Ballet is one of those things that you either love or hate. I’m a fence sitter to say the very least and my dance style boarders on a spider on a hot tin roof, and can in no way be mistaken for grace or beauty. However, I know the behind the scenes world of ballet is pretty cut-throat and nasty, which always makes for a great suspense novel. Black Swan anyone?

Dance of Shadows isn’t a typical boarding school/ university novel. Sure it has the stereo typical hazing, the secret society and the new girl falling for the cutest guy in school; but this one had me questioning the motives of the lead character.

Vanessa is living in the shadow of her sister, Margaret, who went missing from the New York Ballet Academy years before this story is set. She dons the point shoes and pliës her way into the academy, not believing that Margaret could have just run away. What she discovers will clear her sister’s name and open up a huge can of worms for the NYBA.

My issue was with Vanessa’s single-minded working to get into the NYBA, just to find her sister and then still having enough mental capacity to fall in love, go to classes and dance so well. I find it hard to believe anyone would get as far in a profession that is so difficult to break into in the first place.

The mystery elements in the story were entertaining. The characters and the settings were as you would expect. The rest is all just a little predictable.

What isn’t predictable is the cover art. A beautifully posed dancer with red petals making her costume is rather special but things get very interactive. Once you download the free app and hover your smart phone over the cover, the dancer comes alive. If you get the book and do this please let us know what it’s like.

If you liked the movie Black Swan, and enjoy boarding school novels, this one is perfect for you.

Twitter name: TheYelenaBlack

Paperback, UK, 369 pages

Published February 14th 2013 by Bloomsbury (first published February 12th 2013)

ISBN: 1408829975 (ISBN13: 9781408829974)

Welcome to Life with Lisa!

Recently I saw this post on a few different blogs that I followed and decided to make my own, and share it here on Burn Bright. Feel free, as always, to comment down below with the ten books that you just HAD to have, and still haven’t read them.

1. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.

“Survival. Of the fittest.

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream Pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.
What’s a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program – or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan – or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?

Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again.”

2. The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff.

“Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement-left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate’s baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.”

3. Angel Burn, by L.A. Weatherly.

“Willow knows she’s different from other girls, and not just because she loves tinkering with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into the future and know people’s dreams and hopes, their sorrows and regrets, just by touching them. She has no idea where this power comes from. But the assassin, Alex, does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows more about Willow than Willow herself. He knows that her powers link to dark and dangerous forces, and that he’s one of the few humans left who can fight them. When Alex finds himself falling in love with his sworn enemy, he discovers that nothing is as it seems, least of all good and evil. In the first book in an action-packed, romantic trilogy, L..A. Weatherly sends readers on a thrill-ride of a road trip – and depicts the human race at the brink of a future as catastrophic as it is deceptively beautiful.

They’re out for your soul . . . and they don’t have heaven in mind.”

4. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.

“A mysterious island.
An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

”

5. Firelight, by Sophie Jordan.

“A hidden truth.

Mortal enemies.
Doomed love.

Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki, a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.

Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will’s dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away;if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She’ll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy.

Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.”

6. Wither, by Lauren DeStefano.

“By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape–before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden’s servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?”

7. Fever, by Lauren DeStefano.

“Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.
Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago – surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous – and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion…by any means necessary.”

8. Fat Vampire, by Adam Rex.

“Doug Lee is undead quite by accident–attacked by a desperate vampire, he finds himself cursed with being fat and fifteen forever. When he has no luck finding some goth chick with a vampire fetish, he resorts to sucking the blood of cows under cover of the night. But it’s just not the same.

Then he meets the new Indian exchange student and falls for her–hard. Yeah, he wants to bite her, but he also wants to prove himself to her. But like the laws of life, love, and high school, the laws of vampire existence are complicated–it’s not as easy as studying Dracula. Especially when the star of Vampire Hunters is hot on your trail in an attempt to boost ratings. . . .”

9. Halo, by Alexandra Adornetto.

An angel is sent to Earth on a mission. But falling in love is not part of the plan.

Three angels – Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, the youngest and most human – are sent by Heaven to bring good to a world falling under the influence of darkness. They work hard to conceal their luminous glow, superhuman powers, and, most dangerous of all, their wings, all the while avoiding all human attachments.

