Review: Between the Layers (The Traveler #1) by SaraJean Panek

Most fifteen year old girls are trying to figure out who they are; I’m trying to stay alive long enough to figure out what.

I’ve always been on the run. From my guilt about the things I couldn’t change, and from the voice in my head that won’t let me be normal. But yesterday Tommy and I were in a car accident on the way home from school. When I woke up, Tommy was gone, and so was the world I grew up in. Now I’m running less in a metaphorical way, and more in a “pick up the pace if you don’t want to die” way. Why? Because my eyes are blue, and I’m lost in a fantasy world where that means I’m different. It means I might not be human. It means I should already be extinct, and someone called “The Regent” is determined to make me that way.

I need to find the way home, and before I do that, I need to find Tommy. He’s only in this mess because of me. I can’t do it on my own, but it’s hard to know who to trust when everyone keeps trying to kill me.

Description taken from Goodreads 

My Review

In Between the Layers, readers are dropped into a new world with our heroine who is forced to be a symbol of hope and of restoration.

This world is absolutely terrifying.  Slavery is still in existence.  Magic is filled to the brim based on the eye color of a person.  That idea alone is just brilliant and so interesting that I want to know as much as I can about the makings of this world.  I want to know all of the history, how this world came to be.  It’s a perfectly thought out, complex world.  And the way that SaraJean Panek writes it is perfection.  I could feel and taste all the dust that I imagined was just swirling through the towns.  Everything was described in so much detail that I could see how everything was laid out.  It was magical.

As soon as I started Between the Layers I knew that I was going to be in for a wild ride.  When our main character, Sera, starts talking to the voice in her head, Reeky, and gets a response back.  I just thought, ‘Oh snap, here we go’.  In the best way possible, mind you.  Totally a good thing.

But just everything that is wrapped up in this world and how Sera got there was so awesome and mind boggling and frustrating.  And the fact that there is a lost princess, possible reincarnation, vampire like creatures that can reproduce and create terrifying things called ‘Toddlers’.  I shiver just thinking about it.

As characters go, I really did like Sera.  I enjoyed that she acted her age, 15, which is both good and bad.  Good because not many characters who are young actually act young.  For some reason they are always wise beyond their years and incredibly smart.  It was a nice change of pace and really realistic.  But, it was also bad because she’s a naïve 15 year old brat with anger issues.  She did get on my nerves sometimes and I really did want to strangle her but I also sympathized with her.  Getting thrown into a world, not knowing how you managed to get there is probably unsettling.  I’m assuming.  So, she gets a free pass.

Trage, I have to say, was definitely book boyfriend material.  He was swoon worthy, but also flawed and I loved that.  He wasn’t perfect.  He fought for what he believed in and wasn’t afraid to voice his opinions.  I just wish we knew a little bit more about him. 

The secondary characters great as well.  Even though we don’t know much about them, I feel like they were well thought out and had individual personalities that could be expanded on in future books.  My favorite definitely had to be Lynx, a weird tiger humanoid thing.  He was just spectacular.

All in all, a great intro to this new magically intriguing world and I can’t wait to see what Panek has up her sleeve for the next book(s)!

 

4 out of 5 hearts! 

Cover Reveal: All Broke Down by Cora Carmack

I am so excited to get to share the cover for Cora Carmack's ALL BROKE DOWN today! A New Adult Contemporary Romance, and published by William Morrow-an imprint of HarperCollins, this is the second book in her Rusk University Series, and it is set to be released on October 28, 2014! But you can pre-order it NOW! Check out what it's about and then fall in love with this gorgeous cover!

ABOUT ALL BROKE DOWN:

In this second book in New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack’s New Adult, Texas-set Rusk University series, which began with All Lined Up, a young woman discovers that you can’t only fight for what you believe in . . . sometimes you have to fight for what you love

Dylan fights for lost causes. Probably because she used to be one.

Environmental issues, civil rights, corrupt corporations, and politicians—you name it, she’s probably been involved in a protest. When her latest cause lands her in jail overnight, she meets Silas Moore. He’s in for a different kind of fighting. And though he’s arrogant and infuriating, she can’t help being fascinated with him. Yet another lost cause.

Football and trouble are the only things that have ever come naturally to Silas. And it’s trouble that lands him in a cell next to do-gooder Dylan. He’s met girls like her before—fixers, he calls them, desperate to heal the damage and make him into their ideal boyfriend. But he doesn’t think he’s broken, and he definitely doesn’t need a girlfriend trying to change him. Until, that is, his anger issues and rash decisions threaten the only thing he really cares about, his spot on the Rusk University football team. Dylan might just be the perfect girl to help.

Because Silas Moore needs some fixing after all.

Pre-Order Your Copy Today!

Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iTunes

And don’t forget to grab your copy of ALL LINED UP Today!

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About Cora Carmack:

Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She's done a multitude of things in her life-- boring jobs (like working retail), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.

Website ** Twitter ** Facebook

Author Goodreads ** ALL BROKE DOWN Goodreads

Review: All Lined Up (Rusk University #1) by Cora Carmack

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack follows up her trio of hits—Losing It, Faking It, and Finding It—with this thrilling first novel in an explosive series bursting with the Texas flavor, edge, and steamy romance of Friday Night Lights.
In Texas, two things are cherished above all else—football and gossip. My life has always been ruled by both.

Dallas Cole loathes football. That's what happens when you spend your whole childhood coming in second to a sport. College is her time to step out of the bleachers, and put the playing field (and the players) in her past.

