Teaser Tuesday–The Never List & The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Since I’m usually reading one book on my Nook and listening to one audiobook, I’m going to start sharing two teasers. Today my first teaser comes from an audiobook that I’m listening to that has recently been released, the second from a NetGalley title that will soon be released. Both published by Pamela Dorman Group/Penguin.

The teaser:

“There were four of us down there for the first thirty-two months and eleven days of our captivity. And then, very suddenly and without warning, there were three. Even though the fourth person hadn't made any noise at all in several months, the room got very quiet when she was gone. For a long time after that, we sat in silence, in the dark, wondering which of us would be next in the box.”

The AudioBook

 

The Never List

By Koethi Zan

Narrated by- Kristen Sieh

Published by – Pamela Dorman Books/Penguin Group

Pub. Date- August 1, 2013

Source- Penguin Audio

Genre – Thriller

Length – 9 Hours

 

 

Amazon | Goodreads

The most relentless, deeply disturbing thriller writer since Jeffery Deaver and Gillian Flynn

For years, best friends Sarah and Jennifer kept what they called the “Never List”:  a list of actions to be avoided, for safety’s sake, at all costs.  But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride with grave, everlasting consequences. For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism.

Ten years later, at thirty-one, Sarah is still struggling to resume a normal life, living as a virtual recluse under a new name, unable to come to grips with the fact that Jennifer didn’t make it out of that cellar. Now, her abductor is up for parole and Sarah can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends from jail.

Finally, Sarah decides to confront her phobias and the other survivors—who hold their own deep grudges against her. When she goes on a cross-country chase that takes her into the perverse world of BDSM, secret cults, and the arcane study of torture, she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.

A shocking, blazingly fast read, Koethi Zan’s debut is a must for fans of Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, and S.J. Watson

 

---

 

The second teaser

“There were two Noras, one who was about to die, and one who would live and be happy, blissfully happy, because she had surrendered all pain and terror to someone who was stronger. She wanted frantically to be the second woman.”

The Book

 

The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic

By: Emily Croy Barker

Published by – Pamela Dorman Books/Viking/Penguin Group

Pub. Date- August 1, 2013

Source- Net Galley

Genre – Fantasy

 

Amazon | Goodreads

 

An imaginative story of a woman caught in an alternate world—where she will need to learn the skills of magic to survive

Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman. During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty. Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true.

Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong. Making it here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school. Her only real ally—and a reluctant one at that—is the magician Aruendiel, a grim, reclusive figure with a biting tongue and a shrouded past. And it will take her becoming Aruendiel’s student—and learning magic herself—to survive. When a passage home finally opens, Nora must weigh her "real life" against the dangerous power of love and magic.

For lovers of Lev Grossman's The Magicians series (The Magicians and The Magician King) and Deborah Harkness's All Souls Trilogy (A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night)

 

 

Be sure to leave a link to your teaser in a comment so I can check out what you’re reading!

Free Audio Books every week this summer by SYNC

Beginning May 30, SYNC will be offering 2 Free audio book downloads a week throughout the summer. If you haven't experienced an audio book before, then I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity. There are some amazing reads, from classics like Frankenstein & Oliver Twist, to more recent YA like The Raven Boys and Enchanted. 

If you know me, or my blog, at all - you know that I usually prefer to listen to audio, even over my precious Nook! The reason I'm such a huge fan of audio books is simple, when the right narrator meets the right story, it is a special kind of magic and it can sometimes become an entirely different experience than the one you may have reading the physical book. Well, this is a chance to find out if audio books are for you. Load up your ipod and listen to a classic while laying out on the beach or while out jogging. Or listen with your friends while taking a road trip and discuss your favorite "book boyfriends." But definitely take advantage of this awesome opportunity that SYNC is providing! 

Review: Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

The Casual Vacancy [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition]

by J. K. Rowling (Author),

Tom Hollander (Narrator)

Listening Length: 17 hours and 55 minutes

Audible.com Release Date: September 27, 2012

 

 

 

 

---

Secrets, Sabotage, and Scandal or Oh the things muggles get up to...

Casual Vacancy tells the story of a small community in the aftermath of the unexpected death of one of its community leaders and council members, Barry Fairbrother. Several of Fairbrother's peers are ready and willing to fill his empty council seat but not everyone is happy with the nominees. Suddenly this small town is like an episode of Gossip Girl as somebody claiming to be Barry Fairbrother's ghost begins posting on the council's website and outing all of the member's dirty little secrets (XoXo) And while all of the adults are plotting, planning, and pointing fingers, who is watching their kids? These parents may have underestimated their teens' resentments as they focus all of their energy on their position in the community.

I listened to the Audible audio version of this and the narration was brilliant. He didn't really change his voice for the characters much, he simply told the story but his voice and tone was so pleasant that I was able to lose myself completely in the story. I would absolutely recommend listening to this on audio.

