Curse of the Granville Fortune by Kelly Hashway - Tour Stop/Giveaway

Find the fortune, break the curse!

The hunt is on for an ancient treasure tied to nine-year-old J.B.'s family history. He's been having visions that make him sweaty, lightheaded, and certain he’s turning into some kind of freak—or worse, going insane. But things are worse than he imagined. The visions stem from a family curse. An ancient ancestor was accused of stealing the massive Granville fortune, and now J.B.’s entirely family will suffer.

To break the curse, J.B. must find and return the Granville’s stolen property. But he's not the only one searching for the treasure. As he sets out on his journey through a dark and foreboding forest, he'll battle his worst fears and fight terrifying creatures along the way. And when he meets two others who share the missing pieces of his visions and suffer from the same curse, the three soon realize they need to work together to break the curse before it's too late.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Chapters Indigo! | TBD | iBooks 

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Check out a character profile about Jack! 

Name: Jack Beaumont but he is best known as J.B. because he grew up watching old James Bond movies with this dad, who actually gave him the nickname.

Age: 9

Hair color: brown

Eye color: brown

Ancestry: French descent; his ancestor Jean Beaumont was cursed for stealing the Granville fortune, and now J.B. and his family are suffering from that curse

Major conflict: his family’s curse brings on mind-numbing visions that make J.B. certain he’s going insane

Siblings: J.B. has one sister, Holly, who was born on J.B.’s first birthday. He plays protector to Holly once they embark on a journey inside Braeden Forest.

Favorite pastime: riding his bike

Biggest fear: that he’s losing his mind

Biggest strength: He’s good at figuring out puzzles

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Review of Beware The Wild by Natalie C. Parker

Format: eBook
Genres: Mystery, Magic, Horror,
Pages: 336
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: 21/10/2014
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

There’s something about the swamp in Sticks, Louisiana. Something different, something haunting... something alive. Everyone knows this, and everyone avoids going near it. And even the Mardi Gras–bead-decorated fence that surrounds it keeps people away.

Until one morning when Sterling Saucier’s older brother Phineas runs into the swamp...
And doesn’t return.

Instead, a girl named Lenora May climbs out in his place, and all of a sudden, no one in Sticks remembers Phin at all. They treat Lenora May as if she’s been Sterling’s sister forever.

Sterling needs to figure out what the swamp’s done with her beloved brother and how Lenora May is connected to his disappearance - but first she’s got to find someone who believes her.

Heath Durham might be that someone. A loner shrouded behind rumors of drug addiction, Heath has had his own strange experience with the swamp. He and Sterling will have to piece together enough bits of memory and ancient swamp lore to get to the truth. But as the wild swamp encroaches on their town, Sterling and Heath may find a lot more than they expected... and Phin may be lost to them forever.

Beware The Wild definitely lives up to it's cover - this is a dark, creepy read that felt completely unique, I never felt like I'd read any parts of it before. The swamp and it's creatures themselves were grotesque and the story as a whole made me feel like this is something that Frances Hardinge fans would happily devour, much like the swamp does.

Sterling is my favourite type of character - complicated. She has a history of an abusive father and relies heavily on Phin to protect her. Hearing the news that he's leaving, she sinks into depression and forgets to eat, making her friends worried. Interestingly, her mother doesn't seem to notice this. Sterling is one of the most developed characters in this, she goes from lonely and depressed to happy and strong and I was happy when I left the book, knowing that she was going to be okay.

I had started avoiding the types of books that throw in a romance that seems unneeded, but this romance worked really well. I loved Heath and how he was willing to listen to Stirling's suggestions and go along with them and they worked really well as a couple. The other guy in Stirling's life, her brother Phin, I didn't really connect with, probably because most of his parts are just flashbacks.

Beware The Wild is a great mystery story that has a campfire tales feel about it. It was something I would love to see made as a movie. This is the author's debut, and she really has a knack for storytelling. I can't wait to read more from her!

Review of Of Scars And Stardust by Andrea Hannah

Format: eBook
Genres: contemporary, mystery, romance,
Pages: 336
Publisher: Flux
Release Date: 08/10/2014
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

After her little sister mysteriously vanishes, seventeen-year-old Claire Graham has a choice to make: stay snug in her little corner of Manhattan with her dropout boyfriend, or go back to Ohio to face the hometown tragedy she's been dying to leave behind.

