Adventures in Ink (Reviews): The Looking Glass

Showing posts with label The Looking Glass. Show all posts

Thursday, March 24, 2016

The Lingering Grace Review + #Giveaway

The Lingering Grace

The Looking Glass Series

Book #2

Jessica Arnold

Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy

Release Date: March 15, 2016

Publisher: Month9Books

ISBN: 9781942664482

ASIN: B01B11RMOI

Pages: 327

Goodreads Rating: 4.25

My Rating: 5.0

Book Description:

All magic comes with a price.

The new school year brings with it a welcome return to normalcy after Alice’s narrow escape from a cursed hotel while on summer vacation. But when a young girl drowns in a freak accident that seems eerily similar to her own near-death experience, Alice suspects there might be something going on that not even the police can uncover.

The girl’s older sister, Eva attends Alice’s school, and Alice immediately befriends her. But things change when Alice learns that Eva is determined to use magic to bring her sister back. She must decide whether to help Eva work the highly dangerous magic or stop her at all costs. After all, no one knows better than Alice the true price of magic.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23344360-the-lingering-grace

My Take on the Book:

Oh wow.

If you thought things didn't get any better from book 1, then you were wrong.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the characters in it. I found the plot both interesting and easy to follow. This is the almost perfect follow up to the first book.

By almost perfect, what I mean is simple, the story had a great plot, likeable characters and what felt like a natural progression in the timeline of these characters. What I didn't particularly like was the amount of time it took for anything really interesting to happen. The story kind of dragged in the beginning, giving what feels like a longer than necessary filler between the ending of book 1 and the story being told in book 2. There was also waayyy too much repetition and it interrupted the flow of the story being told. Other than these relatively simple cons, I loved this book.

Ms. Arnold managed to dish out another great book with the same character I came to love in the first installment while introducing us to some new characters that really help give this story the umph it needed!

5 Quills

What it all boils down to is the pace. The premise was well thought out and the characters were just as likeable as the last book, but the amount of pages I wanted to skim through in the beginning of the book took its toll on me and almost changed my rating. Luckily, once the story picks up it really picks up and keeps you hooked. Page after page, I couldn’t stop myself from reading.

Purchase Book Here:

The Looking Glass (The Looking Glass #1) by Jessica Arnold:

About The Author

Jessica Arnold lives (in an apartment) and works (in a cubicle) in Boston, Massachusetts. She has a master‘s degree in publishing and writing from Emerson College.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Enter The Giveaway Here

Five (5) winners with receive a digital copy of The Lingering Grace (The Looking Glass #2) by Jessica Arnold (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for stopping by,

Friday, April 18, 2014

The Looking Glass Review + #Giveaway

(Follow The Tour by clicking on the banner above)

The Looking Glass Jessica Arnold

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: April 15, 2014
Publisher: Month9Books

ISBN: 9781939765901

ASIN: B00HXZN0TS

Pages: 325
Goodreads Rating: 4.75
My Rating: 4.5

Book Description:

Find the diary, break the curse, step through The Looking Glass!

Fifteen-year-old Alice Montgomery wakes up in the lobby of the B&B where she has been vacationing with her family to a startling discovery: no one can see or hear her. The cheap desk lights have been replaced with gas lamps and the linoleum floor with hardwood and rich Oriental carpeting. Someone has replaced the artwork with eerie paintings of Elizabeth Blackwell, the insane actress and rumored witch who killed herself at the hotel in the 1880s. Alice watches from behind the looking glass where she is haunted by Elizabeth Blackwell. Trapped in the 19th-century version of the hotel, Alice must figure out a way to break Elizabeth’s curse—with the help of Elizabeth's old diary and Tony, the son of a ghost hunter who is investigating the haunted B&B—before she becomes the inn's next victim.

My Take On The Book:

This was a really interesting book. I find it funny, that I inadvertently picked a group of books to read and review, around the same time mind you, that all have similar topics… Death and the afterlife.

In this book you meet what your mislead into believing is a completely boring girl but you couldn’t be more wrong if you tried. Alice is a young girl struggling with insecurities many of us have faced but she definitely has a one up on us…she is trapped in a sort of limbo, neither dead nor alive. Her only way out is to break a curse or die within a week.

Its great tale, woven with all the aspects one might look for in a novel like this. You have a slew of endearing characters, frightening characters and of course, there is some romance. It is not a sweeping or all-consuming romance that burns; it’s more like an innocent first love kinda of romance. The romance is so sweet you might find yourself with a toothache ;)

4.5 Quills

This is the first I’ve heard of this author but based on the writing in this book, I look forward to reading more. I loved this story and the characters that were introduced. It was dark but not so dark that you might find yourself having nightmares lol. If I had to compare this book with another like it I’m not sure I’d be able to come up with a title. The closest in terms of darkness and being trapped would be ‘Untethered’ and ‘A Stranger with My Face’; but mind you, this book has nothing to do with astral projection. Give it a read and decide for yourself.

Purchase Links:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | The Book Depository | IndieBound

About The Author

Jessica Arnold writes YA, codes ebooks, and is currently a graduate student in publishing at Emerson College in Boston. She spends most of her time in class or work or slogging through the homework swamp. If she has a spare moment, she’s always up for a round of Boggle. Given the opportunity, Jessica will pontificate at length on the virtues of the serial comma, when and where to use an en dash, and why the semicolon is the best punctuation mark pretty much ever.

Author Links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Enter The Giveaway Here

Four (4) winners will receive an ebook copy of The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold (INT) One (1) winner will receive an ebook copy of The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold AND a $10 Amazon Gift Card or B&N Gift Card – Winner’s Choice (INT)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by,

“I received a free copy of the book from the author/publisher for my honest opinion. I was in no way compensated for this review and all opinions are expressly my own”