Belinda:

#1 Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick. Zombies. The gag inducing kind. Just ewwww.

#2 Pure by Julianna Baggott. The potential for this to come true freaks me the heck out.

#3 The Killables by Gemma Malley. Again, maybe a little close to the plausible truth.

#4 Dollhouse by Anya Allyn. I don’t think I’ll ever look at certain dolls the same way ever again.

#5 Siege by Sarah Mussi. A nightmare for anyone who can put themselves in the protagonists place

Lisa:

1# All the Truth That’s In Me, by Julie Berry. Not too scary, but truly gruesome and unimaginable things happen to the main character.

2# Pure, by Julianna Baggot. Also because it might actually happen to us!!

3# The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey. For the same reason as Pure!

4# Wake by Lisa McMann. Nightmares!!!

5# Project Cain, by Geoffrey Girard. Horrifying and somewhat true!

Krista:

#1 Ashfall by Mike Mullin  Real Life Potential.

This one hits close to home as the Super Volcano erupts in the USA.

#2 Scowler by Daniel Kraus Escaped Convicts and Meteorites.

Domestic violence, greed and the sky falling. True terror for one family stranded in a farmhouse.

#3 The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda Vampires.

True terror when you think you find safety among other humans when hiding from the vampires. Only to find that solitude might be the best answer.

#4 Bonechiller by Graham McNamee Native American Legend.

Amazing writing style that brings in imaginative visuals as one nightmare begins to come true. Still to this day I get a chill when thinking about this monster.

#5 The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle Vampires.

 An unknown terror on the outside of this Amish farm, but will sympathy for those on the outside be their undoing?

 Joelene:

#1 A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb. What if apathy could make you slip out of your body? And while you were out, what if something else could slip in?

#2 Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. Hunting ghosts…or are they hunting him?

#3 Curses, Inc. by Vivian Vande Velde. A creepy collection of short stories.

#4 We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Half a family poisoned while the other half remain bound to each other in secrecy and lies.

#5 The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Because sometimes society is more terrifying than anything else.

Mandy:

#1 – *Sigh* I couldn’t decide. So I cheated, and have a tie. My top creepy, scary reads are: Pet Sematary by Stephen King and Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Two very different authors, two very different stories, both made into movies. King is the master, the entertainer, while Lindqvist is more subtle, delicate in a gruesome, almost vulgar kind of way. I LOVE these books. Absolute must-reads for any horror fans.

#2 – Handling the Undead – John Ajvide Lindqvist. What happens when your dead loved one comes on home? What happens when ALL the dead loved ones come home? A touching story about grief that will creep you right out.

#3 – The Tommyknockers – Stephen King – Probably not most peoples’ idea of the scariest King novel, but it was the first of his I read (and started a lifelong addiction) so will forever hold a terrifying place in my heart.

#4 – Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. Hannett – A collection of wonderfully sick and twisted short stories, wrapped in a ribbon of the most beautiful, sing-song writing style.

#5 – Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott. Sure, it has the icky stuff, but Kirstyn McDermott has an amazing way of twisting your brain around too.

 Jamie:

#1 Escape from the Carnival of Horrors by R. L. Stine. The first book that ever truly scared me; and the one that turned me into a fatalist. A choose your own adventure tale where every choice leads you closer to a messy end.

#2 Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith. One of my all-time favourites that still manages to scare me after a dozen reads. Demonstrating just what nightmares can do to you.

#3 Drawing Blood by Poppy Z Brite. The visceral descriptive nature of this book I think scares me more than the story; but the author has a special way of creeping into my brain and haunting me for hours.

#4 I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. A short story that is both horrific in story and in detail. In a few short pages this tale makes me want to crawl under the covers and hide.

#5 1984 by George Orwell. Politically scary and just disturbing all over. This book has made me shudder every time I see a rat.

Claudette’s family is no stranger to moving. They pick up and leave at the drop of a hat, if necessary. Her and her brother Blake are not really allowed to have friends or get close to anybody. So when Claudette meets the handsome Simon, she begins to challenge her parents.

Soon after meeting Simon, Claudette discovers part of her heritage as she comes into her Demori powers. She falls into another world in which the Malfaerie discover that she exists and her connection to the life force energy that drives them all. The catch is that when Claudette eventually escapes and returns home, she begins to feel a hunger from using her powers and must feed on a life force for herself to heal.

The most intriguing part of the story for me is Claudette’s lack of remorse about her feedings. She tends to bend toward her darker Demon side, unlike her brother and parents. But when she gets herself into trouble, she finds a connection to someone she had always cast aside.

It will be interesting to see just how far into the dark side Claudette will go. She still has a long journey to either choose to do the right thing, or surrender to her hunger. I’m curious to find out which it will be!

Momentum Books

ISBN 9781760080457

Release Date 1 October 2013

Ebook RRP $2.99

We’re excited to say that Burn Bright has been chosen for Amazon UK’s Kindle Select 25 for Halloween week. If you check out the link, you’ll see it also gets a little mention in the blurb at the top. As a self published book internationally, this is a nice boost in terms of visibility.

We hope you’ll at least visit the link and have a look. Even better, grab a copy!

 Chris Kneipp reviews the new offering from the creator of Supernatural.