Then Bethany meets Xavier Woods, and neither of them is able to resist the attraction between them. Gabriel and Ivy do everything in their power to intervene, but the bond between Xavier and Bethany seems too strong.

The angel’s mission is urgent, and dark forces are threatening. Will love ruin Bethany or save her?”

10. Starcrossed, by Josephine Angelini.

“How do you defy destiny?
Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it’s getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she’s haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they’re destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.”

Thanks for stopping by!

The Indigo Spell (Bloodlines #3) by Richelle Mead

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch–a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood–or else she might be next.

Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, the Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive—this time in a part-vampire, part-human setting where the stakes are even higher and everyone’s out for blood SBN #9781921518911

Sydney takes a huge leap into the world of magic in this third instalment of the Bloodlines series. This is directly against everything she has been taught as an Alchemist.

In book 2, she was told a rumour about a rogue Alchemist, Marcus Finch. It’s absolutely unheard of in her world for anybody to leave the group and she finds herself wanting to find Marcus. He just may have some of the answers she has been looking for. But in the meantime, she has been pulled into the world of magic by one of her teachers, and this has put her in danger. There is somebody out there killing witches and growing stronger by taking their power.

One thing that has been a constant in the writing of this series is the pacing of the novels. They all have a gradual build up to a big event and a surprise ending to enter into the next story. The relationships between the characters is growing stronger with each book as well. Although now that Sydney is not Jill’s main protector, some of the school friends are not seen as much in this book as the first two. The focus of the story is on Marcus Finch and her growing relationship with the vampire Adrian – yet another thing that is frowned upon by the Alchemist group (fraternizing with vampires).

The growing relationship between Adrian and Sydney is just part of the character growth that we see within Sydney. In The Indigo Spell Sydney shows the most developed and biggest changes to her character. Not only questioning what she really believes in (as opposed to what she has been taught) and she learns to follow her heart over her mind. She has a huge tendency to over-think things because she is unsure and scared of the consequences. She really is at college age at this time and I was very happy to see her discover her truths.

Just as the Vampire Academy Series is highly addictive, this book as made this series addictive for me. In the first two books I was exploring the world and who the characters are, but now we see a huge leap of faith in our main character Sydney, and I’m rooting for her. I find her very strong and becoming more determined each book. They are fun, with great pacing and I love the suspenseful build up to see where each book will take us.

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that my first picture book is being released by UK-based publisher Books To Treasure this year.

Most of you probably aren’t even aware that I have a number of children’s publications to my name. Indeed, writing for primary school children was my first love. I’ve also written a number of children’s picture book manuscripts and had a dream to publish one of them but it never happened as I got sidetracked into writing for adults.

My dream has finally been realised when Books To Treasure publisher, Adrianne Fitzpatrick gave my story Serious Sas and Messy Magda the nod. This was made all the more meaningful by the fact that Adrianne taught me most everything I know about children’s writing over a decade ago, back when she ran classes.

She’s gone on to have a long career as an editor in Australia and the UK and now has her own publishing house.

In the coming weeks I’ll be able to share the cover with you, but for now please join me in a cheer and the knowledge that when dreams do come true it feels as good as you imagined it would!

I’ll update you with release date and buy details in due course. I’m so excited that I’ll be able to share the book with all my new great nieces and nephews.

This middle grade trilogy is set in the early 1800′s and is and is very much Jane Austen-esk with it’s emphasis on etiquette, propriety and high society.

Book one Kat, Incorrigible, brings us in on a typical middle class British blended family. Four children, widowed father and a step mother who’s only concern is marrying off her stepdaughters to wealthy gentlemen. However Kathrine (Kat) has other ideas. She discovers the mother she never knew has left her a legacy of magical talent and she will stop at nothing to keep her family safe… even if it is improper and not at all ladylike.

Book 2 Renegade Magic, Kat is happy enough to see one sister happily married, however now her other sister has gone and created a situation where their step mother has shipped them all off to Bath to find her a suitor. Heavens above! How will Kat fix this?

Book 3 Stolen Magic, What to do, What to do? Somebody is out to get Kat. She’s being followed and her family seems to be in the line of fire. Can Kat save the day before her sister’s big day?