But the memories of that night still haunt her in the city, and as hard as she tries to forget what her psychiatrist calls her "delusions," Claire can't seem to escape the wolf's eyes or the blood-speckled snow. Delusion or reality, Claire knows she has to hold true to the most important promise she's ever made: to keep Ella safe. She must return to her sleepy hometown in order to find Ella and keep her hallucinations at bay before they strike again. But time is quickly running out, and as Ella's trail grows fainter, the wolves are becoming startlingly real.

Now Claire must deal with her attraction to Grant, the soft-spoken boy from her past that may hold the secret to solving her sister's disappearance, while following the clues that Ella left for only her to find. Through a series of cryptic diary entries, Claire must unlock the keys to Ella's past—and her own—in order to stop another tragedy in the making, while realizing that not all things that are lost are meant to be found.

If you're after a great mystery, the opening chapters of Of Stars And Stardust will completely suck you in - Claire goes to a party that's supposed to be a birthday party organised by her friend, and she's only interested in going to see Grant, a guy she has a crush on. But Grant doesn't arrive and Ella does, Claire's younger sister. Drunk, she tells Ella to go home and it's not until morning that Claire realises her sister never came home.

This is a brutal, bloody story that packs a punch, but left me wanting - a decent story. There's only so much blood and violence you can add to a book without seeming to have any idea where you're going with it and I really felt like the author didn't have a clue. After we find Ella, the book switches to a few years later and slowly goes downhill from there.

Claire has to come back home, for reasons unknown (to me), to help find her sister. Ella's disappeared and no-one seems to have a clue where to even start and I don't actually remember anyone looking for her either, other than Claire. Claire's a hard character to love, mainly because she's constantly rambling on about how these wolves must have her sister and she mustn't have anything cherry scented because they like that.

The middle was slow, but the ending was just abysmal. There were far too many ideas just thrown at the wall and nothing stuck. The last few lines were so bizarre I was just left dumbstruck that this was even published. I have no idea what was going on for the most part and on top of that, a lot of the ending had that 'so this happened' mentality of shoving everything into one chapter to tie loose ends up.

This could have been a great book and it's certainly very unique. However, I'm not a fan of throwing stars at something just because it's a unique concept. It would have received just one star, however I loved Ella and the opening chapters were really amazing (I even cried a little), so it gets upgraded to two.

Review of Summer's Shadow by Anna Wilson

Format: eBook
Genres: mystery, romance, childrens,
Pages: 272
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Release Date: 01/10/2014
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

Summer's mother's will states that Summer's legal guardian is her uncle Tristan: a man Summer has never even heard of before. Forced to leave her life in London, Summer moves to Tristan's creepy, ancient house in Cornwall. There she is met with indifference from him, open hostility from her cousin, and an aunt who has chosen to leave rather than to tolerate her presence. Soon Summer comes to believe that the house may be haunted. But is it haunted by ghosts, or by the shadows of her family's past? Scared and lonely, Summer begins to spend more and more time in the beautiful sheltered cove she discovers nearby. But she's not alone. A local boy frequents it too. Can Summer find first love and the answers to the mysteries of her new home with this good-looking boy who appears to be too perfect to be true?

A super quick read, I finished this in a morning. Summer's Shadow is the story of Summer, who moves down to Penzance to live with her distant uncle after her mother's death. Trying to fit in with her new family would be hard enough, but only her Uncle seems to want her around, his wife is never there and Kenan, her cousin, is constantly threatening her. Meanwhile, she thinks she's going crazy, seeing her mother's ghost everywhere and hearing creepy noises in the walls.

This was a fun read but definitely aimed towards the younger end of YA - it's not quite children's but it's not quite YA either. The main character is 14 and the story is told in a YA style, but with a younger feel. I do think younger readers would enjoy this more than older readers, and it's a good story to start with for a child looking to start reading YA.

I loved Zach and Summer's relationship. It's a very sweet, summer romance and he really helps he get through the summer while she's trying to cope with her grief, new surroundings and a cousin that loathes her and just wants her out of the house. Nearly all of their relationship is set on the beaches of Cornwall, somewhere I've been near but never visited.

The story is unusual because it has a creepy, gothic feel to it at the same time as having a summery romantic feel. The cover is super summery too! It's a great mystery, I spent nearly all of my time reading it trying to work out if Summer was indeed seeing ghosts, or if something else was going on. I was surprised by the ending, though.