Five New Percy Jackson Covers!

If you remember from Monday, I posted about how the Percy Jackson and the Olympian's books are getting a whole new look. If you want to go check out that post, it is here.

So, without further ado, here are the new covers!

As you can see, when the books are put together both cover-to-cover and spine-to-spine, they form these pictures that span across all of the books. Quite a clever idea (and a good marketing technique, since I'm seriously considering buying another set of these books - In my defence, my copy of The Lightning Thief is starting to quite literally fall apart). 

These covers to bear similarities to their original counterparts, though they are a bit more sketchy in style and much more detailed. And they're no longer monochromatic. It may be just me, but the art style reminds me vaguely of the original UK covers for these books, at least colour wise. No news on when these new covers will be up for sale.

So what do you think of these new covers?

After the Fear Review

I had After the Fear waiting, unread, on my tablet for the past few months. Only recently, when I was going through my emails did I remember it and decided why not read it? I haven’t anything better to do. And let me tell you – that was one of the best decisions of my life.

After the Fear by Rosanne River’s takes place in a dystopian society in which England has to pay of the “debt”, which they do by holding these events called demonstrations. If someone breaks the law, they get thrown into a demonstration. This book follows the perspective of a younger heroin named Sola. It sounds quite like the Hunger Games when you talk about it, but trust me. It’s better.

First of all, there is a well-written, strong female protagonist in this novel. I’ve found it difficult to find books that realistically portray a female lead, and River’s got it perfect in one. Sola faces not just issues that exist only in this fictional world, but also ones that regular teenage girls face, such as drama. But that drama doesn’t take over the book and there’s still plenty of action to go around.

I see the comparison to the Hunger Games, but the two books are not the same. There is fighting in an arena, but in After the Fear it’s more Roman gladiator style verses attempting to live in a strange yet controlled environment. The plots are also entirely different. This book is much less of a story leading up to a rebellion and war and more about the main character dealing with things as they’re thrown at her. She does find out about what the government is doing, but for once, there’s a main character who actually thinks better about striking back at full force.

The setting in this novel is fairly creative. It took England and twisted it around. Cities stayed cities, but the names were changed and the style of cities did too. No one could leave or enter them and, while some of that is standard practice in dystopian novels, the way River’s went about it and the setting she used as the base was fairly interesting.

There is also a political base to this novel as well. It talks about debt and, similar in this sense to Anthony Horowitz’s Oblivion, takes an issue from today and escalates it to how it might be in the long run if nothing is done. It was a creative approach and the plot twist in the novel really ties it in to modern day.

Overall, I give After the Fear a five out of five. I can’t find much fault with the book and I can see myself coming back to this book multiple times to reread. It easily made my top five favourites of all time, and it’s fairly difficult for a book to place there. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a bit of action that also satisfies their dystopian society needs. I would also recommend it to any Hunger Games fan. The romance in this novel is fairly minimal as well, so while there is some, it is not sickeningly so. The only warning I have about this novel is that there is a lot of killing, and that could possibly make someone uncomfortable or be a bit of a trigger warning. But overall, this book is brilliant and I highly recommend it.

New Percy Jackson Covers? Lightning Thief reveal

It was announced about a week ago on the Percy Jackson facebook page that the series would be getting a new look (which I hope doesn't affect the cover of Blood of Olympus because if that cover doesn't match the rest...). The new covers are planned to be released all this week, starting today with The Lightning Thief. According to the press release "[Fans will] find out that when these new paperback book are lined up side by side by side, they will reveal one amazing panoramic mural."

These covers are all going to be done by the same artist who has been doing the covers of the US editions since the very beginning: John Rocco (I went off about him in my House of Hades review, which you can read here).

Now, the moment you have all been waiting for. Drum roll please....

Opinions? Leave them in the comments!

Sneak peak at a new story by Rick Riordan

Do you remember the Son of Sobek where Rick Riordan crossed over Percy Jackson and The Kane Chronicles? Well,  he's doing it again! This time with Annabeth and Sadie. The short story will be called The Staff of Serapis and, per usual, take place in New York. It will be released on the 8th of April in the US paperback edition of Mark of Athena, and sometime after that will be available as a separate ebook. It about 60 printed pages long, according to Riordan's blog.

Click here for the sneak peak at the new story!

Thrill To Kill Review + Giveaway and Interview

Yvonne K Anderson is a new author who published her very first novel Death Toll: A Thrill to Kill, which will be available here on Amazon as of 25^th February. And don’t forget: There is a giveaway for a PDF copy of the novel at the end!

Synopsis: Alice, a girl from Hamilton, Ontario finds out she has a special power, it's the power to kill someone without touching them. All she has to do is utter a certain word and visualize who she wants to kill and how it happens. Follow Alice as she discovers these new powers and something even more sinister. Can she be stopped?

********************************************************************

Is this your first novel?

This is not my first novel, but it is the first to be completely edited and finished.

What was the most difficult part of getting it published?

The most difficult part about getting it published is finding a publisher, especially in Canada

Do you plan to continue writing?

I most definitely plan on continuing to write. It is my passion. I’m working on the second book in the series right now.

What did you enjoy most about writing the book?

I enjoyed writing out of my genre and really working on developing the story.

Did you have a specific place or a certain time that you wrote?

Most of the time I was at home when writing and I pretty much wrote when I got an idea, which was pretty much all the time.

********************************************************************

Review time!

A Thrill to Kill has a lot of potential. The idea behind the book is extremely unique and, to be honest, that was what kept me going through the book. The idea of someone being able to kill with basically just their mind is something I don’t think I’ve seen but maybe once before.

On the other hand, the writing was a bit lacking. The story moved by incredibly fast due to the lack of detail in describing what was going on. I had to make sure I read every word of every line to make sure that I caught everything that was happening. For people who read like that normally, this book is perfect for them. It is also a fairly short read, so if time is not on your side and you just want to have a short little read, I would highly recommend this.

The characters also could be pushed a little further. There is not too much in the line of development and some of the characters seemed to act almost exactly the same. Also, the actions that some characters do really don’t make any sense. There is very little leading up to why certain characters do certain things.

Overall, this book was okay for a first novel. It wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t finish it. Anderson has a long ways to go still before she reaches the best that she can be, and the only thing that can help that is practice and time. I hope the second book in The Death Toll is a lot better.

a Rafflecopter giveaway