Below Zero Blog Tour Review

Hi guys and welcome to today's post that co-insides with the Below Zero blog tour. Yep, it's my turn and I have a review for you! So bear with while I do a tiny write-up about the book itself.

When Zak's parents are called to go to Outpost Zero, a small Antarctic research base to help prepare a group of volunteers for a one-way trip to Mars, to help fix a problem with the drone Spiders that made, Zak and his sister go as well. But when they and their pilot get there, something is very wrong. The power is out, everyone who's meant to be living there has vanished and there are insect shells all over the floor. 

Then the pilot vanishes. 

Something is happening to Outpost Zero - something below the ice - and if they are not careful, Zak and his family might be the next to vanish... 

This was a surprisingly addictive little clean-teen thriller that, at times, had a feel of that Doctor Who episode - Kill The Moon - and those Doctor-less episodes such as Blink and Midnight. It had a good speed and with the chapters jumping back and forth in time and location (this does make sense when you read it), it kept me turning the pages. 

However, I do have one or two problems, (this is me - of course I'm going to nitpick! I can do this to my favourite novels and have no problems sleeping that night) most of which comes down to length. I wish this was a little longer. If it was, it could fleshed out and drawn out certain elements. Plus, with this having the vibe of being the first book in a series, having it a tad longer would, I feel, have worked in its favour. 

But this was fun little scifi thriller - very different from what I normally read (am a fantasy person) - and I will be intrigued to see where the author goes next with these characters...

Freshers Stop Here!

Am back from my mini blog break! DID YOU MISS ME? ...no? Rude.

Anyway, am back and, to kickstart, I would love to welcome Lucy Ivison and Tom Ellen onto the Pewter Wolf. Lucy and Tom are co-authors of several books, such as Lobsters and Never Evers. And their latest has just come out!

Freshers follows Phoebe and Luke as they start uni. Phoebe can't wait! And with Luke, her secret crush there, it's going to be exciting. But Luke is still reeling over his break-up with his ex. When their worlds do crash together, they have to navigate new friends, parties, social media crisis. But with all this going on around them, will they find themselves and each other?

Now, as today is my stop on the tour, I wanted to do something a little different and talk music, mainly music that Lucy and Tom listened to while at uni themselves. Plus, to give it an extra twist, am adding a song choice of my own that reminds me of my college days (I was a bit of a wuss not going to uni! Let's not get into that can of worms.)

Before I show off their music choices, I want to thank Lucy and Tom for allowing us to snoop into their uni days and their music and Nina for asking if I wanted to be involved in the tour! Now, let's go back in time thorough the timey-wimey thing known as music!

GoodRead - Ruby Red

WELCOME TO MY FIRST REVIEW OF 2014 (even though I am writing this two days before Christmas so, technically, it's not my first review of 2014 just yet)!

But let's stay the year with a good read, shall we? So here is the first book in a trilogy, Ruby Redby Kerstin Gier.

In an alternative London, people can time travel. Well, only 12 people can and this is because of a rare gene. Everyone in Gwen's family is positive that Gwen's cousin, Charlotte, has the gene and has been trained her whole life to become a time traveller. Learning all about history, how to fence, how to survive. But when it's Gwen that is thrown through time, not Charlotte, Gwen's life is turned upside down and enters a world of time travel and secret societies. But secrets are everywhere. Why did her Mum tell her to "trust no one"? What is the Guardians's real purpose to complete the Circle? What really happened the mysterious Lucy and Paul?

Now, this book is huge in it home country of Germany. They turned this into a movie (I'll put the English-dubbed version at the bottom of the post) and they are, to my knowledge, making the sequel, Sapphire Blue. And the book is appearing on a lot of US book vloggers channels recently (hence how I became aware of this - thank you Christine from Xtinemay [here's her spoiler-filled video on this very book! Click at your peril!]).

I really enjoyed this. It was fun, addictive and it never felt dull. I kept turning the pages with this and it reminded me a lot of the lighter Doctor Who episodes. And as someone who would like to read more time-travelling books (I blame Doctor Who and the Hourglass series by Myra McEntrice) and this is a translation, this ticked all the boxes. And we have a female time traveller - that is something that is rarely seen in books that tackle his subject!

There are one or two things that bothered me. This is the first book in the trilogy so, of course, everything has to be set up and we only get the sense that what we are seeing is just the time of the iceberg. So, if you want the complete story, it would probably be for the best to have the sequels, Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green on standby. I have a tiny issue with Gideon, the male lead/love interest as it felt like he was into Charlotte but events happen (and this book takes over a very short time frame - barely 5 days, if I remember right) which made me go "Ok. What is wrong with you?" and there was only two times that a word was used and it felt jarring to read (not sure if it was because of the translation or because I was so into the book, reading the word made my brain go "Gwen would NEVER say that!").

But I need to know what happens next. I need to buy the rest of the series (yes, am going to get both Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green) sometime in 2014. But I am in a book buying ban at the moment so... has to play the waiting game for now...