Thin Air Blog Tour: Review of Thin Air by Lynn Seresin

Before I start this review, here are some links for if you want to see more about Thin Air:

 Goodreads | Lulu | Barnes and Noble | Amazon | Facebook

And, for a grand finale of this blog tour, there will be the Grand Prize.  The winner shall receive a signed, paperback copy of Thin Air and a pair of specially made earrings! 

To win, you have to find the red letters.  Not all the blogs will have one, but they will pop up, and when they do, the letter will be in bold and will be red.  It should look like this:

"This is how the blog tour post should look like. Then there's a bunch of content here, and somewhere in the middle, the blogger will just bold and put in red their letter."

You need to write them down, as these letters should make up two words.  So just collect them all, and fill out this Form. 

Now, my review....

Series: Air, Book One

Publisher: Self

Format: Kindle

Published: 2^nd August 2011

Number of Pages: 437

Book: For Review From Author*

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Mythical, Magic, Fairy Tale, Paranormal, Dark Romance, Action, YA

Recommended Age: 14+

Contains: Strong Violence, Death, Sex (not adult fiction sex, but stronger than some YA), Mild Swearing, Alcohol References

No Drug References

Available On: Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble

Author's Blog: No Blog, But Here's Her Twitter: @lynnsere

May Contain Mild Spoilers (Though No More Given In the Full Version of the Synopsis)

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Alice Ayre is no ordinary teenager. She took her first name from a statue in Central Park, pulled her name out of the air (literally), got her clothing from a homeless woman who had once been a gnome, and she's actually almost a thousand years old. In fact, the only "ordinary" thing about Alice is that she's hopelessly in love.

                                                                   Review:

Aeris is a sylphid, a spirit of the air.  She is considered especially beautiful, even for her fair kind, and is desired by all the sylphs, even King Paralda himself.  But none of them are of any interest to her.  Until Aeris does the forbidden: she falls in love with a human called Daniel.  All she longs for is to have the chance to be with him, but as a sylphid, that is impossible.  So Aeries makes the only choice that seems bearable for her, even though it has been banned by Paralda.  She chooses to be transmuted – transformed into a flesh-and-blood human.  Changing her name to Alice Ayre, she sets out to find her love.  The worst she was expecting was that she would have to compete with Daniel’s current girlfriend.  Instead, her past catches up with her.  And it will not let go, will not go away, until…

I expected an airy-fairy tale when I picked Thin Air up.  That was not what I got.  Sure, there were fairy beings.  But there were also humans.  There was the worst of humanity – assault, death – and the best – love, hope, friendship.  Altogether, this combination of magic and realism was outstanding – above and beyond anything I expected.  It had the beauty of faeries and a gritty realism that almost made everything one-hundred-per-cent believable.

Aeris was rather proud, although she loved her friend Tempesta, her home and her sister spirits.  And she really did love what she was – being at one with the air.  She was so full of life, of passion, so strong.  Once human, Alice Ayre became less proud and more vulnerable.  Some of her reactions to human things were really cute and funny!  Although, some of them were totally cringe worthy.  She was really naïve, yet really mature at the same time.  I can’t wait to see where her character goes.  The one thing I hope for?  That she may be more sure in herself, more confident in her strength.  She was just a little damsel-in-distress at times…  Which was unnecessary, ‘cause she was stronger than she thought she was… 

Daniel Field was a sweetie, artistic, a musician.  He was really nice to Alice, even when she made big blunders.  And he was the cutest!  I mean, he had a collection of pigs.  And he named them.  How adorable?  I love him.  He was strong, sweet, accepting, darn adorable.  The dream boyfriend.  The only thing he may lack: witty sarcasm!   Which is made up for by…

Dante Sinclair, who was wonderful.  He was warm, fun, sweet and great.  And he was in the theatre program at NYU, “studying to be a drama queen”.  Plus: such a sweetie!  He was hilarious, slightly snarky and eccentric.  And my own personal favourite!     Dante rocks!

