would have liked him to show more emotion throughout the book - that would have made the ending, when he was explaining everything a little more gripping. I was just so used to Daniel Grigori being too distant that when he did feel close towards the end, it still felt distanced. 

As for Luce - well, I would have done exactly the same thing. I fell for Luce throughout the book because she was so clueless. Alone in a new place, and she hardly even knew herself. It was complicated for her, but she was a really strong character. Lauren Kate has moulded Lucinda Price very well.

Overall, Fallen is a worthy book to read. The plot may seem draggy at times but it weaves together at the end and everything eventually clears. The action sequences were well crafted and believable. The emotions in the book are so raw they seem to lift off the page. The train of thoughts and narration were very consistent and the romance, one-of-a-kind. The whole mystery and concept of fallen angels, wars and secrets were very very strong. Although the twists and climax of the story could have been better, the 'Is-that-it?' factor regarding the whole plot was ignorable. Some may even find it intriguing.

The book stays true to forbidden romance and destiny. The ending makes you crave for more - I, for one, would certainly grab the sequel on its launch day.

Three stars.