My So-Called Haunting - Tamsyn Murray

Title: My So-Called Haunting
(Sequel to My So-Called Afterlife)

Author: Tamsyn Murray

Publisher: Piccadilly Press

Release Date: 2010

Category: Paranormal Romance

Source: From the publisher

Paperback: 207 pages

Summary from Amazon:

Skye, a fourteen-year-old who can see ghosts, is very stressed. Not only is the ghost of a sixteenth-century witch giving her fashion tips, but she's struggling to settle into life with her aunt, and is developing a crush on the most unattainable boy in the school, Nico. When her aunt asks her for help with a troubled teen ghost called Dontay, she's glad of the distraction. But then Nico starts paying her attention, and she's soon facing a battle to keep her love life and her psychic life separate. As things get ever more complicated, it looks as though Dontay's past might cost Skye her future.

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I discovered Tamsyn Murray at the book launch of Harriet Houdini, to which the lovely Becky @ The Bookette invited me, and I immediately fell for her lively personality and her sense of humour. 
Thoroughly original, witty and funny, her novels are definitely made of awesome. (You can read my review of My So-Called Afterlife here and my review of Harriet Houdini here.)

I was really impatient to read this sequel-but-not-exactly to the first book and I haven't been disappointed at all. All the things which made me love My So-Called Afterlife were there, and there were so many other things that I didn't have any feeling of déjà-vu. I found both books quite different in terms of plot and general atmosphere, and I really liked immersing myself in another part of the ghost world Tamsyn created. I found My So-Called Haunting to be slightly darker than My So-Called Afterlife.


This time around, we are not following a ghost, but a young girl (very much alive) who can see ghosts. Skye hasn't had an easy life, what with having to see ghosts and deal with her mother who can't in a family of psychics, she has never related well with people her own age, and she has always struggled to make friend.
I absolutely loved Skye, she is funny and original voice but a very believable teenager at the same time. I thought that her relationship with her mother and with her aunt were very interesting to read. Even though Skye suffers at school, she stays herself in the difficult situation.
Without dwelling much on the details, I found the love story very cute, especially how it unfolded (and I'm sure those of you who read the book will be amused by this). 


The characters were all great and I loved getting to read about Jeremy (and his yet unimproved fashion sense) again! I have to talk about one character in particular. Upon her arrival in her new school, Skye becomes friend with Megan. And Megan is just so wonderful in a lethal combination of stalkerish gossip teenage girl kind of way that I am laughing out loud just thinking about her.
The ghost characters were also very well described, I literally *love* Mary who haunts Skye's house. The ghost Skye meets at the Dearly D, Dontay, has had a difficult time and it was fascinating to read about his story and how he learned from his actions. As always, Tamsyn Murray hints subtly at a serious issue without being too moralising or doomy gloomy. The reader can therefore enjoy a very original and entertaining story, as well as discover more serious themes hidden in the plot.


We also get to be at the Dearly D and seeing it through Skye's eyes. The Dearly D is a church in London where psychics try to help ghost to move on to their next life and I liked the image of this a lot in the first book and even more in the second.
Aside from the Dearly D, there are various London places which are featured in the book in such a way that I wanted to grab a map (always helpful when - like me - you have no sense of direction) and discover them myself. I think that London is the ultimate Gothic city and there are so many places you can lose yourself in which would give you quite a few chills!




My So-Called Haunting is a treasure of a book and I can guarantee you won't regret reading Tamsyn Murray's books. All fans of paranormal romance and ghost stories will love the original plot and the amazing characters, and everyone else should appreciate the funny and witty story. One of my favourite UK writer for young adults and an absolute must read!

Many many thanks to Piccadilly Press for sending me this book!

Finding Sky - Joss Stirling

Title: Finding Sky

Author: Joss Stirling

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Release Date: October 2010

Category: Young Adult/Paranormal Romance

Source: Sent to me for review by OUP

Paperback: 308 pages

Summary from Amazon:

You have half our gifts, i have the other . . . When English girl Sky, catches a glimpse of bad boy Zed in her new American high school, she can't get him out of her head. He talks to her with his thoughts. He reads her mind. He is the boy she will love for ever. Dark shadows stalk her past but a new evil threatens her future. Sky must face the dark even if it means losing her heart.

