Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Title:Welcome to the Dark House
Author: Laurie Faria Stolarz
Series: Dark House #1
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date:July 22nd, 2014
Pages: Hardback, 368 Pages
Source: ALA Midwinter

Summary from Goodreads:
What’s your worst nightmare?

For Ivy Jensen, it’s the eyes of a killer that haunt her nights. For Parker Bradley, it’s bloodthirsty sea serpents that slither in his dreams.

And for seven essay contestants, it’s their worst nightmares that win them an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at director Justin Blake’s latest, confidential project. Ivy doesn’t even like scary movies, but she’s ready to face her real-world fears. Parker’s sympathetic words and perfect smile help keep her spirits up. . . at least for now.

Not everyone is so charming, though. Horror-film fanatic Garth Vader wants to stir up trouble. It’s bad enough he has to stay in the middle of nowhere with this group—the girl who locks herself in her room; the know-it-all roommate; “Mister Sensitive”; and the one who’s too cheery for her own good. Someone has to make things interesting.

Except, things are already a little weird. The hostess is a serial-killer look-alike, the dream-stealing Nightmare Elf is lurking about, and the seventh member of the group is missing.

By the time Ivy and Parker realize what’s really at stake, it’s too late to wake up and run.

What I liked

- The mood.  Throughout the entire story I felt stressed and scared for the characters.  The knot you sometimes get in your stomach when you think something bad is going to happen, well that feeling pretty much just stays with you through the entire book.

-The horror.  Both the nightmares and the events that transpired were definitely scary.  That being said, this is not a book I would recommend to individuals who dislike scary movies and horror movies.  Welcome to the Dark House has its fair share of horror.  It might leave you wanting to keep the lights on at night when you finish it. 

-The characters.  While I did have some issues with the characters, I did feel like the individual nightmares each character faced was unique and well suited to their personalities.  Certain characters were very well rounded and well developed, I could just sense their unease through the story. 

What I did not like

- The ending.  When I watch scary movies I always look forward to the ending, the satisfying some how explanatory ending.When I do not get some conclusion in a scary movie I feel like it sticks with me more, in a creepy haunting way.  This book just left me hanging, I felt like I just needed more, I am happy to see that it is a series so I can eventually get some resolution!
 

-The multiple POVs.  90% of the time I absolutely love multiple POVs, this time it just did not work for me.  There were 6 narrators, each with their own background story and their own nightmare.  Conceptually I thought it was a good idea, I just found that some characters did not have enough of a distinctive voice that it was easy to get confused.  I would have to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to confirm who was the narrator.

Bottom Line

If you a creepy and scary horror book that might just give you nightmares, Welcome to the Dark House is the book for you!  The multiple narrators had to face their nightmares and hope they could make it out alive; one character has a nightmare all her own that haunts and will continue to into book two.

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

Title: The Kiss of Deception
Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Publisher: Henry Holt
Release Date: July 15, 2014
Pages: 492
Source: ARC, ALAMW

Summary from Goodreads:
In this timeless new trilogy about love and sacrifice, a princess must find her place in a reborn world.

In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.

On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

Review

Hot damn this book was GOOD.

Lia flees her kingdom and duties as princess to escape an arranged marriage. She settles in a distant village and shortly thereafter two strangers arrive - one who is the prince she fled from, the other, an assassin sent to kill her and prevent the alliance her marriage would create. Lia doesn't know the true identity of either, of course, and neither do readers. All we know is that there is a man named Raffe and a man named Kaden, one is the prince, one is the assassin. And Lia's un-princess-like behavior surprises both men, which motivates them to extend their stay and get to know her. Both vie for her attention, and Lia starts to form attachments to each of them, though one more than the other.

I have never read a story told this way and I freaking loved it. Not knowing who was who but knowing that one of them wanted needed to kill her created a whole new layer of suspense and intrigue. The first 300 pages or so take place more or less in the village and are focused on the growing relationship between Lia and these two men. After that, things get even more interesting. I really couldn't read fast enough. I devoured this book.

