The Thorn and the Sinking Stone by C.J. Dushinski

The Thorn and the Sinking Stone

by C.J. Dushinski 

Release Date: March 2015

Entangled Teen

313 pages

Summary from Goodreads:

Warring families. Forbidden love. And danger they can’t escape...

Daggers. Roses. Cowboys. Boat Men. Survivors of Earth's Last War, four “families” vie to rule the dreary streets of Rain City through violence and blood. Valencia Hara, Princess of the wealthy Black Roses, is raised in warrior ways with sharpened steel. But she is no ordinary Rose. She is Cursed—tainted with the ability to see seconds into the future...

To avenge his father's death, Sebastian Leold, of the rival gang Two Daggers, must face off against the Black Princess, he with his dagger, she with her katana sword. Yet a secret from a shared past leaves him unable to kill beautiful Valencia; nor can she kill him. For they once knew each other beyond their blood feud...and they have more secrets in common than they know.

But in a world filled with vengeance and violence, there can be no room for love...

The Thorn and the Sinking Stone – 5 Sources of Inspiration

Along the way the story of the Thorn and the Sinking St

one changed quite a bit from one draft to

the next, inspired by one source or another. Here are

the top five sources of inspiration that

helped me craft the Thorn and the Sinking Stone to what

it is today:

1)

Romeo & Juliet:

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has alr

eady read the

story. The Thorn and the Sinking Stone was heavily inspi

red by Shakespeare’s Romeo

and Juliet. Two warring families, young, forbidden love... the ge

neral plot is true to the

play. I’ve always loved Romeo and Juliet, like a lot of

people, and I wondered what the

story would be like told in a similar place several hundre

ds of years later, given similar

circumstance and a whole new set of rules. And since B

az Lurhman is one of my

favourite movie directors, of course I was inspired by hi

s modern twist on the classic tale.

Something about his version with guns and fast cars with a

dark setting really inspired the

Buy links:

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About the Author

While attempting to navigate life as a responsible human being, CJ graduated from university with a B.Comm and worked her way along as marketer, copywriter, and graphic designer to earn a paycheck while pursing her passion for creating fantastical stories set in dark and wondrous corners of the world.  Born amongst the wheat fields and open skies of the Canadian prairies, CJ’s imagination has always run wild, taking her on adventures across the world from modeling in Seoul, South Korea to backpacking through Europe and surfing (poorly) in Hawaii.

After wandering through ancient cities and civilizations, learning from diverse cultures, and surrounding herself in new experiences, CJ was inspired and began work on her debut Young Adult novel THE THORN AND THE SINKING STONE, to be published by Entangled Publishing 2014/15. CJ currently resides in Calgary, Alberta Canada – home of the Canadian Rockies – and keeps one hand on her passport and pen at all times, ready to pick up, see the world, and weave her experiences into stories. 

CJ is represented by Marlene Stringer of the Stringer Literary Agency LLC.

Author Links:

   

GIVEAWAY:

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Book Blitz Organized by:

Bout Of Books 11.0 - Like This, Try This CHALLENGE

Hey, folks, I want to apologize for not participating yesterday's challenge.

I am now doing the "Like This, Try This" challenge.

Pretty much all you need to do is to promote a book/movie/tv show by another book/movie/tv show.

If you liked The Mortal Instruments

Then you should definitely read The Whispers Of The Fallen

I am not sure how right I am comparing the two but I think they have quite a few things in common.

What do you think? What are your suggestions for this Challenge? Make sure to tell me in the comment section down below.

Here is the original link: http://www.writingmyownfairytale.com/2014/08/21/like-this-try-this-bout-of-books-challenge/

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

As the release date of Opposition is almost here, I decided to do a review of Obsidian. So many people raved about how good this book is and I decided to finally pick it up. It was my first Jennifer L. Armentrout book.

Book summary: 

Starting over sucks. That is definitely the feeling inside Katy when she is forced to move into the deep countryside of West Virginia from Florida. The last thing she expected was to meet Daemon Black. He is more different than any boy Katy has ever met. He's arrogant, stab-worthy and very handsome. Despit this fact Katy is determined to stay away from him... Until the night everything changes, that is.

Katy is your typical teenager when we first see her, She's kind of angry for moving to this remote town in the middle of nowhere. At the beginning of the book you find out that she is a book blogger. That's what made me fond of her. When she meets Daemon, she doesn't know what she feels - he's sexy but at the same time arrogant. As the story goes on you get to see a lot of character development in both of them. Katy is very stubborn, a cliche, even with the whole I-don't-believe-in-supernatural stuff. She made some decisions which I thought were extremely stupid and and very teenage and then it hit me. Of course she is going to act like this, she IS a teenager. This is where the author shines. The characters are so believable and realistic and make you relate to them. 

Daemon on the other side was the more mature one... most of the time. He was acting weird at times but he almost always knew what was right.

The plot is just very interesting as well. The aliens are not presented as these super-violent creatures who want to kill every human. No, in fact they are peaceful and lay low. As time passes you get to see the back-story of Daemon and what he is. The revelations are presented very well and everything was very-well developed. The side supporting characters are also developed.

The writing as I mentioned was extremely good. The author did what I enjoy most - make me feel what the characters feel and relate to them. The descriptions were so easy to imagine. The novel was very well-paced and was way better than I expected. 

In short, Obsidian was a riveting read, which will make you read without stopping and make you forget about work and problems. It's a gripping novel that grabs you from the beginning and does not let you go until the very last word... and then you're left craving for the next book.

I want to point out that I also read both - the Bulgarian and the English version of this book. Egmont Bulgaria was kind enough to translate this awesome series in Bulgarian. The translation is almost perfect with a few mistakes here and there but that is because I got the first print of the book. I am so thankful to the publisher.

Updade 1: Bulgarian review coming out on August 15th.

                                                                  My rating: 

                                                            

                                                            5 out of 5 stars