The rest of the characters were wonderful, a wide variety of personalities.  Shane, Dante’s wonderful boyfriend, who had a snake called Lady Gag-Gag (he and Dante were the cutest!).  Wren, who was blind and got “feelings” that were never wrong.  Her boyfriend, Nicky, who was a real sweetie.  The rich Giovanni Accello, jolly, kind and an aspiring jeweller.  Delilah, Daniel’s girlfriend, who was cold, evil, possessive and plain horrible (in my opinion).  And another favourite of mine, who wasn’t in it much at all: Terra, an air spirit who helped Alice out at the beginning.  I loved him, and would really, really like to see more of him in the next book… (hint, hint).

What was amazing about this book was the world Seresin created.  All the different beings were intriguing.  The sylphids and sylphs of the air.  The undine of the water.  The gnomes of the earth.  The salamanders of the fire.  Flower spirits.  Forest spirits.  For them, there was no death, no pain, no hunger.  They were practically immortal. And, of course, the whole seeing-the-world-through-a-spirit’s-eyes was fascinating.  Aeris had no idea what pain was, or hunger.  She had no clue about anything.  I mean, she didn’t know what a statue was. 

This was a great read.  It was addictive and new: wonderful.  I may not have been a big fan of the violence, but – while it shocked me at times – it was needed in an odd way.  Alice had to see the bad side to get the most from the good side, if that makes any sense.  Horrible, yes.  But Alice just had to know – how horrible humans can be, I mean.

As for the writing… it was beautiful, lyrical and so Alice.  I was entranced by its style, actually stunned.  From the way this lady writes, this book should be sitting on a shelf at Waterstones, if you ask me.  She even made love-at-first-sight work!  Which is, as many of us know, an impressive, impressive success.  Still not 100% convinced by the sex scene... it didn't really seem to fit, in my opinion...  And, while some twists were rather obvious, others took me completely by surprise.  ‘Though, I gotta say, not entirely convinced by the justice in the book…

Even so, I can’t wait to see what Lynn brings out next – especially if it has Dante and Alice and Daniel in it!  (And maybe Terra?)  I loved the airy-fairy side to the story: the romance, the characters.  The humanity was shown at its best, its worst.  It was completely new and different.  I can’t wait for Friendly Fire!

Star Rating:
4 Out of 5

Previous stop on Thin Air Blog Tour: Silver Thistles

Next stop on Thin Air Blog Tour: Words That Fly

To see all taking part in the Thin Air Blog Tour, Go to The Magic Attic

Read this book if you liked:

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Need by Carrie Jones

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

Happy Reading

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

2011 eBook Challenge (Hosted by The LadyBug Reads)

Megan

* This book was received from author in exchange for an honest review

White Cat by Holly Black

Series: The Curse Workers, Book One

Publisher: Gollancz
Format: Paperback

Published: First Published: 4^th May 2010
This Edition: 1^st April 2011

Number of Pages: 336

Book: Borrowed From Library

Genre: Paranormal, Magic, Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Action, Fantasy, YA

Recommended Age: 12+

Contains: Violence, Mild Swearing, Death and Alcohol

No Drug References

Author's Site: Holly Black

No one at home is ever going to forget that Cassel is a killer.  No-one at home is every going to forget that he isn’t a magic worker.  And now he is being haunted by a white cat…

Cassel’s family are magic workers.  Ever since magic was prohibited in 1929 magic workers have been driven underground and into crime.  His grand-dad is a black-fingered death-dealer, his mother is in prison and his brothers detest him as the only one of heir family who can’t do magic.  Byt there is a secret at the centre of Cassel’s family and he’s about to inherit it.  It’s terrifying and that’s the truth..

White Cat is the sensational new novel of a changed world and the price we have to pay for magic from the internationally bestselling author of The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Review:

Cassel Sharpe has a big secret.  He killed a girl when he was fourteen years old.  He was found standing over the body, covered in blood.  No one in his family will ever forget that.  They also won’t forget that he isn’t a worker.  His whole family are curse workers, working for a major crime family.  Cassel is the only one without magic, and his brother Philip can’t even look him in the eye.  And now Cassel is being haunted.  By a white cat.  Something big is going on in his family.  Or rather, some big secret is about to come out.  One that will change Cassel forever…

I was addicted to this book.  What is it about Holly Black?  She just made me want to read on and on.  I loved trying to figure the mystery out.  All the characters were great.  The plot superfast and the world both terrifying and amazing.  I adored the writing, Cassel and the way I could never be sure of anything.  I loved this book!  It was totally addictive.