As great as the plot was, the characters were even better.  I loved Lia - her stubbornness, defiance, willpower, discipline, strength, compassion. She was fierce and intelligent. Everything I could hope for in a female lead. A true warrior. AND THESE MEN! Both of these men were swoon worthy to some degree. Both were handsome, capable, honorable, dangerous, complex, and willing to fight for Lia. There was a bit of healthy competition between them over Lia and I ate it up. The dynamic that Pearson created was irresistible. But don't worry love triangle haters, Lia clearly prefers one over the other. Meanwhile, the secondary characters were just as strong, all with their own stories and admirable qualities. Such a wonderful cast of characters all around.

I can't recommend this book enough. But if I can leave you with a piece of advice, don't try and guess who is who! I thought I was supposed to know but was just dense so I used context clues in the beginning to figure out who was the prince and who was the assassin AND I WAS WRONG. So yeah, I had a bit of a surprise at page 303 and had to realign myself.

Really, I loved this one. It is easily a new favorite!

Thoughts for Thursday (13) - My ALA Midwinter Meeting Recap

Welcome to Thoughts for Thursday! This feature is our outlet to talk with you about whatever we currently have on our minds. It might be bookish, it might not! Now for this week's thought:

2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting

My decision to attend ALA was rather last minute. You can skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to hear my sob story. Friday morning I received some pretty bad news – my cat has a failed left kidney and 3 tumors, one of which is blocking her bladder. She’s still hanging in there – my mother and I are trying everything we can think of to prolong her life – but she may not have much time left. I pretty much cried my eyes out at work when I heard this. I know some of you might not get it – but losing a pet is hard, especially since she’s been my baby for the past 13 years. Since I was pretty much miserable and helpless at work, I started looking for ways to distract myself and started perusing Twitter. That’s when I first saw tweets about ALA. I didn’t even know it was happening and in Philly and that Bloggers were allowed to go. Even though I had a ton of schoolwork I needed to get done, I figured I could use a serious pick me up and I couldn’t think of a better way than to hang out with my bookish friends at a bookish event. Thus, the decision was made.

Well I am so so happy that I went because this event was awesome! I had so much fun hanging out with my fellow bloggers- old and new - I met authors whose books I loved – Leila Sales and Rainbow Rowell – and I had some really great discussions with some of the publishers. Not to mention all of the amazing books I brought home which I can’t wait to read. It was a bit of happiness amid what was a crazy busy and stressful weekend.

This was the second bookish conference that I attended, the first being BEA last year, and I liked this one much more. ALA attracts a different audience than BEA and being that this was the Midwinter Meeting it was much a much smaller event. The whole vibe was very different. Even from the start – there was no long line to get into the Exhibit Hall and there was no mad dash to the booths once we were allowed in. When you got to a booth, the Publishers are happy to talk with you. They will tell you about what new releases they have coming out and make some recommendations. They’ll tell you which ones were their favorites and why. And they are more than happy to give you ARCs. You can also stay there as long as you like, admiring all the books (which I did). You aren’t competing with anyone for their time or standing in someone’s way as there were generally much fewer people. And there was no rush to be anywhere, unlike at BEA where you feel the need to be in 4 places at once.

Ok ok so what about the books, right? After I decided to go to ALA I took a look at the ARC guide and although there were a few books that I thought sounded interesting, there were two that really caught my eye - We Were Liars by E. Lockheart and Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson – two 2014 releases that I was itching to read. I thought to myself that if I could walk away with either one of these I would count myself fortunate. I really didn’t know what to expect for this conference, but I never thought that ARCs to be so freely distributed or that the ARC guide only listed like 10% of the titles actually available. I think I had We Were Liars and Since You’ve Been Gone in my bag within the first hour of the conference. It was a pleasant surprise to put it midly. I stay pretty composed the entire time but on the inside I felt like this:

The selection was just too good. I knew to be selective since I still have some of my BEA haul to read (which now feels like a chore) and I hate the thought of taking a book that someone else might really want if it’s not something I think I will read in any feasible amount of time, especially since the conference isn’t intended for bloggers. I actually did pass on quite a few popular books so I am proud of myself. Yay improvements! Yet I still came home with like 60 books. But I can honestly say that I am really looking forward to all of these books.

(Yes, that second shelf is off center, sorry OCD peeps).

I was going to list a top ten but it was too hard to narrow it down.

Anyway, in summary, it was awesome. I strongly recommend that if an ALA Midwinter Meeting comes to a city near you that you try to attend. I only wish is that I had known about it earlier so Ashley could have come!(But I was able to snag her some books - not pictured above)