The Book Nympho: PJV Blog Tours

Friday, September 14, 2012

YA Review + Giveaway: Red Dawn by J.J. Bonds

Welcome to the last stop on the tour.

Hope you have enjoyed the tour if you have missed a stop there is a list after the review.

Red Dawn

by J.J. Bonds

(Crossroads Academy #2)
Amazon

★★★ 1/2
Katia’s done running. She’s fought fiercely to protect her identity, her secrets, and those she loves most. And while it hasn’t been easy, she’s finally making peace with the past. Katia’s even looking forward to the start of a new school year at Crossroads Academy.

Too bad things at Crossroads are going to be a little different this fall. There are new rules, new students, and new relationships. Katia quickly discovers that navigating the halls of Crossroads is as complicated as ever.

When a friend’s life is at stake, Katia will be forced to choose between the safety of Crossroads and an enemy more dangerous than any she’s ever faced. Will Katia have the courage to risk it all -including her life- for a friend?

REVIEW:

Ok, if you can stop staring at the beautiful cover and actually read the book you'll find that Red Dawn is a little more grown up that book 1, Crossroads. In this sequel we leave the high school behind to find a darker Katia. She will do anything to save her best friend, Shaye.

We start out with a new school year and things are a little back to normal for a short time but then we find Katia, Nik and Keegan on the road trying to track down answers to getting the possible missing cure for the blood disease that Shaye has.

The total feel of the book is darker and more action packed with a conspiracy theory factor that had me guessing who was behind the thief of the cure.

J.J. Bonds does another great job mixing the innocence of high school with a paranormal twist and mystery. Read Dawn brings us to a all new ball game for the series. And as the gang grows older; the heat factor grows too. I know it's YA and that means it's usually on the "clean" side but I just want Katia to throw Nik down and get dirty. LOL

Fans of Mead's Vampire Academy should give the Crossroads series a try. Katia might not be Rose (YET!) but she is getting closer with each book.

Checkout the other stops on the tour:

8/20/2012 IBBook Blogging
8/21/2012 My Seryniti
8/22/2012 Eternally Books
8/23/2012 Bengal Reads
8/24/2012 A Dream Within A Dream
8/27/2012 All the Fun Starts After Dark
8/28/2012 Little Read Riding Hood
8/29/2012 Fiction Writing Tools
8/30/2012 Paranormal Opinion
8/31/2012 Moonlight Gleam's Bookshelf
9/3/2012 The Story Seekers
9/4/2012 The Book Addict's Guide
9/5/2012 Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
9/6/2012 Firestarbooks
9/7/2012 Simply Infatuated
9/10/2012 Librarían Mouse
9/11/2012 Reader Girls
9/12/2012 A Bibliophile's Thoughts on Books
9/13/2012 Rants~N~Scribbles

J.J. Bonds is an independent author who writes young adult speculative fiction. Her debut novel, Crossroads, was released in fall of 2011. It is the first in the Crossroads Academy series. J.J. lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where her love of all things paranormal keeps life interesting. She lives with her husband and two rambunctious dogs and is expecting a new addition to the family in March.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

J.J. Bonds is also featuring a STREET TEAM giveaway on her own blog, where you can win a TON of prizes -- including a Kindle Fire & E-Copies of Crossroads and Red Dawn! Check it out HERE.

You can also win an ebook from the series right here.

Just fill out the Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: Crossroads by J.J. Bond

Crossroads
by J.J. Bonds
Crossroads Academy #1
Published November 9th 2011
RATING:★★★ 1/2

As if high school isn’t miserable enough, try being uprooted and dropped fangs first into an uptight prep school where everyone knows your name and they’ll stop at nothing to uncover the secrets of your past.

When Katia enrolled at Crossroads Academy she knew things weren’t exactly going to be easy. The sole heir to the worlds’ most powerful vampire, her presence was bound to cause a stir. But nothing could have prepared her for this. Whispers follow everywhere she goes. So does trouble.

But Katia will do her time at Crossroads. After all, she’s only enrolled at the prestigious school for pure blood vampires to fulfill a promise to her Great Uncle Aldo. Tucked away in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Katia hopes to shed the demons of her past and focus on her education. Raised blissfully unaware of the entire vamp world, she’s got a lot of catching up to do.

As Katia learns more about this dark society and her own legacy, protecting her past becomes increasingly difficult. Bodies start turning up in nearby Rutland and Katia is sucked into a twisted web of danger and deceit. Haunted by nightmares she can’t explain and a thirst for blood that is never sated, Katia will do whatever it takes to keep her past buried. What choice does she have? Exposure will shake the Elder’s Council to its core and likely result in a death sentence at the hands of the Linkuri.

Nothing at Crossroads is what it seems and Katia’s secrets may be the darkest of them all.

REVIEW:

High school is hard for everyone, vampires included. Throw in the fact that this a stuck up private school and things are even more bloodier. Katia is the new student, with family ties to a very powerful vampire but all she wants is to go unnoticed. But there is always that one girl or group of girls in high school that just loves to make someone's life a living hell. And let's not forget there is always a hot guy, Nikolai.

Yes it all sounds very high schoolish but it's not that bad of a read. If you like Vampire Academy series you will like the vamps that Bonds has created in her Crossroads Academy trilogy. There are a few similarities between the two series. But I think Crossroads has a little more mystery to it.

In Bonds' world there are two kinds of vampires. Pure bloods, born vampires and the mixed bloods, humans that were turned. The mixed bloods are seen as second class. They both drink blood; human or animal. But most prefer to drink their blood from donated blood and not directly from the source. It's not that the vampires value human life it's more that they don't want to draw attention to their kind.

I really enjoyed reading J.J. Bonds' debut novel, Crossroads. If you are in the mood for a high school based vampire mystery with a touch of romance give it a try. I'm very curious to see what turns the trilogy takes with the next two books.