Brisbane Dwellers. Here be a DOUBLE PASS GIVEAWAY. Simply share this link of Twisted Tales tour of BRISBANE POWERHOUSE on your blogs and social network, forums etc and post the posted links back here on this post.

The most posts by the end of Wednesday 16th May receive a double pass for either 25th or 26th May.

Winners picked on Thursday 17th May.

http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org/events/view/yunyu-twisted-tales-tour/

There will be spoilers for the previous two books in this review, so if you haven’t read them yet, do it. They’re amazing and two highly recommended reads.

Time for the final choice…

Specials is the third and final instalment of Tally’s story. It starts with Tally, now a Special, searching for members of the New Smoke in an Uglies party. With her are her new clique of Specials, the Cutters. They were founded by Shay, who devised a ritual of cutting in order to sharpen their senses and make things icier. Bubbly is no longer enough.

Tally and her clique go after a girl who had been smuggling healing pills into the city. The girl, however, escapes with David’s help and the Cutters are ambushed by a group of Smokies who possess modern technology. Tally manages to save Shay, but the Smokies manage to take Fausto, another Cutter. That’s when Shay and Tally make up a plan to find the New Smoke, a plan that involves Tally’s still-burning flame, Zane.

Tally’s brainwashing is sublime. You can feel it, taste it even and it’s repulsive – even more so because you know she’s wrong and you can’t do anything against it. She is disgusted by Zane, someone she loves, and she can’t do anything about it. It’s revolting that they took something like that away from her. More than anything, Tally wants Zane to become Special so that she no longer feels sickened by him and that’s her motivation through most of the book: make Zane special.

Tally and Zane’s relationship reaches a new level of complexity in in this final installment and it’s absolutely delicious. The aforementioned disgust, coupled with the remnants of her feelings for Zane makes for a thrilling, complex chemistry. It makes you even angrier about what they’ve done to Tally because, while he clearly loves Zane and wants to be with him, her Special brain doesn’t let her do it.

Tally’s actions, her brainwashing, have consequences and, unlike in many other books, she pays a dear price. The plot twist regarding Zane at the end left me sad and speechless and thoroughly amazed at the same time. Not many writers have the guts to do what Scott Westerfeld did there and I commend him for that. And it wasn’t just the idea in itself that made that plot twist so great: it’s the way it was executed. It really was heart-wrenching and heart-breaking and yet another reason to hate Tally’s city regime and Dr. Cable.

His prose is, as always, flawless. The way Tally sees the world in Specials is completely different, but it’s so well done you can nearly taste it. The world is sharper, more detailed, not because Scott Westerfeld’s writing changed but because Tally did. The books change along with Tally in perfect symbiosis.

Like Pretties, Specials never stops being interesting. It’s action followed by more action, dilemmas followed by dilemmas, choices after choices. It’s amazing how Scott Westerfeld can make a book that never stops thrilling you.

A brilliant conclusion to Tally’s story, Specials is a nearly-flawless piece of literature. Much like Tally, it never stops, never rests and never ceases its surprises. The Uglies series is astounding and should be in everyone’s shelves.

Paperback: 400 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s (4 Mar 2010)

Language English

ISBN-10: 1847389082

ISBN-13: 978-1847389084

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.
Julie Kagawa who is is known for her Iron Fey series has taken a turn to the darker with her newest book The Immortal Rules. A new born vampire Allison Sekemoto is struggling from inner turmoil of having become what she hates most in life.
Set in a future world, the humans have become separated into those who are willing to become registered and the unregistered. To become registered means that you willingly provide blood to the vampire leaders who have overtaken the cities; housing, food, necessities.

Allison is an unregistered human when this story begins. She lives a transient life with 3 guys in which every day is a battle for food and shelter. Unregistered’s form small groups, usually to help each other gather necessities, but also fight off the rival groups that compete for the same reasources.

In this world the cities have been walled off. Huge fences surround the cities to fend of the Rabids that have come to occupy the outer lands. These Rabids are dangerous half breeds that are zombie-like in description and are known to attack the cities and can cause complete devastation if unconstrained.

