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

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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:

   

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Book Blitz Organized by:

The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

Have you read "The 5th Wave" by Rick Yancey? If you haven't come back once you've read it.

If you haven't read "The Infinite Sea" yet the review will be spoiler-free.

I have been waiting for this book to come out for a long time. I read the prequel back in January I think and that cliffhanger just lurked me until I read this one.

I received this book on September 26th I started and finished it on the following day. It was so interesting and gripping that I couldn't put it down. It picks up where we left off and we get to see our favourite characters and we're introduced to some new ones.

Did I love this book? Not necessarily, but it was as good as I expected and I really enjoyed it. So many things happen and at the end you just don't know what and who to trust. The characters were just so realistic and relate-able. They were so believable and I just could help but love Cassie even more.

I also liked how it was thought-provoking, considering in this book happened a lot less things as opposed to the previous, 500-page book. The stakes got higher and things tighten even more and I felt I got more questions rather than answers but, hey, as long as there are answers in the next book I am okay.

My main problem was there wasn't enough of Cassie. She was there like half the book. There is a lot of action and plot twists. But the biggest one was not connected to Cassie but to Ringer. It is about the aliens and it's really mind-blowing. It just puts everything into question.

The characters develop but not as much as they did in the previous book. As I said there was, indeed, a lot of action but I felt something was missing. Maybe it's because the character's have changed enough in the prequel.

Also, there were lots of feels in this book. Like I was constantly nervous if someone will die. Rick somehow managed to emotionally drain me. Of course, this didn't stopped me from reading the book in less than six hours.

The writing was almost flawless. I could easily put myself into the character's shoes but sometimes I found some descriptions unnecessary. There is so much one can learn from this book. There are so many quotes and powerful messages.

Overall, it was a fast-paced book, filled with action and jaw-dropping twists. If you are like me and you liked the first book I can assure you won't be let down by this one and everything you know will be put into question.

                                    RATING: 94%

If you liked this review please share it, like it and/or subscribe to this blog! I really appreciate it. Thank you. :)

About the author:

Rick is a native Floridian and a graduate of Roosevelt University in Chicago. He earned a B.A. in English which he put to use as a field officer for the Internal Revenue Service. Inspired and encouraged by his wife, he decided his degree might also be useful in writing books and in 2004 he began writing full-time.

Since then he has launched two critically acclaimed series: The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, for young readers, and The Highly Effective Detective, for adults. Both books are set in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Rick lived for ten years before returning to Florida.

Rebellion by J.D. Netto

Hello fellow readers, today I am back with a review of “Rebellion” by J.D. Netto – the sequel to “The Whispers of The Fallen”. I simply feel like I cannot put all my feels in this review because that is one of the best books I have read by now. Everything I liked about “The Whispers of The Fallen” is here.

Okay, this time I will begin with the writing. It got better than in the previous book. The descriptions continue to be short but descriptive and easily imaginable and there are no unneeded words. The style is still formal which I was still finding weird and actually asked the author why that is. He was really kind and told me it’s like this because the characters don’t need to rush and they live in another world. Some of the names I found hard to pronounce but I figured them out. The world-building is just startling. You can visualize everything you read without any difficulties.

The story folds even more. The plot becomes even more complicated. You do get some answers about questions asked in the first book but you are left with many questions like “Who is this?” or “How is this possible?” and many others. Also there are so MANY twists and turns that would just blow your mind. You are kept on the edge of your seat by the end of the book. Speaking of which, I am very, very angry. Why did both of these books and on such high notes and cliffhangers? I actually asked J.D. Netto and his answer was that he couldn’t help it. Anyways, we are left waiting for the next installment called #TGOS, yep, we still have just the initials and no actual name.

                                     

The characters are developing by the page. They are just so well thought-out and presented that I cannot even describe in words. They go through so many things that I don’t know how they didn’t lose it. If I were in one of their places I would have gone cray-cray long time ago… I envy them for their strength.

I can hardly say anything about this book that I haven’t already mentioned in the review of the first book. “Rebellion” is taken to a whole new level of epicness. There are so many twists and turns that lead to the astounding finale with a cliffhanger that will leave you yearning for the continuation of the series.

Also stay tuned because I will be interviewing J.D. Netto on August 3rd at 7 p.m. EST. More details will be up soon.

Also if you want to learn things about the new books first you can subscribe to info@jdnetto.com by sending an e-mail.

                                                           My rating:                                           5 out of 5 stars

Bout Of Books 11.0 - Re-create a Book Cover

How is Bout Of Books going for you guys? For me, I have enjoyed every second of it so far. The challenges are fun to do and now I am going to participate in another one. It is called "Recreate A Book Cover" and is hosted by Spines And Covers.

For this challenge I decided to recreate the cover of the book I just finished a.k.a. "The Whispers Of The Fallen".

So here is the original cover:

And here is my re-creation:

I tried to do it and this is what came out of it. Unfortunately my little cousin spilled some water over it. Apart from that I think I might have done something(I can't draw, I just can't).


What do you guys think of my re-creation? Have you done one too? Make sure to let me know in the comment section down below by commenting and posting a link.

And also don't forget to subscribe to my blog. :)

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/