Welcome to Unabridged Bookshelf's stop for The Midnight Spell Blog Tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours! I could not be more excited to be able to participate in this tour. To check out all the awesomeness that is going on, click the banner above! Today I have not only a review, but an excerpt and a giveaway!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: The Midnight Spell
Authors: Rhiannon Frater, and Kody Boye
Publication Date: Feburary 26, 2013
Genre: Paranormal
Age Group: Young Adult
Length: 235 Pages
BUY: Amazon
Adam and Christy have been best friends since kindergarten. Always the perpetual outsiders in their small town in Texas, they’ve always had to deal with nasty comments from their classmates. Adam is called “gay” while Christy is called “witch.”
On both counts the bullies are right.
Their junior year in high school seems destined to be the same old same old until Christy decides to cast a love spell for Adam at the midnight hour. The next day an alluring and mysterious new boy enrolls at school and sets hearts a flutter, including Adam’s. Meanwhile, Christy’s mad crush on the handsome Ian seems to be going nowhere fast. Struggling to capture the heart of Ian while trying to come into her full witch powers is tough enough, but when a great evil arrives in town that threatens everything they hold dear, she realizes that finding a boyfriend is the least of her and Adam’s worries.
Soon Adam, Christy, their potential love interests, and their good friends Drifter and Olivia, will have to battle a force of darkness that has killed in their town before and will again.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of the As the World Dies trilogy (The First Days, Fighting to Survive, Siege,) and the author of three other books: the vampire novels Pretty When She Dies and The Tale of the Vampire Bride and the young-adult zombie novel The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters. Inspired to independently produce her work from the urging of her fans, she published The First Days in late 2008 and quickly gathered a cult following. She won the Dead Letter Award back-to-back for both The First Days and Fighting to Survive, the former of which the Harrisburg Book Examiner called ‘one of the best zombie books of the decade.’ Rhiannon is currently represented by Hannah Gordon of the Foundry + Literary Media agency. You may contact her by sending an email to rhiannonfrater@gmail.com.
Follow Rhiannon
Kody Boye was born and raised in Southeastern Idaho. Since his initial publication in the Yellow Mama Webzine in 2007, he has gone on to sell nearly three-dozen stories to various markets. He is the author of the short story collection Amorous Things, the novella The Diary of Dakota Hammell, the zombie novel Sunrise and the dark fantasy novel Blood. His fiction has been described as ‘Surreal, beautiful and harrowing’ (Fantastic Horror,) while he himself has been heralded as a writer beyond his years(Bitten by Books.) He currently lives and writes in the Austin, Texas area.
Follow Kody
EXCERPT FROM MIDNIGHT SPELL
* * *
Christy
* * *
It all started with a spell. A spell performed at midnight. Little did we know that our simple little love spell to bring the one true love of my best friend Adam to our little hick town would cause so much trouble.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I suppose I should explain just a little about me and Adam.
Adam and I were best friends from the minute we met in the corner of the school yard of our elementary in Trinity Springs, Texas. The first day of kindergarten we bonded as our outsider status was firmly established in the minds of our classmates. We were the odd kids and our strangeness tossed us together. I was the weird little girl with roses tucked into her braids dressed all in black and he was the short little boy with red hair, freckles and bad allergies. I remember how small he was compared to me and I wondered if he was a leprechaun.
“Do you have a pot of gold?” I asked.
“No. Are you in the Addams family?” he countered.
“No.”
We stared at each other with a mix of disappointment and hope.
“Want to play on the swings?” I suggested.
“Sure.”
And that was when we became BFFs. We were always together after that day. We sat next to each other in class and at lunch. We played together on the playground and visited each other’s houses after school. Despite the scorn of our classmates, we were relatively happy. Sometimes the taunting words hurt, but we mostly ignored our tormentors. We were okay with our exile to the outer reaches of the playground.
The labels given so long ago stuck with us through the rest of elementary, junior high, and into high school. Even as juniors we heard the same insults that we did that first day of kindergarten.
“Witch!”
“Fag!”
Adam and I always smile when we hear the words that are meant to hurt.
Why?
Because they’re true.
MY REVIEW
The Midnight Spell in unique, hilarious, while still managing to set a dark and creepy tone when needed. I absolutely loved The Midnight Spell, because while dealing with some dark issues, the writers still manage to make you laugh. The group of characters all have distinct personalities, and they form a very tight group of friends. The two main characters, Christy and Adam, have alternate viewpoints during the story, and it gives great insight into both characters.
Christy is an average teen, who has become an outcast because she is different. Little does anyone but Adam know, but she is a witch waiting for her powers to come in fully. Christy is also a teenage girl, who struggles with weight and self-esteem issues and just wants her crush to like her for her. Adam is dealing with some issues of his own; he is constantly taunted, bullied, and even beaten for being gay. Reading about what Adam had to go through broke my heart at times, but he also stood up and persevered.
The amount of surprises in this book that I did not see coming is just massive, but each one made me love the story even more. I love that this book is full of surprises, because I do not like it when a book is too predictable. This book also does not lack on the action, or the hilarity and sarcasm. Also, can I just say, I would really like my own magic broom, because I think it would be a bundle of fun. I also loved the unique backstory to the witchcraft in this novel, because it puts a fresh twist on the storyline.
Seriously, if you are looking for an insanely good young adult book to read, The Midnight Spell is the one. The Midnight Spell is full of romance, betrayal, friendship, and magic, what more can you ask for in a book. With two authors voicing their own character, it really gives each character its own distinct voice, but still manages to flow seamlessly together. I will admit that my favorite character besides the main ones would have to be Adam’s Mother, who is based of Ashley @ The Bookish Brunette. She is just a hoot, and they really captured her personality.
**Unabridged Bookshelf received this book from the authors, in exchange for an honest review**
Thank you for stopping by Unabridged Bookshelf!
2 comments:
Yay so happy that you liked it! The Ashley character was pretty on the money, eh? bahaha.
I like that you still thought it had the dark and creepy factor..I am looking forward to reading this!
Post a Comment
I truly appreciate every comment, so thank you for taking the time to comment. You just made my day :)