Cassel Sharpe was someone I liked straightaway.  He was funny, and rather snarky.  And from the word go, he honestly, really didn’t seem like the kind of person who would kill someone.  Ok, so he was a con artist and a bookie, but that was only because he was good at surviving: adaptable and resourceful.  He was very odd, really sweet and always said what he thought – which gets him in loads of trouble.  Plus he was an evil freaking genius.

Cassel and his family really stole the show.  His eldest brother, Philip, was married with a son.  Six years older than Cassel, he was a physical worker, which meant she could break bones with a touch.  Something was iffy about him from the word go.  The middle brother, Barron, studying law at college, was a “compulsive liar”.  He was the only one Cassel felt he could talk to.  Now, Barron was a bit of an odd one…  Their mom, who was “scary and manipulative”, and locked away for working, but obviously loved her boys very much.  What I couldn’t believe was that she taught her kids how to commit crimes!  Cassel was seven – seven – when he committed his first crime.   The family was odd – very odd, but it was really interesting.  They looked out for each other, even as they beat one another up.  The relationships and emotions between them all were intriguing, and always changing…

The “back-up cast” were just as good.  Sam Yu, Cassel’s sort-of-friend and dorm-mate was a great mate and rather bonkers.  Daneca Wasserman, daughter of an out-of the-closet worker, who was wonderful – completely insane, but wonderful.  The baddies were creepy, scary and intimidating – just how I like my crime lords!

I have to admit: I felt a little lost at the beginning.  Like I was thrown in at the middle of a story.  But that was only a very brief feeling.  I love this world and I loved this book.  I mean, I just loved everything about the world Holly created.  Everything was revealed little by little, and I just gobbled it all up.  All the different kinds of workers (seven in total, luck the most common and transformation the rarest), how everyone had to wear gloves at all times, how the ban against working was put in place in 1929…  As you can see, I memorized rather a lot of these facts.  Does that make me totally sad?  But, seriously, amazing: I would love to be a worker!

Again, I have to say that the family ties were really eye-opening.  Cassel was torn in all directions by his loyalties to his family.  Even after everything they did to him.  And though he wanted to hate them, he couldn’t help loving them a little too.  The way Holly described the ties was just amazing and completely believable, even with all the very impossible things about the family.

It also had an amazing plot!  Twists, turns, surprises.  And I honestly did not see one of the big twists.  I completely misjudged some characters.  I ended up loving people I hated and hating people I loved.  And it just just such a new take on magic!  Unlike anything, ever.  Brilliant!  I mean, what more do you want?

Action, magic, murder, secret crime families.  I adored this book: it honestly had everything.  Plus, it was insanely gripping.  I wanted, no scratch that, needed to know what happened next.  I sped to the end, devouring every page.  It was wonderfully dark and brilliantly twisted.  Now, Book Two please!

Star Rating:
4½ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

Happy Reading

Megan

Angel by Cliff McNish

Publisher: Orion Childrens

Format: Hardback

Published: 7^th June 2007

Number of Pages: 288

Book: Borrowed From Library

Genre: Angels, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Magic, Action, YA

Recommended Age: 11+

Contains: Violence, Mild Swearing

No Alcohol, Drug References

Author's Blog: Cliff McNish

Not fit to be a daughter…

Not fit to be a friend…

Not fit to be an angel…

Two girls are inextricably linked by destiny, not choice.

Stephenie is friendless, strange, a misfit.

Freya can’t stop seeing angels.

But when one of these angels begins to stalk her, its shadow following her everywhere, Freya is forced to make decisions with a devastating reach – from which there is no turning back.