But life doesn't always go as planned. As if going to the same college as her football star ex wasn’t bad enough, her father, a Texas high school coaching phenom, has decided to make the jump to college ball… as the new head coach at Rusk University. Dallas finds herself in the shadows of her father and football all over again.

Carson McClain is determined to go from second-string quarterback to the starting line-up. He needs the scholarship and the future that football provides. But when a beautiful redhead literally falls into his life, his focus is more than tested. It's obliterated.

Dallas doesn't know Carson is on the team. Carson doesn't know that Dallas is his new coach's daughter.

And neither of them know how to walk away from the attraction they feel.

Description taken from Goodreads 

My Review

 

Cora Carmack has done it again, my dear readers!  A non-stop enjoyable read that had me reading into the wee hours of the morning.

I was definitely surprised and felt refreshed by the change of formula of this New Adult book.  We’ve all read so many NA by now that we can predict the outcome of the book.  Girl meets boy.  Said girl has a tragic past, and said boy just happens to be the baddest boy in town.  The girl tames the guy, guy gets girl to open up again.  Guy then screws up, they split up, guy apologizes, girl forgives, happily ever after.  The End.

The only thing remotely close to this formula is that a girl meets a boy.  That’s pretty much it.  Everything else about All Lined Up deviates from this strict formula that every NA author seems to use.  And, holy friggens, is it invigorating.  Were there some cliché moments?  Yup.  Do I care?  Nope. 

The characters were great and admirable.

We have our two main characters (dual POV) Dallas and Carson.

Dallas starts out as kind of weak and innocent but she definitely has her moments and isn’t afraid to speak her mind.  She’s just trying to fly under the radar during college since her dad is the football coach.  I totally don’t blame her, but she also wants to branch out and try new things and not be controlled by her dad.  Independence is what she strives for.  She wants to live her own life and not be known as Coach Coles’ daughter.  That’s something we can all somehow relate to.  Trying to step out of someone else’s shadow and be your own person.  I know I’ve struggled with that for years.

Now Carson on the other hand is living his dream.  Kind of.  Here’s where the normal formula starts to deviate.  He’s on the football team but he’s not awesomely awesome at it.  He’s not the star.  He sucks at school and needs tutors.  He is far from perfect but that’s what makes him completely swoon-worthy (hyphen or no hyphen?)  He’s also not a douche.  Caring, loyal, dedicated and hardworking are just some of the many complimentary words I can use to describe Carson.

We also have a third main character.  The football.  Now, I don’t get football.  I don’t watch it nor do I enjoy it.  But the way that Carson talks about it and the way that Dallas despises it but secretly loves it, is so heavily described that I get it.  Not necessarily the game and how it works but that it’s the thing that you can’t get enough of and that you strive to be better at.  The be all, end all of who you are.  That I got.  Loud and clear.  The same way that Dallas talked about dance.  I got all of it. 

The other characters were a hoot.  Stella and Ryan were awesome.  I really want them to get their own book.  Please, Cora?  Silas was great too, towards the end.  Really hated him at first but he redeemed himself.  Then we have Dallas’s dad, and he just couldn’t get me to feel any sympathy towards him.  The way he treats Dallas like she’s a child when she’s so obviously an adult made me very angry.  I always have a hatred towards parents who treat their kids like children when they have moved out and are on their own.  It just bugs me.

Now, the plot was solid but I felt it could have gone a lot deeper and this is really my only grievance.  I wish we could have known a bit more about Levi (the ex) and Dallas’s past.  She kept talking about how much she hated him but I can’t really figure out why.  I mean he was a douche hat in the book but based on the history and her memory of him, there isn’t much to go on.  I felt like she was overreacting a bit and don’t get how she came out “broken” in the end even though she didn’t really act like it until the end of the book.  I don’t know, I might be reaching here but there you go.

Other than that it was a great fluffy book that fans of Stephanie Perkins and J. Lynn (Jennifer L Armentrout) will certainly enjoy.

 4out of 5 hearts!

Cover Reveal: Between the Layers (The Traveler #1) by SaraJean Panek

I am so excited to be a part of this cover reveal!  It is a gorgeous cover and the synopsis sounds beyond intriguing.  Look for my review of Between the Layers on the 16th, which is also the release date. 

So, are you guys ready!

Feast your eyes on this beauty!

 

Most fifteen year old girls are trying to figure out who they are; I’m trying to stay alive long enough to figure out what. 

I’ve always been on the run.  From my guilt about the things I couldn’t change, and from the voice in my head that won’t let me be normal.  But yesterday Tommy and I were in a car accident on the way home from school.  When I woke up, Tommy was gone, and so was the world I grew up in.  Now I’m running less in a metaphorical way, and more in a “pick up the pace if you don’t want to die” way.  Why?  Because my eyes are blue, and I’m lost in a fantasy world where that means I’m different.  It means I might not be human.  It means I should already be extinct, and someone called “The Regent” is determined to make me that way.

I need to find the way home, and before I do that, I need to find Tommy. He’s only in this mess because of me.  I can’t do it on my own, but it’s hard to know who to trust when everyone keeps trying to kill me.

About the Author:

Sara Panek has loved books since before she could read. One of her earliest memories is of sitting with one of her two older brothers and following along the page as he read her “Rapunzel.” She’s been telling her own stories nearly as long. Sara will publish her debut novel “Between the Layers” in 2014. She travels at every opportunity, but currently lives in her hometown of Virginia Beach and spends most of her free time writing, the work she loves.

To learn more, visit http://spanek88.wix.com/sarapanek

Twitter: @SaraPanek88