In Australia, it sometimes takes the Free-To-Air TV channels a while to catch up with new series coming from the U.S. Revolution is the latest offering by Eric Kripke, creator of Supernatural, and while the second season has begun playing in the States, Season One is only just coming soon to the Nine network here (To be fair the first season has been aired on pay TV and was just released on DVD this month).

So what’s it about? Imagine a world where everything that relies on electricity fails, like someone threw a giant “off” switch. Cars stop working, light’s go out and everything stops. That’s where we start in episode one, as all the machines and devices we take for granted becomes useless (Bad news if you’re in a car, worse if you’re in a plane). Flash forward fifteen years and the world is a very different place.   

I have to say, while the actor Billy Burke who plays Miles Matheson is given top billing, the real star of the show is Tracy Spiridakos. Her character, Charlotte “Charlie” Matheson, is Miles’ niece. When Charlie’s father is killed and brother is kidnapped, she sets off to find her uncle and get her brother back. Along the way, she finds that her parents had something to do with the blackout, and the slow revelation of their involvement is a central part of the story.

Like so many shows, (Lost springs to mind), flashbacks are used a lot to fill in the back-story and while it’s a little confusing at first, things start to make more sense by the end of the second episode. Through these flashbacks we see there was a massive civil war in America after the blackout, splitting the country into seven different nations. Everything has an American Civil War feel in the early episodes, from the uniforms of the militia to the sword fighting action scenes and I found this hard to relate to as a non U.S. citizen.

Most of the first season’s action takes place in the Munroe Republic, ruled over by a nasty piece of work, Bass Munroe, former best friend of Miles. Their friendship ended when Miles tried to assassinate him. (Note to self, not a good way to keep friends).

Once the story stops getting bogged down in the history and get’s on with the main story arc, it is quite enjoyable. Tracy Spiridakos does a great job playing Charlie and it is her story that really drives the plot forward. Her search for her brother becomes a search for answers and it is at this point the show finds its feet. Why did the power go out? How were her parents involved? And can the power be turned back on?

Billy Burke does a competent job in the role of Miles though he does the action scenes better than he does the emotional scenes in which he’s a bit wooden. I couldn’t help wondering if this was a hangover from playing Charlie Swan in the Twilght Saga.

The rest of the cast play their parts with varying degrees of success and David Lyons does Bass Munroe’s psycho paranoia very well.

I’m not sure what to make of this show and I think it’s a little bit hit and miss, but overall it has kept me watching. I’ll be keeping an eye out for Season Two, when it finally makes its way to Australia.

This trilogy has been everywhere, both in the blogosphere but also in the real world. It’s received multiple five star ratings, and has amazing reviews all over the Internet! But for some reason, I’m still only on the second book, when the third one came out a while ago. (I guess I’m a little late! Oops!)

The first thing I’m sure most of us say about this book is, look at this beautiful cover! I LOVE white covers; they look so clean and neat, and bright. If you’ve read the first segment in this series, Matched, then you know why each of the colors are different.

Matched, Crossed, and Reached just look FABULOUS on my shelf!

I absolutely adored Matched and while I was more than ecstatic to read Crossed, I was fearful of “second book syndrome”. I know each and every book in this trilogy has a huge number of great reviews, but I always find it creeping around the corner.

The second instalment in this series takes place a few months (weeks?) after Matched ends. Ky has been sent to the Outerlands to work and basically die, while Cassie was sent to a work camp, where she’s currently getting ready to be moved to her next assignment.

Cassia can’t seem to get her mind off Ky and knows she has real feelings for him. She spends a lot of time thinking and planning of a way out of this camp, and all the security that comes with it, to find Ky. But Cassia isn’t so sure of herself any more when Xander comes to visit her before she departs, and even gives her a gift. Xander reminds her of home, her old life, and what her future could be like, if she picked Xander.

But her heart is still aching for Ky…

Cassia sneaks out with a strange girl named Laney; who she doesn’t seem to know much about, but Laney seems to be trustworthy and very skilful. On the other side of the spectrum Ky is escaping his death with two other guys, Vick and a boy who just arrived to the camp.

Will Cassia ever be able to find and catch up to Ky? Will she end up picking Ky or will she decide on a safe and secure like with Xander? And why did Xander sneak Cassia so many blue pills, knowing what they do to someone in the Outerland?

Okay, so let’s get to all the rumours that are being passed around about Crossed. Back when I first started reading reviews on Matched, many people stated in their reviews that the story was very slow, but good. Once I read Matched, I agreed, but I liked the pace. Condie is building a world, and it takes some time to get readers to know and understand how this world works.

So when people were saying that Crossed was slow as well, I didn’t really think much of it. But it’s true. I still really enjoyed Crossed, but I do see what people were talking about. There just wasn’t enough going on in this book for it to take as long as it did. The characters did a lot of reflecting throughout the story, which filled in the time, but I did find myself reading the pages a lot slower, and putting the book down more often than I did the first.

The thing I liked the most about Crossed (and the first book) was the way Condie goes about representing both Ky and Xander. She shows both to be handsome guys, and good in their own different ways. In a lot of YA books that I’ve read with love triangles in them, the authors always seem to focus on one person much more than the other, because they favor them more. But Condie doesn’t do that, she represents them both evenly, which leaves the reader in suspense about who Cassia might pick.

Overall, I really enjoyed Crossed, just in different ways than I did Matched. Crossed did leave the reader with a few unanswered questions, but I can’t judge the book on that, simply because there’s a third book. And hopefully all questioned will be answered then!