I enjoyed this series immensely and I think it’s my love for strong female protagonists that really sealed the deal. Katherine is delightfully persistent and unashamed of her family history. Her sisters are of the same vein, however they’ve realised their place in society, and in the 1800′s status was everything. As for Charles… well you’ll have to find out for yourselves.

I’ve never been to the UK, so the settings seem real and plausible to my naive mind. The thought of travelling to a Castle anywhere seems like such an adventure all on it’s own, but to add magic and high society to the mix made me quite excited to read on.

I’m not really a die hard fan of the accuracy of the era, so shows like Lost in Austen and this Kat Incorrigible book trilogy, add a level of normalcy and rebellion that make it far easier to consume.

I found myself day dreaming about the possible outcomes in certain scenes and Stephanie Burgis kept me on my toes for a good part of the series.

I would suggest this book to middle graders and older who want to wade gently into the era of Jane Austen and see how they find it, or for those who want to take a lighter journey through the early 1800′s from a young girls perspective.

It would be perfect on a rainy, dreary day when you can imagine yourself in England and not so very far away from the heart of the action.

http://www.stephanieburgis.com/

Kat, Incorrigible Paperback, 295 pages

Published April 3rd 2012 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers (first published January 1st 2010)

ISBN: 1416994483 (ISBN13: 9781416994480)

Renegade Magic Paperback, 352 pages

Published March 5th 2013 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers (first published August 1st 2011)

ISBN: 1416994505 (ISBN13: 9781416994503)

Stolen Magic Hardcover, 400 pages

Published April 2nd 2013 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers (first published October 1st 2012)

ISBN: 1416994513 (ISBN13: 9781416994510)

“So wrong for each other … AND YET SO RIGHT.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth.

But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can PUSH THE LIMITS and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her HOW TO LOVE AGAIN.”

Pushing The Limits alternates point of view between the two main characters, Noah and Echo. Echo deals with the loss of her older brother during a deployment to Iraq, the scars from the accident with her mother, her father getting remarried and the pregnancy of her stepmother. Meanwhile, Noah has a lot to deal with himself; getting his life back on track after jumping from one foster home to the next, and fighting for the right to have his younger brothers’ back.

When both attend counselling sessions to get help with the many things they each have going on, Echo is assigned to become Noah’s tutor, and they start to see one another more often. Despising one another at first, and avoiding each other at all cost, they come to realize that the only person who truly understands them, and knows how it feels going through those rough times, is each other.

Finally, they come together to reach their goals (getting Noah’s brothers’ back, and finding out what really happened to Echo the night of the accident with her mother), the two attempt to get their files from the guidance office. In doing so, they develop a strong connection with each other.

Pushing The Limits is one of those books where you’re laughing one minute, completely in love the next, and before you know it, you’re sobbing into the pages, and throwing it across the room.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally you can get the series in either paperback or e-book from Amazon.com

You can buy Burn Bright in paperback or ebook on Amazon right here.

You can buy Angel Arias in paperback or ebook on Amazon right here.

You can buy Shine Light in paperback or ebook on Amazon right here.

Author, speaker, consultant and media expert, Sarah’s expertise is working with gifted and talented young people who have the capacity to become high achievers.  She has an ability to raise expectations and aspirations of all young people she comes into contact with.  Sarah Newton has shared her wisdom with millions who have tuned into her TV and radio shows, followed her writing and listened to her thought-provoking talks.

Hailed as ”The Supernanny for Teens” by TV Times Sarah has worked in this field now for over 19 years of her life. Sarah is also the founder of Talented Teens, Teenage Dr Love and the editor and creator of Celebrity Parent Advice. Sarah is also leading the way forward in personality led parenting and youth coaching.

What set you along this life path, working with teens?

I worked with young offenders and children at risk of offending for 10 years as a police officer in London. When one of the young people I worked with took their own life, it made me think there had to be a different way to deal with youth and I started on the track I am on nowadays.

A catch phrase when speaking about trolling (online bullying) is, “You can’t troll a troll”, which boils down to an eye for an eye. As a global community, how do you suggest young adults approach trolling?

As a global community, I think we need to see “trolling” as a crime and label it as such. If you said these things in public they would be, so why is it different on-line? I think all social networks should stop anonymous accounts and be on top of this more than they are.