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I have to admit that when I first received the book, I anticipated not liking it, thinking it would be yet another cliché in the paranormal romance genre. Oh boy was I wrong. I was hooked from the first chapter and read it in one sitting. I absolutely love being surprised by a book, and this one is no exception.


The story is told from the point of view of Sky who has been abandoned in a parking lot when she was six years old. She obviously had a terrible life before settling in with the Brights at ten years old. You get this feeling of a dark shadow hovering over Sky's personality but you don't know until the last part of the book what it exactly is. She is a very interesting character moving to a new city in another country where she has to be someone new - again. I know that it sounds a bit familiar, but it really feels new. She is quite immediately attracted to Zed who is the school bad boy, but she doesn't feel like he's her soul mate or that they are the two halves of the same whole etc. She feels attracted to him at first and that's it. She does obsess a little about him too in a harmless stalking kind of way, as any teen would do. (I have come to realise that there is nothing more dangerous in this world today than a teenage girl with a crush...)


I like the characters, both main ones and secondary, there is a nice balance between them and they are all very well described and original in their own way. I like to have a feeling that the world doesn't revolve around 'jocks', 'cheerleaders' and 'nerds' and that the ones in the middle are actually the most interesting to read about. The world isn't black and white, you'd be surprised at what the shades of grey have to offer.
The adult characters are pretty cool as well, they are not perfect but not the impersonation of an evil egotistical demon either and they are pretty interesting from the arty Brights to the outdoorsy-sporty Benedicts.


The paranormal aspect is pretty ace. One of my biggest pet peeves in this genre is the coherence of the paranormal element with the story as well as in general. Here, it makes sense though it is not something we encounter a lot (you know, like vampires and shapeshifters). It raises enough interest and fascination without having to explain the whole history and biology behind it all. There is a lot of action and I loved the paranormal related events. 
The romance is good! Which you never hear me say (or read me write rather?) often. I felt exactly the same emotions I experienced when I read my very first paranormal romance: I was curious, I empathised with the characters and mainly thought "awww" the whole time.


The writing is very good, absolutely flawless, it creeps on you from the first pages and you feel like you can't put the book down before finishing it, and when you're done, you will patiently wait for an eventual sequel to get your fix. There are quite a lot of references to popular culture in it and it really helps feel connected to the story and the characters. The setting is very important to the story and there are quite a few descriptions of the mountains. I really wish I could go there, it seems like a terrific place. 

All in all, Finding Sky brings you the best from the paranormal romance genre, without relaying too much on the boring incredible beauty of its characters, the eternal timeless forever and ever romance (yawn) or some hardly coherent paranormal powers. A perfect balance for an amazing story. fans of the genre will definitely love this new addition and non-fans could definitely fall for this story. I can't wait to read other books by Joss Stirling, she definitely rocks my paranormal socks!

Thanks to Liz and Oxford University Press for sending me this!!

My So-Called Afterlife - Tamsyn Murray

Title: My So-Called Afterlife

Author: Tamsyn Murray

Publisher: Piccadilly Press

Category: YA

Release Date: 2010

Source: Bought it during an author event + book signing

Paperback : 184 pages

Summary:

"I knew it was time to move on when a tramp peed on my Uggs..." Meet Lucy Shaw. She's not your average fifteen year old - for a start, she's dead. And as if being a ghost wasn't bad enough, she's also trapped haunting the men's toilets on Carnaby Street. So when a lighting engineer called Jeremy walks in and she realises he can see and hear her, she isn't about to let him walk out of her afterlife. Not least until he's updated her on what's happening in her beloved soaps. With Jeremy's help, Lucy escapes the toilet and is soon meeting up with other ghosts, including the perpetually enraged Hep and the snogtastic Ryan. But when Jeremy suggests Lucy track down the man who murdered her, things go down hill. Can Lucy face up to the events of that terrible night? And what will it cost her if she does?

~~~~~~~~~~ 

No, you are not suffering from déjà-vu, I have just reviewed Tamsyn Murray's book for younger readers about Harriet Houdini the Stunt Bunny, and I loved it so much that I immediately picked up Tamsyn's debut YA novel!

Needless to say that, yet again, I have looked like a crazy person laughing out loud on the tube... I love this book!


What I love the most is that Tamsyn Murray takes a situation - the ghost of a girl brutally murdered in a toilet on Carnaby Street - and creates a very unexpected story out of it. When I read the summary, I assumed different things about Lucy's murderer, her family and what she would want to do with the help of Jeremy.


But this is not actually what happens, Lucy's death marks the beginning of a new existence and the only thing she wants from her old life is to be kept up to date with soap operas. She discovers, with the help of Jeremy, all the tricks to her new existence (yes, I've read Twilight  too many times and have just changed "life" to "existence" everywhere). She meets friendly ghosts like Hep and slightly less friendly ones like Kimberly. And she obviously meets a cute boy: Ryan is handsome *and* he has many things in common with Lucy. Ghost romance rules!


I loved the relationship Lucy and Jeremy have: they are very unique characters and get along really well (without it looking weird because she's a teen and he's an adult). Though they are different and sometimes don't understand each other, they form a very strong bond. I liked all the characters and it was interesting to read about the stories of the other ghosts and why they might be ghosts. I particularly enjoyed reading Hep's story. 


Serious issues are talked about but the story doesn't heavily linger on them. In the sense that yes horrible things happen to people and they're always unfair, but it's the same for everyone, so what do we do now instead of lamenting on them. I find Lucy's character very interesting, she has this fighting spirit in her that just makes her even more adorable. 


But the most important thing is Tamsyn Murray's writing. The book is so funny and surprising that when you look back at your entire bookcase (hidden ones, unconfessed book crushes and long-time favorites included), it will just stand-out as a unique story with an even more exceptional writing.




This book is such a treat that I would advise it to everyone and I absolutely can't wait to read My So-Called Haunting (which isn't a sequel per se, just a story coming from the same world) which will come out in September 2010!

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer

I really can't help posting something about this today. I bought the book yesterday and read it greedily after work.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is the riveting story of Bree Tanner, a vampire first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the world she inhabits. The novella chronicles the journey of members of the newborn vampire army from their preparations to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullen family to its unforgettable conclusion. Summary from Amazon.

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I have been a very big fan of the Twilight series (before the first film even came out). But I have been a bit shocked by all the media frenzy and it sort of put me off the whole thing. 

On the other hand, I was impatiently waiting for this novella as soon as I heard it would be published. I thought that the choice of Bree for the novella was highly unusual and I was intrigued.

I absolutely loved it. I whined about the price for the not-even-200p novella, but I loved the characters (I love Bree, Diego and Fred!!!), I love the story and I think that the writing has improved (because I found that there were some flaws in the series - after reading each book ten times). 

My favorite parts in the series were the other vampires which looked waaay cooler than the Cullens (sorry, I have a thing for badass supernatural species), like the Denali sisters and others. And this story gives such a good description of Newborns (which we only explored from a certain point of view) and uneducated vampires (to the vampire laws that is). It is actually very informative for when it comes to understanding the other side of Eclipse. But I believe you can read this book even if you aren't a Twilight fan.

I also particularly loved seeing the meadow fight scene through Bree's eyes. You'll understand what happens way better than in Bella's point of view. And it is just wow (yes, so I cried, whatever).

But don't read what I say. 

Go back to when Twilight wasn't the reference in terms of fantasy. 

Forget the Bella and Edward

Forget the actors of the films

Forget the Twi-hards and whatever

And read this novella with the same curious eyes with which you discovered sparkly vampires and forget all the rest that has been building up ever since.

You will love this book. I did !

What did you guys think of the book ? Useful to understanding Eclipse or just fun to read ?