Review:

Ever since she was a young girl, for as long as she can remember, Freya Harrison has wanted to be an angel.  She was visited by one when she was eight.  One so beautiful she was left desperate.  She was hospitalized soon after.  Now, she’s back at school and desperate to fit in.  Stephenie Rice is friendless and strange.  She believes in angels with all her heart, in everything Freya is denying to herself.  But when Freya starts seeing a dark angel, horribly deformed, she turns to the only person who will believe her: Stephenie. 

Meanwhile, Freya’s brother is being beaten up for looking after a Year Seven boy and her dad is living with a huge secret…

And then Freya is visited once again by her light angel.  And her whole world is changed beyond recognition…

All the concepts behind this book were amazing: friendship, love, self-sacrifice…  And the characters were all very diverse and interesting.  The messages about the dangers of peer pressure and bullying were wonderfully strong.  It was very new and different from all the other angel books I’ve read.  I really was rather addicted, wanting to find out what happened to everyone.  It wasn’t perfect, but I did like it.

Freya was damaged, delicate, fractured.  I admired her determination, her stubbornness.  But I didn’t like what she did with her new ‘friends’.  I’m not saying that I didn’t like Freya, because I did.  But I just saw how wonderful she could be, and I felt she could do so much better.  She was strong, after the long struggle with the mental institutions.  But that was why I got annoyed: she’d gone through all that, so why make someone else feel bad?  Peer pressure at work there, people.  And she didn’t see what was right in front of her face.  She got better as the book went on, but she did annoy me a little to begin with.

Stephenie was sweet.  And very strange.  She didn’t have any friends, as she had been home-schooled and had her ‘friends’ and playmates hand-picked for her by her parents.  She had more confidence, more backbone than many a person, and was also determined as hell.  She was kinda creepy and very weird, but she would do anything to help Freya.  I couldn’t help liking the girl: she was cute and innocent. 

The rest of the characters were brilliant and completely believable.  Freya’s Dad, so strong and loving.  Her brother Luke, who got over his biggest fears to save a boy he barely knew.  Then you had the classic mean-girl bully, Amy, who was a total wimp and overall horrid person.  Gemma the sheep.  And Vicky, who left me hopeful that she could better herself.  And the angels, complete opposites and both so very strong and powerful. 

It was the angels in this book that made it ever so special.  They were completely different from anything I’d read about before.  In some ways, they were very much your traditional guardian angel.  Apart for one very, very big difference…  It was wonderful to read about these beings, and I must admit that it was one of the key points that made me want to read on. 

The writing was equally wonderful: hauntingly beautiful, and brilliantly simple.  And this story was beautiful.  It was about true friendship, sacrifice, forgiveness and love.  I couldn’t help being touched by one of the prominent emotions: the need to belong.  We all want to belong, don’t we?  Well, that need was everywhere in Angel.  I know that there have been many so-so reviews of this book, but I really liked it.  Ok, it had it’s rough spots and I guessed some of the twists, but overall I really, truly liked it.  It was inspiring.

Star Rating:
4 Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Breathe: A Ghost Story, Savannah Grey and All Other Books by Cliff McNish

Die For Me by Amy Plum

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

British Book Challenge (Hosted by The Bookette)

Happy Reading

Megan

Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

Series: Blood Journals, Book One

Publisher: Doubleday Childrens

Format: Paperback

Published: 7^th July 2011

Number of Pages: 416

Book: Bought

Genre: Paranormal, Dark Romance, Urban Fantasy, Magic, Action, YA

Recommended Age: 13+

Contains: Violence, Mild Swearing, Death, Alcohol, Cutting (You Need Blood For The Spells – It’s Slightly… Glorified?)

No, Drug References

Author's Blog: Tessa Gratton

“My whole body shivered.  I was about to find out if magic was real.  The electric thrill of terror was sharp on my tongue.  I cut deep.”

Silla is damaged and lost since the death of her parents.

Nick is the new boy in town with a chilling past of his own.

A mysterious spell book steeped in blood magic will bind Nick and Silla together.

But at what cost?