What's great about Casual Vacancy is the authenticity of the characters and the way Rowling so insightfully exposes the uglier side of human nature, the fears and insecurities that sometimes motivate people to do the things they do. While Casual Vacancy is about an empty council seat, the real meat and potatoes of the story is in the interactions between these characters and the complexities of those relationships. Of all the many personalities in this story, I thought that the teenagers were written exceptionally well, not surprisingly. And although the plot revolves around the empty council seat, the children definitely play a big role in this story.

There were a lot of characters with a lot of interaction between all of them which sometimes made it difficult for me to remember who was married to who and which kid belonged to which parent but I can see that cutting even one of the many personalities would have taken something significant away from the story. The only negative about the charcaters being so genuine and familiar is that it felt a bit like spying on your neighbors. It's all deliciously scandalous what they get up to, but only if you know them personally. Otherwise, no one really cares because they're just like everyone else's' neighbors.

Where Casual Vacancy didn't work for me was in the plot. It's almost as if she created these complex, multi-faceted  characters and then threw together these unexceptional circumstances so they could interact. For most of the book, I was honestly pretty bored with the storyline. But about 2/3s of the way through, I began to really enjoy the story. Just getting there as a bit slow. The complex characters and wonderful writing might be enough to pull a reader through a plot that is like slogging through quicksand. The question is, was the payoff at the end enough to make that tedious journey worth it. Ultimately, for me it was.

It's JK Rowling so it is no surprise that the writing was stellar. At one point, when I complained about how slow moving the story was, a friend asked me if I would have even kept reading if it would have been any other author. My reply was, if it had been any other author, I would have never picked this book up. I had to keep this fact in mind when listening to Casual Vacancy because I thought maybe that is why many people are having such an issue with this book. A book like this might not appeal to many of Rowling's fan base being so far from what they enjoyed about the Harry Potter series.

There were several laugh out loud moments and I especially enjoyed some of the eccentricities of the characters. The pacing of the story was slow and steady, with emphasis on the "slow".  I did like that Casual Vacancy wrapped up all the loose ends by the end even though some of those loose ends seemed like they were tied up a little too conveniently to feel genuine. Overall, it was a lot darker than I expected which certainly increased my enjoyment of it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for fans of Harry Potter, but perhaps for fans of General fiction.

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop hosted by Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Rhiannon from The Diary of a Bookworm ! I have a couple prize packs that I’ll be giving away to celebrate Halloween, though not all of the books are Halloween related!


Prize Pack 1

The Spooktacular NOOKtacular! INTL
This prize pack features 4 incredible eBooks from 4 amazing authors plus a $20 Barnes and Noble Gift card! The eBooks can be in the eBook format of your choice.

 

1. $20 Barnes and Noble Gift Card

2. Radiant Desire by Inara Scott (eBook)

3. Enchanted Destiny by Rayka Mennen (eBook)

4. Angelfall by Susan Ee (eBook)

5. Founder by LM Long (eBook)

---

Prize Pack 2: US Only

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble – Young Adult

I seem to have acquired double of several books, so what better to do than give them away as Halloween Treats!! There will be 3 books in the YA Double Double Toil and Trouble Prize Pack and 3 in the Adult Pack.




1. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Hardcover)
2. Unearthly by Cynthia Hand (Hardcover)
3. Glow – by Amy Kathleen Ryan (audiobook)

---

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble – Adult – US ONLY


Prize Pack 3





1. Dracula in Love by Karen Essex (Softcover)
2. Damned by Chuck Palahniuk (ARC)
3. Death in the City of Light by David King (ARC)

---

To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter. eBooks are INT, others are US only. Following my blog is not required but it is appreciated, as are comments!! Last day to enter is Oct. 31. Winners will be selected by Rafflecopter on Nov 1. Winner 1 will get their choice of Prize pack, Winner 2 will select from the remaining 2 prize packs, Winner 3 will get the remaining Prize Pack. Thanks so much for stopping by, Happy Halloween and Good Luck!!

Whisper Stories in My Ear 2011 Audio Book Challenge

As I'm sure I've stated many times before, listening to audio books has been my preferred way to read ever since listening to the Harry Potter series read by Stephen Fry. I find it to be so relaxing after working my regular 9-5 to relax with an audio book. I listen while laying in bed, while in the tub, while sitting at my computer playing Zuma. Stephen Fry is just one of the amazing narrators I've enjoyed, some other of my favorite narrators have been Tavia Gilbert who does such an incredible job with Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series, Bahni Turpin who brings Stacia Kane's Downside series to life, and of course Neil Gaiman's own narration of his novel The Graveyard Book. 

So all of this being said, I am excited to join Bewitched Bookworms 2011 Audio Book Challenge and hope that many of you join me. I would love to see even more audio book reviews around the book blogs. If you're interested, head on over to Bewitched Bookworms and link up. There's plenty of prizes to be had throughout the year as well as being able to share our reviews with one another! I look forward to having fun with this challenge. I don't have my list ready yet, but I will update this post later with my potential 2011 audio reading list.