Young adults themselves need to think more before they start these accounts and turn comments off on YouTube, for example if it upsets them too much, then have some else manage their account so they can field some of the offensive comments. I see so many young people engage with the trolls and this only puts fuel to the fire. Never answer anonymous comments on Ask FM, etc. It really isn’t worth it. Always think what a potential college/employer might think if they saw your comments back to these people. A girl in the UK has just had to pull out of a very prestigious job because of comments she made on twitter 4 years earlier. Be careful what you write; it may come back to bite you.

In your opinion do parents place too much emphasis on the academic achievements of their young adults rather than their hobbies or personal life goals?

In my opinion No they don’t. While I recognise the importance of hobbies and life goals, I also know that education is the key to opening doors and I believe that we should always have high expectations for our children when it comes to education. I have never heard an adult saying they wished that they had tried less at school.

Do you believe in the generation gap, and how much of an issue do you think it plays in the effective communication between young adults and their parents?

I think the gap has gone and we have more of a generation lap now, with young people lapping their parents in their knowledge of such important thing such as the Internet. A lot of the study results coming out about this are showing that parents and young adults are becoming closer than ever, with young people looking to their parents more than ever before for advice and guidance and most of them citing parents as role models. I think young people will always feel misunderstood; I think that is the nature of things, but I feel communication is better and different than it was when I was a teenager.

What can young adults gain from visiting your website www.sarahnewton.com?

They will find someone who understands them, the world they live in and offers different perspectives to the adults in their lives.

The majority of my site is aimed at parents and adults who work with youth, however one of my projects, Talented Teens, http://sarahnewton.com/talented-teens/ shares inspirational stories and advice about young people for young people and we do have a very cool little gadget which allows young people to discover their talent. You can find it in the left hand column on this page http://sarahnewton.com/c/blog/

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

Hardcover, 371 pages  Published January 1st 2013 by Amulet Books  ISBN  1419704281 (ISBN13: 9781419704284)

I dare you to read this book and not have the imagery of great movies from Tim Burton (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Henry Selick (Coraline). This is definitely not a re-telling of Alice in Wonderland. This is a re-imagining. Everything that you have grown up knowing about the world from the tales of Lewis Carroll are so far from what this book represents that you will question everything you thought you have ever loved about the tale.

Alyssa is the great, great, great grand-daughter of Alice Liddell, the once naive young girl who recounted stories to Mr Lewis Carroll. Since Alice’s first venture into Wonderland, and her finding her way home, all of the females in her family have become cursed. It’s on one of Alyssa’s visits to her mother in the Asylum that things go wrong. Alyssa decides that once and for all the curse must be broken. She returns to Wonderland to release them from it.

Alyssa has always heard the insects talk to her; she collects them for her artwork. But when she sees a huge moth and decides to research it, she inadvertently calls it’s interest to her. It’s name is Morpheus, from Wonderland itself, and it has come to guide her. But before Alyssa can enter the mirrored gateway, her love interest and long-time neighbour Jeb shows up at her door. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that Jeb would jump after her into the hole. And now they must work together to break the curse and get home safely.

The creatures of A.G. Howard’s visions of Wonderland are very Gothic and more evil than I expected. The rabid rabbit (known by Alice as the White Rabbit because of his skeletal figure), is just one of the creatures that we think we know as readers of the original story – but with a difference. The creatures in this world are unique, horrific and sometimes enticing.

Alyssa must complete several tasks –  from quenching the hunger of the great Walrus, to fixing the watch at the tea party. Each task will take her and Jeb into more danger, especially because he doesn’t trust Morpheus. Morpheus seems to have another agenda.The danger is that Alyssa is strangely attracted to Morpheus and Wonderland is beginning to feel more like home.

This novel had more twists and turns than a roller coaster. As soon as I finished it, I picked up the audio-book, just because I felt like I missed too much the first time through. The imagery is amazingly eerily. When trying to compare it to the original work of Alice in Wonderland you can see how a young child might have construed these much darker characters and it makes sense. And it’s kind of scary. And there are more plot twists and story lines so that the ending makes for a huge “wow” moment. It’s going to make an amazing movie someday, great visuals and I highly recommend if you like dark twists to your stories.