A fiery, intoxicating and pulse-pounding debut novel.

Review:

Silla has been left a shell by the death of her parents and her brother Reece isn’t much better off.  So when a book of magic is sent to her in the post by a man called only “The Deacon”, she sees it as a second chance.  A chance to prove what she knows is the truth.  With only salt, air and her blood, Silla regenerates a leaf.  Nick, the new boy in town, sees her doing magic and is bombarded with memories.  Slowly, Silla, Nick and Reece come together, fascinated by the magic.  But then they get a look at the darker side: Someone is after their book.  Can they defeat this new, dark foe?  And even if they can, at what cost?

This was my favourite magic book of the year by a long shot.  It had so much going on: love, action, magic, plus it had brilliant characters and believable relationships.  I was addicted, and now I want the magic!  It was just wonderfully dark and blood-filled, and not a vamp in sight…  I really liked Blood Magic!

Silla (full name Drusilla Kennicot, poor girl) was great.  The death of her parents damaged her, made her withdraw into herself, away from her friends.  She began to wear “masks”, hiding behind mental masks for calm, happy, ect.  She described them all, and they were wonderful: so detailed and intricate.  They were a way of protecting herself from everything.  This, her flaws and scars only made me love her more: she was both vulnerable and incredibly strong.

Nick Pardee was wonderful and totally cute.  He was damaged, too, but he was so sure of himself, only not in an arrogant-obnoxious way.  I loved him!  And I loved that he called his stepmom ‘Lilith’: mother of all demons.  It was great seeing how he grew, changed, and evolved throughout the story.

Reece Kennicot was a brilliant character.  When he got into something, he became obsessed, learning everything he could about the subject – something I found completely adorable.  He was also damaged by his parents’ deaths, and he, too, withdrew into himself.  He was just a real sweetie, and a wonderful brother.  He and Silla just had a sweet and totally believable relationship.  They both took care of one another, and trusted the other with everything.  They were so close, and completely felt like brother and sister.

Their Gram Judy was wonderful.   She wasn’t Reece and Silla’s biological grandmother, but she might as well have been.  She loved them and they loved her.  She was so strong, so wise, so caring and accepting: I loved her!

As for the romance of the story: Nick and Silla were perfect!  They got one another, and their relationship felt one-hundred-per-cent real.  I could feel how much they loved one another, how they’d do anything for one another.  They were just so cute!

The writing was wonderful.  I just loved the style: split between Nick and Silla, with diary entries from the ‘baddie’, for lack of a better word.  Split POV is, as some of you may have guessed, my favourite style of writing, and Blood Magic was no exception.  I loved getting to see how both Nick and Silla looked at everything – which was often in rather different ways.  The diary entries also helped me understand the backstory better, as well as giving an insight into the events that led to those in the story.  It was interesting, intriguing and genius.

As for the magic of this book: it was absolutely amazing, unlike anything I’ve read about before.  Life blood, magic, will.  I guess it all makes actual, common sense really.  Blood keeps us alive, magic celebrates life.  The good magic was just beautiful – there’s this one scene that I could just see in my head: technicolour, stunning.  It was used for healing, reviving and protection: wonderful.  Bad magic… not so nice.  Possession, eternal life and other such things aren’t quite as nice as healing, now, are they?  But overall, the magic was completely new and totally brilliant.

And the storyline was flawless, new and quirky.  A few twists: I guessed.  But the others?  No clue.  Nada, none.  The plot was just perfect, it had so many twists and I just got completely lost in it: it was wonderful.  And there was this one part that was so sudden, so sad.  So horrible and unexpected.  I cried – I actually cried.  Plus, the action was remarkable.  Birds, corpses, deer.  There was just so much going on! Just enough blood spilled to pump me full of adrenalin, but not enough to totally creep me out.  Perfect!

This book had everything: romance, action, suspense, magic, blood.  I was absorbed from start to finish, trying to figure it all out.  I loved it!  I need the next book!  Now!

Star Rating:
4½ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Wicca Series by Cate Tiernan

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCallough

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

Happy Reading

Megan