After a food run to the outer limits of the city, Allison and her group are attacked by the Rabids and to save her life, a vampire offers to turn her. Choosing to live and in turn lose her humanity, she becomes a vampire. Her hatred for the vampires drives her to try to become a better, controlled vampire, but the need for human blood, and only human blood will change the way she thinks about vampires.In turn, maybe she can change the way other humans view them as well.

The reader learns that there is no Vegan in Vampire. In this world, it’s human blood and only human blood that a vampire can survive on. The drive is unbearable and the need uncontrollable. Soon Allison is forced out of the city to live among the Rabids. She comes across a group of traveling humans in search for the mythical city of Eden in which there are no vampires. They also search for a cure for the disease that wiped out most of the humans previously. Allison pretends to be human to travel with the group. She makes friends, finds a sense of family and love. But how long can this last, especially if she has to feed?

One thing that I have always enjoyed about Julie Kagawa’s writing is the constant flow of action happening. With The Immortal Rules, Allison is not only an extremely able newborn vampire with ninja-like skills, she actually prefers to fight with a Katana, which also ties into her Asian heritage. She is always in motion and keeps the story moving. With the emotional conflicts that Allison is having to endure over her decision to become what she most despises, and having to find a way to live without hurting those she loves, this is a twist on vampires that I enjoyed – and I think you will to.

Hardcover, 485 pages

Published April 24th 2012

Harlequin Teen

ISBN 0373210515 (ISBN13: 9780373210510)

Winter is a time for vivid colours and bold fashion statements. One of the most celebrated trends is red lipstick. The only catch being the abuse our lips take over the cooler months.

Between wind burn, sun burn and being dried out from spending too much time in front of the heater, we really don’t create an ideal canvas for us to work with to get the perfect red lips. Here‘re 5 ways to help you get those ideal lips for winter, or in fact, any time of the year.

~ Stay hydrated. Have you ever seen a wrinkly fish? No, me neither. Your lips are one of the first places to show the signs of dehydration, and you’re likely to get that way if you’re constantly escaping to a heated room. If you drink lots of caffeinated drinks this can also speed up the dehydration process, so water really is best.

~ Avoid chapped lips. Sun protection is just as important in winter as it is in the summer months. Apart from wearing a shady hat, use products with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) and for wind burn, try not to lick your lips to ease the uncomfortable feeling; you’ll only make it worse. The two products that I swear by are both by Blistex. The first is a lip conditioner and the second is a lip ointment. They will save your lips no matter how bad they are.

http://www.blistex.com.au/therange.html

~ Exfoliate. One of the cheapest ways to exfoliate your lips is to gently brush them with your toothbrush, but there are many lip exfoliates on the market. The main thing to remember after you have exfoliated your lips is to apply some form of moisturizer or lip conditioner afterwards to prevent them drying out.

~ Pick your poison. There are so many products on the market for ‘the perfect red lips’ so it comes down to personal choice and the time of day. Not only do you have the joy of picking between blue-based reds and orange-based reds but you have stains, mats, glosses, and cream looks.

For a youthful day look, try a tinted lip balm or using a finger to lightly coat your lips with your preferred lipstick and add a clear gloss over it. For a longer lasting effect than just swiping your lips with lippy, use a lip brush to apply the lipstick. For the longest wear of all try a long lasting lipstick. My best pick is Revlon’s Colorstay Overtime.

Here’s a clip by maurices to demonstrate how to create a perfect red lip.

~ Remove your lipstick. Red lippy is really hard to get out of a pillowcase, so remember to take off your makeup before you go to bed. You can use a commercially made product for makeup removal or go for Vaseline left on for a few minutes to gently take it off.  Just remember to use those Blistex products afterwards to avoid dryness and chapping.

Here’s lanalovesmac to show us her reactions to a Mac makeup remover. *contains some course language*

And for a random fact about lipstick… Queen Elizabeth II has her own special lipstick which was made to match her coronation robes. It’s called The Balmoral Lipstick.

What is your ideal red lipstick?